Record Labels that don't Suck....
mbangel10
Posts: 548
It's refreshing to read an article about a label that is actually artist friendly. Are there any other label's out there that do this? Granted, they are not a huge label by any means, but they do have signed artists we've all heard of. If only the larger labels would adopt a similar model with their indies, newer artists might actually be given a chance without being left forever in debt to their labels with no record sells to show for it.
Obviously, I'm not talking the Britney Spears of this world, I'm talking about those small bands that get a deal, get an advance, and then get dropped and/or forgotten about by their label. I knew a few of those bands, and their debt was rather huge, with no means of collecting as the label didn't give two shits about them.
Also cool for a brief mention of Stone's old label, Loosegroove. Here's the article...
http://blog.indiepit.com/2009/07/02/ins ... ecordings/
You know a label is cool when it doesn’t even bother keeping track of how many records it sells. And while such slackerish business practices would seem to spell doom for any label, Ipecac Recordings is puking in the face of its naysayers as the company founded by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman blows out 10 candles this year.
“We don’t really count record sales that well,” Werckman sheepishly admitted to IndiePit in a recent chat. “For Mike and I … we’ve only been around 10 years, but man, we’ve done these records. And the records we’re proudest of are definitely not always the ones that sell the most. It’s just cool to work with so many talented people.”
Lest ye doubt the merit of Werckman’s word, try on for size the Melvins, Isis, Peeping Tom and Queens of the Stone Age - just a small nibble of the big cookie that is the Ipecac Recordings oeuvre.
“We have a foundation of artists who have been around for a while and have a built-in fanbase,” Werckman says of the aforementioned acts. “It would’ve been pretty hard for us to fail completely. … We have a base of Mike Patton’s projects since Faith No More - that’s a pretty strong fanbase. And then, right off the bat, we had the Melvins, who have a good, strong fanbase. The one band we’ve been able to grow and establish a fanbase with is Isis. And then Josh Homme, a good friend of ours from Queens of the Stone Age” who is a constant co-conspirator.
Note Werckman’s use of the term “foundation” instead of “roster.” That’s because the label doesn’t exactly have one - at least, not in the traditional sense. Ipecac doesn’t actually own any of its releases.
Cue a record screeching to a halt. How can there be a label that doesn’t actually own any of its releases?
Here’s how: At any given moment, Ipecac licenses multiple releases. But those items are only “borrowed,” as Werckman says, for a few years - at which point bands can bail and take the material elsewhere.
While Werckman sounds like a pretty modest guy, there’s an unmistakable trace of pride in his voice as he recalls: “Several years back, a big record label came knowing on our door and wanted to look into buying us out. And I told the person right up front, ‘Well, just so you know, you would be buying the name “Ipecac Recordings” - and I guess you would be gaining Mike and I as employees - but you wouldn’t have any of our releases.’ ”
It’s like a company that creates original products without owning the patents - a paradox, right? That’s why Werckman doesn’t think in just business terms.
“So much of what the music industry is built on is so anti-art. It’s all based on commerce and ownership and forcing someone into a relationship where they’re forced to work with us. I know so many artists on labels who are miserable.”
And it’s hard to be miserable when a label is giving you ownership of your masters, unlimited creative control … oh, and by the way, Ipecac also splits royalties right down the middle with its artists. Still, there have been some (albeit perhaps reluctant) defectors, including Homme’s sexy-slimy side gang, the Eagles of Death Metal, whose 2004 Peace, Love, Death Metal debut is one of the label’s best-sellers.
“When they were getting ready to record their second record, [frontman] Jesse [Hughes] needed a large amount of money for personal reasons. We’re in a position where we don’t pay huge advances for records. We pay what you need to make the record. Our goal is for every band and every record to show a profit and to write royalty checks to every band every six months. If it works like that, everyone’s happy.
“But at that time, we couldn’t advance the money the Eagles were looking for, and they said, ‘Do you mind?’ ” if they were to dish out the album via another label. “And we said, ‘That’s fine,’ and to this day we still put out the vinyl of EODM.”
With that sort of model, could there even be such a thing as label acrimony?
The Eagles - screw you, Don Henley, we’ll call ‘em that if we please - wound up releasing that second album, Death by Sexy, through the Universal-distributed Downtown Recordings. But just like Werckman doesn’t have any hang-ups about the Eagles straying away from Ipecac, neither does he hold any grudges against major labels.
“I am appalled by a lot of indie labels,” says Werckman, whose rare career has included stints as both manager of leftist label Alternative Tentacles and as an A&R rep at major-label Mercury Records. “QOTSA have a good working relationship with Interscope. There as just as many indie labels that rip bands off. And if you’re a pop band that’s going to need to be on the radio, I would suggest to you that you do record for a major record label. Because they’re the ones that have the resources to pay the radio stations and promote you and make the expensive videos.
“I don’t think many of our artists sit at bed at night dreaming about being on the cover of Rolling Stone,” he adds. “Our artists like making music.”
Artists like making music, and record labels like releasing music … and, generally, making money too. So how exactly does a label like Ipecac pay its bills, if it’s shelling out such large dividends to its artists (and spending so handsomely on album artwork , for that matter)? By keeping operational costs under control (the staff consists of three employees); by skirting marketing and promotion almost altogether; and by actually being sensible about how it spends its dough. Imagine that.
Werckman calls to mind another story about one of Homme’s mistresses, this one his ongoing improv-only Desert Sessions affair. The project infrequently records in Homme’s Inland Empire homeland and has involved the likes of PJ Harvey, Mark Lanegan and other urbanites he swindles into recording in the 110-degree heat.
“He sent a CD of four of the demo songs. They were really catchy. He said he [was] going to do it in the studio out in the desert,” Werckman says. “He said, ‘It looks like we’re going to need about $600.’ That record cost $600 of an advance. That band made a ton of money doing it that way. Instead of taking a $100,000 advance from us, and then us as a record label trying to find different ways to charge them more - building up this huge debt that they wouldn’t be able to climb out of - the band wouldn’t [have made any money].” Instead, Werckman says, “It went on to sell close to 200,000 [copies].
“For us, that’s what it’s all about. A band can record a record for us for $1,500. It can sell 3,000 copies worldwide, and it’s a success. There’s no pressure for it to be looked at as a failure. Big records that get advances are set up as a failure. Like I said, what’s the biggest doesn’t always equate to the most successful. We look at the records that have sold 3,000 copies as some of our biggest successes. It’s fun to introduce weird and unique artists that would otherwise not have an outlet.
Here’s what weirdness you can expect to see from Ipecac in the coming months and beyond:
• Mondo Cane’s debut album. According to Werckman, the most anticipated upcoming Ipecac release is - surprise - a new venture by Mike Patton. And Mondo Cane looks to be his most incomprehensible ensemble yet - so to speak. Featuring a full orchestra, the real highlight will undoubtedly be Patton’s singing of Italian pop standards … in Italian, no less. The album, which “keeps getting sidetracked,” Werckman says, should finally see the light of day next year.
• Peeping Tom’s new album. Don’t start doing cartwheels yet - it won’t be out till 2011.
• Melvins’ new album. Only four things are certain in this world: taxes, death, Kathy Lee Gifford and Melvins.
• Mad Love’s debut album. By bassist Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, etc. Due soon.
• Ruins’ new album. Or make that “Sax Ruins.” With the addition of a saxophonist, the band revised its mantle. “It’s chaos, it’s wonderful,” Werckman says of what to expect.
• Rahzel’s solo album. The former Roots beatboxer’s lonesome outing will likely drop next year.
• Queens of the Stone Age’s debut reissue. Fans sulking over the band’s recent abandonment of righteous riffage will be get their just desserts with a pair of early unreleased, yet-unvealed bonus tunes to appear on the reissue of its self-titled LP. For the factoid-inclined, Homme originally put out the album through Loosegroove Records, a label that - like Ipecac - was owned by a member of a band that dominated the last decade. That man is Stone Gossard, and his band is Pearl Jam.
• Desert Sessions till you drop. Homme-ies know full well that Desert Sessions are released two at a time - after all, one album is never enough to contain the sprawling, chartless musical walkabout that is the project. This time around, though, Homme is doubling your pleasure, and your fun, with one piece new material, one piece “greatest hits” (or maybe, better put, “feel-good hits of the summer”).
In case that ain’t enough, you can keep Joshing around with a “really cool box set with vinyl and CDs” that will pull together all the Desert Sessions. No target release date on that one yet, though.
“They head out to the desert with nothing … it’s such a great, pure way to create music,” Werckman says of the Sessions. Josh has “been trying to get Patton to go out there, but he just hates the desert. Mike needs stimulation and good food to be creative.”
Obviously, I'm not talking the Britney Spears of this world, I'm talking about those small bands that get a deal, get an advance, and then get dropped and/or forgotten about by their label. I knew a few of those bands, and their debt was rather huge, with no means of collecting as the label didn't give two shits about them.
Also cool for a brief mention of Stone's old label, Loosegroove. Here's the article...
http://blog.indiepit.com/2009/07/02/ins ... ecordings/
You know a label is cool when it doesn’t even bother keeping track of how many records it sells. And while such slackerish business practices would seem to spell doom for any label, Ipecac Recordings is puking in the face of its naysayers as the company founded by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman blows out 10 candles this year.
“We don’t really count record sales that well,” Werckman sheepishly admitted to IndiePit in a recent chat. “For Mike and I … we’ve only been around 10 years, but man, we’ve done these records. And the records we’re proudest of are definitely not always the ones that sell the most. It’s just cool to work with so many talented people.”
Lest ye doubt the merit of Werckman’s word, try on for size the Melvins, Isis, Peeping Tom and Queens of the Stone Age - just a small nibble of the big cookie that is the Ipecac Recordings oeuvre.
“We have a foundation of artists who have been around for a while and have a built-in fanbase,” Werckman says of the aforementioned acts. “It would’ve been pretty hard for us to fail completely. … We have a base of Mike Patton’s projects since Faith No More - that’s a pretty strong fanbase. And then, right off the bat, we had the Melvins, who have a good, strong fanbase. The one band we’ve been able to grow and establish a fanbase with is Isis. And then Josh Homme, a good friend of ours from Queens of the Stone Age” who is a constant co-conspirator.
Note Werckman’s use of the term “foundation” instead of “roster.” That’s because the label doesn’t exactly have one - at least, not in the traditional sense. Ipecac doesn’t actually own any of its releases.
Cue a record screeching to a halt. How can there be a label that doesn’t actually own any of its releases?
Here’s how: At any given moment, Ipecac licenses multiple releases. But those items are only “borrowed,” as Werckman says, for a few years - at which point bands can bail and take the material elsewhere.
While Werckman sounds like a pretty modest guy, there’s an unmistakable trace of pride in his voice as he recalls: “Several years back, a big record label came knowing on our door and wanted to look into buying us out. And I told the person right up front, ‘Well, just so you know, you would be buying the name “Ipecac Recordings” - and I guess you would be gaining Mike and I as employees - but you wouldn’t have any of our releases.’ ”
It’s like a company that creates original products without owning the patents - a paradox, right? That’s why Werckman doesn’t think in just business terms.
“So much of what the music industry is built on is so anti-art. It’s all based on commerce and ownership and forcing someone into a relationship where they’re forced to work with us. I know so many artists on labels who are miserable.”
And it’s hard to be miserable when a label is giving you ownership of your masters, unlimited creative control … oh, and by the way, Ipecac also splits royalties right down the middle with its artists. Still, there have been some (albeit perhaps reluctant) defectors, including Homme’s sexy-slimy side gang, the Eagles of Death Metal, whose 2004 Peace, Love, Death Metal debut is one of the label’s best-sellers.
“When they were getting ready to record their second record, [frontman] Jesse [Hughes] needed a large amount of money for personal reasons. We’re in a position where we don’t pay huge advances for records. We pay what you need to make the record. Our goal is for every band and every record to show a profit and to write royalty checks to every band every six months. If it works like that, everyone’s happy.
“But at that time, we couldn’t advance the money the Eagles were looking for, and they said, ‘Do you mind?’ ” if they were to dish out the album via another label. “And we said, ‘That’s fine,’ and to this day we still put out the vinyl of EODM.”
With that sort of model, could there even be such a thing as label acrimony?
The Eagles - screw you, Don Henley, we’ll call ‘em that if we please - wound up releasing that second album, Death by Sexy, through the Universal-distributed Downtown Recordings. But just like Werckman doesn’t have any hang-ups about the Eagles straying away from Ipecac, neither does he hold any grudges against major labels.
“I am appalled by a lot of indie labels,” says Werckman, whose rare career has included stints as both manager of leftist label Alternative Tentacles and as an A&R rep at major-label Mercury Records. “QOTSA have a good working relationship with Interscope. There as just as many indie labels that rip bands off. And if you’re a pop band that’s going to need to be on the radio, I would suggest to you that you do record for a major record label. Because they’re the ones that have the resources to pay the radio stations and promote you and make the expensive videos.
“I don’t think many of our artists sit at bed at night dreaming about being on the cover of Rolling Stone,” he adds. “Our artists like making music.”
Artists like making music, and record labels like releasing music … and, generally, making money too. So how exactly does a label like Ipecac pay its bills, if it’s shelling out such large dividends to its artists (and spending so handsomely on album artwork , for that matter)? By keeping operational costs under control (the staff consists of three employees); by skirting marketing and promotion almost altogether; and by actually being sensible about how it spends its dough. Imagine that.
Werckman calls to mind another story about one of Homme’s mistresses, this one his ongoing improv-only Desert Sessions affair. The project infrequently records in Homme’s Inland Empire homeland and has involved the likes of PJ Harvey, Mark Lanegan and other urbanites he swindles into recording in the 110-degree heat.
“He sent a CD of four of the demo songs. They were really catchy. He said he [was] going to do it in the studio out in the desert,” Werckman says. “He said, ‘It looks like we’re going to need about $600.’ That record cost $600 of an advance. That band made a ton of money doing it that way. Instead of taking a $100,000 advance from us, and then us as a record label trying to find different ways to charge them more - building up this huge debt that they wouldn’t be able to climb out of - the band wouldn’t [have made any money].” Instead, Werckman says, “It went on to sell close to 200,000 [copies].
“For us, that’s what it’s all about. A band can record a record for us for $1,500. It can sell 3,000 copies worldwide, and it’s a success. There’s no pressure for it to be looked at as a failure. Big records that get advances are set up as a failure. Like I said, what’s the biggest doesn’t always equate to the most successful. We look at the records that have sold 3,000 copies as some of our biggest successes. It’s fun to introduce weird and unique artists that would otherwise not have an outlet.
Here’s what weirdness you can expect to see from Ipecac in the coming months and beyond:
• Mondo Cane’s debut album. According to Werckman, the most anticipated upcoming Ipecac release is - surprise - a new venture by Mike Patton. And Mondo Cane looks to be his most incomprehensible ensemble yet - so to speak. Featuring a full orchestra, the real highlight will undoubtedly be Patton’s singing of Italian pop standards … in Italian, no less. The album, which “keeps getting sidetracked,” Werckman says, should finally see the light of day next year.
• Peeping Tom’s new album. Don’t start doing cartwheels yet - it won’t be out till 2011.
• Melvins’ new album. Only four things are certain in this world: taxes, death, Kathy Lee Gifford and Melvins.
• Mad Love’s debut album. By bassist Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, etc. Due soon.
• Ruins’ new album. Or make that “Sax Ruins.” With the addition of a saxophonist, the band revised its mantle. “It’s chaos, it’s wonderful,” Werckman says of what to expect.
• Rahzel’s solo album. The former Roots beatboxer’s lonesome outing will likely drop next year.
• Queens of the Stone Age’s debut reissue. Fans sulking over the band’s recent abandonment of righteous riffage will be get their just desserts with a pair of early unreleased, yet-unvealed bonus tunes to appear on the reissue of its self-titled LP. For the factoid-inclined, Homme originally put out the album through Loosegroove Records, a label that - like Ipecac - was owned by a member of a band that dominated the last decade. That man is Stone Gossard, and his band is Pearl Jam.
• Desert Sessions till you drop. Homme-ies know full well that Desert Sessions are released two at a time - after all, one album is never enough to contain the sprawling, chartless musical walkabout that is the project. This time around, though, Homme is doubling your pleasure, and your fun, with one piece new material, one piece “greatest hits” (or maybe, better put, “feel-good hits of the summer”).
In case that ain’t enough, you can keep Joshing around with a “really cool box set with vinyl and CDs” that will pull together all the Desert Sessions. No target release date on that one yet, though.
“They head out to the desert with nothing … it’s such a great, pure way to create music,” Werckman says of the Sessions. Josh has “been trying to get Patton to go out there, but he just hates the desert. Mike needs stimulation and good food to be creative.”
Pitt 98, Pitt 00, Cleveland 03, Pitt 03, State College 03, Toledo 04, Toronto 05, Pitt 05, Cleveland 06, Pitt 06 & Chicago 07, Chicago 1&2 09, Philly 2,3,4 09, Cleveland 10, Columbus 10, Alpine Valley 1& 2 11
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amazing people over there
Awesome! I'll have to check out those bands.
Most of the bands are instrumental rock / post-rock
any thoughts? who did you listen to?
For hip hop-rhymesayers, Stonesthrow, Def Jux
For rock-Arts and Crafts, Sub Pop, Barsuk, Ashmathic Kitty
epitaph
fat wreck
Sammi: Wanna just break up?
Constellation
Smalltown Superjazzz
Drag City
ThreeOneG
Ecstatic Peace
Rock Action
Tzadik
Temporary Residence
Touch and go/Quaterstick
...
Nitro Records; I'm a punk inside.
Chicago 5/16/06 - Milwaukee 6/30/06 - Bonnaroo 6/14/08 - Milwaukee (EV)8/19/08
Chicago 8/23/09 - St. Louis 5/4/10 - East Troy 9/3/11 - East Troy 9/4/11
Minor League Park 7/19/13 - Milwaukee 10-20-14 - Bonnaroo 6/11/16
Minor League Park 8/20/16 - Minor League Park 8/22/16
Minor League Park 8/18/18 - Minor League Park 8/20/18 - Los Angeles 4/16/20
I will always be grateful for Mono and EITS
www.atorecords.com
some artists : David Gray, Ben Kweller, Patti Griffin, My Morning, Jacket, Radiohead, Gomez, Rodrigo Y Gabriel, Crowded House, Liz Phair, Yim Yames, Brendan Benson, Lisa Hannigan, the Whigs.....and more
http://main.losthighwayrecords.com/default.aspx
Artists include Elvis Costello, Ryan Adams, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson, among others.