Archive for the Inside The Label Category

From the Vault – Inside The Label: I’m Better Than Everyone Records

Posted in Features, Inside The Label, Interviews with tags , , , , , , , , on 10/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“It was something new,” label founder Karim Khan said. “[Everything] caught me by surprise. And from [that] record, I discovered bands like Eyehategod”

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In last week’s chapter of Inside the Label, we put our high beams on Bloodshot Records, a ‘print founded 15 years ago by two people whose combined previous record label experiences amounted to basically nothing. Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller’s labor was one of love, derived from a sheer and uncompromising appreciation for independent music (rowdy, beer-soaked independent music, in particular).

But while neither Warshaw nor Miller had worked at a label before, they had at least served some time in the industry: Warshaw with promoting artists and shows, and Miller with music production.

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From the Vault: Inside The Label – Prosthetic Records

Posted in Features, Inside The Label with tags , , , , , , on 09/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

As far as the music industry is concerned, the Apocalypse has arrived. All that remains of major labels is their smoldering, blackened skeletons; elsewhere, chaos reigns, with only the very fittest gritting out a way to survive.

But across this bloody battlefield, Prosthetic Records is one of the few labels standing tall. Some way, some how, metal is continuing to sell in this chilly climate: Mastodon and Killswitch Engage, for example, recently cracked the Billboard 200 top 10 with ease. Chalk it up to loyal fans, to kids who want to invest in more than just an invisible file – or maybe to knuckle-draggers who scratch their head at the word “torrent.”

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From the Vault: Inside the Label – Ipecac Recordings

Posted in Features, Inside The Label with tags , , , , , , , on 09/18/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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.

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Inside the Label: The Mysterious Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Posted in Features, Inside The Label, Interviews on 04/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Sentient Ruin Laboratories, an Oakland-based endeavor founded 11 years ago by an individual who goes by the name “M,” gives superb yet overlooked music—almost always of the heavy, experimental, and obscure variety—the exceptionally high quality that it deserves.

Interview: Sentient Ruin Put a Fine Touch on Niche Heavy Bands’ Releases

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Bruce Licher on Creating ‘Beautiful Physical Objects of Music’ for Independent Project Records

Posted in Features, Inside The Label, Interviews with tags , on 08/08/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Check out my interview with Independent Project Records founder and former UCLA art student Bruce Licher for New Noise. Buy the latest copy of the magazine, which features the story, here.

Interview: Bruce Licher Talks About 40 Years of Independent Project Records

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Inside The Label: Queer Control Records

Posted in Features, Inside The Label, Interviews with tags , , , , , , , , on 01/27/2010 by Kurt Orzeck

Despite the never-ending apocalypse that has consumed the music industry, record labels seem to be as multitudinous as ever. Sure, some of the flagship indies have died off – cough, Touch and Go, cough – but they’ve been replaced by a fleet of champing-at-the-bit music lovers and/or entrepreneurs who are happy to do the steering. Continue reading →

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