In a short time, Ann Arbor’s Quite Scientific established itself as the go-to label for Michigan’s blossoming orchestral, indie-folk scene. With releases from Canada and Chris Bathgate and upcoming salvos from Frontier Ruckus, Maryland’s Cotton Jones Basket Ride and Philadelphia’s Hezekiah Jones, Qui Sci continues to spread the gospel while broadening its reach. Run by affable brothers Brian and Jeremy Peters and Justin Spindler, the Qui Sci boys not only (more…)

Words on Music: the only record label in the world run by a brotherly duo of academics who also happen to love Factory Records and the sounds and ideas that spun out of that legendary English imprint? Maybe not, but it’s the first we’ve discovered, and the one we most enjoy. Have you heard Magic Bullets? From San Francisco? Totally amazing, and a Words signee. Eric Ostermeier breaks it (more…)

Lujo Records is run by the husband-and-wife team of Erik and Jocelyn Aucoin, who as you will learn have perfected the lovable sniping so many couples aim for. They’re like Fred and Ethel Mertz with a cool record collection and tattoos. They’re also at the helm of a label that reflects its relative youth (it began in earnest in 2001) in the artists it signs — whether the sound is sleek, modernized indie rock, squawking electro, or (more…)

It was an easy enough reason to start a label. As Curran Blevins says, he started First Flight Records in Lancaster, Penn. as an outlet for the work of the band he’d been in at the time, Fifth and Elm. The label is pretty strictly local to Lancaster for now, and Blevins gets to it when he’s not managing another Pennsylvania band, Circus Circus. But he says (more…)

Nowadays Second Nature Recordings runs the gamut from the Midwestern post-everything metal fury of Coalesce to In the Pines’ deep-seated folk and chap book mysteries. But for Dan Askew the endeavor started out the way so many of these great independent imprints do, which of course was with little more than a zine, desire, and a network of friends and relationships. It’s been over a decade since he (more…)

Lio and Kay Kanine launched their label with the celebrated compilation NY: The Next Wave, and continued by initially releasing the forest whispers and hazy grooves (more…)

Low leader Alan Sparhawk began Chairkickers Union as medium for his own band, but the imprint’s catalog has grown to include releases from mostly Minnesota-area pals like Rivulets, Cars & Trucks, The Keepaways, and If Thousands. As you can see in (more…)

“The picture supplied is myself with my MUSCLE,” We Are Free captain Jason Foster says of the fantastic photo above, the one that made our day all last week. As he describes below, WAF is mostly around because of Yeasayer, the Brooklyn-based (more…)

Canada’s Endearing Records has been trucking along for 13 years now, along the way having released tons of great music from Julie Doiron, Destroyer, and the Heavy Blinkers, amongst others. It sounds like, lately anyway, Heather and Blair from the (more…)