Bar/None Records

Infobox record label
name = Bar/None Records


image_bg =
parent =
founded = 1986
founder = Tom Prendergast Glenn Morrow
defunct =
distributor = ADA
genre = Alternative rock Indie rock Eclectic Folk
country = United States
location = Hoboken, New Jersey
url = http://www.bar-none.com

Bar/None Records is an independent record label based out of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Early History

Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his native Ireland, Prendergast moved to Hoboken in 1982 and started Pier Platters record store, which subsequently developed a national reputation as one of the finest alternative stores in the country. With the store as a laboratory to try out records and to track the new and obscure, Prendergast figured a label was the next logical step.

The first release on Bar/None was by Rage To Live, whose leader, Glenn Morrow, soon became a partner in the label. Morrow had already built a network of contacts in the alternative music community having toured nationally with his previous band, The Individuals, and had also worked in the A&R department of Warner Bros. and as the managing editor of New York Rocker magazine.

The next act Bar/None signed gave them the success they needed to actively establish a roster of talent and worth. The Bar/None debut of They Might Be Giants sold more than 100,000 copies - a major feat for an indie rock record at the time - their follow-up "Lincoln" more than doubled those sales and their major label debut Flood went gold.

Other artists that started on Bar/None and went on to the majors include Luka Bloom, Yo La Tengo (Atlantic/Matador), Freedy Johnston (Elektra) and Tindersticks (London/Polygram).

Nineteen ninety-four proved to be a breakthrough year for Bar/None. Along with Freedy Johnston's Triple-A success on Elektra (100,000 soundscanned and counting) Bar/None secured the U.S. rights to the Tindersticks just prior to the band receiving "Album of the Year" from Melody Maker, beating out a number of better funded (i.e. major label-backed) independents.

The real surprise of 1994 was the launching of a new musical phenomenon called "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" based around the stereo hi-fi recordings of Juan Garcia Esquivel. Sales hit 50,000 and continue to build week by week. Since the release of the highly successful S"pace-Age Bachelor Pad Music" and the follow-up compilation "Music From A Sparkling Planet", the major labels have have cashed in with hundreds of "Cocktail/Lounge" reissues. An Esquivel Christmas album was released in the winter of 1996.

Nineteen ninety-five was the year Bar/None grabbed their market share: K. McCarty's performance of "Living Life" was played over the credits in the Richard Linklater film "Before Sunrise" and Epic Soundtracks continued to tour and befriend the fabulous. Former Replacement Chris Mars joined the Bar/None family for a three album deal and Poi Dog Pondering chose Bar/None over the major label route for their P"omegranate" album. But the biggest breakthrough came with the summer release of the Edwyn Collins album "Gorgeous George" with soundscans of over 100,000 copies and the Top 40 single "A Girl Like You."

1996 marked releases from Arto Lindsay, the late great Country Dick Montana, Mensclub, Divine Comedy (on Setanta), Kate Jacobs, Professor & Maryann and many more.

Bar/None will no doubt continue to spread like a lazy, happy virus: spreading slowly and surely and leaving no one who hears their recordings ever quite the same again.

Artists (past and present)

* American Song-Poem Anthology
* Architecture in Helsinki
* Eszter Balint
* Otis Ball
* Luka Bloom
* Adrian Borland
* Birdie Busch
* Burnside Project
* Vinicius Cantuária
* Alex Chilton
* Chocolate USA
* Edwyn Collins
* The songs of Elvis Costello
* Diego Cortez
* Evan Dando
* Brian Dewan
* The Divine Comedy
* Disco Inferno
* DJ Spooky
* Drink Me
* Bill Drummond
* El Ten Eleven
* The Embarrassment
* Esquivel
* The Glands
* Glass Eye
* Greenhouse 27
* Greg Camp
* Petra Haden
* Harvest Ministers
* Juliana Hatfield
* Richard Hawley
* Health & Happiness Show
* Michael Hearst
* Hem
* Hotel Lights
* Hot Lava
* The Individuals
* Jenifer Jackson
* Kate Jacobs
* Mason Jennings
* Freedy Johnston
* Joy Zipper
* The Langley Schools Music Project
* Arto Lindsay
* Lonesome Val
* Lotus Lounge
* Lullaby for the Working Class
* Mad Happy
* Hannah Marcus
* Chris Mars
* Mary Lee's Corvette
* Mayday
* Shannon McArdle
* Kathy McCarty
* The Mendoza Line
* Mensclub
* Miracle Room
* Mono Puff
* Country Dick Montana
* Mosquitos
* Of Montreal
* Oppenheimer
* Poi Dog Pondering
* Professor & Maryann
* Puffy AmiYumi
* The Scene Is Now
* The Sharp Things
* Shirk Circus
* Shrimp Boat
* Epic Soundtracks
* Starling Electric
* The Slip
* The Spinto Band
* They Might Be Giants
* Tindersticks
* Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
* Trembling Blue Stars
* Wallmen
* Yo La Tengo

ee also

* List of record labels

External links

* [http://www.bar-none.com/ Official site]