Butch Willis is an American musician signed to TeenBeat Records. [1] His recordings were first released on his own private record label, Love Records, in the 1980s and then on TeenBeat Records in the 1990s through to the present. TeenBeat has also reissued various releases originally issued on Love Records. Willis' releases are often credited to Butch Willis & The Rocks and Butch Willis & D Flat.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Teen Beat is an American independent record label, originally based in Arlington, Virginia, now based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded by Mark Robinson in 1984 at Wakefield High School, along with Phil Krauth, Andrew (Riley) Beaujon, Tim Moran, and Ian Zack.
Willis has often been compared to other artists with cult followings such as Roky Erikson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Daniel Johnston. His musical style is broadly referred to as outsider art or art brut. Specifically, his music is a mixture of classic rock, new wave, and rockabilly.
Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and visual artist who is regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consists of cassettes he recorded alone in his home, and his music is frequently cited for its "pure and childlike soul".
Outsider art is art by self-taught or naïve art makers. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on commercially successful hard rock popularized in the 1970s. The radio format became increasingly popular with the baby boomer demographic by the end of the 1990s.
Bryan David "Butch" Vig, nicknamed the Nevermind Man, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of diamond-selling album Nevermind by Nirvana.
Unrest is an indie rock band from the Washington, D.C. area. It was one of Mark Robinson's projects for what would eventually become the TeenBeat label, also created by Mark while in high school. Developing from an experimental approach of never playing the same song twice, earlier material seemed to be influenced by everything from punk to funk to Ennio Morricone. Original members Mark (guitar) and drummer Philip Krauth were joined by Bridget Cross on bass in 1990 and their sound evolved into a minimalist but lively kind of pop. The two full-length albums released with this line up, 1992's Imperial f.f.r.r. and 1993's Perfect Teeth featured finely crafted pop songs interspersed with strange avant-garde percussive and sonic tracks. EPs released around the same time period reveal an even more pronounced gap between pop and experimental elements. The group broke up in 1994 with Philip pursuing a solo career and Mark and Bridget continued for a time as Air Miami, which released two singles and one album, me me me. Since Air Miami's demise in the mid '90s, Mark has continued to release various solo projects, as well as albums with his bands Cotton Candy and Flin Flon, and continues to run the TeenBeat label as well.
Masters at Work is the garage house production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez.
Lois Maffeo is an American musician and writer who lives in Olympia, Washington. Although never achieving mainstream success, she has been closely involved with and influenced many independent musicians, especially in the 1990s-era Olympia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. music scenes.
Howard Vincent Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. Alden has recorded many albums for Concord Records, including four with seven-string guitar innovator George Van Eps.
The Beat Farmers were an American cowpunk band, which formed in San Diego, California, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following into the early 1990s before the death of drummer and sometime lead singer Country Dick Montana. Their music has been described as an amalgamation of cow punk, jangle pop, roots rock, hard-twang Americana, country rock, rockabilly, and swamp rock.
Heartbeat Records is an independent record label based in Burlington, Massachusetts. The label specializes in Jamaican music.
Versus is an American indie rock band formed in 1990 by Richard Baluyut, Fontaine Toups, and Edward Baluyut in New York City. Richard and Fontaine were to remain the two core members throughout the band's history. The band was noted for their marriage of indie pop songwriting and vocal harmonies to the "loud-soft" dynamics of grunge and alternative rock. They were also noted for their proficient and disciplined musicianship and for their credo of "meat, sports, and rock", none of which had much currency in the early 1990s American indie scene. They named themselves after the Mission of Burma album Vs.
The Rondelles were an American indie pop band, originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Their first album Fiction Romance Fast Machines, was released in 1998 by Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley's Smells Like Records.
Love Spirals Downwards was a California band that incorporated ethereal wave, dream pop, drum and bass and electronica.
Howie Weinberg is a music mastering engineer who has worked with numerous bands.
K-Def is an American, New Jersey based, hip hop producer/DJ who has been actively involved in the music industry since the early 1990s. He has recently produced music for artists such as Ghostface Killah and Puff Daddy. K-Def earned critical praise early in his career for his work with Marley Marl on the album Here Come the Lords by the hip hop group Lords of the Underground. Among the songs from that album that benefited from K-Def's production work include the hits "Funky Child" and "Chief Rocka".
Steel Pole Bath Tub was an American rock band, formed in 1986 in Bozeman, Montana by Mike Morasky (guitar/vocals) and Dale Flattum (bass/vocals).
The following is a list of releases by Teen-Beat. TeenBeat Records was established in 1984.
Don Zientara is an American record producer and musician. He owns and runs Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, located just outside Washington D.C., and is most widely known for his production work with Fugazi, Minor Threat and various other Dischord Records artists.
Elena Ferretti, better known as Sophie or Rose, is an Italian Eurobeat and Italo disco singer. She has performed and recorded for many record labels, under many aliases. Her music was produced by various well-known Italian producers, namely Giacomo Maiolini, Mauro Farina, Sergio Dall'Ora and Giancarlo Pasquini. She often collaborated with Clara Moroni, who wrote many of her compositions. Moroni also did most of the backing vocals/choirs for Ferretti's songs for Time Records. Together with Moroni, she was a member of the duo Gipsy & Queen. In 2011, she recorded and released an Italian folk song entitled "Io Libera". Among her best known hits is the song "My World".
Wuthering Heights is a Danish heavy metal band, with a somewhat eclectic musical style which falls in somewhere between progressive, folk, and power metal. The band is considered a Danish entity although a number of Swedish musicians are associated with it.
Jerome Henry "Butch" Baldassari was an American mandolinist, recording artist, composer, and music teacher.