Engine Room Recordings | |
---|---|
Founded | 2005 |
Founder | Mark Christensen, Peter Block |
Genre | Indie rock, alternative rock |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | New York City |
Official website | engineroomrecordings |
Engine Room Recordings is an independent record label with a roster of indie rock and alternative rock musicians. Beyond marketing and distribution for its artists, the label does booking and artist management. Engine Room Recordings is part of the Engine Room Audio group, a New York City-based company offering various services to recording artists. [1]
Albums engineered or mastered at The Engine Room include Rest , Passion, Pain & Pleasure , Silent Steeples , 5 (Murder by Numbers) , Chapter V , H.F.M. 2 , and The Adventures of the Tiger Shadow by Tiger Shadow
Engine Room Recordings was started by Mark B. Christensen and Peter Block in 2005. In 2006, the label released their first record, Twisted Heart by Goat. New York City-based band Porter Block soon joined the roster, and the label released their debut album, Suburban Sprawl.
In 2008, Engine Room released several albums, including Porter Block's second and third albums, Off Our Shoulders and Pueblo a Go Go. They signed Brooklyn-based band Lowry and released their 2008 album Love is Dead. [2] Brooklyn-based The Bloodsugars joined the roster and Engine Room released their debut EP, BQEP. [3] 2009 has seen the label grow to include Middle Distance Runner, U.S. Royalty, Israel Darling, and Luke Wesley. The label has already seen an active 2010 as well with the signings of Jody Porter of Fountains of Wayne and Tracy Bonham, best known for her 1996 single "Mother Mother", which held the top spot on the rock charts for over a month and garnered her two Grammy nominations that year.
Engine Room is also well known for producing the compilation series Guilt by Association. [4] Guilt by Association Vol. 1 (2007), Guilt by Association Vol. 2 (2008) and Guilt by Association Vol. 3 (2011) feature various independent artists covering well-known pop, R&B and rock songs from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The contributing artists include top indie artists such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Devendra Banhart, My Brightest Diamond, Frightened Rabbit, Mike Viola and Helmet as well as up-and-coming artists such as Jukebox The Ghost, The Bloodsugars, and Canon Logic.
Sonicscoop published a series of articles on the making the Engine Room's A Tribute to Pinkerton compilation album. [5] The album was first released in 2012. [6]
Albums that have been worked on by Engine Room Audio and engineered or mastered by founder Mark Christensen include Rest , Passion, Pain & Pleasure , Silent Steeples , and 5 (Murder by Numbers) . Others include Chapter V , H.F.M. 2 , and The Adventures Of The Tiger Shadow by Tiger Shadow, mastered at The Engine Room in New York between May 2011 & January 2012.
The following is an incomplete list of Engine Room Recordings active as of [ when? ]:
Farrah are a British indie rock band. They have released four studio albums since 2001 and toured internationally since their formation.
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music" since the 1980s.
Dallas Crane are a triple ARIA Award nominated Australian alternative rock band from Melbourne. Their self-titled third album was released on 10 July 2004, and peaked in the ARIA Albums Chart top 50. Its lead single, "Dirty Hearts", debuted in the related ARIA Singles Chart top 50.
Jody Porter is an American musician. He was the lead guitarist of Grammy Award-nominated power pop band Fountains of Wayne. The band released four major label albums, including Welcome Interstate Managers on Virgin Records in 2003, an RIAA-certified Gold LP. The album spawned the hugely popular U.S. Top 40 hit and number 1 music video "Stacy's Mom".
A demo is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed format, such as cassette tape, compact disc, or digital audio files, and to thereby pass along those ideas to record labels, producers, or other artists.
Tracy Kristin Bonham is an American alternative rock musician. Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, she is a classically trained violinist and pianist, and is also a self-taught guitarist.
Songs from the Black Hole is an unfinished album by the American rock band Weezer, recorded between 1994 and 1996. Intended to follow Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut album, it was to be a rock opera that expressed the songwriter Rivers Cuomo's mixed feelings about rock-and-roll success. Its characters were to be voiced by members of Weezer, plus the guest vocalists Rachel Haden and Joan Wasser.
Lowry is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band with members originally hailing from Kansas, New Zealand, Australia, North Carolina and Canada. Originally emerging from New York City's "anti-folk" scene, the band has gone through several incarnations before settling into its current line-up in early 2008. Their debut studio album 'Awful Joy', which blended alternative country, psychedelia and rock was released in 2005. Signed to Engine Room Recordings in 2008, they released their sophomore studio album 'Love Is Dead' October 26, 2008.
The Old Ceremony is a Chapel Hill, North Carolina pop-noir musical group fronted by Django Haskins. Formed in 2004, the group has released five full-length albums, Our One Mistake, on sonaBLAST! Records; The Old Ceremony, Walk On Thin Air, and Tender Age on the Durham, NC label, Alyosha Records; and Fairytales and Other Forms Of Suicide on Yep Roc Records. They have also produced a live album and an album of "remixes" of their first record, produced by bassist Matt Brandau. Their fifth album, "Fairytales and Other Forms of Suicide," was released by Yep Roc Records in August 2012. Through unique live performances, radio airplay, and positive critical reviews, the group has risen to regional prominence, touring extensively throughout the US, Canada and Europe.
CherryDisc Records was a Boston-based independent record label in the mid- to late-1990s. It gained notoriety by moving acts such as Letters to Cleo, Big Catholic Guilt, Smackmelon, Tracy Bonham, The Sheila Divine, Quintaine Americana, and Semisonic on to major labels.
The Forms are an American indie rock band from Queens, New York, whose style incorporates aspects of math rock, dream pop, and emo. The band members include Alex Tween and Matt Walsh.
Guilt by Association Vol. 1 is a compilation album released September 4, 2007 by Engine Room Recordings. It features indie rock artists covering well-known pop and R&B songs.
Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City, Razor & Tie releases were distributed by Universal Music Group.
Guilt by Association Vol. 2 is a compilation album released November 18, 2008 by Engine Room Recordings. Like its predecessor, Guilt by Association Vol. 1, it features indie rock artists covering well-known pop and R&B songs.
The Bloodsugars are a Brooklyn-based rock band, composed of Jason Rabinowitz, Brendan O'Grady, Matt Katz, and Kenneth Salters. Rabinowitz is the primary singer and songwriter in the band. David Beauchamp was the original drummer, but he left to focus on playing with Jeffrey Lewis, and Kenneth Salters took his place.
Porter Block is an American, New York-based power pop band, formed by Peter Block and Caleb Sherman. Since 2006, the band has released five albums and one EP, including several collaborations with Mike Viola.
Bob Dylan bootleg recordings are unreleased performances by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, that have been circulated throughout the public without undergoing an official, sanctioned release. It is commonly misconceived that bootlegs are only restricted to audio, but bootleg video performances, such as Dylan's 1966 film Eat the Document, which remains officially unreleased, are considered to be bootlegs. Dylan is generally considered to be the most bootlegged artist in rock history, rivaled only by the Grateful Dead.
Elk City is an American art-pop band from New York City, New York, formed in 1997 as a spin-off of Melting Hopefuls. The original lineup consisted of Renee LoBue, Ray Ketchem and Peter Langland-Hassan.
Guilt by Association Vol. 3 is a compilation album released November 15, 2011 by Engine Room Recordings. Like its previous installments, Guilt by Association Vol. 1 and Guilt by Association Vol. 2, Guilt By Association Vol. 3 features indie rock artists covering popular rock songs.
Mark Christensen is the studio owner and Chief Mastering Engineer at Engine Room Audio in New York City. Christensen is currently known for mastering, producing, and mixing music in the genres of rock, pop, R&B, classical, and hip hop. Christensen has worked on hundreds of albums, seven of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards as of 2022, with two wins. Christensen has also mastered over thirty Billboard chart top ten hits, and has been involved with 50 projects that have been awarded platinum or gold status by the RIAA. He has mastered material by OK GO, The Killers, 98 Degrees, Boyz II Men, Fergie, Toni Braxton, Talib Kweli, Trey Songz, 50 Cent, Ryan Leslie and The Ting Tings, among others. Along with business partner Scott Lee, Mark opened the New York Audio Academy, an audio engineering school hosted at Engine Room Audio to teach and mentor students on how to record, mix, master and produce records that comply with the music industry's highest standards. Along with Scott Lee and Charles Farrar, he is one of the principals of Bond Street Artist Management. He also periodically chairs and moderates audio engineering panels at music industry events.