Capitol Records, LLC, and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.
The Dream Syndicate is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1981 to 1989, and reunited since 2012. The band is associated with neo-psychedelia and the Paisley Underground music movement; of the bands in that movement, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Dream Syndicate "rocked with the highest degree of unbridled passion and conviction." Though never commercially successful, the band met with considerable acclaim, especially for its songwriting and guitar playing. Bandleader Steve Wynn reformed the band in 2012, and four studio albums have been released since 2017.
Units were an American synthpunk band that was founded in San Francisco in 1978. It was active until 1984. They were one of America's earliest electronic new wave bands, and have been cited as pioneers of synthpunk, also retrospectively known as "electropunk". The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism.
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus.
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s.
The Pandoras were an American all-female garage punk band from Los Angeles, California, active from 1982 to 1991. The band is among the first handful of all-female rock bands to ever be signed. From the beginning, the band found a strong following in the Hollywood garage rock and Paisley Underground scene, making the gossip pages almost weekly. The Pandoras enjoyed strong radio support from DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. The band graduated from the garage rock sound to a more contemporary, hard rock style in later years, spawning the off-shoot band The Muffs. The Pandoras founder/singer/guitarist/songwriter, Paula Pierce, died of a brain aneurysm on August 10, 1991, at the age of 31. The Muffs frontwoman/founder Kim Shattuck, who played bass in the Pandoras from 1985 to 1990, appeared as lead singer/guitarist of the reunited Pandoras until she died of complications from ALS on October 2, 2019, aged 56.
The Collection is a compilation album by Christian music singer Amy Grant, released in 1986.
The Effigies were an American punk band from Chicago. The band played its first show in 1980 and was active initially for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes with frontman John Kezdy the only constant, before disbanding in 1990. The band released 5 albums and several EPs, most on the record label they founded in 1981, Ruthless Records, which was distributed by Enigma. Later albums were on the Fever Records and Roadkill Records labels. They toured the U.S. and Canada and played notable venues, including CBGB, Maxwell's, First Avenue, Mabuhay Gardens, Paycheck's (Detroit), Exit (Chicago) and The Rathskeller, among others. They also received a significant amount of national airplay on college radio at a time when it was the only medium for alternative music.
Smooth Noodle Maps is the eighth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in June 1990 and would be their last album released through Enigma. The album was recorded over a period of three months between October 1989 and January 1990, at Master Control Studios, in Burbank, California. Smooth Noodle Maps was Devo's last full-length studio album until the release of Something for Everybody in 2010, as well as the last Devo studio album to feature David Kendrick on drums.
Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace is a live album by American new wave band Devo, released in 1989 by Enigma Records. The album was recorded during their 1988 "comeback tour" in promotion of the Total Devo album.
The Best of Oingo Boingo: Skeletons in the Closet is a compilation of songs by American new wave band Oingo Boingo, released in 1989 by A&M Records. It features songs recorded during the band's tenure with I.R.S. Records/A&M Records, culled from the albums Only a Lad (1981), Nothing to Fear (1982) and Good for Your Soul (1983).
Hellion is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1982. The band's original lineup included Ann Boleyn (vocals), Ray Schenck (guitar), Sean Kelley (drums) and Peyton Tuthill (bass). Hellion continues to perform today with different band members.
Sessions is a cancelled compilation album of previously unreleased tracks by English rock band the Beatles, planned for release by EMI in 1985 but never issued officially, due to objections by the surviving Beatles. The album consists of 13 finished but unreleased Beatles songs. A planned single containing two of the tracks from Sessions – "Leave My Kitten Alone", backed with an alternative version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" – was also left unissued. The idea was resurrected in 1995 as the greatly expanded three-volume double CDs The Beatles Anthology with an accompanying six-hour documentary.
The Number Ones is a compilation album of hits by The Beatles released in 1983 by EMI on the Parlophone Records label in Australia. It is a localised version of the 1982 compilation album 20 Greatest Hits.
Abecedarians were an American, Los Angeles–based post-punk trio, active in the mid to late 1980s. The lineup consisted of Chris Manecke, Kevin Dolan (drums) and John Blake (bass). They specialized in sparse, guitar-driven post-punk, though their most well-known song, "Smiling Monarchs", is alternative dance in the vein of New Order, and was in fact mixed by that band's guitar player and vocalist, Bernard Sumner.
Restless Variations is a compilation album of newer artists that were on Restless Records issued as a single LP in a gatefold sleeve. The album included tracks from several notable acts, including Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, The Dead Milkmen, Fear and Get Smart! and was compiled by Steev Riccardo, Scott Vanderbilt and Rick Orienza.
Los Cycos was an American crossover thrash band founded in 1984 in Venice, Los Angeles, California, by Suicidal Tendencies frontman Mike Muir. The only recording of the band appears on the rare 1985 release Welcome to Venice, the debut album and first release from Suicidal Records.
Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, more than 65 million records were sold by Domino. He had eleven Top 10 hits between 1955 and 1960.
Muzik for Insomniaks, Volume 1 and Volume 2 is a two-studio album series by Devo's co-founder and lead vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh. They were both originally released in 1988, the same year as Devo's seventh studio album Total Devo, on the labels Enigma and Rykodisc. The albums consisted entirely of instrumentals that were performed in the style of easy listening muzak or new-age music similar to Devo's compilation album E-Z Listening Disc, released the previous year. Both of the albums were produced, written, arranged, programmed and performed by Mothersbaugh himself and engineered and mixed by former Devo keyboardist and guitarist Bob Casale. Mothersbaugh once described the albums as "M. C. Escher meets wallpaper."
Joe Wood is an American punk and blues singer/songwriter, best known as the singer for T.S.O.L. from 1983 to 1993.
