Fat Wreck Chords | |
---|---|
Founded | 1990 |
Founder | Fat Mike & Erin Burkett |
Distributor(s) | The Orchard (US) PIAS (Europe) eOne Music (Worldwide) |
Genre | Punk rock |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | San Francisco, California |
Official website | fatwreck |
Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced "Fat Records") is an independent record label based in San Francisco focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett (better known as Fat Mike) and his wife at the time, Erin Burkett in 1990. [1] As of 2009, Fat Wreck Chords has released over 300 studio albums. [1]
Fat Mike started his record label Wassail Records in 1987. He put out two NOFX records, The PMRC 7” in 1987 and Liberal Animation in 1988. In 1990, he and his wife Erin Burkett co-founded Fat Wreck Chords, and re-released NOFX's 1987 EP, The P.M.R.C Can Suck on This. In 1992, Fat Mike went on to produce Lagwagon, Propagandhi, and No Use for a Name. In 1993, the label released records by Rancid, Face to Face, and Strung Out. Fat Mike & Erin continue to run the label together and remain 100% independent.
The label grew during the 1990s selling over a million records per year. It had 18 employees and four offices. [1] A documentary about Fat Wreck Chords called 'A Fat Wreck' was released on October 25, 2016. [2]
The label has had two subsidiaries over the years, Honest Don's and Pink and Black. Honest Don's released records from Chixdiggit and Teen Idols amongst others, while Pink & Black released albums from female-fronted bands like Fabulous Disaster and Dance Hall Crashers.
Fat Mike advanced $50,000 to Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky of Propagandhi which he recouped within months from sales of Propagandhi records to help them start up their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee, [3] though G7WC is independent from Fat Wreck.
Fat Wreck Chords regularly releases compilation albums, often to promote bands signed to the label, but also, since 2003, to raise funds for various charities. The earliest Fat Wreck Chords compilations have titles with some reference to fatness.
Shortly after Fat Music Volume IV was released, Fat Wreck Chords released a similarly titled album, Short Music for Short People , which features 101 songs, all averaging approximately 30 seconds. The shortest song ("Short Attention Span" by the Fizzy Bangers) is only eight seconds, and the longest ("Out of Hand" by Bad Religion) is 40 seconds. Some of the songs were commissioned and recorded specifically for the album, while others were from the bands' pre-existing repertoires.
Since the last Fat Music album has been released, the Fat Wreck Chords compilations have been explicitly for charitable causes. Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA is a benefit album for the animal rights organization PETA, and PROTECT: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children is a benefit album for the children's rights group PROTECT. Between Liberation and PROTECT, two other compilation albums were released in protest of President George W. Bush and his administration: Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 . To celebrate 20 years of business Fat Wreck Chords released the 3-disc Wrecktrospective compilation on December 8, 2009. Disc 1 is composed of the label's greatest hits, disc 2 is composed of unreleased demos and rarities, and disc 3 is composed the Fat Club 7" series in its entirety. [4]
Live in a Dive is a series of live albums recorded by Fat Wreck Chords. [5] In order of release:
Title | Artist | Release date |
---|---|---|
Live in a Dive | No Use for a Name | September 11, 2001 |
Live in a Dive | Bracket | February 26, 2002 |
Live in a Dive | Sick of It All | August 13, 2002 |
Live in a Dive | Strung Out | June 22, 2003 |
Live in a Dive | Subhumans | February 10, 2004 |
Live in a Dive | Swingin' Utters | June 29, 2004 |
Live in a Dive | Lagwagon | February 8, 2005 |
Ribbed: Live in a Dive | NOFX | August 3, 2018 |
Live in a Dive | Face to Face | October 18, 2019 |
Live in a Dive | Rich Kids on LSD | June 3, 2022 |
In addition to the Live in a Dive series, Fat Wreck Chords also released the Fat Club series of 7" vinyl records during 2001. The series was only available to mail-order subscribers which received one single every month. Fat Wreck Chords did not publish any information on the upcoming releases so subscribers would not know what they were about to receive until the record arrived in the post.
Although the Fat club series was limited to 1,300 copies for each single, the songs contained on the records were later released as the third disc of the Wrecktrospective collection.
NOFX was an American punk rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Bassist/lead vocalist Fat Mike, rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin were original founding and longest-serving members of the band, who have appeared on every release by the band, although Sandin departed briefly in 1985, only to rejoin the following year. El Hefe joined the band in 1991 to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the best-known iteration of the lineup.
Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several sister labels also exist, such as ANTI-, Burning Heart Records, Hellcat Records, and Heart & Skull Records that have signed other types of bands.
Punk-O-Rama is the title given to a series of ten compilation albums published by Epitaph Records. The first volume was released in 1994, the second in 1996, and the rest annually from 1998 to 2005. The albums included artists from Epitaph's roster as well as from its subsidiary label ANTI- and its partnership labels Hellcat Records and Burning Heart Records. In total the series included 257 songs contributed by 88 different artists.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in San Francisco in 1995. The band's lineup consists of Spike Slawson, C. J. Ramone, Joey Cape, Pinch and John Reis. Dave Raun, Chris Shiflett, and Fat Mike are former members.
Rock Against Bush was a project mobilizing punk and alternative musicians against the 2004 U.S. Presidential re-election campaign of George W. Bush. At its core was the idea of using music to create an anti-war, pro-peace sentiment, similar to counterculture music movements of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Woodstock. The effort inspired Australian punk bands to start Rock Against Howard.
Lagwagon is an American punk rock band originally from Goleta, California, just outside Santa Barbara. They formed in 1990, went on hiatus in 2000, and reunited several times over the years. Their name comes from the band's tour van, which can be seen on the back cover of their 1994 second album Trashed.
Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2 is the second Rock Against Bush compilation album released on the Fat Wreck Chords record label. It contains a collection of songs by various punk rock artists, some of which were previously unreleased. It also includes a bonus DVD with political facts, commentary regarding the U.S. presidential election, 2004, comedy footage, and music videos. It was released on August 10, 2004.
Anthony James Sly was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the front man of the punk rock band No Use for a Name. In his later years he also gained attention for his acoustic solo work, with two acoustic split albums he released with Lagwagon front man Joey Cape and two solo albums.
Zero Down was an American punk rock trio formed by former Strung Out bassist Jim Cherry, former Down by Law drummer Milo Todesco and former War Called Peace guitarist John McCree. Frontman Cherry enlisted the support of Fat Wreck Chords owner Fat Mike, who released the band's first album, With a Lifetime to Pay in 2001. The music was a throwback to mid-1990s melodic skate punk, and is still well received to this day. The band added a fourth member in August 2001, ex-Lagwagon guitarist Shawn Dewey.
Consumed is an English punk rock band formed in 1992 on the outskirts of Nottingham. It was signed to Fat Wreck Chords, then moved to BYO Records and Golf Records shortly before the release of the album Pistols at Dawn. The band toured the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, the U.S., and Canada and also appeared regularly at surf and skate festivals in the mid-to late-1990s.
Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA is a compilation album released on the Fat Wreck Chords record label in 2003. As the title implies, it is a benefit album for the animal rights organization, PETA.
PROTECT: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children is a charity record for the child protection organization, Protect. It was released by Fat Wreck Chords record label in 2005.
Enemy You was an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California, United States, that formed in 1997.
Fat Music is a series of eight compilation albums published by Fat Wreck Chords since 1994. The albums include artists from the label's roster, focusing on then-current and upcoming releases and often including previously unreleased material. In total the series includes 127 songs contributed by 49 different artists, focusing stylistically on punk rock and various subgenres such as hardcore punk, pop punk, ska punk, skate punk, and street punk. The Fat Music series tapered off after its sixth installment as the label moved from compact discs toward digital downloads for its samplers instead. Subsequent physical compilation albums released by Fat Wreck Chords were themed around social and political causes, including the benefit albums Liberation (2003) and Protect (2005), and the two volumes of Rock Against Bush released preceding the 2004 United States presidential election. In 2010 the Fat Music series was revived with the release of a seventh volume, Harder, Fatter + Louder!
Michael John Burkett, known professionally as Fat Mike, is an American musician and producer. He was the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX and the cofounder and bassist of the punk rock supergroup cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Burkett started out with his first band False Alarm in 1982. Throughout NOFX's existence, he and rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin were the only band members who stayed since the beginning.
Wrecktrospective is a three-disc compilation album released December 8, 2009 by Fat Wreck Chords. Subtitled "Twenty Years...and Counting!", it compiles tracks spanning the label's catalog from 1990 to 2009. The first disc, titled Fattest Hits, collects songs from 33 of the label's album releases. The second disc, Demos, includes 28 demo recordings and rare tracks, a majority of which are previously unreleased. The third disc, Fat Club, includes all of the tracks from the Fat Club series of 7-inch singles released monthly by the label from February 2001 to January 2002. In total the compilation includes 88 songs by 51 different artists.
The Fat Club is a series of twelve 7-inch singles released monthly by Fat Wreck Chords from March 2001 to February 2002. 1,300 of each single were pressed; They were not available for sale individually, but were distributed by postal service to those who purchased a subscription to the series.
The discography of Fat Wreck Chords, an independent record label based in San Francisco, consists of 345 releases: 157 studio albums, 13 live albums, 33 compilation albums, 2 demo albums, 58 EPs, 69 singles, 10 video albums, 1 documentary film, and 2 box sets.
Ryan Greene is an American record producer, sound engineer, former owner of Crush Recording Studios in Scottsdale, Arizona and founder of Area 52 Entertainment in Los Angeles, California. He has worked with many artists including Jay-Z, Lita Ford, Tonic, Mr. Big, Wilson Phillips, Megadeth, NOFX, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Usher, Patti LaBelle, Dishwalla and Gladys Knight. He has worked on over 250 musical projects and has been described as an "A-list producer".
Ribbed: Live in a Dive is an album by American punk band NOFX; it is the band's third live album and the eighth installment of their Live in a Dive series. Released on August 3, 2018 by Fat Wreck Chords, the album is a live presentation of their songs from the 1991 studio album Ribbed. The album was recorded in 2012 from their concert at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.