Flightless was started in 2012 in Melbourne by drummer Eric Moore as a label for his band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, after he was unsuccessful in trying to get the band signed to existing labels. The label's earliest releases were shipped in pizza boxes,[2] and the vinyl runs were small and limited.[citation needed]
In 2015, Flightless hosted the first annual Gizzfest, a music festival featuring bands on the Flightless label as well as others in the psychedelic and garage rock scene. The inaugural festival was held at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, on 2 and 3 May 2015. The festival returned for the subsequent three years, expanding into a touring festival visiting cities around Australia, including Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. The festival began welcoming international bands such as Mild High Club, Kikagaku Moyo, Altın Gün, and The Mystery Lights to the lineup. The festival took a hiatus in 2019 due to King Gizzard's touring schedule. In 2019 Moore stated that a 2020 iteration of the festival was planned, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival did not occur.[citation needed]
In 2018, Flightless formed a distribution partnership with ATO Records.[2] The following year, the label opened Flightless 168, a public record store located on Lygon Street in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick East.[3]
The Flightless website experienced a major crash on 14 September 2018,[4] following the reissue of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's albums Willoughby's Beach, 12 Bar Bruise, Eyes Like The Sky, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs and Oddments, as well as some promotional merchandise.[5] The crash was colloquially dubbed 'The Great Flightless Crash' by fans, and resulted in Flightless printing a series of stickers to commemorate it.[6]
In August 2020, founder Eric Moore left King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard amid a dispute on the direction of the band to focus full time on Flightless.[citation needed]
In October 2020, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard launched their own web store, selling their own independently produced merchandise and vinyl.[citation needed]
On May 6, 2024 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard announced they were publishing under their own record label, p(doom).[7]
March 2021 saw the first annual Flightless Family Folk Festival, a one day festival in Melbourne featuring a mix of Flightless and Non-Flightless folk musicians.[citation needed]
The Flightless 168 store closed its doors in June 2021, preceding the label's move to a new warehouse in Coburg, Australia. The new store, Flightless Factory, opened online in August 2021, with a retail store coming in the future.[citation needed]
Flightless maintains an ethos of environmental friendliness. Since 2019 their vinyl releases have come in cardboard sleeves as an alternative to shrink wrap, with some records produced in an eco-friendly factory through Deepgrooves Vinyl Pressing Plant. Their vinyl shipping mailers feature environmentally friendly messaging, and the label also sells apparel with similar messaging and designs.[citation needed]
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