Company type | Incentive |
---|---|
Industry | Music production |
Genre | |
Founded | 1992 |
Founder | Beastie Boys |
Defunct | August 31, 2001 |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Headquarters | G-Son Studios, Los Angeles, California |
Website | grandroyal.com (Archived on July 6, 2001) |
Grand Royal was a vanity record label founded in 1992 by rap group Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records after the group left Def Jam Recordings. [1] It was based in Los Angeles, California.
Grand Royal was also the name of a magazine written and published by the group. [2] Described as a publication that "came to define part of Generation X," [3] the total distribution of the six issues of Grand Royal was estimated at 300,000 copies. [4]
Due to mounting debts, Grand Royal closed down on August 31, 2001, and formally declared bankruptcy in July 2002. [5] [6] [7] Its assets were sold off via auction on Bid4Assets; these assets did not include any rights to Beastie Boys music. [8] The assets and back catalog were purchased by a group of fans who in turn started GR2 Records. [9] In 2016, GR2 sold the rights and master recordings of Grand Royal's second release My Crazy Life to a member of the band Dead Fucking Last.
In 2017, Stiletto Entertainment, the company that currently owns GR2, was sued by dance-punk band Liquid Liquid for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and not paying them royalties over the unauthorized licensing of their music and sales of the 2008 reissue of their 1997 compilation Liquid Liquid, which was originally distributed by Grand Royal. [10]
The label was mentioned in the Beastie Boys Book. Some notable music executives gained their start at Grand Royal Records such as Ian Rogers, Kenny "Tick" Salcido, and Miwa Okumura. There were also established executives who were employed by Grand Royal Records in Mark Kates, Craig Aaronson, John Silva, Steve Rosenblatt, Gary Gersh.
The Jet Set Radio Future Sampler was the label's last official release featuring original music by the Mike D led production group the Latch Brothers.
Grand Royal promotions manager, "Tick's Corner" columnist, and member of the Latch Brothers, Kenny "Tick" Salcido worked closely under Mike D. "Tick" helped named the Grand Royal Hip Hop 12" Series "The Blow Up Factor" and "Tick" helped A&R the series early in his career along with naming the Beastie Boys 12" release from that series, 'Scientists of Sound' (The Blow Up Factor Vol. 1), which came from a lyric from the Beastie Boys album 'Hello Nasty'.
The Beastie Boys were an American hip-hop/rap rock group formed in 1981 in New York City. They were composed of Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Michael "Mike D" Diamond. The Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines, which was formed in 1979, with Diamond on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach later joining on percussion. When Shatan left New York City in mid-1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the resulting band was named the Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.
Bad Brains are an American punk rock band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1976. They are widely regarded as pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to the use of this term to describe their music. They are also an adept reggae band, while later recordings featured elements of other genres like funk, heavy metal, hip hop, and soul. Rolling Stone magazine called them "the mother of all black hard-rock bands", and they have been cited as a seminal influence to numerous other subgenres in addition to hardcore punk, including various subgenres of heavy metal, such as thrash/speed metal, alternative metal, and funk metal. Bad Brains are followers of the Rastafari movement.
The Hives are a Swedish rock band formed in Fagersta in 1993. After gaining traction in Sweden through the 1990s, they rose to worldwide prominence in the early 2000s during the garage rock revival. The band's line-up—consisting of Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (vocals), Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem, Dr. Matt Destruction (bass), and Chris Dangerous (drums)—remained unchanged from 1993 until 2013, when Matt Destruction retired for health reasons and was replaced by The Johan and Only, the former Randy bassist.
Paul's Boutique is the second studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on July 25, 1989, by Capitol Records. Produced by the Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers, the album's composition makes extensive use of samples, drawn from a wide range of genres including funk, soul, rock, and jazz. It was recorded over two years at Matt Dike's apartment and the Record Plant in Los Angeles.
Check Your Head is the third studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on April 21, 1992, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. Three years elapsed between the releases of the band's previous studio album Paul's Boutique (1989) and Check Your Head, which was recorded at the G-Son Studios in Atwater Village in 1991 under the guidance of producer Mario Caldato Jr., the group's third producer in as many albums. Less sample-heavy than their previous records, the album features instrumental contributions from all three members: Adam Horovitz on guitar, Adam Yauch on bass guitar, and Mike Diamond on drums.
Frederick Jay Rubin is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records.
Luscious Jackson is an alternative rock/rap-rock group formed in 1991. The band's name is a reference to former American basketball player Lucious Jackson.
Ill Communication is the fourth studio album by the American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released on May 31, 1994, by Grand Royal and Capitol Records. Co-produced by Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato, Jr., it is among the band's most varied releases, drawing from hip hop, punk rock, jazz, and funk, and continues their trend away from sampling and towards live instruments, which began with their previous release, Check Your Head (1992). The album features musical contributions from Money Mark, Eric Bobo and Amery "AWOL" Smith, and vocal contributions from Q-Tip and Biz Markie. Beastie Boys were influenced by Miles Davis's jazz rock albums On the Corner (1972) and Agharta (1975) while recording Ill Communication.
Michael Louis Diamond, better known as Mike D, is an American rapper, musician, and music producer. He is a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys.
Adam Nathaniel Yauch, also known by the stage name MCA, was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker and a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. Besides his musical work, he also directed many of the band's music videos and did much of their promotional photography, often using the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér for such work.
Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science is the first anthology album by American rap rock group Beastie Boys composed of greatest hits, B-sides, and previously unreleased tracks. The retail release comes with a tri-fold sleeve that displays the majority of the band's album covers, as well as a booklet of liner notes. The title of the anthology is from the song of the same name, featured on their second album, Paul's Boutique. The title was actually submitted by Grand Royal Records employee Kenny "Tick" Salcido to the band, and the title was chosen for the anthology.
Katherine A. Schellenbach is an American musician and television producer. She is the drummer of Luscious Jackson and was a founding drummer of Beastie Boys.
"Sabotage" is a song by American rap rock group Beastie Boys, released by Grand Royal Records in January 1994 as the first single from their fourth studio album, Ill Communication (1994). The song features traditional rock instrumentation, turntable scratches, heavily distorted bass guitar riffs and lead vocals by Ad-Rock. A moderate commercial success and later significant critical success, the song was applauded for its impactful lyrics and melody as well as its humorous video, directed by Spike Jonze; it was also nominated in five categories at the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards.
Stephen Pavlovic is an Australian music entrepreneur. Pavlovic began promoting music tours, events and concerts in 1990. Since then he has toured artists including Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Beck, Foo Fighters, Daft Punk, The Cure, Grace Jones, LCD Soundsystem, and more. In 1998 he founded the record label Modular Recordings home to The Avalanches, Tame Impala and Cut Copy and others.
The discography of Beastie Boys, an American hip hop group, consists of eight studio albums, four compilation albums, five video albums, seven extended plays, 40 singles and 44 music videos.
Timothy Andrew Sommer is an American music journalist, musician, record producer and former Atlantic Records A&R representative. Sommer was the bass player for the slowcore/dreampop band Hugo Largo.
The Latch Brothers were an early-2000s American remix group formed by Mike D, Wag, and Tick. They were a production group/band/Beastie Boys side project that have remixed artists such as Beastie Boys, At the Drive-In, Murder City Devils, Q-Tip, A.I., The Prunes, BS 2000, Bran Van 3000, Audio Leter, Lykke Li, Kut Masta Kurt's Masters of Illusion, Nelly Furtado, Bhagavan Das, and more.
Dead Fucking Last is an American punk rock band that was founded in 1991 in Los Angeles, California by Tom Davis, Monty Messex, Adam (Ad-Rock) Horovitz and Tony Converse.