 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline .(January 2023) |
Green Monkey Records is an underground record label started in Seattle, Washington, US. [1] It was established by local musician Tom Dyer and was active from 1983 to 1991 and from 2009 to present, with sporadic releases in the interim. It is currently headquartered in Olympia, Washington, US.
Green Monkey Records was established in 1983 by local musician Tom Dyer, who was inspired to begin recording and producing music after a recording session at Seattle's Triangle Studios. Using a "Teac four-track reel-to-reel and a Tapco 6200B mixer from a guy in a parking garage downtown," [2] Dyer began recording and mixing music in his apartment in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. Early clients included Mr. Epp and the Calculations, featuring Mark Arm (later of Mudhoney fame). After Dyer's landlord found out, the operation was quickly moved to the basement of a rented house on the north side of Seattle's Queen Anne Hill.
Between 1983 and 1991, Green Monkey Records released 44 albums. The label's biggest brush with commercial success came from the Green Pajamas' album "Book of Hours," a followup to the single "Kim the Waitress" [3] that was two years in the making. The label's had reached its heyday by 1987, and by 1988, changing priorities (including the birth of Dyer's first child) and new responsibilities (teaching at the Art Institute of Seattle) had begun to impact the label. In 1991, Dyer sold the majority of his recording equipment and closed the studio, although he did occasionally release new material, such as the Green Pajamas' Caroler's Song EP.
In 2009, Green Monkey Records released a 2 CD compilation album, titled "It Crawled from the Basement: the green monkey records anthology." [4] The album featured 47 tracks by 32 artists. To celebrate, Dyer orchestrated a release party at the SoDo Showbox featuring nine bands: The Green Pajamas, The Icons, The Purdins, Capping Day, The Queen Annes, Prudence Dredge, Liquid Generation, The Elements and Slam Suzzanne. Inspired by positive press, Dyer began releasing more material, including several reissues, but notably new material and new artists as well. As of December 2016, the label has released 52 more albums, with a significant number of contributions by Dyer or Jeff Kelly and the Green Pajamas. [5]
Since 2010, the label has released an annual Christmas compilation to benefit the charity MusiCares. Contributors include Green Monkey veterans such as The Green Pajamas, The Queen Annes, and Eric Padget (of Sigourney Reverb), as well as other artists from around the country, and of course, Dyer himself. Critical reception of the albums has been favorable, with Stubby's House of Christmas declaring that "somehow, every GD year, Green Monkey puts out one of the best Christmas albums of the year."
In 2016, Dyer moved the label to the capitol, Olympia, with some Olympia artists being added to the label's primarily Seattle mix. The natural result of this move can be seen in 2022 with Dyer's "Olympia: A True Story”, a 3-CD box set about the history of Olympia.
Although Green Monkey Records has never enjoyed significant commercial success, the label does have a cult following. The label's sound has been categorized as "post-punk/pre-grunge Seattle" and "indy pop music—good honest, ballsy, delicate, garage-y, punky, folky, mildly trippy pop music". [6] The label has received positive press from local "listener-powered" indie radio station KEXP [7] as well as a number of indie music bloggers. [8]
Sub Pop is a independent record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often credited with helping popularize grunge music. The label's roster includes Fleet Foxes, Tad, Beach House, The Postal Service, Sleater-Kinney, Flight of the Conchords, Foals, Blitzen Trapper, Father John Misty, clipping., Shabazz Palaces, Weyes Blood, Guerilla Toss, Bully, Low, METZ, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Kiwi Jr., TV Priest and The Shins. In 1995, the owners of Sub Pop sold a 49% stake of the label to the Warner Music Group.
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.
Kill City is a studio album by the American musicians Iggy Pop and James Williamson, both formerly of the rock band the Stooges. It was recorded as a demo in 1975 but released in altered form in November 1977 by record label Bomp!.
The PLUG Independent Music Awards, or just PLUG Awards, began in 2001 as a "cartel" of music lovers ranging from DJs and managers to indie retailers and fans.
The U-Men was an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1980 and active until 1989. They toured extensively across the United States. Their musically "dirty" sound and off-the-wall sense of humor were a forerunner for the later grunge bands to come out of Seattle.
Surfdog Records is a record label, music publishing company, merchandising company, and marketing company based in Encinitas, California. Its roster includes artists of the rock, punk, swing, rockabilly, reggae, lounge, and alternative genres. It has released over 150 albums, including recordings by Stray Cats, Brian Setzer & The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Eric Clapton, Slightly Stoopid, Dan Hicks, Butthole Surfers, Glen Campbell, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, Richard Cheese, Gary Hoey, and Sprung Monkey.
Donald Gene Fleming is an American musician and producer. Besides fronting a number of his own bands, Fleming has produced Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, Teenage Fanclub and Hole.
Robert Joseph Segarini was an American-Canadian recording artist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio host. During a professional music career primarily developed between 1968 and the early 1980s, Segarini was particularly popular in Canada. He is also notable as one of the founding members of The Wackers.
The Lonely Forest was an American indie rock band from Anacortes, Washington with two EPs and four studio albums. In 2011 lead singer, John Van Deusen, was selected for Seattle Weekly’s best male vocalist award and the band appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The group went on indefinite hiatus in 2014.
Math and Physics Club are an American indie pop band based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Its members are Charles Bert and Ethan Jones. James Werle played lead guitar until he died in 2018. Kevin Emerson (drums) continues to play on recordings though no longer a full time member of the band. The band has released three EPs and four full-length albums on Santa Barbara-based Matinee Recordings, with UK distribution on Fika Recordings. They are often associated with Australian labelmates The Lucksmiths and twee pop band Tullycraft, and Pitchfork Media described their work as "music to hold hands to" after The Lucksmiths' song on the album "Why That Doesn't Surprise Me".
The Dead Air Fresheners are a Portland, Oregon-based experimental and post-punk musical group with a somewhat fluctuating membership. They have been described by Portland's KPSU as "A long-time mainstay of the Experimental Rock Scene." They count Sun Ra, John Cage, Sonic Youth, Sun City Girls, and Jandek as influences.
Eugene Francis Jnr is a British musician, who has released music with several bands as well as solo material.
The Green Pajamas are a musical group from Seattle, Washington. They formed in the spring of 1984 when Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross recorded and released their first album, Summer Of Lust. They are probably best known for the regional hit single "Kim the Waitress".
The Shackeltons are a post-punk band from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Despite the spelling, they are named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.
The Blakes are an American indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. The band had several independent releases before signing to Seattle record label Light In The Attic, and then had two more studio releases: The Blakes LP and Streets EP. After that they had two more independent releases in 2009: Lights On EP and Souvenir LP.
Swelter is a rock music group, formed in 1989. They were generally associated with the city of Tacoma, Washington.
Aphonia Recordings is an independent record label founded by Ben L. Robertson and Andrew Senna in Seattle, Washington in 2006. Mostly regarded as an outlet for digital releases of experimental and ambient music, Aphonia also has released more pop oriented artists such as Desolation Wilderness and Slim Twig. Both signed with major labels.
The Actual Tigers, originally known as Willis, were an American rock band formed in 1994 in Seattle. They released two full studio albums on CD: a self-titled debut and Gravelled and Green, produced with Dennis Herring. The band opened for Counting Crows after their second studio CD was released and, in 2005 after the Actual Tigers had disbanded, Gravelled and Green was ranked by MSNBC as one of the top 20 albums of the past 20 years. The band played together for seven years, having a sound often compared to Paul Simon and early Wilco.
A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If the recordings are from several artists, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology.
Acid Tongue is an American rock band, formed in 2015 in Seattle, Washington. In 2022, Rolling Stone featured Acid Tongue on their In My Room concert series. To date, the band has released three studio albums and four EPs on Seattle independent label Freakout Records.