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Taang! Records | |
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Founded | 1983 |
Founder | Curtis Casella |
Genre | Punk rock, ska, heavy metal, alternative rock, ambient, Oi!, power pop , psychedelic |
Location | San Diego, California, United States, |
Official website | www |
Taang! Records is an independent record label with a roster of hardcore punk, punk rock, Oi!, power pop, ska, indie rock, psychedelic, and ambient artists and bands founded by Curtis Casella in Boston, Massachusetts in 1983.
Taang! Records began as a singles-only label, recording acts in Boston's early hardcore and punk scene such as Gang Green, Negative FX, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and The Lemonheads. The name is an acronym for the phrase "Teen Agers Are No Good!" [1] [2] The label gained prominence with the rise of Boston hardcore in the punk culture of the 1980s which had strong ties to the scene in nearby Washington D.C. [3] Additionally, popularity of the 45 rpm format in the punk and indie underground scene, and the network of independent distribution, zines, retail outlets, and college radio stations that had already developed around the format also contributed to the label's success. By the early 1990s, the label developed close ties to the punk scene in Southern California and moved its headquarters to San Diego, where it remains. Today, the Taang! catalogue includes over 200 releases [4] in multiple formats, with international distribution.
Curtis Casella, a Boston native, started Taang! to promote the burgeoning Boston hardcore punk scene. [5]
“In the early 80's, frustrated with the scene in Boston with all the greatest bands in the USA I felt that there should a place they could call home. No one else was doing it. Washington, DC had Dischord, UK. had No Future, Clay & Secret and Crass, LA had SST, Boston needed Taang!" [2]
The label's first full-length release was Negative FX's self-titled album, which was recorded in 1982.
In 1986, Taang! released five vinyl titles: Burning in Water by Moving Targets, Back on the Map by Slapshot, Another Wasted Night by Gang Green, the 7-inch Mine Caroline by The Oysters, and a bonus 7-inch by The Lemonheads. Gang Green's Another Wasted Night spawned three videos that received MTV play, and their non-stop tour propelled sales of their release to upwards of 30,000 units. The label achieved wide airplay on college radio stations with releases from The Lemonheads and Bullet LaVolta, and expanded its repertoire to include acts with a more diverse sound such as Poison Idea, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Swirlies and Spacemen 3. [4]
In 1992, Taang! produced an archival release of early material from San Diego hardcore band Battalion of Saints. Casella, who had been dividing his time between Los Angeles and Boston, moved the label's headquarters to Mission Beach, San Diego and simultaneously opened a retail outlet in Hollywood. Shortly after moving to San Diego, Taang! issued two releases by local ska band Buck-O-Nine (the album Barfly and the EP Water In My Head ), which was spurred on by a national tour in support of the ska band The Specials.
In the mid- to late 1990s, there were no new signings and the label focused primarily on archival releases by bands such as: Cock Sparrer (four releases), The Adicts (three releases), The Business (seven releases), The Exploited (two releases), The Boys (two releases), Last Resort, The Ruts, Slaughter and The Dogs, and Stiff Little Fingers (two releases), a total of twenty-six releases over five years.
While operating in California, the label continued its focus on Boston-based bands. Full catalogue releases were produced for the Proletariat, Bruisers and The F.U.s. Bands such as Gang Green, Slapshot and Poison Idea, which had previously left Taang! for other labels returned, each producing new releases for the label.
In 2007, the label started to sign more new bands, including Everybody Out!, featuring Rick Barton of Dropkick Murphys, Bill Close of The Freeze and Sweeney Todd of The Dead Pets as well as Southern California's Evacuate, led by Mike Virus of Cheap Sex and The Virus, who released their debut in 2009. Taang! also released a DVD from Cheap Sex from San Diego.
An addition to the label in this period was Negative Approach. Marking the label's 200th release was their work Friends of No One, a lost six-song recording from 1984 that was discovered in 2009 in a basement in Detroit. Taang!'s next released Nothing Will Stand In Our Way, a full album by the band, which focused on its earliest recordings (a total of 53 songs). This record represented the first ever perfromance studio session practice as well as club show with the earliest photos of the band. In 2011 the label released works by two legendary bands from the San Francisco Bay area – Attitude Adjustment and Part Time Christians. Both releases contained the bands' complete recorded works and were released digitally as well as on vinyl editions. Attitude Adjustment released a new recording entitled No Way Back in 2012.
In 2013, the label announced plans to release a series of more than fifty vinyl records from its catalogue over the span of 10 years. In April 2014, the label released The First 10 Singles 1984-88, 7" Vinyl Box Set to celebrate the Boston-based punk label's 30th anniversary. [6] Included in the box set were ten seven-inch discs. Each disc included a full re-creation of the original jacket except for the Oysters which was redone for this box set. There was also a 26-song CD that combined all of the musical selections. This vinyl boxset was limited to 2,000 numbered copies. The bands featured were Gang Green, Last Rights, Stranglehold, Noonday, Underground, Last Stand, Negative FX, Oysters, Lemonheads, Moving Targets, and Slapshot. There are plans to release the singles box set as an LP version as well as a CD in 2021. [7]
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer ("Bosstone") Ben Carr remained constant members. The band's final line-up also included drummer Joe Sirois, saxophonist Leon Silva, guitarist Lawrence Katz, keyboardist John Goetchius, and trombonist Chris Rhodes.
SSD was a straight edge hardcore band from Boston. They released two records as SS Decontrol and then formally changed their name to SSD. As SSD they released two more records with a heavy metal influenced sound. However, the group is often simply referred to, including all its periods, as SSD.
DYS is an American straight edge hardcore punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, who were part of the "Boston Crew" in the 1980s, along with contemporaries such as SSD and Negative FX. The group later expanded their sound, becoming one of the first hardcore bands to veer into heavy metal.
Negative FX was a hardcore punk band from Boston, formed in 1981. Though the band lasted only a short time, playing a total of five shows, the band was well known for their involvement in the local straight edge scene of the early 1980s. Along with members of the bands DYS and SS Decontrol (SSD), Negative FX was part of the "Boston Crew", a group of social friends who traveled around the country with SSD and other Boston hardcore bands.
Don't Know How to Party is the third full-length album by the American ska punk band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, which was released in 1993. Don't Know How to Party was The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' major label debut on Mercury Records, their first venture away from their original label Taang! Records. The album reached #187 on the Billboard 200, and spawned several singles, including the Bosstones fan favorite—"Someday I Suppose". Lead singer Dicky Barret would later state that, "When we made `Don't Know How to Party', no one knew where [we] [were] coming from". Bassist Joe Gittleman stated that the album was "slower than [our] other records."
More Noise and Other Disturbances is the second studio album by the American band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was released in 1992 by Taang! Records. It was a hit on college radio. "Where'd You Go" was released as a single.
Devil's Night Out is the debut studio album by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was released in 1990 by Taang! Records. It was one of the first albums to mix ska and hardcore punk.
Buck-O-Nine is an American ska punk band which was formed in San Diego in 1991. The band has toured internationally and released several albums and EPs, as well as appearing on compilations and film soundtracks. During the mid-to-late 1990s, they experienced mainstream success with the release of the album Twenty-Eight Teeth and its most successful single, "My Town". As the popularity of third-wave ska waned, Buck-O-Nine stopped touring full-time in 2000, but continues to perform regularly throughout California and much of the Southwestern United States. Since 2001, the band has also performed in Japan, the UK, Canada, Mexico and Hawaii.
Negative Approach is an American hardcore punk band, formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1981. The band is considered among the pioneers of hardcore punk, particularly in the Midwest region. Like most hardcore bands, Negative Approach was little known in its day outside of its hometown. It is now idolized in the Detroit rock underground and the punk subculture, considered to be one of the elite bands of the "old school" era, and continues to be influential. Negative Approach initially broke up in 1984 with singer John Brannon moving on to the Laughing Hyenas, and later Easy Action, but the band has reformed as of 2006 and continues to tour sporadically.
Slapshot is an American hardcore punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band has been active for over 30 years, releasing eight studio albums and a number of singles and EPs over that time period. Though there have been constant line-up changes, founding member Jack "Choke" Kelly has remained a constant member of the band and its primary vocalist and leader.
Gang Green is an American punk rock band originally from Braintree, Massachusetts. Chris Doherty (guitar), Bill Manley (bass) and Mike Dean (drums) started the band in 1980 and broke up in 1983. Doherty reformed Gang Green the following year, and the band experienced numerous lineup changes until its dissolution for the second time in 1992. Doherty has been the band's only constant member and has kept Gang Green active from 2005 onwards. The band was influential in the formation of the East Coast hardcore punk scene, and went on to become one of the forerunners of crossover thrash and speed metal in the late 1980s.
American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980–1986 is a documentary directed and produced by Paul Rachman and written by Steven Blush. It is based on the 2001 book American Hardcore: A Tribal History also written by Blush. It world premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released on September 22, 2006 on a limited basis by Sony Pictures Classics. The film features some early pioneers of the hardcore punk music scene including Bad Brains, Black Flag, D.O.A., Minor Threat, Minutemen, SSD, and others. It was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on February 20, 2007.
Preschool is a compilation album of early material from American hardcore punk band, Gang Green.
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
Ben Deily is an American musician and songwriter, most famous as one of the founders, writers and lead singers of the Boston-based alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Deily and Dando met while students at the Commonwealth School in Boston.
The discography of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, an American ska punk band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts, consists of eleven studio albums, ten EPs and twenty two singles, among other recordings.
Spore was a noise rock band from Boston, Massachusetts formed in the wake of the early 1990s grunge movement. Spore were signed in 1993 on the Taang! Records label, the same label which initially signed The Lemonheads, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Mission of Burma, with whom the band released a 7 inch EP.
Razors in the Night is an American punk rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2009. The band was founded by Troy Schoeller (Vocals), who recruited four friends, Todd Wilson, guitar (ex-Beware!), Ian Clark, guitar, Swid, bass (Acrobrats). The band name is taken from a Blitz song. Their sound is somewhat anomalous, fusing hardcore, Oi!, and a touch of garage rock.
Negative FX is the only full-length album released by Boston hardcore punk band Negative FX. It was released in 1984 on Taang! Records.
Reggae punk is a genre of music originating in England in the late-1970s. It is characterized by a fusion of reggae music with punk rock. The genre originated amongst punk rock artists who mixed in reggae elements into their punk rock sound. The most notable band to do this was the Clash, having done so on many records. They even covered reggae songs such as Toots and the Maytals' "Pressure Drop", released as the B-side to "English Civil War", both from 1978's Give 'Em Enough Rope. Bob Marley also gave a nod to this genre by writing and recording "Punky Reggae Party" in 1977.