| Thrill Jockey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder | Bettina Richards |
| Genre | Indie rock, heavy metal, experimental rock, electronic |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Official website | thrilljockey |
Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago.
Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while working at a Hoboken, New Jersey, record store, and ran the label from her apartment in New York City. [1]
In 1995, she moved the label to Chicago, where "rent and taxes are considerably cheaper" according to Richards, and the independent label found some larger success. [1]
Thrill Jockey offers full-length streaming of every song on every release in its catalog. "I believe if people can listen to the albums, they tend to buy them," Richards said in a 2006 interview with Chicago Reader. [2]
Artists who have recorded on the label include Double Dagger, Future Islands, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Bummer, High Places, Trans Am, Mouse on Mars, ADULT., Bosse-de-Nage, Nobukazu Takemura, Bobby Conn, Tom Verlaine, Freakwater, The Zincs, The National Trust, Eleventh Dream Day, Califone, Chicago Underground Duo, Howe Gelb/Giant Sand, Mary Lattimore, Oval, Town & Country, Archer Prewitt, Sam Prekop, The Lonesome Organist, OOIOO, Pit er Pat, Marisa Anderson, The Fiery Furnaces, Angela Desveaux, Liturgy, Boredoms, Pontiak, and Golden Void amongst others. Artists on the label have often collaborated with other artists on the label to form spin-off groups.
In 2007, Thrill Jockey bands old and new recorded songs for a boxed set to celebrate the label's 15th birthday. Bands were asked to choose a song to cover by any other act on their roster. Plum 7" Box Set compilation was released in December 2007 on ten 7-inch vinyl singles.
Some notable tracks include: Directions covering Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker's "Toy Boat," while Pullman tackles the Chicago Underground Quartet's "3 A.M." Bobby Conn, Califone and Thalia Zedek all cover Freakwater songs, while the Sea & Cake reworks a version of Califone's "Spider's House." Tortoise covers Japanese artist Nobukazu Takemura's "Falls Lake," and ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne contributes a cover of the Fiery Furnaces' "Ex-Guru." [3]
Nobukazu Takemura is a Japanese musician and artist. Born in Hirakata, Osaka in August 1968, he became interested in music at a young age by listening to the radio, and began to make music at home with a tape recorder and keyboard. During high school, after a record store job that exposed him to jazz and hip-hop, he had regular gigs in the clubs of Osaka and Kyoto as a battle DJ before launching his music career. Takemura's music career has seen him cover a wide range of genres and styles within short periods of time. Beginning his career in hip-hop and jazz, Takemura later entered into a prolific period as an electronic musician, exploring genres such as glitch, drum and bass and minimalism. Takemura's most recent work has included chamber music and performance art.
Tortoise is an American post-rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1990. The band incorporates krautrock, dub, minimal music, electronica and jazz into their music, a combination sometimes termed "post-rock". Tortoise have been consistently credited for the rise of the post-rock movement in the 1990s.
Jeffrey Stafford, known professionally as Bobby Conn, is an American musician based in Chicago, Illinois. He often collaborates with other artists and film-maker Usama Alshaibi.
Trans Am is a three-piece American band from Bethesda, Maryland, that was one of the originators of "post-rock" in the mid-1990s. Their work combines elements of Krautrock, heavy metal, hardcore punk, synthpop, electronic music, and folk music. Since their inception, the group has toured with Tortoise, Pan Sonic, The Fucking Champs, and Tool.
John McEntire is an American recording engineer, producer, drummer and multi-instrumentalist, based in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of both Tortoise and the Sea and Cake.
The Fiery Furnaces are an American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago. They are known for their ambitious, highly conceptual releases, which have frequently divided critical opinion.
This is the discography of the record label Thrill Jockey
Califone is an experimental rock band from Chicago. The band is named after Califone International, an audio equipment manufacturer. Their work has been critically acclaimed.
Freakwater is an American alternative country band from Louisville, Kentucky, with one co-founding member living in Chicago. Freakwater is known for the lead vocals of Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, who mix harmony and melody in idiosyncratic dissonant country-folk that is reminiscent of the Carter Family.
Soma Electronic Music Studios is a recording studio owned and operated by John McEntire. From 1993 to 2018 it was located in Chicago, Illinois.
Matthew Friedberger is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work in the indie rock duo The Fiery Furnaces with his sister Eleanor Friedberger.
TNT is the third studio album by American post-rock band Tortoise, released in 1998 by Thrill Jockey. After Jeff Parker joined the band in 1996, Tortoise recorded TNT over the course of a year with drummer John McEntire acting as producer, editor and mixing. Taking influence from their remix material of the 1990s, the band recorded the album using hard disk technology in a "forward-then-back" approach, with members individually adding parts to tracks at different stages until the tracks were completed. As with previous albums, the band members also shared instrumental roles.
The Sea and Cake is an American indie rock band with a jazz influence, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
A Lazarus Taxon is a box set by Chicago post-rock group Tortoise, released in 2006 on Thrill Jockey.
The Lonesome Organist is the one-man band project of Jeremy Jacobsen, keyboardist for Chicago Post-rock combo, 5ive Style. He has released three albums on Chicago indie label Thrill Jockey; a fourth album, Ashes... Alas was self-released in 2015.
Douglas McCombs is an American musician who plays bass and guitar with the instrumental rock band Tortoise and leads the instrumental band Brokeback. He is also the longtime bassist for the rock band Eleventh Dream Day. In 1997, he formed Pullman with Bundy K. Brown, Chris Brokaw, and Curtis Harvey, with whom he released two albums. In May 2018, McCombs replaced Eric Claridge as the touring bassist with Chicago jazz-pop outfit The Sea and Cake.
The Zincs are a four-piece band originally from London, England, and now based in Chicago, Illinois, US. They are signed to Chicago's Thrill Jockey Records.
Take Me Round Again is The Fiery Furnaces' ninth album. It was first released, in MP3 format, through Thrill Jockey Records, in November 2009. The album is being described as "The Friedbergers cover the Friedbergers," in reference to core members and siblings, Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger.
Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist.
Springtime is an album by the American alternative country band Freakwater, released in 1998. It was the band's fifth album. Springtime had sold less than 8,000 copies in the year and a half after its release.
