Tiny Engines | |
---|---|
Founded | 2008 |
Founder | Chuck Daley, Will Miller |
Genre | Emo, indie rock, post-hardcore, pop punk, punk rock |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | The Carolinas |
Official website | www |
Tiny Engines is an American record label based in the Carolinas. [1] [2] [3] [4]
In November 2019, Stevie Knipe of Adult Mom accused Tiny Engines of a breach of contract due to the delayed payment of $8,000 in royalties. [5] Knipe claimed that Tiny Engines sent no royalty payments between 2015 and May 2018 to the band. [6] Other artists such as Mannequin Pussy and Christian Holden claimed to have experienced similar circumstances. [5] The co-founder of the record label, Chuck Daley, admitted to the delay of payments in an interview with Billboard. [5]
Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of post-hardcore and hardcore punk from the mid-1980s Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace. In the early–mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and/or pop punk bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, bands such as Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from the burgeoning Midwest emo scene, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.
Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands signed to the label as well. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several sister labels also exist, such as ANTI-, Burning Heart Records, Hellcat Records, and Heart & Skull Records that have signed other types of bands.
Alternative rock is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock.
The U.S. state of Washington has been home to many popular musicians and several major hotbeds of musical innovation throughout its history. The largest city in the state, Seattle, is known for being the birthplace of grunge as well as a major contributor to the evolution of punk rock, indie music, folk, and hip hop. Nearby Tacoma and Olympia have also been centers of influence on popular music.
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.
Pussy Cats is the tenth album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records in 1974. It was produced by John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period. The album title was inspired by the bad press Nilsson and Lennon were getting at the time for being drunk and rowdy in Los Angeles. They also included an inside joke on the cover – children's letter blocks "D" and "S" on either side of a rug under a table − to spell out "drugs under the table" as a rebus.
Independent music is music produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries; this may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing.
Empire! Empire! was an American emo band from Michigan. It was formed in 2006 originally as a solo project of band member Keith Latinen. The band's music is most often described as emotional indie rock reminiscent of '90s emo bands such as Mineral and American Football. The band's first release was in 2007 with an EP titled When The Sea Became A Giant. The band released a full-length album, What It Takes To Move Forward, in 2009. The band is signed to Count Your Lucky Stars Records and has released albums on a number of other labels, such as strictly no capital letters (UK), Topshelf Records, Stiff Slack (Japan), and Hobbledehoy Record Co (Australia). The band released their second album You Will Eventually Be Forgotten on August 19, 2014. On February 16, 2016, the band announced their final tour before their breakup on their official Facebook page.
Riot Fest is an annual three-day punk rock music festival based in Chicago, Illinois, at Douglass Park. It is known for booking reunions, guest performances, and full album performances. Riot Fest remains one of the largest independently owned music festivals in the United States.
Joyce Manor is an American rock band formed in Torrance, California in 2008. The band's lineup consists of singer-songwriter and guitarist Barry Johnson, guitarist Chase Knobbe, and bassist/backing vocalist Matt Ebert. The band's musical style is rooted in punk rock, but has diversified throughout its career. The band first gained momentum through word-of-mouth and social media sites. Kurt Walcher was the band's founding drummer; the group has switched drummers each album cycle since 2015.
Into It. Over It. is the indie rock solo project of the Chicago, Illinois-based musician Evan Thomas Weiss. It is considered one of the top acts in the emo revival scene of the 2010s.
The emo revival was an underground emo movement which came about in the late 2000s to early 2010s. Groups of the emo revival largely abandon the style of the mainstream emo acts of the mid 2000s in favor of a style influenced by 1990s emo acts. The revival had largely dissolved by the mid 2010s.
The Hotelier is an American indie rock band from Worcester, Massachusetts, currently signed with Dreams of Field Recordings. The band's second album, Home, Like Noplace Is There, has been featured on Spin's "The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s" list and is considered an "essential emo album" by AltPress. The group has performed at the Pirate Satellite Festival, the Pitchfork Music Festival, and the Primavera Sound festival.
CSTVT, originally known as Castevet, was an American emo band from Chicago. The band was founded in mid-2007 by lead vocalist and guitarist Nick Wakim, guitarist Will McEvilly, backing vocalist and bass guitarist Ron Petzke and drummer Josh Snader; the line-up remained intact until its demise in 2013. Members of Castevet have also played in Bongripper, Into It. Over It., Lifted Bells, Tower of Rome and Weekend Nachos. In December 2010, the band changed the spelling of its name from Castevet to CSTVT, though the pronunciation remained the same.
Pinegrove is an American rock band formed in Montclair, New Jersey in 2010. The band's lineup is largely fluid and variable, with singer-songwriter Evan Stephens Hall and drummer Zach Levine representing its core members. The two met as children and played in various bands before founding Pinegrove. The band's musical style, which uses instruments such as the banjo and pedal steel guitar, is commonly described as a mix between alt-country and emo. Pinegrove's early years were spent self-releasing music – including their debut album, Meridian (2012) – and performing do-it-yourself (DIY) house shows.
Mannequin Pussy is an American punk and indie rock band from Philadelphia. They have released three albums; Mannequin Pussy (2014) and Romantic (2016) on Tiny Engines, and Patience (2019) on Epitaph Records. Their recent EP, Perfect, was released in 2021 to favorable reviews.
Adult Mom is an indie rock band founded by musician Stevie Knipe. Initially a solo project, Adult Mom has now expanded into a full band including guitarist Allegra Eidinger and drummer Olivia Battell. They have released three full-length albums and multiple EPs, most recently 2021’s Driver on Epitaph Records.
BUFU Records is an independent record label formed in 2012 and based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Free I.H: This Is Not the One You've Been Waiting For is a mixtape by American indie rock band Illuminati Hotties. It was self released on July 17, 2020. The mixtape comes after accusations to the band's former label, Tiny Engines, of violations of contractual agreements by their artists. The band bought out its contract with Tiny Engines with a cash settlement and royalties to the label on a future project. This situation inspired the creation of the mixtape, which was released to fulfill a contractual agreement with Tiny Engines.
Riverby is an American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed in 2018 by lead singer August Greenberg and guitarist Tyler Asay, the band released an EP, The Guide To Oversharing (2019), before signing to independent label Take This To Heart Records in 2020 and releasing their debut album, Smart Mouth. A second album, Absolution, was released in 2022. Riverby have performed alongside acts including Chris Gethard, Mannequin Pussy, and The Front Bottoms, and have been featured by WXPN and BrooklynVegan.
"I think to some extent [the] indie music press stopped paying attention," says Will Miller, who co-owns Charlotte record label Tiny Engines, which this year released critically acclaimed records by current-wave emo bands The Hotelier and Dikembe.