Vagrant Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | BMG Rights Management |
Founded | 1995 |
Founder | Rich Egan, Jon Cohen |
Distributor(s) | Universal Music Group [1] (physical) BMG Rights Management (digital) |
Genre | Emo, punk, indie rock, alternative rock, post-hardcore |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | Santa Monica, California |
Official website | vagrant |
Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. [2] It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk, soul, electronic, and pop. It is home to artists such as The 1975, Death Spells, Eels, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, CRUISR, Active Child, PJ Harvey, School of Seven Bells, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, James Vincent McMorrow, Black Joe Lewis, Wake Owl, Blitzen Trapper, and Bombay Bicycle Club. Originally, Vagrant Records was mostly focused on emo bands such as Dashboard Confessional, Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids, Senses Fail, and Alkaline Trio. The label is considered one of the pre-eminent labels of the emo music scene. [3]
In 2014, Vagrant was acquired by BMG Rights Management. [4] Co-founder Jon Cohen then became BMG's executive vice president of recorded music, [5] until he left the company in September 2017. [6] It remains to be distributed autonomously (outside of BMG's main distribution partner Warner Music Group), by affiliated labels in selected countries.
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The first band signed by Vagrant Records was Boxer and their album, The Hurt Process, released on May 5, 1998. The pop-punk album notably featured drummer Chris Pennie, who would go on to play with Dillinger Escape Plan and Coheed and Cambria.
In 1999, Vagrant Records signed Kansas City, Missouri, band, The Get Up Kids, and the band's Vagrant debut, Something to Write Home About , was released in September 1999. Egan and Cohen borrowed $50,000 from Cohen's parents to fund the recording of the Get Up Kids album, derived from the mortgaging of the family house. [7] The album was wildly successful, and single-handedly made Vagrant Records one of the top independent labels in the country. [8] [9]
They signed Los Angeles punk rock trio Automatic 7 and released the band's 2nd album Begger's Life on July 25, 2000. They followed this by signing and releasing albums from heavyweights in the emo scene like Alkaline Trio, Saves the Day, and Dashboard Confessional. In June 2001, the label signed a distribution deal with JCOR Records, which in turn was distributed by Universal Records. It allowed Vagrant's releases to be available in stores via Universal's distribution methods. [10] In March 2002, the label made a distribution deal with Festival Mushroom Records, who would handled Vagrant's releases in Australia. [11] Vagrant would later enter into a deal with Interscope Records. [12] In June 2002, the label signed a deal with Motor Music, which handled distribution and promotion for Vagrant's releases in Germany. [13] Dashboard Confessional's video for Screaming Infidelities, directed by Maureen Egan and Matthew Barry, earned Vagrant the MTV2 award at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. [14] Rich Egan is cited as saying the MTV Video Music Award win "changed everything" for the label.
The label then went on to release solo material from The Replacements frontman, Paul Westerberg, signifying an initial departure from its roots of nineties punk and emo. [15]
They soon signed Eels and released their album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. In 2005, the label acquired New York City indie label Startime International, with whom they co-released albums from The French Kicks and The Futureheads. During that time, Vagrant signed The Hold Steady and The Lemonheads.
In 2006, Vagrant formed a children's label imprint, Poquito Records, and released Vagrant artist The New Amsterdams' side-project The Terrible Twos' debut album If You Ever See an Owl .
In April 2007, Vagrant formed another imprint label, Density Records, which will release heavier material than has traditionally been released on the label. [16]
On August 5, 2009, Rammstein, the Berlin-based industrial metal sextet, signed a US marketing and distribution deal with Vagrant Records. [17]
Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, 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.
Something to Write Home About is the second studio album by American rock band the Get Up Kids, released on September 28, 1999, through Vagrant Records and the band's own label Heroes & Villains Records. Following the promotional tours for their debut album Four Minute Mile (1997), the band were in discussion with Mojo Records. During this period, James Dewees joined as the band's keyboardist. As negotiations with the label eventually stalled, they eventually went with Vagrant Records. They recorded their next album at Mad Hatter Studios in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, co-producing it with Chad Blinman and Alex Brahl. Described as an emo album, Something to Write Home About expands on the harder edge of its predecessor, with frontman Matt Pryor citing the works of the Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World and Wilco as influences.
The Get Up Kids are an American rock band from Kansas City. Formed in 1995, the band was a major act in the mid-1990s Midwest emo scene, otherwise known as the "second wave" of emo music. Their second album Something to Write Home About remains their most widely acclaimed album, and is considered to be one of the quintessential albums of the second-wave emo movement. They are considered forefathers of the emo genre, and have been widely credited as being an influence, both by contemporaries Saves the Day and later bands such as Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and the Wonder Years.
Further Seems Forever is an American rock band formed in 1998 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Over its initial eight-year run the band experienced several lineup changes, resulting in a different lead vocalist performing on each of their first three studio albums. Original singer Chris Carrabba recorded The Moon Is Down (2001) with the group before leaving to focus on Dashboard Confessional. He was replaced by Jason Gleason, who performed on How to Start a Fire (2003) but left the band the following year. Former Sense Field vocalist Jon Bunch joined Further Seems Forever for Hide Nothing (2004). The band broke up in 2006 but reunited four years later with Carrabba on vocals. Their fourth studio album, Penny Black, was released in 2012.
The Moon Is Down is the debut album by the Pompano Beach, Florida rock band Further Seems Forever, released in 2001 by Tooth & Nail Records. It was the band's first full-length album. Vocalist Chris Carrabba had already decided to leave the band to focus on his new project, Dashboard Confessional, but joined them in the studio to record the album. Dominguez left the band the following year to start the record label Pop Up Records. The two were replaced by Jason Gleason and Derick Cordoba, respectively, for the band's next album How to Start a Fire. A music video was filmed for the song "Snowbirds and Townies."
From Here to Infirmary is the third studio album by American punk rock band Alkaline Trio. It was their first album for Vagrant and their only album with Mike Felumlee, who replaced their previous drummer, Glenn Porter. When Felumlee left the band shortly after the album's release, Atom Willard filled in on tour and appeared in the music video for "Private Eye", before Derek Grant became their new permanent drummer.
On a Wire is the third studio album by American rock band the Get Up Kids on Vagrant Records. Released three years after their breakout sophomore album Something to Write Home About, On a Wire was a massive departure from the band's established sound, eschewing the brighter pop-punk that helped define emo as a genre in favor of a darker, more adult sound inspired by 70's rock bands like Led Zeppelin.
Hey Mercedes was an alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, United States, formed after the dissolution of Braid by its former members Bob Nanna, Todd Bell, and Damon Atkinson.
Stay What You Are is the third studio album from American rock band Saves the Day, released in 2001. The album received positive reviews from critics at the time of its release and remains an influential album in the emo and pop punk genres. It has been described as "channel[ling] the thrill of pop punk, the intellect of indie rock, and the raw emotion of emo all at once." Lead single "At Your Funeral" charted in the United Kingdom and Scotland.
A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar is the third studio album by American rock band Dashboard Confessional.
Immortal Records was an American independent record label/imprint label based in Los Angeles, California. The company helped launch the careers of such influential acts as Korn, Thirty Seconds To Mars, and Incubus over the years. The label had also released soundtracks, including Judgment Night, Spawn, Blade II and Masters of Horror. It was distributed by various labels, including Epic, Virgin and RED Distribution.
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most is the second studio album by American rock band Dashboard Confessional, released on March 20, 2001, through Vagrant Records.
Dusk and Summer is the fourth studio album by American rock band Dashboard Confessional.
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! is the debut studio album by American indie pop band Hellogoodbye. Produced by Matt Mahaffey, Jeff Turzo, and Forrest Kline, the album was released on August 8, 2006 in the United States by Drive-Thru Records. The album's lead single, "Here ", reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum in the United States.
Fiddler Records was a small independent record label serving as the launch pad for several artists seminal to the pop, punk and emo genres. Starting as the brainchild of 16-year-old entrepreneur Amy Fleisher Madden in 1996, the label became well known for its early releases from marquee artists Dashboard Confessional and New Found Glory. Over the course of 10 years, Fiddler Records developed a steady roster of successful artists such as The Bled, The Higher, Recover, Juliette & The Licks, Name Taken and Classic Case.
Maureen Egan is a writer/director who has directed several music videos, including the MTV2 Award-winning "Screaming Infidelities" for Dashboard Confessional. Her parents were actors Richard Egan and Patricia Hardy. Her brother is Richard Egan Jr., who founded the record label Vagrant Records, which has signed many of the artist for which she directs music videos.
The Shade of Poison Trees is the fifth studio album recorded by the band Dashboard Confessional.
Emo pop is a fusion genre combining emo with pop-punk, pop music, or both. Emo pop features a musical style with more concise composition and hook-filled choruses. Emo pop has its origins in the 1990s with bands like Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids, Weezer and the Promise Ring. The genre entered the mainstream in the early 2000s with Jimmy Eat World's breakthrough album Bleed American, which included its song "The Middle". Other emo pop bands that achieved mainstream success throughout the decade included Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore. The popularity of emo pop declined in the 2010s, with some prominent artists in the genre either disbanding or abandoning the emo pop style.
Alter the Ending is the sixth studio album recorded by American rock band Dashboard Confessional, released through Vagrant, DGC and Interscope Records on November 10, 2009. The album was released in both a one disc standard version and a two disc deluxe edition which contains a second disc of acoustic versions of the 12 songs on the album. The album's first single is "Belle of the Boulevard".
...Is a Real Boy is the second studio album by American rock band Say Anything, released on August 3, 2004.
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