Favorite indie labels?
 

Name a few of yours

I'm going to go with

4AD (Pixies, Cocteau Twins)
SST (Black Flag, Minutemen, Sonic Youth)
Sub Pop (Postal Service, Mudhoney)

Creation is definitely one of my favourites. They put out so many great albums from bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Adorable and loads more. It's a shame that they're not still around today.

Yes, 4AD is definitely up there. Their roster throughout the years is insane. So many great bands like Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Pixies, Ultra Vivid Scene, Throwing Muses, Lush, His Name Is Alive, Pale Saints, The Breeders etc. Even today they have artists like Camera Obscura, Bon Iver, Blonde Redhead and St Vincent.

Also an honourable mention to Sarah Records which, despite being a very niche label, embodied everything that's great about independent music. Originally they just put out flexidiscs and fanzines (how indie is that!) they went on to inspire practically the entire twee pop movement with bands like The Field Mice, Another Sunny Day, Heavenly, Secret Shine and Blueboy. They folded in 1995.

Creation! Excellent choice, I can't believe I forgot them.

Factory records and Postcard records too - Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, A Certain Ratio. Good stuff.

I was going to mention Factory as well because of bands like Joy Division, Happy Mondays, New Order and The Wake. Definitely one of the most influential indie labels. I also admire the freedom that they gave their artists.

Dischord. Their DIY ethic was admirable.

Sub Pop may be the greatest record label of all time, period. So of course they're my favorite indie label.

On the flip side, I'm not a Matador fan. There's a couple of good artists but overall they're pretty meh.

Matador get props for Yo La Tengo, Bardo Pond and Guided by Voices. But there's not too many other bands signed to them that I really enjoy.

On the more experimental side of things, Kranky are a great label for ambient, drone, post-rock and general left-field music. They've put out some great stuff from artists like Grouper, Tim Hecker, Bowery Electric, Jessamine, Stars of the Lid, Windy & Carl, Jessica Bailiff etc.

Wasn't Low on Kranky for a while as well? I'm not well versed in a lot of experimental stuff, I should rectify that.

Mute records! Wire, Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb (who I love), Erasure...I think they were able to get some of Throbbing Gristle's back catalogue as well as a couple of Birthday Party releases too.

4ad definitely, Matador as well but mainly because of GBV and interpol.

i recently discovered the Lil chief records channel on youtube which has a couple of good artist like Princess chelsea and The eversons, but from what ive seen so far, most of the songs ive heard have a comedic gimmick so idk how serious they are about the music.

As for classic ones Flying Nun who brought out all of the great New Zealand indie records in the eighties and nineties.
As for modern ones I really love Captured Tracks who house DIIV, Mac DeMarco, The Soft Moon, etc. They've also released some killer reissues from bands like Medicine and The Wake who I saw mentioned above!

How would you guys rank Sub Pop amongst the legendary indie labels (4AD, Matador, Factory, SST, Dischord, etc.)?

Would you say it's one of the best? Good, but not on the level of the other ones? Terrible and overrated?

I still stand by my statement that Sub Pop is the all time greatest record label period.

What are you basing that on? Quality of artists? The way they did business? Genuine question, not trying to be rude.

Idk enough of it to make that judgement, all i know is they were big during that whole seattle grunge movement.

Mainly quality of artists. I mean, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Tad, Sunny Day Real Estate, Codeine, Sebadoh, The Shins, The Thermals, Love Battery, The Afghan Wigs, Green River, etc.

They were also massively influential on Alternative music due to the early Grunge bands being signed to the label.

But they weren't just Grunge. Even today, they're putting out some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful independent music of today.

Okay, that helps. I'd say they rank pretty highly - definitely higher than Matador and (in my opinion) Dischord.

Oh right, now that you mentioned it i remembered the shins and the thermals are on Sub pop.

I'd say Subpop, Erasedtapes and Anti-Records.
Erasedtapes: Nils Fahm, Ólafur Arnalds and World's end girlfriend
Anti-Records: Sage Francis, The Black Keys, The Melodic, The Milk Carton Kids and Yann Tiersen.

I forgot Pavement is also on matador, they got great bands in that label.

Except for some local punk labels (1-2-3-4 Go! and Thrillhouse, much love) and Rough Trade everyone's already named my favorites.

Has anyone mentioned Rough Trade yet? Not only because of The Smiths, but because of the way they did business as a co-op.

Bahhhh!

Dischord ranks near the top for Jawbox alone....not to mention Lungfish, Faraquet, Fugazi, and Dag Nasty :)

No love for Amphetamine Reptile? Or Touch and Go?

Definitely Rough Trade. Creation Records was amazing, too!

rough trade
one little indian