london's dirty water records ‘spin’ off sister label in usa
TRANSCRIPT
Sep 26, 2017 06:06 BST
London's Dirty Water Records ‘Spin’ OffSister Label in USA
If you are a journalist, DJ, radio station and would like full promo list accessto Dirty Water Records USA please email: [email protected]
London record label Dirty Water Records has agreed licensing terms with thenew, independent, US label Dirty Water Records USA. This will make the UKlabel’s catalogue more readily available stateside, enable Dirty Water RecordsUSA to release and promote its own product under the Dirty Water Recordsbrand, and create a transatlantic partnership to work together to continueenabling the music we all love and to give all our fans the least expensiveoption to harass their neighbours with their loud rock’n’roll records
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The London-based record label has been growing rapidly over the past fewyears, its irreverent, raucous brand of garage rock picking up new fans witheach new release. Founded in 2004 by club DJ and club promoter PJCrittenden (who ran the now infamous Dirty Water Club, the label started offdoing small run releases for friends’ bands and quickly developed into a full-on record label, riding the wave of the near legendary North London clubnight that is notorious for its many gigs that have gone down in history,celebrity regulars, and wild DJ stomp parties that continue to rage on aftermore than 20 years.
The club and label’s name is a tribute to The Standells' 1966 hit “Dirty Water”which glorifies the US city of Boston, Massachusetts. Coincidentally, not onlywas the original, long-term home of the Dirty Water Club a North London pubnamed “The Boston Arms”, but US ex-pat Paul Manchester (aka Boston Paul)– first a fan, then a friend, then a partner - engineered the label’s first bigrelease: the reissue of the Boston group Lyres’ 1979 classic single, “Don’t GiveIt Up Now” c/w “How Do You Know”. Spanish dynamo Diego Dominguez wasthe third initial partner in the label and the fourth partner, Bostonian ex-patMatt Hunter, first met Boston Paul at the Boston Arms before a Dirty WaterClub gig by Boston’s legendary Lyres.
Since then, the label has released a world class selection of acts includingAmerican chart-botherers Muck and the Mires, from Boston, LA’s Mr. AirplaneMan & The Morlocks, San Diego’s The Loons, Detroit's The Hentchmen,Cleveland's Archie and the Bunkers, NYC’s Dirty Fences, Keokuk’s GONN (aparticular honour and pleasure to release) as well as MagicChristian (featuring the talents of Blondie’s Clem Burke and Cyril Jordan fromthe Flamin’ Groovies)...
…plus Japan’s The Routes & The Fadeaways, Argentina’s Los Peyotes,France’s Les Grys-Grys,The Dustaphonics, & The Arrogants, Denmark’s TheYouth, David Peter and the Wilde Sect and POWERSOLO, Sweden’s TheBranded, Thee Gravemen Holland’s De Keefmen, Portugal’s d3o, Spain’s LosChicos Hollywood Sinners, & Los Bengala, Ireland’s The Revellions & TheUrges, Austria’s Wild Evel and the Trashbones (soon), New Zealand’s TheCavemen, Australia’s The Kits, UK's MFC Chicken,King Salami and theCumberland 3,The Vicars, The Masonics,The Priscillas, The Vipers,TheDespondents, Johnny Throttle, Oh! Gunquit,Atomic Suplex and SuicideGeneration and The Dirty
Last Summer whilst on sabbatical in Phoenix Arizona, the label’s publicityand A&R supremo Matt Hunter serendipitously ran into local (andinternational) rock chanteuse, (and former label owner of Atomic A Go GoRecords) Nicole Laurenne (of the Love Me Nots, Zero Zero and Motobunny)who was just starting her jaw-dropping new all-girl project The Darts (US).Hunter was already intent on signing them after randomly discovering theband on a Facebook post before they had even played their first show.
The two eventually met up one evening in the cosy basement confines ofPhoenix’s Valley Bar, where the two instantly started plotting worlddomination over drinks with just an eyeliner pen and upside down beer matsto map out a strategy. The simple plan entailed removing the store sign off ofAtomic A Go Go Records and replacing it with Dirty Water Records USA, withNicole assuming the role of proprietor.
“I always envisioned the label having some kind of US based operation; I justnever imagined it would be located in the middle of a desert”, says Hunter.“After that first meeting with Nicole, who was already a big fan of DirtyWater, I knew this just had to happen by any means necessary - and signingThe Darts was the ultimate cherry on top of this whole amazing endeavourtaking shape.”
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”"I'd been trying to get the attention of Dirty Water for years with The LoveMe Nots but they never seemed to take notice,” Says Nicole. “When Mattwrote to me out of the blue that he was interested in The Darts and my littleDIY label, I almost fell off my chair. After five minutes together we knew wehad a lot in common in musical tastes, mutual friends, business ideas andmore. We were both so psyched, we couldn't get this off the ground fastenough.”
After several weeks of long distance discussions and forward planning,Hunter flew back to London with two Phoenix bands on the roster,The Dartsand Playboy Manbaby, which sent loud signals from the Big Smoke thatsomething interesting was brewing in the ‘Valley of the Sun’.
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Fast forward almost eight months later, and a licensing deal has now beenstruck between Dirty Water Records Ltd and Nicole Laurenne to effectivelyspin off a separate label to her, with full creative and financial control thatwill in turn carry the Dirty Water Records label brand name that will helppromote and distribute the current London roster, whilst creating a wholenew label with a diverse flavour of sounds, including perhaps some nottypically heard from the label before.
"The idea is to create a select roster of artists who we fully believe in enoughto launch and support in a variety of different ways worldwide, while alsooffering existing Dirty Water records and other products that we absolutelylove, from a lot different worldwide sources, to US customers so everythingcan be bundled and shipped domestically”, says Laurenne. “The tastemakersinvolved with DWR USA have kind of eclectic taste - but with a commontheme of loving music that tears your face off in its awesomeness and powerand leaves you on the floor. That's our goal."
PJ Crittenden says: “The club night and label started off as a small time DIYeffort with, at the beginning, myself doing everything. Once Paul and ourSpanish dynamo Diego came on board, with their extra skills, knowledge andexperience, we were able to take things further than I’d originally imagined.With Matt’s input we’ve grown even further. So this is the next logical movefor us. From a very young age I was completely into American music –rock’n’roll, blues, soul, proper old rhythm’n’blues, sixties garage, psych, andso on, the kind of music that I see as the real deal. In that context, a USbranch of Dirty Water in my eyes is exactly what we should be doing. Givingsome rock’n’roll back to the place where it started!”
"These are exciting times for us!" says Paul Manchester. "Dirty Water hasalready grown beyond what any of us were initially expecting, and DirtyWater Records USA is a quantum leap for us. But this isn't just aboutgeography - we have distribution and a large fanbase in the US - it's alsoabout the great skills, flair, and drive that Nicole and her team bring to thetable. It's a perfect fit, and the future looks Dirty."
The new label already have five new artists and forthcoming releases poisedto build up its roster and will also offer a full service agency for booking,promotion, publishing and artist representation - in addition to delivering thehighest quality in new music on a variety of formats; vinyl, cassettes, digital,and CD's with Worldwide distribution from Cargo UK.
Coming Soon From Dirty Water Records USA
Mean Motor Scooter
Fuzzed up, farfed out, Fort Worth quartet of psych-garage goodness firmlyrooted in the Texas traditions of The Butthole Surfers, The Dicks, and RokyErickson with tab of Scratch Acid.
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Escobar
Two-headed touring pirate beast from Limoges, France that spar in thevicious dens of Suicide and Nirvana with a bloodying, stinging assault on thesenses from their ‘biggest’ sounds.
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Baronen & Satan
“Garagedeath” quartet from Gothenburg, Sweden that exercises the demonsof The Cramps and Siouxsie and the Banshees into a whirling dervish of dark,spirited tones and ferocious guitars.
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Bee Bee Sea
This irresistible trio from Castel Goffredo, Italy shoots addictive pop-fuelled,garage-spiced rave-ups, like a Sonic Boomerang flung out into space andreturning to spear the listener through the heart.
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The Callas
Hailing from Greece, built around brothers Lakis and Aris Ionas, The Callasoffer Krautrock grooves and hypnotic, scuzzed-up guitar lines, featuring theundeniable six-string genius of Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). This artistic, luxerecord will find favor with fans of The Velvet Underground, The Horrors, andNeu!.
“The shameless American little sister of Dirty Water Records London - and yourturntable's hot new girlfriend”.
Dirty Water Records USA
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For all submissions, requests, customer service, or just to annoy us, email usat [email protected].
Media Enquiries: Matt Hunter +1-480-253-6471
The Dirty Water Club started in October 1996 in the Tufnell Parkneighbourhood of north London, at a venue called The Boston. The club'sname is derived from The Standells' 1966 hit 'Dirty Water' which glorifies theUS city of Boston, Massachusetts.
Past performers have included The White Stripes (voted by Q Magazine as oneof the top 10 gigs of all time, Mojo one of the top 30 and Kerrang one of thetop 100!), The Gories, Country Teasers, Black Lips, NOBUNNY, Kid CongoPowers, The Fleshtones, Billy Childish, Radio Birdman, The Dirtbombs, TheeMichelle Gun Elephant, The 5.6.7.8's, The Horrors and The Brian JonestownMassacre to name just a few. The club has also seen some original '60sperformers, such as The Monks, ? and the Mysterians, Kim Fowley, Sky Saxon,GONN, Michael Davis of the MC5 and more grace its stage.
Their in-house record label, Dirty Water Records, is one of the leadinggarage/beat/(real) R&B labels in the world.
