Indie Dispatches: Fat Possum Records is trying their best & succeeding; a look at the transformative label
Seattle's Youth Lagoon is among Fat Possums recent roster additions
There is no disguising that one of the most startling transformations in the indie label world over the last few years has been Fat Possum Records. Once a rather nondescript record label, based in Oxford, Mississippi, it started out releasing a selection of blues artists from their home region in the northern area of the southern state. The closest it came to the alterna-indierock axis at the time was with RL Burnside, through his connection with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. But in the last year or two, Fat Possum suddenly has become the ultimate in hipster-havens, with a virtual lock on Pitchfork and their best new music ratings. The roster of the indie now looks like a who’s who of the blog world, from Tennis, Yuck and the Smith Westerns, to Crocodiles and who could forget WAVVES, and for the most part Fat Possum have had more than respectable sales to back their status as a tastemaker. The roster keeps expanding too, with additions such as Band of Horses, whose latest album they released in conjunction with Columbia Records, the Odd Future affiliated Mellowhype, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and the label scored a coup this year by signing critically acclaimed UK band Spiritualized, with the Jason Pierce-led band’s first release for the label due in 2012. It seems like one crucial linkage between the old and the new, could have been their signing of The Black Keys early in the band’s career, providing a bridge between somewhat bluesier sounds and the modern rock world. Fat Possum has also stayed true to some of their traditional singer-songwriter/americana roots with The Felice Brothers and A.A. Bondy, and indeed has not abandoned the releases by a set of their more traditional, older, blue artists. But it seems where they truly excel now is with their skill in finding new artists, Youth Lagoon being the latest example, and tapping into the indie zeitgeist. Whatever the triggering factor (or individual) for the changes, all power to the label and its founder Matthew Johnson, for forging in a new direction, and kudos to them too for still retaining a home base in Mississippi. In some ways Fat Possum could be seen as emulating the fledging Atlantic Records label in the 60’s – spanning the old and the new, the traditional and the progressive, becoming the ‘go to’ place when it came to great new music. And while it may be a while before the indie can truly be mentioned in the same breath as the jewel created by Ahmet Ertegun, there is no argument that Fat Possum are making a good start.
- Cool Hand Luke
08.23.10File Under: Stuff We Like
Luke Rathborne @ The Echo - Thurs 8/26
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Wednesday Bits & Pieces: WMG + MTV, eMusic Working on Cloud Service, Pitchfork’s New Blog Collective & More…
Warner Music Group brings in MTV Networks for ad-sales
Warner Music Group announced today its new partnership with MTV Networks, in which MTV will sell ads against the music group’s video content. The arrangement replaces a previous partnership between Warner and Outrigger, a smaller sales company. The most interesting part of the new deal is that MTV parent Viacom is still in court with Google, yet YouTube (owned by Google) is likely to account for a majority of the ads-sales by MTV. Make sense?… First week sales of Eminem’s Recovery came in at 741,000, making it the biggest release yet for 2010 and the biggest first week since 2008’s AC/DC album Black Ice… Pitchfork has announced it’s launching a sister site dubbed Altered Zones that will act as a blog collective of sorts with 14 different music blogs supplying content… The NY Times technology blog, Bits, has an article on cloud music companies to watch (spoiler, Apple and Google aren’t in there), but a surprise inclusion is eMusic. The piece reveals that the once indie-only subscription service that added both Sony and Warner Music catalogs to its service in the last 12 months, will soon also add Universal Music and is working on a cloud music service that could be introduced early next year… Expect a sold-out crowd at L.A.’s The Echo tomorrow night for the double-down and uber-indie bill featuring Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles. That latter recently recorded their new album with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & the Machine, Klaxons) at the famed QOTSA studio Rancho De La Luna (check out “Sleep Forever” from the new album at Stereogum), while Dum Dum Girls, who recently released their debut full-length on Sub Pop, will head out on a North American tour with Vampire Weekend in August followed by a string of MGMT dates in Europe…
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