wax&wires

Elektra Records To Be Fueled By Ramen

Way back in high school, I was all about random little punk bands here and there. Good punk albums were synonymous with compilations that you could pick up at the local record store for a couple bucks each, and I had more than my fair share. One of my favorite comps was called “Mail Order is Fun” (which seriously sells for $0.01 used on Amazon now… ha) put out by Asian Man Records and Fueled By Ramen. It featured artists like the Impossibles, Link 80, Let’s Go Bowling, Alkaline Trio, Less Than Jake, The Hippos… you get the idea. I never expected ska or punk to dominate the airwaves or become a mainstream moneymaker, but I had fun with it, and that’s all I was in it for anyway.

After falling out of the genre for a while, I was shocked to see FBR bathing in cash after Fall Out Boy’s success earlier this decade. They had released Jimmy Eat World’s self-titled EP back in 1998, but hadn’t really established a legacy of success up to that point. Since then, they’ve had more than a few successful artists: Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World, Fall out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship, Paramore, etc. many of whom were on the Decaydence imprint started by Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy) and FBR founder John Janick in 2004, which is also the year that Elektra Records went dormant.

Now owned by Atlantic (WMG), Elektra will be revived by Janick and Atlantic Executive VP of A&R, Mike Caren (who is creditted with launching the careers of T.I., Flo Rida, Twista, Juvenile, Asher Roth, and other hip hop artists). Janick, who championed intimate artist and fan relations at FBR, should be able to bring a bit of high touch to a label notoriously terrible at artist relations, even coining the moniker “neglectra” by its own artists in the late 80s.

The new label has made some key signings, including French duo Justice, Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green, and UK Dance artist Little Boots (PS, check out this vid of Little Boots).

We are planning on building an eclectic brand. We’re looking for artists with potential. We’re not an incubator label, we’re going to develop artists and get them to the next level.

- John Janick

It’s great to see the rise of Janick. As indie labels falter all around, he has continued to rise. From starting his own label in a dorm room back in 1996, Janick will now be heading one of the more storied labels in music, with a legacy 6-decades long. From what I’ve read, Janick also plans to still head up FBR.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 12:12 pm. It is filed under wax and tagged with indie, majors, record labels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.