Best Label Idol Records Kirtland Records Good Records Gutterth Records TXMF Records
An interesting competition, as one seems on here just because of name recognition and the others all had productive years...
Idol Records Roster: The Crash That Took Me*, Glen Reynolds*, Black Tie Dynasty, Mitra*, PPT*, Deathray Davies, Shibboleth*, others... Idol's homepage proudly boasts the fact that its won every best label award we've handed out since 2002. And, to owner/sole proprietor Erv Karwelis' credit, that's one hell of an accomplishment. This year's been a good one, too, for Idol, with releases from TCTTM, PPT and Shibboleth each earning a fair amount of local buzz.
Kirtland Records Roster: Toadies, Smile Smile, The Vanished, Space Cadet, The Hourly Radio, others... Kirtland's obvious money maker is the Toadies (not to mention Bush's back catalog, although Gavin Rossdale's gone with another label for his new solo disc...), and seeing that the Toadies are about to drop a new disc--No Deliverance is coming out on August 19--it looks like that's going to continue to be the case. But by signing and helping out promising local upstarts like Smile Smile, at least Kirtland seems to still have its head in the right place.
Good Records Roster: The Polyphonic Spree, Tripping Daisy, Pilotdrift, Grandaddy, others... This nomination's something of a head-scratcher. Good Records Recordings hasn't done a thing this year...so maybe people just really like the record store of the same name? But with The Spree's other label, TVT, going under and Pilotdrift reportedly working on some new stuff last I heard, next year could be a big one for Good.
Gutterth Records Roster: Daniel Folmer, Sean Kirkpatrick*, New Science Projects, others... Certainly, the newest of the labels in this here competition, Gutterth is making a hell of a name for itself--and fast. Plus, the fact that this booking company-turned-record label's artists are doing well--Sean Kirkpatrick's up for a few awards himself (Best Solo Artist, Best Instrumentalist) and New Science Projects' and Daniel Folmer's each earned high marks from this very paper's local music critics--Gutterth seems to have quite the future ahead of itself.
TXMF Records Roster: Record Hop*, 100 Damned Guns*, A.M. Ramblers, Burntsienna Trio, George Neal and the Slow Burners, others... I'm sure there's a physical address for TXMF Records' home base somewhere--can't find it right now--and thought it isn't Dan's Silverleaf, it might as well be. Why? Well, 'cause that's the place you're likely to find the people behind TXMF--well, there and on various stages throughout Denton and the rest of the metroplex. It's been a good year for the constantly performing roster: Record Hop's up for a slew of awards (including Best Band, Best Album and Best Song) and 100 Damned Guns is up for Best Country/Roots Act.
So, yeah, a tough competition. Now, go have your say in it. --Pete Freedman
[* indicates a band up for a DOMA this year.]
