LONDON and PHOENIX, September 26,
2017 /PRNewswire/ --
London record label Dirty Water
Records has agreed licensing terms with the new, independent, US
label Dirty Water Records USA. This will make the UK label's
catalogue more readily available stateside, enable Dirty Water
Records USA to release and promote its own product under the Dirty
Water Records brand, and create a transatlantic partnership to work
together to continue enabling the music we all love and to give all
our fans the least expensive option to harass their neighbours
with their loud rock'n'roll records.
(Photo:
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(Photo:
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The London-based record label
has been growing rapidly over the past few years, its irreverent,
raucous brand of garage rock picking up new fans with each new
release. Founded in 2004 by club DJ and club promoter PJ
Crittenden (who ran the now infamous Dirty Water Club, the
label started off doing small run releases for friends' bands and
quickly developed into a full-on record label, riding the wave of
the near legendary North London
club night 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 after more 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
only was the original, long-term home of the Dirty Water Club a
North London pub named "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 big release:
the reissue of the Boston group
Lyres' 1979 classic single, "Don't Give It Up Now" c/w "How Do You
Know". Spanish dynamo Diego
Dominguez was the third initial partner in the label and
the fourth partner, Bostonian ex-pat Matt Hunter, first met Boston Paul at the
Boston Arms before a Dirty Water Club gig by Boston's legendary Lyres.
Since then, the label has released a world class selection of
acts including American chart-botherers Muck and the Mires,
from Boston, LA's Mr. Airplane
Man & The Morlocks, San
Diego's The Loons, Detroit's The Hentchmen,
Cleveland's Archie and the
Bunkers, NYC's Dirty Fences, Keokuk's GONN (a
particular honour and pleasure to release) as well as Magic
Christian (featuring the talents of Blondie's Clem Burke and Cyril Jordan from the Flamin' Groovies) plus
Japan's The Routes &
The Fadeaways, Argentina's
Los Peyotes ,France's
Les Grys-Grys, The Dustaphonics, & The
Arrogants , Denmark's The
Youth, David Peter and the Wilde Sect and
POWERSOLO, Sweden's
The Branded, Thee Gravemen Holland's De Keefmen, Portugal's d3o, Spain's Los Chicos, Hollywood
Sinners, & Los Bengala, Ireland's The Revellions &
The Urges, Austria's
Wild Evel and the Trashbones (soon), New Zealand's The Cavemen,
Australia's The Kits, UK's
MFC Chicken, King Salami and the Cumberland 3, The
Vicars, The Masonics, The
Priscillas, The Vipers, The
Despondents, Johnny Throttle, Oh!
Gunquit, Atomic Suplex and Suicide
Generation and The Dirty
Last Summer whilst on sabbatical in Phoenix Arizona, the label's publicity and
A&R supremo Matt Hunter
serendipitously ran into local (and international) rock chanteuse,
(and former label owner of Atomic A Go Go Records) 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 the band on a Facebook post before they had even played
their first show.
The two eventually met up one evening in the cosy basement
confines of Phoenix's Valley Bar,
where the two instantly started plotting world domination over
drinks with just an eyeliner pen and upside down beer mats to map
out a strategy. The simple plan entailed removing the store sign
off of Atomic A Go Go Records and replacing it with Dirty
Water Records USA, with Nicole assuming the role of
proprietor.
"I always envisioned the label having some kind of US based
operation; I just never 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 Dirty Water, I knew this just had to
happen by any means necessary - and signing The Darts was the
ultimate cherry on top of this whole amazing endeavour taking
shape."
""I'd been trying to get the attention of Dirty Water for years
with The Love Me Nots but they never seemed to take notice," Says
Nicole. "When Matt wrote to me out of the blue that he was
interested in The Darts and my little DIY label, I almost fell off
my chair. After five minutes together we knew we had a lot in
common in musical tastes, mutual friends, business ideas and more.
We were both so psyched, we couldn't get this off the ground fast
enough."
After several weeks of long distance discussions and forward
planning, Hunter flew back to London with two Phoenix bands on the roster, The
Darts and Playboy Manbaby, which sent loud
signals from the Big Smoke that something interesting was brewing
in the 'Valley of the Sun'.
Fast forward almost eight months later, and a licensing deal has
now been struck between Dirty Water Records Ltd and Nicole Laurenne
to effectively spin off a separate label to her, with full creative
and financial control that will in turn carry the Dirty Water
Records label brand name that will help promote and distribute the
current London roster, whilst
creating a whole new label with a diverse flavour of sounds,
including perhaps some not typically heard from the label
before.
"The idea is to create a select roster of artists who we fully
believe in enough to launch and support in a variety of different
ways worldwide, while also offering existing Dirty Water records
and other products that we absolutely love, from a lot different
worldwide sources, to US customers so everything can be bundled and
shipped domestically", says Laurenne. "The tastemakers involved
with DWR USA have kind of eclectic
taste - but with a common theme of loving music that tears your
face off in its awesomeness and power and leaves you on the floor.
That's our goal."
PJ Crittenden says: "The club night and label started off as a
small time DIY effort with, at the beginning, myself doing
everything. Once Paul and our Spanish dynamo Diego came on board,
with their extra skills, knowledge and experience, 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 move for 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, and so on, the kind of music that I see as the real
deal. In that context, a US branch of Dirty Water in my eyes is
exactly what we should be doing. Giving some rock'n'roll back to
the place where it started!"
"These are exciting times for us!" says Paul Manchester. "Dirty Water has already
grown beyond what any of us were initially expecting, and Dirty
Water Records USA is a quantum
leap for us. But this isn't just about geography - we have
distribution and a large fanbase in the US - it's also about the
great skills, flair, and drive that Nicole and her team bring to
the table. It's a perfect fit, and the future looks
Dirty."
The new label already have five new artists and forthcoming
releases poised to build up its roster and will also offer a full
service agency for booking, promotion, publishing and artist
representation - in addition to delivering the highest 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 firmly rooted in the
Texas traditions of The Butthole
Surfers, The Dicks, and Roky Erickson with tab of Scratch Acid.
Escobar
Two-headed touring pirate beast from Limoges, France that spar in the vicious dens of
Suicide and Nirvana with a bloodying, stinging assault on the
senses from their 'biggest' sounds.
Baronen & Satan
"Garagedeath" quartet from Gothenburg,
Sweden that exercises the demons of The Cramps and Siouxsie
and the Banshees into a whirling dervish of dark, spirited tones
and ferocious guitars.
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 and returning to spear the listener
through the heart.
The Callas
Hailing from Greece, built
around brothers Lakis and Aris
Ionas, The Callas offer Krautrock grooves and hypnotic,
scuzzed-up guitar lines, featuring the undeniable six-string genius
of Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). This
artistic, luxe record will find favor with fans of The Velvet
Underground, The Horrors, and Neu!.
Dirty Water Records USA
Bandcamp
Web Store
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
"The shameless American little sister
of Dirty Water Records London - and your turntable's
hot new girlfriend".
The Dirty Water Club started in October 1996 in the Tufnell Park neighbourhood of
north London, at a venue called
The Boston. The club's name is
derived from The Standells' 1966 hit 'Dirty Water' which glorifies
the US city of Boston,
Massachusetts.
Past performers have included The White Stripes (voted by Q
Magazine as one of the top 10 gigs of all time, Mojo one of the
top 30 and Kerrang one of the top 100!), The Gories, Country
Teasers, Black Lips, NOBUNNY, Kid Congo Powers, The Fleshtones,
Billy Childish, Radio Birdman, The Dirtbombs, Thee Michelle Gun
Elephant, The 5.6.7.8's, The Horrors and The Brian Jonestown
Massacre to name just a few. The club has also seen some original
'60s performers, 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
leading garage/beat/(real) R&B labels in the world.
For all submissions, requests, customer service, or just to
annoy us, email us at dirtywaterrecordsusa@gmail.com.
Media Enquiries: Matt Hunter,
+1-480-253-6471
matt@dirtywaterrecords.co.uk