Beggars Banquet
For the last two and a half decades, Beggars Banquet has been one of the U.K.'s preeminent cutting-edge rock labels. Founded in 1974 by Martin Mills and his partner Nick Austin as a record store in London's Earls Court, Beggars Banquet became a bona fide label in 1977 when it released a seven-inch single by the U.K. punk outfit The Lurkers. Over the next few years the label quickly cemented its reputation as a haven for creators of dark, difficult, avant-garde rock music with releases from Tubeway Army, Bauhaus, The Fall, and more. Over the years, various Beggars Banquet projects have evolved into new labels, including 4AD, XL Recordings, and most recently, their in-house imprint, Mantra. Today Beggars Banquet remains one of the most successful and most uncompromising indie labels in the business.
Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro is a powerhouse Scottish trio whose bruising melodic rock bears the influence of grunge's pathos and emo's sincerity.
Blackened Sky
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2002
Billy Mahonie
Lovely, complex, and mathy instrumental music from London. By turns fierce and fragile, raw and refined, awesome and airy.
The Big Dig
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1999
Bowery Electric
Bowery Electric bleeds hip hop beats and luscious downtempo sensibilities through a noise pop filter, creating dreamy, hypnotic, hallucinatory music that will make you feel like you're swimming through cold molasses under heavy sedation.
Lushlife
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2000
Buffalo Tom
Over the course of their decade-plus career, Boston's Buffalo Tom has gone from college radio favorite to mature power pop trio without ever selling out or losing their edge. Few rock acts can rival their emotional honesty of dense songwriting ability.
A-Sides From 1988-1999
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2000
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
We can't speak highly enough about this veteran Welsh band's unique take on pop music. Mixing up melancholy and whimsy, nonsense and euphoria, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci creates soaring, folk-influenced tunes that you can just float away on.
Spanish Dance Troupe
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1999
The Blue Trees
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2001
Groop Dogdrill
Groop Dogdrill sounds exactly what you might expect of a group formed through an advertisement in Guns & Ammo magazine: loud, abrasive, testosterone-fueled, beer & sex rawk. As singer Pete Spilby puts it, Groop Dogdrill's sound is "pretty much like sex, but it lasts more than two minutes."
Every Six Seconds
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2000
Gus Gus
Gus Gus -- the Icelandic collective of enigmatic producers, filmmakers, and actors -- carved out its name in ice with the song "Polyesterday." Polydistortion and cool beats meet dreamy vocals in a hybrid sound that Bjork pioneered and Gus Gus nailed.
Polyesterday EP
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1996
Gus Gus Vs. T-World
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2000
New Wet Kojak
Swaggering through a cognac-soaked red velvet lounge as the saxophone talks and the smoke rings rise, Scott McCloud and Johnny Temple from Girls Against Boys get even sexier than usual with this slick, prowling beast of a band.
New Wet Kojak
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1995
Do Things
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2000
No. 4 EP
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2001
S.O.L.O.
Advanced sound, jazzy downtempo drum and bass beats, and organic electronics come together in the latest project from Michael Wells. The perfect soundtrack for orbiting a distant planet, tuning in ancient radio broadcasts from planet Earth.
Out Is In
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1999
Swell
Swell has one of those archetypal alt-rock sounds it's hard to put a finger on. For more than a decade the San Francisco band has been refining its distinct brand of dark and moody groove-driven rock, full of distorted guitars and angular keyboard lines.
Everybody Wants to Know
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2001
