Bong Load Custom Records is an independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 which was founded by producers Tom Rothrock

Tom Rothrock

Tom Rothrock is an international record producer, composer and musician. Tom Rothrock has produced albums with James Blunt, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Yonder Mountain String Band, Athlete, Sloan and Roman Carter....

, Rob Schnapf

Rob Schnapf

Rob Schnapf is an American record producer and musician. He was the co-producer of Elliott Smith's albums Either/Or, XO , Figure 8 and From a Basement on the Hill, for which he was recruited by Smith's family to complete after Smith's death.Schnapf, along with Rothrock and partner...

 and partner Bradshaw Lambert. One of their biggest signings was Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 in 1991. Other notable bands from the original Bong Load Custom Records include Fu Manchu

Fu Manchu (band)

Fu Manchu is a Southern Californian stoner rock band, who released their debut single "Kept Between Trees" in 1990. They have been featured on compilations put together by Tony Hawk and ESPN's X Games, and invited to perform on the US television program Monster Garage...

, Wool

Wool (band)

Wool were a rock band from Washington, D.C. , specialising in a rough-hewn but melodic brand of punk-based hard rock from 1990-1996.-History:...

, Kyuss

Kyuss

Kyuss is a rock band, originally from Palm Desert, California. After forming in the late 1980s and releasing an EP under the name Sons of Kyuss in 1990, the band shortened its name to Kyuss. Over the next five years the band released four full-length albums, and one last split EP in 1997 with...

, Dog Society, The Obsessed

The Obsessed

The Obsessed is a doom metal band from Maryland led by Scott "Wino" Weinrich, who also fronted Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls, The Hidden Hand and W.I.N.O.. Formed in 1976, they first split up in 1986 when Wino Saint Vitus, but reformed four years later...

, Fatso Jetson

Fatso Jetson

Fatso Jetson is an American desert rock band from the Palm Desert, California area, formed in 1994 by ex-Yawning Man members Mario and Larry Lalli, along with Tony Tornay. The Lalli cousins are often credited as the fathers of the desert strain of stoner rock later made famous by bands such as...

 and Los Angeles Bands Lutefisk

Lutefisk

Lutefisk or Lutfisk is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries and parts of the Midwest United States. It is made from aged stockfish or dried/salted whitefish and lye . It is gelatinous in texture, and has an extremely strong, pungent odor...

 and Project K. In 2007, Rothrock relaunched the label with a series of his own solo recordings of instrumental releases.

In 1998, Beck released the album Mutations on the Geffen

Geffen Records

Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

label, which led to a series of lawsuits between Beck, Bong Load and Geffen which were settled in 1999.

Much of the Bong Load Record catalog was released in small quantities. Several bands have very rare releases that are much sought after and command high prices at auctions.