Jagjaguwar is an indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 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 Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....

.

History

In 1996, in Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

, friends of Darius Van Arman who performed in a band under the moniker The Curious Digit had just recorded a new album, but they were signed to no label. They had previously released a 7" record on the short-lived label Sentimental, which was co-run by Van Arman and a friend Dawson Prater (who later went on to eventually start the Locust Music

Locust Music

Locust Music is a Chicago-based independent record label founded in 2001....

 label out of Chicago). Sentimental, however, became inactive when Prater moved away from Charlottesville. Working under the theory that having some sort of label-affiliation would be better for The Curious Digit than if they self-released the album, Van Arman started Jagjaguwar.

Initially, The Curious Digit album Bombay Aloo was going to be the only album released on Jagjaguwar, but a Richmond band called Drunk performed at the venue Tokyo Rose where Van Arman booked musical acts. Mesmerized by their performance, Van Arman persuaded Drunk to release their new record, which the band had just completed, through Jagjaguwar.

In 1999, Chris Swanson, who was part owner of the record label Secretly Canadian

Secretly Canadian

Secretly Canadian is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana. It was started in 1996 by Chris and Ben Swanson, Eric Weddle, and Jonathan Cargill. Their first release was a re-issue of an album by June Panic...

, became partners with Van Arman and Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian became much more tightly connected, sharing office space and some staff. Most recently, the other two partners of Secretly Canadian, Ben Swanson and Jonathan Cargill, became equal partners of Jagjaguwar as well, although, A&R-wise, Chris Swanson and Van Arman solely decide what is released on Jagjaguwar. In February, 2007, the partners behind Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar

Jagjaguwar

Jagjaguwar is an indie rock record label based in Bloomington, Indiana.-History:In 1996, in Charlottesville, Virginia, friends of Darius Van Arman who performed in a band under the moniker The Curious Digit had just recorded a new album, but they were signed to no label...

, along with Phil Waldorf, former label manager of Misra Records

Misra Records

Misra Records is an independent record label run out of Durham, North Carolina with branch offices in Washington D.C., Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, California....

, announced a third sister label, Dead Oceans

Dead Oceans

Dead Oceans is an independent record label based jointly in Bloomington, Indiana and Austin, Texas. The label has a small, but powerful roster of well-known acts including Akron/Family, John Vanderslice, Califone, Phosphorescent, Bishop Allen, Casey Dienel's band White Hinterland, Bowerbirds, and...

. The three labels share offices and staff in Bloomington, IN.

The name Jagjaguwar was generated using a Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 character name-generating program.

Artists

• Anni Rossi
  Anni Rossi
  Anni Rossi is a singer, violist and keyboardist from Minnesota. She graduated for the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, MN. She is notable for her unique style of playing the viola and singing, often at the same time, although her solo records also incorporate elements of...
  
  
• Aspera
  Aspera (band)
  Aspera were an American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:Aspera formed in 1996 under the name Aspera ad Astra in Philadelphia, and released a 7" split with Haelah before issuing their debut full-length in 1998...
  
  
• The Besnard Lakes
  The Besnard Lakes
  The Besnard Lakes are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, two of their three albums have been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize.-History:...
  
  
• Black Mountain
  Black Mountain (band)
  Black Mountain is a Canadian rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The band is composed of Stephen McBean, Amber Webber, Matt Camirand, Jeremy Schmidt and Joshua Wells.-Overview:...
  
  
• Bon Iver
  Bon Iver
  Bon Iver is a Grammy nominated folk band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. It includes Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was...
  
  
• The Cave Singers
  The Cave Singers
  The Cave Singers is an American band from Seattle, Washington. Rising from the ashes of Pretty Girls Make Graves after its disbandment in 2007, former PGMG-member Derek Fudesco teamed up with Pete Quirk and Marty Lund and began playing in the Seattle area. Soon after the band's conception, The...
  
  
• Company
  Company (band)
  The Brooklyn-based band Company consists of three songwriters and a dynamic drummer. They perform folk- and country-based songs with punk and psychedelic rock energy to create a sound that defies ready categories....
  
  
• Robert Creeley
  Robert Creeley
  Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
  
  
• The Dead C
  The Dead C
  The Dead C are a New Zealand based noise rock trio made up of members Bruce Russell, Michael Morley and Robbie Yeats. Most often, Russell plays electric guitar, Morley sings and plays electric guitar or laptop, and Yeats plays drums....
  
  
• Dinosaur Jr.
• Julie Doiron
  Julie Doiron
  Julie Doiron is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter of Acadian heritage.-Background:Doiron started playing guitar in Eric's Trip at the age of eighteen, having joined the band at the insistence of her then-boyfriend, Rick White, also of Eric's Trip...
  
  
• Gayngs
  Gayngs
  Gayngs is a Midwest indie band with a 1980s soft rock-inspired sound. Founded by Ryan Olson, the group consists of over 25 musicians, including Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Rhymesayers rapper P.O.S, Har Mar Superstar and members of Solid Gold and The Rosebuds....
  
  
• Jad Fair
  Jad Fair
  Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist and graphic artist, most famous for being a founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.-Biography:In 1974, with his brother David, Jad Fair founded the lo-fi group Half Japanese...
  
  
• Fuck
  Fuck (band)
  Fuck is an American indie rock band, formed in Oakland, California in 1993. The band consists of Timothy Prudhomme, Geoff Soule, Kyle Statham, and Theodore Ellison. They have recorded for a number of labels including Matador Records and Homesleep Records of Italy.-History:Fuck was formed in...
  
  
• Simon Joyner
  Simon Joyner
  Simon Joyner is a singer-songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Considered by some to be the forefather of the burgeoning Omaha music scene , he has profoundly influenced the music of Bright Eyes. Joyner also collaborated with John Darnielle, of The Mountain Goats, and Beck listed Joyner...
  
  
• Ladyhawk
  Ladyhawk (band)
  Ladyhawk is a Canadian indie rock band formed on February 27, 2004 from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Their debut album, Ladyhawk was released on June 6, 2006 on Jagjaguwar Records. The lead single on the album was "Dugout", followed by "My Old Jacknife". They are signed to play at the 2008...
  
  
• Lightning Dust
  Lightning Dust
  Lightning Dust is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2007 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.-History:The band is a side project of Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, both members of Black Mountain...
  
  
• Love Life
• Whittaker
  Whittaker
  Whittaker is a surname and given name, and may refer to:As a surname* Aaron Whittaker, New Zealand rugby player* Bill Whittaker, English footballer* Bill Whittaker , New Zealand lawn bowler* Bob Whittaker U.S. Congressman...
  
  
• Manishevitz
  Manishevitz
  Manishevitz is an American indie rock band originally from Virginia and now based in Chicago. They have released material on Jagjaguwar Records and Catbird Records.-History:...
  
  
• Minus Story
  Minus Story
  Minus Story is an indie rock based in Lawrence, Kansas. The core members of the band met growing up in Boonville, Missouri and are known for their off-kilter, sunny melodies and quirky instrumentation that forms the "wall of crap" sound....
  
  
• Nad Navillus
  Nad Navillus
  Nad Navillus is the work of Chicago artist Dan Sullivan.Collaborators have included Rob Sullivan , Andy Sullivan , Suzanne Roberts , Rob Bochnik , Dylan Posa , Dudley Colley , Joss Moorkens , Bill Murphy , Jim Grabowski , Dan Sylvester , Justus Roe ,...
  
  
• Nagisa ni te
  Nagisa ni te
  is a Japanese psychedelic-folk rock duo. The group's name is translated as "on the beach". Shinji Shibayama, the group's founder — anda previous member of Idiot O'Clock and Hallelujahs — is also owner of Org Records, which has released albums from groups like Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Naoki Zushi...
  
  

• Oakley Hall
  Oakley Hall (band)
  Oakley Hall is an American folk rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.The group was founded in 2002 and is named for Oakley Hall, an American novelist. The group's songs combine elements of rock, bluegrass, and old-time music, prominently featuring the male-female vocal harmonies of lead vocalists...
  
  
• Odawas
  Odawas
  Odawas is a psychedelic/ambient rock band that formed in Bloomington, Indiana in late 2003. Their first EP, Vitamin City, was self-released in 2004. In 2005, Jagjaguwar Records released The Aether Eater, the band's first full-length album...
  
  
• Okkervil River
• Oneida
  Oneida (band)
  Oneida is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their influences include psychedelic rock, krautrock, electronic, noise rock, and minimalism, but the overall structure and intent of their music cannot be easily traced to any of these styles...
  
  
• Parts & Labor
  Parts & Labor
  Parts & Labor is an American experimental rock/noise rock band. The group was formed in 2002 by B.J. Warshaw and Dan Friel in Brooklyn, NY. Drummer Joe Wong joined the band in 2007. Parts & Labor has released five albums, two EPs, one split album , and numerous 7"s and compilation tracks...
  
  
• Patrick Phelan
  Patrick Phelan (musician)
  Patrick Phelan , is a singer-songwriter from Richmond, Virginia. In addition to being the frontman for South, he has collaborated with various members of the Virginian indie rock scene, including touring Sparklehorse member Paul Watson and Jim Thomson .-Background:Patrick Phelan started writing...
  
  
• Pink Mountaintops
  Pink Mountaintops
  Pink Mountaintops is a shoegaze psychedelic rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The band consists of many of the same musicians who participate in the Black Mountain collective.-Band members:*Stephen McBean*Amber Webber*CC Rose*Lyndsay Sung...
  
  
• Peter Wolf Crier
• Richard Youngs
  Richard Youngs
  Richard Youngs is a British musician with a prolific and diverse output, including many collaborations. Based in Glasgow since the early 1990s, his extensive back catalogue of solo and collaborative work formally begins with Advent, first issued in 1990...
  
  
• S. Carey
  S. Carey
  S. Carey is the moniker of musician Sean Carey of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Carey is best known as the drummer and supporting vocalist of indie folk band Bon Iver...
  
  
• Sharon Van Etten
  Sharon Van Etten
  Sharon Van Etten is an American singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York City.Her songs were described by the music website Pitchfork Media as having "some echoes of folk tradition but generally in a more personal, introspective space." NPR Music asserts: "Her songs are heartfelt without being...
  
  
• The Skygreen Leopards
• Small Black
  Small Black
  Small Black is an indie band from Brooklyn, New York. Their sound is commonly described as belonging to the chillwave genre, though the band's members don't label themselves as such. They have released an album under Jagjaguwar...
  
  
• South
• Spokane
• Swan Lake
  Swan Lake (band)
  Swan Lake is a Canadian indie supergroup comprising Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach, Daniel Bejar of Destroyer, Hello, Blue Roses and The New Pornographers, and Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes. Originally playing under the moniker "Thunder Cloud", the group...
  
  
• Sunset Rubdown
  Sunset Rubdown
  Sunset Rubdown is an art rock band from Montreal, Canada. The band began as a solo project for Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, who released his debut, Snake's Got a Leg, in early 2005...
  
  
• Will Sheff
  Will Sheff
  Will Sheff is the frontman for the Austin, Texas-based indie band Okkervil River . Originally from Meriden, New Hampshire, he is also a founding member and co-songwriter for Shearwater , another Austin band...
  
  
• Volcano Choir
  Volcano Choir
  Volcano Choir are an indie band and collaboration by Justin Vernon and Collections of Colonies of Bees. Their music combines Vernon's soft vocals with Collections of Colonies of Bees' post rock sound. Their debut album is Unmap and was released on September 22, 2009...
  
  
• Sarah White
  Sarah White
  Sarah White is a singer-songwriter based in Charlottesville, Virginia, whose music can be roughly characterized as folk or alt-country.She was born in Warrenton, Virginia, and relocated as a child to Monroe County, West Virginia...
  
  
• Wolf People
• Women
  Women (band)
  Women are an art rock band from Calgary, Canada. Their debut album Women was released on VanGaalen's label Flemish Eye on July 8, 2008 in Canada and on Jagjaguwar in the United States on October 7, 2008...
  
  
• Wilderness
  Wilderness (band)
  Wilderness is a Baltimore-based indie rock band currently signed to Jagjaguwar. Led by the theatrical, chant-like vocal style and lyrical presence of James Johnson, they are known to create a complex brand of post-punk that heavily recalls art-emo pioneers Lungfish and more closely Public Image...