Matador 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:...

, with a roster of 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...

 artists and bands.

History

Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989

1989 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...

 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records

Homestead Records

Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...

 manager Gerard Cosloy

Gerard Cosloy

Gerard Cosloy is an American music industry executive.-Biography:Cosloy was raised in Wayland, Massachusetts, a western suburb of Boston. While he was in high school, he became involved in the local hardcore punk scene, put together many punk shows, and started Conflict, a mimeographed fanzine of...

, and the two of them have run it together since. In 1993, the label began a partnership with Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 which lasted for a couple of years. Then in 1996, Capitol Records purchased a 49 percent stake in Matador, but Lombardi and Cosloy bought it back in 1999. It has been co-owned by the Beggars Group

Beggars Group

Beggars Group is a British record company that owns or distributes several other labels, including 4AD, Rough Trade Records, Matador Records, and XL Recordings...

 since 2002 and now operates in both New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Patrick Amory

Patrick Amory

- Early life :Patrick Amory was born in New York City on July 10, 1965 to literary parents. His father, the late Hugh Amory, was noted as the most "rigorous" and "methodologically sophisticated" historian of the book in early America...

, Matador's longtime label manager, is currently label President and a partner of Lombardi and Cosloy.

In the early 2000s, Matador had to sidestep unwanted involvement in the current Recording Industry Association of America

Recording Industry Association of America

The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

 dispute over Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

 file sharing networks. Matador's Patrick Amory

Patrick Amory

- Early life :Patrick Amory was born in New York City on July 10, 1965 to literary parents. His father, the late Hugh Amory, was noted as the most "rigorous" and "methodologically sophisticated" historian of the book in early America...

 contacted the RIAA multiple times in order to ensure that an erroneous listing on the group's website of Matador as an RIAA member was removed. After several attempts, the name of the independent 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:...

 was removed from the membership list.

Matador acquired True Panther Sounds

True Panther Sounds

True Panther Sounds is a New York City-based record label run by Dean Bein, and owned by Matador Records. Artists released by the label represent many genres and include notable bands such as Girls, Lemonade, Hunx and His Punx, and Glasser.-About:...

 as an imprint in 2009.

In October of 2010, Matador celebrated the label's 21st anniversary with a series of concerts at the The Palms Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Pavement, Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Guided By Voices, Kurt Vile, Cold Cave, Fucked Up, Liz Phair, Shearwater, Superchunk, Come, Times New Viking, Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Billy Corgan, Perfume Genius, Harlem, and Guitar Wolf were amongst the participants.

Current (active) bands

• A.C. Newman
  Carl Newman
  Allan Carl Newman is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He was a member of the indie rock bands Superconductor and Zumpano in the 1990s. Following the breakup of those bands, he reemerged as the leader of The New Pornographers in 2000....
  
  
• Belle & Sebastian
  Belle & Sebastian
  Belle and Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Belle and Sebastian are often compared with influential indie bands such as The Smiths, as well as classic acts such as Love, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The name Belle & Sebastian comes from Belle et Sébastien, a 1965...
  
  
• Brightblack Morning Light
  Brightblack Morning Light
  Brightblack Morning Light was a band which formed in Northern California by Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes, both of whom originally hail from Alabama, Shineywater from Birmingham and Hughes from just outside of Montgomery. Shineywater plays electric slide guitar, and Hughes favors vintage...
  
  
• Cat Power
  Cat Power
  Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
  
  
• Ceremony
  Ceremony (punk band)
  Ceremony is an American hardcore punk band from Rohnert Park, California.-History:Forming in the San Francisco Bay Area, the band originally formed as Violent World until later changing the name to Ceremony.In 2005, Ceremony released Ruined on Malfunction Records...
  
  
• Cold Cave
  Cold Cave
  Cold Cave is the experimental musical project of Wesley Eisold based in New York City and originating in Philadelphia and is described as "a collage of darkwave, noise, and synth pop"...
  
  
• Dead Meadow
  Dead Meadow
  Dead Meadow is an American hard rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1998. Currently comprising vocalist and guitarist Jason Simon, bassist Steve Kille and drummer Mark Laughlin, the band has released five studio albums and one live album.-Biography:...
  
  
• Esben and the Witch
  Esben and the Witch (band)
  Esben and the Witch are a three piece indie rock band from Brighton, England. After a self-released EP 33 in 2009 and a limited 7-inch single "Lucia, at the Precipice" in February 2010, the band signed with Matador Records...
  
  
• Fucked Up
  Fucked Up
  Fucked Up is a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Canada. The band won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for the album The Chemistry of Common Life.-History:The band formed and played their first shows in early 2001...
  
  
• Harlem
  Harlem (band)
  Harlem is an American garage rock band comprising vocalist/guitarist/drummer Michael Coomers, vocalist/guitarist/drummer Curtis O'Mara and bassist Jose Boyer, formerly of Chapel Hill-based The Gondoliers and The Kashmir.-History:...
  
  
• Interpol
  Interpol (band)
  Interpol is an American indie rock and post-punk revival band from New York City. Formed in 1997, the band's original line-up consisted of Paul Banks , Daniel Kessler , Carlos Dengler and Greg Drudy . Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino...
  
  
• Julian Plenti
  Paul Banks
  Paul Julian Banks is an English American musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and guitarist of the rock band Interpol. He is also a solo artist under the name Julian Plenti. As a singer, Banks' voice lies in the baritone range.-Early life:Banks was born in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
  
  
• Kurt Vile
  Kurt Vile
  Kurt Vile is a guitarist and singer born in 1980 from the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. He was signed by Matador Records as a solo artist in May 2009....
  
  
• Matmos
  Matmos
  Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...
  
  
• Mission of Burma
  Mission of Burma
  Mission of Burma is an American post-punk band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller , Clint Conley , Peter Prescott and Martin Swope...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• The New Pornographers
  The New Pornographers
  The New Pornographers is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1997 in Vancouver, British Columbia.-History:The band's first four albums each ranked in the top 40 on The Village Voices Pazz & Jop year-end poll of hundreds of music reviewers. From 2000 to 2006, either a New Pornographers' album or a...
  
  
• Perfume Genius
  Perfume Genius
  Perfume Genius is the stage name for Copenhague based solo artist Mike HadreasHis MySpace page describes his genre as 'Roots Music' and is signed to the indie record label Matador/ Turnstile.His debut album, Learning, was released on June 21, 2010....
  
  
• The Ponys
  The Ponys (band)
  The Ponys are an American indie rock/garage rock band from Chicago, Illinois.-Early days:The Ponys was formed by singer/guitarist Jered Gummere, in early 2001. Gummere was concurrently in the punk band, Guilty Pleasures, at the time of The Ponys’ formation. He eventually left to devote himself...
  
  
• Shearwater
  Shearwater (band)
  Shearwater is an American indie rock band formed in Austin, Texas in 1999 by Okkervil River members Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff, although Sheff is no longer with Shearwater.-History:...
  
  
• Sonic Youth
  Sonic Youth
  Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
  
  
• Stephen Malkmus
  Stephen Malkmus
  Stephen Joseph Malkmus is an indie rock musician and icon, and a member of the band Pavement. He currently performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.-Early years:...
  
  
• Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are an American rock band formed in 1999 in Washington, D.C. and currently recording for Matador Records. They have released six full-length studio albums and have toured internationally...
  
  
• Yo La Tengo
  Yo La Tengo
  Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
  
  

Alumni (previous bands)

• Aereogramme
  Aereogramme
  Aereogramme were a Scottish alternative/post-rock rock band from Glasgow, consisting of Craig B. , Iain Cook , Campbell McNeil and Martin Scott...
  
  
• Arab Strap
  Arab Strap (band)
  Arab Strap were an indie rock band from Scotland that consisted of core members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. The band were signed to independent record label Chemikal Underground, and split in 2006...
  
  
• Arsonists
  Arsonists (rap group)
  The Arsonists are an underground hip hop group. Their album, As the World Burns , reached #78 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and yielded the single "Pyromaniax", which went to #43 on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart.-History:...
  
  
• Babylon Dance Band
• Bailter Space
  Bailter Space
  Bailter Space is an atmospheric noise rock band that formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1987 as Nelsh Bailter Space; they had previously recorded as The Gordons. Its members are Alister Parker , John Halvorsen , Brent McLachlan...
  
  
• Barbara Manning
  Barbara Manning
  Barbara Manning is an American indie rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to her solo career, Manning has been active in a number of bands, including 28th Day , World of Pooh, S.F. Seals and The Go-Luckys!. She has also distinguished herself as an interpreter of other writers' songs...
  
  
• Bardo Pond
  Bardo Pond
  Bardo Pond are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1991, and who are currently signed to London based label Fire Records. The current members are Michael Gibbons , John Gibbons , Isobel Sollenberger , Clint Takeda , Jason Kourkonis , and Aaron Igler...
  
  
• Bassholes
• Bettie Serveert
  Bettie Serveert
  Bettie Serveert are a Dutch indie-rock band. Their name translates to "Bettie Serves", or "Service to Bettie", which is the title of a book written by Dutch tennis player Betty Stöve, who made it to the Wimbledon ladies singles final in 1977.-Genesis:...
  
  
• The Bionaut
• Boards of Canada
  Boards of Canada
  Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin...
  
  
• Bullet LaVolta
  Bullet lavolta
  Bullet LaVolta was a post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts that was originally formed in January 1987 by four college disk jockeys: Clay Tarver , Bill Whelan , Corey "Loog" Brennan and Chris "Cruster" Guttmacher . The band later added singer Yukkie Gipe after he responded to an advertisement...
  
  
• Bunnybrains
• burger/ink
• Chain Gang
• Chavez
  Chavez (band)
  Chavez is an alternative rock/math rock band from New York, formed in 1993. After a period of inactivity, the band reformed in 2006. They released two independent non-charting albums in the mid-1990s...
  
  
• Chris Knox
  Chris Knox
  Chris Knox is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist, and DVD reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate, much loved for their honest,...
  
  
• Circle X
  Circle X
  Circle X was a No Wave/art-rock band that began in 1978 in Louisville, Kentucky. They were part of the same late '70s/early '80s No Wave scene that included bands like Mars and DNA.-Career:...
  
  
• The Clean
  The Clean
  The Clean are an influential Indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott...
  
  
• Come
• Console
  Console (musician)
  Console is an electronic music project by Martin Gretschmann, the lead programmer for German band Notwist. Relying heavily on elements of electronic music, Console's music is reminiscent of some electro bands, such as Ladytron and Miss Kittin....
  
  
• Cornelius
  Cornelius (musician)
  Cornelius is a Japanese recording artist and producer.-Career:Oyamada's first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene...
  
  
• Couch
  Couch (band)
  Couch is an instrumental Post-rock band based in Munich, Germany. The band is:* Jürgen Söder * Thomas Geltinger * Michael Heilrath * Stefanie Böhm ; also plays in Ms...
  
  
• dälek
  Dälek
  dälek is an American experimental hip hop duo from Newark, New Jersey. The group is composed of MC dälek and the Oktopus...
  
  
• David Kilgour
  David Kilgour (musician)
  David Kilgour is a musician from Dunedin, a city in the South Island of New Zealand. He first started playing guitar as a teenager in the late 1970s...
  
  
• Demolition Doll Rods
  Demolition Doll Rods
  The Demolition Doll Rods was a three-piece glam / garage rock band from Detroit, Michigan. The band, known for wild stage attire, released its first record in 1994...
  
  
• Dizzee Rascal
  Dizzee Rascal
  Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
  
  
• The Double
• D-Stroy
  D-Stroy
  D-Stroy is an American hip hop Host, rapper, DJ, producer and actor of Puerto Rican descent. He is a founding member of and current CEO of Play Big Inc. and a former artist of Matador Records,...
  
  
• Dustdevils
• Early Man
  Early Man (band)
  Early Man is a heavy metal band from Brooklyn, New York, now based in Los Angeles, California. Guitarist and vocalist Mike Conte began performing under the name "Early Man" in the early 2000s, and when drummer Adam Bennati moved to New York in 2003, the two formed the nucleus for the current line-up...
  
  
• 18th Dye
  18th Dye
  18th Dye was a Berlin-based German/Danish noise rock band formed in 1992 by German Sebastian Büttrich , Danish-German Heike Rädeker and Dane Piet Bendtsen . They broke up in 1999 after 2 albums and an EP, but reformed in 2005...
  
  
• The Fall
• Fire In The Kitchen
  Fire in the Kitchen
  Fire in the Kitchen is a compilation album recorded by The Chieftains, in collaboration with an array of Canadian folk musical guests, and released in 1998....
  
  
• Flipper
  Flipper (band)
  Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
  
  
• The For Carnation
  The For Carnation
  The For Carnation are a post-rock band from Louisville, Kentucky who formed in 1994. The band was formed by Brian McMahan, who is the only constant group member. McMahan's previous band Slint hinted at the distinctive sound and sombre aesthetic he would create in The For Carnation...
  
  
• The Frogs
  The Frogs (band)
  The Frogs are an American rock music band founded in 1980, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by brothers Jimmy and Dennis Flemion. The brothers mainly write and perform short, catchy pop songs, but they are also known for their improvised home recordings which are delivered in a comedic style, and often...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• The Fucking Champs
  The Fucking Champs
  The Fucking Champs are a three-piece progressive rock band from San Francisco, California. They are known for their heavy metal appeal, based largely around shifting time signatures, guitar harmonies, and lots of rhythm. Most songs are instrumental. They are currently signed to Drag City...
  
  
• Graeme Downes
• Guided by Voices
  Guided by Voices
  Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
  
  
• Guitar Wolf
  Guitar Wolf
  Guitar Wolf is a Japanese garage punk power trio founded in Nagasaki, Nagasaki in 1987. The band is known for songs with piercing vocals and an extremely loud style of noise-influenced punk which emphasizes heavy distortion and feedback...
  
  
• Helium
  Helium (band)
  Helium was an American alternative rock band formed in the summer of 1992. Originally calling themselves "Chupa", its founding members were Mary Lou Lord, Jason Hatfield , Shawn King Devlin and Brian Dunton...
  
  
• H.P. Zinker
• 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...
  
   & Yo La Tengo
  Yo La Tengo
  Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
  
  
• Jaguar Love
  Jaguar Love
  Jaguar Love is an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, composed of former members of The Blood Brothers.-History:The band was formed by members of the bands Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves...
  
  
• Jay Reatard
  Jay Reatard
  Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. , better known by the stage name Jay Reatard, was an American musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Lindsey was signed to Matador Records...
  
  
• Jega
  Jega
  Jega is the recording name of Manchester-based electronic music artist Dylan Nathan. Nathan has released records on the Planet Mu, Matador and Skam record labels....
  
  
• Jimi Tenor
  Jimi Tenor
  Jimi Tenor is a Finnish musician. His name is a combination of the first name of his youth idol Jimmy Osmond and the tenor saxophone. His band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans published its first album in 1988, Jimi's first solo album appeared in 1994. "Take Me Baby" became his first hit in 1994...
  
  
• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
  Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
  The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are an American alternative rock trio, formed in 1991 and based out of New York City, New York. The band consists of Judah Bauer on guitar, backing vocals, harmonica and occasional lead vocals, Russell Simins on drums and Jon Spencer on vocals, guitar and theremin...
  
  
• JPS Experience
• Khan
  Khan (band)
  Khan were an English progressive rock band of the Canterbury Scene during 1971-1972.Formed by Steve Hillage from Uriel, the initial line-up was Steve Hillage , Nick Greenwood , Dick Heninghem and Pip Pyle...
  
  
• Kustomized
  Kustomized
  Kustomized was an American indie rock band formed by former Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns member Peter Prescott.-History:The band was formed by Prescott following the breakup of Volcano Suns in 1993. and consisted of Prescott , Bob Moses , Ed Yazijian and Kurt Davis, a.k.a...
  
  
• Large Professor
  Large Professor
  Large Professor , also known as Large Pro and Xtra P, is a New York City-based hip hop record producer and emcee. He is also best known as a founding member of the influential underground hip hop group Main Source, and as a frequent collaborator with Nas...
  
  
• Laura Cantrell
  Laura Cantrell
  Laura Cantrell is a country singer-songwriter and DJ from Nashville, Tennessee. She used to present a weekly country and old-time music radio show on WFMU in New Jersey called The Radio Thrift Shop...
  
  
• Lavender Diamond
  Lavender Diamond
  Lavender Diamond is a Los Angeles-based Folk/country-pop quartet known for its light-hearted, often winsome sound; its simple, romantic lyrics; and the charismatic, whimsical stage presence and ethereal vocals of frontwoman Becky Stark.-History:...
  
  
• Lesser
  Lesser
  Lesser is a surname, and may refer to* Anton Lesser, British actor* Gabriele Lesser, German journalist* George Lesser, American musician* J Lesser also known as Lesser, IDM musician* LOLOLOL Lesser , actor american....
  
  
• Liquor Giants
• Live Human
• Liz Phair
  Liz Phair
  Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw and Phair moved to San Francisco together, and Phair tried to become an artist there...
  
  
• Lou Reed
  Lou Reed
  Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
  
  
• Love of Diagrams
  Love Of Diagrams
  Love of Diagrams is an indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia, formed in 2001. Their sound is characterized by a mix of energetic drumming, angular guitar and bass riffs, and call-and-response vocals.- History :...
  
  
• The Lucksmiths
  The Lucksmiths
  The Lucksmiths were an indie pop band from Melbourne, Australia known for witty, intelligent lyrics, a strong melodic sense and a jangly pop sound harkening back to early-80's bands such as The Smiths and The Go-Betweens.-History:...
  
  
• Lynnfield Pioneers
• Lyres
  Lyres (band)
  Lyres are a Boston-area garage rock band led by Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. Lyres were founded in 1979 following the breakup of DMZ. Their most popular songs included "Don't Give It Up Now," "What A Girl Can't Do" and "Help You Ann"...
  
  
• M. Ward
  M. Ward
  Matthew Stephen Ward, known by his stage name M. Ward, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to prominence in the Portland, Oregon music scene. In addition to his solo work he is known as a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk.-Career:...
  
   (Matador Europe)
• Mark Eitzel
  Mark Eitzel
  Mark Eitzel is a musician, best known as a songwriter and lead singer of the San Francisco band American Music Club.-History:Eitzel spent his formative years in a military family living in Okinawa, Taiwan, Ohio and the United Kingdom. He moved to America in 1979.He started making music while he was...
  
  
• Mary Timony
  Mary Timony
  Mary B. Timony is an American independent singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violist. She was a member of the bands Helium and Autoclave, and currently plays in Wild Flag.-Biography:...
  
  
• MC Paul Barman
  MC Paul Barman
  Paul Nathaniel Barman better known as MC Paul Barman is a Jewish- American emcee from Ridgewood, New Jersey, who attended Brown University....
  
  
• Mecca Normal
  Mecca Normal
  Formed by Jean Smith and David Lester in 1984, Mecca Normal is a two-piece indie rock band from Vancouver, Canada. Smith writes lyrics and sings in a style that is often confrontational and laced with feminist themes; Lester's melodic yet dissonant guitar swirls and loops around her vocals...
  
  
• The Modernist
• Modest Mouse
  Modest Mouse
  Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
  
   (Matador Europe)
• Mogwai
  Mogwai
  The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
  
  
• Moonshake
  Moonshake
  Moonshake was a UK-based experimental rock/post-rock band existing between 1991 and 1997. The only consistent member was singer/sampler player/occasional guitarist David Callahan, who initially co-led the project with Margaret Fiedler...
  
  
• Mount Florida
  Mount Florida
  Mount Florida is an area in the southeastern corner of the Scottish city of Glasgow.- Details :The origins of the name are uncertain. It has been stated that it derives from Mount Florida House, owned by a family from Florida, USA...
  
  
• Mr. Len
  Mr. Len
  Mr. Len is a hip hop DJ from Bronx, New York. He was a member, with Bigg Jus and El-P, of the underground hip hop trio Company Flow, which disbanded in the late-1990s. Presently he is in a group with Kimani Rogers from The Masterminds named Roosevelt Franklin...
  
  
• Neko Case
  Neko Case
  Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....
  
  
• Nightmares on Wax
  Nightmares on Wax
  George Evelyn, better known as Nightmares on Wax and also known as DJ EASE , is a DJ from Leeds, UK. His music is released on Warp Records and was one of the first releases on the label. Evelyn got his start in the music industry through an interest in hip hop and on joining a local breakdancing crew...
  
  
• Non Phixion
  Non Phixion
  Non Phixion was a New York-based hardcore hip-hop group.-History:In late 1994, MC Serch took his protege Sabac and teamed him up with DJ Eclipse and Ill Bill, thereby creating the group known as Non Phixion. Within six months Goretex, a childhood friend of Ill Bill, had joined the crew after...
  
  
• Pastels
• Pavement
  Pavement (band)
  Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
  
  
• Pell Mell
  Pell Mell
  Pell Mell was an instrumental rock combo, formed in 1980 in Portland, Oregon.The original members were Arni May, guitar, and Jon-Lars Sorenson, bass, from the Portland avant-garde group UHF, and from local Reed College Bill Owen on guitar, and Bob Beerman on drums...
  
  
• Pitchblende
  Pitchblende (band)
  Pitchblende was a four-piece art-punk band from Washington, DC, featuring Justin Chearno on guitar, Scott DeSimon on bass, Patrick Gough on drums, and Treiops Treyfid on guitar...
  
  
• Pizzicato Five
  Pizzicato Five
  Pizzicato Five was a Japanese pop group best known to audiences in the West in their later incarnation as a duo of Maki Nomiya and Yasuharu Konishi...
  
  
• Plone
  Plone (band)
  Plone was an electronic music band from Birmingham, England.-Career:The group was created in late 1994 when Mark Cancellara and Mike Johnston started to buy old analogue keyboards and fx and began to rehearse making huge soundscapes...
  
  
• Pole
  Pole (musician)
  Pole is the artistic name of Stefan Betke, a German electronic music artist commonly associated with the glitch genre as well as dubtronica.-History:Pole took his name from a Waldorf 4-Pole filter which he accidentally dropped and broke in 1996...
  
  
• Portastatic
  Portastatic
  Portastatic is an American indie rock band founded in the early 1990s by Mac McCaughan. Portastatic began as a solo project for McCaughan, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Superchunk...
  
  
• Preston School of Industry
  Preston School of Industry (band)
  Preston School of Industry is an indie rock band formed by Scott Kannberg in 1999, following the dissolution of his previous band, Pavement. Its name is taken from the famous US reform school of the same name....
  
  
• Pretty Girls Make Graves
  Pretty Girls Make Graves
  Pretty Girls Make Graves was an art punk band, formed in Seattle in 2001, named after The Smiths song of the same name...
  
  
• Prisonshake
• Quickspace
  Quickspace
  Quickspace was a London-based experimental rock band started in 1994.-History:Quickspace formed in London, originally under the name Quickspace Supersport...
  
  
• Railroad Jerk
  Railroad Jerk
  Railroad Jerk was a New York-based indie-rock band of the 1990s, specializing in a hard-driven punk blues sound. Their lineup changed frequently, but the stalwart members were Minnesota native Marcellus Hall and North Carolina-born and Trenton, N.J.-bred Tony Lee...
  
  
• Red Snapper
  Red Snapper (band)
  Red Snapper are a British instrumental band founded in London in 1993 by Ali Friend , Richard Thair , and David Ayers . The three core members are also joined by various guest musicians and vocalists on different records...
  
  
• Robert Pollard
  Robert Pollard
  Robert Pollard is an American rock musician and singer-songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices, who disbanded in 2004, only to reform in 2010...
  
  
• Run On
• Sad Rockets
• The Schramms
• Seachange
  Seachange (band)
  Seachange were a band from Nottingham, United Kingdom, that played a mixture of melodic folk and pop with a strong influence of alternative rock. They were the first British band to be taken on the roster of American indie-label Matador Records within five years...
  
  
• Sensational
• SF Seals
• Shams
• Silkworm
  Silkworm (band)
  Silkworm was an indie rock band active from 1987 to 2005.The members were Tim Midgett, Joel RL Phelps, Andy Cohen, and Michael Dahlquist. Phelps left the band in 1994. Matt Kadane of Bedhead and The New Year played keyboards on Italian Platinum and It'll Be Cool...
  
  
• Sleater-Kinney
  Sleater-Kinney
  Sleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
  
   (Matador Europe)
• Smog
  Smog (band)
  Bill Callahan , is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has also recorded and performed under the band name Smog. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with home-made tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders...
  
  
• The Soft Boys
  The Soft Boys
  The Soft Boys were a pop band during the punk era led by Robyn Hitchcock, whose initially old fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight...
  
  
• Solex
  Solex (band)
  Solex is the solo performing name of Elisabeth Esselink, born in Delft, but based in Amsterdam. Her music is a light-hearted amalgamation of pop music, electronica and sampling.-Overview:...
  
  
• Spoon
  Spoon (band)
  Spoon is an American rock band formed in Austin, Texas. The band is composed of Britt Daniel ; Jim Eno ; Rob Pope and Eric Harvey .-History:...
  
  
• Sportsguitar
  Sportsguitar
  Sportsguitar is a Swiss band formed in Lucerne in 1993. The band is centered around singer and guitarist Oliver Obert and guitarist Roland Saum, though Saum left Sportsguitar after their third album. Little is known of the contemporary activities of the band, as they for instance have never had a...
  
  
• Superchunk
  Superchunk
  Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that helped define the Chapel Hill music scene of the 1990s...
  
  
• Techno Animal
• Teenage Fanclub
  Teenage Fanclub
  Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
  
  
• Thalia Zedek
  Thalia Zedek
  Thalia Zedek is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable alternative rock groups, including Live Skull and Come...
  
  
• Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
  Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
  Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 is an experimental indie rock group formed in 1986 in San Francisco, California, though half of its members are from Iowa. Their albums combine lo-fi noise rock and ambient sounds with tightly constructed rock and pop songs. The band has a small but intensely loyal...
  
  
• Tobin Sprout
  Tobin Sprout
  Tobin Sprout is an American artist and musician, best known for his contributions as a member of indie rock group Guided by Voices.-History:A self taught musician. From an early age he played with and was a major collaborator to the Dayton, OH band Guided By Voices...
  
  
• Toiling Midgets
  Toiling Midgets
  Toiling Midgets is an influential rock band from San Francisco, California with "roots in seminal San Francisco punk acts the Sleepers and Negative Trend1." They were "one of the first West Coast punk bands to experiment with dub and post-punk elements1", and have been active on-and-off since 1979...
  
  
• Tommy Keene
  Tommy Keene
  Tommy Keene is an American singer-songwriter, best known for releasing critical acclaimed new wave/power pop songs in the 1980s. He has a longtime cult following among fans of the musical genre of power pop...
  
  
• 2 Foot Flame
• Two Lone Swordsmen
  Two Lone Swordsmen
  The Two Lone Swordsmen are British house DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall and studio engineer Keith Tenniswood. Formed in early 1996, following the dissolution of Weatherall's influential Sabres of Paradise techno act, the Swordsmen have explored a variety of styles, from electro and 4/4 techno to...
  
  
• Unrest
  Unrest (band)
  Unrest is an indie rock band from the Washington, D.C. area. It was one of Mark Robinson's projects for what would eventually become the TeenBeat label, also created by Mark while in high school. Developing from an experimental approach of never playing the same song twice, earlier material seemed...
  
  
• Unsane
  Unsane
  Unsane is an influential noise rock trio that formed in New York City in 1988. Their music also touches on elements of hardcore punk and metal...
  
  
• Unwound
  Unwound
  Unwound was a United States post-hardcore band based in Tumwater/Olympia, Washington. Formed in 1991, the band consisted of Justin Trosper , Vern Rumsey , and Brandt Sandeno , all of whom had previously been in a band called Giant Henry. Brandt Sandeno quit Unwound in 1992 and was replaced by...
  
  
• Wisdom of Harry

Discography

On June 28, 2011, Matador added a comprehensive discography to its website.

External links

• Matador Record's Official site
• Gerard Cosloy Interview 1999 & MP3 Sample