Talk:415 Records/Temp

415 Records, later renamed Popular Metaphysics, was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local punk rock and new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the early 1990s, including The Nuns, Romeo Void, and Wire Train. Its name, pronounced four-one-five (not four-fifteen), was a play on both the telephone area code for the San Francisco area and the law enforcement scanner code for a disturbance.^[1] The label was active until 1991, the year it released its first recording as Popular Metaphysics, a self titled album by World Entertainment War,^[1] which turned out to be 415's final release. A reunion concert was held at Slim's in San Francisco in September 2009, celebrating 415 Records and featuring several of its recording artists.^[2]

415 Records was founded in San Francisco in 1978 by entrepreneurs Howie Klein, Chris Knab, and Butch Bridges. Klein was a writer and entertainment promoter, Knab owned the eclectic San Francisco record store Aquarius Records, and Bridges was a music collector and retailer. Klein and Knab had become friends when Klein did some photography for his friend Harvey Milk, whose camera store was next door to Knab's Aquarius Records on Castro Street. They went on to work together on various radio shows around the Bay Area, including an alternative radio show on KSAN, and they started recording and promoting local musicians out of Knab's record store.^[3]

415 was the first North American record label to focus on punk and new wave music and they featured mostly musicians from the San Francisco region, though the label eventually also included artists from other areas. The British label Stiff Records had done similarly two years earlier; marketing England's emergent 1970's pub rock scene as punk and new wave and releasing their first record in August of 1976.^[4]

The label enjoyed early and sustained support from Bill Graham and from David Rubinson, owner of The Automatt recording studio on Folsom Street. Rubinson discounted fees for 415 label bands to record at The Automatt studios; sometimes recording them on speculation, such that the studio would share in the profits from those record sales.^[1] David Kahne, operating out of a closet-sized office upstairs at The Automatt,^[2] worked as 415's in-house producer and engineer until 1982, when he left Automatt and went to work in Los Angeles as Vice President of A & R for Columbia Records.^[1] Even so, he continued to produce records for artists on the 415 label.^[1]

Bill Graham managed many top-name acts through his management and promotion agency, Bill Graham Presents, and from the start of the label he booked 415 artists as opening acts for major headlining bands to help them gain broader exposure.^[1] Queenie Taylor, long an employee of Bill Graham Presents, purchased Butch Bridges' share of 415 Records in 1979.^[1]

Their first release was a 1978 single by the The Offs, entitled Everyone's a Bigot, with 0° on the B-side (cat#911-39, 1978).^[5][6] Subsequent early releases included included 7" EPs by SVT (cat#S0005, 1979), The Nuns (cat#SUB01, 1979),^[5] and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions Drivin' (uncatalogued, 1979).^[7][8] Later records included a 7" by The Mutants (cat#34859, 1980), a mini-album by Units (cat#A0003, 1980), a 12" 33⅓ RPM album by Romeo Void (cat# 415A-0007, 1981), a mini-album by New Math (cat#A0008, 1981), and various other releases for many other bands.^[5]

In 1981, 415 released Romeo Void's successful first LP, It's a Condition and then they built on that success by signing a co-branding contract with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first rights of refusal to produce, manufacture, and promote their artists' recordings. Many other independent labels would form similar alliances with major labels over the coming decades. 415 retained (nearly) full artistic control over which artists to sign, all recording, and the selection of songs and artwork. Columbia co-branded albums for Romeo Void, Translator, Wire Train, Until December and the Red Rockers under this arrangement; while outside the Columbia deal, Monkey Rhythm, the Pop-O-Pies, and The Uptones all recorded albums that were released and promoted independently by 415 Records. Like many other independent labels, 415 had struggled to reach a national market, but by partnering with Columbia's knowledge and its established connections with radio, television, and retailers, they were able to bring their records to a much broader audience.^[1]

In 1984, 415 hired Daniel Levitin as its Director of A&R, to serve as staff engineer, handle in-house production, and develop new artists.^[1] In the early 1980s, Queenie Taylor had begun managing Wolfgangs nightclub in San Francisco, and later, in the early 1990's, Slims nightclub, owned by Boz Scaggs. Christopher Knab sold his share of the label in 1985 and he moved to Seattle, Washington to manage the University of Washington's alternative radio station KCMU, now KEXP 90.3 fm. Klein joined Sire Records in 1987 and he was named General Manager of Reprise Records in 1989.

When 415 and Columbia severed their co-branding contract in 1989, Levitin was supervising three new artists, The Stir-Ups, The Big Race, and The Scene, and three other artists that Levitin had produced for the Columbia partnership, The Afflicted, The Furies, and Rhythm Riot, were given to a different independent label, San Francisco's Infrasonic Records. Klein became President of Reprise and Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. Records in 1995 which he remained until retiring in 2001. In 1989, Howie Klein was named General Manager and in 1995 President of Reprise and Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. Records, a position he held until his retirement 2001.^[1]

Levitin stayed to help run the label after Klein left. Three months later, Sandy Pearlman bought 415 records and named Tom Schedler head of its A&R department. Pearlman changed the record label's name to Popular Metaphysics and formed an alliance with MCA Records. Al Teller had been president of Columbia Records when the 415 partnership began and by 1989, he was president of MCA. Popular Metaphysics released one record in association with MCA Records, a 1991 self-titled release by the band World Entertainment War.^[1][9]

Although closely associated with new wave and light punk rock, 415 Records hosted a diverse group of artists, including:^[5]

• List of record labels

Category:American record labelsCategory:Record labels established in 1978Category:Indie rock record labels