TLOBF Loves: Labrador Records

Radio Dept were the first Labrador Records band that I got into. I’d just passed my driving test so I spent much of the Autumn of 2004 driving around Grimsby in my rubbish old Nissan Micra, basking in the fuzzy warmth of their debut LP Lesser Matters. Back then I had no idea about any of their label mates, in fact the copy of Lesser Matters that I bought from my local Virgin Megastore had been licensed to and released by XL in the UK. It could quite easily have been them that I’m writing about now, I suppose, save for the fact the rest of their roster is terrible. So I did some ‘surfing’ (This was 2004, that’s what we called it) and happened across Labrador’s website. It was like a treasure chest of indie-pop goodness waiting to be found. Since then I’ve been hooked and hopefully after reading this piece you will be too.

I was going to write some kind of potted history of Labrador Records but, as summarising their last ten years of work would do them a bit of a disservice, I’ll just point you towards Labrador 100: The Complete History of Popular Music. It’s a compilation of the best tracks on Labrador releases from 1997-2007 which has a very informative booklet with it, providing a much better biography of their activities than I could ever conjure up. Go get it. Instead I’ll focus on a handful of records that, for me, encapsulate exactly what Labrador Records are really about and why I love them so much. I’ll do it in a chronological order too, history fans.

Club 8 – The Friend I Once Had (1998)
One of label founder Johan Angergard’s own bands (Along with Acid House Kings and the Legends), this was their second album (They’d released one for Siesta, a Spanish label in 1995) and it’s a fantastic record. It kicks off with ‘Everlasting Love’, two minutes and thirty seven seconds of pure sunshine, and finishes with the dance floor filling ‘Missing You’. In between, there are tracks like ‘I Wish You’d Stay’ and ‘Better Days’; songs about lost loves and loneliness that somehow manage to be comforting and uplifting. The kind of thing you can sulk to when the girl you fancy blocks you on MSN. I’d imagine.

Ronderlin – Wave Another Day Goodbye (2002)
Eeee! Just talking about this album makes me feel a little bit giddy. Wave Another Day Goodbye is an album I discovered relatively late but it’s become one of my favourite records in the history of ever. Pitched somewhere between early REM style jauntiness, Smiths-esque broodiness and Belle and Sebastian-ish loveliness, Ronderlin’s one and only release with Labrador is a pop gem. ‘Reflected’, the second track on the album, is literally one of the best pop songs ever made. By the end of it you’re in a state of near euphoria, shouting “OUR LOVE WILL LAST MORE THAN A DAY, MORE THAN A DAY!” at an empty flat and wanting nothing more than to listen to that song for the rest of the day. That’d be a crime against the rest of this wonderful album though, which I’ve neglected just so I can write about one song. Go and listen to the whole thing, yeah?

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names – #3 (2005)
Probably my favourite Labrador band, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names’ debut album is a masterpiece. With hints of Magnetic Fields and afrobeat, (That’s what the Guardian said anyway, but they also reckoned that the Courteneers had African influences too, rather than just shit ones) #3 is the most consistently brilliant pop record you could ever hope to own. First track ‘Marry Me’ is perfect Valentine’s Day mixtape material; a love song that won’t make you want to go on a killing spree. The rest of the album is filled with instantly memorable pop, from bouncy anthem ‘Parakit’ to the downright unfathomable ‘Noodles’, and is exactly the kind of record that should be getting played on radio stations throughout the land. But it isn’t, sadly.

I could go on but I’ll stop here, before I end up writing about every single album ever released on Labrador. I strongly recommend you listen to the following albums as well as the ones I’ve already mentioned:

Acid House Kings – Sing Along With The Acid House Kings
Irene – Apple Bay
– Mycket Väsen För Ingenting
Tribeca – Dragon Down
Radio Dept – Lesser Matters

Needless to say, don’t stop there. You can stream most Labrador releases on last.fm so I’d recommend you have a look on there. Great.

To break up the monotony of me going on and on, here’s some rubbish questions that I asked Johan Angergard (Labrador head honcho and member of Acid House Kings, the Legends and Club 8).

What’s the most frustrating thing about running a record label?
Most of the time everything is nice, inspiring and fairly smooth. Sure, if someone writes something bad about a band on Labrador I can get a little irritated and I might start thinking things like “once I no longer have this label, this idiot is going to get it”. But, I do forget very fast. Most people have really bad taste in music and you can’t expect to win over them all.

Obviously you’ve achieved loads over the last eleven years, but what do you think the label’s biggest achievement has been so far? And what ambitions do you have for the future?
The biggest achievment, and surprise, is that you can actually make a living on forcing your taste in music upon other people. I don’t have the widest taste in music and I only sign bands based on how much I love their music. If they’re going to sell or not is never something I take into account, so it’s a bit strange that this label actually works.

Labrador bands seem to spend a lot of time touring in mainland Europe but rarely make it over to the UK. Why is this? Is it the bands’ personal choice or are there other factors that don’t make it a viable option?
Because they’re expected to sleep on people’s floors and be happy to get a payment of two beers and a package of crisps? I don’t know. But we don’t sell much in the UK so i’m sure that’s one of the reasons. And I watched an episode of some kind of NME chart on TV a couple of years ago and that helped me understand why it might be difficult for us to have popular artists in Great Britain.

If you had to describe the label in four words, which ones would you use?
Uncompromising, hearty, honest, anti-macho.

I remember Radio Dept doing a tour of Peru and now it seems that Club 8 have been to Brazil! Do your bands have a big following in South America that you know of?
Probably not. It’s one of those places where we don’t really sell a lot of records, but the bands attract huge crowds. So it could possibly be that a lot of our bands are huge there and i don’t have a clue.

Has there ever been a time when you’ve thought about quitting while you’re ahead?
No. The future lies bright ahead.

by Stephen Carlton (AKA Jam On Bread)

mp3:> Jam On Bread: ‘I Heart Labrador Records’

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