Matador's 10th Anniversary

Bad, evil, naughty Zoot! She's been lighting the beacon again, which i've just remembered looks a lot like the flag of Matador Records. First the spankings, then the indie everything.

What's an independent record label? There are all sorts of technicalities, but it boils down to: not a subsidiary of Sony, Warner, or UMG (the three major corporations that own their entire content, manufacturing, and distribution chains). Matador certainly isn't the biggest, or best known, but they are the most diverse and one of the most influential. They also had a brief flirt with Atlantic's (i.e. Warner) marketing department, but bought that half of the company back after a couple years and currently belong to the Beggars Group for marketing/distribution. For their 10th anniversary in 1999 they published a massive 3-CD retrospective with relatively recent cuts from their 400+ catalogue of releases. You've heard of a lot of these bands 'cause a lot of them are still making great stuff today. Funny story, when the RIAA started waging war against file sharing, Matador had to repeatedly remind them that they were definitely not members of said organization.

Everything Is Nice really is the holy grail of 1990s indie creativity and diversity. There wasn't a full playlist on youtube, so i've done the best i can (a few tracks are missing, but i don't feel like going through the hassle of putting them up there and slogging through copyright junk. 95% is good enough).

It's a mix of everything, some big some obscure, rock pop hip-hop punk dancy crazy. If gen x-ers were going to make it in their garages anyway, Matador pointed a microphone in their direction. Fun times, the 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4moS9C5WRLwqjQw-5ahlHvteRH8H1znu

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