Paul Westerberg

Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records. The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a record label... were issued in 1968, distributed by London Records. From the beginning, Sire introduced underground, progressive British bands to the American market. Early releases included the Climax Blues Band, Barclay James Harvest, Tomorrow, Matthews Southern Comfort and proto-punks The Deviants. The label was distributed by Polydor Records from 1970 until 1971, during which time the now-famous logo was introduced, and then by Famous Music from 1972 to 1974, during which the progressive rock band Focus charted with their 1972 hit "Hocus Pocus". In the seventies, Sire released a number of compilation LPs, including the 3 volume "History Of British Rock" series, and diverse artists such as The Turtles, Duane Eddy, The Small Faces and Del Shannon. ABC Records inherited Sire's distribution contract when it acquired Famous Music in 1974.
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Vagrant Records is an indie rock label based in Los Angeles, California and is home to such artists as Horse the Band, The Hold Steady, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Active Child, PJ Harvey, Reptar, School of Seven Bells, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Thrice, James Vincent McMorrow,... Placebo, Band of Skulls, and many more. Rich Egan and President Jon Cohen founded Vagrant Records in 1996. The label’s original roots were in punk rock, pop punk, and emo and included artists such as Dashboard Confessional, Saves The Day, The Get Up Kids, and Alkaline Trio. The first band signed by Vagrant Records was Boxer with their album The Hurt Process released on May 5, 1998. In 1999 Vagrant Records signed Kansas City, Missouri band The Get Up Kids who released their Vagrant debut Something to Write Home About in September 1999. Label founders Rich Egan and John Cohen took a large gamble on the band, borrowing $50,000 from Cohen's parents, who mortgaged their house to fund the album's production. The album was wildly successful, and single-handedly made Vagrant Records one of the top indie labels in the country.
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Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording hitherto unknown Mississippi blues artists . Recently, Fat Possum has signed younger rock acts to its roster. The label has been featured in a New Yorker... article, a piece on NPR, and a 2004 documentary, You See Me Laughin. Founded by former Living Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson in 1992, the label initially specialised in discovering blues players from the North Mississippi region, many of whom had never recorded before. At Fat Possum's behest some artists, particularly R. L. Burnside, released both standard blues albums and more "techno" albums, done in the style that would later be made famous by Moby's album Play. This led to a fair amount of controversy among blues purists, a group in which Johnson was largely uninterested. Many of the early artists for Fat Possum were picked with the aid of New York Times music critic Robert Palmer, who also produced a number of records for the label.
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