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American comedy record label based in Minneapolis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stand Up! Records is an American independent comedy record label founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Grammy-winning producer Dan Schlissel. It has been called "the country's most respected indie comedy label."[1] Stand Up! has released more than 200 comedy albums and videos since its founding in 2000, including albums by Lewis Black, Patton Oswalt, Greg Proops, David Cross, Maria Bamford, Hannibal Buress, Judy Gold, the Sklar Brothers, and Eddie Pepitone.[2][3] Comedian and actor Marc Maron, who released his first three albums on Stand Up!, described Schlissel as "a guy who loves comedy, and is very attentive to the process of recording comedy," and, referencing the large number of noteworthy comics who were given important exposure in their early careers by the label, joked that "you've done everybody's first two records."[4]
Stand Up! Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 2000 |
Founder | Dan Schlissel |
Genre | Comedy |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Official website | standuprecords |
A relatively small operation, the label is run almost entirely by Schlissel, who also served as recording engineer and producer on many of the label's albums.[5] The label has been praised for bringing an independent approach to the comedy genre, inspired by Schlissel's roots in punk and indie rock. Henry Owings, founder of humor magazine Chunklet, stated that Schlissel "has done a great job trying to reintroduce some fresh blood into comedy albums. ... If anybody's trying to bring back the idea of comedy albums being something that should be looked at in the same light as a music album, it's him."[6]
In the 1990s, Schlissel founded the Lincoln, Nebraska-based -ismist Recordings, which released works by Midwestern punk, metal and alt-rock bands such as Killdozer and House of Large Sizes, including Iowa metal band Slipknot's 1997 debut/demo, Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. After Slipknot left -ismist for Roadrunner Records, Schlissel became disillusioned with running a music label, and moved away from Nebraska in 1998 to take a job at a software company in Minneapolis.[7] He considered folding -ismist, but instead found new focus after convincing Lewis Black to work with him after meeting the comedian after a show in Minneapolis.[8]
Schlissel recorded Black's The White Album in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1999, with John Machnik, who would be his production partner for many years.[9] Released on -ismist, the album was an immediate success, eventually selling around 60,000 copies, more than the entire previous -ismist catalog combined.[10] Schlissel reinvented -ismist entirely, moving from punk rock to comedy. The label released several other comedy albums, including two by Doug Stanhope, Sicko and Something to Take the Edge Off, and Jimmy Shubert's Animal Instincts, while Schlissel launched Stand Up! Records in 2000. By 2002, -ismist had effectively closed down and been replaced by Stand Up! Records.[11] Black's next album, the post-9/11 The End of the Universe, sold similarly well.[1]
Even after Black moved to the larger Comedy Central Records label, he continued to work with Schlissel, who produced or edited four more Black albums in the mid-2000s, Rules of Enragement, Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues, The Carnegie Hall Performance, and Anticipation.[12] Of these, Carnegie Hall won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, while Luther Burbank and Anticipation were both nominated in that category.[13] Stand Up! also released the vinyl editions of Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues and Rules of Enragement.
Stand Up!'s original works include:
Stand Up! also often partners with comics who have already self-released an album to re-release it in an expanded edition with broader distribution. Examples include Maron's debut Not Sold Out and Pepitone's A Great Stillness.[4]
Stand Up! releases albums via digital download and streaming, CD and vinyl. Although vinyl remains a niche market with minimal profit margins compared with digital and streaming,[5] Schlissel told an interviewer for Roctober magazine that he continues to support the format because "the physical product matters. I want me and my artists to have something to hold in hand and say, 'I did this!'"[10] The label's dedication to vinyl has been credited with helping a resurgence in the format; Don Steinberg of the Wall Street Journal stated that Stand Up! has given comedy on vinyl "a hipster comeback,"[14] while John Wenzel of Vulture lauded the label for "honoring the history of the format."[15]
The vinyl picture-disc edition of Black's End of the Universe was autographed by Black before manufacturing; his signature is part of the vinyl art, under the grooves. Dana Gould, former co-executive producer of The Simpsons, re-released three discs on vinyl with Stand Up!: Funhouse, Let Me Put My Thoughts in You and I Know It's Wrong. For the 2009 re-release of Funhouse, the label also made an 8-track tape version as well as CD and vinyl.[10]
Stand Up! often works with larger labels to co-release collector's-edition vinyl versions of a comic's album. Besides the two Lewis Black albums, Stand Up! also released LPs of David Cross's Grammy-nominated 2002 album Shut Up You Fucking Baby[16] and the subsequent It's Not Funny and ...America...Great..., as well as Patton Oswalt's Feelin' Kinda Patton and Werewolves and Lollipops,[14] Hannibal Buress' Animal Furnace, and Kyle Kinane's Death of the Party.[10] In 2015, the label re-released Joan Rivers' groundbreaking 1968 The Next To Last Joan Rivers Album for Record Store Day; it had long been out of print.[17]
The name "Stand Up!" was chosen not only for its obvious connection with stand-up comedy, but for its association with free-thinking and revolutionary ideals, as in the Bob Marley song "Get Up, Stand Up" and the intellectually confrontational comedic approach of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Joan Rivers.[8] The label's logo, a clenched fist holding a microphone aloft, was designed by street artist and activist Shepard Fairey in 2002.[8]
Rather than sticking to a single style of comedy, Stand Up! maintains a diverse set of styles and viewpoints among its artists. Political material on the label ranges from libertarian Tim Slagle to moderate Will Durst to the left-leaning Black and Maron.[10][6]
Reflecting the label's interest in edgy, punk-inflected comedy and Schlissel's roots in indie rock, Stand Up! often works with visual artists who share that sensibility, such as Fairey and Frank Kozik.[16] MAD magazine cartoonists Jack Davis and Mort Drucker drew the covers for albums by Tim Slagle and Dwight York, while Raymond Pettibon, the iconic punk artist who created many of Black Flag's album covers, drew the cover for J.T. Habersaat's Hostile Corporate Takeover.[11] Derek Riggs, who designed Iron Maiden's albums, did the cover for Glenn Wool's No Land's Man.[10] Wendy Pini, creator of the Elfquest comic-book series, illustrated the cover of Keith Lowell Jensen's album Elf Orgy.[10] Cartoonist Drew Friedman illustrated the 2014 vinyl edition of Eddie Pepitone's A Great Stillness.[18] Pia Guerra, Eisner Award-winning co-creator of Y: The Last Man, drew the cover for Ray Harrington's 2017 album Overwhelmed.[19]
In addition to its roster of nationally known comedians, the label also has particularly strong ties with the regional comedy scenes in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Austin, Texas. Minnesotan comics on the label include Bamford, Chad Daniels, Mary Mack, Tim Harmston, Chris Maddock, "Fancy Ray" McCloney, Corey Adam, and Rich Kronfeld of Comedy Central's Let's Bowl, and Stand Up! has also released two DVDs of the Twin Cities public-access cable series Drinking With Ian.[7] In Austin, the label has put on multiple showcases at the annual SXSW festival, and has produced albums by Austin comedians including Andy Ritchie, David Huntsberger, J.T. Habersaat, John Tole, Doug Mellard, and Ryan Cownie. In 2019, Stand Up! released the posthumous album by Austin's Lashonda Lester, Shondee Superstar,[20] which was praised by Paste magazine as "a lovely introduction to a voice that's both purely unique and universally relatable ... If the world is only lucky enough to have one album from Lester, it's a blessing that it's a recording of a complete show."[21]
Stand Up! has a streaming channel available on Roku featuring new and archival comedy videos and podcasts.[22][7]
From 2012 to 2015, Stand Up! hosted the annual Akumal Comedy Festival in Mexico, a nonprofit event held in Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Akumal which raised money for the Mexican Red Cross. The festival featured comics performing in both English and Spanish. Headliners included Darryl Lenox, Maggie Faris, and Derek Sheen. The festival was co-founded by Schlissel and Twin Cities comic Gus Lynch, who also acted in the films Saving Silverman, North Country, and I Spy.[23] Lynch died after an accidental fall in Akumal in 2014; the final festival was held in his honor.[20][24]
In 2017, during the label's first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Schlissel registered a Scottish tartan with the National Records of Scotland in the name of Stand Up! Records. Designed by Edinburgh kiltmaker Gordon Nicolson, the tartan blends the colors red, black, and tan (from Fairey's Stand Up! Records logo), blue (from the Israeli flag, symbolizing Schlissel's Jewish heritage), and silver-grey (for -ismist Recordings' 25th anniversary).[25]
All releases from 2000 and 2001 were originally issued by -ismist Recordings, the predecessor to Stand Up! Records. When the titles were repressed, starting in early 2002, the branding was switched to the Stand Up! Records imprint. All titles from 2002 onward were originally issued by Stand Up! Records, unless under license from another label, or bringing an out of print release back into print.
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