Mint Records

Mint Records is a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based independent record label founded in January 1991, by friends and campus radio enthusiasts Randy Iwata and Bill Baker.

Randy Iwata and Bill Baker started working together at CITR-FM, the University of British Columbia radio station. Three years after graduation, they decided it was time to move on from the station.^[1] However, they wanted to stay connected to new music, so they founded a record label to release the best up-and-coming music of the city.^[2] They have been known to sign artists during drinking sessions.^[3]

History

Since its conception in 1991, Mint has put out over 130 releases. Most of their catalogue is available for sale through MapleMusic Recordings' e-commerce site.^[4][5] One of their earliest successes was a band called cub who, along side Bunnygrunt and labelmates Maow, helped pioneer the vein of indie pop known as cuddlecore.^[6][7] Mint achieved Billboard chart success in the early noughties with Neko Case^[8] and The New Pornographers.^[9][10]

In the year 1998, Mint Records album Get Outta Dodge by Huevos Rancheros was nominated for a Juno Award in the Best Alternative Album category,^[11] and in 2001, Mint album Mass Romantic by The New Pornographers won the Juno Award for Best Alternative Album.^[12] Mass Romantic was listed at #17 in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll,^[13] and later ranked at #24 in Blender's 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever list.^[14]

Electric Version by The New Pornographers was listed at #7 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll of 2003.^[15] In 2009, the album was ranked at #79 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the Decade list.^[16] New Pornographers album Twin Cinema was voted the #9 album of 2005 in the Pazz & Jop poll of 2005,^[17] and PopMatters ranked the album at #1 on their Best Music of 2005 list.^[18] It was later shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2006,^[19] while Pitchfork Media placed Twin Cinema at number 150 on their list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s.^[20]

In October 2006, in conjunction with Exclaim! magazine and CBC Radio 3, Mint Records mounted a cross-Canada tour called the "Exclaim! Mint Road Show!" with headliners The New Pornographers along with Immaculate Machine and Novillero (except the final show in Vancouver, which featured Young and Sexy and Bella).^[21]

In 2010, Mint Records album Let's Just Stay Here by Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle was nominated for a Juno Award in the Roots & Traditional Album Of The Year category.^[22]

In Fall of 2011, a book about Mint Records by Kaitlin Fontana was published by ECW Press. It is titled Fresh At Twenty: The Oral History Of Mint Records.^[23]

Current artists

• The Awkward Stage
• Bella^[24]
• The Choir Practice
• Duplex!
• The Evaporators
• fanshaw
• Geoff Berner
• The Handsome Family
• Hot Panda
• Immaculate Machine
• Kellarissa
• Carolyn Mark
• Nardwuar
• Novillero
• The Pack A.D.
• The Ramblin' Ambassadors
• Vancougar
• Young and Sexy

Past artists

• Atomic 7
• The Buttless Chaps ^[25]
• The Corn Sisters
• cub
• Duotang
• The Gay
• gob
• The Groovie Ghoulies
• The Hanson Brothers
• Huevos Rancheros
• I Am Spoonbender
• John Guliak
• Kid Champion
• Lou Barlow
• Maow
• Mark Kleiner Power Trio
• The Mr. T Experience
• Neko Case^[26]
• The New Pornographers
• New Town Animals
• Operation Makeout
• The Organ^[27]
• P:ano
• Pansy Division
• Pluto
• Riff Randells
• The Sadies
• The Smugglers
• The Stand GT
• Tankhog
• The Tennessee Twin
• Volumizer
• Windwalker

References

1. ^ http://www.exclaim.ca/musicschool/labellife.aspx?csid1=86
2. ^ http://www.spin.com/articles/greetings-vancouver
3. ^ http://www.straight.com/article-157405/leaders-pack
4. ^ http://mintrecs.com/index.php?component=releases
5. ^ http://www.maplemusic.com/artists/mnt/default.asp
6. ^ Hogan, Marc (2007-05-10), Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Cub: Betti-Cola / Come Out Come Out, Pitchfork Media, http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11902-betti-cola-come-out-come-out/, retrieved 2010-05-17 
7. ^ http://music.lovetoknow.com/Cub
8. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/album/neko-case/fox-confessor-brings-the-flood/760046
9. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/album/the-new-pornographers/electric-version/577355
10. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/album/the-new-pornographers/twin-cinema/726640
11. ^ http://junoawards.ca/database/yearly-summary/?group_id=1420&category_id=0&from_year=&to_year=
12. ^ http://junoawards.ca/database/artist-summary/?artist_name=new+pornographers
13. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres01.php
14. ^ http://www.blender.com/guide/68967/100-greatest-indie-rock-albums-ever-151-30-to-21.html
15. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres03.php
16. ^ http://stereogum.com/105081/rolling_stones_100_best_albums_songs_of_the_00s/list/
17. ^ http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres05.php
18. ^ http://www.popmatters.com/music/best2005/cds5.shtml
19. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Polaris_Music_Prize
20. ^ Pitchfork staff (September 28, 2009). "The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 200-151". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7706-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-200-151/5/. Retrieved 8 June 2010. 
21. ^ http://www.punknews.org/article/19923
22. ^ http://junoawards.ca/database/artist-summary/?artist_name=carolyn+mark
23. ^ http://www.kaitlinfontana.com/projects/project-MINT/
24. ^ http://www.straight.com/article-73007/get-the-lowdown-on-vancouvers-music-scene
25. ^ CBC News. http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2009/01/The-Buttless-Chaps-Calling-it-Quits. 
26. ^ http://www.straight.com/article-151177/neko-case-leaves-mint
27. ^ http://www.straight.com/article/the-organ-calls-it-quits

See also

• Mint Records Presents the CBC Radio 3 Sessions
• List of record labels

External links

• Official site