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| Founded | 1978 (1978) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Howie Klein Chris Knab Butch Bridges |
| Status | Inactive |
| Distributor(s) | Columbia MCA |
| Genre | New Wave Post-punk Alternative |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Location | San Francisco, California |
415 Records, later renamed Popular Metaphysics, was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the early 1990s, including The Nuns, Romeo Void, and Wire Train. Its name, pronounced four-one-five (not four-fifteen), was a play on both the telephone area code for the San Francisco area and the law enforcement scanner code for a disturbance. The label was active until 1991, the year it released its first recording as Popular Metaphysics, a self titled album by World Entertainment War, which turned out to be 415's final release. A reunion concert was held at Slim's in San Francisco in September 2009, celebrating 415 Records and featuring several of its recording artists.
History
415 Records was founded in San Francisco in 1978 by entrepreneurs Howie Klein, Chris Knab, and Butch Bridges. It featured primarily new wave musicians from the San Francisco region, though the label eventually also included artists from other areas. Klein was a writer and entertainment promoter, Knab owned the eclectic San Francisco record store Aquarius Records, and Bridges was a music collector and retailer. They were the first North American record label to focus on new wave music. The British label Stiff Records had done similarly two years earlier; marketing England's emergent 1970's pub rock scene as punk and new wave and releasing their first record in August of 1976.
415 enjoyed early and sustained support from Bill Graham and from David Rubinson, owner of The Automatt recording studio on Folsom Street. Rubinson discounted fees for 415 label bands to record at The Automatt studios; sometimes recording them on speculation, such that the studio would share in the profits from those record sales. David Kahne, operating out of a closet-sized office upstairs at The Automatt, worked as 415's in-house producer and engineer until 1982, when he left Automatt and went to work in Los Angeles as Vice President of A & R for Columbia Records. Even so, he continued to produce records for artists on the 415 label.
Bill Graham managed many top-name acts through his management and promotion agency, Bill Graham Presents, and from the start of the label he booked 415 artists as opening acts for major headlining bands to help them gain broader exposure. Queenie Taylor, long an employee of Bill Graham Presents, purchased Butch Bridges' share of 415 Records in 1979.
Their first release was a 1978 single by the The Offs, entitled Everyone's a Bigot, with 0° on the B-side.
Subsequent early releases included included 7" EPs by SVT (cat#S0005, 1979), The Nuns (cat#SUB01, 1979) and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions ("Drivin' ")(uncatalogued, 1979)
Later records included a 7" by The Mutants(cat#34859, 1980), a mini-album by Units(cat#A0003, 1980), a 12" 33⅓ RPM album by Romeo Void (cat# 415A-0007, 1981), a mini-album by New Math(cat#A0008, 1981),and various other releases for many other bands.
Artists released on 415
Although closely associated with new wave and light punk rock, 415 Records hosted a diverse group of artists, including:
See also
References
- ^ Levitin, Daniel. "A Brief History of 415 Records". Retrieved 2011-06-26.
- ^ Selvin, Joel (September 4, 2009). "S.F. concert in honor of 415 Records". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 2. Retrieved 2011-06-26.
- "The spirit of Stiff Records lives on". The Independent. 2006-09-15. Retrieved 2011-06-26.
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