Just to give everyone a clear idea here...I personally stand on the side of it's the music that matters...not the distribution. The Flaming Lips are probably the most innovative band in the world this side of Sonic Youth and neither band is "indie", though we probably all agree they are genius. Either way, there are lots of great bands on major labels and I own lots of them(eels/Dreamworks, Morphine/Dreamworks, Built to Spill/WB, Beck/DGC, Wilco/Reprise, and Radiohead/Capitol). The way I see it, if I like it, i'll listen to it. Anyway, on to the industry definition. I work in radio, and so despite my belief that genre titles should only be used as loose guidelines, i am forced to pigeonhole every cd that makes it into my office. Any label that is distributed by one of the major labels is not indie. The 4 major distros as far as I can tell right now are Polygram, Universal, Capitol and Warner Bros. See, I screwed up already...Polygram is now owned by Universal...Sony is the other. There you go, 4 major distros that have connections and family lines drawn all over the place...it's so confusing. This is why not all Matador releases were indie...ie. Liz Phair - Whitechocolatespaceegg - NOT INDIE. This CD was distro'd by Captiol, NOT Matador. Anyway...I'd have to do a little bit of digging, but I believe despite it's connections to Sub-Pop, Up has remained indie, by not using Sub-Pop's distro. If they have will someone please inform me. As far as I know, Up has no connection to Sire. The label Minty Fresh is indie, despite the fact that it is owned by Geffen because they don't use Universal's distro. Also be on the lookout for a 5th major distro called SKG(Spielberg Katzenberg Geffen) that owns Dreamworks records. Several other purchases and labels are on the way in the next 5 years from SKG, along with some big signings. Okay, if you waded through that, congrats. If you didn't, that's fine. Please realize that the 1st paragraph is my opinion, and the second paragraph is the industry's stand. Okay...ciao. John Check out my homepage @ http://welcome.to/adviceforrobots reviews, sounds, features and more!
