EPITAPH RECORDS. A record label I both loved and hated over the years. I loved them at a time when I was in my teens and just spinning through punk rock albums like crazy. From The Dead Kennedys to Sub | Hum | Ans then onto a bunch of skate melodic punk bands that both Epitaph and Fat Wreck were spewing out. Think 1992-95 when punk rock was basically “coming back” due to it’s popularity not only by Green Day, but as music soundtracks in skate, surf and snowboard videos. The good ol’ days for me when mainstream music tended to ignore most of punk rock and the world was still safe from bands like Fall Out Boy and Hot Topic was still selling Ministry t-shirts.
I hated Epitaph during a time where, well, they were basically a competing indie punk label that were setting the bar in releases for the genre, and the label I worked with could just not keep up in numerous ways. It was both frustrating at exciting, which is odd to say. Since its inception Epitaph Records has released an exceptional catalog that consists of classic punk rock albums (Bad Religion Suffer, NOFX Punk In Drublic, Rancid And Out Come the Wolves, etc) that at the time broke through barriers and spoke for an entire generation of angst, creativity and confusion. They not only unleashed to the world multi-platinum artists The Offspring and Rancid, but a Warped Tour generation led by Bad Religion, NOFX and Pennywise. SPIN MAG has released a nice retrospective of how the label started with interviews from current and past band rosters.That said, I bring to you a few tunes from Epitaph bands that I condsider to be highlights for the label throughout the years. A tiny sample of some of the brilliant stuff they’ve released throughout the years from punk rock to hardcore, sans some of the Anti- and Fat Possum releases, which were also pretty damn amazing.
artist :: RANCID
song :: “Gave it Away” from Lets Go! (1993) :: iTunes
artist :: Descendents
song :: “Coffee Mug” from Everything Sucks (1996) :: iTunes
artist :: NOFX
song :: “Milachi Crunch” from Ribbed (1990) :: iTunes
artist :: REFUSED
song :: “New Noise (live)” from The Shape of Punk to Come (1998) :: iTunes
artist :: PENNYWISE
song :: ”Nothing” from Unknown Road (1993) :: iTunes
artist :: DFL
song :: “Proud to Be” from Proud to Be (1995) :: iTunes
artist :: SOME GIRLS
song :: “Totally Pregnant Teens” from Heaven’s Pregnant Teens (2007) :: iTunes
artist :: CONVERGE
song :: “In Her Blood” from You Fail Me (2004) :: iTunes
artist :: HOT WATER MUSIC
song :: “Sons and Daughters” from A Flight and a Crash (2001) :: iTunes
