Bobsled Records was a
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
-focused record label based in
Aurora, Illinois
Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...
, active from 1997 to 2002.
History
Bobsled Records was co-founded in 1997 by Bob Salerno and his friend Jeff Slay.
The first band to be signed to the label was
Adventures in Stereo, which was followed by the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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-based band
Chamber Strings and the French/German duo
Stereo Total
Stereo Total was a Berlin-based multilingual, French-German duo which comprised Françoise Cactus (born Françoise Van Hove and formerly co-leader of the West Berlin band Les Lolitas) and Brezel ('pretzel') Göring (aka Friedrich von Finsterwa ...
, among other bands. By 2000, there were five bands signed to the label: Adventures in Stereo, Chamber Strings, Stereo Total,
the Waxwings
The Waxwings were an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan.
The band's lineup comprised Dean Fertita on vocals and guitar, James Edmunds on drums and percussion, and Kevin Peyok on bass guitar. Brendan Benson filled in on gu ...
, and
Velvet Crush
Velvet Crush is an American power pop band from Providence, Rhode Island, United States, that achieved prominence in indie-rock circles in the early- and mid-1990s. The band broke up in 1996 but re-formed in 1998 and have continued to record, r ...
.
[
The label's end began in 2002, when Salerno wrote a 1,700-word to the Waxwings, one of the label's signature artists. The email criticized the Waxwings for being unprepared and not acting like a "real" rock 'n' roll band at one of their record release parties. The letter was later posted online, and the label folded after the Waxwings released their second album, ''Shadows Of The Waxwings'', later in 2002.]
References
American record labels
Record labels established in 1997
Pop record labels
Record labels disestablished in 2002
1997 establishments in Illinois
2002 disestablishments in Illinois
Companies based in Chicago
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