Brainwashed is a not-for-profit music website supporting eclectic music. Brainwashed features news, reviews, a podcast, hosts websites for many musical artists and record labels, and has organized two music festivals, Brainwaves. Over fifty people contribute to the archives of Brainwashed. Brainwashed also releases music as Brainwashed Recordings.

History

Brainwashed.com was launched on April 16, 1996 for the purpose of hosting Web sites for various musical artists. The sites contained news, discography, press releases, interviews, photos, merchandise, sound files, lyrics, tour dates when available. The original sites included Meat Beat Manifesto, Greater Than One, Coil,

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...

, The Legendary Pink Dots, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Cabaret Voltaire. Sites like Meat Beat Manifesto, Coil, and the Legendary Pink Dots were recognized by the artists as official at the time and the URLs were printed in numerous releases, others like Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Cabaret Voltaire weren't regarded as official, however were, at the time, the most comprehensive sources for those acts and were often referenced in books (such as ''Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle'' by Simon Ford and ''England's Hidden Reverse'' by David Keenan) and magazine articles (such as ones from '' The Wire''). In 1997, Brainwashed began hosting web sites for record labels including Kranky,

RRRecords RRRecords is a record label and used and new record shop based in Lowell, Massachusetts. RRRecords was the first American record label to publish underground "noise music" in the early 1980s, and published the first American vinyl by Merzbow, Maso ...

, Thrill Jockey, and Happy Go Lucky Records, and later hosted sites for Tigerbeat6,

Important Records Important Records is an American independent record label based in Groveland, Massachusetts. The idea behind the label is to be like a good record store, with releases from diverse artists and genres. History John Brien started Important Records ...

, and

World Serpent Distribution World Serpent Distribution was a British record label and music distribution house formed in the 1990s by David Gibson, Alan Trench and Alison Webster. Douglas Pearce of Death In June coined the company name in 1991, ''World Serpent'' being anot ...

. In 1998, Brainwashed launched The Brain, a weekly digest of music news, reviews, new releases, tour dates, and other information about some of the artists and labels hosted on Brainwashed. ''The Brain'' was folded into Brainwashed.com in 2005.

Brainwashed Recordings

In 1999, Brainwashed began a small recording label as an extension of the website to issue short run releases of acts who had pages on brainwashed.com.

Brainwashed Handmade releases

Brainwashed Recordings also has a series, Brainwashed Handmade, which features low run CDs in letter-pressed sleeves.

Brainwashed Archives releases

Brainwashed Recordings also has a sub-label, Brainwashed Archives, which specializes in deluxe remastered reissues.

Killer Pimp releases

Brainwashed Recordings also has a sub-label, Killer Pimp, which has released albums by Kate Mosh, Noise/Girl, Blood Money, and A Place To Bury Strangers.

Brainwashed Radio and podcast

In 2000, Brainwashed launched a 24-hour streaming radio station which featured music from the artists and labels that were hosted at brainwashed.com. The stream was discontinued in 2004. The first episode of ''Brainwashed Radio: The Podcast Edition'' was published on December 4, 2004. It primarily features music reviewed and promoted on Brainwashed.com. New episodes are produced and published on average on a weekly basis. In 2016, the podcast incorporated interviews from musical artists on several episodes.

The Eye

The Eye was a video segment that was launched first on May 4, 2003, featuring miniature documentaries on musical acts containing interviews and live footage. Nearly 150 segments were produced.

Brainwaves Festival

The Brainwaves Festival took place on November 17–19, 2006, at the Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, to celebrate the first 10 years of Brainwashed.com. Performing artists included Z'EV,

Nadja Nadja may refer to: * Nadja (given name) * Nadja, pen-name of Louisa Nadia Green (1896—1934), British poet * ''Nadja'' (novel), 1928 surrealist novel by André Breton * ''Nadja'' (film), 1994 vampire film by Michael Almereyda * Nadja (band), ...

Troum Troum is a German project of drone music, ambient music, noise music, and experimental music. It was founded in the late 1990s by Stefan Knappe ( Baraka and Martin Gitschel (a.k.a. Glit h). It is sometimes considered to be the follow-up proj ...

The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer (lead vocals and piano; additional: keyboards, harmonica, ukulele) and Brian Viglione (drums and backing vocals; ad ...

Cock ESP Cock E.S.P. is a band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The group draws on the most extreme, subversive and absurdist elements of both popular and experimental twentieth century music and performance art, creating abstract high-energy entertainmen ...

Howard Stelzer Howard Stelzer is a composer of electronic music, whose work is made primarily from sounds generated by cassette tapes and tape players. From 1997 until 2012, he ran the independent record label Intransitive Recordings. Early years Stelzer be ...

, V/Vm,

Goodiepal Goodiepal or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose given name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, is a Danish/Faroese experimental electronic musician, performance artist, composer and lecturer, as well as a self-described horologist. His work engag ...

, Greg Davis, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Landing,

Aranos Aranos is a town in the Hardap Region of central South east Namibia. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured. Politics Until 2010 Aranos was governed by a 5-seat village cou ...

, Volcano the Bear,

Jessica Bailiff Jessica Bailiff is an American singer-songwriter from Toledo, Ohio. Her music is largely classified as slowcore, although it contains elements of post-rock and shoegaze. Bailiff was discovered by Low's Alan Sparhawk, who recommended her ear ...

Christoph Heemann Christoph Heemann (born 1964 in Aachen, West Germany) is a German musician. Heemann has recorded under his own name, with the tape music group H.N.A.S. (german: Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, meaning "No deer on the sofa" or "deer not on the sofa"), ...

Windy & Carl Windy & Carl is an American ambient duo based in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Overview Cited as "a leading light of the Michigan space-rock scene" by AllMusic, the minimalist group formed in 1993 around the core husband-and-wife duo of ...

, and Thighpaulsandra. A second Brainwaves Festival took place on November 21–23, 2008, at the Regent Theater again. Performing artists included Marissa Nadler, Silver Apples, Meat Beat Manifesto, Glenn Jones,

Nmperign Nmperign is an experimental improvisational jazz group formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1998. Early history The idea for the group came when soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey decided to embark upon an ambitious cross-country tour, choosing tru ...

, Major Stars,

Rivulets Rivulets is the stage name of minimalist singer-songwriter Nathan Amundson. Biography Rivulets was the first artist signed to Low's Chairkickers Union record label in 2001. He then released his first, self-titled album in 2002 and DEBRIDEMENT ...

, Gary Wilson, His Name Is Alive,

Andrew Liles Andrew Liles (born 11 March 1969) is a British sound artist and multi-instrumentalist. He has a vast output of recordings that he has released since the mid-1980s, covering a variety of styles as experimental music, dark ambient music, progr ...

Reformed Faction Reformed Faction is a musical group formed in 2005 by three former members of Zoviet France: Andy Eardley, Mark Spybey and Robin Storey. The band's original name was The Reformed Faction of Soviet France. They played one concert, in Vienna on 1 ...

, Little Annie,

The Threshold HouseBoys Choir The Threshold HouseBoys Choir was a musical guise for Peter Christopherson, announced in 2005 as a follow-up endeavor to his former group Coil. Despite the name, it was a solo project which relied heavily on computer-generated vocals, of whic ...

, Matmos,

Windy Weber Windy & Carl is an American ambient duo based in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Overview Cited as "a leading light of the Michigan space-rock scene" by AllMusic, the minimalist group formed in 1993 around the core husband-and-wife duo of gu ...

and

Benoit Pioulard Thomas Meluch (born August 4, 1984) is an American multi-instrumentalist, writer, and photographer, best known by his pseudonym Benoît Pioulard. His music signed to Kranky Records. Biography Meluch began documenting field recordings and ...

, Nudge,

Boduf Songs Boduf Songs is the stage name of Southampton electro-acoustic musician Mat Sweet. Sweet first began recording as Boduf Songs in 2004, using field recordings in addition to recordings he made at home. He self-released these as a CD-R and Kranky ...

, and Stars of the Lid.

References

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External links

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Brainwashed Radio - The Podcast Edition
{{Authority control Online music magazines published in the United States Internet properties established in 1996 1996 establishments in the United States American record labels Music podcasts Music festivals established in 2006 Electronic music festivals in the United States 2004 podcast debuts