Marriage Records is a small,

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

formed in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 2001 by Curtis Knapp and

Adrian Orange Thanksgiving and Adrian Orange & Her Band are the names under which Portland, Oregon singer/songwriter Adrian Orange (born March 20, 1986) performs. First adopting the "Thanksgiving" moniker around 1999–2000, Orange played experimental folk musi ...

. The label has released a number of albums by musicians such as

Adam Forkner Adam Forkner (born March 27, 1976) is a musician/producer. Discography As Airboy Express * ''LAST STOP BREATH ART'' (2018) * ''Acrylic Sleep Museum'' (2017) * ''SUNWINTER'' (2017) As White Rainbow * ''ZOME'' (2005) * ''BOX'' (2006) * ''Sun Shi ...

Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...

Little Wings Kyle Field is an American musician who releases material under the moniker Little Wings. Early life Field was born in Alabama in 1972. As a child, his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where his father worked as a coach for the UCL ...

Lucky Dragons Lucky Dragons is an experimental music group consisting of Luke Fischbeck and Sarah Rara. Based in Los Angeles, California, the band are noted for their unusual sound, described as having the ability to make "'everyday sounds' become alluringly ...

Tune-Yards Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the American, Oakland, California–based music project of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. Garbus's music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, voca ...

Yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

, and

Karl Blau Karl Blau is an American indie rock and country vocalist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but originally from Anacortes, Washington. A member of the Knw-Yr-Own/K Records collective, he is know ...

. Artists on the label frequently collaborate and swap members. Marriage releases vinyl, CDs,

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...

tapes Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive * Athletic tape, pressure-sensiti ...

, skateboards, books, posters and apparel. The label has been distributed by Nail Distribution,

Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is closel ...

, Chicago Independent, Revolver, and The Business. In 2006 the label began publishing "experimental literature" under the imprint Marriage Publishing House, including ''

Veneer Magazine Veneer may refer to: Materials * Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth * Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick * Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone * Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood Arts and entertainment * ' ...

.'' Since 2015, Marriage Records has been based primarily in Los Angeles under the management of Jimmy Leslie of White Fang, a longtime Marriage collaborator.

Overview

Founding

Marriage Records was co-founded in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

in 2001 by musical collaborators

and Curtis Knapp, with Knapp as "Chief" of the label. Musician and producer

joined as counsel. Orange (born 1986) had developed a reputation as a songwriter and charismatic performer in the Northwest by his teens, and dropped out of school at age 15 to pursue music full-time. A year later he was performing under the alias Thanksgiving when he met Curtis Knapp at a house show. According to Knapp, "The first time... range and Imet, it was a big deal for us. Cause our friends had been talking about us to each for a long time. For years. I came in in the middle of the show, I saw like three songs, and we sat outside and smoked cigarettes together. It was really—it was a lot like falling in love." He also stated, "We mounted the label as a document officiator of our time and work together, and of our friends. Thus the name Marriage Records."

Development

Initially a

-release-only label for the first year and a half of existence, in 2004 it began releasing elaborate packaging schemas with most records. For example, in 2006 the label released 1 box set, 6 CDs, 4 CD/vinyl combos, 1

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarde ...

, and 1 book. As of 2012, the label's production and distribution costs for bands ranges from 0 to $10,000, including digital-only releases and formats such as tape, CD, CD-R, vinyl, DVDs, and print products, as well as events, packaging, tour management, promotion, and band vans. CurtisKnapp

The label's first release was ''Made in Canada'' by collective group Rob Walmart. The next year Thanksgiving released the EP ''Nothing'' on the label. The Watery Graves of Portland, a band which included both Orange and Knapp, was next with ''The Sea and Skies Above.'' Within the next few years more bands joined the roster, including Portland musician

Jona Bechtolt Jona Bechtolt (born December 2, 1980) is an electronic musician and multimedia artist based in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States, best known for his band Yacht (band), YΔCHT. He is a former member of The Badger King, Dirty Project ...

(of Yacht),

Viking Moses Viking Moses (or The Viking Moses!) is a band fronted by Brendon Massei, an American songwriter noted for being on tour since 1993. Founded in 2003 and currently based in Baltimore, the group features a rotating cast of musicians. Viking Moses ha ...

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, and

Brad Adkins Brad Adkins (born 1973) is an American self-taught artist and curator. In 2002, Chas Bowie of The Portland Mercury declared Adkins "the poster boy of low-rent artwork.", Also in 2002, D.K. Row of ''The Oregonian'' listed Adkins as one of ten "a ...

. Artists signed to the label frequently play together, swap members, and form short or long-term superbands. According to Knapp: "The label learned everything and grew through its artists. It wasn't the other way around. This place–the community of music here; Marriage Records is totally a function of that." Adrian Orange released an album with

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

in 2007, and artists on the two labels have frequently collaborated. In 2006,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

band

released their '' New Attitude'' EP on the label. According to bandmember Dave Longstreth, Marriage Records was an important influence on their early sound, saying "I love a lot of the music that my friends have made up in Portland. I feel like it has totally affected who I am and what kind of things I ended up making—people like Adrian Orange, Adam Forkner, and Curtis..." In 2007, the ''

Seattle Stranger ''The Stranger'' is an Alternative newspaper, alternative Weekly newspaper, biweekly newspaper in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, U.S. The paper's principal competitor is ''Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Weekly'', owned by Black Press, Sound Publish ...

'' interviewed

Steven Malkmus Stephen Joseph Malkmus (born May 30, 1966) is an American musician best known as the primary songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement. He currently performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks and as a solo artist. ...

of Pavement who stated "There's just crazy stuff oing on in Portland.. Marriage Records, this guy Curtis, has got some good stuff." The label and the associated bands were featured in episode five of the series '' Don't Move Here,'' titled "Marriage Records and Rob Walmart" (2010). It interviewed label owners Knapp and

about the history and family ethics behind the operation, learned about Forkner's solo act White Rainbow, and taped a guerrilla street performance from the collective group Rob Walmart. Knapp and Flint Jamison also co-founded the Portland arts space Yale Union (YU), where a number of the label's bands have recorded music. Around 2005 the label released ''Live At The Artistery'', featuring bands that had used the now closed venue space The Artistery, a youth-run arts community.

Marriage Publishing House

The label created the imprint Marriage Publishing House (MPH) in March 2003, which publishes "experimental literature." Its first project was Tom Blood's poetry book ''The Sky Position,'' which won the 2007

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

/ Hall award for poetry from Literary Arts Inc.'s

Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. ...

s. In 2007 it started publishing ''

''. ''Veneer'' has included contributions from contemporary artists, writers, inventors, technicians, and musicians such as Adrian Piper,

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now kn ...

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 ...

Elaine Sturtevant Elaine Frances Sturtevant (née Horan; August 23, 1924 – May 7, 2014), also known professionally as Sturtevant, was an American artist. She achieved recognition for her carefully inexact repetitions of other artists' works. Early life and educ ...

, Kevin Kelly and

Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and e ...

.Veneer Magazine websites
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Associations

;Artists ;Entities *

Clear Cut Press Clear Cut Press was a small press based in Astoria, Oregon. About Clear Cut Press was founded by novelist Matthew Stadler and Up Records co-founder Rich Jensen in 2002. Jensen began talking to Stadler while taking a poetry class in 1997. The ...

(Portland) *

Department of Safety The Department of Safety was an artist-run community space founded in 2002, located in Anacortes, Washington's old police and fire station. It housed an all-ages music venue, art gallery, artist residency program, zine library, darkroom, artists' ...

(Anacortes, WA) *

Gnar Tapes Gnar Tapes is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Gnar Tapes began releasing solely audio cassette tapes from many Portland-based artists, though it has branched out to releasing artists from around the wor ...

(Los Angeles) *

(Olympia, WA) * P. W. Elverum & Sun (Anacortes) *

States Rights Records States Rights Records is an independent record label founded in 2001 by Steve Schroeder. The Portland, Oregon label's premier release was "Come Along" by Little Wings. Later that year, the label released "Tongue and Tooth" by The Badger King. B ...

(Portland) * The Business (Anacortes) * ''

'' (Portland)

References

External links

Marriage Records
{{Authority control American independent record labels Record labels established in 2001 Companies based in Portland, Oregon 2001 establishments in Oregon Oregon record labels