The Medicine Label (sometimes called Medicine for short) was a record label founded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1992, originally as a subsidiary of

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. The original purpose of the label was to release "new, cutting-edge music", as

Irving Azoff Irving Azoff (; born December 12, 1947) is an American entertainment executive and chairman of Full Stop Management, which represents recording artists. In the mid-1980s, he brought success to MCA Records. Since September 2013, he has been chai ...

put it. During its initial three years, the label issued early singles by

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

Leftfield Leftfield are a British electronic music duo formed in 1989 as the duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of the Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was very influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s, wi ...

and

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

; as well,

The Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...

with their critically acclaimed, alternative radio break through album '' Flamejob''. The label achieved platinum certifications for both the initial soundtrack to '' Dazed and Confused'' and a second volume of songs, ''Even More Dazed and Confused''. The label also reissued some obscure titles from the Warner Bros. catalogue including '' Freeway Madness'' by

The Pretty Things ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. In the fall of 1995, with the departure from Warner Bros. of both Azoff and

Mo Ostin Mo Ostin (born Morris Meyer Ostrofsky; March 27, 1927 – July 31, 2022) was an American record executive who worked for several companies, including Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Bros. Records, and DreamWorks. He was chairman and chief execu ...

, label founder Kevin Patrick joined

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as VP/A&R, bringing Medicine to Sony's

RED Distribution RED Music, stylized RED MUSIC, formerly RED Distribution, LLC (Relativity Entertainment Distribution) was a Sony-owned sales and marketing division that merged under The Orchard in 2017. RED previously handled releases for more than sixty i ...

for manufacturing and distribution. Through the Sony relationship, Medicine released '' Tremble Under Boom Lights'' by

Jonathan Fire*Eater Jonathan Fire*Eater was an American indie rock band best known as a progenitor of the post-punk revival in New York City. The line-up was Stewart Lupton (vocals), Tom Frank (bass), Paul Maroon (guitar and pedal steel), Matt Barrick (drums), and ...

UFOFU UFOFU was a Rock music, rock band (music), band based in Dallas, Texas. The band consisted of Joseph Butcher (musician), Joseph Butcher, and brothers Brandon Curtis and Benjamin Curtis (musician), Ben Curtis. It rose to local prominence in the mid ...

, whose members went on to form

Secret Machines Secret Machines are an American alternative rock band, originally from Dallas, Texas, United States, before moving to New York City. The original lineup consisted of two brothers, Brandon (vocals, bass guitar and keyboards) and Benjamin Curtis ( ...

, ''

Snowboarding in Argentina ''Snowboarding in Argentina'' is the debut album from electronic music group Swayzak. Named for the group's dream vacation destination if the album was prosperous, ''Snowboarding in Argentina'' represents Swayzak's clean, minimalistic blend of ...

'' and '' Himawari'' by

Swayzak Swayzak were a tech house duo from the United Kingdom that consisted of James S. Taylor and David Brown. They released their first 12" single "Bueno" / "Fukumachi" in February 1997 to much acclaim. It was followed up by the 12" "Speedboat" / "L ...

plus releases from

Ken Ishii is a Japanese Disc_jockey, DJ and record producer from Sapporo. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University. He has released work under his own name as well as under the pseudonyms: FLR, Flare, UTU, Yoga, and Rising Sun. Strongly influenced by De ...

and Super_Collider.

Notable artists

Green Apple Quick Step Green Apple Quick Step, often abbreviated as GAQS, is an American rock band from Seattle. Their sound was described as hard-edged, post-grunge rock. The band began as Inspector Luv and the Ride Me Babys in Tacoma, Washington before becoming Gree ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:The Medicine Label Record labels established in 1992 New York (state) record labels 1992 establishments in New York City Defunct record labels of the United States