Tender Loving Empire (often abbreviated "TLE") is an independent

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

and local handicraft

concept store The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are ...

based in Portland, Oregon. The record label side has established local and national recognition through a successful roster of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

and

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

bands such as

Typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Ce ...

, The Family Crest, Radiation City,

Magic Sword In mythology, legend or fiction, a magic sword is a sword with magical powers or other supernatural qualities. Renowned swords appear in the folklore of every nation that used swords.Josepha Sherman, ''Once upon a Galaxy'' p 113 In some tra ...

, Y La Bamba and

Willis Earl Beal Willis Earl Beal (also known as Nobody) is an artist and musician. Early years Willis Earl Beal was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. In his early twenties Beal joined the U.S. Army, moving to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Beal was ...

. When the label partnered with Warner Music distributor

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

, President David Orleans called Tender Loving Empire “a major force in the vibrant Portland music scene”.

Carrie Brownstein Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974) is an American musician, actress, writer, director, and comedian. She first came to prominence as a member of the band Excuse 17 before forming the rock trio Sleater-Kinney. During a long hiatus ...

, of the band

Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member J ...

and show

Portlandia ''Portlandia'' is an American sketch comedy television series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, set in and around Portland, Oregon, and spoofing the city's reputation as a haven for eccentric hipsters. The show was produced by Broa ...

, called TLE in

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

a “dream boutique” for its collection of local artistry and music, both important to the

culture of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

History

Founders

Brianne and Jared Mees met, as students of the evangelical Christian university

Azusa Pacific Azusa Pacific University (APU) is a private, evangelical Christian university in Azusa, California. The university was founded in 1899, with classes opening on March 3, 1900, in Whittier, California, and began offering degrees in 1939. The uni ...

, while studying abroad in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and returned to LA together as a couple united by their many artistic talents. He published and wrote poetry and she hand-made purses and attended craft fairs; at one point, they were in a band called ‘Julai’ (later 'July' and the name of their daughter). However, the couple soon found themselves in the LA suburbs, sidelining their creativity in order to make rent. They opted instead to live in a tent on a house built on stilts in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

for 4 months, a life-choice they have credited for the confidence needed to start the business. Jared and Brianne settled 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 2006 after admiring the thriving music of Oregon on a roadtrip. There, they met other artists in the budding indie Portland scene and made important musical friendships with acts like Finn Riggins. It was a year later that they decided to establish a platform and storefront for both publishing small press books and selling their friend’s records, calling it a tender loving empire.

Storefront

The first Tender Loving Empire storefront opened in June 2007 in Northwest Portland, selling music from the label as well as

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

goods such as

alternative comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

books, and other

handicraft A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

items popularized by the

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

aesthetic. The stores have traditionally featured murals by local artists and are regularly decorated by local designers. Like the label counterpart, the TLE store has been nationally recognized as an important part of the Portland culture.

Sunset Magazine ''Sunset'' is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. ''Sunset'' focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States. The magazine is published six times per year by the Sunset Publish ...

said it was “the best example of a shop committed to local talent”. In May 2010, the store moved from a small NW storefront to its

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found. ...

location, near the popular Powells Books location in the West End shopping district of

. In November 2014, a second location was opened in the Hawthorne District, and a third was opened in September 2015 in Portland's Nob Hill area.

Record label

Tender Loving Empire was an idea born in a basement in 2005. By 2016 the label reached its 60th release. The bands on the TLE label are not defined by a single genre, but many are based in the

. Various TLE bands have reached a notable amount of national success while with the label.

performed

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

’s

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

. Y La Bamba toured with folk-rock artist

Neko Case Neko Richelle Case (; born September 8, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case has a powerful, untrained contralto voice, which has been described by contemporaries and cri ...

multiple times after Case heard and bought the album in a Tender Loving Empire store. In 2019, Luz of Y La Bamba was featured on Season 2 of the

Storytellers Telling Stories ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer, harkening back to the Golden Age of Radio as a "theatre of the mind" experience with writers, actors, and musicians. Consolidated in ...

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

, and in 2020, the band appeared on Season 3 of

Storybound (podcast) ''Storybound'' is a podcast created, produced, and hosted by Jude Brewer, with original music composed for each episode. The show is a collaboration between ''Lit Hub'' and The Podglomerate podcast network, featuring household names and Pulitze ...

Artists

Andy Shauf Andy Shauf is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Regina, Saskatchewan. He plays several instruments, including clarinet.Carla Gillis"Andy Shauf moves to Toronto" ''Now'', 15 November 2016. Early life Shauf was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, gr ...

Boy Eats Drum Machine Jon Ragel, better known by his stage name Boy Eats Drum Machine, is an American solo artist who was originally based in Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Or ...

*Brainstorm *Finn Riggins *G_Force *Hosannas *Jared Mees & The Grown Children *King Friday *

Loch Lomond (band) Loch Lomond is an American indie folk band based in Portland, Oregon, founded as a solo recording project of Ritchie Young in 2003. History Regarding the origins of the band name, Ritchie Young stated "I wanted to call the band The Mountains bu ...

* Museé Mecanique *Slow Corpse * Radiation City *The Domestics * The Family Crest *

The Shivas ''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 ...

* Ural Thomas and the Pain *

* Y La Bamba

Compilation albums

Alongside traditional releases Tender Loving Empire releases various

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

s, such as the annually released

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

‘Friends and Friends of Friends’, which features locally- and nationally acclaimed artists.

Partial catalog

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control American independent record labels Companies based in Portland, Oregon