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.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

-focused record label based in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, 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 Adventures in Stereo were a band from Glasgow, Scotland, formed by Primal Scream founding member Jim Beattie in 1994, after his previous band, Spirea X, split up. History After Spirea X split up in 1993, former members Jim Beattie and Judith ...

, which was followed by the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based band

Chamber Strings Chamber or The Chamber may refer to: Organizations and government *Chamber of commerce, a form of business network *Legislative chamber, a deliberative assembly within a legislature *Debate chamber, a room for people to discuss and debate Arts ...

and the French/German duo Stereo Total, among other bands. By 2000, there were five bands signed to the label: Adventures in Stereo, Chamber Strings, Stereo Total, the Waxwings, 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 ...

. 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 {{Record-label-stub