Darla Records is an

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 and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Darla's first release was a

7-inch In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

by Grifters, an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

band from Memphis.

Background

The music of the artists on the label includes

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

, and

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

. Darla is a label, distributor, and online retailer. Darla Records is home to over 200 exclusively distributed labels including Ad Noiseam, Audio Dregs Recordings, Ici d'Ailleurs, Elefant, LTM,

Le Grand Magistery Le Grand Magistery is an independent record label operating out of Bloomfield Hills in the U.S. state of Michigan since 1996 in music, 1996. They have been home to a number of artists including a Cuckoo, a Girl Called Eddy, Always (band), Always, B ...

, Matinee, Ohm Resistance, Siesta, and Words On Music. The label created a series, known as Bliss Out in 1996. The series focused on ambient, electronic, and instrumental music. The moniker for the series is a reference to ''Blissed Out: The Rapture of Rock'' — a tome authored by

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his career at ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture. Reynold ...

, a notable

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

critic based in Britain. The Little Darla Has A Treat For You semi-quarterly compilation series features artists and labels Darla Records works with closely, and is very popular. This series was named after the

Little Debbie McKee Foods Corporation is a privately held and family-owned American snack food and granola manufacturer headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee. The corporation is the maker of Drake's Cakes, Fieldstone Bakery snacks and cereal, Little Debbie ...

snack treats. The label's moniker is not a reference to

Darla Hood Darla Jean Hood (November 8, 1931 – June 13, 1979) was an American child actress, best known as the female lead in the ''Our Gang'' series from 1935 to 1941. As an adult, she performed as a singer in nightclubs and on television. ''Our ...

, the little girl from the ''

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...

'' comedies (known as ''The Little Rascals'' on television), but comes from a yet-to-be-acknowledged bit of Americana. James noted while record collecting that many regional independent labels in the 1950s had women's names and national hits: Laurie, Paula, Sue, Tamla, etc. In the 1980s and 1990s there were popular indie-pop labels Sarah and Harriet. Since 1993, Darla has been a label and distributor. Darla started selling music online in 1996. In February 2007, American

webzine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the computer ...

'' Somewhere Cold'' voted Darla record label of the year on their ''2006 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame''. in 2009, Darla began offering digital downloads from their own website. James Agren and Chandra Tobey run Darla Records from a barn on their

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

and

cherimoya The cherimoya (''Annona cherimola''), also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Quechua people, is a species of edible fruit-bearing plant in the genus ''Annona'', from the family Annonaceae, which includes the closely related sweetsop ...

farm in the hills of north San Diego county.

Bliss Out series

In 1996, Darla Records asked for contributions to a double album featuring music on the calmer, "sleepier" side of music, such as

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie rock, indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion (music), distortion and effects, a ...

and ambient music. They would receive a submission from New Jersey band

Flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of v ...

. The label liked the track they sent so much that, instead of creating a double album, they would instead ask contributing bands to create EPs/albums of these tracks. Flowchart sent three more tracks, and the resulting collection of songs would be ''Tenjira'', the first album in the "Bliss Out" series. The series would end in 2004, after 20 releases, with the release of Manual's ''The North Shore''. Every release in this series is meant to invoke peacefulness and "bliss". The releases in this series are: *''Tenjira'' (

) *''

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

'' (

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

) *''Silver Lining Underwear'' (Orange Cake Mix) *''Perception'' (

Amp Amp or AMP may refer to: * Ampere, a unit of electric current, often shortened to amp * Amplifier, a device that increases the amplitude of a signal Arts and entertainment Music * After Midnight Project, Los Angeles alternative rock band * A ...

) *''Venoy'' (

Füxa Füxa (pronounced like the color fuchsia) is an American rock band. Füxa was formed in Detroit in 1994 by musicians Randall Nieman (formerly of Windy & Carl) and Ryan Anderson (formerly of Asha Vida and later to join Delta Waves). Band memb ...

) *''Stereoscopic Soundwaves'' (Tomorrowland) *''Anadromous'' (Mirza) *''Wading & Waiting'' (Transient Waves) *''Late One Sunday & The Following Morning'' (

American Analog Set The American Analog Set (sometimes referred to as AmAnSet) is an Austin-based indie rock band. They have released seven studio albums, on the record labels Emperor Jones, Tiger Style Records, and Arts & Crafts. On October 27, 2023, they released ...

) *''Taking Care of You'' (Junior Varsity KM) *'' Halica'' (

Sweet Trip Sweet Trip was an American electronic/experimental rock act formed in 1993 in the Bay Area of California by musicians Valerie Cooper and Roberto Burgos. They are known for their dreamy soundscapes and dense production techniques, often blendin ...

) *''Blue Christian'' (Bright) *'' A Trick of the Sea'' (

Piano Magic Piano Magic was a musical collective formed in the summer of 1996 by Glen Johnson, Dominic Chennell, and Dick Rance in London, England. Their sound has been described as ambient pop, post-rock, indietronica, dark wave, "arty baroque pop" and "E ...

) *''The Long Goodbye'' ( The Cat's Miaow) *''

Zero Population Growth Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG, is a condition of demography, demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither population growth, grows nor population decline, declines; that is, the number of bi ...

'' (

Lilys Lilys are an American indie rock band formed in Washington, D.C in 1988. The only constant member is Kurt Heasley, with the line-up changing regularly. Several of the band's tracks have been used in television advertisements, including the ba ...

) *''Normal Control Range'' (Technicolor) *''Aida'' (Mus) *''...Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life And Be Happy Anyway.'' (

Aarktica Jon Anthony DeRosa (born December 21, 1978) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He has been involved with several musical acts, including Dead Leaves Rising, Pale Horse and Rider, and as well as his solo-project known as Aarktica ...

) *''Belmondo'' (

Japancakes Japancakes is an American indie rock group, based in Athens, Georgia, United States. History Rhythm guitarist Eric Berg formed the band with the idea of putting ten musicians in a band without any rehearsal, and performing a D chord for 45 minu ...

) *''The North Shore'' ( Manual)

Acts on label

Since its inception, Darla has been host to several notable acts. Musical outfits whose recordings have been released by this label include: *

* Alsace Lorraine *

* Ariel Abshire * Auburn Lull *Bright *

Bvdub Bvdub is an American electronic music producer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Since 2007 he has released more than 50 albums and EPs under this name and other pseudonyms including his birth name, Brock Van Wey. Residing in Shaoxing, ...

* California Oranges * Desario *

Flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala, bengalo in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illuminatio ...

* Follow the Train *

Hammock A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...

Harold Budd Harold Montgomory Budd (May 24, 1936December 8, 2020) was an American music composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, he became a respected composer in the minimal music and avant-garde scene of Southern California ...

* Holiday Flyer *

hollAnd Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

I Am Robot and Proud Shaw-Han Liem, better known by the alias I Am Robot and Proud, is a Canadian IDM/ indie electronic musician and video game designer from Toronto, Ontario. He has released albums under the labels Catmobile, Darla and & Records. He co-created the ...

ISAN Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan language, Isan/, ; ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pāli ''isāna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provinces in northeastern Thai ...

* Junior Varsity KM * LD & the New Criticism *

*Lowlights *

Mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

* Manual *Maquiladora *Mirza *

Momus Momus (; Ancient Greek: Μῶμος ''Momos'') in Greek mythology was the personification of satire and mockery, two stories about whom figure among Aesop's Fables. During the Renaissance, several literary works used him as a mouthpiece for their ...

My Morning Jacket My Morning Jacket is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Kos ...

* New Radiant Storm King *

Orange Cake Mix Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

* Pale Horse and Rider * Photon Band *

Rhian Sheehan Rhian Sheehan is a New Zealand composer and producer born in Nelson and now based in Wellington. He is known for his fusing of orchestral chamber music and piano, with ambient electronic and post-rock cinematic atmospheres. He has also written ...

Robin Guthrie Robin Andrew Guthrie (born 4 January 1962) is a Scottish musician, songwriter, composer, record producer and audio engineer, best known as the co-founder of the post punk alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has ...

Rocketship A space vehicle is the combination of a spacecraft and its launch vehicle which carries it into space. The earliest space vehicles were expendable launch systems, using a single or multistage rocket to carry a relatively small spacecraft in pr ...

* Rumskib * Saloon * Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers * Sprites *

Superdrag Superdrag is an American alternative rock band from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They had a hit single in 1996, " Sucked Out", from their album ''Regretfully Yours''. The original lineup reunited in 2007, releasing a full-length album i ...

* Stafrænn Hákon * Steven R. Smith *

The Radio Dept. The Radio Dept. is a Swedish dream pop band from Lund, Sweden. History In 1995, schoolmates Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson started a band which they named after a gas-station-turned-radio-repair-shop called "Radioavdelningen" (Swedish language ...

* 30 Amp Fuse *

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world * Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium * ''Tom ...

Tullycraft Tullycraft is an American indie pop band from Seattle, Washington, that formed in 1995. They were an early part of the American twee pop movement. They are known for their DIY ethic, only releasing albums on independently owned and operated rec ...

Voxtrot Voxtrot is an American indie pop band formed in Austin, Texas, in 2003. Their first recordings were released in 2003, and their debut EP, '' Raised by Wolves'', was released in 2005 to critical acclaim, garnering attention from music bloggers as ...

Geography

Before long, Darla outgrew its one-bedroom apartment and . ground floor office space in San Francisco. James and Chandra relocated Darla to Sacramento, California in October 2000. Darla moved in October 2002 to

Vista, California Vista (; Spanish language, Spanish for "view") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is a medium-sized city within the San Diego-Carlsbad metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, V ...

References

External links