Ecstatic Peace! is a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

based in Easthampton,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, founded in 1981 by American musician

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

. The label name is borrowed from a line in

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

's 1968 nonfiction novel ''

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' is a 1968 nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe written in the New Journalism literary style. By 1970, this style began to be referred to as Gonzo journalism, a term coined for the work of Hunter S. Thompson. The book p ...

''. The label's releases are eclectic and often experimental or avant-garde. The premiere release was a split cassette featuring spoken word performances from

Michael Gira Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico, he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of ...

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

and

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

titled "Hard Rock" in 1984. Ecstatic Peace! has released more than 200 LPs, cassettes, 7"s, and CDs, of both highly established and fledgling artists, including

Hush Arbors Hush Arbors is the primary musical project of American musician singer/songwriter/guitarist Keith Wood. His music uses traditional folk music, folk merged with elements of country and psychedelic music. Along with releasing solo material Wood wa ...

be your own PET Be Your Own Pet (also known as BYOP or stylised as be your own PET) is a punk/garage rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, formed in 2003. For a majority of their career, the band's line-up has consisted of lead vocalist Jemina Pearl, guitarist ...

, Awesome Color,

Black Helicopter The black helicopter is a symbol of an alleged conspiratorial military takeover of the United States in the American militia movement. Black helicopters have also been associated with UFOs, especially in the UK, men in black, and similar co ...

Free Kitten Free Kitten is an American alternative rock band formed by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz. Originally performing as Kitten, they changed their name after receiving threats of legal action by a heavy metal singer perf ...

Arthur Doyle Arthur Doyle (June 26, 1944 – January 25, 2014) was an American jazz saxophonist, bass clarinettist, flutist, and vocalist who was best known for playing what he called "free jazz soul music". Writer Phil Freeman described him as having "one o ...

Dredd Foole Dan Ireton (born February, 1950, in Camden, New Jersey), known professionally as Dredd Foole, is a vocal improviser and songwriter based in New England whose various collaborative backing bands have been known as The Din. Mission of Burma Din ...

No-Neck Blues Band The No-Neck Blues Band, also known as NNCK, is a seven-member free-form improvisational musical collective from New York City. Formed in 1992, the original band was of eight members (until John Fell Ryan left to join noise group, Excepter), and ...

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been a guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has wor ...

Notekillers The Notekillers are an instrumental avant-rock band based out of both Philadelphia and Brooklyn. The current line up consists of David First (Guitar), Stephen Bilenky (Bass), and Barry Halkin (Drums). The band officially began in 1977 and was clos ...

Magik Markers The Magik Markers are an American noise rock band from Hartford, Connecticut, United States. The members, Elisa Ambrogio, Pete Nolan and Leah Quimby started the band in their basement in 2001. The band gained wider recognition after opening for ...

Tall Firs Tall Firs are an American, New York City based underground electric folk rock band, originally formed in 1990 by teenagers Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan in Annapolis, Maryland. Their album, ''Tall Firs'', was completed and released sixteen yea ...

Pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

My Cat Is An Alien My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA) is an Italian musical duo and outsider audiovisual artist consisting of brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, formed in Torino, Italy, in late 1997. The band releases avant garde / experimental music in a form of impro ...

, Monotract,

Sunburned Hand of the Man Sunburned Hand of the Man are an experimental rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. They are a loose collective known for their frequent line up changes and large discography released on a variety of labels including Eclipse Records, Thurston ...

Violent Soho Violent Soho were an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in 2004 in the Brisbane suburb of Mansfield, Queensland, originally under the name of "showroom". For the majority of the band's existence, the line-up was composed of Luke ...

, and many more. In February 2006, Moore signed a deal with

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

to distribute the label's albums. The label's website was hacked at some point during the latter half of 2012. Since 2015, the site's lone page says "Thanks for checking in. Have a good day." As of 2022, this was its last update. Ecstatic Peace! has released three records since 2014, all of which are Thurston Moore recordings.

References

A perfect partner: An interview with Ecstatic Peace’s Andrew Kesin
Saucer Like interview

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Record labels established in 1981 Alternative rock record labels Record labels based in Massachusetts 1981 establishments in Massachusetts Indie rock record labels

See also

References

External links