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Marriage Records is a small,
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 ...
formed in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 2001 by Curtis Knapp and
Adrian Orange Thanksgiving and Adrian Orange & Her Band are the names under which Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon singer/songwriter Adrian Orange (born March 20, 1986) performs. First adopting the "Thanksgiving" moniker around 1999–2000, Orange played expe ...
. The label has released a number of albums by musicians such as
Adam Forkner Adam Forkner is a musician/producer. Discography As Airboy Express * ''LAST STOP BREATH ART'' (2018) * ''Acrylic Sleep Museum'' (2017) * ''SUNWINTER'' (2017) As White Rainbow * ''ZOME'' (2005) * ''BOX'' (2006) * ''Sun Shifts'' (2007) * ''Sky Dr ...
,
Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...
,
Little Wings Kyle Field is an American musician who releases material under the moniker Little Wings. Early life Field was born in Alabama in 1972. As a child, his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where his father worked as a coach for the UCL ...
, Lucky Dragons,
Tune-Yards Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the Oakland, California–based music project of Merrill Garbus (vocals, various instruments) and Nate Brenner (bass, various instruments). Garbus's music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and use ...
,
Yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
, and
Karl Blau Karl Blau is an American indie rock and country vocalist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, previously based in Anacortes, Washington for over two decades. A member of the Knw-Yr-Own/K Records c ...
. Artists on the label frequently collaborate and swap members. Marriage releases vinyl, CDs,
CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
s, tapes, skateboards, books, posters and apparel. The label has been distributed by Nail Distribution,
Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is clos ...
, Chicago Independent, Revolver, and The Business. In 2006 the label began publishing "experimental literature" under the imprint Marriage Publishing House, including '' Veneer Magazine.'' Since 2015, Marriage Records has been based primarily in Los Angeles under the management of Jimmy Leslie of White Fang, a longtime Marriage collaborator.


Overview


Founding

Marriage Records was co-founded in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
in 2001 by musical collaborators
Adrian Orange Thanksgiving and Adrian Orange & Her Band are the names under which Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon singer/songwriter Adrian Orange (born March 20, 1986) performs. First adopting the "Thanksgiving" moniker around 1999–2000, Orange played expe ...
and Curtis Knapp, with Knapp as "Chief" of the label. Musician and producer Eric Erickson joined as counsel. Orange (born 1986) had developed a reputation as a songwriter and charismatic performer in the Northwest by his teens, and dropped out of school at age 15 to pursue music full-time. A year later he was performing under the alias Thanksgiving when he met Curtis Knapp at a house show. According to Knapp, "The first time... range and Imet, it was a big deal for us. Cause our friends had been talking about us to each for a long time. For years. I came in in the middle of the show, I saw like three songs, and we sat outside and smoked cigarettes together. It was really—it was a lot like falling in love." He also stated, "We mounted the label as a document officiator of our time and work together, and of our friends. Thus the name Marriage Records."


Development

Initially a
CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be Write once read many, written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) ...
-release-only label for the first year and a half of existence, in 2004 it began releasing elaborate packaging schemas with most records. For example, in 2006 the label released 1 box set, 6 CDs, 4 CD/vinyl combos, 1
skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7–8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboard ...
, and 1 book. As of 2012, the label's production and distribution costs for bands ranges from 0 to $10,000, including digital-only releases and formats such as tape, CD, CD-R, vinyl, DVDs, and print products, as well as events, packaging, tour management, promotion, and band vans. The label's first release was ''Made in Canada'' by collective group Rob Walmart. The next year Thanksgiving released the EP ''Nothing'' on the label. The Watery Graves of Portland, a band which included both Orange and Knapp, was next with ''The Sea and Skies Above.'' Within the next few years more bands joined the roster, including Portland musician
Jona Bechtolt Jona Bechtolt (born December 2, 1980) is an electronic musician and multimedia artist based in Portland, Oregon, United States, best known for his band YΔCHT. He is a former member of The Badger King, Dirty Projectors, and The Blow. YΔCHT beg ...
(of Yacht),
Viking Moses Viking Moses (or The Viking Moses!) is a band fronted by Brendon Massei, an American songwriter noted for being on tour since 1993. Founded in 2003 and currently based in Baltimore, the group features a rotating cast of musicians. Viking Moses ha ...
,
World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...
, and Brad Adkins. Artists signed to the label frequently play together, swap members, and form short or long-term superbands. According to Knapp: "The label learned everything and grew through its artists. It wasn't the other way around. This place–the community of music here; Marriage Records is totally a function of that." Adrian Orange released an album with
K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...
in
Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...
in 2007, and artists on the two labels have frequently collaborated. In 2006,
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
band
Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...
released their '' New Attitude'' EP on the label. According to bandmember Dave Longstreth, Marriage Records was an important influence on their early sound, saying "I love a lot of the music that my friends have made up in Portland. I feel like it has totally affected who I am and what kind of things I ended up making—people like Adrian Orange, Adam Forkner, and Curtis..." In 2007, the '' Seattle Stranger'' interviewed Steven Malkmus of Pavement who stated "There's just crazy stuff oing on in Portland.. Marriage Records, this guy Curtis, has got some good stuff." The label and the associated bands were featured in episode five of the series '' Don't Move Here,'' titled "Marriage Records and Rob Walmart" (2010). It interviewed label owners Knapp and
Adam Forkner Adam Forkner is a musician/producer. Discography As Airboy Express * ''LAST STOP BREATH ART'' (2018) * ''Acrylic Sleep Museum'' (2017) * ''SUNWINTER'' (2017) As White Rainbow * ''ZOME'' (2005) * ''BOX'' (2006) * ''Sun Shifts'' (2007) * ''Sky Dr ...
about the history and family ethics behind the operation, learned about Forkner's solo act White Rainbow, and taped a guerrilla street performance from the collective group Rob Walmart. Knapp and Flint Jamison also co-founded the Portland arts space Yale Union (YU), where a number of the label's bands have recorded music. Around 2005 the label released ''Live At The Artistery'', featuring bands that had used the now closed venue space The Artistery, a youth-run arts community.


Marriage Publishing House

The label created the imprint Marriage Publishing House (MPH) in March 2003, which publishes "experimental literature." Its first project was Tom Blood's poetry book ''The Sky Position,'' which won the 2007
Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
/ Hall award for poetry from Literary Arts Inc.'s
Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by the Portland, Oregon, United States–based organization Literary Arts, Inc. to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literatur ...
s. In 2007 it started publishing '' Veneer Magazine''. ''Veneer'' has included contributions from contemporary artists, writers, inventors, technicians, and musicians such as Adrian Piper,
George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film film director, director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Indust ...
,
GoodiePal Goodiepal or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose given name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, is a Danish/Faroese experimental electronic musician, performance artist, composer and lecturer, as well as a fully educated horologist. His work engag ...
,
Elaine Sturtevant Elaine Frances Sturtevant (née Horan; August 23, 1924 – May 7, 2014), also known professionally as Sturtevant, was an American artist. She achieved recognition for her carefully inexact repetitions of other artists' works. Early life and educ ...
, Kevin Kelly and
Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), speech synthesis, text-to-speech synthesis, spee ...
.Veneer Magazine websites
/ref>


Associations

;Artists ;Entities * Clear Cut Press (Portland) * Department of Safety (Anacortes, WA) * Gnar Tapes (Los Angeles) *
K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...
(Olympia, WA) * P. W. Elverum & Sun (Anacortes) * States Rights Records (Portland) * '' Veneer Magazine'' (Portland)


References


External links


Marriage Records
{{Authority control American independent record labels Record labels established in 2001 Companies based in Portland, Oregon 2001 establishments in Oregon Record labels based in Oregon