Mint Records is a

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

-based

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 in 1991, by friends and campus radio enthusiasts Randy Iwata and Bill Baker. Mint has put out over 150 releases, several of which have won Juno Awards.

History

Iwata and Baker started working together at CITR-FM, the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

radio station. Three years after graduation, they left the station, and founded Mint Records in January, 1991 to release the music of up-and-coming bands in Vancouver. One of their earliest successes was a band called cub who, alongside

Bunnygrunt Bunnygrunt are an American indie pop band from St. Louis, Missouri composed of guitarist and vocalist Matt Harnish and drummer Karen Ried. History The band formed in early 1993, with Wally Schwartz on bass. Their first release, the "Criminal B ...

and labelmates

Maow Maow was a Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A pop punk combo, the band was part of the " cuddlecore" scene led by cub. Maow consisted of guitarist/singer Tobey Black, bassist/singer Corrina Beesley-Hammond a ...

, helped pioneer the vein of

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 ...

known as cuddlecore.

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's singing voice has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower", "a pow ...

, performed in both Cub and Maow, released her first solo album on Mint. In the late 1990s, the label was heavily affected by the financial crisis at and eventual bankruptcy of distribution company Cargo Records, when Cargo's failure to pay the label for Gob's album '' Too Late... No Friends'' led to the band, then Mint's most lucrative act, defecting to rival label

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is an independent record label founded in 1984. The Vancouver-based company was created by principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record label to distribute recordings by the band Moev, but the label expanded in Ca ...

.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

. . In the year 1998, Mint Records album ''Get Outta Dodge'' by Huevos Rancheros was nominated for a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

in the Best Alternative Album category, Mint achieved Billboard chart success in the early 2000s with

and

The New Pornographers The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective and supergroup of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band currently consists of Carl Newman (vocals, ...

. In 2001, the band's album ''

Mass Romantic ''Mass Romantic'' is the debut studio album by Canadian indie rock supergroup the New Pornographers. Produced by David Carswell and band bassist John Collins, it was released on Mint Records on November 21, 2000. The album was three years in the ...

'' won the

for Best Alternative Album. ''

'' was listed at #17 in the 2001

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

poll, and later ranked at #24 in

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

's 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever list. By its tenth anniversary Mint had released 32 albums, 23 singles and five EPs. ''

Electric Version ''Electric Version'' is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers. It was released on Matador Records and Mint Records on May 6, 2003. ''Electric Version'' placed at number seven in ''The Village Voice''s Pazz & J ...

'' by

was listed at #7 in the

poll of 2003. In 2009, the album was ranked at #79 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

's 100 Best Albums of the Decade list. New Pornographers album ''

Twin Cinema ''Twin Cinema'' is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers. It was released on August 23, 2005. The album was shortlisted for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize. As of 2010 it has sold 138,000 copies in US and 20,000 ...

'' was voted the #9 album of 2005 in the

poll of 2005, and

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

ranked the album at #1 on their Best Music of 2005 list. It was later shortlisted for the

Polaris Music Prize The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize. The prize was inc ...

in 2006, while

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

placed ''

'' at number 150 on their list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. In October 2006, in conjunction with ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' magazine and

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...

, Mint Records mounted a cross-Canada tour called the "Exclaim! Mint Road Show!" with headliners

along with Immaculate Machine and Novillero (except the final show in Vancouver, which featured Young and Sexy and Bella). In 2010, Mint Records album '' Let's Just Stay Here'' by Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle was nominated for a

in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year category. In 2011, a book about Mint Records by Kaitlin Fontana was published by

. It is titled ''Fresh at Twenty: The Oral History of Mint Records''.

Current artists

Past artists

Source:

References

External links

Official site
{{authority control Canadian independent record labels Record labels established in 1991 Indie rock record labels Alternative rock record labels 1991 establishments in British Columbia

History

Current artists

Past artists

See also

References

External links