Just what the world needs. Another goddam indie label. Releasing music that is worth to be heard with a selfmade attitude and a strong DIY identity. Didn't you say yesterday that you like that? We hope that you didn't forget as here they are: the purveyors of true underground music but handled professionally.
Exile On Mainstream Records was founded in 1999 by longtime music journalist Andreas Kohl, active for years in the German underground scene and writer for different top-notch magazines. The goal was quite usual, a strong 'I also can do that' attitude and the wish to destroy a few clichees. Just a few, nothing spectacular but honest in it's own way. Exile On Mainstream is not a sound-orientated label and even though not easy to categorize, even if there is a strong connection to harder tunes and a deep conclusion of slow moving rock.
The first record on Exile On Mainstream was a single by Germany's blooz-rawwwk-meisters Payola who sniffed the line laid out by the mighty Urge Overkill and Mother Tongue with whom they shared the stage several times. The first main idea was to establish a consequently single-orientated label with a strong connection to exclusive artworks. The !hecho totalmente a mano! single series were established and bands like Payola, Lo-Lite, Nixon Now, Karma To Burn, Zen Guerrilla, Firewater, Mother Tongue, New Bomb Turks invited to be part of this series. The singles came out as strictly limited editions, packed in wooden cigar cases and handnumbered, packed in Andreas' own bedroom. Call it a true DIY attitude and you're nothing but damn right!
Soon Exile On Mainstream Records found themselves on the map of music lovers inside and outside of Germany and of course of press people. The second single, a split by dutch garage bluesers Lo-Lite and stoogified rockers Nixon Now found itself for not less than 5 months in the single top ten of Germany's leading popculture mag Spex. Exile On Mainstream discovered some space in the indie rock universe and set up their claim of truly unique and stylish music on the harder edge of rock.
The first full length release was by the now longtime friends Payola in 2001. It was called "For Those Who Know". The second full length, in 2002, again by Payola was called "Get On The Buzz" and earned critical acclaim all over the place. VISIONS magazine rated the record as 'beauty of the issue' and radio stations all over the country flipped out about their eclectic and true-to-history way of thinking. The second relase by Hamburg's answer to America's Blues Explosion, TIGERBEAT, released in February 2002, earned the same effort by fans and listeners of the label. Again VISIONS rated an Exile On Mainstream Records release as 'beauty of the issue" and Spex had it two weeks in their longplayer top ten.
Now Exile On Mainstream had become a label that you should better know about. More releases followed in 2002: New Hampshire's sludge masters Scissorfight, Stoner Sludge monsters Good Witch Of The South, who toured with Sick Of It All, Dog Eat Dog among others and had their video rotating on 'Fast Forward', Germany's coolest TV show on the major station VIVA for 7 weeks.
The beginning of 2003 showed Exile On Mainstream established and ready to burn the continence they had before: no less than 5 new releases where set up for the first half of 2003: another Payola record, which is, as you might guess, great, the second album by instrumental Postrockers Diario, a one-man-project called MIKROWELLE, said to be "Atari Teenage Surf" as stated by the mighty Persona Non Grata magazine and trad Doom outfit Shepherd. Especially Shepherd got critically acclaimed outside Germany. Doom lovers all over the world got into their slow moving rock deep in the vein of early Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and Cathedral. The feedback was so intense that Doom god Wino (of Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and Spirit Caravan fame) himself invited the band to play on album support tour of his new band The Hidden Hand. But more than this: he also asked Exile On Mainstream whether they would be interested in releasing the debut album of The Hidden Hand. Of course they were and here we are: right after the release of THE HIDDEN HAND's "Divine Propaganda", a true masterpiece by the godfather of Doom rock, Scott "Wino" Weinrich.
The future will show Exile On Mainstream Records still pretty active and always on the run for unique hard music. The first release in 2004 will be the debut full-length of D.C. based trio OSTINATO, an intense journey into psychedelic oceans of early Pink Floyd and ambitious sound walls. In May we freak out about the new record by Slovenian Superheroes PSYCHO-PATH and their sophomore album “Desinvoltura”, a unique brand of a mixture between GVSB and Queens Of The Stone Age with the most beautiful female voice you can find under God’s own sun at the moment. 2004 finally will see the release of longtime awaited "trane into extremes - a tribute to John Coltrane" compilation, compiled by Andreas and the result of a 3 years hard work. This comp will feature only exclusive tracks, recorded only for this project by bands like Clutch, Bakerton Group, Sigh, Yakuza, Vampyre State Building, Engine Kid, Aunt Worm, Rotor and one-off projects by members of Fugazi, Saint Vitus (Wino playin' with Fugazi's Joe Lally!!!), Karate, Discharge, Flux Of Pink Indians, Payola and Les Homme qui Wear Espandrillos. Also in progress is the work of a definite Greatest Hits compilation of Saint Vitus, featuring a bunch of unreleased tracks as well as early demos. Mid 2004 Good Witch Of The South will come out with their second album, the follower of the great "Turn".