Bar/None
Bar/None Records, based in Hoboken, New Jersey, is an independent record label started in 1986 by Tom Prendergast to release a record by Rage To Live, whose members included Glenn Morrow. Morrow would soon become a partner and later owner of the label. Later that year, Morrow, who had heard the 1985 Demo Tape, convinced Prendergast to contact They Might Be Giants and sign them to their first label. Bar/None put out all of TMBG's releases until the Johns signed with Elektra in late 1989. Tom Prendergast was later interviewed by Myke Weiskopf — in the interview, he states that his favorite TMBG song was "The Day". Bar/None was also Mono Puff's label for their second album, It's Fun To Steal, released in 1998.
Marjorie Galen, who co-founded the Hello CD Of The Month Club with Flansburgh, was formerly employed by Bar/None. A number of musicians signed to Bar/None released EPs through the Hello Recording Club, including Brian Dewan and Freedy Johnston. Some other musicians associated with TMBG, such as The Ordinaires and Oppenheimer (for their US releases), have also been signed to the label.
In a 2018 podcast interview, Morrow recalled signing TMBG to Bar/None after Margaret Seiler introduced him to John Flansburgh:
I was in Tompkins Square Park, and I ran into a woman I knew from high school, and she was John Flansburgh's girlfriend. And she introduced me. At that point they had flexi-discs that they were hammering to telephone poles as a way to promote themselves. And I was like, "Maybe I can get you a couple gigs." You know, because at that point I was pretty connected to the bookers at Danceteria and the different big rock discos around town, Peppermint Lounge. I got them a gig at Danceteria, I remember, and I did a couple other things. And then John called me up one day and was like, "So what's next?" I'm like, "Man, you've got a lot of nerve!" But eventually as the label got together, they came to us and said, "We want to be on your label." And I was like, "Wow, okay."
Morrow also spoke of Bar/None's signing of the band in a 2000 interview with Jim Testa in the Jersey Journal:
They came to us and said they wanted Tom to put out their record for them. I wasn’t even part of Bar/None yet. But I liked them and I got Tom to go see them. A lot of people were offended by the fact that they played with backing tapes, but I thought, hey, here’s an act we can put in all those rock discos that will sound great there. And you had a little live music, a guitar and an accordion, and a really amusing live show. And you couldn’t deny the songwriting. So it totally made sense to me. We sold 10,000 records in the first year before we got them on MTV and they really took off.
Releases[edit]
See also[edit]
- Myke Weiskopf Interviews Tom Prendergast - Interview with Bar/None's President about TMBG
