Is K Records a “Broken, Sinking Ship”? That’s the question our music critic Dave Segal posed in his feature on a public falling out between a legendary local music label and the artists it represents, including Kimya Dawson. It’s one of our staffers’ favorite stories of 2016 and is republished below.
Olympia-based K Records—a bastion of DIY indie music since 1982—lately has been weathering some harsh criticism from its former artists, particularly singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson.
The ex–Moldy Peaches vocalist and popular solo artist Dawson started a thread on her Facebook page on January 10 in which she proclaimed, “If I unfriended you it might be because you associate with Calvin Johnson and it makes me fucking ill every time pictures of him pop up in my feed.”
This update spurred a litany of complaints about Johnson, K Records’ owner and iconic singer/guitarist for Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System, and other bands.
