IS:
A record label that has thrived in the era of the death of the record label.
OPERATES AS:
An autonomous subsidiary of Sub Pop, run by Sarah Moody (center), Jason Baxter (right), and Matt Kolhede (left).
TAKES:
Its name from a lyric in the Thermals song “No Culture Icons.”
Hardly Art is the first record label ever nominated for a Stranger Genius Award. It’s worth taking a moment to consider how influential this label has been in fostering the current golden age of Seattle rock music.
The decline of the record business and the rise of downloads and streaming as the dominant means of listening have required that bands develop a new way of existing in the world. That challenge has been exponentially more difficult for labels, which have not only lost their traditional means of making money but also their sense of necessity. The internet is lousy with good ways for bands to release their own music, promote their own tours, and communicate directly with their audiences.
Nevertheless, during the very years when this change has been most evident, Hardly Art, a small imprint started by Sub Pop Records (which has also done an excellent job of weathering the storm) and run by two people, Sarah Moody and Jason Baxter, has fostered a very influential, maybe even dominant, aesthetic. They focus on local, proudly feminist, prominently female artists. But not exclusively.
