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 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.
Other artists and the label’s former co-owner soon piled on with stories alleging financial misbehavior. Nobody in the long thread had much positive to say about the man whom many indie-music fans consider to be a major catalyst of the international pop underground and the twee aesthetic in indie rock. (Melissa Mescalero has written extensively about K Records’ alleged mistreatment of its artists on the Teenage Hotdog blog.)
Dawson’s extensive Facebook posts (which I quote with her permission) recounted her increasing anger upon learning that an estimate she’d been given by the label “was a good six figures under what they actually owe me. They owe a ton of people money and I bet most of those people have no idea.”
