History Creator / BlastFirst

->'''Mat Smith'''[[note]]No, [[NamesTheSame not]] Creator/MattSmith[[/note]], interviewer: Do you remember how you felt when you first heard ''Bad Moon Rising'' for the first time?

Smith named his new company Blast First, a reference to ''[[https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/v/vorticism/blast-radical-vorticist-manifesto Blast]]'', the manifesto for the short-lived Vorticist art movement created by writer/artist Wyndham Lewis just before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Its confrontational tone was the literary equivalent of the music Blast First would put out.

!!Blast First performers with Wiki/TVTropes pages:

->Liz and Pat Naylor, described by Smith as “two hardcore lesbians who hated male music journalists,” were in charge of PR, and their remarkably brusque approach generated yards of coverage in the music press. One press release was an entire A4 page covered with a rant by Pat Naylor about the travails of supporting Derby County F.C., with one line at the end about the fact that Big Black had a new album out that week. It was reproduced in full by NME[[note]]''New Musical Express'', one of England's leading music papers[[/note]].

This statement presages the changes that Blast First went through as TheEighties became TheNineties. With its most popular acts either breaking up or {{Channel Hop}}ping to major labels, Smith gradually changed the company's focus from guitar rock to AvantGardeMusic performers such as Keiji Haino, Hovercraft, Labradford, Music/{{Merzbow}}, and [=PanSonic=], although some relatively traditional rock groups such as Music/TheAfghanWhigs, Band of Susans, Erase Errata, The Liars and The Raincoats still made releases on the imprint. Blast First also signed Music/{{Suicide}}, which released both old and new recordings on the label, as well as several solo projects by both members.

* Music/{{Suicide}}

This statement presages the changes that Blast First went through as TheEighties became TheNineties. With its most popular acts either breaking up or {{Channel Hop}}ping to major labels, Smith gradually changed the company's focus from guitar rock to AvantGardeMusic performers such as Keiji Haino, Hovercraft, Labradford and [=PanSonic=], although some relatively traditional rock groups such as Music/TheAfghanWhigs, Band of Susans, Erase Errata, The Liars and The Raincoats still made releases on the imprint. Blast First also signed Music/{{Suicide}}, which released both old and new recordings on the label, as well as several Alan Vega solo projects.

Bigger changes came in 2002, when Mute was bought out by Creator/{{EMI}}. Although Blast First was part of the deal, "the greatest recording organisation in the world" had little interest in its releases. Smith responded by forming Blast First Petite, an independently distributed sublabel that distributed artists that EMI wasn't interested in. Eventually, Blast First went dormant while Petite continued; its [[http://www.blastfirstpetite.com/ website]] is still up, although it hasn't made any new releases since 2019. Whatever the future holds, Blast First has earned a unique place in pop culture.

Blast First also had sublabels such as Not, which released "authorized bootlegs" of concerts by the label's most popular acts, and Furthur, whose catalog was half relatively normal albums, half picture discs either performed or compiled by artists like Raymond Pettibon and Robert Williams. This uniqueness gained Blast First a devoted following -- which Smith was not at all happy with. As he told Juno Plus:

This statement presages the changes that Blast First went through as TheEighties became TheNineties. With its most popular acts either breaking up or {{Channel Hop}}ping to major labels, Smith gradually changed the company's focus from guitar rock to AvantGardeMusic performers such as Keiji Haino, Hovercraft, Labradford and [=PanSonic=], although some relatively traditional rock groups such as Music/TheAfghanWhigs, Erase Errata, The Liars and The Raincoats still made releases on the imprint. Blast First also signed Music/{{Suicide}}, which released both old and new recordings on the label, as well as several Alan Vega solo projects.

Smith named his new company Blast First, a reference to ''Blast'', the manifesto for the short-lived Vorticist art movement created by writer/artist Wyndham Lewis just before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Its confrontational tone was the literary equivalent of the music Blast First would put out.

Smith took the album to Doublevision, who rejected it as "too rock and roll". He offered it to several other British indie labels; no one was interested. Finally, Peter Walmsley of Rough Trade told Smith that his label didn't want ''Bad Moon'' either, but if Smith started his own imprint to release it, RT would manufacture and distribute the new company. In March 1985, ''Bad Moon Rising'' was simultaneously released on both sides of the Atlantic.

->Liz and Pat Naylor, described by Smith as “two hardcore lesbians who hated male music journalists,” were in charge of PR, and their remarkably brusque approach generated yards of coverage in the music press. One press release was an entire A4 page covered with a rant by Pat Naylor about the travails of supporting Derby County F.C., with one line at the end about the fact that Big Black had a new album out that week. It was reproduced in full by NME[[note]]''New Musical Express'' one of England's leading music papers[[/note]].

Bigger changes came in 2002, when Mute was bought out by Creator/{{EMI}}. Although Blast First was part of the deal, "the greatest recording organisation in the world" had little interest in its releases. Smith responded by forming Blast First Petite, an independently distributed sublabel that distributed artists that EMI wasn't interested in. Eventually, Blast Fist went dorman while Petite continued; its [[http://www.blastfirstpetite.com/ website]] is still up, although it hasn't made any new releases since 2019. Whatever the future holds, Blast First has earned a unique place in pop culture.

The Englishman was Paul Smith, an employee at Doublevision, a small video and record label started by Music/CabaretVoltaire. At Doublevision, Smith worked with No Wave legend Lydia Lunch, whose 1984 mini-album ''In Limbo'' included important contributions from Thurston Moore (he co-wrote four of the six songs and played bass). When Lunch returned to her UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity home, she told Moore about this British music executive she'd dealt with who "wasn’t a complete arsehole". This prompted Moore to send Smith a cassette demo of his band Music/SonicYouth's work-in-progress, ''Bad Moon Rising'' (which happened to feature Lunch as a SpecialGuest). When Smith listened to the tape, it changed his life.

Blast First also had sublabels such as Not, which released "authorized bootlegs" of concerts by the label's most popular acts, and Furthur, whose catalog was half relatively normal albums, half picture discs either performed or compiled by artists like Raymond Pettibon and Robert Williams. This uniqueness gained Blast First a devoted following -- which Smith was not at all happy with. As he told Juno Online:

Blast First also had sublabels such as Not, which released "authorized bootlegs" of concerts by the label's most popular acts, and Furthur, whose catalog was half relatively normal albums, half picture discs either performed or compiled by artists like Raymond Pettibone and Robert Williams. This uniqueness gained Blast First a devoted following -- which Smith was not at all happy with. As he told Juno Online:

This uniqueness gained Blast First a devoted following -- which Smith was not at all happy with. As he told Juno Online:

->We started getting letters from some people saying, "We buy everything on Blast First". That’s when I started putting out Music/SunRa and Music/GlennBranca and a few other things because, while I speak highly of the methodologies of Tony Wilson, I didn’t want a Creator/FactoryRecords where people bought everything just because it was on Factory. Literally within a couple of months of getting those letters and putting out those records, which I probably would have put out anyway, then we got a slew of records back, saying "What is Sun Ra? What is this shit?" I was like, "great, have your money back but you know, don’t go around following people". That’s just not that smart to do that, and I didn’t want a cult in that sense. It’s not good for your ego if you have a run of bands and you start believing that you really do know what you’re doing. I really didn’t know what I was doing.

The Rough Trade deal ended after only three releases because RT thought the sleeve for Sonic Youth's "Flower" single, which featured a photocopy of a photo of a naked woman, might be sexist. Fortunately, Creator/MuteRecords agreed to take over distribution of Blast First. This was good news all around, since both Smith and his premier band had plans for the fledgling company. Thurston Moore gave Smith a list of American NoiseRock bands who needed British deals; several of them wound up on Blast First, including Music/BigBlack, Music/ButtholeSurfers and Music/DinosaurJr. The label also signed some like-minded British acts, such as Head of David, Strechheads and The Mekons.

The Englishman was Paul Smith, an employee at Doublevision, a small video and record label started by Music/CabaretVoltaire. At Doublevision, Smith worked with No Wave legend Lydia Lunch, whose mini-album ''In Limbo'' included important contributions from Thurston Moore (he co-wrote four of the six songs and played bass). When Lunch returned to her UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity home, she told Moore about this British music executive she'd dealt with who "wasn’t a complete arsehole". This prompted Moore to send Smith a cassette demo of his band Music/SonicYouth's work-in-progress, ''Bad Moon Rising'' (which happened to feature Lunch as a SpecialGuest). When Smith listened to the tape, it changed his life.

Smith took the album to Doublevision, who rejected it as "too rock and roll". He offered it to several other British indie labels; no one was interested. Finally, Peter Walmsley of Rough Trade told Smith that his label didn't want ''Bad Moon'' either, but if Smith started his own imprint to release it, RT would manufacture and distribute the new company. Before long, ''Bad Moon Rising'' was simultaneously released on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Rough Trade deal ended after only three releases because RT thought the sleeve for Sonic Youth's "Flower" single, which featured a photocopy of a photo of a naked woman, might be sexist. Fortunately, Creator/MuteRecords agreed to take over distribution of Blast First. This was good news all around, since both Smith and his premier band had plans for the fledgling company. Thurston Moore gave Smith a list of American NoiseRock bands who needed British deals; several of them wound up on Blast First, including Music/BigBlack, Music/ButtholeSurfers and Music/DinosaurJr.

Smith took the album to Doublevision, who rejected it as "too rock and roll". He offered it to several other British indie labels; no one was interested. Finally, Peter Walmsley of Rough Trade told Smith that his label didn't want ''Bad Moon'' either, but if Smith started his own imprint, RT would manufacture and distribute the new company.

Smith named his new company Blast First, a reference to ''Blast'', the manifesto for the short-lived Vorticist art movement created by writer/artist Wyndham Lewis.

the UsefulNotes/{{LONDON}} cloud suck's the town's heart.

The Rough Trade deal soon ended because RT thought the sleeve for Sonic Youth's "Flower" single, which featured a naked woman, might be sexist.

The Englishman was Paul Smith, an employee at Doublevision, a small video and record label started by Music/CabaretVoltaire. At Doublevision, Smith worked with No Wave legend Lydia Lunch, whose mini-album ''In Limbo'' included important contributions from Thurston Moore (he co-wrote four of the six songs and played bass). When Lunch returned to her UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity home, she told Moore about this British music executive she'd dealt with who "wasn’t a complete arsehole". This prompted Moore to send Smith a demo of his band Music/SonicYouth's work-in-progress, ''Bad Moon Rising''. When Smith listened to the tape, it changed his life:

-->--From [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170530203717/http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2015/06/17/nothing-short-of-total-war-the-blast-first-story/ this label history]]