Line #3 Creator/BlastFirst


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blast_first_logo.jpg]]
2
3	->'''Mat Smith'''[[note]]No, not Creator/MattSmith[[/note]], interviewer: Do you remember how you felt when you first heard ''Bad Moon Rising'' for the first time?
4
5	->'''Paul Smith''', label founder: I feel I have a total recall of that moment, the time of day, light, smells and the effect of the sound... I was ABSOLUTELY sure that I was experiencing a future music... a music of my own generation... with all the zeal of a new convert, so very unaware of how long and how much effort it was going to take to get the rest of the world to see it too.
6	-->--From [[http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=8342 this]] 2005 interview
7
8	Born out of one Englishman's desire to get a specific album by an American NoiseRock band released in the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, Blast First quickly evolved into a company that Creator/JohnPeel reportedly called "the most important label of the age".
9
10	The Age was TheEighties, and 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.
11
12	->'''Smith:''' I mean, it was an absolute epiphany for me in one of those weird, pseudo-religious things that you never think is really going to happen to you, but I was absolutely drawn into that world immediately.
13
14	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 UsefulNotes/ThePond.
15
16	->Smith maintains the deal happened only because [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Arsenal]] was playing and Walmsley, a die-hard Gunner, wanted Smith to shut up so he could concentrate on the match.
17	-->--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]]
18
19	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 aggressive music Blast First would put out.
20
21	->BLAST First (from politeness) ENGLAND\
22	CURSE ITS CLIMATE FOR ITS SINS AND INFECTIONS\
23	DISMAL SYMBOL, SET round our bodies,\
24	of effeminate lout within.\
25	UsefulNotes/{{VICTORIAN\|Britain}} VAMPIRE,\
26	the UsefulNotes/{{LONDON}} cloud sucks the town's heart.
27	-->--The beginning of ''Blast''
28
29	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 topless woman, was sexist. Fortunately, Creator/MuteRecords agreed to take over distribution, which 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 overseas representation; several of them wound up on Blast First, including Music/BigBlack, Music/ButtholeSurfers and Music/DinosaurJr, which gave the label a unique focus among its British brethren. The company also signed some like-minded UK acts, such as Head of David, Stretchheads and The Mekons. As Richard King noted in ''How Soon is Now? The Madmen and Mavericks who Made Independent Music 1975-2005'', Blast First soon acquired a "reputation for the ornery and unconventional"; this was personified by the two sisters who handled their press relations. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170530203717/http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2015/06/17/nothing-short-of-total-war-the-blast-first-story/ This article]] from Juno Plus tells the story:
30
31	->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 Magazine/{{NME}}.
32
33	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 visual 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:
34
35	->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.
36
37	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\|Band}}, which released both old and new recordings on the label, as well as several solo projects by both members.
38
39	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 which 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.
40
41	!!Blast First performers with Website/TVTropes pages:
42	[[index]]
43	* Music/TheAfghanWhigs
44	* Music/BigBlack
45	* Music/GlennBranca
46	* Music/ButtholeSurfers
47	* Music/DinosaurJr
48	* Music/{{Merzbow}}
49	* Music/TheSlits (Blast First Petite)
50	* Music/SonicYouth
51	* Music/{{Suicide\|Band}}
52	* Music/SunRa
53	[[/index]]

Context Creator / BlastFirst