Revelation Records
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| Revelation Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Jordan Cooper & Ray Cappo |
| Genre | Hardcore |
| Country of origin | US |
| Official website | http://www.revelationrecords.com |
Revelation Records is an independent record label focusing originally and primarily on hardcore punk.
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[edit] History
Formerly of New Haven, Connecticut, it is now based in Huntington Beach, California. It was founded in 1987 by owner Jordan Cooper, along with Ray Cappo of Youth of Today, with the sole intent of producing the Warzone Lower East Side Crew 7". Within the year, they put out two more releases and a limited 4th pressing of Youth of Today's Can't Close My Eyes 7", which had been originally released on Positive Force Records, just for the two of them to trade for vintage G.I.Joes and other action figures. In the first three years, the label put out 23 releases and pressed approximately 50,000 records, and it has continued to release an average of 7-8 albums a year.
Cappo left the business in 1988, to focus on his band Shelter and to start his own label Equal Vision Records (which he later sold to Youth Of Today roadie, former Revelation employee and friend, Steve Reddy), though his albums were still released by Revelation after that, and he also operated Supersoul Records.
Revelation, along with the bands it put out in the late 1980s, is usually credited with creating and cementing the "youth crew" sound of New York City hardcore, which bridged the gap from the earlier bands of almost a decade before and helped carry the music through the early 1990s. Those records firmly established Revelation's reputation in the underground music scene.
[edit] The Story of the Revelation Records logo
Jordan Cooper explains; "We used stars on the first few releases as a background which was Ray's idea. He liked how Dangerhouse Records had black and yellow bars as their background on the labels so he wanted us to have something to identify Rev with like that. We got a Letraset sheet of stars and used it on the first three records we put out. The fourth record was going to be the Gorilla Biscuits 7" and their friend (who would later join the band as a second guitar player), Alex Brown offered to do the layout for them. Alex took the star concept and put the letter "r" in a star and had the label name under it inside a box. Ray, Alex and Porcell all lived together in Brooklyn at the time so Ray saw the artwork before I did. He really liked the idea and called me to tell me about it. From his description over the phone I re-created it. That was the logo we ended up using because we had already used it on a few things (probably flyers, catalogs and ads). We used it on the GB 7" and the Side By Side and No For An Answer records and repressings of the Sick Of It All 7" too. Then we were working with Dave Bett at our main distributor Important on the layout for the New York City Hardcore - The Way It Is compilation and he offered to clean it up for us. He did and that's basically the logo we've been using ever since."
[edit] Label releases
To date, the label's best selling releases have been Gorilla Biscuits' Start Today, Inside Out's No Spiritual Surrender and the In-Flight Program compilation.
Shai Hulud's album That Within Blood Ill-Tempered reached the #39 position on the Billboard Independent Album chart.
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007) |
- REV 001 - Warzone - Lower East Side Crew 7" EP (1987)
- REV 002 - New York City Hardcore - Together compilation 7" EP (1987)
- REV 003 - Sick Of It All - s/t 7" EP (1987)
- REV 004 - Gorilla Biscuits - s/t 7" EP (1987)
- REV 007 - New York City Hardcore - The Way It Is compilation CD (1988)
- reissued in 1992
- REV 050 - In-Flight Program compilation CD (1997)
- REV 100 - Revelation 100: 15 Year Retrospective Of Rare Recordings compilation CD
- REV 110 - Revelation Records 2004 Collection compilation CD (2004)
- REV 130 - Generations: A Hardcore Compilation compilation CD
