File 13 Records

File 13 Records began as a Little Rock Arkansas music collective in 1989. The purpose was bringing together peoples money, ideas, and sweat to release music from their flourishing punk rock scene. Most of the founders moved away from Little Rock, so the operation was passed to a younger more geographically stable Matt Werth. Of course Matt soon longed to move to the big city, and with File 13's future in question, the powers that be decided that Matt should move the label with him to the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia PA. Now File 13 is enjoying an even greater success, expanding its sound to not only the bands of Little Rock, but those of New York, Philadelphia and the world.

Antarctica
A prescription for a dream state. Like the shoegazer bands of the late '80s, Antarctica taps the power of delayed guitars and endless synths to create measured, stately music that's as haunting as it is seductive.

21:03 EP - 1998
81:03 - 1999


Atombombpocketknife
Atombombpocketknife provides an explosive and sorely needed catalyst for rock reinvention and reevaluation. These former members of Thumbnail create awesome, powerful music through a cyclical process of deconstruction and reconstruction.

File 13 7
Technology: A Compilation of Remixes
Human Rights Watch Benefit Compilation - 2002
Lack and Pattern - 2004


Bent Leg Fatima
Building on simple rhythms and catchy tunes, Bent Leg Fatima manages to bury the egg sack of their melodies deep inside your skull, the hatching of which is a pleasant surprise as you find yourself through your day revisiting this great band's mastery.

Bent Leg Fatima


Chino Horde
Chino Horde transcends all concepts of time. While the band broke up in the early/mid nineties, their sounds and ideas remain a benchmark for today's "emo" bands. Like Rites of Spring, Chino Horde recorded timeless and intelligent punk rock.

Chino Horde
This Is Done Seven-Inch


The Dishes
The Dishes don't mess around. They offer up raw rock and roll -- straight, no chaser. Once you gulp it down you remember how much you missed it and all you want is more.

The Dishes - 2000
3 - 2003


Franklin
Stopgap rhythms and symphonic guitar power rein in the ecstasy that surrounds your head when you get the loaded gun of Franklin pressed to your temple. Samples and tricky instrumental runs combine with ambient aural descriptions of a modern tempest to bring you to a sustained audio climax. A must.

Building in A and E
Franklin - 1999


Lenola
Lenola's eerily sweet vocal lines and cascading drunken guitars churn into a swirling, tumultuous storm where analog meets digital. Their liquid music flows from laughter to melancholy, mixing massive bending sounds and guitar acrobatics with soft acoustics and other pleasant surprises.

My Invisible Name - 1999
The Electric Tickle EP - 2001
Treat Me To Some Life - 2001


Lilys
Kurt Heasley and associates craft dead-on musical tributes, reinventing the Lilys time and again as shoegazers, British Invasion nostalgists, and Kraftwerk-loving electronic minimalists.

Zero population Growth/Bliss Out #15 - 1999
Selected - 2000


Matt Pond PA
Not a person, but a Philadelphia musical collective that devotes itself to the creation elegantly strange baroque chamber pop. Weaving strings, horn, and flute together with guitar, bass, and drums can be a dangerous undertaking, but Matt Pond PA does it with considerable aplomb, designing rich songs lush with a fragile sense of regret.

Measure
The Green Fury - 2002
The Nature of Maps - 2002


National Skyline
This Champaign, Illinois brings the synth-pop legacy of the '80s into the 21st century with their immaculately clean, goosebump-cold, futuristic pop songs.

Exit Now


Need New Body
Philly's Need New Body offers exciting and bizarre stew of sounds and ideas unlike pretty much anything else going on today. Featuring former members of Bent Leg Fatima, the group sounds like Beefheart by way of '70s Germany.

Need New Body
UFO - 2003


Martin Rev
Martin Rev is best known for his collaboration with Alan Vega in the influential early electronic duo Suicide. His damaged, minimal keyboard work has remained commercially obscure, but has gained popularity thanks to the resurgence of '80s-styled electronics.

Martin Rev - 2002
To Live - 2003


Shake Ray Turbine
Mindmeld Drive Like Jehu and Don Caballero into one band and you get Shake Ray Turbine. These guys give the phrase "driving rhythms" a definition with the power of a head on collision. This selection is one grade A volcanic eruption.

The Sauce of Solution


The Silent League
Drawing from the ambitious pop of the '70s and the spooky strangeness of their cohorts in Mercury Rev, Brooklyn's Silent League delivers delicate personal statements within a context of quirky grandeur.

The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused - 2004


Sterling
Sterling took root in the experimental instrumental community of Chicago and has steered it in an ominous and avant-garde new direction. This is one of the most interesting young bands the city has to offer.

Murderer - 2000
Sterling - 2003


Three 4 Tens
This Philadelphia quartet channels the pop zeitgeist of the late '60s to create a diverse palette of fun retro-flavored tunes.

Change Is On Its Way - 2001


Thumbnail
Thumbnail screeches its fierce invective with harmonics from behind a curtain of piercing tones. If you're a fan of Unwound or Drive Like Jehu, you already know what we mean.

Thumbnail
Red! Dead! - 1996
That Static - 2001


Triangle
Enjoyably tongue-in-cheek electro-pop from the emerging tongue-in-cheek electro-pop stronghold of St. Paul, Minnesota. Fun, accessible music that belies its laptop origins.

Asterisk - 2001


TRS-80
Perhaps Chicago's most innovative group, TRS-80 stages battles between digital and analog worlds, mixing breakbeat, downtempo, electro, and much more into your nervous system like fiber-optic heroin.

Industry Needs Electronic Skills
The Manhattan Love Machine
Mr. Kickass - 2002
Shake Hands With Danger - 2003


Shannon Yarbrough
The late Shannon Yarbrough left a brief but vibrant legacy of deeply felt melancholy pop songs and roaring rockers. His clear, unpretentious voice will touch you deeply.

Listen To What I'm Made Of - 2001