The Daily Swarm

Sympathy for the Record Industry, the 18-year old Long Beach, CA-based record label that released the first records by the White Stripes and Hole, is for sale by owner and self-described “anti-mogul” Long Gone John. In an announcement posted on his personal MySpace page this morning, John offered up the label’s entire assets – including master tapes, existing stock, distribution deals, website, and mail-order business – for $650,000 (or, as he said this afternoon, $700,000 if he doesn’t like the buyer). The catalog includes more than 750 releases from 550 artists, including Scarling., Miss Derringer, The Muffs, Buck, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Von Bondies, Rocket From the Crypt, Billy Childish, Turbonegro, April March, The Dwarves, Suicide, The Gun Club, Inger Lorre and Motel Shootout, Man or Astro-man? and Redd Kross.

“I am serious,” Long Gone John said in a phone interview with The Daily Swarm. “I wrote the notice quite a while ago and thought about putting it on eBay but never got around to it. The record industry has been complete shit for quite awhile and this morning I was looking at it again and decided it was time. I want to solicit real interest.”

After 18 years of running the label by himself out of his Long Beach, CA house, Long Gone John is in the midst of relocating to Olympia, Washington. He believes the label will be quite lucrative for a new owner with more time and resources to put towards it, and is willing to remain on as an adviser to whoever takes it over. “I know its worth more than $650,000,” he said, “but I think its a fair price. It’s got to be enough to change my life.”

Here’s the full text of his post:

FOR SALE Preeminent Independent Record Label

Sympathy For The Record Industry

$625,000.00

Known for a multitude of things including releasing early efforts by Hole,
The White Stripes, Turbonegro, Rocket from the Crypt and The 5,6,7,8’s as
well as resurrecting the classic music of immortals such as Roky Erickson,
New York Dolls, Suicide, The Gun Club, Spacemen 3, The Scientists and
Wanda Jackson and lets not forget the serious concentration on a plethora
(like that word??) of bands in hot beds such as Memphis, Detroit and
Montreal and also being among the first to look towards the Far East to
unleash the demented and curious off-kilter sounds of those crazed
ornamentals (Asians to you of a p.c. mindset)...
So what?? ‘Big deal’ you say, well, Sympathy has also worked with
underated and seemingly unsung heroes like Billy Childish, The Oblivians,
Holly Golightly la la la etc and are hailed for recognizing and employing
important visual artists to create wonderous covers by Mark Ryden, Camille
Rose Garcia, Yoshitoma Nara, Liz Mcgrath, Coop, The Pizz, Dan Clowes blah
blah blah la la la etc ad infinitum…
Sympathy are also responsible for releasing records by untold bands of
differing degrees of talent with really cool names like The Pleasure
F*ckers, Banana Erectors, Anal Babes, Candypants, Teenage Larvae,
Tri-State Kill Spree, Iowa Beef Experience, The Child Molesters,
Penetration Moon, Smegma, Ethyl Meatplow, The Spaceshits and Destroy All
Monsters…

Single-handedly responsible for lowering the standards of the entire
record industry…

includes:
questionable/nebulous rights to nearly 750 releases by over 550 bands
current distribution deal with foremost U.S. independent distributor with
strong international distribution as well
existing stock modestly estimated at a wholesale value of 1.8 millon
dollars
all master tapes, acetates, stampers and mothers to continue production of
titles
massive personal archive of sympathy rarities (lots of amazing surprises)
preliminary cover layouts/some original artwork/interesting and valuable
artifacts galore
established web site and vastly lucrative mail order business

over 30 snappy sarcastic slogans featuring much-loved heavy-hitters:
“We Almost Really Care’
“Is a force this powerful going to be overlooked by an industry that needs
all the Sympathy it can get”
“You’ve tried the rest now go f*ck yourself”
“Sound and fury signifying nothing” (ok, we stole that one from
Shakespere)
“West coast perpetrators of the finest in musical mayhem”
“The most favoritest populars, cost so little goody you like ‘em”
‘A name you can pronounce since 1988”
‘18 Years of Performance Anxiety, Instability and Poor Judgement’
‘We just don’t know when to give up’
“A tradition of obscurity and obsolescence”

incomprehensible bad reputation included at no additional cost

interested parties contact long gone john (anti-mogul/fat cat/accidental
c.e.o.) at sympathy13@aol.com