Matador

Headquarters: New York City

Founded: 1989

Founded by: Chris Lombardi

Link: Matador Records

Genre(s):

• Rock
• Pop
• Indie Rock
• Indie Pop
• Chamber Pop
• Retro-futurism
• Shibuya-kei

Biography

Matador started in 1989 out of the owner's apartment, although quickly grew in both size and prestige with lots of influential and respected acts being added to their roster. In 2002, they got bought by Beggar's Banquet, and prior to that, they had worked a deal with Capitol that included distribution in exchange for having first dibs on some of their artists (most notably Liz Phair, whose self-titled record did very well for the major label after her three records for Matador).

Active Roster

• Arab Strap
• Belle and Sebastian
• Cat Power
• Cornelius
• Dead Meadow
• Dizzee Rascal
• Guided By Voices
• Interpol
• Laura Cantrell
• Lesser
• M. Ward
• Matmos
• Mission Of Burma
• Mogwai
• Neko Case
• Preston School of Industry
• Pretty Girls Make Graves
• Seachange
• Stephen Malkmus
• The Fucking Champs
• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• The New Pornographers
• The Wisdom of Harry
• Yo La Tengo

Inactive Roster

• 18th Dye
• 2 Foot Flame
• Aereogramme
• Arsonists
• Babylon Dance Band
• Bailter Space
• Barbara Manning
• Bardo Pond
• Bassholes
• Belle & Sebastian
• Bettie Serveert
• Boards of Canada
• Bullet Lavolta
• Bunnybrains
• burger/ink
• Chain Gang
• Chavez
• Chris Knox
• Circle X
• Come
• Console
• Couch
• dälek
• David Kilgour
• Demolition Doll Rods
• D-Stroy
• Dustdevils
• Fire In The Kitchen
• Flipper
• Fuck
• Graeme Downes
• Guitar Wolf
• H.P. Zinker
• Helium
• Jad Fair (for one album with Yo La Tengo)
• Jega
• Jimi Tenor
• JPS Experience
• Khan
• Kustomized
• Large Professor
• Liquor Giants
• Live Human
• Liz Phair
• Lynnfield Pioneers
• Mark Eitzel
• Mary Timony
• MC Paul Barman
• Mecca Normal
• Modest Mouse
• Moonshake
• Mount Florida
• Mr. Len
• Nightmares On Wax
• Non Phixion
• Pastels
• Pavement
• Pell Mell
• Pitchblende
• Pizzicato Five
• Plone
• Pole
• Portastatic
• Prisonshake
• Quickspace
• Railroad Jerk
• Red Snapper
• Robert Pollard
• Run On
• Sad Rockets
• Sensational
• SF Seals
• Shams
• Silkworm
• Sleater-Kinney
• Smog
• Solex
• Spoon
• Sportsguitar
• Superchunk
• Techno Animal
• Teenage Fanclub
• Thalia Zedek
• The Bionaut
• The Clean
• The Fall
• The For Carnation
• The Frogs
• The Lyres
• The Modernist
• The Schramms
• The Soft Boys
• Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
• Tobin Sprout
• Toiling Midgets
• Tommy Keene
• Two Lone Swordsmen
• Unrest
• Unsane
• Unwound
• Void

Key Releases

• Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
• Pizzicato Five - Happy End Of The World
• Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
• The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic