![]() Adams worked for a suburban distributor called Kaleidoscope in the late 80s (it also employed Drag City founders Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn), and a few years later he befriended Leoschke while they were colleagues at Cargo, a major distributor of indie labels. In the pre-Internet era, when albums had to be physically shipped, Chicago remained an important hub of music-industry infrastructure even as its other industries withered. When the label matured in the late 90s, it was averaging just eight or nine releases per year-but its influence has long been hugely out of proportion with its size. ![]() Like Drag City and Thrill Jockey, two of its best-known peers from that era, Kranky (styled “kranky” by the label) was uncompromising in its aesthetic choices-in fact, one of its early slogans was “What we want, when you need it.” Unlike those operations, though, Kranky stayed small. One of the local labels that arose in this environment was Kranky, founded in 1993 by Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke. ![]() I won’t say anything one way or the other about the merit of those artists, but their success had the felicitous side effect of persuading major labels to slosh irresponsible amounts of money around the city-and local labels, producers, and musicians used that money to do much more interesting things. Best of Chicago 2023: Music & NightlifeĪs far as the national press cared, Chicago’s 1990s indie-rock scene revolved around Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair, and Urge Overkill. ![]()
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