I.R.S. Records

I.R.S. RECORDS

 
I.R.S. Records  is an American independent record label, launched in the United States in 1979 by Miles Copeland III along with Jay Boberg and Carl Grasso.  The “I.R.S.” in the title stands for International Record Syndicate (Inc.), as a play on the initialism of the Internal Revenue Service.  I.R.S. releases were distributed by A&M Records until 1985, by MCA Records until 1990, and finally by EMI until the label folded in 1996.  In 2011, EMI revived the label; and in October 2013, the label was revived again as I.R.S. Nashville.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
I don’t have to go any further than my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina to find a band that should have had a lot more success than they did:  The dB’s.  Their fourth and last album, The Sound of Music was released in 1987 during the heyday of I.R.S. Records (R.E.M.’s label), but this one too had lackluster sales.  
 
(January 2012)
 
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Album labels are one way to help narrow down a search.  If you are an R.E.M. fan, then most of the albums on their label, I.R.S. Records will probably be to your liking as well.  A good punk rock label is Stiff Records; I have scarcely ever gone wrong with them.  A&M Records, the king of American independent record labels, has a wide variety of offbeat acts and some major artists as well (the “A” in the name is Herb Alpert). 
 
(November 2012)
 
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A group of kids from my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC formed a rock band called the dB’sthey were very talented, particularly at songwriting. 
 
Eventually they got a record deal; the critics loved them, and they had decent record sales in England, but not much over here.  Then they got another record deal, and then they got yet another record deal – the last time was with R.E.M.’s label I.R.S. Records (which stands for “International Recording Syndicate”, like the band’s name stands for “the decibels”). 
 
That I.R.S. album, The Sound of Music was a slick pop affair that came out in 1987.  A lot of bands from the Carolinas were doing well nationally, and everyone expected that to be their breakthrough album. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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The band was formed in 1978 and was originally called the Misfits, with Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Jane Wiedlin (guitar, vocals), Charlotte Caffey (lead guitar, keyboards), Margot Olavarria (bass), and Elissa Bello (drums).  Gina Schock replaced Bello on drums in 1979; after Olavarria became ill and could no longer perform, Kathy Valentine took her position in the band.  Jane Wiedlin thought up the name “the Go-Go’s”.  The band was signed to I.R.S. Records in early 1981 and started a lucrative tour with the Police, before returning shortly thereafter with their own headlining tour. 

 

(November 2013)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021