SYMPATHY FOR THE RECORD INDUSTRY RECORDS
Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by record industry anti-mogul Long Gone John. The first Sympathy release was the Lazy Cowgirls’ “Radio Cowgirl” LP, which Long Gone John said he released as a “favor to the band”. Sympathy has a catalog of more than 750 releases, and is based out of Olympia, Washington. The label’s name references The Rolling Stones’ song “Sympathy for the Devil”. (More from Wikipedia)
The only album by Tina and the Total Babes, She’s So Tuff came out in 2001 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. This album is basically an homage to – or even a send-up of – the kind of female punk and power-pop that was rampant in Los Angeles 20 years earlier. There are mostly original songs here, but there are a few covers as well, such as Holly and the Italians’ “Tell that Girl to Shut Up”.
(May 2012)
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Paula Monarch and Chela LaRue of Les Hell on Heels had been in a garage punk band called the Peeps; they released a well regarded album on Sympathy for the Record Industry Records in 2000.
(December 2013)
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The next outing by the Lazy Cowgirls was a live album; as fine as their studio recordings are, where the band really excelled was on stage (they tell me). The first album released by the esteemed record label called Sympathy for the Record Industry was Radio Cowgirl (1989), recorded live at a local radio station, KCSB-FM. Mark Deming writes of this album for Allmusic: “A promo spot advertising the broadcast that kicks off this album proclaims that the Lazy Cowgirls will play ‘loud, fast, hard rock & roll music’, and it’s hard to disagree. There are a few sloppy moments here and there (be warned: This is real rock & roll, where not everything is supposed to be perfect), and the sound is a bit thin (like the un-retouched two-track recording it is); but all four Cowgirls are clearly audible and pouring their heart and soul into every moment of the show (even on the joke cover of the theme from Green Acres). Besides, how many bands can cover the Ramones and the Saints alongside Larry Williams and Jim Reeves and actually do justice to all of ’em?”
(March 2017)
