Thrice, Dashboard invited to label's birthday party
The list of bands that have been part of this label would make a solid lineup for an emo and punk music festival.
Revered groups such as Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio, Thrice, The Get Up Kids and many others have been part of Santa Monica-based Vagrant Records. The label is marking its belated 25-year anniversary not with a festival but with a one-night show featuring a number of its alumni at FivePoint Amphitheater in Irvine.
“We're excited and honored to be part of it,” said Riley Breckenridge, the drummer of Thrice, which will be joined by Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio, The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary and Hot Rod Circuit at the show Saturday to honor the label's milestone anniversary. The show was delayed a year due to the pandemic.
“We spent the better part of a decade on Vagrant Records and put out a lot of records that we're really proud of with them, “Breckenridge added.
The anniversary celebration also includes the launch of podcast “Vagrant Records: 25 Years on the Streets,” which is hosted by Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids and talks about the history of the label.
The label was founded in 1996 by friends Rich Egan and Jon Cohen, who are no longer part of Vagrant, which was acquired by BMG in 2014.
According to Dan Gill, the general manager of Vagrant from 2002 through 2014, Egan and Cohen began the company from the ground up with a family loan and the goal of developing new bands that they saw as leading a new movement.
“They felt there was this need, this scene going on with this new wave of punk rock bands,” Gill said.
Things began to quickly pick up when Vagrant signed emo greats The Get Up Kids in 1999 and released the band's breakthrough album, “Something to Write Home About.”
“That was the record that put the label on the map, for sure,” Gill said. After that release, the label went on a hot streak, signing acts like Saves the Day, Rocket From the Crypt and Face to Face.
“It was just an incredibly important thing going on. It was a new scene and they created their own community and culture with this new wave of music,” Gill said.
The label also diversified its catalog by signing artists in other genres, ranging from Paul Westerberg to The 1975 to Bombay Bicycle Club as well as the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and PJ Harvey.
“They just had an ear for the right bands to sign,” Gill said.