Bar/None Records - Early History

Early History

Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his native Ireland, Prendergast moved to Hoboken in 1982 and started Pier Platters record store, which subsequently developed a national reputation as one of the finest alternative stores in the country. With the store as a laboratory to try out records and to track the new and obscure, Prendergast figured a label was the next logical step.

The first release on Bar/None was by Rage To Live, whose leader, Glenn Morrow, soon became a partner in the label. Morrow had already built a network of contacts in the alternative music community having toured nationally with his previous band, The Individuals, and had also worked in the A&R department of Warner Bros. and as the managing editor of New York Rocker magazine.

The next act Bar/None signed gave them the success they needed to actively establish a roster of talent and worth. The Bar/None debut album of They Might Be Giants sold more than 100,000 copies - a major feat for an indie rock record at the time - their follow-up, Lincoln, more than doubled those sales and their major label debut, Flood, went gold. (Glenn Morrow met John Flansburgh of TMBG through an old friend from high school, Margaret Seiler, who was dating JF at the time.)

Other artists that started on Bar/None and went on to the majors include Luka Bloom, Yo La Tengo (Atlantic/Matador), Freedy Johnston (Elektra) and Tindersticks (London/Polygram).

1994 proved to be a breakthrough year for Bar/None. Along with Freedy Johnston's Triple-A success on Elektra (100,000 soundscanned and counting) Bar/None secured the U.S. rights to the Tindersticks just prior to the band receiving "Album of the Year" from Melody Maker, beating out a number of better funded (i.e. major label-backed) independents.

The real surprise of 1994 was the launching of a new musical phenomenon called "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" based around the stereo hi-fi recordings of Juan García Esquivel. Sales hit 50,000 and continue to build week by week. Since the release of the highly successful Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music and the follow-up compilation Music From A Sparkling Planet, the major labels have cashed in with hundreds of "Cocktail/Lounge" reissues. An Esquivel Christmas album was released in the winter of 1996.

1995 was the year Bar/None grabbed their market share: K. McCarty's performance of "Living Life" was played over the credits in the Richard Linklater film "Before Sunrise" and Epic Soundtracks continued to tour and befriend the fabulous. Former Replacement Chris Mars joined the Bar/None family for a three album deal and Poi Dog Pondering chose Bar/None over the major label route for their Pomegranate album. But the biggest breakthrough came with the summer release of the Edwyn Collins album Gorgeous George with soundscans of over 100,000 copies and the Top 40 single "A Girl Like You."

1996 marked releases from Arto Lindsay, the late great Country Dick Montana, Mensclub, The Divine Comedy (on Setanta Records), Kate Jacobs, Professor & Maryann and many more.

Still going strong in 2010, Bar/None released the new album, Glow, by former Bongos frontman and Hobokenite Richard Barone among other high-profile projects.