Allied Records

I started Allied Recordings in 1990 simply because I wanted to release a record of my own, having worked at Alternative Tentacles Records for a couple years at that point.

I discovered Neurosis, who would be the label’s debut release, through attending shows at the Gilman Street Project—established by Maximum Rock’n’Roll (where I was living and working on the zine at the time) as a venue for all-ages shows in Berkeley, California. Scott Kelly, the band’s then guitarist, printed A.T.’s shirts at the silkscreen shop the label used, and we got along pretty well. I think it was Scott who suggested I put out a record of my own. So, when I first started to seriously consider trying to put something out, Neurosis were the band I wanted to release a record by.

The label that would go on to release 100 titles (ending just shy of a decade in 1999 with Jawbreaker’s Live 4/30/96 LP). I named Allied Recordings based purely on the vintage industrial aesthetic of R.E.M.’s Document album artwork. The cover featured the band’s name and album title, as well as some ancillary text: Allied and Allied No. 5. That’s where I arrived at the label’s name and catalog system. The label’s tagline, Music for the Proletariat, was a nod to my socialist bent, as well as an indication as to whom I was doing a label for—the people.

Despite my own misgivings on the legacy of the label, I have begrudgingly accepted the fact that to a certain segment of the punk scene back in the nineties, Allied meant something. And that really means a lot to me. Genuinely. -John Yates

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