Fat Wreck Chords has released over 300 studio albums to date.[1]
History
Fat Mike started his record label Wassail records in 1987. He put out two NOFX records, The PMRC 7” and Liberal Animation in 1988. In 1990, he and his wife Erin Burkett co-founded Fat Wreck Chords, and rereleased NOFX's 1987 EP, The P.M.R.C Can Suck on This. In 1992, Fat Mike went on to produce Lagwagon, Propagandhi, and No Use for a Name. In 1993, the label released records by Rancid, Face to Face, and Strung Out. Fat Mike & Erin continue to run the label together and remain 100% independent.
The label grew during the 1990s selling over a million records per year. It had eighteen employees and four offices.[1]
A documentary about Fat Wreck Chords called 'A Fat Wreck' was released on October 25, 2016.[2]
Fat Mike also advanced $50,000 to Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky of Propagandhi which he recouped within months from sales of Propagandhi records to help them start up their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee,[3] though G7WC is independent from Fat Wreck.
Fat Wreck Chords regularly releases compilation albums, often to promote bands signed to the label, but also, since 2003, to raise funds for various charities. The earliest Fat Wreck Chords compilations all have titles with some reference to fatness.
Shortly after Fat Music Volume IV was released, Fat Wreck Chords released a similarly titled album, Short Music for Short People, which features 101 songs, all averaging approximately 30 seconds. The shortest song ("Short Attention Span" by the Fizzy Bangers) is only eight seconds, and the longest ("Out of Hand" by Bad Religion) is 40 seconds. Some of the songs were commissioned and recorded specifically for the album, while others were from the bands' pre-existing repertoires.
To celebrate 20 years of business Fat Wreck Chords released the 3-disc Wrecktrospective compilation on December 8, 2009. Disc 1 is composed of the label's greatest hits, disc 2 is composed of unreleased demos and rarities, and disc 3 is composed the Fat Club 7" series in its entirety.[4]
Album series
Live in a Dive
Live in a Dive is a series of live albums recorded by Fat Wreck Chords.[5] In order of release:
In addition to the Live in a Dive series, Fat Wreck Chords also released the Fat Club series of 7" vinyl records during 2001. The series was only available to mail-order subscribers which received one single every month. Fat Wreck Chords did not publish any information on the upcoming releases so subscribers would not know what they were about to receive until the record arrived in the post.
Although the Fat club series was limited to 1,300 copies for each single, the songs contained on the records were later released as the third disc of the Wrecktrospective collection.
