Slash Records was an Americanrecord label originally specializing in localpunk rock bands, active from 1978 to 2000. It was notable as one of the first and most successfulindependent record labels inalternative music,^[1] before its eventual acquisition byWarner Music Group.

The label was formed in 1978 by Bob Biggs. Biggs, a painter, initiated the label with aseven-inch single from theGerms in 1978. A full album from that band was released the next year, andX'sLos Angeles followed in 1980. The label was distributed through Jem until 1981 when that company went bankrupt. Slash then entered into a distribution deal withWarner Bros., a move that was among the first collaborations between a self-started indie and a major label. During the time of this arrangement, the label released albums by prominent Los Angeles punk androck and roll bands, includingFear,The Blasters,L7 andLos Lobos, as well as comparable punk andgarage rock bands such as Austin'sRank and File and Boston'sDel Fuegos.

The label flourished even after the magazine stopped in 1980. A subsidiary,Ruby Records, was started in 1981; Ruby released albums byMisfits,Dream Syndicate, andThe Gun Club. By the mid-1980s, Slash had branched out beyond Southern California, releasing albums byRobyn Hitchcock andBurning Spear. From 1982 until 1996, releases from Slash Records were distributed in North America byWarner Bros. Records andReprise Records, and elsewhere byPolyGram.

The label was sold toLondon Records in 1996.^[2]Universal Music Group (the owner of American Decca) was formed through the merger of the MCA and PolyGram Records families, the latter of which owned London Records, in 2000 and closed Slash as an active label. When London Records president Roger Ames moved toWarner Music Group, he retained the rights to London and Slash, and the back catalogue of Slash was acquired by Warner (excludingRammstein andHarvey Danger). In 2003, Ames relicensed the use of the name Slash back to Bob Biggs, who then relaunched the label.^[3][4] The revived label only released one album, the eponymous debut album by Shiner Massive, before it was closed again due to "high losses".^[5]

As of 2018, Slash solely exists as a reissue label. Between 2016 and 2017, Warner Music, the parent company of Slash, sold off the rights to several former Slash artists; this included the sale of Violent Femmes toConcord Music,Failure toPIAS Recordings, Soul Coughing to Swedish indie Woah Dad!, and Grant Lee Buffalo toChrysalis Records.

Biggs died in October 2020.^[6]

• Complete Slash discography

• American record labels
• Record labels established in 1978
• Record labels disestablished in 2000
• Record labels established in 2003
• Re-established companies
• Punk record labels
• Alternative rock record labels
• London Records

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