Pure Noise Records has been at it ever since Jake Round started the label in 2009 to release an album by his friends in No Bragging Rights, and right now it’s going stronger than ever. It’s a thriving home for bands from a wide variety of punk subgenres across multiple generations, from veterans to rising upstarts that traffic in punk, pop punk, emo, hardcore, metalcore, post-hardcore, ska, and more. Their current roster is home to Knocked Loose, The Story So Far, Drug Church, Arm’s Length, Koyo, The Bouncing Souls, Less Than Jake, New Found Glory, Four Year Strong, Counterparts, Cloud Nothings, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Microwave, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, The Chisel, Knuckle Puck, Chamber, With Honor, The Early November, Senses Fail, State Champs, Terror, and several others, and everything they put out is worth listening to.
In (slightly belated) celebration of the label’s 15th anniversary, Jake joined us on the BrooklynVegan Podcast to reflect on the label’s past, present, and future, and also to discuss five releases that he feels altered the trajectory of the label. That ranges from some of the label’s earliest records to a certain Grammy-nominated metalcore album that came out last year. Jake doesn’t do a ton of interviews so it was a fun and relatively rare chance to pick his brain about all kinds of stuff, and if you like any of the bands or genres listed above, I highly recommend listening to it. It’s currently streaming on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
We’ve also got several Pure Noise titles available in the BV shop, including a handful of BV-exclusive vinyl variants.