Two decades is a long time when it comes to anything, but it’s particularly true when it comes to record labels. Especially given the state of the music industry. Especially, over the course of the last two decades or so, after the explosion of digital music caused the decimation of said industry as it had been. Especially these days, when career longevity has long since given way to overnight disposable viral success. And especially when—despite a slight uptick in the last couple of years—the consumption of physical media has been on a lengthy and significant downward trend for a long time.
With all that in mind, 20 years is practically an eternity. So Last Gang Records have every right to celebrate the hell out of making that landmark. Though there was a smattering of activity before 2004, it was that year that the Canadian label was officially formed by music lawyer Chris Taylor and concert promoter Donald Tarlton. Thanks to early signings such as Metric, Death From Above 1979, MSTRKRFT, and Crystal Castles, the label’s reputation grew quickly. But Last Gang was a label that decided not to take the easy option and rest on those laurels or the scenes their bands were flourishing in. So while the focus has largely been on electronic indie acts (for want of a better description), Last Gang has nevertheless been pushing boundaries for its entire existence. As such, they’ve also released records by Mother Mother, The New Pornographers, Wolf & Cub, Lights, Low Hum, Chromeo, Loving, Noble Oak, and Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder.
“You can definitely draw the roots [of the label] back to that very early-2000s indie sleaze space where Death From Above and Metric were born,” says label manager Chris Moncada, who joined Last Gang almost a decade ago, “and that old adage of, ‘Is it dangerous enough? Is it sexy enough?’ It always was generally agreed upon that that’s where we come from. There’s some stuff that we haven’t done—we haven’t gone full-scale pop or into any classical crossover kind of craziness, but if you look at the fan of sound, it’s everything from house and dance and neo-jazz to more active-leaning rock. It just comes down to: Do we love it? Do we love the partners that come with it? Then let’s do it.”
It’s not just the freedom of that attitude that’s served Last Gang well, however. While the label is a business—one that was acquired by Entertainment One (now MNRK) in 2016—what also makes it stand out, and what has subsequently ensured it has continued to thrive in these trying times, is the sincere sense of family and community that continues to be at its center, and which drives it to this day. The bands are different now, though in a delightful full-circle homage to that familial mindset, this 20th anniversary has seen some of Last Gang’s newer signings cover songs by the older ones. The latest of these is Low Hum’s just-released cover of DFA 1979’s “Romantic Rights,” but listen to any of them and it’s apparent that there’s a beautiful symmetry at play.
“As an indie label to live that long, where the new bands you’re signing were influenced by the first bands you signed, is rare.” — label manager Chris Moncada
“Coming to where we are now in our life cycle,” explains Moncada, “about four or five years ago the new bands coming in the front door that I was looking at would say things like, ‘Oh my God, I grew up on DFA,’ or ‘Oh my God, I love Mother Mother.’ So as an indie label to live that long, where the new bands you’re signing were influenced by the first bands you signed, is rare. So the model for the anniversary celebration kind of wrote itself in that regard.”
And as if to prove that treating people (and their art) with respect pays dividends—who would have thunk it?—so many of the bands that originally set the standard for Last Gang, as well as those newer artists hoping to continue that legacy, have been sending their birthday greetings to the label, sharing how LGR set them on the right path. “Back in the early 2000s when we started Death From Above 1979,” shared Sebastien Grainger, “we were playing in another, larger band called Femme Fatale. Our live show was described as ‘the sound of a plane crash.’ In contrast, DFA1979 sounded like mainstream rock to us. With that delusion we set out to find ‘people’ to help us transcend the church basements and living rooms of punk and hardcore. On that journey we made it to various illuminated stages and in front of new eyes, and eventually we made it in front of Chris Taylor’s eyes. He was probably the third ‘professional’ person we’d met in the music business and the first one to ‘get it’. When he spoke he didn’t blink and he told us he’d take us around the world. And he did. The value of that confidence cannot be understated and we are grateful for it.”
Here are five album’s from Last Gang’s catalog that help to solidify their legacy.
Metric, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (2003)
One of the records that started it all, Metric’s debut was part of that aforementioned, pre-2004 “smattering of activity,” and the first of four albums that were released by Last Gang before the label was officially established. It begins with frontwoman Emily Haines clearing her throat—indicative, in a way, of a band uncertain about who and what they were. And while it’s fair to say that this is the record on which Metric were finding themselves, its importance in both the band and the label’s history can’t be understated. Haines’ two solo albums, from 2006 and 2017, were also released on the label, showing just how deep their relationship with Last Gang runs. “Feels good to be part of the ongoing story,” the band shared in celebrating 20 years of the label that helped launch their career.
Death From Above 1979, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine (2004)
Another one of the projects that started it all, Death From Above’s debut was such a blistering, ferocious explosion of wild, raw energy that it would take a decade to return with their second full-length. Admittedly, the Toronto pair—Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler—broke up two years after this album came out, but that fact only adds to the already overly intense intensity of this dance-punk classic. If, somehow, you haven’t heard it, it sounds like the musical carnage of the riot the band started at SXSW in 2011 during their first reunion show.
Mother Mother, O My Heart (2008)
The Vancouver band’s second full-length, O My Heart, cemented the musically and lyrically angular idiosyncrasies that define the very essence of Mother Mother. Full of left turns, sing-along choruses, and surprisingly ominous moments, it’s not necessarily the easiest of listens, but that’s also why it’s earned its place here. A kaleidoscope of experimental and expansive, genre-defying baroque ’n’ roll, O My Heart remains a great lesson in a band delighting in making whatever the hell kind of music they want to. At that time, it wasn’t anything you’d imagine Last Gang putting out, which makes it all the more special.
Operators, Blue Wave (2016)
Formed by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner, his Divine Fits bandmate Sam Brown, and Boeckner’s then-partner Devojka, Operators released one EP and two albums on Last Gang. Though the band came to something of a messy end, this debut record remains a fresh, inspired, and transcendental work of art that turns human existentialism and paranoia into a set of cathartic and wistfully danceable songs. It’s the kind of record that could (and probably should) soundtrack the collapse of humanity, a devilishly dystopian expression of despair that almost makes you look forward to the death of civilization.
Low Hum, Terra Incognita (2024)
The third album (and third album on Last Gang) from Low Hum—the moniker of Hawaiian-born, LA-based Collin Desha—is proof that in 2024, Last Gang remains at the cutting edge of exciting, fearless music. Gorgeous and psychedelic, its 10 songs come off as both a reaction to, and antidote for, the times we live in. Mixing laidback soundscapes with more intense and up-tempo melodies, in some ways it feels like a crystallization of Last Gang’s existence to this point in time—dive into this record and you’ll find elements of almost every artist who’s called it home at some point, past or present.
