Birdman Records is an independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in South San Francisco, founded by former Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 A&R

A&R

Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...

 vice-president David Katznelson.

History

Birdman Records is the flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 label of the Birdman Recording Group, which includes other labels such as Sepia Tone Records, Tornado Records

Tornado records

This article lists various tornado records. The most extreme tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State Tornado, which roared through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It was likely an F5, though tornadoes were not ranked on any scale in that era...

 and Tariff Records. The label was founded in 2000, following the departure of David Katznelson from Warner Bros. Records.

In addition to its focus on particular artists, the label produced More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album

More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album

More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album is a 1999 tribute album completed shortly before and released shortly after the death of Moby Grape founding member Skip Spence. The album contains cover versions by various artists of Spence's music from his Oar album, released in 1969, presented in...

, a 1999 tribute album to the late Skip Spence

Skip Spence

Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence was a Canadian-born musician and singer-songwriter. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry...

, featuring contributions from Robert Plant

Robert Plant

Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

, Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 and Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, among others, with the objective at the time of funding Spence's medical care. Spence died shortly before the release of the record, but is reported to have heard some or all of it prior to his death. Katznelson was the executive producer

Executive producer

An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

 of the album.

Notable Birdman Artists

• The Apes
  The Apes
  The Apes are a noisy, guitarless garage rock foursome from Washington, D.C.. The band formed in 1999 with the lineup of singer Paul Weil, keyboard player Amanda Kleinman , bassist Erick Jackson, and drummer Jeff Schmid...
  
  
• John Frusciante
  John Frusciante
  John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
  
  
• Foetus
  Foetus (band)
  Foetus is the primary musical outlet of industrial music pioneer J. G. Thirlwell. Until 1995 the band underwent various name changes, all including the word foetus. Monikers adopted at different times include Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel...
  
  
• The Electric Prunes
  The Electric Prunes
  The Electric Prunes are an American rock band who first achieved international attention as an experimental psychedelic group in the late 1960s. Their song "Kyrie Eleison" was featured on the soundtrack of Easy Rider...
  
  
• The Gris Gris
  The Gris Gris
  The Gris Gris is a four-piece psychedelic rock band from Oakland, California. Their name was partially inspired by the Dr. John album Gris-Gris. The group was signed to Birdman Records in 2003 after they did a gig with Birdman recording artists The Modey Lemon. Birdman owner David Katznelson was...
  
  
• The Spider Bags
• Howlin Rain
• Brother JT
• Ralph Carney
  Ralph Carney
  Ralph Carney is an American musician. While his primary instruments are various saxophones and clarinets, Carney collects and plays many instruments, often unusual or obscure ones....
  
  
• The Time Flys
• Apache
  Apache
  Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
  
  
• Modey Lemon
  Modey Lemon
  Modey Lemon is an American garage rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group formed in Pittsburgh's South Oakland neighborhood in 1999 as an informal side project of Dean Swagger, a rock trio that had spent the previous year mainly performing in basements to college party crowds...
  
  
• PFFR
  PFFR
  PFFR Forever Ltd., PFFFR or traditionally known as PFFR is a Brooklyn based production company/art collective/electro-rock band consisting of Alyson Levy, Vernon Chatman, Jim Tozzi, and John Lee...
  
  
• Brian Glaze
• The Cuts
  The Cuts
  The Cuts were a rock and roll band from Oakland, California.The Cuts were formed by El Paso natives Carlos Palacios and Eric Von Ravenson in 1998 at the California College of the Arts. Von Ravenson left the band and Andy Jordan, Carson Bell, Elizabeth Dotzler and Garrett Goddard solidified this...
  
  
• Boredoms
• Paula Frazer
  Paula Frazer
  Paula Frazer is an American singer-songwriter. She grew up in Georgia and Arkansas and moved to San Francisco in 1981. Her music is frequently described as melancholic alternative country, but with an eclectic mix of folk, blues and pop, among other genres...
  
  
• The Nice Boys
  The Nice Boys
  The Nice Boys are a power pop band hailing from Portland, Oregon. They were formed in 2004 by ex-Exploding Hearts guitarist Terry Six, studio keyboardist Brian Lelko, drummer Alan Mansfield, and Colin Jarrel and Gabe Lageson of The Riffs, who, like the Exploding Hearts, were influenced by the punk...
  
  
• Othar Turner
  Othar Turner
  Othar "Otha" Turner was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition...
  
  
• Charlie Dee
  Charlie Dée
  Renée van Dongen, professionally known as Charlie Dée , is a Dutch singer-songwriter from Rotterdam. She won De Grote Prijs van Nederland in 2004 and released her debut album Where Do Girls Come From in 2006 and a year later Love Your Life followed. "Ten Thousand Times" is a duet with Huub van der...
  
  
• Fat Nigger G
• Branman Howe
• Jacuzzi Woodside
• A.D A.K.A Club V.I.P

External links

• Official site - About the Birdman Recording Group
• Birdman Recording Group site