Direct Hit Records was a record label and store based in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

. The record label is notable for releasing early recordings by North Texas musicians who would eventually go on to prominence at a national level (Bedhead

Bedhead

Bedhead were a Texas-based indie rock band active in the 1990s . Bedhead's music was generally subdued, with a polyphonic sound based on the interlocking of single-line melodies played by three electric guitars and one electric bass guitar , nearly always using clean tones, prompting comparisons...

, Baboon

Baboon

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...

, Brutal Juice

Brutal Juice

Brutal Juice was a self-proclaimed "acid punk" band from Denton, Texas.The band formed in 1991. The band initially met in the music school at the University of North Texas...

, UFOFU

UFOFU

UFOFU was a rock band based in Dallas, Texas. The band consisted of Joseph Butcher, and brothers Brandon Curtis and Ben Curtis. It rose to local prominence in the mid-90's through word of mouth and slots opening for other north Texas bands such as Hagfish and Tripping Daisy...

, Slowpoke

Slowpoke

Slowpoke may refer to:*Slowpoke , a fictional species of creatures in Pokémon media*SLOWPOKE reactor, a nuclear research reactor*Slowpoke , a band from Dallas, Texas, who have worked with the Toadies*Slowpoke...

, the Grown-Ups

Grown-Ups

Grown-Ups is a 1980 British BBC television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Brenda Blethyn, Janine Duvitski, Lindsay Duncan and Sam Kelly...

 and Dooms UK). The label went on to release recordings by out-of-Texas artists, including Secession Movement, Malachai and Michael W. Dean, between 1998 and 1999.

The label operated in Dallas's Exposition Park from 1989 to 1995. One critic compared the label's early outlook to other prominent record labels and the cities associated with them: "For a few years, it looked as though Direct Hit could have been to Dallas what Sub Pop

Sub Pop

Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...

  was to Seattle or Twin/Tone was to Minneapolis-St. Paul."