THRILL JOCKEY

Richards started the label with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while working at a Hoboken, New Jersey, record store, and ran it from her apartment in Manhattan.[1]

In 1995, she moved the label to Chicago, Illinois, where “rent and taxes are considerably cheaper.”[1]

Thrill Jockey offers full-length streaming of every song on every release in its catalog. “I believe if people can listen to the albums, they tend to buy them,” Richards said in a 2006 interview with Chicago Reader.[2]

Artists who have recorded on the label include Double Dagger, Future Islands, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, High Places, Trans Am, Mouse on Mars, ADULT., Nobukazu Takemura, Bobby Conn, Tom Verlaine, Freakwater, The Zincs, The National Trust, Eleventh Dream Day, Califone, Chicago Underground Duo, Howe Gelb/Giant Sand, Mary Lattimore, Oval, Town & Country, Archer Prewitt, Sam Prekop, The Lonesome Organist, OOIOO, Pit er Pat, The Fiery Furnaces, Angela Desveaux, Liturgy, Boredoms, Pontiak, and Golden Void amongst others. Artists on the label have often collaborated with other artists on the label to form spin-off groups.

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