The Flenser
American dark experimental record label founded in 2009.
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Jonathan Tuite established The Flenser in San Francisco, California, during 2009.[1] Tuite derived the label's name from the whaling term "flensing" (removing blubber), which he encountered while reading Moby-Dick.[2]
Key facts and history
Jonathan Tuite, a San Francisco native, founded The Flenser in late 2009.[3] The Flenser started as what Tuite describes as a "creative outlet" for him amidst his own appreciation for the music that he ended up putting out.[4] Tuite had been a musician and struggled with playing guitar because of arthritis, which led him to want a creative outlet and a hobby.[4] Referring to itself as a "dark, experimental record label," The Flenser has expanded beyond its black metal roots to include noise rock, punk, shoegaze, post-rock, darkwave and other genres.[3]
Tuite's initial plan for The Flenser was to concentrate on the American black metal scene that was active when he started.[2] As The Flenser's reputation grew, the musical landscape shifted, prompting Tuite to broaden the label's scope beyond its original focus.[2] A reissue of Have a Nice Life's Deathconsciousness (originally released in 2008, reissued in 2014) stands among The Flenser's most acclaimed projects.[5] The Flenser moved into book publishing in 2019, issuing its debut novel, To Sing of Damnation, the following year.[6]
Chat Pile's album God's Country (2022) brought the label significant attention during the 2020s.[7]
What the cited sources add
The New Noise Magazine interview notes that The Flenser's catalog ranges from the fierce black metal of Panopticon to the shimmering post-punk of Have A Nice Life.[4] The same interview states that Tuite believes Midwife's 2020 album Forever is "huge" and "going to be remembered".[4] The San Francisco Examiner account describes Chat Pile as perhaps The Flenser's most well-known band to date.[3] The Kerrang! article describes Deathconsciousness as a double disc album that quickly became a viral hit amongst internet communities like /mu/, sputnikmusic, and rateyourmusic.[8]
The same article quotes Tuite saying that when The Flenser first announced putting out The Unnatural World, people emailed him three days later asking where the record was.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "The Flenser" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Palace of Worms – The Forgotten", Bandcamp, November 14, 2009; Flenser, "About Us", The Flenser; Lefebvre, Sam, "Local Metal Label Flenser Is a One-Man Pursuit of Quality Doom", sfweekly.com, April 27, 2012 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Flenser" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Interview: The Flenser's Jonathan Tuite on the Label's 10th Anniversary", New Noise Magazine; Will Reisman, "SF record label you've never heard of a household name", San Francisco Examiner (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Will Reisman, "SF record label you've never heard of a household name", San Francisco Examiner. facts only, no text reused. sfexaminer.com
- "Interview: The Flenser's Jonathan Tuite on the Label's 10th Anniversary", New Noise Magazine. facts only, no text reused. newnoisemagazine.com
- Wikipedia, "The Flenser" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Heller, "Have a Nice Life: The Unnatural World", Pitchfork, January 30, 2014; "Have A Nice Life Aren't Joking", Kerrang!, February 12, 2020; "Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness", The Flenser; Scaruffi, "Have a Nice Life", scaruffi.com; "Have a Nice Life Interview: Sea of Worry and the Internet's Favorite Cult Band", Bandcamp Daily; "Top 100 Albums of the Decade: 100–76", Sputnikmusic; "HAVE A NICE LIFE'S DEATHCONSCIOUSNESS RE-ISSUE COMING 9/16 FROM THE FLENSER", July 2, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Flenser" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murphy, "To Sing of Damnation: Inside the First Full-Length Novel Published by The Flenser – Heavy Blog Is Heavy", www.heavyblogisheavy.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "The Flenser" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "God's Country by Chat Pile Reviews and Tracks", Metacritic (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Have A Nice Life Aren't Joking", Kerrang!, February 12, 2020. facts only, no text reused. kerrang.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The Flenser (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: The Flenser (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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