Mint Records

Mint Records is a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based independent record label founded in 1991, by friends and campus radio enthusiasts Randy Iwata and Bill Baker. Mint has put out over 150 releases, several of which have won Juno Awards.

HistoryEdit

Iwata and Baker started working together at CITR-FM, the University of British Columbia radio station. Three years after graduation, they left the station, and founded Mint Records in January, 1991 to release the music of up-and-coming bands in Vancouver.<ref>"Greetings from Vancouver!". SPIN 2 March 2006.</ref>

One of their earliest successes was a band called cub who, alongside Bunnygrunt and labelmates Maow, helped pioneer the vein of indie pop known as cuddlecore.<ref name="Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Cub">Template:Citation</ref> Neko Case, performed in both Cub and Maow, released her first solo album on Mint.<ref>"Neko Case and her enduring bond to Canada". The Buffalo News, By Michael Farrell Feb 26, 2016</ref>

In the late 1990s, the label was heavily affected by the financial crisis at and eventual bankruptcy of distribution company Cargo Records,<ref>"Still in Mint condition: A small Vancouver record label has quietly carved out an enviable 'killer brand' reputation in the indie market". The Globe and Mail, August 30, 2001.</ref> when Cargo's failure to pay the label for Gob's album Too Late... No Friends led to the band, then Mint's most lucrative act, defecting to rival label Nettwerk.<ref name=havenot>Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995. ECW Press. Template:ISBN.</ref>

In the year 1998, Mint Records album Get Outta Dodge by Huevos Rancheros was nominated for a Juno Award in the Best Alternative Album category,<ref>"Yearly Summary | The JUNO Awards" Template:Webarchive.</ref>

Mint achieved Billboard chart success in the early 2000s with Neko Case<ref>Template:BillboardURLbyName</ref> and The New Pornographers.<ref name="auto">Template:BillboardURLbyName</ref> In 2001, the band's album Mass Romantic won the Juno Award for Best Alternative Album.<ref>"Artist Summary | The JUNO Awards" Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>"The New Pornographers: The Last Picture Show". Magnet,</ref> Mass Romantic was listed at #17 in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll,<ref>"Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 2001: Critics Poll" Template:Webarchive.</ref> and later ranked at #24 in Blender's 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever list.<ref>"100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever" Template:Webarchive. Blender.</ref>

By its tenth anniversary Mint had released 32 albums, 23 singles and five EPs.<ref name="Inc.2001">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Electric Version by The New Pornographers was listed at #7 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll of 2003.<ref>"Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 2003: Critics Poll".</ref> In 2009, the album was ranked at #79 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the Decade list.<ref>"Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums, Songs Of The ’00s". Stereogum, 10 December 2009.</ref> New Pornographers album Twin Cinema was voted the #9 album of 2005 in the Pazz & Jop poll of 2005,<ref>"Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 2005: Critics Poll".</ref> and PopMatters ranked the album at #1 on their Best Music of 2005 list.<ref>"Music Reviews, Features, Essays, News, Columns, Blogs, MP3s and Videos | PopMatters". 2005</ref> It was later shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2006,<ref>2006 Polaris Music Prize</ref> while Pitchfork Media placed Twin Cinema at number 150 on their list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In October 2006, in conjunction with Exclaim! magazine and CBC Radio 3, Mint Records mounted a cross-Canada tour called the "Exclaim! Mint Road Show!" with headliners The New Pornographers along with Immaculate Machine and Novillero (except the final show in Vancouver, which featured Young and Sexy and Bella).<ref>"Mint to release Radio 3 sessions collection for 15th Anniversary Roadshow". Punk News</ref>

In 2010, Mint Records album Let's Just Stay Here by Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle was nominated for a Juno Award in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year category.<ref>"Artist Summary | The JUNO Awards".</ref>

In 2011, a book about Mint Records by Kaitlin Fontana was published by ECW Press. It is titled Fresh at Twenty: The Oral History of Mint Records.