Contacting us:

For press or radio inquires including promotional servicing, email Maren at <press at absolutelykosher.com>

For retail promotions, stores who wish to order direct and general wholesale sales inquiries from here or abroad, email Cory at <retail at absolutelykosher.com>

For mail-order questions and inquiries, email Maren at <orders at absolutelykosher.com>

For all other questions, email Cory at <macher at absolutelykosher.com>

Our mailing address:
ABSOLUTELY KOSHER RECORDS
1501 Powell Street,
Suite H
Emeryville, CA, 94608

About Absolutely Kosher Records:

After gestating for a year or so in the mind of Cory Brown, Absolutely Kosher Records was officially launched in early 1998 with the release of P.E.E.'s The Roaring Mechanism. We set out to release great records with an eye towards diversity on the roster inspired by some of our favorite labels (notably Matador, Merge, and Simple Machines), while at the same time, trying to maintain the label-next-door feel of the amazing Shrimper Records (though plenty of other labels provided different forms of inspiration). The label started in a corner of the living room in San Francisco, moved into a garage in Berkeley and now resides in an office in Emeryville, a small city just over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco that is also home to CG Animation titans Pixar, a host of great food trucks and Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, the diner owned by Mike Dirnt of Green Day. Our humble offices are under the Powell Street overpass, along Horton Street. While unsolicited demo drop-offs can be awkward and we discourage them, friends and fans and out-of-towners are always welcome to drop in and say hello.

Demo Policy:

We're always examining how we do things here and seeing what can be improved. A&R is a very small but important part of our business and the amount of demos we get makes it impossible for us to follow up on every single one, especially in a timely manner. That said, we very much understand the hope and effort involved in submitting your music to us. In an effort to provide better service to those bands who'd like to work with us, we are offering a deluxe submission process. You can still submit the old way, free of charge and no deference will be given to deluxe submission purchasers as far as getting signed to the label. However, for a payment of $20 or $24 in merchandise (postage not included), you will now be able to submit your demo via either CD or (for the first time) by providing a download, MySpace or streaming link.

For any band or musician who uses our deluxe submission process, we guarantee a thoughtful response within two weeks time from when your music is received. Please make Paypal payments to demos@absolutelykosher.com or order the merchandise as usual from our site and send a follow-up email letting us know that your purchase is tied to a demo submission and how you'll be submitting.

We are always happy when you send us demos. To us, it means you think enough of us to trust us with your music. We've signed a few bands from demos and directed a bunch of other folks to labels better suited for what they were doing. That said, there are a few suggestions we strongly urge you to heed:

Have something of an idea about what we do at Absolutely Kosher. You don't need to own all of our records. Heck, you don't even need to like them all. We're not a label with a particular "sound," so to speak, but a general understanding and appreciation of our aesthetic would be helpful.

Uploaded sound files and inquiries with myspace links will likely be deleted (unless you've purchased our deluxe submission). Weblinks are totally practical and we understand the appeal, but they are not a replacement for mailing us a demo. We are simply too busy to follow-up on all of the links that people send us. If you send us a link, it is highly unlikely we'll ever hear your band. If you'd like to work with us, it's really not too much trouble to stick a CD into an envelope.

Give us some time to listen to your submission. If you don't hear back, we apologize. We get so much stuff, we don't always have enough time to respond to everything. That said, we listen to everything we get (eventually). With at least one demo a day (and sometimes as many as six or seven), that's a lot of new music to sift through.

Please don't be too upset with us or lose hope if we turn you down or don't respond. We're incredibly busy with our bands (now more than ever before) and can't release everything we'd like to. For this reason, most follow-up inquiries will not be answered. I hate to be all "Don't call us, we'll call you," but we do have two record labels to run here.

Internships and Job Opportunities

In our ten years as a label, every employee but one had either interned for the label or otherwise worked closely with us. The best way to come in every day to work and get paid by us is to start by coming in every day to work for no pay. This is a horrible industry where there's always too much work and not enough money, so you have to find redemption in the music and pay your dues a little bit. Unless you're already rich, in which case, you can inquire about making donations. But seriously folks, we are always looking for interested parties to give us a hand. Please email Maren at press@absolutelykosher.com. Remember, everyone wants to be an A&R rep, but it takes someone special to pack boxes and stuff envelopes.

The Jewish thing:

The label's founder, Cory Brown, is Jewish and chose to give the label a distinctly Jewish name, but also one that doesn't take itself too seriously. He believes the contributions of Jews both in popular music as well as in the industry are vastly overlooked for many reasons from simple ignorance to assimilation to anti-Semitism, not to mention reticence of the Jews themselves to be identified as such. It's no crusade, but he felt the need to stand up and be counted in this regard. Absolutely Kosher Records is not a "Jewish Music" label per se nor does one need to be Jewish in order to work at the label or be on the roster. Conversely, in spite of shared initials and some appreciation from afar, we have nothing to do with the lovely soldiers of Christ over at Asthmatic Kitty Records. There has been a planned compilation of bands with Jewish musicians for some time now, but pursuing bands for comp tracks can take some time. The comp is titled Ear of the Yenta (in homage to Soo Yung Park's influential Ear of the Dragon compilation of Asian-American/Canadian bands). If you are an established band who'd like to participate, please inquire with Cory.

Distribution:

We currently provide manufacturing and distribution services to Misra, a fantastic label soon based in Durham, SC; Dreamboat, an imprint from the UK; and Moonjaw, a small artist-run label from Ohio. If you'd like to join our family, please inquire with Cory. We are extremely selective, particularly in regards to maintaining the delicate balance of working with labels who complement what we do, so don't take offense if we politely say no thanks.