Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small

About this book

Merge Records defies everything youve heard about the music business. Started by two twenty-year-old musicians Merge is a lesson in how to make and market great music on a human scale. The fact that the company is prospering in a failing industry is something of a miracle. Yet two of their bands made the Billboard Top 10 list; more than 1 million copies of Arcade Fires Neon Bible have been sold; Spoon has appeared on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show; and the Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs is a contemporary classic. In celebration of their twentieth anniversary founders Mac and Laura offer first-person accountswith the help of their colleagues and Merge artistsof their work their lives and the culture of making music. Our Noise also tells the behind-the-scenes stories of Arcade Fire Spoon the Magnetic Fields Superchunk Lambchop Neutral Milk Hotel and Butterglory. Hundreds of personal photos of the bands along with album cover art concert posters and other memorabilia are included.