Sonic Unyon

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Sonic Unyon
Founded1993 (1993)
FounderSandy McIntosh
Mark Milne
Distributor(s)Universal Music (Canada)
The Orchard (ROW)
GenreAlternative
Indie
Country of origin Canada
LocationHamilton, Ontario
Official websitesonicunyon.com

Sonic Unyon Recording Company is an independent record label based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The label has put out releases by bands including Tristan Psionic, Sianspheric, Shallow North Dakota, Eric's Trip, Hayden, Chore, Frank Black and the Catholics, A Northern Chorus, Raising the Fawn, Teenage Head, and Voivod.

History[edit]

Headquarters, on Wilson Street, downtown Hamilton, Ontario

Sonic Unyon was founded in 1993 by Mark Milne, Sandy McIntosh of the band Tristan Psionic.[1][2] At first, they released their own band's music, and then began releasing and promoting music by other local bands.[3][4] By 1995, Sonic Unyon had grown to be one of the largest independent labels in Canada.[5] The basement of their headquarters often held shows, and many local musicians got jobs working for the record label and operated their own record labels out of the shop.[6]

Sonic Unyon regularly organized concerts in traditional and non-traditional spaces featuring artists on the label's roster, but became increasingly ambitious as momentum behind the young label grew. The label’s first large-scale event, Woolsock,[7] was a one-day festival held in a field south of Campbellville, Ontario on August 20, 1994. The lineup included Change of Heart, Gorp, Shallow, Smoother, Spool, Treble Charger, 13 Engines, and Tristan Psionic.

Woolsock ’95 was planned to be staged a year after the initial Woolsock, this time at Parker's Wonderland (a two-hectare rural property in Pelham, Ontario). Following logistical hurdles, the festival ultimately relocated to Hamilton’s X-Club.[8] The event featured Another White Male, Choke To Start, Gorp, Hayden, hHead, Hip Club Groove, Kittens, Kottmeier, The Mercury Men, Monster Voodoo Machine, The New Grand, Poledo, Project 9, Rheostatics, Shallow, Sianspheric, Smoother, Sparkmarker, Treble Charger, and Tristan Psionic.

In honour of the label’s second anniversary, Sonic Unyon rented the 44-meter yacht Captain Matthew Flinders for a floating party tour of Toronto’s waters on September 17, 1995. Bands playing that party included Change of Heart, Die Cheerleader, and Huevos Rancheros. [7] [8]

In 1996, Sonic Unyon’s partners purchased a three-storey commercial building at 22 Wilson Street near James Street North in downtown Hamilton thanks in part to a friendly relationship with then-owner Sam Manson, whose namesake sporting goods store had just closed at the same address. The label, which had been operating out of a warehouse in Hamilton’s Corktown neighbourhood, moved in the following year.

On October 3, 1998, Sonic Unyon marked the label’s fifth anniversary with a celebration that included the release of the Now We Are 5 compilation, the grand opening of the Sonic Unyon Record Store (located on the main level of 22 Wilson Street, an all-ages show at its headquarters, and a licensed concert in an upstairs hall of the nearby Fortune Village restaurant. The latter concert featured sets from Blonde Redhead, Danko Jones, The Mooney Suzuki, The New Grand, Bill Priddle, Julie Doiron, Thrush Hermit, and Tristan Psionic. The concert’s lineup had initially included The Flaming Lips’ Boombox Experiment, but the band ended that series five nights earlier in Boston, Massachusetts and did not appear in the final lineup.

Following the collapse and eventual bankruptcy of Cargo Records in late 1997, Sonic Unyon Distribution was founded in 1998 to distribute Sonic Unyon and other labels in Canada, amassing a roster that included dozens of domestic imprints as well as exclusively representing over 200 international independent labels within Canada. The company distributed releases in Canada from independent labels from around the world and issued select co-releases with other independent labels, including Amphetamine Reptile, Dischord Records, Epitaph Records, Fat Wreck Chords, Fearless, Jagjaguwar, Matador Records, Merge Records, Metalheadz, Nuclear Blast, Plexifilm, Secretly Canadian, Southern Records, Thrill Jockey, and Warp.[9] Sonic Unyon Distribution was ultimately sold to MapleCore in 2008.[10] The label's releases are currently distributed in Canada by Universal Music Group and internationally by The Orchard.

Sonic Unyon also ran hardcore label Goodfellow Records (active 1997-2009), as well as the more mainstream imprint Labwork Music (a joint effort with EMI Canada[11]), which released Wintersleep's Welcome to the Night Sky, the album that earned them a JUNO Award for New Group of the Year.[12]

The Sonic Unyon Record Store remained in operation for almost a decade, closing in spring of 2008.[13] The label continues to operate an online storefront.[14]

In 2009, Sonic Unyon branched out into event production by organizing Supercrawl,[15] a free annual multi-arts festival dedicated to showcasing the arts scene in the James North region of Hamilton. The three-day event has featured hundreds of national and international touring artists in a range of artistic disciplines. In 2015, the festival received an Ontario Tourism Award of Excellence for Tourism Event of the Year.[16]

Sonic Unyon has since broadened its events-based business to include the annual Because Beer Craft Beer Festival, and the opening of multi-use cultural events spaces Mills Hardware and Bridgeworks in 2014 and 2020 respectively.[17] The label left its Wilson Street offices in 2017 and is now headquartered within the Bridgeworks venue.

Sonic Unyon has produced JUNOfest 2015 and 2022, JUNO Songwriters’ Circle in 2019, and Hamilton's 2015 Pan Am Games closing celebrations. Sonic Unyon also produced the 2021 and 2023 Grey Cup Festivals, the 2023 Polaris Music Prize Gala and the 2023 edition of CBC Toronto's Sounds of the Season.

In 2011, roughly two decades after the term “metal” was stripped from the JUNO Awards (following the retirement of the Best Hard Rock / Metal Album category after the 1991 awards), a new category was created: Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, the result of a two-year CARAS lobbying campaign by Sonic Unyon.[18][19]

Sonic Unyon’s roster makes up three of CBC's 50 best Canadian songs of the '90s[20] and eight placements on Noisey’s 2016 ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever.[21][22]

In 2019, the label released a triple-LP vinyl retrospective, Now We Are 25, as well as a documentary of the same name that featured appearances from artists Joel Plaskett of Thrush Hermit, Hayden, Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson of Sloan, Terra Lightfoot, music media personalities George Stromboulopoulos and Alan Cross, and others.[23]

Selected artists[edit]

The following artists have made at least one release through Sonic Unyon.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Larry LeBlanc (23 September 1995). "Sonic Unyon Stays True to its Artists". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 64–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  2. ^ "Sonic Unyon wafts to greatness" Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont.By Ira Band Dec 19, 1996 Page: G.9
  3. ^ "For two Hamilton buddies, home building is a gut job". Dave LeBlanc, The Globe and Mail, Jan. 22, 2015
  4. ^ Tennant, James. "Sonic Unyon throws a musical Christmas bash". The Spectator - Hamilton, Ont. Dec 14, 2006. page G.15
  5. ^ Rockingham, Graham. "The Many Layers of Sonic Unyon". Hamilton Magazine. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  6. ^ Julien, Alexandre (November 3, 2011). "Redstar Records Interview". Abridged Pause Blog. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Sonic Unyon Records (2022-12-08). Sonic Unyon: Now We Are 25 (Documentary). Retrieved 2024-05-20 – via YouTube.
  8. ^ a b Wells, Jon (Sept 6, 2014). "The evolution of the fall fair". The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved May 20, 2024. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Sonic Unyon Distribution | Exclaim!". Sonic Unyon Distribution | Exclaim!. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  10. ^ "Sonic Unyon's Supercrawl Continues To Rock The Hammer | Billboard Canada". ca.billboard.com. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  11. ^ Staff, Billboard (2006-10-24). "Canada's Sonic Unyon, EMI Form JV". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  12. ^ "2008 | New Group of the Year (sponsored by FACTOR and Radio Starmaker Fund) | Wintersleep". The JUNO Awards. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  13. ^ Holt, Joshua (June 2008). "Steeltown Scene: Genre, Performance and Identity in the Alternative Independent Music Scene in Hamilton Ontario" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  14. ^ "Sonic Unyon Shop". Sonic Unyon. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  15. ^ Taylor, Ric. "Supercrawl II". Weekly Paper Article. View Magazine. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  16. ^ "Supercrawl named Ontario tourism event of the year". CBC Hamilton, Nov 12, 2015.
  17. ^ Columnist, Graham Rockingham Contributing (2021-08-19). "Hamilton's newest live music venue is built, now it's time 'to make some money,' says Supercrawl founder". The Hamilton Spectator. ISSN 1189-9417. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  18. ^ "Juno Awards to add metal/hard music category". CP24. 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  19. ^ "Heavy medal". The JUNO Awards. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  20. ^ "The 50 best Canadian songs of the '90s". CBC. February 23, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
  21. ^ Lindsay, Cam (2016-09-26). "A Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever, Part I". Vice. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  22. ^ Lindsay, Cam (2016-09-26). "A Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever, Part 2". Vice. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  23. ^ Cross, Alan (2019-10-17). "Sonic Unyon Records turns 25. Time for a documentary. | Alan Cross". Alan Cross' A Journal of Musical Things. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  24. ^ Sonic Unyon: Now We Are 25 (Documentary). Retrieved 2024-05-02 – via www.youtube.com.

External links[edit]

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