Buddyhead

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Buddyhead

Buddyhead is a music "webzine" and independent record label formed by Travis Keller and Aaron North in the summer of 1998 in Hollywood, California. They are notorious for their Lester Bangs-style of outspoken criticism of popular culture and the music-industry. Their infamous gossip column has resulted in them being sued over a dozen times by numerous celebrities and record labels ranging from Courtney Love to Drive-Thru Records. Scandals and antics they are responsible for include them breaking into Fred Durst’s office at Interscope Records, stealing his baseball cap, and then auctioning it off and donating the money to a rape victim charity.

Besides the gossip column, the Buddyhead website features interviews with bands and artists, a popular MP3 blog, a streaming radio show, and photography.

Buddyhead’s record label, Buddyhead Records, started as a means to release North's own band, The Icarus Line, as well as posthumous albums of influential post-hardcore bands such as: Ink & Dagger and the post-Refused Swedish Art-core project, Text. The label continued by releasing limited-edition records that now fetch high prices on eBay from bands such as At the Drive-In, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Burning Brides. In 2004, Buddyhead Records expanded, moving from the boutique music realm to release full-lengths by such acts as: ModWheelMood, Wires On Fire, The Cassettes, Shat, Radio Vago, 400 Blows, and more.

Buddyhead Records have also curated a number of Compact Disc and DVD compilations containing rare and unreleased material from bands such as Mudhoney, Primal Scream, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wire, and Weezer.