Tooth & Nail Records

Founded	1993
Founder	Brandon Ebel
Distributor(s)	RED (US), Fontana (US), Sony Music (Worldwide), Diamante Music Group
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United States
Location	Seattle, WA
Official website	www.toothandnail.com

Tooth & Nail Records is a Christian rock record label^[1] founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle, Washington where it is situated today. It is home to many well-known musical acts, including Underoath, Hawk Nelson, Emery, The Almost, FM Static, Family Force 5, and MxPx.

Tooth & Nail's first album released was Wish for Eden's Pet the Fish,^[2] which was produced by Michael Knott and originally slated to be released by Blonde Vinyl. Subsequent releases from The Juliana Theory, MxPx, and Starflyer 59 made Tooth & Nail a strong force in Christian music circles, as well as a niche underground subculture in itself. Prior to forming Tooth & Nail, Ebel worked for the Christian label Frontline.^[3]

Sales

Eight Tooth & Nail-affiliated albums have been RIAA-certified as Gold for sales of 500,000 or more copies. The label saw one of its greatest successes when Underoath's Define the Great Line debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2006.^[4]

RIAA gold certifications

Nominations & awards

Structure

Tooth & Nail contains multiple imprints, each catering to a different genre of music:

• BEC Recordings mostly includes artists in the mainstream sect of commercial Christian rock such as Kutless and Jeremy Camp, with some exceptions (such as hip hop artists KJ-52 and Manafest).
• Solid State Records distributes metal and hardcore albums^[3] by artists such as Living Sacrifice, Demon Hunter, Haste the Day, Underoath and August Burns Red.
• Uprok Records was a hip hop label that included many of the genre's early successes, such as ILL Harmonics and KJ-52. It is dissolved, though hip hop albums distributed by BEC Recordings still bear its logo (most recently Glory by Manafest).
• Plastiq Musiq (founded by Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric) primarily signed electronic music artists.^[3] Tooth & Nail entered a partnership to distribute Plastiq Musiq albums in 1998 and 1999. Plastiq Musiq continues to release albums independently.
• Fugitive Recordings primarily is made up of artists marketed outside of the Christian market, including Denison Witmer, The Presidents of the United States of America, and Young London.

• The label acquired Takehold Records, an independent record label, in 2002. This acquisition brought several bands to Tooth & Nail including Underoath, Further Seems Forever, Few Left Standing and Narcissus.

On March 13, 2013 it was announced that Brandon Ebel had sold the entire Tooth & Nail music catalog to Capitol Christian Music Group (formerly EMI Christian Music Group) and by doing so was able to buy back the 50% stake in Tooth & Nail formerly owned by EMI making it an independent record label. It will retain the rights to all future releases.^[6]

Current artist list

• Anchor & Braille
• Artifex Pereo
• Children 18:3
• Copeland
• Hearts Like Lions
• Kings Kaleidoscope
• The Letter Black
• Love & Death
• Tyson Motsenbocker
• Nine Lashes
• Aaron Sprinkle
• Underoath
• We Are the City
• XXI

source:^[7]

Former artist list

Active

• Abandoned Pools
• As Cities Burn (unsigned, but currently touring)
• Bleach (currently active)
• Blindside (currently unsigned)
• Brave Saint Saturn (signed to Department of Biophysics Records)
• The Classic Crime (currently unsigned)
• Corey Crowder (currently unsigned)
• Craig's Brother (currently on Takeover Records)
• Crash Rickshaw (side project for members of Project 86)
• Damien Jurado
• Danielson (currently on Secretly Canadian)
• The Dingees
• Discover America (currently on Lujo Records)
• Dogwood (currently on Roadside Records)
• The Drawing Room (side project of Thousand Foot Krutch)
• Emery (currently on Bad Christian Music)
• Everdown (reunited, two new demos on MySpace)
• Family Force 5 (currently on Transparent Media Group)
• Fighting Jacks
• FM Static
• Focused (unsigned)
• The Fold (independent)
• Further Seems Forever (currently on Rise Records; members went on to form Dashboard Confessional, Action Reaction and Fields Forever)
• Goodnight Star (currently on Miniature Records)
• Hawk Nelson (currently on Fair Trade Services)
• Holland (changed name to The Lonely Hearts; currently unsigned)
• Hyland
• The Huntingtons (reunited)
• Icon for Hire (independent)
• Ivoryline
• Joy Electric
• Klank
• The Lonely Hearts
• Luxury (currently on Northern Records)
• Mae
• Matt & Toby (currently on BadChristian Records)
• mewithoutYou
• Mike Knott
• MxPx (currently on Rock City Recordings)
• New Empire
• Norma Jean (currently on Razor & Tie)
• Norway (independent)
• The O.C. Supertones (currently on BEC Recordings)
• Overcome (currently on Facedown Records)
• P.O.D. (currently on Razor & Tie)
• Project 86 (independent)
• Rocky Loves Emily (currently unsigned)
• Run Kid Run (recently archived)
• Ruth
• Sainthood Reps (currently on No Sleep Records)
• Search the City (currently unsigned)
• Seventh Day Slumber (currently on BEC Recordings)
• Showbread (currently on Come&Live! Records)
• Since October
• Spoken (currently on E1 Music)
• Starflyer 59
• States (currently recording a second album)
• Stavesacre (limited activity, members in Neon Horse)
• Surrogate (Independent)
• Swimming with Dolphins (currently unsigned)
• Sullivan (currently on Spartan Records)
• Thousand Foot Krutch (independent)
• The Crucified
• The Wedding
• The Wednesdays (Currently with Thorp Records)
• Write This Down (currently unsigned)

Disbanded

• A Dream to Late
• Ace Troubleshooter (members now in Relient K and My Red Hot Nightmare)
• All Wound Up
• The Almost
• Anberlin
• And Then There Were None (members now in Young London)
• AP2 (Contributors continue as lvl and Celldweller, among others)
• The Blamed (members now in The Satire, Big Mess, and The Wiitala Brothers)
• Blenderhead (One member now in The Out Circuit)
• Blessed by a Broken Heart
• Bloodshed (members now in My Compatriots, B is Bridgie)
• The Brothers Martin (One-time Project)
• Calibretto 13 (members now in Harley Poe, Mercury Radio Theater, Everything, Now!, Divebomber, and Darling)
• CHATTERbOX (members went on to form Stavesacre)
• Children 18:3
• The Cootees (Former side project for members of MXPX, Ninety Pound Wuss, and Slick Shoes)
• Crux
• The Deadlines (members now in The Bullies, The Escape, Haunted Bayou, and Kisses Lose Their Charm)
• Delta Haymax
• The Deluxtone Rockets
• Don't Know (Members went on to form Blenderhead)
• Driver Eight (members went to play with Theft, Fastball, Paloalto and Golden State)
• Element 101 (members went on to form Action Reaction)
• Falling Up (Independent)
• Fanmail (members in Radio Saints and My Compatriots)
• Fine China (members now in The Foxglove Hunt)
• Focal Point (One member went on to form Training for Utopia and is now in Demon Hunter)
• For Love Not Lisa (members went on to form Puller)
• Frodus (members went on to form The Out Circuit, The Black Sea, Decahedron, Frantic Mantis, The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Cassettes; and Shelby Cinca now records as a solo artist)
• Furthermore
• Ghoti Hook
• Hangnail
• Havalina (members now in Matt Death and the New Intellectuals)
• Holland (members went on to start The Lonely Hearts. One member went on to join Demon Hunter)
• House of Wires
• Joe Christmas (members in Summer Hymns)
• Jonezetta
• The Juliana Theory
• Lucerin Blue
• Morella's Forest
• Neon Horse (inactive side-project of members of Stavesacre, Starflyer 59, and Project 86; members now in White Lighter)
• Ninety Pound Wuss (members went on to form Raft of Dead Monkeys and Suffering and the Hideous Thieves)
• Off the Record
• Outer Circle
• Pedro the Lion (David Bazan now performing solo)
• Pep Squad
• Plankeye (ex-members went on to form Fielding and Fanmail)
• Poor Old Lu (members went on to form Fair, Rose Blossom Punch, and perform solo)
• Puller
• Queens Club
• Roadside Monument (members went on to form Unwed Sailor, Raft of Dead Monkeys, and Suffering and the Hideous Thieves)
• Rob Walker
• Royal
• Sal Paradise
• Sent by Ravens
• Shorthanded
• Side Walk Slam (members now in Run Kid Run)
• Slick Shoes
• Slow Coming Day
• Sometime Sunday (members went on to form Tragedy Ann)
• Squad Five-O (members now in Gasoline Heart and Adam and Dave's Bloodline)
• Strongarm (members went on to form Further Seems Forever)
• Terminal (members now in Alive in Wild Paint, Oh, Sleeper)
• Too Bad Eugene
• Twothirtyeight (Chris Staples went on to Discover America and perform solo)
• Unashamed
• The Undecided
• Upside Down Room
• Value Pac (Members in Radio Saints)
• Velour 100
• Waking Ashland (Jonathan Jones went solo Immortal Records and also formed We Shot The Moon)
• Watashi Wa (members formed Eager Seas, then disbanded; members now in Lakes, and Briertone)
• We Are the Becoming (members went on to join Project 86)
• Wish for Eden

On hiatus

• Bon Voyage
• Capital Lights
• Dead Poetic
• A Dream Too Late
• Far-Less
• Halo Friendlies
• I Am Empire (members in Talkie and Disciple)
• Mortal (Jerome Fontamillas now in Switchfoot)
• The River Bends
• Secret and Whisper
• The Send

See also

• Tooth & Nail Records Discography
• List of record labels

References

External links

• Official site
• Interview with A&R Chad Johnson, HitQuarters Oct 2006
• A list of past Tooth & Nail artists