Headquarters: Contra Costa County, CA (Olympia, WA briefly)
Founded: 1980, relaunched in 1993
Founded by: Negativland
Link: NegativMailOrderLand
Genre(s):
- Noise
- Collage
- Rock
- Avant-Garde
- Children's
Active Roster
- Bob Ostertag
- Twink
- Mono Pause
- Porest
- Evolution Control Committee
- John Oswald
- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Inactive Roster
- Tiny Tim
- Pantychrist
- Rudy Schwartz Project
- Silica Gel
Key Releases
- Negativland - Negativland
- Negativland - Free
- Negativland - Dispepsi
- Rudy Schwartz Project - Guenter Packs A Stiffy
- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Grand Opening And Closing
- John Oswald - 69 Plunderphonics 96
Biography
Seeland was founded in 1980 by Negativland to release their own records. When Negativland got signed to SST in the mid 1980s, the label ended up going on hiatus, as it didn't have any need to exist at the time. The first non-Negativland release was 1988's Al The Alligator cassette by Jane Timberlake (produced and engineered by Mark Hosler), and the only Seeland release to come out while Negativland were on SST. After the U2 single/lawsuit, when Negativland found themselves dropped from SST among all sorts of acrimony, they decided to resurrect Seeland, and recorded Free for the label, funded by rich fans and benefactors who gave the band full creative control for the record. Thanks to the publicity, the album did pretty well, and Seeland was on its feet as a real label.
As a label, Seeland works slightly differently than most labels, though in a way that makes sense, given Negativland's philosophy when it comes to intellecutal property issues. Typically, labels will front the money for pressing the CDs, and take the copyrights (or at the very least, the production rights) for themselves. Seeland, on the other hand, makes their artists pay to have the CDs pressed, but in return allows them to keep all rights to the releases, but instead makes their money by using their wealth of contacts (Seeland releases are actually very well distributed, especially for such a tiny label) to get the records in stores. Seeland doesn't make a lot of money on releases this way, but they make enough -- though, typically, they will put out records they like, rather than spending a lot of time finding The Next Big Thing. Though, in some cases, it has worked for them -- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum have been getting a lot of press coverage and popularity, though, to date, the most commerically successful Seeland releases have been the Negativland albums.