| Fat Wreck Chords | |
| Founded: | 1990 |
| Founder: | Fat Mike & Erin Burkett |
| Distributor: | The Orchard (US) PIAS (Europe) eOne Music (Worldwide) |
| Country: | U.S. |
| Location: | San Francisco, California |
| Genre: | Punk rock |
Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced "Fat Records") is an independent record label based in San Francisco focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett (better known as Fat Mike) and his wife at the time, Erin Burkett in 1990. As of 2009 Fat Wreck Chords has released over 300 studio albums.
Fat Mike started his record label Wassail Records in 1987. He put out two NOFX records, The PMRC 7” in 1987 and Liberal Animation in 1988. In 1990, he and his wife Erin Burkett co-founded Fat Wreck Chords, and re-released NOFX's 1987 EP, The P.M.R.C Can Suck on This. In 1992, Fat Mike went on to produce Lagwagon, Propagandhi, and No Use for a Name. In 1993, the label released records by Rancid, Face to Face, and Strung Out. Fat Mike & Erin continue to run the label together and remain 100% independent.
The label grew during the 1990s selling over a million records per year. It had eighteen employees and four offices. A documentary about Fat Wreck Chords called 'A Fat Wreck' was released on October 25, 2016.[1]
The label has had two subsidiaries over the years, Honest Don's and Pink and Black. Honest Don's released records from Chixdiggit and Teen Idols amongst others, while Pink & Black released albums from female-fronted bands like Fabulous Disaster and Dance Hall Crashers.
Fat Mike advanced $50,000 to Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky of Propagandhi which he recouped within months from sales of Propagandhi records to help them start up their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee, though G7WC is independent from Fat Wreck.
See main article: Fat Wreck Chords discography.
See main article: Fat Music. Fat Wreck Chords regularly releases compilation albums, often to promote bands signed to the label, but also, since 2003, to raise funds for various charities. The earliest Fat Wreck Chords compilations have titles with some reference to fatness.
Shortly after Fat Music Volume IV was released, Fat Wreck Chords released a similarly titled album, Short Music for Short People, which features 101 songs, all averaging approximately 30 seconds. The shortest song ("Short Attention Span" by the Fizzy Bangers) is only eight seconds, and the longest ("Out of Hand" by Bad Religion) is 40 seconds. Some of the songs were commissioned and recorded specifically for the album, while others were from the bands' pre-existing repertoires.
Since the last Fat Music album has been released, the Fat Wreck Chords compilations have been explicitly for charitable causes. is a benefit album for the animal rights organization PETA, and is a benefit album for the children's rights group PROTECT. Between Liberation and PROTECT, two other compilation albums were released in protest of President George W. Bush and his administration: Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. To celebrate 20 years of business Fat Wreck Chords released the 3-disc Wrecktrospective compilation on December 8, 2009. Disc 1 is composed of the label's greatest hits, disc 2 is composed of unreleased demos and rarities, and disc 3 is composed the Fat Club 7" series in its entirety.[2]
Live in a Dive is a series of live albums recorded by Fat Wreck Chords.[3] In order of release:
| Title | Artist | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live in a Dive | No Use for a Name | September 11, 2001 | |
| Live in a Dive | Bracket | February 26, 2002 | |
| Live in a Dive | Sick of It All | August 13, 2002 | |
| Live in a Dive | Strung Out | June 22, 2003 | |
| Live in a Dive | Subhumans | February 10, 2004 | |
| Live in a Dive | Swingin' Utters | June 29, 2004 | |
| Live in a Dive | Lagwagon | February 8, 2005 | |
| NOFX | August 3, 2018 | ||
| Live in a Dive | Face to Face | October 18, 2019 | |
| Live in a Dive | Rich Kids on LSD | June 3, 2022 |
See main article: Fat Club. In addition to the Live in a Dive series, Fat Wreck Chords also released the Fat Club series of 7" vinyl records during 2001. The series was only available to mail-order subscribers which received one single every month. Fat Wreck Chords did not publish any information on the upcoming releases so subscribers would not know what they were about to receive until the record arrived in the post.
Although the Fat club series was limited to 1,300 copies for each single, the songs contained on the records were later released as the third disc of the Wrecktrospective collection.