Matador Records Vinyl, CDs & Cassettes

Chris Lombardi started Matador Records in 1989 out of his New York City apartment, and the label's own description of itself, still on its website, is about as honest as it gets: "We've committed to concentrating on artists we're fans of." That founding instinct, signing music you actually love rather than music you think you can sell, has guided the label through thirty-five years and produced one of the most consistently respected indie catalogs in existence.

The Nineties roster cemented Matador's reputation. Pavement arrived with Slanted and Enchanted in 1992, a record that defined lo-fi indie rock and whose influence on everything that came after it is difficult to overstate. Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville followed. Yo La Tengo, whose relationship with Matador has now stretched across decades and dozens of records. Guided by Voices. Teenage Fanclub. Cat Power. Interpol came in the early 2000s and brought the label into a new era. Belle and Sebastian. Queens of the Stone Age.

The current roster carries the same character forward. Snail Mail. Car Seat Headrest. Perfume Genius. Kim Gordon. Horsegirl. David Byrne. The label bought back its full Pavement catalog in 2020 and has been doing serious reissue work on it ever since, which is the kind of institutional respect for its own history that collectors pay attention to.

Now part of the Beggars Group alongside 4AD, XL, and Rough Trade, Matador has the infrastructure of a larger operation without having compromised the thing that made it matter in the first place.