Saddle Creek Records Vinyl, CDs & Cassettes

Saddle Creek started in Omaha, Nebraska in 1993 as a college entrepreneurship project called Lumberjack Records, founded by Mike Mogis and Justin Oberst as a way to release cassettes by friends. Named after Saddle Creek Road, the street running through midtown Omaha, it grew into something nobody planned for: one of the most important independent labels of the early 2000s, and the hub of a scene that put a Midwestern city on the map for indie rock in a way that had never happened before.

The early core was tight and collaborative. Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst's project, built its reputation entirely on Saddle Creek releases, from the lo-fi rawness of the early records through the emotionally overwhelming Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil in 2002, a record that made Oberst one of the most discussed young songwriters in the country. Cursive was making dense, literary post-punk here. The Faint brought a danceable, synth-driven energy unlike anything else coming out of the Midwest. Rilo Kiley found a home at Saddle Creek early in their run.

The label has kept evolving, championing Big Thief before they outgrew the orbit, signing Adrianne Lenker, Hop Along, Indigo De Souza, and a generation of artists who fit the same underlying standard: authentic voices making music that doesn't sound like anything else. The Slowdown, the venue the Saddle Creek founders built in Omaha in 2007, is still there, still hosting shows, still the physical center of what began as a cassette label run by a group of friends.