Jodey Lawrence (Supernova): I think the label liked working with bands that weren't ordinary. Louder, scarier, totally f-ed up = better.

Before the rise of the DIY punk culture, record labels meant very little to the average listener. After all, who cares whether a Bob Dylan album comes out on Capitol or Asylum? But beginning in the early '80s, fans began gravitating towards specific independent record labels that could be relied upon to deliver high-quality products of a certain aesthetic. Labels like the hardcore-focused SST, grunge marketers Sub Pop, D.C.-specific Dischord, indie rock clearinghouse Matador and post-punk giants Touch & Go were soon selling records based as much on their own reputation as that of their artists.

One of the most infamous of these indies was Minneapolis' Amphetamine Reptile Records, a label specializing in aggressive rock bands with names like Cows, Helmet, Tar and Lubricated Goat. Because these bands didn't fit comfortably into pre-existing categories like 'punk,' 'metal' or 'grunge,' fanzine reviewers soon adopted the term 'noise-rock.' Thus, Amphetamine Reptile (later shortened to AmRep Industries) became renowned as the world's foremost noise-rock label.

To celebrate the label's 25th anniversary, Crawdaddy herein presents an oral history based on exclusive quotes from AmRep's artists, house photographer, and legendary founder Thomas "Haze XXL" Hazelmyer. Our goal is two-fold: to reintroduce this influential but obscure subgenre to a modern audience, and to provide a deeper understanding of the ethos, honesty, controversy and humor that characterized the label and its roster.

Amphetamine Reptile was founded in November 1985 by Thomas Hazelmyer, a U.S. Marine stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, WA. His original mission was simply to release 7" singles by his own band, pioneering noise-rock trio Halo of Flies.

Haze XXL: At that point in time, I already had a bellyful of '77 punk, post-punk, early American hardcore, 60's garage and primo 60's acid rock, and on some level was trying to blend it all together and regurgitate it.

John Anglim (Halo of Flies): At that time it didn't feel so much like the founding of AmRep as much as just trying to push some Halo of Flies records out into the market. I remember Tom and his wife talking about the name of the label. Amphetamine Reptile was Tom's idea. It was the best choice of the two. No, I'm not going to share what the other option was.

Haze XXL: The closest I came to internship was watching and helping the Husker Du guys with early Reflex Records stuff as a teenager. The main lesson was, roll up yer fucking sleeves and dig in, and try not to repeat mistakes.

John Anglim (Halo of Flies): I sold the first Halo of Flies 45 to Jello Biafra for $2. That was a highlight. He wrote "Anything for a bribe" on one of the bills.

Following three successful Halo of Flies singles, AmRep made a tentative move towards becoming a "real" record label by issuing a pair of 45s by The Thrown Ups, a sloppy but hilarious monstrosity featuring two members of Mudhoney. Although poised to take advantage of the burgeoning Seattle grunge scene, Hazelmyer suddenly uprooted the label and moved to Minneapolis, MN.

Haze XXL: That's where I was from. I was just stationed in WA. When my four in the Corps ended, I headed home. I saw the birth of the grunge scene and enjoyed it immensely but counted my blessings that I left when I did, as I didn't want to be lumped in -- nor did trying to exist in Sub Pop's shadow sound like a good time.

Re-established in Minneapolis, AmRep continued to expand its roster with 7" releases by Seattle's sleazy, swinging U-Men and Kalamazoo, MI's disturbing psycho-rockers God Bullies.

Mike Corso (God Bullies): From what I remember (and I used to get pretty fucked up in the early years) Tom somehow listened to our first 45, and for some reason he still liked it. Our guitarist David B. Livingstone had probably mailed one off to them.

Haze XXL: I liked what other bands were doing and knew if I didn't release their material, nobody else would. I also really enjoyed the whole process of making records.

Mid-1988 marked a key milestone for the label, with Hazelmyer releasing the first entry in what would ultimately become a ten-volume series of singles entitled "Dope-Guns-N-Fucking in the Streets." For many listeners, this series of records (later compiled into three LPs) became synonymous with AmRep itself.

Haze XXL: It was going to be in conjunction with a magazine I honestly can't remember the name of anymore. The magazine was dicking around, so I pulled a sleeve together and released it. It was an underground hit, so I kept at it!

Released in early 1989, the next two entries in the series introduced listeners to such soon-to-be AmRep legends as psychedelic SF guitarist Helios Creed, Chicago's monolithic Tar, NYC blues rockers Surgery, and Minneapolis' own Cows, whose idiosyncratic mix of guitar noise, distorted bass hooks and darkly humorous lyrics would lead to their reputation as arguably the 'ultimate' AmRep band.

John LaChapelle (Surgery): Tom fell in love with me the first time he laid eyes on me. As for Surgery, he simply couldn't deny the thundering domination of what he heard, and the rest is history. It was a match made in Heaven.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): Tom Hazelmyer lived across the street from our bassist Kevin Rutmanis and they started hanging out. He liked our single "Chow," but he didn't like our first album. He wanted to sign us though, because we were kind of controversial in Minneapolis.

Dale Crover (Melvins): Cows were always a fun band. I remember the first time I saw them; Shannon came out with shaving cream all over his face.

Tony Oliveri (Cows, God Bullies): When we were on the 1990 AmRep Introductory Tour in Austria, I went backstage and saw this couple sitting on a couch smoking cigarettes and drinking beer staring to their left. I looked and there was Shannon with his private parts in a vice -- slowly turning it to see how much pain he could endure. I looked at this couple and they were all straight-faced staring at him. I'll never forget the look on their faces thinking, "This is pretty fucked up."

Helios Creed: I loved the God Bullies, I loved the Cows. There's probably more, but I just can't remember them. I just have a love for all the people that tried to make a difference in music and not sell out, but hopefully the masses would take to them, you know? And it was a sad era in a lot of ways, in that people put out so much creative energy and got so unnoticed.

With the company finally making the leap to full-length LPs, 1989 found AmRep developing into a recognizable force in the independent music industry. The label's 'noise rock' aesthetic grew in popularity as consumers picked up albums by God Bullies, Cows and Helios Creed, as well as reissues of Australian imports by twisted skronkers King Snake Roost and humorous goofballs Lubricated Goat. As the label's standing grew, Hazelmyer continued to keep costs down and quality up by keeping an eye on the purse strings while allowing his bands full artistic control.

Haze XXL: Learning how to get it done on a "Private in the Marine Corps" pay helped keep shit grounded later on when there were more resources to play with. Folks who start with a sizeable funding from the get-go never seem to learn how to keep things reasonable and are usually the first to go bankrupt. They do shit like having a new band spend $15,000 to record an LP that in all likelihood will sell 3000 copies, or sending 20 copies to all the writers of Rolling Stone, which would never cover an indie release in the 80's or 90's. For me, it just seemed common sense to find a cut-out box factory and ship our new releases out in overstock Deep Fry Fat boxes we got cheap.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): We had complete creative control -- everyone did. We would hand in the final mixes, and he wouldn't even listen to them. "What, I'm gonna sit and listen to this with you goons staring at me? If you like it, I like it" was his attitude.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): Tom let us do whatever we wanted. Including keeping our name, which admittedly is pretty stupid. AmRep wanted us to change it early on, but a friend of ours had named us. True, this friend was from Fargo, so maybe we had a lack of vision there.

Mike Corso (God Bullies): We had total control. The music, the art - total control. Of course, no matter what, Hazelmyer is going to tell you just what he thinks -- but then again, that's part of his charm.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): Oh yeah, he didn't like the idea of naming our first record "Cop Killer" very much.

John LaChapelle (Surgery): I don't think there was any control whatsoever when it came to Surgery. We were chaos with a mission, and quite proud of that.

As 1989 drew to a close, the label released its first two singles by another pair of bands who would become AmRep legends: trebly Minneapolis space-garagers Vertigo and heavy NYC disciplinarians Helmet.

Gene Tangren (Vertigo): We did not court any labels. We didn't think anyone would buy our stuff! We thought that we could afford to press 300 copies of the first single, but people seemed to like it quite a bit. We had interest from a couple of labels before AmRep, but Cows were friends of ours and they were going to AmRep. Tom apparently liked our stuff and contacted us. The AmRep contract we signed still had the Cows' name written on it. So Vertigo is really Cows.

Peter Mengede (Helmet): We did what most bands did in that we recorded some demos with Don Fury, ran off a bunch of cassettes and mailed them out to labels: AmRep, Sub Pop, Touch and Go probably, and Gerard Cosloy at either Homestead or Matador. At the time, Gerard described us as "Berkeley grads with Big Black albums" which was closer to the truth than he could have known.

Helmet's interim with the label would be relatively short-lived, thanks to a little matter called the 'Grunge Revolution.' Following its astonishing Strap It On LP, the band began to be touted as 'the next Nirvana' and, in mid-'92, were offered an outrageous sum of money to sign with major label Interscope.

Page Hamilton (Helmet): 'The Next Nirvana' was just ridiculous, obviously. Nirvana wrote these great pop songs, Beatles-inspired stompers or whatever, and that's not the stuff that we were doing. So, it worked to our benefit as far as the music industry was concerned, that we were on an independent label and had built our own following by touring and putting stuff out on AmRep, kind of exactly the way Nirvana had done it.

Haze XXL: We actually worked together to achieve their move, as we found with limited staff, we were quickly devoting a majority of our time to one band, and they obviously far outstripped our abilities. As far as them being the "next Nirvana," I never thought of it that way, but they came damn close.

Page Hamilton (Helmet): Hazelmyer said, "Look, I can't do anything more for you guys. You're getting too big for the label to handle, and you really should pursue this." I was like, "OK." Because of his honesty, we're still friends today.

Peter Mengede (Helmet): When it came time to move on, Tom got points, a payout, and vinyl release rights to Meantime so he did ok.

Haze XXL: Seriously, in my twisted version of reality, I thought most of our bands would rule the known universe!

With its large stable of uncompromising bands, AmRep plowed its way through the early '90s on the backs of such classic noise rock LPs as Tar's Jackson, Helios Creed's Boxing the Clown, Cows' Cunning Stunts and God Bullies' War On Everybody. Although each band brought its own sound to the AmRep stable, some critics began to pigeonhole the label as purveyors of a single type of music. This criticism increased with the signings of heavyhitters Hammerhead, Janitor Joe and Guzzard - whose debut releases, to less discerning ears, could be accused of following a pre-established AmRep template. Fans of the label couldn't have cared less; they turned to AmRep for creative aggro-rock and were thrilled that the label continued to follow through on its promise.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): That was the thing about AmRep. It got typecast as a certain sound, but most of the bands are really extremely different from each other. Supernova didn't sound at all like Helmet, Lubricated Goat didn't sound at all like Halo of Flies and so on. But the noisier bands were copied by so many local bands that people began to think there was an AmRep sound. But it never existed. It got us typecast, but at the same time there wasn't anybody dying to sign us either. We sent a tape to Touch and Go, and they just sent it back! We sent them, I think, "Chow" and "Chasing Darla" and a couple of others. They said it all sounded like waltzes.

Haze XXL: If I liked it, then I considered it AmRep worthy. I honestly never thought of our sound as that singular or confined, but at some point, you have to deal with that as a reality when the entire music world thinks that's the case. I also started running into bands that would hesitate out of concern for being lumped in, as no original band wants to be pigeonholed.

Paul Sanders (Hammerhead): We actually had never heard of AmRep. We got booked to play a few shows in Minneapolis with the Cows through some mutual connections. Tom introduced himself to us at one of those early shows and asked us if we wanted to do a track for the Dope, Guns and Fucking in The Streets compilation. Tom spoke in complete sentences, and we had zero other options. We pretended to negotiate before signing something. Every part of this transaction took place at a bar.

Paul Erickson aka Apollo Liftoff (Hammerhead): The only exposure to AmRep we had at that time was a split Twin Tone/AmRep cassette called Good Beer, Tasty Sandwiches. I remember thinking the Cows track and Boss Hog track were good. Other than that, we didn't know shit about the label. This is when we still lived in Fargo.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): We were very happy with the label, and despite Tom's rough, latent homosexual behavior he is a giant pussycat who respected us as artists etc blah blah. Believe me, in contrast to a label like Narnack or something, Amrep was absolute gold. The Microsoft of independent labels. There was an Ethos. My God.

Henry Bogdan (Helmet): Working with AmRep gave you a bit of a built-in following, at least for us it did.

Daniel House (bassist, Helios Creed's The Last Laugh LP): Having "AmRep" on my musical resume was always a cool thing. They were one of the best labels back then, and to be associated with AmRep was nothing short of awesome.

Mike Corso (God Bullies): I think being part of the AmRep stable of bands at the time was fanfrickentastic. Was it good for our career? Who the fuck really cared? I've bought obscure records that had one song that influenced me. If any of the songs we put out have influenced anyone, then I guess I've had a successful career.

Paul Erickson aka Apollo Liftoff (Hammerhead): I think it helped get us off the ground very well, in some circles. I liked the freak aspect of the label, but there's a certain meathead factor that it attracted as well. There's probably a lot of folks who wouldn't bother checking out Hammerhead because of preconceived notions about the label. But a lot of other people checked us out just because of the label.

Gene Tangren (Vertigo): It was good and bad. AmRep had quite a diverse roster. Some fans liked the noise label, and some were turned off by it. Never can please everyone.

Freddy Votel (Cows): Honestly, I wasn't into it. I really only liked Cows and Hammerhead when I first joined the band and label, so personally I was skeptical. But then Tom signed Melvins and Supernova, and all seemed to be heading in the right direction. Until he signed Nashville Pussy.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): I like AmRep but, goddamn it, it got to be such a schtick. It became codified instead of anarchic. Not good. Some of the bands we toured with, we'd just scratch our heads sometimes, thinking "Is this what people think of us?" I remember the Muffs (if you remember that band) wanting to assassinate us because we were affiliated with AmRep. I distinctly remember a show at Jabberjaw, in fact, where they just stood in front of the stage and frowned. Refusing to see or hear for themselves, really. They thought the label and, by extension, all its bands were misogynistic knuckle-draggers. Not that there wasn't some truth to it somewhere but certainly it wasn't pervasive.

Paul Sanders (Hammerhead): After being on AmRep, the only viable career option I had was advertising. I type this email sitting at a desk in the inner ring of hell. I think of Tom Hazelmyer every goddamn day.

The general indie rock community had little interest in the loud and abrasive AmRep approach in the first place, but that didn't stop them from raising a stink when word got out about Hazelmyer's 'right-wing' political beliefs. This controversy caused quite a few debates at college radio stations over the years, but the artists didn't seem to mind.

Page Hamilton (Helmet): He's a man of his word, he's incredibly intelligent and just loves to wind people up. He has so much confidence because he's so smart that he can take all the crap that people dish out, or all the stuff that people think, and the accusations... I don't know if I want to even get into it, but there's so much - I've read things, you know, 'conservative kook,' all this. And it's like, 'Uh-huh. Yeah. OK.' You sit down and have a political discussion with that guy and he'll fucking run circles around you. He's just a great, great human being.

Haze XXL: I never could figure out how and why that made the rounds. I made a point to not take a political stand in interviews as the label guy, as I always felt it had nothing to do with the music. Also, why should people in the bands who might disagree with me feel as though they have to shill for the opposition or my beliefs because I'm putting AmRep out there as a political entity?

Dale Crover (Melvins): It would bother me more if he was a tree hugging lefty. Tom's a "Hate Hippy," just like us. Dope, guns and fucking? We're all for it!

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): Politically, Tom and I are almost opposites--like night and day. He has his reasons, and I have mine. So what? We respect each other. He is a very smart guy and a true artist and, in his hard-assed way, a humanitarian.

Haze XXL: I was always amazed at how many folks felt they could discount the accomplishments and aesthetics of the label and its bands because I might not agree with them politically. What the fuck is that? That's on par with me thinking Gang of Four or Joe Strummer were shit because I thought their politics were run of the mill art school bullshit. Difference being they wore it on their sleeve, and I didn't.

Freddy Votel (Cows): Truthfully that never bothered me, as I grew up in a right-wing tinged family. My dad, mom and brother alone -- who are admittedly right-wing -- have done far more for people who've been in a financial crisis than any really vocal bleeding-heart liberal I've ever met. And I pretty much firmly stand on the liberal side of things at the end of the day. I don't believe in those kinds of labels anyway. If you did, you wouldn't see that die-hard hippies and die-hard punks are exactly the same -- misinformed and blissfully ignorant of how stupid they really are.

Haze XXL: Amazingly a lot of folks that see themselves as world saviors seldom have the balls to actually do anything/take action or confront. It was usually snipping from a distance safely from behind a typewriter.

Daniel House (bassist, Helios Creed's The Last Laugh LP): I was never really "troubled" by Haze's right-wing leanings. I never really shared that many political or social views with him, but in a weird way, that was part of what made/makes Haze such an interesting character - the seeming contradiction between the music he released and his conservative views on the world. I've always thought - and still do - that Tom Hazelmyer is a great guy. Always will, I'm sure.

John Anglim (Halo of Flies): Tom doesn't hold any of his beliefs haphazardly. I have a lot of respect for him in that way. I like to listen to everybody. The dynamics of being in a band can be pretty challenging. The three of us in that late 80s version of Halo of Flies were/are three very different people. I don't think you'd find us spending a lot of time together outside of the band.

Haze XXL: Since there is no more label, I'll gladly state that I'm about as Libertarian as they come. At times that belief runs parallel to Republican ideals (especially economically). Back when the Left actually gave a shit about personal freedoms, I imagine I would have been siding with them far more than I do now.

John LaChapelle (Surgery): When Tom turned us on to mini corn dogs, all politics fell to the wayside. I mean, who can't reach across the aisle when there are mini corn dogs as an olive branch?

The mid-'90s saw unexpected and horrific tragedy strike the label, with two of its artists passing away within a seven-month period.

Haze XXL: Surgery vocalist Sean McDonnell died from an asthma attack. His lifestyle of 24-hour party marathons, smoking, and living a hard NYC nightlife played a part in wearing him down to the point where a cold might have kicked his ass. Sean was a close friend, and I still miss the fuck out of him.

John LaChapelle (Surgery): Sean was pure rock and roll. Smoked, drank, sex, drugs... died before the world went to shit. Never had a cell phone, never had an email address. It would be a better place with Sean in it.

David B. Livingstone (God Bullies): Kristen Pfaff was in Janitor Joe, and she was also in a band with me called Hood. And one night at the Ace Bar in St. Paul, she asked me, "Should I go up to Seattle and join Hole?" To my undying regret, I said, "Yeah, man. Go for it!"

Haze XXL: Kristen was a surprise, as it was common knowledge in Minneapolis that she hadn't even dabbled in heroin until the months after she moved to L.A. and hooked up with Hole. You do the math. It was exactly what EVERYONE warned her not to do when moving out there.

David B. Livingstone (God Bullies): My introduction to Courtney Love was when me and my girlfriend at the time walked backstage to the dressing room we were sharing, and she whipped a bottle at the wall and a chunk of glass went into my girlfriend's eye. And my impression only got lower from there. And when Kristen died, it just got really personal. She wouldn't remember me in a million years now, but I remember her. And every time I read about something shitty happening to her, I'm very happy about it. I'm vindictive that way. No, she's fuckin' evil. And I guess, again, a lot of it goes back to Kristen. That to me was really unforgivable. I mean, I can forgive a lot of people for being assholes, but for reasons I probably can't talk about without being sued, I hold her directly responsible. And it was a waste of an incredibly talented, incredibly bright and incredibly nice young lady.

Perhaps in answer to his critics, Hazelmyer made a concerted move away from the "Helmet" sound beginning in the mid '90s. With AmRep-influenced noise rock threatening to grow as stale and cliched as Seattle grunge, AmRep began signing such diverse bands as slinky swing jazzers The Crows, sadcore pioneers Chokebore, LSD psych-rockers Love 666, bizarre covers project S.W.A.T., and kiddie pop-punkers Supernova.

Haze XXL: For biz reasons solely, we should have become the Helmet label and only worked with bands that were ripping off Helmet. I would have likely wound up with that whole late 90's generation of bands like Limp Bizkit that still owe Page Hamilton "influence royalties" and sold millions of units! I would be talking to you from poolside in Beverly Hills instead of from an office above a small bar in Northeast Minneapolis. Unfortunately, my A.D.D.-based "been there, done that" attitude always got the best of me.

Jodey Lawrence (Supernova): We actually went to Minnesota to the AmRep office and kidnapped Tom and held him hostage in the basement of the building. We tied him to a chair and forced him to eat Hostess Ding Dongs until he agreed to sign us. The contract was signed in chocolate. Tom was a skinny man until that weekend.

Troy Von Balthazar (Chokebore): If I remember correctly, we sent Haze a cassette tape but I forgot to rewind it completely so when he heard it, it was right in the middle of a song. Luckily it was the best song on the cassette and the best part. I guess it got his ear because the next thing we knew we were driving him to Minneapolis to record our first album.

Christian Omar Madrigal Izzo (Chokebore): Tom likes music, and he understood us. Chokebore's sound is unlike any other band. Maybe Chokebore could have fit with the 4AD label just the same or just as little. AmRep was a great label because it was a labor of love. For me it was the best label I ever worked with.

Paul Erickson aka Apollo Liftoff (Hammerhead): I like how Love 666 got signed. They barged in with their demo, then sat outside in their van for hours until Tom had listened to it and called them back in. They did have a song called "AR-15' after all.

Dave Unger (Love 666): 1) Love 666 is the revolution 2) Love 666 is individual freedom 3) Love 666 is free rock & roll 4) Love 666 is free noise.

Haze XXL: I think there was only one instance of me refusing to release a record. It was Love 666 who midstream decided they wanted to take their advance and record a pure white noise LP. It was the only time in the decade-plus where I gave bands 100% creative control that it came back to bite me in the ass. I know the purists out there will be aghast with that decision, but they never have to write the checks for manufacturing and promotion on an LP you'll sell 2 copies of, and with limited resources it's not a hard choice to make. They then went back in the studio and cut Please Kill Yourself So I Can Rock, which I thought was amazing.

Dave Unger (Love 666): Love 666 wishes to express its mutual revolutionary solidarity with Tom Hazelmyer and AmRep.

Adam Parfrey (S.W.A.T.): The SWAT project occurred after doing an article on a SWAT convention I attended in Orlando, Florida. This was a time when domestic police were becoming militarized, and it truly disturbed me that those in charge were so big on making soldiers of cops. I went to that convention to try and find out what was going through these guys' heads. It turned out that they absolutely believed that they were different and better than your average civilian. They also distrusted, but quietly, the federal organizations, like ATF and FBI. It seemed like it would be interesting to record an album as if it were done by SWAT cops.

Jodey Lawrence (Supernova): Tom had two sides of the label: NOISE and NICE. We are on the NICE side.

Adam Parfrey (S.W.A.T.): People couldn't understand whether the record was pro-cop or just an obtuse putdown. In the end it was a little of both. I liked the chameleonic sensibility. If you understand something right off, it doesn't make you curious, or make you think, or make you consider what the hell is going on. How many times do you listen to a record, and it makes you do that?

In the summer of 1998, following the release of a Thee Headcoats/Lollipop split-single, Hazelmyer shut down AmRep Industries to concentrate on his visual art and Minneapolis bar Grumpy's.

Haze XXL: Basically, the minute the Cows called and said they broke up, I slammed the doors shut and slapped a padlock on 'em. The worst thing about running a record label was realizing that if you want a long-term "business," you have to start running things that counter what the artist wants. The two are seldom the same. The artist sees a 14-panel gatefold sleeve with images licensed from the estate of Salvador Dali as necessary to their vision and integrity. You just start to see the fact that you'll be losing $2 for every unit sold and find it harder to buy into the creative vision because you get pounded into submission by having to balance the checkbook at the end of the day. Also, it got to the point where jadedly I could tell you minute by minute when & where any given band was going to start souring on the business. Not just my label, mind you, but I would watch friends do the same thing to other labels. At any rate, when you start getting that negative, it destroys and overshadows the magic of when you hear a new band and it lights your world on fire, and you're pulling 12-hour days for the cause.

Hazelmyer eventually re-opened AmRep, but in a greatly reduced form. Its major impact in the 21st century is due not to its recent activities, but to the huge influence that its groundbreaking '90s releases continue to have on young noise rock acts like Lightning Bolt, Pissed Jeans, Clockcleaner, 400 Blows, Black Elk, Castrovalva, Part Chimp, Young Widows and contemporary Hazelmyer cohorts Gay Witch Abortion.

Haze XXL: I resurrected it solely for vanity projects, and things where I can do something interesting and maybe more aesthetically inclined projects and concepts/collaborations -- releases tied in with art shows, etc. Far more limited, boutique, and hobby-oriented, rather than my day job. I already tried that.

Dale Crover (Melvins): Tom's been doing new HOF with Gay Witch Abortion. I never thought that there was a signature sound, but Gay Witch seems to fit in.

Christian Omar Madrigal Izzo (Chokebore): I feel with the passing of time that AmRep is known for unleashing some of the best music and bands of its time. People liked it then and miss it now. It was a great family of bands, and most of us were all friends. AmRep was only getting better before it ended; great bands like Love 666 and Lowercase were very ahead of their time.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): There are bands in every city who emulate AmRep. They don't cop to it, and that's understandable-- AmRep bands weren't "joiners". Part of what made the bands so good is that they had an "us versus the world" attitude. Also, though many AmRep bands incorporated humor into the music, they were dead serious about what they did. Dead serious. "Ironic distance" doesn't work for daring music - you've got to mean it. For whatever reasons, that quality seems to be missing today. The idea that someone could create a new sound, not a collage of old ones, seems to be considered arrogant -- uncool. Maybe it is.

Daniel Corrigan (photographer of choice for AmRep): AmRep is pound for pound my favorite label. I loved most of the live acts, and the style most represents my own personal taste in music. For the genre, there is no way to escape the label's influence -- for example, the blasting drum/guitar duos in Minneapolis. A lot of AmRep's musicians are still making music too, so the sound is still as alive as they are.

Daniel House (bassist, Helios Creed's The Last Laugh LP): I think between AmRep and the older Touch 'n' Go stuff, there was a major legacy in terms of influence of sound. Even if the newer noise bands today are not consciously aware of the bands that predated them, the fact is that these bands had a big influence on a whole slice of the scene back then, and the ripple effect is far-reaching and relevant.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): I think that Load records has a similar ethos, for lack of a better word. Similar sounds for sure, although I'd say they are even more extreme as they embrace a wider perspective (if not a wide variety of sound). In fact, I distinctly remember Brian Chippendale telling me after his first Lightning Bolt tour that people told him that he reminded them of the drummer from Hammerhead (ok, this is me polishing my knuckles on my shirt).

Peter Mengede (Helmet): I played with a few local guys the other day and they told me that the noisier things are for Brisbane audiences, the better. They can't get enough of Unsane, and anything more structured sounds like Linkin Park to them. So, there's definitely a legacy, albeit a select one.

Mike Corso (God Bullies): In a word, NOISE! As young musicians come into their own, just as I did, they will listen to one of the bands on a certain label, and they will then seek out all the bands on that label.

Tony Oliveri (Cows, God Bullies): I don't think AmRep really has gotten the respect it deserves for how it influenced the music scene in the late 80's and early 90's compared to Sub Pop and Touch and Go. From God Bullies to Cows, Helmet to Boss Hog, Chokebore to Melvins, each created a diverse landscape of sound that wasn't just "Noise," but a vision that Haze put into motion and made into his own genre that can only be defined as bad ass.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): Locally, there is something called "Minnesota Nice" that people buy into. Even the hip hop bands are all nice here--role models and such. It is absolutely required. AmRep was a flagrant violator of that code, and it has paid a huge price. To read the local rock press, you would think that AmRep never happened.

Haze XXL: It's not as though I've been sitting here since '98 when I shut it down, waiting for the call, "Hey buddy, the kids all want to hear that kooky AmRep sound!" If there was enough interest I would be reissuing stuff. I never shut it down completely and kept most titles available. I just never repress anything. I got most of it up on eMusic and iTunes for the younger set that isn't as stressed to hold it physically, and is just searching for the music.

And now, a few final AmRep memories:

Gene Tangren (Vertigo): For Christmas one year, Tom gave out bottles of AmRep bourbon that with a label that said "Unscrew cap, drink contents, fall down. Merry Fucking Christmas!"

Henry Bogdan (Helmet): On our first big tour, opening for The Melvins, Tom showed us how to undo the odometer cable under our rental van, so we didn't have to pay for all the mileage driven. We couldn't have afforded to tour if we hadn't!

Daniel Corrigan (photographer of choice for AmRep):
Ring ring.
(Woman's voice) "AmRep."
(Me quietly, away from the phone) "Fucking Hazelmyer."
(Me into the phone) "Is Tom there?"
(Hazelmyer) "I'm going to kill you, Corrigan."

Troy Von Balthazar: I remember that Chokebore didn't have a title for the first album. We were driving out to Minneapolis from Los Angeles and decided to name the album the number of miles it took from our house in Los Angeles to the AmRep office in Minneapolis. We were all excited, but right as we pulled up, we looked down at the odometer and it said 1984! Damn Van Halen had beaten us to the punch again.

Peter Mengede (Helmet): I was lucky enough to see Hazelmyer goose-stepping around on stage in Dortmund and pelting Germans with the rider on the Ugly American Overkill tour. So, at the time, having a single out on AmRep was the pinnacle of achievement.

Jeff Mooridian (Hammerhead): I think of the Cows a lot as we toured with them the most. I remember swinging off a giant crucifix at some warehouse after a show, cajoled by Thor who was wearing a newspaper crown (all true) and almost breaking my hi-hat foot as I swung down and hit the floor. The capper was Kevin Rutmanis reminding me, splayed out in the van the next morning, that it was my idea the whole time and that Tom couldn't hold the Cows responsible. That made me laugh so hard and made my foot throb like mad.

Gene Tangren (Vertigo): My bandmate Jared and I went to Tom's office many times just to talk or listen to music. We smoked Sobraine Black Russian cigarettes, and Haze smoked Camels I think they were. Either that or Marlboros. Haze would tell us we made his office smell like a French whorehouse. That always encouraged us to smoke more.

Shannon Selberg (Cows, Heroine Sheiks): Kevin and I would walk into AmRep HQ on a regular basis, ostensibly to shoot the shit, and load our pockets with anything that wasn't nailed down. We hit that place like Visigoths; we rattled. It was ridiculous. They always pretended not to notice--it was like a running gag.

Jodey Lawrence (Supernova): Tom's awesome, but a crappy bowler.

Paul Sanders (Hammerhead): Am I still on good terms with Mr. Hazelmyer? I hope so. It would be easy enough for him to poison me.