Kill Rock Stars.

• Author: Gershon, Livia
• Position: Punk rock record label

Olympia, Washington

People who make music just to try to get famous or rich are dumb, and the people who put out records for those same reasons are pretty silly, too. Good rock and roll is a conspiracy, not just something nice made by crafty businessmen."

So says Slim Moon, who owns Kill Rock Stars, a punk record label. He says the company looks for performances that "the major labels are too profit-driven to have ever considered putting out." Kill Rock Stars works with artists the label considers challenging--musically and lyrically. That means performers express radical views on politics, social structures, personal relationships, and just about everything else. It also means that many Kill Rock Stars artists are angry and on the offensive.

"Punk stands against the status quo in a lot of ways," says Moon. "It's anti-complacency, anti-big business, anti-powers-that-be."

Moon's punkers express themselves not with calm, rational discussion but with rage. "Your world, not mine/Your world, not ours," screams Bikini Kill, probably the most famous band Kill Rock Stars produces. "I'll resist with every inch and every breath/I'll resist this psychic death."

The anger of many punk performers doesn't prevent them from exploring ideas in subtle and linguistically interesting ways. Moon started the label in 1991 to produce "wordcore," intense spoken-word performances. Today, Kill Rock Stars puts out more rock than spoken word, but what the artists say remains...