Since forming five years ago, Bad Time Records has become the leading label in the current US ska-punk scene, and now label owner (and Kill Lincoln vocalist) Mike Sosinski has started an offshoot label for punk and punk-adjacent bands called Uncle Style Records. The first four signings are Hell Beach (formerly Secret Spirit) from Mass, Brace Face from Maryland, Boardroom Heroes from DC, and Eat Defeat from Leeds, UK. Mike says:
I started Bad Time Records 5 years ago to give a platform to ska and ska punk bands who had never had a platform… in doing that, one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that I just love running a label and working with my friends to get their music heard. While of course most of my world revolves around ska, I’ve had many very close friends in decidedly non-ska bands come to me and say “if we write just a couple ska parts… could we be on bad time?”. I understood that this was always mostly a joke, but it really got me thinking… while I will always support, uplift, and work my hardest for those who need the help in the ska scene… isn’t it a shame that I have to exclude some wonderful folks from this community purely because of their genre? To be 100% clear: Bad Time Records will always be a ska / ska-punk label. Period. “Ska defines me as a person, and I will never turn my back on ska”, etc. But for everything else… there’s Uncle Style. And I am so excited to see where that takes us.
Uncle Style will release Brace Face’s LP Don’t Lose Your Dinosaur on vinyl/streaming on September 1 and a self-titled EP from Hell Beach on August 18. Pre-orders here. Listen to a playlist the label made with a track from each of its four bands below.
