A look back at the great year that was 2019
As we close out another spectacular year here at Polyvinyl, we thought we’d take a look back at some of our proudest moments and accomplishments from throughout 2019.
To kick things off, our beloved Co-Owner Matt Lunsford shares some insightful words on the year as a whole:
“2019 was the 23rd year of us doing our thing here at Polyvinyl. We put out a lot of records (12 full-lengths and nearly 40 releases total!) and, true to ourselves, we embraced our eclecticism.
We were honored to release long-awaited new albums from Pedro the Lion, Anamanaguchi, and Vivian Girls alongside records from Polyvinyl pillars such as American Football, Generationals, and Xiu Xiu.
Chris Farren, Diane Coffee, and Squirrel Flower all joined the Polyvinyl family, while Julia Jacklin and Jay Som both continued to amaze us with their phenomenal sophomore records.
We also released Deerhoof’s debut album on vinyl for the first time (to celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band) as well as the first known recordings from American Football (the vault is now officially empty).
All in all, 2019 was an incredible blend of old friends and new and we promise we’ll be back in 2020 to continue surprising you!”
We can’t wait to share our 2020 plans with you but first, we’ll run through some very cool things we did in 2019.
In 2019, we released 35 different pieces of music into the world, including 12 new full-lengths, 62 new singles, and 33 music videos. That’s a lot of stuff!
Many of those releases proudly ended up on several publications’ End of Year lists, including American Football’s American Football [AKA LP3] (Billboard, NPR, Alternative Press), Chris Farren’s Born Hot (The Atlantic, The Alternative), Jay Som’s Anak Ko (Stereogum, Paste, NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard, and more), Julia Jacklin’s Crushing (Paste, Pitchfork, Gorilla vs Bear, and more), Palehound’s Black Friday (Rolling Stone, Stereogum, NPR), and Pedro The Lion’s Phoenix (NPR, The Alternative).
Several of our releases also made it on some Best of the Decade lists from the likes of Pitchfork, Paste, Stereogum, Rolling Stone, Exclaim! and more, including both Alvvays albums, Japandroids’ Celebration Rock, Jay Som’s Everybody Works, and Julia Jacklin’s Crushing, and that feels really darn good.
If you need to add these display-worthy records to your collection, you can find them all here in the Polyvinyl Store.
And if you were curious about what our staff’s favorite songs of the decade were, we made a nifty playlist together to impress your family and friends with over the holidays.
While our releases did pretty well on the music end of things, we like to think we did a fine job on the physical release side, too. Just look at all this fantastic colored vinyl if you need proof!
New albums are cool, but certain records will always hold a special place in our hearts.
This year, we had the pleasure of digging up old songs and reissuing music in celebration of 25 years of Deerhoof, 20 years of American Football, and bringing back earlier works from both Generationals and Vivian Girls in print for fine folks like you.
We’re also very proud of some special merch collections we launched this year, too!
Our brand new Compass Collection features new merch from head to toe, including long-sleeves, crewnecks, knit hats, socks, shoelaces & very necessary accessories like slip-mats, MiiR mugs, and reusable straws.
We also made new friends at Intelligentsia Coffee, teaming up for a special Polyvinyl blend and a Jay Som “Superbike” blend.
Relatedly, we made a bunch of mugs with illustrations of some of our favorite artists’ faces on them and called it the series Mugshots. Get it? Also, yes we will probably make one for YOUR favorite artist in the future.
We made a crap ton of shirts, hats, tote bags and other things with our logo on it because we could.
We teamed up with the kind people at Stay Home Club to make a series of patches and pins inspired by Polyvinyl artist’s lyrics.
We also did things IRL, including a few Pop Up shops in our warehouse/community, a whole dang SXSW Showcase alongside our friends Double Double Whammy, and our very first few super secret PV Annex shows. (Ask a punk for the address).
We also got together for a week for #PVSUMMIT2019 to plot and scheme big things for the future and to actually see and work with each other in person. It was a huge success.
Additionally, we checked off a bucket list item and even started painting a mural on one of the outside walls of our headquarters in Champaign.
They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are a few pics of some very special guests that stopped by our Champaign headquarters this year. We love our friends!
THANK YOU FOR A GREAT YEAR! WE CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE SOME EXCITING THINGS HAPPEN IN 2020. LET’S GO!
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Love,
Your friends at Polyvinyl
