Industry | Music |
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Genre | Punk rock, pop punk |
Founded | 1996 |
Headquarters | Seal Beach, California, United States |
Key people
|
Joe Escalante Warren Fitzgerald |
Products | CDs, LPs, other records, DVDs, band and label-related merchandise such as clothing, stickers, etc. |
Website | kungfurecords.com |
Kung Fu Records is an American independent record label founded in 1996 by Joe Escalante and Warren Fitzgerald of the punk rock band The Vandals. Founded in order to release a record by the Riverside, California band Assorted Jelly Beans, the label soon grew to include a roster of notable artists such as The Ataris, Ozma, Tsunami Bomb, and The Vandals themselves. In 2000 Escalante started Kung Fu Films as a subsidiary of the music label in order to release DVDs of live concerts, music videos, band documentaries, and independent films. In 2005 Kung Fu also spawned the spinoff label Broken Sounds Records, focusing on hardcore releases.
Kung Fu Records was founded by Vandals bassist Joe Escalante and guitarist Warren Fitzgerald in 1996. Escalante had been urged by his wife to allow the Riverside, California band Assorted Jelly Beans to open for The Vandals, and he and Fitzgerald were so impressed by their performance that they decided to start a record label in order to release the band's debut album. Escalante named the label after his study of Kung Fu San Soo, and its first release was a split single featuring both The Vandals and Assorted Jelly Beans. The Assorted Jelly Beans' debut self-titled album followed that same year, as did the soundtrack to the Ben Affleck movie Glory Daze, which featured The Vandals and Assorted Jelly Beans and a theme written by Fitzgerald. At the end of the year the label also released a Vandals Christmas album entitled Oi to the World!