Revelation Records

You know, we didn't really sell hardcore records or stuff.

And then I was working at Caroline and we were district, you know, distributor, uh, And, you know, I was like, Revelation Records and, you know,

all

this other stuff.

dude.

So Revelation Records drops the first EP, right? Yes, yeah.

Was it going to be an Ecovision at all? Or no? Was there talks of that back then?

Ecovision was kind of like, I think Ecovision was like only Krishna core at that time.

There's not one that wouldn't let us put our signatures on their contract.

Is it

true that they wanted you guys so bad that they were going to try to buy Revelation Records? That's what I read.

No,

They didn't have to pay me, but they bought all the records, and they distributed them to re- now my record is in stor- punk stores all around America.

And it was the coolest thing that I ever experienced, and from then on, we figured, you know, then we started Revelation Records, and we sorta had an idea how to do it.

Not much of an idea, but that's how we did it.

With the trial by error, did you guys ever show up to a show and, like, it just wasn't happening or actually had, like, more so of that era rather than, you know, what you would hope?

there was a few people, thank God I, like, picked their brain, because they gave me a whole different angle.

I was like, "Oh, that was happening at that time, and that's what you were going through." So yeah, there was what...

It'd be a lot of times throughout that book where people either from the band or Jordan from Revelation Records, they shined some different light on it, and it was a different perspective than I even saw it.

Though even if, even if I could remember things perfectly-

There have been many podcasts that have dedicated themselves to going through record label catalogs.

Now, of course, my buds over at Where It Went, they have gone through a significant portion of the Revelation Records catalog.

There was a Discord Records one, for sure.

I know that Bedge was a big fan of it.

Welcome to the History of Punk Rock podcast.

Today we're digging into the story of Revelation Records, from its first hand-pressed seven-inch in New Haven to its role in launching the emo hardcore wave.

The story of Revelation Records begins in the autumn of eighty-seven when Jordan Cooper, fresh out of high school and itching to bring a taste of New Haven into the underground, and Ray Cappo, already steering his hardcore outfit, Youth of Today pooled their scrimped cash for one tiny pressing run and slipped a seven-inch of Warzone's Lower East Side crew straight into the hands of a packed CBGB crowd.

That first single was more than a record.

It was proof that you didn't need a major label to get your music out, and it set the tone for the label's DIY ethic that would become a punk staple.

The label's meticulous archival approach also gave later independent labels a blueprint for handling legacy releases, ensuring high-quality vinyl masters were preserved even as digital platforms rose in the 2000s, which meant that punk's raw heritage could coexist with new distribution models.

Moreover, Revelation's success showed that a small label rooted in local scenes could scale its reach worldwide through mail order, word of mouth, and a handful of touring acts, effectively proving that the DIY ethic could thrive alongside commercial viability without compromising the authenticity that defined punk's DNA.

Looking back, Revelation Records exemplifies how an underground label can evolve from pressing one seven-inch in New Haven to becoming a global distributor of hardcore, post-hardcore, emo, and melodic punk, all while keeping the scene's DIY core alive.

This infrastructure later allowed newer acts to secure gigs in similar spots.

Beyond Roadrunner, Madball released their early work through Revelation Records for distribution.

Revelations model of flat-rate revenue sharing allowed musicians like Freddie and Roger to keep a fair share of proceeds, proving the viability of indie structures for metal-heavy punk.

Even when Roadrunner's marketing machine pumped out promotional posters worldwide, Freddie maintained a strict policy of not diluting lyrical content.

The 90s was like very interesting in retrospect to look at because I grew up in all the 80s hardcore.

And then in the 90s, Revelation Records was kind of putting out groups that were starting to sound different.

And a lot of them were just members of previous bands that they had put out.

So you have Walter doing Quicksand and, you know, you know, Burn is like a kind of a unique sounding band.

I will have, uh, links to this in the description for the episode, and you can click on that to find out more about these tour dates.

There is also a 30th anniversary reissued of Texas is the Reason self-titled 12-inch that you can pick up now, uh, from Revelation Records.

There's also a link in the bottom here to the band's merch place, where you can get it from the band as well, and, uh, that's it.

I'm not gonna ramble on anymore.

It's a beautiful, crafted four-song little time capsule.

But back to what I was just saying, it's Norm from Shelter, it's Chris from Resurrection, it's Scott from 108.

We're on Revelation Records, and it's the, you know, the seemingly the week before the major label feeding frenzy of the mid-'90s is about to happen, not just to us, but to every fucking band that can stand up straight in New York City in 1996.

So the gods had a lot more to do with that, like, fiery kickoff that we had.

Fake Goth is pathetic.

It seems like every dude who was into hardcore decided two years after Cold Cave emerged that they too were a tortured soul who needs to exorcise the demons of the Revelation Records message board by moaning over GarageBand preset drumbeats.

I just thought that was a really funny quote, especially the demons of the Revelation Records message board was quite a funny observation to me.

John Sharkey is really funny.

Oh, yeah.