Darla Records
Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren (in October 1993) while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis.
The music of the artists on the label includes electronica, indie pop and rock, and Americana. Darla is currently focused on ambient. Darla is a label, distributor and online retailer. Darla Records is home to over 200 exclusively distributed labels including Ad Noiseam, Audio Dregs Recordings, Ici d'Ailleurs, Elefant, LTM, Le Grand Magistery, Matinee, Ohm Resistance, Siesta and Words On Music.
The label created a series, known as Bliss Out. The series' moniker is a reference to Blissed Out: The Rapture of Rock — a tome authored by Simon Reynolds, a notable rock music critic based in Britain. The Little Darla Has A Treat For You semi-quarterly compilation series features artists and labels Darla Records works with closely and is very popular. This series was named after the Little Debbie snack treats.
The label's moniker is not a reference to Darla Hood, the little girl from the Our Gang comedies (known as The Little Rascals on television), but comes from a yet-to-be-acknowledged bit of Americana. James noted while record collecting that many regional independent labels in the 1950s had women's names and national hits: Laurie, Paula, Sue, Tamla, etc. In the 1980s and 1990s there were popular indie-pop labels Sarah and Harriet.
Since 1993 Darla has been a label and distributor. Darla became an online retailer in 1996. in 2009 Darla began offering digital downloads from their own website. James Agren and Chandra Tobey run Darla Records from a 1,250 sq ft (116 m2) barn on their avocado and cherimoya farm in the hills of north San Diego county.
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