Read Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records by Michael White Online

Its rare releases command hundreds of dollars, devotees around the world hungrily seek out any information they can find about its poorly documented history, and young musicians-some of them not yet born when Sarah shut down-claim its bands (such as Blueboy, the Field Mice, Heavenly, and the Wake) as major influences.Featuring dozens of exclusive interviews with the music-makers, producers, writers and assorted eyewitnesses who played a part in Sarah's eight-year odyssey, Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records is the first authorised biography of an unlikely cult legend.. From 1987 to 1995, Bristol, England's Sarah Records was a modest underground success and, for the most part, a critical laughingstock in its native country-sneeringly dismissed as the sad, final repository for a fringe style of music (variously referred to as “indie-pop,” “C86,” “cutie” and “twee”) whose moment had passed. Yet now, more than 20 years after its founders symbolically “destroyed” it, Sarah is among the most passionately fetishized record labels of all time

. Michael White has been writing about popular and underground music, for publications in his native Canada and internationally, for 20 years

This is an essential archive of a pivotal moment in UK pop history that was in danger of fading from our collective pre-web memory.” Stuart Berman, Pitchfork Contributor and author of This Book Is Broken: A Broken Social Scene Story and Too Much Trouble: A Very Oral History of Danko Jones“More than the labels that inspired its existence, Sarah Records came to define the indie-pop aesthetic. If you were in the know, Popkiss will help you discover Sarah anew. “It's hard to think of another record company that provoked such strong emotions as Sarah: the label, and the music it released, inspired either undying devotion or implacable loathing. Michael White's book shines a brilliant light on a strange and unique moment in indie history, illuminating a fascinating, lost world of pop, politics, passion and postal orders.” Alexis Petridis, He

Adam Trujillo said and made me a better music fan. I went into Popkiss a minor Sarah fan (mostly because of Blueboy and The Hit Parade). I left Popkiss not only with a renewed and expanded interest in Sarah, but with warm fuzzy feelings about indie pop at large and my relationship to it as a fan.The closest comparison I can make is to Simon Reynold's postpunk survey Rip It Up and Start Again. The structures and writing styles of both books are similar, certainly. More importantly, though: both books challenged my percep. Clinton Barnes said Fantastic history of an all time great record label. Fantastic history of an all time great record label. So good I'm buying a second copy to give away to a friend.. Al From Virginia said big Sarah fan. I'm a big Sarah fan, so i dunno if someone with only a passing interest would be that into the book. But I loved it.