H A P P Y

B I R T H D A Y

T O

U S

!!!

We are 23 years old, holy chit. It's our Jordan birthday and we want to celebrate with all you (very) good people – our beloved friends, fam, fans, and the haters can come, too!

In 1994 high school students Matt Lunsford and Darcie Knight from Danville, Illinois founded Polyvinyl Press, a fanzine created to celebrate the Midwestern D.I.Y. scene. Their philosophy was simple — spread the word about bands they loved. Furthering that idea they decided to release a split 7” alongside the third issue of the fanzine. Within a year they released Braid’s first 7” Rainsnowmatch and a 20-band compilation called Direction – and in 1996 Polyvinyl Records was born.
Our business structure was (and still is) very simple: we work on a 50/50 profit sharing model with our artists. Our fearless leaders never wrote a business plan or decided that they’d "start a label". Instead they dropped out of college and scraped together whatever resources they could to put out records from their friends.
Today, we are proud that Polyvinyl is still a 100% independently owned and operated company. We’ve grown steadily and organically: our catalog consists of almost 400 releases from more than 100 artists. We’re proud of our Midwest roots. Polyvinyl HQ is located in Champaign, Illinois with satellite offices in California and New York City. We still work hard every day to tell the world about bands we love.

Starting today through Monday get 23% off your birthday basket with coupon code PV23BDAY (excludes bundles and pre-orders). Peruse some of our ballin' new merch offerings, including an ONLY slam dunks t-shirt, and PV tote & slipmat.

We may still be on our parents' insurance, but we've gone hard in the paint these last two decades. Tune in below to a few *clutch* playlists, including Only Slam Dunks (the hits + the deep cuts), and co-owner Matt Lunsford's Direction takeover.

If you live in or around our humble hometown of Champaign-Urbana you are invited to join us for a Pop Up Shop in our warehouse (717 S Neil St, Champaign, IL 61820) this Saturday, 9/28 from 11am - 2pm. Drop by to browse a huge selection of vinyl, CDs, tapes, and merch from your favorite PV artists and more. Bonus: prize wheel, new music, tiny cupcakes, and normal sized pizza. We'll also be tabling at The Made Fest during PYGMALION this weekend on Friday and Saturday.

Thank you from the bottom of our corn-fed hearts for these last 23 years. Here's to 23 more!

Big love now and always,

PV