HUSH Records

HUSH traces it's roots to the late 90's and the aftermath of Grunge and rise of digital music production. On the corner of NW Broadway and Flanders in downtown Portland, Chad Crouch set up TANK, a gallery for emerging artists, and makeshift recording studio in late 1997. Within a year Crouch dismissed his role as a visual arts champion for the music community, releasing eight "boutique" CD-Rs as an early adopter of the DIY technology, all under the HUSH imprint. By the turn of the millenium HUSH had transformed from its grassroots beginning into a cottage industry, having shifted to manufactured CD runs and international distribution. Most recently HUSH has celebrated it's 50th release with the compilation entitled MILE, a forward looking and retrospective collection which chronicles the story of the label with 50 unreleased and out of print songs. The active roster includes Amy Annelle, Blanket Music, Casey Dienel, Graves, Jeff London, Kind of Like Spitting, Kaitlyn ni Donovan, Norfolk and Western, The Places, Parks and Recreation, Reclinerland, Corrina Repp, Esperanza Spalding, Shelley Short, Super XX Man, and Toothfairy. HUSH allumni The Decemberists, are presently finishing their contract with Kill Rock Stars, whereas Bobby Birdman works most closely with States Rights Records. Noise For Pretend has disbanded.

Learn about this history of HUSH in the companion booklet to our commemorative 50th release, "MILE" available as an eBooklet: