Exile On Mainstream Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Four-Day Live Event

01-18-2024

(Earsplit) German record label Exile On Mainstream celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024, this week announcing the sprawling lineup for their four-day, two-city live celebration event this May.

Since 1999, Exile On Mainstream has spread their message of "Love, Noise, Freedom" through their boundary-free family of exploratory musical creations. Uniting artists from across the spectrum of rock, the label has delivered over 100 captivating records from the alternative, folk, doom, psychedelic, post-hardcore, ambient, noise rock, and other genres.

For its 25th year in existence, the label has convened a massive live lineup for a mighty celebration of this milestone. The 25 Years Of Exile On Mainstream gathering begins with two days of music in Berlin on May 8th and 9th, before the party moves to Leipzig to continue the gala on May 10th and 11th. The shows will feature performances by a mix of current and upcoming label artists, as well as alumni from the label's early years and special reunions of defunct acts specifically for this event, including Ostinato, A Whisper In The Noise, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker, End Of Level Boss, Bulbul, Conny Ochs, Darsombra, The Moth, Noisepicker, Might, Treedeon, The Antikaroshi, Gavial, Gaffa Ghandi, and Crowskin.

Label founder Andreas Kohl states, "25 years! A quarter century of Exile On Mainstream. It feels like it was just yesterday when we celebrated our 20th birthday? And even that already felt quite surreal to me. At the beginning, there was just the idea of releasing a few 7-inch singles for befriended bands... at a time when vinyl was anything but hip. As we all know, things turned out differently. 25 years and 108 releases later, we're still here, or as a good friend once put it: You don't have to be the best, you just have to survive. Well, we did. None of this would have been possible without the simply fantastic artists with whom we've had the privilege to work over the years. Exile On Mainstream has become everything I ever dreamed of - a big family driven by a strong D.I.Y. ethic that extends from the label itself, through the artists, right to you, our dear fans: You've helped and supported us! I think a bit of self-praise is appropriate here. So, let's celebrate. In a big way. On the 8th and 9th of May, we'll meet in Berlin at the Neue Zukunft, and on the 10th and 11th of May in Leipzig, the city where it all began for us. Both the Neue Zukunft and the UT Connewitz are inseparably connected to the history of Exile On Mainstream, supporting us far beyond the ordinary. They are family and living room all in one. So, the question of where to celebrate never even arose for a minute."

He continues, "And here it is, the complete lineup and all the information. We present six acts that will perform in both cities, as well as twelve more, with six of them exclusively performing in Berlin and six exclusively in Leipzig. As it has become a tradition by now, and because we are hopeless romantics, we have three special reunions for the festival only: Ostinato, A Whisper In The Noise, and End Of Level Boss. But that's not all: get ready for some collaborations between the invited bands, which are as much a label tradition as an exciting side program, such as a fire show by the Fireflies and a live drawing session featuring our artists Roland Scriver, Pierre Zoller, Conny Ochs, and Matt Irwin."

Check out the entire 25 Years Of Exile On Mainstream lineup below.

25 Years Of Exile On Mainstream:

5/08-09/2024 Neue Zukunft - Berlin, DE
Ostinato
A Whisper In The Noise
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker
End Of Level Boss
Bulbul
Conny Ochs
Darsombra
The Moth
Noisepicker
Might
+ Fireflies (fire performance)

5/10-11/2024 UT Connewitz - Leipzig, DE
Ostinato
A Whisper In The Noise
End Of Level Boss
Bulbul
Conny Ochs
Darsombra
Treedeon
The Antikaroshi
Gavial
Gaffa Ghandi
Crowskin