Bad Afro

1996-2002

Bad Afro Records is an independent record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The label was founded in 1996 with the purpose of releasing rock’n’roll, punk, surf and garage rock from the Scandinavian countries and Finland. The name, logo and the original slogan “Pushing Scandinavian Rock to the Man!” was inspired by blaxsploitation movies from the early 70’s like Superfly, Foxy Brown and Dolemite.

Bad Afro Records was originally an offshoot of Moshable Magazine (1986–2000). Moshable was an underground punk and garage rock magazine that had focus on the Scandinavian music scene and featured early interviews with bands like The Hellacopters, Turbonegro, Gluecifer and The Flaming Sideburns. In the mid 90’s the Scandinavian garage rock scene was in full bloom and bands that appeared in Moshable started to be released on vinyl on Bad Afro Records. The original idea and goal was to release 50 7” vinyl singles in 10 years to document the music scene in Scandinavia at the time. This goal was never reached – 10 years later only 45 7”singles had been released.

Bad Afro Records began as a singles club where members could sign up and receive the upcoming six vinyl 7” singles on the label. The concept was inspired by the American label Sub Pop which had started their singles club nearly a decade earlier with great success. In 1999 the first album by The Flaming Sideburns was released and although the singles club continued a few years after that the focus of the label shifted towards full album releases.

In the early years most releases on Bad Afro Records could be described as garage rock and punk rock with a few excusions into weirder musical territories. At the time the label worked with artists such as The Hellacopters, Turbonegro, The Nomads, The Flaming Sideburns, The Burnouts, Backyard Babies, Gluecifer, Larry & the Lefthanded, The Chronics, Festermen and The Royal Beat Conspiracy as well as many other bands pretty much in the same vein.

2002-2009

In many ways 2001 to 2004 was the heyday of Bad Afro Records. Scandinavian rock’n’roll was praised all over the world and The Flaming Sideburns were doing very well touring all over the world and was licensed to countries like USA and Australia. In 2003 came the national breakthrough for Bad Afro Records with the release of the Baby Woodrose album “Money For Soul” that featured two major hits on National Radio and was nominated for a Danish Grammy. Baby Woodrose also did a collaboration with Danish beat legend Peter Belli that topped the charts on National Danish Radio and the band played two years in a row on the main stage at the famous Roskilde Festival.

In 2003 Bad Afro re-issued the debut album “Blows Your Mind” by Baby Woodrose which led to some controversy and discussions on freedom of speech for artists. The original artwork was done by the Italian artist collective Malleus and the most important music outlet at the time, Myspace, banned the cover and censored the artwork on several occasions. The artwork was an erotic painting that also made the German pressing plant refuse to print the LP version.

From 2003 and on the Bad Afro Records slowly took a bend towards psychedelic rock in the sense that most of the new bands that was signed in this period often had a psychedelic edge. Besides keeping on releasing Baby Woodrose albums it also meant collaborations with artists like On Trial, The Setting Son, Dragontears and Sarena-Maneesh.

2009-2012

After 13 years of "Pushing Scandinavian Rock to the Man!", as the original slogan goes, the label took another turn in 2009 and decided that it was too limiting only releasing music from Scandinavia. In came The Dolly Rocker Movement from Australia and The Mojomatics from Italy and there is releases by US bands Cosmonauts and Royal Baths on the way in 2012.

As a curiosum it can be mentioned that Bad Afro Records since the beginning as a vinyl based record label has had a policy that makes it easy to tell the difference between first print of the LP’s or 7” singles and later prints. First print is on black vinyl, second print is on red vinyl, 3rd print is on green vinyl and 4th print is on purple vinyl.

Albums

The Flaming Sideburns – It’s Time to Testify…Brothers and Sisters CD (AFROCD001) – 1999

Union 69 – Holiday 2000 CD (AFROCD003) – 2000

The Burnouts – Go Go Racing CD (AFROCD004) – 2000

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Gala Galore CD (AFROCD005) – 2000

Festermen – Full Treatment CD (AFROCD006) - 2000

The Chronics – Soulshaker CD (AFROCD009) – 2000

The Flaming Sideburns – Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah CD/LP (AFROCD011/AFROLP011) – 2001

The Burnouts – Close to Breakevil CD/LP (AFROCD013/AFROLP013) – 2001

The Chronics – Make You Move CD/LP (AFROCD014/AFROLP014) – 2001

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Dig It! CD/LP (AFROCD015/AFROLP015) – 2002

Sweatmaster – Sharp Cut CD/LP (AFROCD017/AFROLP017) – 2002

Baby Woodrose – Money For Soul CD/LP (AFROCD018/AFROLP018) – 2003

Baby Woodrose – Blows Your Mind CD/LP (AFROCD020/AFROLP020) – 2003

Silver – White Diary CD/LP (AFROCD019/AFROLP019) – 2004

Baby Woodrose – Dropout CD/LP (AFROCD021/AFROLP021) – 2004

Viva Vertigo – Viva Viva CD/LP (AFROCD023/AFROLP023) – 2004

The Defectors – Turn Me On CD/LP (AFROCD024/AFROLP024) – 2004

Sweatmaster – Tom Tom Bullet CD/LP (AFROCD025/AFROLP025) – 2005

Slideshaker – In the Raw CD/LP (AFROCD026/AFROLP026) – 2005

On Trial – Forever CD/LP (AFROCD027/AFROLP027) - 2006

The Flaming Sideburns – Back to the Grave CD/LP (AFROCD028/AFROLP028) – 2006

Silver – World Against World CD (AFROCD033) – 2006

The Defectors – Bruised and Satisfied CD/LP (AFROCD029/AFROLP029) CD – 2007

Dragontears – 2000 Micrograms From Home CD/LP (AFROCD032/AFROLP032) – 2007

The Setting Son – s/t CD/LP (AFROCD034/AFROLP034) – 2007

Baby Woodrose – Chasing Rainbows CD/LP (AFROCD035/AFROLP035) – 2007

Dragontears – Tambourine Freak Machine CD/LP (AFROCD037/AFROLP037) – 2008

The Setting Son – Spring of Hate CD/LP (AFROCD036/AFROLP036) – 2009

Baby Woodrose – s/t CD/LP (AFROCD038/AFROLP038) – 2009

The Dolly Rocker Movement – Our days Mind the Tyme CD/LP (AFROCD039/AFROLP039) – 2010

Dragontears – Turn On Tune In Fuck Off!! CD/LP (AFROCD040/AFROLP040) – 2010

Baby Woodrose – Mindblowing Seeds & Disconnected Flowers CD/LP (AFROCD041/AFROLP041) - 2011

Baby Woodrose - Love Comes Down CD/LP (AFROCD042/AFROLP042) – 2011

Telstar Sound Drone - Comedown LP (AFROLP045) - 2013

EPs

The Flaming Sideburns – It’s Time to Testify...Brothers and Sisters 10” (FRO1001) – 1998

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Music to Rock the Nation 10” (FRO1002) – 1999

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Shake What You Have Got CD (AFROCD007) – 2000

The Hellacopters/The Flaming Sideburns – Split CD/10” (AFROCD008/FRO1003) – 2001

The Maggots – This Condition is Incurable CD/10” (AFROCD012/FRO1004) – 2002

Sweatmaster – Song With no Words CD/12” (AFROCD022/FRO1006) – 2004

The Defectors/Powersolo - Snot Dum Split 12" (FRO1008) - 2005

22 Pistepirkko/The Others – Ou Wee! CD/12” (AFROCD031/FRO1009) – 2006

Compilations

V/A – Pushing Scandinavian Rock to the Man! vol. 1 CD (AFROCD002) – 1999

V/A – Pushing Scandinavian Rock to the Man! vol. 2 CD (AFROCD010) – 2001

V/A – Pushing Scandinavian Rock to the Man! vol. 3 CD (AFROCD016) - 2002

Live LPs

Baby Woodrose – Live at Gutter Island LP (FRO1005) – 2003

The Defectors – Live at Gutter Island LP (FRO1007) - 2004

On Trial - Live at Gutter Island LP (FRO1010) - 2007

7" vinyl singles

Trouble Bound Gospel - Shakin' Ray 7" (FRO001) – 1996

The Hellacopters - Misanphropic High 7" (FRO002) – 1996

Larry & The Lefthanded - Johnny The Void 7" (FRO003) – 1997

The Nomads - Love's Gone Bad 7" (FRO004) – 1997

Turbonegro - Suffragette City 7" (FRO005) - 1997

Gluecifer - Dambuster 7" (FRO006) – 1997

The Flaming Sideburns - Get Down Or Get Out 7" (FRO007) – 1997

Submerged – Mr. Blues 7" (FRO008) – 1997

The Royal Beat Conspiracy - It's Not Enough 7" (FRO009) – 1998

The Grinners - Girl From Outer Space 7" (FRO010) – 1998

The Duplo - Cold Ring of R'n’R 7" (FRO011) - 1998

Backyard Babies – (Is It) Still Alright to Smile 7" (FRO012) – 1998

Shake Appeal - Beer is the Way Out 7" (FRO013) - 1998

Union 69 - Come Smell the Magic 7" (FRO014) – 1999

The Tremolo Beer Gut - Squaresville 7" (FRO015) – 1999

Turpentines - Showstopper 7" (FRO016) - 1999

The Burnouts - No Erection, No Love 7" (FRO017) – 1999

Festermen – Toelake Snakeman 7" (FRO018) - 1999

Mother Superior – 3 track EP 7" (FRO019) –1999

Dialtones – So Many Girls 7" (FRO020) - 2000

Rockets – Creatures Nite Out 7" (FRO021) - 2000

Peepshows – Genius 7" (FRO022) – 2000

The Chronics - Fire Up 7" (FRO023) - 2000

The Maggots – Gonna Make You Pay 7" (FRO024) - 2000

Ricochets – Fall Down Dead 7" (FRO025) - 2001

The Flaming Sideburns - Street Survivor 7" (FRO026) - 2001

Thee Ultra Bimboos - PMS 666 7" (FRO027) - 2001

Sweatmaster - Hold It 7" (FRO028) - 2001

Cosmo Jones Beat Machine - 7" (FRO029) - 2001

Sewergrooves – I've Got Levitation 7" (FRO030) - 2002

On Trial - Higher 7" (FRO031) – 2002

Baby Woodrose - Never Coming Back 7" (FRO032) - 2002

Sweatmaster – Well Connected 7" (FRO033) - 2003

Baby Woodrose – Disconnected 7" (FRO034) - 2003

Silver – Evacuate 7" (FRO035) - 2004

Peter Belli & Baby Woodrose - Nok Af Dig 7" (FRO036) - 2004

Boomhauer – Work on a Spell 7" (FRO037) - 2004

Ghost Rocket – Drug Freedom 7” (FRO038) – 2004

Baby Woodrose/Sweatmaster – Split 7” (FRO039) - 2004

Sweatmaster – Dirty Rabbit 7” (FRO040) - 2005

Slideshaker – Bones 7” (FRO041) - 2005

Columbian Neckties – Get It For You 7" (FRO043) – 2006

The Flaming Sideburns – Count me Out 7” (FRO044) – 2006

The Setting Son – In a Certain Way 7” (FRO045) - 2007

Baby Woodrose – Coming Around Again 7” (FRO046) - 2008

Baby Woodrose/Dollhouse – Split 7” (FRO047) – 2008

Serena-Maneesh – Montrose 7” (FRO048) - 2009

The Mojomatics – Don’t Believe me When I’m High 7” (BARINT001) - 2009

The Dolly Rocker Movement – Our Brand New World 7” (BARINT002) - 2009

Radio Saigon – Another Time 7” (FRO049) - 2010

On Trial – On Trial 2x7” (FRO050) - 2011

Telstar Sound Drone – Mirror Pieces 7” (FRO051) – 2011

CD singles

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Disco Boy CDs (FROCDS001) - 2000

The Flaming Sideburns – Loose My Soul CDs (FROCDS002) - 2001

The Flaming Sideburns – Flowers CDs (FROCDS003) – 2002

The Royal Beat Conspiracy – Good All Over CDs (FROCDS004) - 2002

Baby Woodrose – Carry CDs (FROCDS005) - 2003

Silver – Intimate Cussing CDs (FROCDS006) – 2004

Silver – Angels Calling CDs (FROCDS008) – 2004

Silver – Funeral Class One (FROCDS009) - 2004

The Defectors - It's Gonna Take Some Time CDs(PROMOFRO002)- 2004

Baby Woodrose – I Can’t Explain CDs (FROCDS010) – 2004

Viva Vertigo – Viva Viva (Edie Sedqwick) CDs (FROCDS011) – 2004

Sweatmaster – Maggots CDs (FROCDS012) – 2005

Sweatmaster – Dirty Rabbit CDs (FROCDS013) – 2005

Slideshaker - Bones CDs (FROCDS014) - 2005

Sweatmaster – Good looks, Big Deal CDs (FROCDS015) - 2006

The Defectors – The Final Thrill CDs (FROCDS016) – 2006

Video Clips

The Flaming Sideburns – Blow The Roof – 2001

The Flaming Sideburns – Flowers – 2002

Baby Woodrose – Pouring Water – 2003

Silver – Intimate Cussing – 2004

Silver – Funeral Class One – 2004

The Defectors – It’s Gonna Take Some Time – 2004

Sweatmaster – Song With no Words – 2004

Sweatmaster – Good Looks, Big Deal – 2005

Baby Woodrose – All Over Now – 2006

Baby Woodrose – Kitty Galore – 2006

Silver – The Personal Decay – 2006

The Mojomatics – Don’t Believe me When I’m High – 2009

The Setting Sin – Soulmate – 2009

Baby Woodrose – Twilight Princess – 2009

The Dolly Rocker Movement – Memory Lane – 2010