R.I.P. Mammoth Cave

Published Feb 26, 2015

After six years of issuing records for artists like B.A. Johnston, Needles//Pins and Ketamines, Canadian imprint Mammoth Cave Recording Co. has revealed that it is closing up shop for good.The news was delivered in a press release today (February 26), with the label noting that it is bankrupt, "financially and spiritually," and just can't keep the business going."We screwed up a lot. We lost a lot of money," the label said in a statement, noting that Mammoth Cave had been birthed to "get people as excited about the amazing Canadian bands that were more or less being undocumented."The label reports that backlogs at pressing plants due to mass-scale events like Record Store Day were instrumental in its decision, noting that plants "disproportionately favour Beatles reissues" over indie releases. In addition to pressing plant delays, Mammoth Cave added that the weakening of the Canadian dollar, the rising costs of shipping and handling rates, and "the impenetrability of the Canadian grant system" were also factors in its decision.With all of the above in mind, the label couldn't see going on in any other fashion. While the market shift has led to the creation of digital-only labels, that's not a path the wax-loving company wanted to take."Since we started, music fans went from 'collecting' to 'downloading' to 'streaming.' We are a record company, not a digital music servicing company," the label wrote. "We love records, we don't love playlists. And the nonsense about the 'return of vinyl' has come at the cost of the people who have been keeping it alive all these years."Mammoth Cave was founded by Ketamines leader Paul Lawton in 2009. While it originally started in Lethbridge, AB, it moved operations to Toronto in recent years. Along with releasing albums by the aforementioned artists, it pressed LPs and 7-inches by artists such as Nervous Talk, Strange Attractor, Grown-Ups, Feral Trash and Teledrome.A blow-out sale on the Mammoth Cave website has the label selling 12-inch releases for as low as $5 and 7-inches for $2 or $3. This does not, however, include B.A. Johnston's new Shit Sucks , which was just released this past Tuesday (February 24).You'll find the various deals here