Beserkley Records was an independent label founded by Matthew King Kaufman in Berkeley, California, about 1975. It anticipated the "alternative rock" genre by providing a label for music that didn't interest the majors, but was exciting to college age music fans.

Kaufman was manager of the group Earth Quake, who had done a couple of albums for A&M in 1971- 72, but had no real success and were not picked up by any of the existing labels when their contract with A&M was up. Kaufman started his own label "to have fun and make some interesting recordings." In addition to Earth Quake, Kaufman signed Jonathan Richman, Greg Kihn, and the Rubinoos. The first single issued was Earth Quake's "Friday On My Mind" coupled with "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman.

In fact, Beserkley had only a handful of artists on the label at any given time throughout their history. The biggest name artist was the Greg Kihn Band, who had a number of national hits. Both Earth Quake and the Rubinoos also placed records on the national charts. And although Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers didn't chart nationally, they still had, and have, a strong following.

Matthew King Kaufman recently wrote to us and gave us some insight on the label. Kaufman noted, "Really, Earth Quake turned down offers and formed a record company with me, and then had five successful LPs. They were the band for Jonathan Richman's 'Roadrunner' and Little Roger's 'Stairway to Gilligan's Island.' As for charting, Jonathan Richman's 'Roadrunner' was top ten everywhere but here, and 'Egyptian Reggae' was #1 worldwide. Kihn's 'Break-up Song' made #9 and 'Jeopardy' was #1 everywhere but here, where it spent 8 weeks at #2."

In addition to calling themselves "Home of the Hits," Beserkley had the hubris to start their album catalog with a "greatest hits" album called Beserkley Chartbusters, Volume 1, as if they HAD any chartbusters at the time. In fact, according to an interview with members of the Rubinoos, some of the songs were recorded especially for that album - - they weren't even singles beforehand!

Their records were initially distributed by Playboy until about 1977, then by Janus/GRT until GRT folded in 1979. GRT was formed in the sixties, as one of the original 4-track (and then reel-to-reel, 8-Track, and cassette) tape duplicators. In their heyday, they were the tape duplicator for ABC Records, Arista Records, and dozens of major labels. GRT also owned several notable record labels besides Janus, most notably Chess, Checker, Cadet and Barnaby.

Beserkley was without distribution for several months, but inked a distribution deal with Elektra/Asylum starting in 1979. About 1984, they started running into money problems and stopped issuing records, although they had a subsidiary, Son of Beserkeley, operating into the 1990s. Kaufman told us, "We closed Beserkely because of corporate rock and independent promotion."

Today Kaufman is in another music production endeavor called Sobent (located in Berkeley, naturally). Sobent is aimed at "direct communication between the artist and fan." Their web page notes that it "helps architect and integrate the various digital mediums to establish a fan focused, artist operated, internet presence." The medium may have changed since 1975, but the philosophy remains the same.

We would appreciate any additions or corrections to this discography. Just send them to us via e-mail. Both Sides Now Publications is an information web page. We are not a catalog, nor can we provide the records listed below. We have no association with Beserkley Records. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in this discography (which are all out of print), we suggest you see our Frequently Asked Questions page and follow the instructions found there. This story and discography are copyright 2000, 2001, 2005 by Mike Callahan.