A consensus seems to be growing that Los Angeles is in the midst of a renaissance for independent music. In a recent Sunday feature, we set out to discover just how it is that while the major labels continue to suffer layoffs and severe sales losses, this city’s scrappy, savvy, taste-driven indie imprints have, in fact, been thriving. As a corollary to that, we’ve spoken to and profiled 12 of L.A.’s most active young labels, from artist-owned black metal powerhouse Southern Lord to chart-climbing indie rock outlet Danger Bird to progressive hip-hop imprint Anticon. Here’s hoping they’ll all end up in a GZA song some day.

Sargent House (Echo Park)
Longtime talent manager Cathy Pellow started Sargent House in 2006 with one artist: Seal Beach prog-punk band Rx Bandits, who were ready to call it quits after selling around 150,000 records through MCA/Geffen and, according to Pellow, "never seeing a penny." Today, her stable comprises "a middle class of awesome musicians," also proggily inclined, able to live off their earnings. She also manages a sister label co-run by the Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez Lopez.

Think of Sunday's all-day Power of the Riff Festival at the Echo and the Echoplex as less of a celebration of heavy metal and more of a mission statement. The objective: Raise respectability for the perennially underground hard rock genre.

"I’ve been a fan of heavy music for as long as I can remember," said Night Horse singer Sam James Velde, who organized Riff Fest with Southern Lord head Greg Anderson. "I hope this will increase awareness and opportunity for bands of this nature to be able to play. You look at bigger festivals like Coachella, and you have a token heavy band. There’s Dillinger Escape Plan, or there’s Mastodon. But there’s no tent dedicated to that music. Yet metal, hardcore and true rock ‘n’ roll has an incredible fan base.This is something to try and make a strong impact."

Spaceland Productions, which runs the two Riff Fest venues, has long been a champion of hard rock. Independent acts such as stoner rockers High on Fire, instrumentalists Russian Circles and Southern Lord artists as Boris and Sun O))), who represent the genre at its more experimental, are a few who have been regulars at Spaceland, the Echo and the Echoplex. Riff Fest carries some big names, including a return of Nashville hardcore act From Ashes Rise, locals Goatsnake and recently reunited vets Corrosion of Conformity, but much of the bill, Anderson and Velda said, is about highlighting the acts who may not normally appear at the respected Echo Park venues. 

"Spaceland books really good stuff, and quite a few Southern Lord bands," Anderson said. "They’re into heavy music, but I was surprised they wanted to do something of this scale. I was pleasantly surprised."