Handsome Boy Records

Handsome Boy Records is a Canadian independent record label founded in 1994 in Toronto. Its releases were distributed by BMG Music in Canada. Handsome Boy did deals with other labels internationally including Atlantic Records. Artists who released material on Handsome Boy include Rusty, hHead, Groovy Religion, Meryn Cadell, One Free Fall and Slowburn. Handsome Boy is owned by Jeff Rogers who also managed the band Crash Test Dummies. After the Dummies sold 10 million records worldwide Jeff invested into promoting Rusty and John Oswald's Plunderhonics. Initially the label was self-distributed by the staff of Jeff's management company Swell. The label grew and BMG came on board to help out. Rusty's first album achieved sales of 45,000 in Canada alone and when Atlantic Records and TAG became involved, the single Wake Me made it to the top 20 on the modern rock charts. Music videos for Rusty won both accolades and awards. Handsome Boy was formed in 1994 after founder Jeff Rogers had great success with his music management company. The first release on Handsome Boy was One Free Fall. The initial album was distributed by EMI Canada with limited success. The band broke up and reformed as Rusty. This time the staff of Swell Music (Jeff's Management Company) distributed the record. This allowed the CD to qualify for indie charts. Immediate airplay and a lot of shows had the band at number one at both the HMV store and Sam the Record Man on those indie charts. Handsome Boy then signed a deal with BMG label head Bob Jamieson. He assigned Nadine Gelineau (now of Musebox) to help Jeff market the record. With additional help from EMI Music Publishing and Mike McCarty the record sold 45,000 copies in Canada. Initially released as an E.P. additional songs were recorded by producer Chris Wardman to round out the album. Music promoters Bruce Moser and Doug Dombrowski joined the team and got the video for Wake Me on MTV’s 120Minutes. VJ Louis Largent played the video as the last of the show and said “the manager of this band is going to get a lot of calls tomorrow”. Those calls happened and Rusty and Handsome Boy ended up doing a joint venture deal with Craig Kallman of TAG/Atlantic records. The single Wake Me made it to Top 20 in the U.S. Alternative charts and the band toured extensively Throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. This lead Handsome Boy to signing more artists. Most of them were discovered through the legendary Canadian new music night Elvis Monday at the El Mocambo. Slow Burn, Groovy Religion and Meryn Cadell were all part of that scene. Another young band called The Monoxides were big fans of Rusty and sent hand written letters to Jeff. He went to see them and was blown away by the 16 year olds band. They were driven by Toronto by Super Bob (drummer Ken Kelley’s dad). They came all the way from New Brunswick to Toronto. The band had a surprise after the gig. A bidding war between BMG’s David Bendith and Handsome Boy. Jeff offered them a deal within five minutes of the set ending. He spoke with Kelley and told him if they wanted to be on the label he would love it. Sixteen year old Ken looked at Jeff and said “Are you fucking serious!?” David and Jeff decided not to have a bidding war but to work together. Although the band never had worldwide success they did realize their dreams, they got a record deal, worked with Moe Berg, made videos and went on tour. They also never sold out. Handsome Boy later signed John Oswald with his Plunderphonics record of the Gratefull Dead. This was one of the labels most successful signings. Handsome Boy released the album independently under the label name Swell/Artifact. This eventual double album of John’s sample of live Dead shows had worldwide critical acclaim and was a business success for Oswald and Handsome Boy. Grammy winner Rob Bowman wrote the liner notes. The label became more of a catalogue during the first decade of the 2000s while Jeff worked for Richard Branson and focused on tech, film and television projects. It has existed the whole time but did not release a new record until Street Pharmacy’s Divorce album in 2012. The label is currently gearing up to release several new projects.