Mark Lipsitz, the longtime label supervisor of Bar/None Information, died yesterday (July 5), in keeping with the label. “Mark was a fierce artist advocate and championed the music he found, pushing everybody he knew to be the very best musician and the very best particular person they might be,” Bar/None Information wrote in an announcement on Instagram. “The music trade is shedding a coach, an envoy, and an ally. However Mark created friendships and networks of individuals that may by no means thrive as they do with out his affect. The work he leaves behind will enrich us all perpetually.” Lipsitz was 62.
In 1986, Bar/None Information was based in Hoboken, New Jersey, by the hands of Tom Prendergast, a former pirate radio DJ and live performance booker. After Glenn Morrow of Rage to Dwell turned a companion within the label, Prendergast finally left and Morrow tapped Lipsitz to spearhead Bar/None’s advertising in 2001. Because the years handed, Lipsitz took on all method of roles on the label, from suggesting bands value signing to serving to artists navigate the daunting music panorama, because the roster grew to incorporate Huge Star’s Alex Chilton, the Feelies, Ezra Furman, Tindersticks, the Entrance Bottoms, Diners, Pardoner, and dozens extra.
Rocky O’Reilly, previously of the Northern Irish duo Oppenheimer, informed Hudson Reporter in 2015 that Lipsitz didn’t simply assist him discover a broader viewers internationally as soon as signed to Bar/None, however to foster the drive wanted to take advantage of out of life. “One phrase I heard from Mark early on, and plenty of instances after, was ‘proactivity breeds proactivity,’” he recalled. “I wouldn’t be doing any of this if Bar/None hadn’t picked our demo from a field and referred to as me up filled with ardour, pleasure, and perception.”
Previous to becoming a member of Bar/None, Lipsitz additionally labored at Razor & Tie with acts like Continental Drifters and Dar Williams, in addition to Seed Information by way of Atlantic and Vital Relativity. Lipsitz typically took a hands-on method to working with and selling bands at every label, with artists routinely talking fondly of him in interviews over time relating to his passionate method to serving to them develop.
One of the vital beloved acts that Lipsitz found and helped champion to achieve extra recognition was Ivy, the cult Nineteen Nineties indie-pop trio that includes the late Adam Schlesinger, Andy Chase, and Dominique Durand. Lipsitz took the band beneath his wing in 1994, helped Schlesinger get Fountains of Wayne signed to Atlantic, and welcomed Ivy again to Bar/None following Schlesinger’s death and the invention of previously unreleased Ivy music.
“After we informed Mark in 2022 that we would have sufficient previous materials we might end for a brand new Ivy album, he was ecstatic about it and inspired us to forge forward and end them. He was the loving, supportive mentor as at all times,” Ivy wrote in a lengthy tribute. “Secretly, Dominique and I have been simply glad to be having a pretext to be in his energetic, enthusiastic sphere once more. Lunches, conferences, cellphone calls, at all times Mark’s scrumptious southern drawl infusing us along with his spirit and kindness. We have been so blissful to be doing all of this for and with Mark once more… In an ever altering and extra turbulent musical local weather now than ever, simply know that if everybody within the music trade might have been like Mark Lipsitz, the panorama can be a extra lovely and steady place at this time. This a lot we all know.”
Dozens of artists have shared tributes on social media honoring the late Lipsitz, together with Emperor X and the Paranoid Style. “Mark was an amazing companion and longtime supporter at Bar/None Information,” wrote the Feelies. “He was tireless in his efforts in serving to to advertise the band, however on the identical time he understood and finally appreciated what was essential to us as people as we lived contained in the world of music. He shall be significantly missed.”
