Label Profile – Man’s Ruin Records

Empty Pleasures and Desperate Measures since 1994.

Now-defunct Californian label Man’s Ruin Records was founded by graphic artist Frank Kozik in 1994. Its first release was “Delta 6″ by Experimental Audio Research, post-Spacemen 3 project of Sonic Boom/Peter Kember.  Kozik designed all the sleeve art for label releases and he was signing artists in all kinds of genres/styles, which resulted in vast back catalogue for the label.

Some of the most sought-out records in Man’s Ruin catalogue were those by Desert Sessions, a loose musical collective founded by Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age / Kyuss and included Brant Bjork (Kyuss), Nick Oliveri (QOTSA), PJ Harvey, Dean Ween and many others as contributors at various points. Since the demise of Man’s Ruin Records, most of Desert Sessions albums went out of print.

The beginning of the end for Man’s Ruin started with distribution changes/problems and was made worse by the fact that the label lost its lease and was shut down while attempting to relocate offices. MR’s website greeted visitors with the text “sorry mansruin never paid their bill and their site is no longer here” and finally, all label operations ceased in 2002. Afterwards, Kozik left music business for good and concentrated on design.

Some of the artists that recorded for label included Kyuss, Melvins, Dale Crover, High On Fire, Fuckemos, Killdozer, Fu Manchu, Iron Monkey, Queens Of The Stone Age, Unida, Goatsnake, Sons Of Otis, Glucifer and Acid King, among many others.

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Man’s Ruin Playlist

High on Fire – 10,000 Years (from The Art of Self Defense)

Unsane – Sick (from Sick 7″ / Occupational Hazard)

Barkmarket – Peacekeeper (from Peacekeeper EP)

Chrome – See Ya (from Third Seed From The Bud EP)

Killdozer – Porky’s Dad (from The Last Waltz)