Rough Trade

Over the course of 30 years, Rough Trade Records has seen glorious highs and crushing lows (it was out of business for most of the '90s), but the revived label's still-swelling roster of crucial bands, past and present, stands proud as a top-to-bottom index of excellence. We begin with the Manchester band that transformed the post-punk landscape and led rock's transition to indie — the Smiths ("How Soon Is Now?") — followed by signature artists from the reborn Rough Trade era, including Arcade Fire and the Strokes. Span the years from Butthole Surfers to Pete Doherty, in Next Steps.

Stick a pin into these Rough Trade Next Steps, and wherever it lands you're going to hit on something incredible — like Donovan cover "The Hurdy Gurdy Man", delivered on steroids by Butthole Surfers; the sweet and tragic Pete Doherty/Wolfman ballad "For Lovers"; or the husky whimsy of Gruff Rhys' "Candylion". Cabaret Voltaire's "Nag Nag Nag" turns back the clock to 1978, year of Rough Trade's birth, while Jarvis Cocker's post-Pulp single "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" brings us back to 2007. Meet the band that cut the first-ever Rough Trade release, in Deep Cuts.

French punk outfit Metal Urbain was the first band ever released on Rough Trade — "Paris Marquis" bears the catalogue reference RT001, but here we steam into "Hystérie connective", the lead-off track from their only album, Les hommes morts sont dangereux. Shoegaze/dream pop trailblazers A.R. Kane put out its landmark release Sixty Nine (featuring "Suicide Kiss") in 1988, while Swiss group Kleenex (a.k.a. LiLiPUT) shared a sense of artful post-punk mischief with Essential Logic, featuring former X-Ray Spex sax player Lora Logic.

Founded in 1978, out of the West London record shop opened two years earlier by vinyl junkie Geoff Travis, Rough Trade flourished during the highly fertile early '80s, when legendary bands, including the Fall, Aztec Camera and Young Marble Giants, came into its fold. In 1983, the label signed the Smiths, and its future seemed to be set fair . . . until 1991, when the company collapsed. But the Rough Trade story was far from over — relaunched in 2000, and ushered back to the big time by the success of the Strokes, the label reclaimed its rightful place in rock's more cultured quarters with 21st-century signings like the Libertines, Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, and Arcade Fire. Join us as we celebrate the imprint's finest output.