Orange County indie rock label Burger Records announced this July it would permanently shut down, ending music production, pulling records from shelves, and no longer hosting music festivals.
This comes after dozens of young women publicly accused bands associated with Burger Records — and one employee — of sexual misconduct and abuse, sometimes with minors, and that Burger Records didn’t do enough to stop it.
The women posted their stories to social media. Most did so anonymously. They claimed band members gave them drugs and alcohol, and invited them backstage and into tour vans.
The Growlers, SWMRS, and the Cosmonauts were just some of the label's groups that were implicated.
Burger started in 2007 and was known for scouting small garage bands and releasing their albums on brightly colored cassette tapes.
Emily Fox looked at the fall of Burger Records for KCRW’s Independent Producer Project. Her report airs in its entirety on October 1 on Press Play.