A “fat possum” calls to mind an image of a rural southern town. It instills thoughts of 1960s jazz coffee houses, back porches, smoky bars, etc. The record corporation known as Fat Possum used to stand for these Mississippi attributes – until the blues died.

“Attempting to record the dirty blues before it dies out‰” was Matthew Johnson‰’s goal. The founder of the Fat Possum record label aimed to take southern blues artists that weren‰’t popularized or prominent and promote their name and sound. The label was full of unknown southern jazz and blues musicians with no potential of commercial success. They attempted to capture the blues of the middle 1900‰’s in a late 1900‰’s setting, which they did for a very slight amount of time. But now the jazz musicians on this label are either dying or dead.

So one would think that when the blues died, so would Fat Possum? Instead, Matthew Johnson thought otherwise. Fat Possum is undergoing a massive shift in sound, from a mainly black jazz perspective to a white indie sound. Now, the dead blues are rarely even promoted by Fat Possum. Instead their emphasis has been solely on indie, and today it leans towards progressive forms of independent rock.

It‰’s fair to say that Fat Possum displays many of the succeeding movements in the indie subculture; many unique sounds are represented. A majority of the companies‰’ bands are up-and-coming acts. Some notable examples:

The Black Keys have gone on to produce many Grammy nominated tracks and albums, with a large discography. Inspiration rooted heavily in blues, this is an obvious choice of analysis for Fat Possum; it makes sense to use the Black Keys as an instance of the blues to indie transformation. Yuck is a personal favorite of mine, with a late 90‰’s sound of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. (who also happens to be on Fat Possum) with a homespun twist of synthetic programming and attention to detail. This London based band has only released one album (download it now), but their work has already garnered international acclaim.

Smith Westerns are also influenced by 90s rock in their album Dye It Blonde. They‰’ve been outspoken fans of T.Rex (also a part of Fat Possum), but have introduced youthful and psychedelic lyrics to a 90‰’s take. Wavves, a noise rock band who’s post-hardcore sound is assertive, yet unique, and reminds one of a garage band with some spare cash.

Youth Lagoon‰’s first debut album, Year of Hibernation, earned a BNM as a vintage home record indie album with exploratory lyrics, rhetorically and literally (most of the album is about voyage, exploration, and self discovery). Voyage is also the motivation of the surf-pop band, Tennis. This duo recorded their album based on experience and tribulations of their sailing expeditions. Cape Dory displays an upbeat talent of sentimental happiness and is cute, but contains hollow lyrics.

There isn‰’t really a similarity in sound within Fat Possum, but rather a unification in diversity, akin to other independent record companies. What “expired” a decade ago still influences the modern indie scene, which is apparent at Fat Possum. “Our guys never really fit in anywhere, including the label,‰” said Johnson. What the bands lack in “fitting in‰” they make up for in their sheer output of notoriously successful albums. Truly a success story in terms of adaptation to the times, Fat Possum should continue to consecutively release popular albums throughout indie‰’s history. And once indie dies out, they‰’ll probably move on to the next hip thing.

By Leo Zausen