Cut-throat Records (also known as Cut-throat Productions) is a record label created and run by Canadian musician Nash the Slash. It has been active from 1978 to the present. Cut-throat is also the name of Nash's recording studio, originally located above the Roxy Theatre on Danforth Avenue in Toronto.[1]
Although the label has been used primarily for Nash's own music, it has also issued a single by Toronto new wave group Drastic Measures, and a CD by Nash's group FM.
The label's slogan is "Music in a particular vein", possibly a reference to the early Mad Magazine slogan, "Humor in a jugular vein".[2] Nash claims the label name was inspired by his observation that the record industry is a cut-throat business, in addition to being an appropriate match to his horror movie persona and name.
The company logo is a human skull, often positioned on the label with an eye socket over the centre hole. Record labels are usually black and white, often using reversed colours on side two. Another logo of a stylized gas mask with headphones, is used on some CD releases, usually positioned with the mouth over the centre hole. Nash has been using this logo since 1980 (which pre-dates CDs), and by coincidence the original logo's mouth resembles the prongs holding a CD in a standard jewel case.
In 1978 Nash dedicated the Cut-throat label to rock critic Jeffrey Morgan when he autographed Morgan's copy of Bedside Companion, writing: "To Jeffrey Morgan I dedicate the label!" [3]
- ^ Lost in Space CD liner notes
- ^ Website with illustrations of Mad Magazine covers
- ^ Jeffrey Morgan (2021). Rock Critic Confidential. New Haven Publishing Ltd. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-912587-53-7.