City Slang

Born in 1990 and raised on American indie rock music, the Berlin-based independent record label City Slang represents a diverse roster of artists from around the world. Its musicians are united by creativity and passion and exhibit a wide-ranging, distinctive exploration of genres.

During the 90s, the City Slang imprint, founded by Christof Ellinghaus, offered a European home to a number of influential indie bands from across the Atlantic. Releases included Yo La Tengo, Sebadoh, Cell, The Flaming Lips, and Hole, to name a few. The records released through City Slang have helped shape and embellish the last three decades of alternative music. 

Thirty years later, with offices in Berlin, New York, Paris and London, City Slang has far outgrown the borders of the European continent. The label’s roster now encompasses everything from imaginative twists on dance music (Caribou, Gold Panda, Boy Harsher, Waleed, Coma, Sinkane, Junior Boys, Roosevelt), to inventive instrumental productions (Hauschka, Grandbrothers), multiple forms of ingenious songwriting (José Gonzaléz, Son Lux, KAINA, McKinley Dixon, Anna B Savage), genre-bending masterpieces (Noga Erez, Zouj, Sen Morimoto, Lambchop) and, of course, the kind of raucous guitars with which it first launched (Los Bitchos, King Hannah, Pom Pom Squad, Sprints, Nada Surf, Calexico).