The last year has been really trying for us as a label. I personally have had probably the hardest year of my life. There were extended moments early on where I was genuinely worried Topshelf might have to fold, lay off our staff, and dissolve itself. I love this label, I deeply value everyone who works here and has contributed to it, I continue to be honored to have any part at all in releasing the music of the artists we partner with. Turning lemons into lemonade has been my sole focus for the last year.

I lead with all of this because I'm enormously proud of the staff here, the extended independent music community who have supported us (and without the help of I don't think we would still exist), and the way we collectively navigated an enormous hardship to keep this label afloat. A year later, I'm still so so in awe and thankful.

I also bring this up to celebrate a significant next step for us. Topshelf has been operating in a *very* adhoc manner out of a storage unit and a makeshift office/warehouse in my basement for the last year and I'm excited to say we've just signed a lease on our first actual space here in Portland, OR! Our new space is located just a couple blocks from where we're operating out of currently and we begin moving in immediately next week!

Exactly a year ago this week, we were loading up all of our stuff into a Uhaul to drive it 2000 miles up to Portland. One thing we learned from that, though, is that moving eighteen years of physical inventory is tedious regardless of whether it's 2000 miles or two blocks down the street. So we're having a moving sale to lighten the load. It's a celebration of not only the label's 2023 release output, but also of simply overcoming the challenges of the last year, once again regaining full control of our physical inventory.

• Listen to our 2023 titles in our 'Topshelf 101' playlist →
• View all our 2023 releases in our shop →
• consult the in-depth arcane knowledge of our 2023 recap →

It was a slower release year for us by volume as a result of all of the tumult, but what we lacked in frequency of output, I think we more than made up for in terms of consistency of quality. Below is a non-exhaustive recap of everything we had a hand in releasing this year (if you want to dig in more, I recommend our in-depth 2023 recap instead). I hope you'll spend some time checking out these artists and titles and find something you're into.

• TSR253: Del Paxton - Auto Locator
  FFO: The Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World, Braid, Colossal, Mock Orange
  listen → more info →
• TSR259: Subsonic Eye - All Around You
  FFO: Alvvays, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Snail Mail, snappy invigorating pop-rock
  listen → more info →
• TSR262: Parannoul - After the Magic
  FFO: Sweet Trip, Candy Claws, Have A Nice Life, Cornelius, Radiohead, Weatherday, My Bloody Valentine, The Microphones
  listen → more info →
• TSR265: Bruiser and Bicycle - Holy Red Wagon
  FFO: The Fiery Furnaces, Animal Collective, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, Alex G, progressive rock-skewed artpop
  listen → more info →
• TSR266: Their / They're / There - Three EPs
  FFO: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start, TTNG, Into It. Over It., Hey Mercedes, Algernon Cadwallader
  listen → more info →
• TSR267: Ratboys - The Window
  FFO: Land of Talk, Wye Oak, PUP, Rilo Kiley, Soccer Mommy, Hop Along, Great Grandpa, Built to Spill, Waxahatchee
  listen → more info →
• TSR268: Gulfer - Clean
  FFO: Pup, Joyce Manor, Hotline TNT, Ovlov
  listen → more info →
• TSR270-274: Blue Smiley - ok / Blue Smiley - return / Blue Smiley - fishhh / Blue Smiley - happyyy / Blue Smiley - blue smiley on the kane konundrum
  FFO: LSD and the Search for God, Horse Jumper of Love, Duster, Slowdive, Alex G, Whirr
  listen → more info →

Thank you, sincerely, for your support in 2023!! If anything we released this year is resonating with you, please consider lightening the load of our move by using the code ALLAROUNDYOU for 20% off any 2023 titles in our shop through January.