Long Gone John
{{Short description|American entrepreneur}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
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{{more footnotes needed|date=January 2023}}
{{BLP sources|date=August 2021}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Long Gone John
| image =
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| birth_name = John Mermis
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|41|1992|11|26}}
| birth_place =
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| occupation = Businessman
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}}
John Mermis (born {{birth based on age as of date|41|1992|11|26|noage=yes}}),{{cite news |last=Cummings |first=Sue |date=1992-11-26 |title=Extra Credit |work=LA Weekly |quote=Long Gone John (a.k.a. John Mermis) is a 41-year-old Los Angeles native... |page=57}}{{cite news |last=Hochman |first=Steve |date=2007-04-06 |title=Long Gone John gets a long goodbye |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-06-et-john6-story.html |work=The Los Angeles Times |access-date=2023-01-07}} known as Long Gone John, is an American entrepreneur best known for his record label, Sympathy for the Record Industry, and his vinyl toy company, Necessaries Toy Foundation. He lived in Long Beach, California,{{Cite news |date=2018-04-20 |title=A Label All His Own - The Washington Post |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/05/28/a-label-all-his-own/184206ea-1d1c-4bf2-87c8-8c37d97f90c1/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420073743/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/05/28/a-label-all-his-own/184206ea-1d1c-4bf2-87c8-8c37d97f90c1/ |archive-date=April 20, 2018 }}{{Cite web |last=Hutchison |first=Matthew |date=2022-04-27 |title=Desperation Town: Long Beach Oddballs and Closeted Beefheart Fans - The Music of Claw Hammer |url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/desperation-town-closeted-beefheart-fans-the-music-of-claw-hammer/#google_vignette |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=New Noise Magazine |language=en-US}} for 30 years, but relocated to Olympia, Washington, in 2007.{{cite web|url = http://www.ocweekly.com/culture/arts/john-long-gone/26637l|title = A final introspective, before the Sympathy records founder moves|accessdate = February 1, 2008|author = Theo Douglas|date = January 2, 2007|publisher = ocweekly.com|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080402235727/http://www.ocweekly.com/culture/arts/john-long-gone/26637l/|archivedate = April 2, 2008}}
History
John's passion for rock and roll began when he was five years old and discovered radio. When his friends The Lazy Cowgirls couldn't find a label for their live album, John volunteered to put out the record himself. After he thought of the name for the label he started doing a series of 7-inch singles. Before he knew it, Sympathy for the Record Industry was a real label, one in which the proprietor's personality was very much ingrained. A tone of irreverence was immediately set by the label's moniker, by its Margaret Keane-style, sad-eyed waif logo, and by its motto: "We almost really care." By 2006 he had released the recordings of over 550 bands from all over the world.
Some of John's celebrity Sympathy alumni are Courtney Love and her band Hole, The White Stripes, and The Donnas' first incarnation, The Electrocutes. Some of John's less famous but yet still very notable Sympathy acts over the years have been Buck, Billy Childish, Dwarves, The Gun Club, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Inger Lorre, Man or Astro-man?, April March, Motel Shootout, The Muffs, The Mumps, The Pooh Sticks, The Red Aunts, Redd Kross, Rocket from the Crypt, Scarling., Suicide, Jack Off Jill, Turbonegro and The Von Bondies.
Sympathy Records continues to be one of the more successful indie labels in the US. Many releases also involve commissioned artwork from well-known artists such as Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr, Chris "Coop" Cooper and Robert Williams, often involving subversive riffs on other famous works, like the album cover of The Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request.
Along the way, John has compulsively amassed a vast collection of art and pop ephemera. After seeing an inferior version of the character Enid from Daniel Clowes' Ghost World comic, John was motivated to enter the collectible toy game. His new company, Necessaries Toy Foundation, started in 2003. It allowed John to finally slow down his label in order to work and focus on manufacturing a line of toys and publishing art-related books.
The documentary film The Treasures of Long Gone John was released in 2006.{{IMDb title|qid=Q127870750|title=The Treasures of Long Gone John (2006)}} The film chronicles John's eccentric art and musical obsessions. It also explores the work of some of the artists he collects and collaborates with, including Todd Schorr, Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Camille Rose Garcia and Robert Williams. It features a wall-to-wall soundtrack of over 40 Sympathy artists, original animation and time-lapse photography.[http://www.outregallery.com/browse.aspx?Category=77 Outgallery] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406104838/http://www.outregallery.com/browse.aspx?Category=77 |date=April 6, 2008 }}
Footnotes
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Dean Kuipers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141016215222/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/19/entertainment/ca-kuipers19/2 "An Indie to the Core"], Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2003.
- David Segal, "A Label All His Own Long Gone John, Indie Rock's Anti-Mogul", Washington Post, May 28, 2003; p. C1.
External links
- [http://www.sympathyrecords.com SFTRI official site]
- [http://necessariestoyfoundation.com Necessaries Toy Foundation]
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Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople
Category:Sympathy for the Record Industry artists
Category:People from Whittier, California
Category:Businesspeople from Long Beach, California