Primitive Man Recording About to Become Extinct

Primitive Man Recording Co., launched as an alternative rock record label last year by I.R.S. Records, is about to become extinct, just like the caveman that appeared in the small company’s logo.

I.R.S. President Jay Boberg said Tuesday that the decision to discontinue the Primitive Man subsidiary resulted from the smaller label’s failure to establish an identity separate from its parent record company.

Originally, Boberg said, Primitive Man was supposed to be essentially a one-man operation, run by Sam Gennawey of Huntington Beach. While Gennawey acted on his own in finding talent for the label, Boberg said, and proved “incredibly valuable” in that capacity, other I.R.S. staffers became involved in helping to promote Primitive Man acts, contrary to the original plan for the label.

Gennawey could have stayed with I.R.S. in another capacity, Boberg said, but he instead decided to seek career advancement elsewhere.

The final release on Primitive Man, by the New York band Tirez Tirez, is scheduled for June 14. Boberg said that two other groups that recorded for Primitive Man--the Bears and the Balancing Act--will definitely remain with I.R.S., and that a third Primitive Man act, reggae singer Pato Banton, also is likely to continue with I.R.S.

I.R.S. is located in Universal City, as was Primitive Man.

Gennawey, 28, described his departure, which is effective June 10, as “a clean and happy break.” But he added: “I’m disappointed because I enjoyed running my own little record company, and we were just getting over the hump where people were recognizing Primitive Man as a record company.” (Gennawey once said it was by ironic coincidence, not design, that the label’s initials were the same as that of the Virginia-based Parents Music Resource Center, the organization that has sought warning labels for rock records.)

Gennawey said that Primitive Man’s sales had been higher than expected and that additional staff would have been needed to allow the label to grow. He said I.R.S.’s decision to subsume Primitive Man under the parent label was an understandable move. “The bottom line is that I.R.S. is restructuring for the future,” Gennawey said.

I.R.S. recently lost its leading meal ticket, the platinum-selling Georgia band, R.E.M., which signed with Warner Bros. Records after a high-stakes bidding war. Boberg said that the decision to discontinue Primitive Man and add its acts to the I.R.S. roster was not related to R.E.M.’s departure and that it was not done as a cost-cutting measure.

Gennawey’s only experience in the record business before being hired to head Primitive Man a year and a half ago had nothing to do with signing or promoting bands. He had been the owner of a record shop, Camel Records in Huntington Beach. Acquaintances at I.R.S. suggested him as a candidate to head the new label, Gennawey said, and I.R.S. Chairman Miles Copeland hired him after a two-hour job interview.

“They gave me as much autonomy as a record company can give,” Gennawey said. “It was an opportunity to go to record company college.”