From 1995 until 2007, the late Craig Stewart ran the Austin-based record label Emperor Jones. Initially an offshoot of his husband King Coffey's Trance Syndicate Records, Emperor Jones quickly established as a force unto itself, releasing esoteric albums from across the state, country, and globe. The catalog includes key records in the careers of household names, especially if you've been involved with a college radio station anytime in the past 30 years.

Stewart, who also worked for South by Southwest, died of complications from COVID and dementia last month. This Sunday, Jan. 21, several Emperor Jones bands will celebrate the label curator's life at the Parlor, starting at 3pm. Alongside Scott Telles' rocket fuel outfit ST 37 (revisit 2002's Down On Us), the bill packs garage soul institution the Crack Pipes and "Rock With Me Forever" purveyors the Golden Boys.

Beyond the lineup, find highlights from Emperor Jones' remarkable catalog bundled by artist below. If I skipped your album, rest assured it was due to space limitations and was not personal ... or was it?

My Dad Is Dead

For Richer, For Poorer (EJ-01, 1995)
Everyone Wants the Honey But Not the Sting (EJ-16, 1997)

The very first Emperor Jones release started a trend that the label would return to time and again: a standout record from a veteran artist. My Dad Is Dead, a post-punk solo/band project from songwriter Mark Edwards, launched in 1984, but For Richer was a tuneful peak that holds up as well in 2023 as it did back then, setting the label in motion. Everyone Wants the Honey... is easily its equal.

The Mountain Goats

Nine Black Poppies (EJ-02, 1996)
Full Force Galesburg (EJ-11, 1997)
All Hail West Texas (EJ-41, 2002)

No Craig Stewart, no way the Mountain Goats are as famous as they are now. It's one of the few ways our world is superior to another Earth several dimensions over, where this connection never occurred. Core member John Darnielle's first two Emperor Jones-supported albums are excellent (see "Cubs in Five"), but All Hail West Texas was a legitimate game changer for both Goats fans and Darnielle himself. Recorded on a boombox and opening with "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton," one of the finest songs about frustrated dreams ever recorded, All Hail's 14 glorious stories mapped out the direction of the next 20 or so years of Darnielle's work. It's a key document for a key American singer-songwriter of our time.

The American Analog Set

The Fun of Watching Fireworks (EJ-04, 1996)
From Our Living Room to Yours (EJ-14, 1997)
The Golden Band (EJ-48, 1999)
Through the 90s (EJ-42, 2002)

The first true "Emperor Jones band," as in, an act that started releasing albums on and stuck with the label for a good long time, was the Austin-based American Analog Set. Their gauzy, soft-focus indie rock (see also: Dallas' Bedhead) felt like a direct response to the underground's dominant strains: Nirvana, psychedelic punk's thrashing noise, Replacements-style power-slop, and the Drag City Records nation (sort of). Following 2023 comeback For Forever, AmAnSet's first album since 2005, the band's Emperor Jones work is being reissued via a Numero Group boxed set shipping this February.

Alastair Galbraith

Morse and Gaudylight (EJ-08, 1996)
Mirrorwork (EJ-22, 1998)
Cry (EJ-32, 2000)
Long Wires in Dark Museums (EJ-39, 2002)
Radiant (EJ-57, 2003)

For this New Zealand genius, who Emperor Jones went all-in on in the Nineties, the first CD reissued two earlier records of 4-track guitar/violin psychedelia. Mirrorwork's buzzy songlets are so intimate you want to cover your ears out of respect. Cry is just as intense and introduces drums to the equation, never a bad idea. Long Wires in Dark Museums captures a live performance in total darkness with musician Matt De Gennaro, while Radiant teamed Galbraith with drummer Constantine Karlis (High Dependency Unit) for some magnificent lowball workouts. Every one proves essential listening for a certain kind of very lonely person, making it a shame there aren't Galbraith tribute acts littering our shores.

Peter Jefferies

Elevator Madness (EJ-09, 1996)
Substatic (EJ -20, 1998)
Closed Circuit (EJ-40, 2001)

Find yet another deeply personal vision that Emperor Jones midwifed, also from the NZ scene, in singer-songwriter Peter Jefferies. Think goth piano and 3am despair, rather than magic hour in Laurel Canyon. He did time in muzzy rock(ish) bands until his still-staggering solo debut, The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World, changed the game for lots of sad indie dudes in 1990. Remaining a fascinating figure, Jefferies' Emperor Jones releases – his third, fourth, and fifth albums – are strong in different ways: Elevator is almost a rock record, complete with blues moves; Substatic consists of instrumental pieces; and Closed Circuit copped a bunch of best-since-Dull World comparisons that remain deserved.

Trumans Water

Fragments of a Lucky Break (EJ-23, 1998)
Trumans Water (EJ-38, 2001)

A San Diego outfit founded by brothers Kirk and Kevin Branstetter, Trumans Water was one of the Nineties' great guitar chaos-merchants. These dudes looked at whatever the hell Pavement was up to and dumped in abstraction, the way your nonna added garlic to everything she stuck on the stove. Fragments of a Lucky Break marked the first album featuring original singer/guitarist Glen Galloway since he bounced in 1993 for his own project, Soul-Junk, and the self-titled one is also a blast.

Roky Erickson

Never Say Goodbye (EJ-26, 1999)

An album of Roky Erickson material released at perhaps the height of his illness in 1999, Never Say Goodbye collected stray acoustic demos recorded in the Seventies and Eighties. These spare, anti-fidelity gems – gentle songs from a stormy brain – have generated their own cult within the Erickson clan.

Black Mayonnaise

TTSSATTSR (EJ-66, 2004)

Rusted Shut

Rehab (EJ-67, 2004)

These two are grouped together because they came out at the same time and both manifest gloriously bad juju. Black Mayonnaise is a one-man ambient doom project that one does not suggest playing in the dead of night, while Rusted Shut is a beyond-chaotic noise rock outfit staggering around Houston since 1986. Twin peaks of negative creep.

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John Darnielle's 10 Favorite Emperor Jones Releases

Following Stewart's passing, the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle posted several tributes on social media, as Emperor Jones supported his career at a life-altering junction. One of the posts was this list, which is reprinted with permission.

My Dad Is Dead, Everyone Wants the Honey but Not the Sting (1997)
Nigel Bunn, Index (1999)
Alastair Galbraith, Mirrorwork (1998)
Black Mayonnaise, TTSSATTSR (2004)
Monroe Mustang, I Am the Only Running Footman (2000)
The In Out, Il Dito & Other Gestures (2000)
Rusted Shut, Rehab (2004)
Tia Carrera, Live 6-3-03 (2004)
Thuja, Ghost Plants (2002)
V/A, Hall of Mirrors (2005)