So says Tiny Mix Tapes

Pretty good fit if you ask me.

Man, who's responsible for that awful writing?

I'm confused as to why they'd move from Merge to Matador - aren't they roughly equivalent labels?

Matador has corporate backing. Not sure if Merge does.

Merge in the states, Matador for the rest of the world.

Merge doesn't have overseas distro (Domino usually releases a lot of their stuff in Europe) and, ever since Matador merged with the Beggars Group, they have a fairly well set-up distro base outside of the U.S.

And, to answer the original question, no - Merge is not as big as Matador. Whilst Matador can sell hundereds of thousands of copies of Interpol records and do best buy deals for Pretty Girls Make Graves, Merge was unable to react quickly enough to consumer demand to keep The Arcade Fire album from going out of print for 2-3 weeks shortly after it came out. I know, different situations, but it helps to points out the inequality of the two...

Spoon's "rock, rot, or rule" rating has just been dropped to: rock, but barely rocking.

Then again, the Beatles merely rocked, 'cause they had some bad songs. So, is Spoon in good company, still?

Merge doesn't have corporate backing - It's all Mac and Laura, with a few well-placed employees (4 or so) handling most of the press/radio/mailorder/etc., unless the band decides to hire someone else (for example, Spoon paid The Syndicate to do their College Radio promo for "Girls" and "Kill" out of their own pockets). I mean, it lets the artist decide how much/little money (besides overhead-type costs) they want to spend on the record, and still has a staff that can support a smaller promotional campaign...

That being said, I heart the Merge...

are they like the only group that hasn't been content with Merge?

Didn't they put their first album out on Matador?

Merge doesn't do anything outside of North America...Therefore, they signed w/ Matador for overseas stuff. Didn't you read my post, or the article? I swear, sometimes...

Trail Of Dead were content with Merge until major-label bucks came a' calling...same with Magnetic Fields... However, several other good artists have mooved to Merge to take their place(s) (Crooked Fingers was on Warm, Destroyer on a bunch of other labels)...

Yes, Telephono and Soft effects were on Matador (somewhat ironically, this is before they had a worldwide distro outfit)