Brainwashed (website)

Brainwashed is a not-for-profit music website supporting eclectic music. Brainwashed features news, reviews, a podcast, hosts websites for many musical artists and record labels, and has organized two music festivals, Brainwaves. Over fifty people contribute to the archives of Brainwashed. Brainwashed also releases music as Brainwashed Recordings.

Brainwashed.com was launched on April 16, 1996 for the purpose of hosting Web sites for various musical artists. The sites contained news, discography, press releases, interviews, photos, merchandise, sound files, lyrics, tour dates when available. The original sites included Meat Beat Manifesto, Greater Than One, Coil, Throbbing Gristle, The Legendary Pink Dots, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Cabaret Voltaire. Sites like Meat Beat Manifesto, Coil, and the Legendary Pink Dots were recognized by the artists as official at the time and the URLs were printed in numerous releases, others like Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Cabaret Voltaire weren't regarded as official, however were, at the time, the most comprehensive sources for those acts and were often referenced in books (such as Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle by Simon Ford and England's Hidden Reverse by David Keenan) and magazine articles (such as ones from The Wire).

In 1997, Brainwashed began hosting web sites for record labels including Kranky, RRRecords, Thrill Jockey, and Happy Go Lucky Records, and later hosted sites for Tigerbeat6, Important Records, and World Serpent Distribution. In 1998, Brainwashed launched The Brain, a weekly digest of music news, reviews, new releases, tour dates, and other information about some of the artists and labels hosted on Brainwashed. The Brain was folded into Brainwashed.com in 2005.

In 1999, Brainwashed began a small recording label as an extension of the website to issue short run releases of acts who had pages on brainwashed.com.

Brainwashed Recordings also has a series, Brainwashed Handmade, which features low run CDs in letter-pressed sleeves.

Brainwashed Recordings also has a sub-label, Brainwashed Archives, which specializes in deluxe remastered reissues.

Brainwashed Recordings also has a sub-label, Killer Pimp, which has released albums by Kate Mosh, Noise/Girl, Blood Money, and A Place To Bury Strangers.

In 2000, Brainwashed launched a 24-hour streaming radio station which featured music from the artists and labels that were hosted at brainwashed.com. The stream was discontinued in 2004.