The Glorious Beginning

The Panay Record Company was original founded in 1965. It began as a response to the explosive garage ban scene that took place in Panay UT from the years 1962-1967. It was founded by Nolan McBride in the back of his father's appliance store on Asp Ave. His first signing was a local high school band named the Transfers. It was an immediate hit and in the next two years it seems that most citizens of Panay under the age of twenty five formed a band and most of them were signed by Jorgenson and recorded in his primitive backroom studio. Among these bands were Flat Love 4, the undertakers, the Garage Emperors, Discount Romance Novel, Handgun Hangout and Johnson's Army.

The Silent Middle

As the seventies began a whole new vibe came upon Panay. Most kids that had been in bands in the sixties had either quit playing, died from unnatural causes of some kind or were committed to the local mental institution. By the mid Seventies the only bands around were Lynard Skynard cover bands. Then, near the end of the seventies the first stirrings of the so-called "barefoot punk" movement swept through Panay like an elderly veteran in a bicycle. The first of these bands was called the Suicide Killer Victims and were followed by such mediocre bands as Razorblades USA, My Aunt Elma, and the Sons of the Barkeep.

Anarchy in Panay

During the eighties and nineties Panay Records enjoyed a renaissance (of sorts). Such bands as the Umbilical Chord Commandos and Cathy's Blowtorch burst on the scene with annoying sing song lyrics and jagged, uneven playing. But the real upturn began in the mid nineties, with the emergence of a band called the House of Mystery. With instruments with sound like toys and manic vocals, they became a big hit in Panay. As a result such bands as the Safety Service, Marginal Sun, and Coffee sprung up with little to no musical experience, but still became prominent in the Panay scene.

The Modern Era

The Modern Era of Panay Records began with a disaster. On August 21st 1995, the Panay Records storage unit was burned down in a tragic fire. While nobody was hurt, almost the entire back catalog of Panay was destroyed. Within a few months Panay Records had shut down and the studio/office/record store became a gift store. The record company reopened in 1999 when a band called the Great Basin Society began to gain buzz and a following in the local clubs of the town. By May 2000 the Panay Records was back in their old location (the gift store having shut down a year earlier. In September, the Great Basin Society released their one and only EP but they broke up by year's end.