It was founded in San Francisco in 1983 as an independent punk distribution company by Ruth Schwartz (one of the original co-editors of Maximum RocknRoll).
[1] Customarily such record labels send their finished products to intermediaries known as "distributors" on consignment, with these middlemen adding an additional markup and selling these goods in bulk to retail outlets.
[1] Prior to 2005 the bulk of the recorded music purchased in the United States happened through major retail chains such as Borders, Barnes & Noble and Walmart, and the like.
[2] With many retail chains and large, corporate distributors slow to pay and demand for new and fresh products driving the market, it was frequently only the fear of being denied the expeditious delivery of new releases that motivated payment — a coercive mechanism difficult for a small label to generate.
[2] The company's survival and growth was fueled by its exclusive distribution agreements with MRR and Alternative Tentacles, the record label owned by Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra.
"[2] The company depicted itself as a wholesale producers' cooperative — or in its own words, "a group of record labels and publishers who sell their products together.
The company produced monthly photocopied flyers detailing "new releases" of associated labels as well as semi-annual catalogs depicting and describing all available titles each fall and spring.
[4] Mordam Records also manufactured and distributed a small number of titles under its own name, featuring such punk-noise bands as Victims Family and Rhythm Pigs.
[2] Sales for the company, which had peaked at approximately $10 million per year steadily atrophied due to a lessening demand for physical products across the music industry.
[2] The departure earlier that year of Lookout Records with its highly marketable catalog, featuring such bands as Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, and Mr. T Experience, was an important contributing factor in the faltering financial fortunes of the company which necessitated a change of location.
[8] She found it difficult to sell the firm, however, since affiliated labels contractually retained the right to walk away from the exclusive distribution agreement with the Mordam at will.
[8] The new combined entity adopted the name Lumberjack Mordam Music Group (LMMG), with Hemsath taking on the role of CEO and President.
[10] With the comparatively small Lumberjack Distribution (owned by Dirk Hemsath of Doghouse Records)[11] absorbing the powerful and established Mordam to form LMMG, a revamped and expanded system of sales and shipping was needed.
[12] In accordance with this agreement, affiliated labels (including those formerly under the Mordam umbrella) were to ship physical goods directly to Cinram warehouse.