Corey Brown, owner of California label Absolutely Kosher Records, released in a statement recently that the company will be halting their operations "for the foreseeable future". That's tough news for bands such as The Mountain Goats, Pinback and Xiu Xiu, as the three bands have released records on the label. Brown cites ongoing financial troubles as the reason for the decision, and had this to say via absolutelykosher.com:

"We should've been celebrating the label's bar mitzvah this year, but it's not to be. I wish I could tell you there’s a grand plan, a new chapter waiting to be written, but the truth is, we’ve been struggling for years and the only thing on my plate right now is to eliminate our debts and rejuvenate my spirits. We’ve made all sorts of adaptive changes at the label over the last several years, many of them yielding some positive results, but none at the scale and speed we need them to be at."

In a fitting twist of fate, the label's last release is Hard Times by Canadian artist Himalayan Bear.
And in honor of what AKR has helped release into the world, below is a fantastic track off The Mountain Goats' latest album All Eternals Deck (which was released on Merge).