Editing Epitaph Records (section)

===Early years (1980s)===
[[Brett Gurewitz]] formed Epitaph Records as a vehicle for releases by his band [[Bad Religion]].<ref name="Larkin">Larkin, Colin (1999) "Epitaph Records" in ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock'', Virgin Books, {{ISBN|0-7535-0257-7}}, p. 150</ref> The name had been taken from the [[King Crimson]] [[Cold War]] protest song "[[Epitaph (song)|Epitaph]]" from which the lyrics "Confusion will be my epitaph." had struck a chord with Brett and Greg when they were young.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Against the Grain: The Oral History of Epitaph Records | author=Buhrmester, Jason | journal=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |date=November 2010 | pages=62 | issn=0886-3032 }}</ref> Its first release for the label was Bad Religion's 1981 [[Bad Religion (EP)|self-titled]] EP, followed by their debut ''[[How Could Hell Be Any Worse?]]'', which was also the label's first full-length release. Also released during this period was ''[[Peace thru Vandalism]]'', an EP by [[the Vandals]], who were the first band besides Bad Religion to sign to Epitaph. Two more Bad Religion releases followed – ''[[Into the Unknown (Bad Religion album)|Into the Unknown]]'' and the EP ''[[Back to the Known]]'' – before their temporary split. After Gurewitz had cleaned up his drug issues, both Epitaph and Bad Religion were revived in 1987. In the following year, Epitaph released its first record as a proper label, which was [[L7 (band)|L7]]'s [[L7 (album)|self-titled album]], and it was distributed by [[Chameleon (label)|Chameleon]]. Also in 1988, Bad Religion released ''[[Suffer (album)|Suffer]]'', which was both released and distributed by Epitaph.

In 1989, Gurewitz signed [[NOFX]] to Epitaph. They released their debut for the label, ''[[S&M Airlines]]'', that same year, featuring the video for its title track and the cover of [[Fleetwood Mac]]'s "[[Go Your Own Way]]", which featured guest vocals by Gurewitz and [[Greg Graffin]], also a member of Bad Religion. This was followed by Bad Religion's next two albums – ''[[No Control (Bad Religion album)|No Control]]'' and ''[[Against the Grain (Bad Religion album)|Against the Grain]]'' – which sold 60,000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebrpage.net/theanswer/?article=no%5Fcontrol%5F%28album%29|title=No Control (album) – The Answer – The Bad Religion Page – Since 1995|access-date=June 7, 2015}}</ref> and 100,000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebrpage.net/theanswer/?article=against_the_grain_(album)|title=Against The Grain (album) – The Answer – The Bad Religion Page – Since 1995|access-date=June 7, 2015}}</ref> copies respectively.