Clip from “I Can Swing A Hammer” (The Wet Secrets)

Six Shooter Records launches its Silver Anniversary year with today’s announcement of the Silver Series first vinyl editions of catalogue classics, special edition merch and more. The first Silver Series vinyl release is Martin Tielli’s We Didn’t Even Suspect That He Was the Poppy Salesman, available Feb 28, 2025. The Toronto-based independent label officially turns 25 on June 20, 2025, with Silver Anniversary celebrations planned throughout this milestone year.

Founded in Toronto in 2000 with only a rebellious prairie spirit and a credit card, the company has made good on its original mantra and steadfast mission to champion artistic excellence around the world. Now starting its 25th year, Six Shooter Records is a home to artists who have shaped music, culture and history, and to industry leaders Shauna de Cartier and Helen Britton, who have made it their life’s work to help build, together, a vibrant, positive, and just music community.

Six Shooter’s original slogan, “Life is Too Short to Listen to Shitty Music,” wasconceived by fellow Albertan Bobbi Beeson. Now retired, it remains forever alive on the backs of thousands of t-shirts spotted around the world.

Six Shooter’s story has many chapters, all of which will be celebrated throughout this 25th year with special releases (Silver Series first vinyl editions), poems (a haiku for each one of its albums!), limited edition posters and merch by Six Shooter’s favourite artists and designers, events and more. Today, Six Shooter also launches a classic zip-up hoodie featuring the art of Heather Goodchild, with the iconic Toronto cityscape in its horizon.

First and foremost a home for extraordinary songwriters, Six Shooter Records has always been a place for groundbreaking weirdness, memorable lyricism and creative eccentricity. We Didn’t Even Suspect That He Was the Poppy Salesman is a fitting first choice for the Silver Series because it encapsulates these qualities that the label has been drawn to from the beginning. From Veal to Wendy McNeil, from Martin Tielli to Christine Fellows, Ford Pier to Tanya Tagaq, Six Shooter Records’ catalogue boasts utterly original and important voices and modes of expression.

Over its 25 years, Six Shooter has represented sounds and voices from across the country: BC (Veal), Alberta (Captain Tractor, The Wet Secrets), Saskatchewan (The Dead South, The Deep Dark Woods), Manitoba (Luke Doucet, Boy Golden, William Prince, Christine Fellows), Nunavut (Tanya Tagaq, Riit), Ontario (Justin Rutledge, NQ Arbuckle, Elliott BROOD, Whitehorse, Rheostatics, The Strumbellas, July Talk, Valery Gore, NYSSA), Nova Scotia (T. Thomason), PEI (Jenn Grant, Whitney Rose), and Newfoundland (Amelia Curran).

“When I started the label, it wasn’t about JUNO awards, gold records or anything like that,” says label President Shauna de Cartier. “We were so indie, so DIY, so punk rock, even though the music we made wasn’t very punk rock, necessarily. Although, I would say Veal is pretty punk,” she laughs.

Fun Fact: Veal’s debut album, Hot Loser, was released digitally for the first time last year with the surprise news of the band’s reunion tour. Listen to Hot Loser here.

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the iconic logo now gets a rework by a kindred Albertan designer/musician Lyle Bell of The Wet Secrets, the laissez faire disco outfit responsible for “I Can Swing a Hammer,” a song that has become a theme song and rally cry. “It makes me feel like I can do anything just as well as anybody else — maybe even better — ’cause, you know, there’s eight billion people, and I’m just one of them.’”

“Why do we do what we do?” de Cartier reflects. “When we make art of any kind, if it resonates with people, it will outlive all of us - the artist, me, you, the company, everybody. The art will still remain, and in this way, we find our immortality through the artwork that we create. These 25 years are a slice of history, but only just a slice.”

Bucking trend and cliche since 2000, Six Shooter Records celebrates its first quarter century, while it also works on the next one.

Six Shooter’s current slogan, “I Can Live Forever.” is also inspired by The Wet Secrets’ song. Watch the hair-flipping fun here.