Pitchfork

After months of surreptitious hand-holding and playing footsie under the table, Austin's Misra Records and Berkeley's Absolutely Kosher have finally decided to make it official.

The two respectable indie imprints announced yesterday that they have entered a "strategic partnership" (according to a press release), combining their management under one Emeryville, California roof and streamlining their operations (while remaining separate entities), which means more, better, hotter indie product for you and your roommates in 2007 and beyond.

Each label will maintain its individual roster, but will be run by the same staff. (Sort of like Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, if that makes sense to you.) Absolutely Kosher's Cory Brown will oversee both labels, taking over for departing Misra label manager Phil Waldorf.

Misra sprung to life in 1999, the collective vision of Mendoza Line singer/guitarist Timothy Bracy, activist and Future of Music Coalition co-founder Michael Bracy, attorney Paige Conner Totaro, and business guy John Matouk. They were later joined by musician Nicholas Bischoff and financial analyst John Clardy. And in a cool twist, the label's lawyer is John P. Strohm, who used to be in the Blake Babies and the Lemonheads.

Misra's rad roster includes folky folks like Shearwater, Will Johnson/Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel, Great Lake Swimmers, the Mendoza Line, Phosphorescent, Summer Hymns, and all-around crazies Evangelicals.

Absolutely Kosher, meanwhile, has been Cory Brown's baby since 1998. The eclectic label blessed the world with quite a few stellar releases, including one of Pitchfork's all-time favorite records, the Wrens' The Meadowlands, as well as superlative discs and vinyl from Sunset Rubdown, Xiu Xiu, the Mountain Goats, Frog Eyes, Goblin Cock, the Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, +/-, the Dead Science, and Pitchfork scribe Matt LeMay's own Get Him Eat Him.

Kosher has a number of releases slated for the coming months, including the Affair's Yes Yes to You, Chris Garneau's Music for Tourists (both out January 23), and the previously mentioned Frog Eyes LP Tears of the Valedictorian (out April 10). Count on Kosher to follow those up with new full lengths from Pidgeon, Bottom of the Hudson, Okay, Get Him Eat Him, and the Wrens.

Misra will release a new LP from the two labels' first post-partnership signing, bubbly indie pop quartet Palomar. All Things, Forests bucks the band's numeric naming trend and paints the streets with rainbows on March 20. Look for a debut from Boston's Hallelujah the Hills and a tenth anniversary Mendoza Line compilation to follow from Misra.

Ah, indie rock, it's a many-splendored thing.