Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.

Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have run it together since. In 1993, the label began a partnership with Atlantic Records which lasted for a couple of years. Then in 1996, Capitol Records purchased a 49 percent stake in Matador, but Lombardi and Cosloy bought it back in 1999. It has been co-owned by the Beggars Group since 2002 and now operates in both New York and London.

Patrick Amory, Matador's longtime label manager, is currently label President and a partner of Lombardi and Cosloy.

In the early 2000s, Matador had to sidestep unwanted involvement in the current Recording Industry Association of America dispute over Peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Matador's Patrick Amory contacted the RIAA multiple times in order to ensure that an erroneous listing on the group's website of Matador as an RIAA member was removed. After several attempts, the name of the independent label was removed from the membership list.^{[citation needed]}

Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. (May 1, 1980 – January 13, 2010), better known by the stage name Jay Reatard, was an American musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Lindsey was signed to Matador Records. He released recordings as a solo artist and as a member of The Reatards and Lost Sounds.

Lindsey's recording career began at the age of 15, when a home-made demo tape he had sent in to Goner Records caught the ear of former-Oblivian and Goner Records’ owner, Eric Friedl. Lindsey's introduction to Friedl and his Oblivians bandmates had come that same year when the Oblivians had returned home to Memphis as an opening act for Rocket from the Crypt. Upon seeing the act live, Lindsey became enamored with their sloppy, lo-fi music and set forth creating his own brand of heavily distorted garage rock music. Friedl was impressed by Lindsey's demos and signed him to his label, later commenting, "I loved the racket so we did the record, and I've been a fan of everything he's done since. He's a pretty amazing kid."

Stephen Joseph Malkmus (born May 30, 1966) is an American musician best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the alternative rock band Pavement. He currently performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.

Stephen Malkmus was born in Santa Monica, California on May 30, 1966 to Mary and Stephen Malkmus, Sr. His father was a property and casualty insurance agent. When Stephen Jr. was 8, the family moved upstate to Stockton, where he attended Carpinteria's Cate School and Lodi's Tokay High School. As a teenager, Malkmus worked various jobs, including painting house numbers on street curbs and "flipping burgers or whatever" at a country club. At age 16, he spent the night in jail after consuming alcohol, urinating in the bushes, and walking on the roofs of several residential homes. Later, he was placed on probation for underage drinking, and was also expelled from school "for going to a party in the woods where people were taking mushrooms. I didn’t take them, but some guy narc’d on me."

Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time, respectively.

Ranaldo was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, and graduated from Binghamton University. He has three sons, Cody, Sage and Frey, and is married to the experimental artist Leah Singer.

Ranaldo started his career in New York in several bands and joining the electric guitar orchestra of Glenn Branca. Among Ranaldo's solo records are Dirty Windows, a collection of spoken texts with music, Amarillo Ramp (For Robert Smithson), pieces for the guitar, and Scriptures of the Golden Eternity. His books include several with art or photography by Leah Singer, including Drift, Bookstore, Road Movies, and Moroccan Journal: Jajouka excerpt (from a full-length book of writings on Moroccan travels and music). Ranaldo has also published Jrnls80s (published by Soft Skull Press), as well as a book of poems, Lengths & Breaths, with photography by Cynthia Connolly. His most recent book of poetry, Against Refusing, was published by Water Row Press in April 2010 with cover artwork by Leah Singer. His visual+sound works have been shown at galleries and museums in Paris, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Vienna, and elsewhere.

Charlyn Marie Marshall (born January 21, 1972), also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands. Over a twenty year career she has produced eight studio albums, one live album and two EPs.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Marshall loved soul, rock 'n' roll and country music from childhood and began to play guitar in experimental bands with friends in her early adult years. After a move to New York at age 20, Marshall recorded two lo-fi, improvised solo albums, Dear Sir (1995) and Myra Lee (1996), collaborating with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. Cat Power then signed to Matador Records to release her third, more focused album, What Would the Community Think? (1996), which united her with notable indie musicians. She followed with Moon Pix (1998) and The Covers Record (2000), receiving notice for her spare, intense originals and radically stripped down takes on folk songs and familiar songs. You Are Free (2003) was more structured indie rock and brought Cat Power wider attention. Marshall followed it up with the one-take performance film, Speaking for Trees (2004), filmed in a forest. The Greatest (2006), in which she worked with classic R&B and gospel musicians, was her most recent collection of original songs, and her best-selling. A second covers collection, Jukebox (2008), with a horn-led backing band, is her most recent album.