The special showcase concert will feature performances by the first crop of bands signed to the new label, which Tankian has aptly titled –“ Serjical Strike Records”. These bands include Bad Acid Trip, Slow Motion Reign And Kittens For Christian. When asked by the Los Angeles times what he was looking for in bands to sign to his label Tankian responded, “I'm trying to bring original music to the forefront and expand the dynamics of music. When I go buy music, I buy a lot of different types, and I want to help enrich that angle of purchasing as a music consumer."

Fans of System of a Down may recognize the Serjical Strike name and also a couple of the bands on the roster because the company has actually been around for over a year and started out as an internet only venture between Tankian and Columbia Records. Over the past year music by Bad Acid Trip and Kittens For Christian was available for purchase from the serjicalstrike.com website. But now Tankian is taking that internet only company and developing it into a full blown record label modeled after Rick Rubin’s American Records and Bill Laswell’s Axiom Records.  

"When I see something is from Axiom, I'm always interested to see what it is," Tankian told the Los Angeles Times, adding that Laswell "has established a label identity. There are a lot of major labels out there with all these records that are not really identified with the label. And I like what Rick Rubin has done with American, where there's a variety of artists — I like that model, where it's not one genre, but where it's about really believing in these bands and not just about whether something's commercially viable."

"I haven't had a commerciality conversation with the Columbia brass," Tankian said. "That's not what I do and they know that. With System they took a chance and nothing was ever said about sales projections, and I've still never had that conversation with them.

"I think they know I will bring some things in that could be ahead of trends. And I'll have some things still going through independent distribution that are better served that way,” Tankian told the Times. “Obviously Columbia is in this to make money. But to me it's a matter of whether it's good music, and even if it's not commercially viable and Columbia ends up dropping my label in a couple of years, I'll still be happy because I brought out good music."

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