Homestead Records was a
Long Island, New York-based
sublabel of music distributor
Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in
1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were having difficulty coming up with the finances to press followups. He was able to convince the owner of the company to press and distribute records for bands that already had recorded an album, and have the bands supply the artwork. It is considered instrumental in launching the
post-hardcore and
noise rock genres. When Berger left to work with Midnight Records, he recommended 18-year-old
Gerard Cosloy, whom he knew from Boston and who published a fanzine that Homestead distributed. Cosloy went on to sign many of the notable acts. Cosloy was succeeded by Ken Katkin and later by Steven Joerg. The label's last release was
Ivo Perelman's Cama de terra in 1996.