At 45, after almost 25 years at Revelation Records, Adam Lentz finally has the money, time and room at home to run a label of his own. He has wanted one since the day he discovered DIY hardcore and punk. Bottom Six Records starts with 500 opaque-red copies of Youth Avoiders’ “Defiance”, a French punk record Adam already had in his top ten releases of 2025 before Nico from the band messaged him about getting it better distributed in North America.
Hardcore owes plenty to Revelation, and Adam is staying right where he is. He will continue working there and signing bands. Years inside a label of that size have also taught him what needs to happen for a record to make sense financially.
“For something to work on Rev I need to make sure it is going to sell a certain number of copies cause at the end of the day we ARE a business and have payroll, rent, etc. At this point in my Rev career (almost 25 years) I think I have a pretty good idea of what works with our customers and what doesn’t.”
Bottom Six gives him another place to follow his own taste.
“There are a lot of bands that might be too abrasive, too obscure, or too ‘punk’ for Rev that I still want to work with and this is my opportunity to do so,” Adam said.
That could mean d-beat, powerviolence or death metal, three things he is heavily into and does not see working particularly well at Revelation. His list gets wider from there.
“What’s great about my own label is I really do get to do what I want. If I want to do a death metal record I will. Same goes for ambient, straight edge youth crew, crust, folk, hip hop, I don’t care. If I like it and I want to work with it I’m going to do it.”
The name comes from the other thing Adam does several times a week before work.
Bottom Six is a hockey reference. The top six forwards are generally there to score and put up points. The bottom six have the uglier jobs: blocking shots, playing physical and taking care of things defensively. Adam knows which group he belongs to.
“When I play tournaments with my friends I never score goals but I get a lot of satisfaction in not letting the other team score.”
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One of the photos he sent us shows him with his hockey team after a championship win. He plays a few times a week and calls hockey one of the things that brings him the most joy. Taking the name for a small punk label was pretty natural.
The operation itself is about as small as it gets. Bottom Six is 100 percent Adam, based out of his house in Orange County, California. Revelation will handle wholesale through its warehouse and distribution channels. Adam will do domestic mailorder from home, while RevHQ will take care of international orders because its shipping rates are better.
His wife has been helping him with graphics and the computer side, an area Adam admits is very much outside his comfort zone. His dog is also getting used to the arrangement.
“I am very thankful for my dog’s understanding that I might not be as available to throw his ball as often.”
There will probably be a Bottom Six T-shirt too. Adam was still waiting to see exactly how that part goes.
The first record made the whole thing real very quickly. Adam has followed Youth Avoiders since their first LP, which had a North American pressing through Deranged Records. “Defiance” arrived in 2025 after an eight-year gap. Adam thought it might be their best record to date and included it in his top ten for the year.
Nico then got in touch to thank him.
He also mentioned that he would love to see the record on a label that could give it wider distribution. The original pressing was on Nico’s Destructure Records.
Adam immediately saw his first Bottom Six release sitting in front of him.
“The light bulb went off in my head and I said this is the one! This is the record that I start my label with.”
The two have spoken almost every day since. Adam booked a Fullerton show for Bleakness, another of Nico’s bands, invited them to Revelation, and found that Nico’s own experience running Destructure made the nuts and bolts of getting Bottom Six moving much easier.
Nico has actually been involved with Youth Avoiders for much longer than his relatively recent arrival in the live lineup suggests. Destructure has released their records since the “Time Flies” EP in 2011. As a recording engineer, Nico has recorded everything the band have released since the “Spare Parts” EP in 2016.
He started filling in on bass for several shows in 2022, eventually became Youth Avoiders’ permanent bassist and plays on “Defiance”. His other bands over the years have included Deletar and Bleakness.
The long wait between Youth Avoiders records had no grand story attached to it. They kept playing shows, went to work, and made a record when they actually wanted to make one.
“As a DIY punk band, we don’t really care about this idea that you always have to be super productive,” Nico said. “We like the idea of making records when we actually feel like making one, rather than just because it’s been a while and you feel pressured to put out a new one. Maybe the next one will come out faster, but that will just be because we feel like making it.”
Between “Relentless” and “Defiance”, the band continued playing shows while everyone also had day jobs. Rehearsing and writing had to fit into whatever time remained. Then the pandemic hit, and getting back into a normal routine took a while.
“Everything just took longer.”
Distribution ended up becoming one of the reasons Bottom Six made so much sense.
Youth Avoiders’ first album had its North American release through Deranged. By the second LP, Nico said Deranged were slowing down and could no longer release it, while the band did not have enough time to find another label. With “Defiance”, they contacted a few labels in North America, but nobody could move quickly enough because of existing schedules. Youth Avoiders wanted the record out, so Destructure went ahead with the first pressing alone.
The cost of moving European punk records across the Atlantic has changed the maths badly.
“This summer, while I was touring in the US and seeing European punk records selling for lets say $30, it honestly made me sad,” Nico said.
Youth Avoiders have toured the US three or four times, so Nico already knew there was an audience there. He is now trying to find North American partners for more Destructure releases whenever it makes sense.
That also goes back to the labels that shaped how he thought about running Destructure in the first place.
“Some of the biggest influences when I started my label are Crass Records and Dischord, with their ‘Pay No More Than’ policy printed on the back of their records. Obviously, it’s not really possible to sell records that cheaply anymore, but I still try to make sure my releases remain affordable and accessible.”
Bottom Six can help on both sides of that problem. Adam already has access to Revelation’s distribution system and warehouse, and this pressing is unusually cheap for him to get started with.
Nico is handling the pressing and adding another 500 copies for Bottom Six. The record had already been plated and the test presses for the original pressing approved, so there was no need to restart that part of the process. Bottom Six are adding their logo to the print and taking their 500 copies on opaque red vinyl.
“Since it’s already set up I will be able to keep my costs really low and try to make it available anywhere I can at as reasonable a price as possible,” Adam said.
The Bottom Six edition is set for November 13, even though Adam expects the records may arrive earlier. He was putting preorders up on September 17 through bottomsixrecords.bigcartel.com. International mailorder will run through RevHQ.
Orange County will inevitably sit somewhere around the label too. Adam plans to use the Bottom Six name when he books shows and posts flyers, partly so he can stop filling the feeds of family members and hockey teammates with local punk gigs.
He also sees no shortage of labels already doing solid work for bands around him.
Indecision Records have been part of the Southern California scene since 1992. Adam knows that relationship first-hand. He played in In Control, who released two albums through Indecision.
“Dave is at so many shows and puts out both young and old bands and is constantly supportive,” he said.
Vitriol Records came up immediately too. Adam pointed to Justin’s DIY approach and the way many Vitriol releases grow out of friendships with bands, which means a lot of them naturally come from California.
“Sorry to the other labels I am forgetting but huge shoutouts to everyone who puts their money on the line to support underground music.”
Bottom Six’s first record comes from France. Future releases could come from Orange County, from another part of hardcore entirely, or from one of the genres Adam rattles off when talking about what he listens to. He has a few ideas and is already speaking with some people, but release number two is not set.
That is also the point of keeping this small enough to stay fun.
“The great thing about doing a label as a hobby and not a business is that if I don’t want to work with any bands for a while I don’t have to.”
For now there is “Defiance”, 500 red records, a warehouse connection through Revelation, a mailorder operation at Adam’s house, a possible T-shirt, and @bottomsixrecords, an Instagram account thatย needs more followers.
