History
It was opened in
1987 by
Michael Dorf and Bob Appel, both from
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Initially the
Knitting Factory
was supposed to be an art gallery with a performance space and cafe, as well as a home for experimental music. Michael Dorf was the sole owner from the inception through 1996. Michael Dorf moved the club to
Tribeca and building the recording business festival business. He created
KnitMedia, during the
dot-com era, as the umbrella company to the Knitting Factory club in NY and soon to open state-of-the-art club in
Los Angeles. By 1999 the company grew to over 100 employees. For many years there was also an associated
record label, Knitting Factory Records.
Michael Dorf founded the venue on Houston Street, almost equidistant between
CBGB and the
Bottom Line, in late February 1987. The club quickly emerged as a home for the sounds that did not neatly fit into the categories of
jazz or
rock. Artists like
Sonic Youth,
Cassandra Wilson,
Yo La Tengo,
Cecil Taylor,
Cluster and
Bill Frisell played there. From 1987 to 1994 the venue lived at 47 E. Houston Street (it is now at 74 Leonard Street, between Broadway and Church). The
New York Times said of Michael Dorf in 1987, “The Knitting Factory has almost singlehandedly revised New York’s downtown arts scene in its first six months of operation. Presenting Jazz and improvised music, along with films, poetry, performance art and dance, it’s putting on affordable, genre-crossing double bills every night of the week.“
Rolling Stone Magazine said of club in 1991, “It’s rare for a club to act as a magnet for talent, drawing a new scene around itself. But in New York City, where the Knitting Factory has become synonymous with new music, that’s precisely what’s happening.”
In 2006 it acquired concert promoter Bravo Entertainment, and in 2008 re-branded two of Bravo's clubs (one in
Boise, Idaho and another in
Spokane, Washington) as “Knitting Factory Concert Houses.” Due to their buyout of Bravo, The Knitting factory now promotes much more mainstream concert tours, such as
Puddle of Mudd,
Lyle Lovett and LeAnn Rimes throughout the northwest.
In 2007 The Knitting Factory and
XMU (
XM 43) forged an exclusive partnership for the XM channel to record and broadcast concerts from both Knitting Factory locations.
In July 2008 the owners announced their move to a much smaller space in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
References