sentences:  The label's first LP release was 1977's "From Akron", a split album with The Rubber City Rebels which Nicholis sent to Village Voice Critic Robert Christgau.Christgau, who reviewed the album favorably, shortly afterwards visited to the region and was instrumental, although not alone, in the Akron/Kent music scene becoming noticed on an international level.The band were signed to the Mercury subsidiary Blank Records.