It’s such an interesting feeling to be on the eve of something very exciting, not the least of which is the release of my first vinyl. Moments ago I finished assembling the final bits for the covers, the records were delivered this afternoon, and tomorrow you can purchase this fine item at the “What Is Noise?” Fest in Corvallis.
In a way, this is almost anti-climactic. I have a month of touring ahead of me, I have two more releases coming out in August, and there’s so much more work to do this year that I don’t really get to spend a lot of time enjoying this accomplishment. And that’s a good thing; I still have 20 more ‘zines to assemble before tomorrow, and more to pack, etc. There’s always more to do.
But: as a person who was practically raised by records, to be making and releasing my own is incredibly exciting. My mom collected records. I’ve been collecting since High School. In every band the idea of releasing a record was a goal, but almost unachievable. Now, I have a pile of them in my hands, that I made, and I have to say I’m sort of astonished to hear my sounds on a record.
I sort of went overboard with this item. The audio on this record is not available in any other form, and was never aired before. This mono recording is unique to this release only. I mixed and mastered the audio myself.
The packaging was all designed by me. I mocked up the covers and designed the labels and other materials. I wrote the essay in the zine, and and hand cut and stapled all the covers and materials. The zine is something near and dear to my heart, and tangentially relates to the music, too. (Max Headroom is always relevant, yes?)
There are two collages on the inside covers unique to each copy of this release. You can see an assortment of those collages here. The material I used to make the collages has been stuff I’ve been collecting since the early ‘90’s, and includes stuff from magazines and whatnot that I’ve chopped up and tossed into my collage box ever since. I’m excited to finally use some of this stuff.
The Download code does not include the music in the record. Instead, it includes over two hours of other music from live performances, radio broadcasts, and elsewhere. I’ve tackled some of these ideas in the past, but never in exactly the same way. Those past attempts are provided, almost in an archeological form, so you can see the evolution of these concepts.
There’s also a very nice full color sticker in each package. It’s the one you may have seen before.
All in all, I’m really excited to put this in the hands of interested folks. Hopefully there’s enough interest to make a second run on this one… or, even, a second record.
But for now, I’m gonna take a few moments to reflect on this accomplishment. While I know in my head I should feel like this is something huge, in my heart I sort of feel like there should be confetti and clowns and a party.
Maybe next time.
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