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Showing posts with label austerity program. Show all posts
It's a big week for drum machines!
J K Broadrick's most-recognized band, the influential and innovative GODFLESH- who formed in 1988 with bassist Ben Green, disbanded in 2002 and reformed in 2010 - present Decline & Fall 4 brand new tracks on a 23 minute mini album.
These industrial metal titans pick up right where they left off with more pummeling beats and distortion.
Over a decade and a half of playing together and now the band puts out their best release. The humor is much bleaker, the musical range is a lot sharper, and the drum machine is really well beyond its natural limits. It took four years to write and was put on tape over a week and a half in November 2013. They took the trouble to record it as clearly as they could so that you can listen to it at absolute top volume.
If you like Godflesh and Big Black, this will tickle your eardrums just right.
We're rampin' up for our 2014 vinyl reissues/repressings and we need to drum up some fun(ds). So, we've cracked open the ABT™/HHR™ vaults and dug out some more treasure for you to buy. Specifically, about 50 different Hydra Head Test Pressings© from the very early days up through the present moment. Included are titles from all your favorites and the favorite obscurities: Cave In, Khlyst, Botch, Buzzov*en, Converge, Khanate, Melvins, House of Low Culture, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Keelhaul, Xasthur, Neurosis, Big Business, Harvey Milk, etc, etc. Also included in the sale is the HHR TP Mega Pak with 87 different 7", 10", and 12" and 2x12" test pressings including such rarities as: Dillinger Escape Plan "Calulating Infinity", Goatsnake/Burning Witch split, Botch "We Are the Romans", Cave In "Beyond Hypothermia", Hollomen s/t, Circle "Manner", Converge/Agoraphobic Nosebleed "The Poacher Diaries", etc. Just so you know what stuff we'll be spending your hard earned monies on if you buy treasure from this sale, here is a partial list of what we've got coming up in 2014: Khlyst "Chaos is My Name" LP, Cave In "Jupiter" re-mastered + bonus 12", Khanate "Things Viral" 3xLP, Jesu "Conqueror" 2xLP, Old Man Gloom - Seminars I-III, Botch "Unifying Themes Redux" 2xLP, Botch - vinyl box set, Boris & Merzbow "Sun Baked Snow Cave" 2xLP, and whole bunch of other excellent music. So, head on over www.realtomatoketchup.com and click them buy buttons! Thank you.
Boston's Coolidge Corner Theatre is throwing a benefit party for us on Friday, November 30, with a showing of the "Blood, Sweat, + Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century" Documentary, a live performance from The Austerity Program, and a raffle for special merch.
Thanks so much to everyone involved in putting this together, including Jesse Hassinger and the folks at Coolidge Corner Theatre, & Kenneth Thomas and the Blood, Sweat, + Vinyl team!
It all started in Boston
MORE INFO HERE, overview below:
"In September 2012, Hydra Head Records announced their imminent demise. Bands and bills still need to be paid, so we have decided to throw a swan-song benefit party for the ex-Boston-based label with a live performance by The Austerity Program, Hydra Head raffle goodies, and an exclusive screening of a great new documentary.
The Austerity Program is a two-piece band New York City - guitar, bass an drum machine. Heavy emphasis on rhythm and almost none on melody. Expect to hear songs about C-list cartoon rabbits, despised albinos and suicidal arsonists, all played through about 3500 watts of amplification. On Hydra Head from 2002 until last month.
Blood, Sweat + Vinyl is the product of five years of obsessive filming of live concert footage, exclusive interviews, and historic documentation focusing on three fiercely independent music labels and their bands.
Featuring Neurosis, ISIS, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Pelican, Oxbow, Evangelista, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Cave In, and many others whose music and art found ideal homes in the artist-run record labels of Hydra Head, Neurot, and Constellation. These labels combine hard-to-define, heavy music with a visual aesthetic that has enraptured worldwide fans, without the need for radio or corporate media outlets. They uphold the legacy of treating music as an art form, not as a product.
This film is an answer to those who question where the spirit of punk rock is today.
Over 20 bands and visual artists.
3 record labels.
1 philosophy.
3 record labels.
1 philosophy.
Tickets: $12 ($5 of every ticket will go to Hydra Head Records)"
The Austerity Program says:
As we get settled into starting to write our next record, we took one song from the Black Madonna recording session that didn't make it onto the record and gave it to our friends at Metalsucks.net for a free compilation they did. They've put the song on as part of the comp and it's available for download for a little while. The song is called "Song 6" and we actually wrote it a long time ago. It never found a proper home, and now it's got one.
More info here: http://bit.ly/gB3B4X
It's part of the NYC Sucks compilation, and can be streamed or downloaded for free from Metalsucks.net
Well, assuming that you like the band, the 12” is really the format we had in mind while making decisions about the record. Part of the reason that it’s taken so long to put the thing out is that we’ve been paying attention to a lot of details that go into delivering a really good sounding version of the release. We think the vinyl does the best job of this.
Why does it sound so good, then?
Mostly because we got John Golden to do the vinyl mastering, had the plating done by Mastercraft and then worked closely with the pressing plant to deal with manufacturing issues. John mastered it as faithfully as possible from our ½” master tape. Between his significant experience and the fact that it’s about 10 minutes per side cut into 45rpm vinyl, the sound quality of the finished product is a great reproduction of our analog mixdown tape.
Why’s it only available on black vinyl?
No one’s been able to point out the definite science on this, but we’ve heard enough stuff about colored vinyl not sounding as good and/or not lasting as long. Enough that we’d feel we’d be offering a lower quality product in the colored vinyl and we don’t want to do that. Black vinyl should be the best medium for the reasons that matter (sound, durability, reliability from the pressing plant) if not for the reasons that don’t matter (how pretty it looks on your turntable, your ability to resell it).
Oh, that’s also why we kept a plain white inner sleeve. Printed or special sleeves can get dirty and a dirty inner sleeve should be replaced. That’s a lot easier to do with a plain white one than with something that is an aesthetically integral part of the final product. Maybe you’re hyper and want to get one of those paper/plastic hybrid ones that are supposed to scratch the record less. Have at it.
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| Thad Calabrese's lower body, Justin Foley's hand. |
Is there cool stuff other than the record?
Of course. There’s a download card so that you can get a digital copy of the songs at no additional cost. There’s a nice insert with some liner notes. And there’s one or two other things.
Why’s it limited to 500?
Because it’s a record with a limited appeal and so we all had to figure out how many to make. Some people care about the size of a limited edition so, since it’s limited due to demand, there’s no harm in letting people know how limited. Of course, if there’s enough demand to warrant pressing more, we’ll do that. We’ve got zero interest in an artificial ‘specialness’ that comes from trying to make something deliberately collectible.
Why are you releasing the vinyl 1/2 a year after the CD? Are you trying to get people to buy this twice or something? That's gross.
Ha ha ha. No. In the past 25 years, vinyl has moved from the standard for music releases to a niche industry. This means the standards and scale of record production has moved from plants producing massive volume to smaller operators working on a job-order basis. If something goes wrong, you can either rush to overlook it or take the time and work to fix it. For this record, we did the latter. We appreciate the patience of anyone who's held off on buying the release for the 12" version and we hope they feel it was worth the wait.
The Austerity Program's Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn 12" is finally ready. You can pre-order it on our webstore now, and it will start shipping by October 1st. The 12" is limited to 500 pieces, all on black vinyl, so no need to vacillate about which color to get.
Also, during the preorder you can get The Austerity Program Anvil t-shirt here for $2 off (designed by our own Sugarbear).
...and finally, this week we had an email exchange with the band which included this original script by Mr. Foley (click to enlarge):
