Yorkshire’s Inhaler Records have a busy trans-atlantic diary for February.

Not only are they releasing the fantastic “Looking for Bruce” by North Carolina’s Hammer No More The Fingers but they are also taking the East Coast band on a UK tour…

Riding high on the tsunami of positive reviews both from the UK indie music press and a stateside release of ‘Looking for Bruce’ already garnering the right sort of attention HNMTF seem to be making a sure-footed landing on UK shores.

From Rocksound.tv:

Hammer No More The Fingers are a new band made up of old, old friends. The trio spent years knocking around in local bands and the shared memory of practice, gigs, writing and hanging around has clearly helped shape this savvy, witty and sharp debut album of indie rock gems. ‘Looking For Bruce’ plays like an old friend, it is lo-fi without being pretentious, sharp without being elitist and hooky without sounding dumb. A solid set of songs made better by the guiding hand of producer and all around legend J Robbins, Hammer No More The Fingers are a new band worth their weight in hype.

Link to original article

links

Inhaler Records

Hammer No More The Fingers

The people have voted Girl Spit Doncaster’s best band for the year 2009…

Sugar³ were an infamous punk band around the Doncaster area and when this rough around the edges, ramshackle and, at times, visually shocking band imploded they left behind a two devilish souls… These charming young men went on to create the band we know today as Girl Spit.

Quickly gathering an army of converts and with a reputation for cacophonic, incendiary live sets in their first year together, I recommend you take a trip to see them before they too implode. The Priory saw their coming of age on January 27th and its hard to believe that there is only one candle on this band’s celebration cake.

Girlspit MySpace

Other notable mentions for the best band of 2009 go to Dearne Valley’s Airburst and Skullbone.

Airburst

Airburst are well respected amongst the local band community as being a genuine talent – singer guitarist Tom has a real rock-n-roll spirit running through his Dearne Valley veins and aptly named animal drummer Dog pounds the traps like a good un.

Recent rumours on the forum see them being billed as a likely signing for 2010 so we’ll be cornering them soon enough to talk contracts and a hijacked myspace!

Airburst MySpace

SkullBone

Skullbone received a surprising number of votes considering their rare live appearances. If our sources are to be believed (!?), Skullbone are putting the finishing touches to four tracks recorded at Higher Rhythm with Darren Feris for release in the coming months.

Gorillaz track leaked

The latest, and considerably overdue, offering from Damon Albarn’s comic creations ‘Gorillaz’ has escaped into the wilds of the internet. Featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack, the track is called “Stylo”… Enjoy.

Devin DiMattia has updated the trailer to the fantastic Firewall of Sound

Firewall of Sound is a documentary looking at how the digital revolution has changed the way we receive and distribute the music we listen to. From bands promoting themselves on Myspace and Facebook, to major labels and record stores looking for relevance in the digital age, the music industry is constantly evolving. This film is an attempt to document the different ways people are evolving with it.

Original post can be found here.

The Best of 2009 poll had a surprisingly big uptake and the votes are counted. A post with the full winners details will follow over the next few days… belated I know. Unsurprisingly however, is the fact that the Best Doncaster band 2009 poll was the best attended with literally some people voting.

2000 – 2009… what happened? No, really, what actually happened in music? Sure plenty of things happened to music (MySpace, the death of independent music labels & shops) but did anything good come of it? . . .

Pearl Jam, Guns and Roses and Kiss reformed, Jacko died, Lo-fi ruled and bands operated their ‘business’ from their laptop – thinking they knew how the fuck to survive in a digital world that allows them to be their own managers/publicists/record producers before imploding as, although they had thirty thousand automated, internet friends nobody came to their gigs. DAMMIT! and damn you Zane Lowe for making them think that it was possible. Roll on the 2010s…

2010 will also see a new blogazine.

New design, new subjects and new writers. New for 2010:

• Space place – free file storage
• For sale section – sell your music direct using Paypal
• Reader gossip micro blog

We’ve been discussing this on the forum since December began but we’d love your opinions too.

The DbR Awards will take place in the New Year with the best Doncaster band having a full feature and a mystery prize! HOW EXCITING!?

RIGHT… a very easy system this year… Just pop your answers in the boxes and hit “Submit answers”… Enjoy! Fill your email in if you’d like to be notified when the awards are due to be announced. VOTE BELOW!

VOTE HERE!

All answers are optional – fill as many / few as you like…

On Saturday evening, The Cribs played The Dome in Doncaster promoting their, ironically titled, Ignore the Ignorant album. Support bands for the tour were chosen by the band and on Saturday night featured Los Campesinos and 70s punk icons The Slits.

Support bands with touring bands are often just label-mate-contractually-obliged pairings rather than considered partnerships; thankfully Los Campesinos fall into the latter camp and the assembled gang of music fans (I use that term loosely) seemed to buy into the indie rockings. It was good to see that all the hype this band received was actually deserved and they delivered a set as energetic as a puppy full of Mountain Dew… The British Arcade Fire? The best sound of the entire night was wrung from the neck of a fine vintage SG of the Camp’s guitarist though I think their version of Pavement’s ‘Box Elder’ may have been lost on 99% of tonight’s crowd. A great start to the night.

Within moments of The Slits taking the stage the mood quickly swings into the realms of uneasy before plummeting, within 4 bars of dub bass, into a full on attack of the band. First with ‘boos’ and chants of “OFF! OFF! OFF!” before physical attacks on the band begin, with bottles and glasses (albeit plastic) and even coins being thrown at the band on stage.

The Slits handle it with an estrogen fueled counter attack; “You guys need fucking educating, we invented this shit!”. This seemed to simply fan the flames and the attacks continued for the entire set. Some members of the crowd did what they could to cheer over the jeers in an attempt to quench the mood but The Slits set really suffered at the hands of the assembled gang. The band handled the situation with humour and retaliation in equal measure and could at least leave the stage knowing that, by finishing their set, they had not surrendered to the assembled hooligans.

The Cribs are known for a ferocious live performance but tonight seemed to have an added dose of vigour and unsurprisingly they berated anyone who took part in the attack against the Slits calling that “anyone who was involved in that situation shouldn’t bother calling themselves Cribs fans… we don’t need you”…

Statement from TheCribs.com:
“Just thought that we should write something about the Doncaster show last night.
Firstly, it’s pretty obvious that this band were disgusted by the way that a certain minority treated The Slits during their set. Despite putting on an amazing, powerful performance the night was marred from this point onwards by a handful of people throwing coins, beer and generally putting on a disgustingly chauvinistic display of small mindedness.
As we said from the stage last night, it reminded us of when we were opening for the Sex Pistols in Brixton a couple of years ago and we remember being really quite pissed off that the audience were too close minded to really give us a chance, so imagine how bad we felt when a band we have a lot of respect for and invited to play with us were treated in a similar way. The thing that bothered us most is that this reception can’t possibly have been anything to do with the music. Also, just to make it clear, these people didn’t bother or upset The Slits in any way AT ALL. They played on, and the show of unity from the rest of the bands on the bill, as well as the way The Slits carried themselves was not only a moral victory but also pretty moving. The only people these idiots upset or bothered was this band, The Cribs – and their real fans who had to tolerate being represented by the dick heads with the loudest mouths. It was so cowardly.
We were in 2 minds about what to do during their set, do we pull the show? No, that would be letting them win and making the night all about their behaviour. So we played.
We’ve never played in Doncaster before and we have to admit that we had been looking forward to this show maybe more than any other in our 6 years of touring, to be playing what is essentially our local arena was something that I was really excited about. I guess that when you play shows of this size you have to come to terms with the fact that you will have some people in there that have views that are way out of line to yours but it still takes you by surprise when it happens.
As we said earlier, I know it was just a small minority. We have met our fans all over the world and know that our fans are some of the best you could hope for, we’re not stupid enough to tar everyone with the same brush because of a few bad apples. We’re just disappointed that Yorkshire was represented so poorly last night to so many people. 3 of us grew up in Yorkshire and know that we are better than that. To our real fans, thanks so much for helping us salvage something from the gig, our show lived up to the aspirations we had for it, but there is no way that we can let these things pass unmentioned.
As Ari Up said “educate the person next to you”. To those who would rather treat our (or any bands) show as an excuse to indulge your testosterone – leave us the fuck alone – we have no place for you here.

The Cribs“

Andy Cook is known to many around the South Yorkshire area as a stalwart gig-goer and champion of independent music. However, he also takes the odd photo…

Over the last year or so these ‘odd photos’ have been evolving into something else altogether… From the early days of the odd flacid pic of Doncaster bands it’s fair to say his craft is now positively engorged; with a press pass to the 2009 Reading Festival under his belt and shots featured by some of the countries best music coverage outlets he is certainly making his mark.

We will attempt to pin him down for a few words at some point… for now enjoy these choice shots…

Andy Cook on flickr

DbR speaks to Mr Andy Abbott about life, art and the DIY music scene – If you like your rock geezers with their fingers in many pies – tuck in!

1: Hey Andy, introduce yourself… a little history maybe ?

Hi Rob, I’m Andy, I’m a 28 year-old man; I like to eat hot meals in the evening but can handle something straight out of the fridge or at room temperature for lunch. I play guitar in the rock duo That Fucking Tank, am a member of the art collective Black Dogs, study a PhD in socially engaged art practice at the University of Leeds, do a bit of teaching at Leeds College of Art, and live in Saltaire, West Yorkshire with my girlfriend Yvonne. That’s my life.

I was born in the Highlands of Scotland to a young mother and older dad where some of our meals during Winter months were poached off of the local moors. As a youngster I was particularly interested in field sports; air rifle target-shooting, archery, training kestrels and other birds of prey, ferreting and baseball. Around 8-10 years old I got addicted to ZX spectrum and NES games. Upon starting secondary school in Matlock, Derbyshire I got into alternative rock music, learning how to play guitar and bass by ‘borrowing’ other student’s instruments at break-times with my friend James.

I moved to Leeds at 18 to do music ‘properly’ with my post-grunge band Viagra but ended up working in warehouses and call-centres that drained me of any juice necessary to play music. After a year I decided to take an easier option and attended art-college where I met some inspirational chaps from differing backgrounds including Giles Bailey with whom I formed the band Real Fucky Fucky. Around this time I really got into the DIY music scene in Leeds – seeing it as a natural continuation from the gigs I’d been organising in Village Halls and Youth Clubs in Matlock – and started putting on gigs as a guaranteed way of making sure Real Fucky Fucky got to play live. One of the first gigs we put on with our art school collective of friends was for J*R and a band from Stoke called Truckdriver.

Following this life-changing experience I carried on playing in bands with more vim and vigour, including the very Shellac-y Kill Yourself, and decided to carry on studying art because it was much easier than working. Since then I’ve pretty much studied art and played music in equal measure, somehow scraping an existence out of both. Life is sweet.

2: Quite a history… onto music… That Fucking Tank seem to be going from strength to strength, a new album, UK tour etc – what next?

That Fucking Tank came about initially as a joke band – we formed it in 2004 because Giles from Kill Yourself was living in Glasgow and we needed another band to play a gig of only two-piece bands we were organising in Leeds, so James and I wrote some tracks as a duo. The fact that it has ‘progressed’ in anyway from this pointless beginning is purely down to chance.

Tank seems to go down well with people because, I believe, it has a degree of sincerity to it. We never intended to achieve anything with the band other than write some music that would keep us entertained whilst playing it, and I think this translates into an enjoyable spectacle. We have certainly done much more with the band than I ever anticipated. That could be down to the fashionable element of noisy rock duos or our ‘outrageous’ name but I like to think it’s because people like to see two people that have known each other for a very long time go at it hard on their respective instruments. As far as I’m concerned that’s all (punk) rock music has to offer in social terms – some outright honesty.

Did you ever snare a vocalist?

A year or two ago we invited Giles to come and do some singing with us to spice up the tracks a little as he had finished Uni and we saw it as a way of getting us three lads back together. We’ve had some very fun gigs playing as a trio. Giles, however, is an incredibly busy man with some very exciting pots on the boil at all times, so it has only ever been an informal arrangement, coming together when the stars align.

As it turns out there are a lot of practical benefits to being an instrumental duo – you never have to bother the sound engineer, you can travel in a transit van without doing anything illegal, you only ever have to ask promoters for a double bed and a hot meal for two, rounds are easily held in two hands and so on. We recorded our most recent album, Tanknology, without vocals due to time constraints and the logistics in getting three people in a room together. We do have plans to perhaps release the version with singing at some point though, although this might end up in the same swamp as the ‘lost’ Kill Yourself album.

Tank continue to operate on the same principles we started the band with; we do what we feel like. This has meant we’ve done some pretty unexpected things, like playing at Leeds and Reading festivals last year on the same day as Metallica as well as the more self-organised activities like touring Europe regularly. At the moment f writing we are trying to book ourselves a tour along the West Coast of America and get a gig with our heroes Therapy?. Reef still haven’t responded to our requests for a support tour.

3: Any planned releases for OBA label ?

Obscene Baby Auction is something we’ve not felt the need to do for a while. At the start of this decade (that’s the way to phrase it to make you feel ancient) it felt like someone really needed to document the excellent music that was coming out of Leeds’ DIY music community. We loved buying records and we also really wanted to be on one so we started a record label that released music by our bands and others that we liked (including J*R, Bilge Pump, Humanfly and the like).

The landscape in Leeds has changed drastically since then. There are loads more bedroom record labels like OBA – surprising, given the decline in people actually buying physical-format releases – and it felt to us like the ‘scene’ was getting documented without our needing to do so. So really we just slowed down. I think other people offering to release our records, like Jealous and Gringo, contributed to our declining motivation too.

I’m now really interested in revisiting the vinyl format just because of the perversity of it. It’s so hard to sell records at the moment because music is freely available – which I see as a good thing – that the whole idea of selling a physical object that contains music really has to be rethought. I think it can still be relevant and worthwhile. With Black Dogs we’re currently working on an ‘audio almanac’ which is meant to be like an exhibition on a record. Each track will correspond to a page in the accompanying booklet and audio and visuals should be experienced simultaneously. I’m not sure what submissions we’re going to get for it (we tend to do a call out for contributions from artists and friends) but I think it’ll include some spoken word, music, field recordings, comedy sketches and the like. Its going to be on gatefold vinyl so you can have that immersive experience you used to get with the War of the Worlds vinyl as a child.

As for OBA, I’d really like to document the current European DIY network that we tour on. There are some incredible bands from Italy (like GI Joe and Nervous Kid), France (Sincabeza and Pneu) and elsewhere that, as far as I’m concerned, play much more interesting music and go about things in a much more interesting way than their American counterparts. There’s a stigma attached to European bands that stops people checking them out in the same way they might a band with (USA) after their name on a flyer. I don’t know if releasing a record that compiles those bands would make any difference to that but it would certainly ‘immortalise’ something that is very important to me; I guess that’s the best way to approach releasing a record at the moment – at least I want it even if no-one else does.

4: To most people reading this you will be known for your work with TFT and previously Kill Yourself – how/when did the transition to art come about or is it something you always had in you?

Well. I kind of explained how I ‘got into’ art earlier. It was really just because I used to be good at drawing so got a reasonable A-level which meant I was accepted to do a foundation course at LCAD when I applied after being scared shitless by the thought of having to work for a living. I never had an interest in art properly – never went to any galleries or paid attention to the art scene – but I enjoyed drawing.

At art college I had my eyes opened to forms of artistic practice that I had been naïve of previously – things like Arte Povera or the time-sensitive sculptures of Anya Gallacio – and ended up doing a lot more object or performance based work that referenced my time working in warehouses and call centres. I still didn’t think much to the ‘Art World’ though – just seeing it as a big commercial industry that feeds off people’s creativity and operates on rules of fashion and styles (which it is!).

I much preferred the DIY music-scene which seemed to offer a genuine alternative to market-based mechanisms and was much easier to participate in. The idea of becoming a famous artist and having work in galleries was never an ambition of mine. Nevertheless I decided to continue studying art at the University of Leeds as a way to defer the world of work and to allow me more time to concentrate on the bands I was in and the gigs we were organising.

The course was really disappointing and I felt very frustrated, but mostly despondent, towards it. It contained a large theory element (which I liked because I enjoy writing) but I didn’t really come across anything that I felt an affinity with historically or in the contemporary art world. That was until I came across the Situationist International (a French radical political group of the 50s and 60s) and a lot of the stuff I’d been doing within the DIY music scene and some of the more labour-critical art works I’d been making at Uni started to fit together.

Around the same time a group of us that were in the same year group of the course decided that, as the Uni wasn’t providing us with the space, resources and critical feedback we felt we needed, that we’d start working autonomously outside of the Uni. That was how Black Dogs started. We began having meetings in the pub just between the six of us (there were only six original members) to talk about each other’s work and plan an exhibition that would happen somewhere in Leeds.

This was a really massive step for us because it was, for me at least, very much informed by the DIY ethos learned from the music scene. We realised that we didn’t need to wait around for some gallery owner or agent to pick us up after we graduated in order to have an exhibition. Instead we could just find an empty space in Leeds and between the six of us we had all the necessary skills and energy to make a good job of organising our own. The first few things we did outside the Uni (whilst still students) created quite a buzz in the, very small, art scene in Leeds and we got a lot of support.

Over time we realised that the way we were doing art was probably more interesting than the actual objects we were making and our practice become much more process-based and allowed room for the audience to participate in it. Over time I started to realise that the history of art was in fact much more radical and interesting than I had previously imagined – that underneath the whole art-as-commodity and museums-and-galleries-for-the-bourgeois-cattle there was in fact an incredibly subversive current that makes the DIY music scene look conservative and inward-looking by comparison.

I got much more into art as public interventions and working with ‘communities’ (for want of a better word), or socially-engaged practice as it is commonly referred to. The good thing about art is that it can be anything so the parameters are much less fixed than they are with music. You can just keep following a thread or an idea into a form that is most appropriate to it. My PhD research, which is practice-led, is about ‘facilitating self-organisation’, which is art-speak for encouraging or allowing space for DIY activity; for people to learn how to do things their own way, to create their own paths and to challenge the established order of things. So really, I think my art practice has been completely born out of my experience in music but has allowed me to explore what I found interesting about it in much more detail and breadth.

Links:
AndyAbbott.co.uk
Black Dogs Art Projects
That Fucking Tank on myspace

Well well well… It seemed a long time in coming and then… BLAM! It was gone… but what an amazing night!

After five bands, two DJs, 50 free CDs, 250 stickers and countless horrific scenes later the Destroy before Reading Hallowe’en extravaganza came to a close… Firstly, thanks! It was very busy, people were awesome to each other…

First up, on the four-band bill downstairs, were Airburst – mixing 90s grunge, 70’s groove with an alt.rock lilt to their gait they made for a perfect opener. Airburst are clearly tuned in to each others rock frequencies with each never looking for a reassuring look from another band member – and more importantly never apologising. Heads down. Horns up. If pushed, I guess you could say that the Yorkshire boys could appear dated but I think it is just testament to their approach to music and their far-reaching influences. Kings of Leon they aint and all the better for it.

Next in the saddle are SkullBone, voodoo make up ‘an all. SB rarely play so it is not a complete surprise the set is not as tight as it could be, with false starts and the odd stop for tuning – Rob even ran backstage at one point as he had forgotten to bring his guitar slide with him! It rally didn’t matter though as the crowd were on their side and their set of stripped down, ear-splitting, country-core went down like warm blood.

The unassuming acoustic guitar set of Californian Jake La Botz takes the stage (floor?) and quickly draws people in from upstairs – his blend of traditional country-blues has a real, whiskey soaked, street hardened edge to it and makes a real impression on the Rockbar crowd. This boy can holla! “Hey… it’s a full moon outside and this song tells the story of the howling wolf… hhhoooowwwwlllllllll!!!!!!” laughed Jake who quickly turned the crowd on to his bluesey drawl. California to Doncaster is a long way to come for a half hour set but I’m sure he’ll be welcomed back in a hurry should he be passing through again.

The night is now in full swing… the sounds of the 50s and 60s are wafting down from “Night of the swinging dead” under way in the upstairs bar…

OFM are drunk. Really drunk. It’s Ben’s (vocals) birthday today and he has consumed lord knows bottles of Newcastle’s finest export. We are all unsure at this stage if this set will actually happen at all…

Thankfully, the band are used to alchohol-induced obstacles and they launch into a set of their trademark alt-rock popness without hesitation. The songs written for their, as yet unreleased, second album sound great and it is testament to the quality of the tunes that, even played as loosely as they are tonight, sound every bit the hit factory that they do on record.

Once the downstairs bands had cleared, the party continues upstairs at Swingers… The five pieces of the Black Lightnings are crammed in a corner, pushed for time (aiming for a midnight start) and receiving little help from the aggressive bar manager – but eventually, after much pushing and shoving, get set up and ready to play. Rock n Roll covers are the order of the day and is perfect end to the night.

This is a band with people who play proper instruments, sax, guitar, drums (well, not all proper instruments obviously), upright bass and piano and make a rousing noise. Furious foot-tapping ensues.

Thanks to those who played a part.

GALLERY

Some photos stolen without permission from Nichola Stephenson’s Facebook. Thanks

On November 14th 2009 – The Vintage Rockbar in Doncaster will host a very worthwhile benefit show for the people of the Philippines. Higher Rhythm Recording Studio quickly set up the Higher Rhythm Foundation concentrating efforts in providing aid and food supplies for the affected regions.

The show on November 14th will feature live sets from:
slash bikini
the virelais
in fear of olive
UV pop
stereo syndicate
pistola kicks
suns of banditos

In addition to the live bands there will also be a fund-raising auction (electric guitars, amps and much more to be auctioned off!!) . . . (I’ve also heard rumours of a young lady tooled up with a shot belt doing the rounds but you’ll have to see for yourself!)

The early arrivers at this Saturday’s Hallowe’en gig at the Vintage Rockbar in Doncaster will not be disappointed!

Here we have the fantastic FREE CD and stickers that will be given away to the first 50 early birds . . . The CD features a track from each band playing on the night… In case you need reminding, SEE HERE…

It’s set to be a freaking great night. Four bands, free stuff, Hallowe’en shananigans (£1 off entry for the dresser-upperers!) and I hear they sell beer too !

The applications are closed, the places are filled and the battle lines are drawn…

‘Battle of the bands’ competitions come in for a lot of criticism from bands and fans alike for being unfair, troublesome and not particularly helpful to the music community. However, the folks over at the Leopard in Doncaster are promising that this year will be different. We hope so…

On the right you can view the launch poster and the lineup for the first round (click to zoom)

Here at DbR we’ll be keeping you up to date with the winners, bad losers and all the gory details coming out of the the Venue’s upstairs battleground.

Hotly tipped bands for this year’s crown include: Girlspit, Lullaby Junkies and Up Against the Wall Motherfucker; however, battles of this sort are always full of surprises and are about making a lasting impression on the judges – so it really is anyone’s game…

If you’re getting involved, feel free to email us with any news, gossip or add a comment below … Email us at mp3@destroybeforereading.com

Here we go with part two of our exclusive interview with Mac of Superchunk fame. We’re massive fans of Superchunk and Merge records here at DbR . . . Part one can be seen here

Q5. When a band ‘reforms’ the cynics amongst us see the lucrative festival circuit winding out in front of them… (The optimist hopes the band felt they had unfinished business)… Tell us about Polvo’s ‘regroup’…

Polvo is a really interesting case because there was never any acrimonious meltdown or anything…all those guys seemed to just kind of move on; i read recently where Ash or Dave said they just kind of felt they’d done all they could do with the band. they lived in different places for a long time and Dave still lives in NYC with the other guys down here in NC. we asked them to play our 15-year anniversary and they politely declined. when they first got back together, i was surprised that their reunion extended beyond ATP to the making of a new album, but i was not surprised that it sounds like Polvo. what is amazing though is that they took what they used to do and both solidified it but also took it to this other level of heaviness that’s really pretty incredible, it may be their best record.

Q6. In a time when global music sales are way down, T&G are feeling the pinch and independent record shops are closing every day, what are Merge doing to future-proof themselves?

i don’t think you can really future-proof yourself, because you don’t know what the landscape will be like at any point down the line. i think one reason we’re still here is because frankly we’ve never looked too far into the future, we’ve always focused on doing what we are doing, putting out great records and making sure people can get them. we’re kind of old-fashioned in a way which maybe isn’t the way to be these days but so far it’s served us well. i wish i knew how to save record stores though, both because Merge needs them and also personally i don’t know what i would do if i couldn’t go to a record store. hard to get excited about a new batch of files on my hard drive.

Q7. Historically music releases have been complemented with artwork and ‘B-Sides’. How important is the record artwork/packaging/additional songs to you in these days of the digital download – (a flip page PDF just doesn’t cut it for me, you?) and do you think artwork and the ‘B-Side’ will die with the physical release?

It’s hard for me to get excited about some files on my hard drive or a PDF of some artwork… stuff gets lost in my computer and i forget about it. i know i sound like an old man but at a certain point i think there’s something “real” about a physical object that creates a connection between a listener and the music and creates a fan. we started the label as fans and we need fans to survive as a label. mp3s sound terrible. listening to music on an ipod or a laptop is incredibly anti-social and one of the best things about music to me is listening to it with other people, whether it’s in the background or whether you’re sitting on the floor in front of the record player putting on 45s. i don’t see that as old-fashioned so much as human. perhaps as Corey from Touch and Go told me a couple years ago at a certain point there will still be record stores but they’ll literally just be selling records again like they used to… i wish i knew how it will all play out!