vardcore

Okay, so it's totally silly and minor, but for the obsessive and tweaked, here's the whatnot:

The current pressing of the HOT WATER MUSIC / ALKALINE TRIO Picture-Disc LP is exactly the same as the previous pressings... except the lyric-insert-foldy things are printed with Metallic Gold ink instead of Metallic Silver ink. There. Now you know. It's no big deal, but since people do notice these things... I'm giving you the skinny in advance. The picture discs are the same as always: purty.

Trivia: "Reinventing Axl Rose" was on the presses at the same time as this GNR album. Pressed at the same plant. Simultaneously. (I think GNR was probably on the presses a wee bit longer... all week?) But still... pretty freaking funny.

#1 REASON comp / DL code

The DL code issue was resolved. The cyberbrain did not like a character in the code. Resolved. Whoop!

I highly recommend this comp, by the way. At the time, none of the bands had releases on NI, although a couple will/do now. Ha. Anyhow, its just a shout out / about our home town. Giving a spotlight to some of the great music that grows here. I could do a second volume now with no repeats. For real.

I don't know that anyone counted the covers. We got them in batches. So... all I know is that there were white ones and chipboard ones. This was just fate. That's the paper that was on hand at the time. I would not obsess over it. Nobody needs both... but I know people will be twitchy. Save it for another record. You'll need all that twitch for other things. Otherwise your mainspring might pop off and we don't want that. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

The "real" version of the record will look quite different... so there you go. Hopefully the plant will have white vinyl.

We signed all the mailorder copies, at least at the beginning. I'm not sure if we did ALL of the mailorder copies. I think so. We put the name of the person ordering on either the card or maybe on the envelope.

We occasionally would get a few in a return from a distributor (after it was otherwise sold out). These were then sold via mailorder and would not have been signed, mostly because it would not have occurred to us, what with 13,000 other things going on. Ha.

I think we were originally selling these for $4. No way to do that now.

All 1,100 had the tri-color vinyl. It varied a little, but was exciting on every copy I saw.

There were also like 20 or 50 test pressings on black vinyl with no covers or inserts. Probably still have a few of those somewhere. Who knows.

There's a joke on the back cover that no one ever caught.

Yes, CDs are still in print for cheap. Yes, there is a variation on the CD FACE. Some are Blue. Some are Red. There you go.

-- For the record: we originally intended to throw a CD in with the LP copies... but we forgot. This is why there were two different CD Face colors. It's hard to remember all the stuff from then.

-- A noted punk journalist noted "this is my favorite HWM song ever" not realizing it was a Boss cover. I like covers of Bruce songs better than the originals, in general, so I can relate. Dunno why, but those tunes just make great punk anthems.

Are there still a good number of the Baracknroll shirts? I'm considering tracking one down for myself.

http://www.noidearecords.com/display/?itemid=6983

We are going to keep making them for a little while. People keep asking about them. We are going to split the money between a few worthy causes. There are always people in need, y'know?

Who made the "MY PRESIDENT" shirts? I saw someone wearing one at the FEST. It looked just like the Fat "Not My President" shirts, except it had Obama and said "My President".

I'm looking for one of these. Will gladly buy (or trade for one of our "Maximum Baracknroll" shirts). Anyone?

Was there supposed to be a code for the Young Livers/Bridge & Tunnel split? Because I didn't get one...but, I'd like one and I'd use it!!!

Nope. So far it's just OWTH, B&T, and the #1 REASON comp. Unless I'm forgetting something.

The Good Luck LP will have a code, as will (likely) most of the upcoming full lengths. Perhaps some EPs too, but probably not all 7" records for the time being.

I have been using mine more and more often. I'm on dialup, so that is part of the problem. I know with a couple of releases, I've bought all colors, so for something like the all aboard LP, I had four colors with a fifth on the way, I'll only be using one of them. I like the option, though I find like with fat, including the CD is much easier for me, though not sure which is a cheaper method and to keep costs down on vinyl, I'd go with the cheaper rather than easier...

That's also a good point, if I buy multiple copies of an album I'll only use one of the codes so that has to factor in a bit. Especially with a label like No Idea where people do buy multiple copies of the same album. For instance, with East/West I bought three copies but only used the download code from one. That would appear as only 33% of the codes being used but in fact it should be 100%.

In reality, only a very small percentage of people buy multiples. Folks who do also tend to be really excited about music in general... and very vocal about it. Which is awesome for new bands who need all the help they can get. Whooo!

Confirmation: CLEAR vinyl for mailorder, while it lasts. The rest are BLACK vinyl. For more info you'll have to keep an eye on the Sabot site...

Dunno colors for sure, dunno quantities for sure, but they exist now. (This is NOT a pre-order.) I know there's one color that is not black. And there are black copies too. I think it's clear for the colored ones, but I am not certain. Will know more tomorrow. If you care, get on it. Otherwise, distill those tears and sprinkle them on a boiled egg. How's that for imagery? Yuck!

We will probably start adding a generic sticker on the LP bag that proclaims the download is inside. This will add like 10 cents to each record, once labor is included. I suspect the % of codes used will rise slightly after that. We'll see.

We will only be doing this for new releases. Old releases can suck it, haha.

(although we will likely add codes for re-issues or re-mastered versions.)

We will someday offer our own, direct, paid-downloads as well as a higher bitrate for the "free" download coupons... but don't expect it anytime soon.

-- We may also do more specials for direct mailorders, where an LP or CD is one price, but an LP+CD is like $3 more (with all printed parts included, not just a loose CD)... We did this with the GHOST MICE / SAW WHEEL release as an experiment.

Hey do No Idea codes expire? I just realized I had a OWTH From the Bottom one I hadn't used and it's not working.

Good for one download... that's why they have individual, unique codes.

Steve Jobs and the Itunes police should be showing up at your house any minute now

I think Apple would charge less if they could.

In defense of Apple, I uploaded the JAMMY DODGERS CD to iTunes for them and it sells for $1.99 there. And it's at least an hour long, once you include the "audio zine" tracks. So, really, the label can do whatever they want, price-wise. iTunes takes 30%. If you go through a middle man, they take another 15% or something. Just so you know.

side note:

Var, how much work is it to host them and generate the codes yourself?

Peanuts, once the backend code was written. It ads like $20 to $50 to 1,000 records, all of which is uploading it to the server, printing the codes, inserting the codes.

Var, are the codes in the LPs sent to distros, stores, and whatnot cause if so that explains why a bunch are unused.

Of course. But that does not entirely explain the large divide on, say, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS. It is a factor, for sure. But not 88%.

TOM GABEL "Anna is a Stool Pigeon" 7" from Sabot Productions...

AGAINST ME! frontman Tom Gabel brings us a three-song 7" to accompany his newly released solo album on Sire! This 7" single contains one track from the Sire record, one acoustic version of a song from that same record, and one unreleased song.

Track Listing:

1. Anna Is A Stool Pigeon

2. Random Hearts (Acoustic)

3. I Can't See You, But I Know You're There

**Colored vinyl for mailorders....

http://www.noidearecords.com/display/?itemid=7028

We have included Download Codes in a few of our recent releases.

So far the average # of downloads using the code is 12% of the number of records/codes made. (I expect the number of code uses to rise slightly over time, but not significantly.) That means 88% of the Codes are going unused.

I'm not sure what that tells us.

I am curious to hear from other labels who have been throwing Download Codes in with their releases.

Discuss?

We gave away 250+ of these at our Fest Parking Lot Sale. I'm not sure, but I think they are "out of print" now... haha!

13 Wollards left as of right now.

The rest are trucking along too.

Wollard was amazing at fest. Totally not what I was expecting

That was the band's first show too. Wrap your noodle around that.

obama's pressing a record?

yes, and ironically it'll be pressed on black

Duh... It's on split black / white vinyl, you silly person!

Obama!

OBAMA!!

wollard is half gone... both the man and the pressing, haha!