NicCartel

That's the old version. Epic didn't re-release with the O-card because it was expensive to press, like 90cents per record or something (But they had us re-record a song, & re-shoot a video... The logic there is not sound). Major labels...sheesh. ACS: thanks man! We certainly will, freebird live venue is the jam!

The difference between the two is just a full band (Epic's) version (drums, guitars, strings). If your copy doesn't have the epic records logo on it then that is the old version (also has the O-card - sleeve for the cd case) We still have a few old version chroma cd's militia group sent us. Of course you can only buy them at our shows.

Ide buy that! The cats might protest it's release on twitter though. Hah.

Nice! Well let's hang again & shoot the shit! I'm in Atlanta also. We can grab a beer & preach about how old we are haha.

Mike Hauben: ahhh it's all good man. No worries!

Dude, take me back! great tour! Jack rabbits, holy hell that place always got so hot! they closed that place right?

Exactly. See what I mean?! Someone get this man a cat .gif & a 1,000 internets.

sold! PM me.

*gesture. Dammit you guys are ruthless! Gimme a break I drop out of college over 10yrs ago haha

Your a little behind on this. It was clear comms between us & ETR were lost along the way sometime last year. We as a band never discussed anything about ETR's project, for the info was never relayed to us or even followed up on. This is why it was such a surprise when it released the other day. & why wouldn't we deserve free copies? Any record of ours pressed by other labels has always given the band free copies for the collection. It's just a nice jester. I'm not going to pay for my own music. The amount of heart we put into making it I think we deserve at least a copy for each member. But that's just me, the 1 of 5 guys who pulled his hair out for 3weeks while recording it. As for as my knowledge we didn't ask him to bail on production. & our "tweets" were never intended to stir shit. Merely to let people know we had no part in its production & ours will come with "extras" for the 10yr. I really don't see how that stirs things up, actually yes I do. Misinterpretations of what we said somehow turned into "bashing ETR", or "telling people not to buy it". We never did any of that. Regardless it's still cool to see it in vinyl form. I think ETR did a good job. I'm not mad at ETR one bit, he beat us to the punch fair & square.

Great questions. We should certainly still have the masters. As far as format I have no idea man sorry, it was long time ago but I can try to find out as much info as possible. I'm not sure what ETR's whole process, I'm curious myself what the costs were to get the rights.

Ha, possibly. The demo version was actually a key higher than the original! But it was too high to sing for Will, not that he couldn't hit it, it just put a lot of strain on his voice.

Some brainstormed ideas we talked about include: -re-mastered -Un-released b-sides that never made it on chroma -digital download for chroma -old pics/videos -a fucking Tshirt -subliminal messages for cats -limited edition color vinyl -etc... Just some of the things off the top of my head. This record means a lot to us so in turn we want to make it special for you guys. If all you want is record then by all means go buy ETR's version (assuming you like Cartel). point is it's our 10yr, it's a long time. I wish we could have put this out sooner but well we just couldn't. As someone said earlier were just one of those poor bands with a bunch of 30yr olds. hah

Haha. I'll talk to the guys about doing that. Might as well since it's been out a year.

All good man, thank you. I believe you 100%, this is certainly a case of lost translation & we failed to follow up with it. I personally do not remember any of this & there are 100's of messages on our band Facebook of which we try to check from time to time but obviously don't get to them all. I agree it is hard to get in contact with the right people, & I probably would have done the same as you. I will apologize on behalf of my party if we have cause any wrong doing to your label, it was never our intention. We were merely trying to help illuminate the situation at hand via twitter since we were caught off guard(well... More like completely forgot about it according to the screen caps. That clears it up). Our replies were never meant to create a shit storm or bash you guys. Feel free to message me personally, I posted my email a page or two back. I certainly do not want any more drama to this mess, good luck with the interview. I'm sure we will be contacted also for "our side of the story" as well. Again it was just lost communication & you guys were in the legal right to do this. you guys did a good job on the vinyl. I hope it sells well. This whole thing is starting to feel like jerry springer. Cat .gif anyone? Hah Take it easy Nic

Hah. So funny. Alright I'm off to go tend to some family time but I'll keep up with this completely side tracked cat .gif thread as best as I can. If anyone has any questions, opinions or cat .gif's they would like to share please feel free to email me: [email protected] Take care everyone. Nic

Of course, if you play our records backwards you'll hear subliminal messages only cats will understand. They provide the necessary tools for your cats to raid your stash of catnip & canned tuna. We love cats. Btw what's with the cats? That a forum thing? Or a 'this thread sucks ass so here's a cute cat .gif to get you by' thing?

Egg: I'm just dumbfounded as you about this. Someone was obviously briefed on this idea & didn't follow through with it &/or never considered it to be a serious possibility. I honestly think it was all just lost communication between both parties. I wish I had the answer. Regardless, ETR didn't need our approval had we agreed to do it or not, we don't own the songs. I can tell you that we did not know this was 100% happening. I agree that Facebook is also not the proper outlet to get things approved. 1/2 of us don't even actively use it.

thejesseb: No I am not denying that there was any communication between our party & ETR at one point. According to what I heard, these comms were well over a year ago, I knew nothing about them. All I know is we wanted to release it ourselves to coincide with the 10yr as supposed to a 3rd party doing it. I can't tell you how much I miss the early days of touring where money & politics weren't involved. The fun was pure & the adventure was all that mattered.

Dig deeper: hah. I deserved that. sorry man. thanks for the grammar editing. BFB: I promise you I had no idea It was being released. If we knew about this last year then we completely forgot about it or (obviously) never followed up. But this isn't something you just forget about. Again, it was flattering to see it out. Next EP will be "hear! Say!"

Jbrana: I agree the approached method to notify fans that this is not our pressing was not ideal. Social media is a very dangerous thing, it can quickly be misinterpreted & turn on you. We never bashed his label nor did we call for the bashing of ETR, we claimed that they were well within their right to do so & that it was released without our knowledge. The difference is It does not have the extras that we will be putting on it next year for the special 10yr anniversary. I still would like a copy of ETR's chroma.

Hey guys this Nic from Cartel. Here to clear up any questions you guys may have. This isn't some official statement, just me needing to get it off my chest. I've been monitoring all the "hear say" the past few days but haven't really gotten involved with this ordeal, frankly I hate that it has created all this drama. We always seem to gravitate towards drama. Hah. I think this release just caught me, as well as the other guys, by suprise. We(the band) literally had no idea or heads up this was happening. Honestly I consider it a compliment that someone would want to release our pressings for us. We certainly dropped the ball on getting a chroma vinyl out. A lot of it was timing, legal & financial issues. We are an independent band now in the US so everything we make or sell literally puts food on our table. We wanted (& still will of course) to make the 10yr anniversary vinyl for chroma very special, with a lot of extra goodies in the packaging. So when we saw this, it took a little bit out of us. It bummed me to see chroma vinyl out before we could add anything to it. I don't hate ETR for pressing chroma, nor do I condone fans from buying it. could we potentially loose $ over it, yes probably, nothing were not used to in this industry. But I do wish communications between all parties (Cartel, ETR, epic) were better so we weren't caught so off guard. Not this "he said, she said". When company ink pressed 'the ransom' were very involved with them on the process. I wish the same would have been for ETR. Again ETR is well within their right to do this & I'm flattered for them actually doing it. I do feel we deserved to know when it was happening, not kept out of the loop (all good, I'm used to being out of the loop, at the end of the day we just show up to play & have a good time with all of you, as it's always been....except for that bubble thing(but who wouldn't pass up that opportunity. No regrets). Chroma is our baby, so we defend it as such. It doesn't matter if we sold our souls to the industry, in the end we made Chroma for all of you. Thank you ETR for doing this, & thank you guys who have supported us. Nic