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OG pressings of Hum's You'd Prefer an Astronaut available here 2/25?!?!


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I don't see why everyone is having a fit and falling it in over this release. You honestly think the re-releases from hot-topic are all "artist approved"? There are army's of lawyers that look over this stuff, it wouldn't be put out if it wasn't legal.

 

The label owns the masters, probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the band. The band broke up, barely toured and probably are in the hole to the label for a ton. if the re-release is done right, sounds great and is done well, what's the problem?  There has been an insane demand for all of their releases on vinyl for years, it's their own fault for not capitalizing on it themselves.

 

Also, there is no way you can "flatten" a record and have it be fine, it screws it up permanently.

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For those interested Matt updated his post:

 

It was stated here yesterday that, among other things, Hum
would “not make a nickel” off of the SRC re-issue of Astronaut. While
technically true, it was stated in a mean-spirited and manipulative way.
SRC is certainly paying licensing fees to Sony. That means that, per
our deal with RCA, an artist royalty will flow to our account. So I
think a few dollars (maybe a little less…not sure) off of each album
sold will go toward our account. Like most all major label bands, we
have not recouped our deal. And we never will. That means we don’t
receive artist royalties. So we won’t see money off of this unless they
sell a couple million copies.


My statements were misleading and I apologize to the folks at
SRC. My emotions got the best of me. What remains true is that this
licensing agreement is in violation of our contract, we were not
informed about it, and all kinds of artistic license is being exercised
with no concern for how the members of the band feel about it. And they
will make plenty of nickels. Meanwhile my ’96 Carolla has nearly 250,000
miles on it and needs a new power steering pump in the worst way.


I hate that I have to say anything public about it.
I’m sick about the whole deal and just wanna play legos with my kids and
watch Sponge Bob. Krusty’s Krushers is my favorite episode.
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A few dollars per record sold doesn't sound too bad to me...I actually thought that was pretty standard.

That would be awesome, except the band isn't going to see a dime of it, because of record label accounting. As long as the label says they haven't recouped their investment in the album, they don't have to pay the band. It's a shitty deal, and one of the many ways labels fuck their artists.

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That would be awesome, except the band isn't going to see a dime of it, because of record label accounting. As long as the label says they haven't recouped their investment in the album, they don't have to pay the band. It's a shitty deal, and one of the many ways labels fuck their artists.

Ah okay. Thanks for the response. I figured there was something I didn't know.

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It's a shady deal. Usually happens to bands on their first album, if not first few. The label fronts money for the recording, videos, touring costs, whatever the band needs. Then, they can charge the band for advertising costs, promo copies, whatever the hell they want. So any profits from album sales, until they decide they've "recouped" their investment, go toward that balance. And there are a million and a half ways labels can fuck artists on what exactly they owe.

So if it was seriously an issue of wanting to profit on a release, and I certainly wouldn't blame them for it, a good way to go would be for the band to have a kickstarter to raise money to license the last album (which may very well have recouped, who knows). What do people pay for that these days, $150? They'd probably rather pay $25-30. And what did SRC sell, a couple of thousand? There's obviously a demand. You could probably reasonably raise enough for licensing and production costs and have some left over. You could put a cool product in people's hands (like a Jay Ryan reimagining of the cover art!) and they'd have the satisfaction of knowing they helped the band. Win all around.

I do wonder what the cost of the unwarped ones will be. If I can afford it, I'd gladly buy one to help out the people that made music that means a lot to me. Chances are, the band already paid for the cost of pressing those records, so every dime should conceivably go to them.

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I'm glad that SRC is making at least 1000 copies of the record, say he only gets 1 dollar per record- that easily will cover a power steering pump plus install.

 

I'd like to tell Talbot, to make money press 500 or so of each:

Fillet Show

Electra2k

Shiner records.

 

That said, I'll buy a warped copy of ..Astronaut for display purposes.

 

& I knew it, HUM got dropped, didn't make money.  Matt said so.  Thought so.  Artists aren't usually great businesspeople.

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I'm glad that SRC is making at least 1000 copies of the record, say he only gets 1 dollar per record- that easily will cover a power steering pump plus install.

 

I'd like to tell Talbot, to make money press 500 or so of each:

Fillet Show

Electra2k

Shiner records.

 

That said, I'll buy a warped copy of ..Astronaut for display purposes.

 

& I knew it, HUM got dropped, didn't make money.  Matt said so.  Thought so.  Artists aren't usually great businesspeople.

 

Shiner - yes plz

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Don't know if you guys have seen this:

Thank you for your interest in the original pressings of Astronaut and Electra. People have lots of questions, so I have created this page to answer them.

Here’s the facts, as I know them, on Sunday, Feb. 24…

What I got:

* These records are all from their respective original, first pressing. I acquired them about 8 years ago from 12-Inch/Cargo when there was no real market for them and no practical way for me to distribute directly to our fans.

* Being nearly 20 years old, the records, and their jackets, are in good, but not perfect condition. I want to be perfectly up-front about this so you know EXACTLY what you are buying, should you choose to purchase.

* I am opening each record and making sure it will play ok on a decent turntable. Any record which does not perform well gets flattened using a device I purchased called the Vinyl Flat. It’s safe for the record and, in all cases so far, it’s worked.

* The covers, having been shrink-wrapped all these years, are virtually void of any imperfections as it relates to scratches, tears, or any fading. However, in most cases, you can see the imprint of the album pressed into the jacket. So there will be a visible round, raised circle in the jacket. Also, in some cases, the poster inside will have an imperfection where the spindle hole in the center of the record has pressed against the poster. If any of these issues are a deal-breaker for you, please do not purchase!! (I will be posting pictures here when I get a chance so you can see exactly the nature of any imperfections to these records.)

* I am sure you wish these were in perfect, as-new condition. I do too. But they ain’t so little I can do other than inspect each one individually, flatten as needed, and be as honest as I can about their condition. When I began, earlier this year, coming up with a creative way to get these to our fans, I had intended to pair with a new re-pressing. However, since Sony issued the license to SRC, without telling me and in violation of our contract with them, I was denied that opportunity.

* Quantities are somewhat limited, particularly as it relates to Electra (at about 125). I have Astronaut in fairly large quantity, enough to meet all immediate demand by my reckoning. (The translucent green ones might be in very limited quantity, however. Really don’t know. I am going through every single record and have only found a few. I can’t comment further on that at this point, as I really don’t know the quantities. Please do not email me asking for preferential treatment as it relates to the green copies. I have no further data on that right now.)

If, after reading all that, you still wanna buy one:

* Each record is individually inspected for playability and then re-bagged and paired with a completely exclusive 12″ x 12″ Jay Ryan re-imagining of the cover. These are being sold only as sets (meaning one record and one poster) and the cost of each set is $35. The posters will only be made available to folks who buy the vinyl. I will not be selling the posters as stand-alone items on my site.

* I hope you are ok with the pricing. I know it’s a lot of dough. I have tried to strike a balance between the fact that these ain’t in perfect shape, but they are in very good shape, and they are in limited quantity and highly collectable, and that individual used copies go for way more than that, and the exclusive poster makes it really cool, etc. I’m sure some people think it’s a great price for what it is (have had many people tell me that), and others feel it’s not enough (have had many people tell me that), and others that it’s too much (no one has told me that but they might have told someone else or thought it privately). Please know that I’ve done my best to make it fair. I am not trying to hold these copies hostage. When you purchase you are directly supporting the label and making it possible for us to do more cool things for other bands. You have my most sincere thanks for being interested in this project. To be honest, it’s been less than fun figuring it all out while also dealing with the disappointment of having Astronaut re-pressed, re-packaged and re-issued without our involvement. I had some pretty awesome plans for that whole deal and was looking forward to putting my energies into it.

And when-the-fuck are these things finally going to be available?

* Because there is a lot of labor and time involved in opening each one, inspecting, flattening, etc, it is taking me awhile to get through them. It is my hope to have about 40 or 50 copies of each ready to go this friday morning, March 1, at 9:00. I’ll take orders until that supply is exhausted and then ship them that day. And then I’ll hope to have another pile a few days after that. We’ll keep it rolling until they’re gone. I’m going to ask everyone to not panic and please form a single file line. It ain’t that big of a deal. It’s not like I’m selling slightly discounted LCD tvs the day after Thanksgiving.

mt

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