Tagged: devour

I had more or less abandoned the idea of this blog due to lack of time, but persistent requests for new posts from Kelly and a few recent comments have gotten me back on the wagon for now. In retrospect, my goal of posting daily was likely over-ambitious, so I’ll try to get to this a few times per week. We’ll see how that goes.

The big news is that the Devour LP limited edition finally came out. I have a few grand sunk into this release, and the goal of the limited-to-100 version was a recoup a little bit of that cash before the regular version hits at the end of September. The venture was very successful. Due to the elaborate packaging I had to sell them for $10, so I was hoping to make about $500 from the 50 copies I sold through the webstore. Of course lots of people ordered other records in addition to the Devour LP, so all told I cleared a couple thousand dollars, which brings the label close to my goal of financial solvency. I’ll still need the regular version to do pretty well, but the limited version definitely takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.

At the same time as the Devour LP I also re-released the demo cassette for a California band called Video Disease. This actually happened in a very fast and kind of bizarre way. Their tape had gotten a good review in the demo section of MRR, so I emailed the band asking if they had any copies I could distro. They didn’t, but they pointed out that they’d actually sent Sorry State a promo when it was originally released. Whoops! I listened to the tape and it ruled… totally blown-out, off-the-rails hardcore that reminds me of newer bands like Sex Vid and Instängd. I asked the band if they would make some more tapes and they didn’t have the money, so I sent them 100 blank tapes and cases. So, basically, I handled the cash outlay, they handled the intensive labor (man, dubbing tapes SUCKS) and we split the 100 tapes 50/50. They didn’t sell quite as well as the Devour LP, perhaps because it’s technically a re-release, but they’re doing well and I can always sell through tapes… people seem to eat them up more and more these days.

Oh yeah, and the OTHER big news is that the upcoming Double Negative LP, Daydream Nation, will now be a Sorry State / No Way split release. I’ve talked with Brandon and Lauren about doing a split release for ages, and with a lot of their money tied up in their new record store, Vinyl Conflict, the timing was right. Of course I’m MEGA excited to have my name on Double Negative’s full-length. I’ve heard all the songs live and rough mixes of a lot of the stuff and it promises to be their best material yet. Dealing with Scott’s over-active imagination regarding packaging will drive me completely crazy and probably nearly bankrupt the label, but it’ll all work out for the best in the end. Even if I lose a shitload of money on the record I’ll still be proud to have helped release it, and that’s the whole reason I started the label in the first place.

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Today was a pretty heavy label day. Since the Devour test presses came in yesterday I went to the copy shop to print the test press covers, and while I was there I did the lyric sheets for the Logic Problem record. This turned out to be a rather frustrating experience. I use a local copy shop because I like to support local businesses whenever possible, but sometimes I guess they just have different priorities than I do. I ran the 300 LP inserts very quickly since they were on the self-serve copy machine, but the Devour stuff took forever. Instead of making foldover paper covers like I usually do for test presses, I decided to basically make a bunch of cheap stickers and use them to decorate the plain white DJ jacket that the test presses came in. I had all the stickers printed on one 8.5×11 sheet, but the guy took forever to locate the sticker paper, then to find a copy machine that would run the sticker paper, then fiddling with the settings on the copy machine so that the image would print without melting the glue. I was in the shop for nearly an hour, though I suppose it was nice to chat with the owner’s WWII-veteran father-in-law who was killing time in the shop. I’m sure that this entire process would have been far, far quicker if I’d gone to Kinko’s, but I guess I should see these things as benefits rather than drawbacks to dealing local.

I finally got home an hour later than expected and starving for some lunch, but there were a shitload of boxes on my side porch so I decided to crack them open. Woohoo! Logic Problem EP covers, which look absolutely awesome, Logic Problem vinyl and more covers for the Koro 7″. I have several outstanding orders for the Koro record so it’s great to get those back in, but clearly the Logic Problem stuff is the focus of my attention, especially since I now have all the parts in stock, making the record officially “out!”

After wolfing down some panzanella leftovers from last night I got to work stickering the Devour jackets while watching an episode of The Colbert Report on hulu.com. I must say that the jackets look pretty darn good.

Devour test pressings

Later this evening I had about 45 minutes to kill before band practice, so I spent it entering CDs into the Sorry State Records ebay store. I really don’t like ebay because of the ridiculous fees they charge, but I have about four boxes of CDs that I just can’t seem to get rid of… no one buys CDs from my webstore. So, with minimal effort I listed them all on ebay and hopefully they’ll sell sooner or later and I’ll recoup at least part of the money I spent acquiring these useless pieces of plastic.

Had Devour practice from 11PM until about 1AM and while we were all feeling a little lethargic, everyone was STOKED on the test presses. I’m pretty sure that it’s the first time Cody and Dave have been on vinyl, so they were excited, as were 7″ vets Jamie and Matt. I tried to get in touch with Seth and Cam from LP since that 7″ is their first appearance on vinyl as well, but Cam is in the mountains somewhere visiting friends and decompressing. However, Seth drove out to Raleigh to pick up some copies and he seemed way stoked.

All in all, today was one of those days when running a record label is really a blast. I’ve been working on the LP and Devour records for months now, and I’m just starting to see all of my ideas and creativity reach some tangible form that I can present to the outside world and say “I did this.” Very cool.

Hours spent on the label today: about 4

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