Whenever, If Ever

topshelfrecords:

Today was an exciting one here at our office as it saw the unveiling of two very special, near and dear records and our first foray into putting out a book (even if it has 200 pages and probably less than 200 words, haha). The humbling feeling of validation when you see something you believe in getting such widespread praise and support is something I hope everyone gets to experience at some point or another, even if in just some simple small way. The response to these records going on sale today — the culmination of years of planning, writing, setbacks, collaborating, personal sacrafice, etc. — is just that. So I’m sure when I say thank you for your support I speak for Hilary, Evan, everyone here at Topshelf and everyone in The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, collectively.

So now, I am faced with the difficult decision of acknowledging that Whenever, If Ever is actively leaking a month before it’s release date. You can probably Google for it right now and get it.

This is arguably the biggest release we’ll have all year as a label and this spoils a lot of planning we had in place over the last few months, but these things happen. This also forces me to acknowledge the real-world truth that yes, records cost money. This oft-avoided subject in our community is a reality for everyone who tours or postpones real life to make music in nearly any capacity. It’s a thing. This record is no different.

So against my better judgement, we’ve made Whenever, If Ever available to:

Anyone who has pre-ordered the record already — thank you, sincerely — you’ll be getting downloads as soon as I can get everything set up (we weren’t planning on sending them for another month after all).

So, I’m appealing to you all to please use the above URLs to share, acquire and experience this record. I understand it’s 2013 and you can download and share this for free (and we’re not going to stop you) but I’m not doing my job if I don’t ask. Heh, I don’t have a job if I don’t ask.

Thanks, you guys.

“Let’s hope that this works out; this has got to work out”

-The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, “Fightboat”

lemons / lemonade

topshelfrecords: I’m building out an extensive Topshelf Records discography for the new site. When I’m done, it’ll have pressing info, tracklisting, catalog info, photographs (of course) as well as a detailed account from myself and/or Seth about how the record came together — hopefully also some blurbs from members of the bands, engineers / producers, etc. as well. Kudos to Zac Suskevich for sitting in our storage unit all day and taking photo after photo for this! keepin’ busy.
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topshelfrecords:

I’m building out an extensive Topshelf Records discography for the new site. When I’m done, it’ll have pressing info, tracklisting, catalog info, photographs (of course) as well as a detailed account from myself and/or Seth about how the record came together — hopefully also some blurbs from members of the bands, engineers / producers, etc. as well.

Kudos to Zac Suskevich for sitting in our storage unit all day and taking photo after photo for this!

keepin’ busy.

mattxpike:

“This is our FUCKING city”

Q:Aye, you dudes alright?

Anonymous

Yeah, thanks. Seen way too much gruesome despicable shit on my own street today, though. Looking to find the positives coming from it; happy to see they’re easy to come by.

A perfect split:

RVA’s Sundials.

& Columbus, OH’s The Sidekicks.

I find myself consistently coming back to both since I first heard them. Great bands.

johndarnielle: So, people ask me this sometimes, and I appreciate that they want me and Peter and Jon to get maximum paid for the records we make. And it is true that we’ll get the biggest cut from sales at shows, because those copies are copies we buy directly from the label. However, I am every bit just as happy and in fact in some ways happier to take a slightly reduced cut if you’re buying from your local record store, which is almost doubtless scrambling to survive every day, or from a cool mailorder, or directly from the label if the label does mailorder. I make a little bit of a big deal about this because more people than me need to get paid for the stuff I do to happen. There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about labels and publishers as if they were hurdles to be cleared, obstacles to be circumnavigated. I can’t speak for anybody else’s experiences, though stories of label skullduggery abound, and shame on such labels. But my personal experience in independent music is that the people releasing Mountain Goats records aren’t “The Label.” They’re my friends, and they’re also almost all musicians themselves. They are people who share exactly equivalent praise or blame for the music I make, because you wouldn’t have heard it without them, by which I mean without their support and nurturing and faith I would never have made the music in the first place. So while I’m, again, grateful that people think of my well-being, it’s my opinion that the people who make the music available - especially independent labels, especially independent stores - deserve your patronage, and it’s 100% ok if I have to sell a few more records at retail to make as much as I’d make selling them at shows. I don’t do what I do in a vacuum. Without the labels that put out my stuff and the stores that stocked it and the people working in the stores who told people browsing to maybe check out the Mountain Goats, I would almost doubtless not even own a guitar right now. I’d be a nurse somewhere in California, and I’d write poetry in my downtime. Which would also be a good life, because every day above ground is a good day, unless you’re getting shot at, it sucks to get shot at, but you see my point good read.
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johndarnielle:

So, people ask me this sometimes, and I appreciate that they want me and Peter and Jon to get maximum paid for the records we make. And it is true that we’ll get the biggest cut from sales at shows, because those copies are copies we buy directly from the label. However, I am every bit just as happy and in fact in some ways happier to take a slightly reduced cut if you’re buying from your local record store, which is almost doubtless scrambling to survive every day, or from a cool mailorder, or directly from the label if the label does mailorder.

I make a little bit of a big deal about this because more people than me need to get paid for the stuff I do to happen. There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about labels and publishers as if they were hurdles to be cleared, obstacles to be circumnavigated. I can’t speak for anybody else’s experiences, though stories of label skullduggery abound, and shame on such labels. But my personal experience in independent music is that the people releasing Mountain Goats records aren’t “The Label.” They’re my friends, and they’re also almost all musicians themselves. They are people who share exactly equivalent praise or blame for the music I make, because you wouldn’t have heard it without them, by which I mean without their support and nurturing and faith I would never have made the music in the first place. So while I’m, again, grateful that people think of my well-being, it’s my opinion that the people who make the music available - especially independent labels, especially independent stores - deserve your patronage, and it’s 100% ok if I have to sell a few more records at retail to make as much as I’d make selling them at shows. I don’t do what I do in a vacuum. Without the labels that put out my stuff and the stores that stocked it and the people working in the stores who told people browsing to maybe check out the Mountain Goats, I would almost doubtless not even own a guitar right now. I’d be a nurse somewhere in California, and I’d write poetry in my downtime. Which would also be a good life, because every day above ground is a good day, unless you’re getting shot at, it sucks to get shot at, but you see my point

good read.

(via theneedledrop)

Source: johndarnielle

futurejournalismproject: Learn to Build a Web Site with the UMass Journalism Program UMass Amherst is launching a free, 6-week Massive Open Online Class to teach the basics of creating a Web site.  Starting May 20, two lessons per week will get participants up and running with “design principles, HTML5, CSS, working with images, modifying templates, incorporating external plugins, and putting your site online with FTP.” Registration is open to the first thousand students. You can learn more about it here.  Image: Learn to Build a Basic Web Site, via UMass Amherst.
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futurejournalismproject:

Learn to Build a Web Site with the UMass Journalism Program

UMass Amherst is launching a free, 6-week Massive Open Online Class to teach the basics of creating a Web site. 

Starting May 20, two lessons per week will get participants up and running with “design principles, HTML5, CSS, working with images, modifying templates, incorporating external plugins, and putting your site online with FTP.”

Registration is open to the first thousand students.

You can learn more about it here. 

Image: Learn to Build a Basic Web Site, via UMass Amherst.

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