So the Canadian punk rockers Hostage Life have called it a day but they left a nice free album for download behind you can get that here
and read about why its free below...
CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE
............
You can download our new album, Centre of the Universe, for FREE on September 30th at 12am. You can get it right here on our MySpace page.* Why are we giving the album away for free? Several reasons:
....
1. I steal music. You steal music. We all steal music. That’s how things work these days. Providing you with a free digital download prevents this from happening.
....
2. Pressing CDs hasn’t really helped us financially. We sold quite a few CD copies of Walking Papers but are still in debt to our old record label. The current structure of the music industry is not artist friendly, and we have all but abandoned the notion that we could subsist as a band on album sales alone. Some artists and groups are able to do it, but Hostage Life is not one of them. As a result, it makes more sense to just give the shit away and hope that people will like it enough to come see us live and help us out that way.
....
3. Let’s not bullshit ourselves…any CD we press is eventually going to end up in a landfill where it will take decades, if not centuries to biodegrade (if it ever does). The last thing this planet needs is more disposable Hostage Life merchandise that nobody wants.
....
Considering the above statements, however, it does seem kind of fucked that we will also be offering Centre of the Universe as a 12 inch record. The vinyl version will NOT be available on September 30th, but on that day you will be able to pre-order it from juiceboxdotcom.com. It can be purchased in November. To sweeten the deal, the vinyl version of the album will contain a bonus 7inch which will include 2 previously unreleased tracks – a song called Armageddon Jane, and our cover of Tappa Zukie’s M.P.L.A.
....
Our first scheduled show after the digital release will be in Gainesville, Florida as part of The Fest 8 (Oct.30th – Nov.1st). Stay tuned for our set date, time and venue. Very exciting.
....
I’ll be launching a blog when the album is made available which will contain essays pertaining to each song. Those of you that have a distaste for pseudo-intellectual wanking may wish to avoid it. But while we’re on the topic of pretentious lyricists, I’ll explain the concept behind the album. A couple years ago I was reading the 16th issue of Chris Ware’s brilliant comic, The Acme Novelty Library. In it, the semi-autobiographical character of Mr. Ware explains to the story’s protagonist W.K. Brown (loosely based on the sci-fi writer of the same name) that his depression and sense of disconnection is a result of the westerner’s predilection towards viewing himself as the protagonist. In short, we feel so dissatisfied with our lives because we feel that we are the entire reason that everything around is occurring. If life is one big story, we’re supposed to be the heroes. It’s a pretty arrogant worldview, but one that is indicative of our species as a whole. From Ptolemy’s 2000 year-old geocentric model of the universe** to the three most popular and successful religions of our day, we tend to see ourselves as the centre of everything. We think that we are made in the image of gods, and are thus part of some kind of divine lineage; somehow more than just hominids that learned to spell, drive, and write shitty poetry; somehow separate and superior to the rest of the natural world. We believe, or rather, a great deal of us believe that we are immortal and will be whisked off to paradise when our last synapse fires and our bowels empty into our pants. It is the oldest con we know. We have bought into it for as long as we have been asking questions about ourselves and our world and accepting easy answers. But enough about that. I have rambled for too long.
Sept. 30th.
Have our album.
It is our pleasure.
....
xo
Colin
No comments:
Post a Comment