Even the most avid collectors and fans of regionalia haven't heard thresh this fresh...
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| Jacket - Front |
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| Jacket - Back |
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| Vinyl - 'A' Side: FU logo |
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| Vinyl - 'B' Side: Matador logo |
Stats:
Year: 2011
Label: Matador Records OLE 958-1
Matrix A: OLE-958-1 A GOLDEN ⓤ
Matrix B: OLE-958-1 B GOLDEN ⓤ
Matrix A: OLE-958-1 A GOLDEN ⓤ
Matrix B: OLE-958-1 B GOLDEN ⓤ
Inserts: No insert
Variants: No (known) Variants
Notes:
Announcement LFG Post (March 30 2011)
Anyhow, another exciting thing that's happening is we're doing another Record Store Day record. Last year if you remember, we co-ordinated it so we released a 7" with 10 different covers, all featuring a different record store on the cover. Probably entirely because of that, record stores managed to survive another year, so there's gonna be another Record Store Day this year. So we decided instead of recording any new music, why don't we just release this compilation album from 1977 we'd been sitting on since from before we were all born? We found like 750 copies of this great comp so we're gonna just use that.
FU webstore:
All the hottest bands from Byrdesdale Spa! All in one place! History is a gas dissipating into the aether, so hold onto a piece.
Pitchfork Interview Extracts (Jan 19 2011):
Pitchfork: But not only did you see the concept record through, you extended the concept to another record, the David's Town compilation made up of fictional punk bands.
DA: If anyone can take credit for anything on this record, my big mouth can take credit for that compilation. I was talking to Tom [Breihan] at Pitchfork and he was like, "What else are you guys doing?" And I was like, "I have an idea for this compilation..." and started brainstorming it as I was talking to him. And then everyone in the band read that and was like, "I guess we have to do this comp now."
Pitchfork: How quickly did David's Town come together?
MH: In about a week.
DA: There were a couple of songs on there that were going to be on the LP, but they just didn't fit in with the story. It was unfortunate that it came together so late in the game, because we had a lot of cool people that had tentatively signed on to do songs that couldn't because of timing. But everyone who's on that record is a friend of the band-- we've toured with the Cloud Nothings and Let's Wrestle, Carl Newman's an awesome guy.
MH: Jonah's wife is on it. Some of the songs we literally did on the spot.
DA: We were doing, like, three songs a day and my voice just couldn't handle it, so I'd take a break and Mike and Jonah would just go down there. You guys had a game, right?
MH: You know slam poetry? It was like that. I'd do a take, and then Jonah would listen to it once and do a take of the drums.
DA: Except for [the hardcore spoof] "My Old Man's a Ginger", which I wrote and played everything on myself, thank you very much. If anyone has any doubt that I'm lying when I say I have no musical ability whatsoever, all they have to do is listen to that song.
If It Goes There: Kevin Drew vs. Damian Abraham Interview Toronto Standard 20011:
And this rock opera takes place in Britain, in the late 70s, early 80s. Why Britain?
The time period was so exciting for England, because that was the first time you have the manufacture of a product in the hands of the youth making the music. The youth culture had always been generated by the youth, but the actual manufacture and distribution of youth culture had been in the hands of adults. This was the first time you had kids putting out their own tapes, their own records. Hip-hop was forming.
Then it’s also the time you have the death of Old Labour, the unions are going to be broken by Thatcher, you have Reagan in America. That time in England was so exciting, and I guess we’ve romanticized it in this band cause you think of Smiths songs and Morrissey growing up in Manchester… you think Oi songs, Sham 69, even Slade…
Sleeve Notes:
Front:
Byrdesdale 1977, seen through Rose-coloured glasses. The colours nod to the (alchemical ?) colour schemes of "Hidden World" and "Chemistry Of Common Life", as does the Sun image.
The other two records use symmetry with the Sun appearing on a central axis between two opposites. This time it's at 45°; the record is supposedly a collection of 45s.
Maybe that's all just coincidence but the Sun is definitely giving a knowing wink.
Back: Have fun spotting the references to FU themes - some Light Bulb factory ones are highlighted opposite. Also having a skinhead song named after the local football club and another inspired by German WW2 military aesthetics is strangely familiar. Strangely most of the sleeve colours get a name check and there are quite a few elements mentioned...
