Hey Guys,

Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say we’re getting really close to getting those albums out to you! We got the vinyl test pressing this week and it sounds great – now that we’ve approved it, the records will be ready in just over 2 weeks.

In the meantime – here’s a link to the zip file for the digital download of the album: http://beatradio.org/beatradioLP3.zip (270k MP3 - 84.4 MB)

Hope you like it!!

We’ve also collected the rest of the tracks from our 2010 singles collection and compiled them as an EP called Everything Follows, which is available as a free download through our bandcamp site: http://beatradio.bandcamp.com/album/everything-follows

For those of you who live in the New York area, we’ll be celebrating Golden Age with a record release show at The Rock Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn on Friday, December 17th. We’d love to have you there.

One more thing – we’re still waiting on some of you guys to let us know t-shirts sizes, addresses, and whatnot. If you’re able to answer the questionnaire through the kickstarter site that would be great, otherwise we’ll contact you individually to make sure we have all the info over the next few days.

Thanks again so much for being apart of this process and for giving us the means to make this happen!! We’re more grateful than we can say.

All the best,
Brian
brian@beatradio.org
http://www.facebook.com/beatradio
http://wearebeatradio.tumblr.com/
http://beatradio.bandcamp.com/
http://twitter.com/wearebeatradio

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to give you a quick update on our Vinyl Pressing Project.

Thanks to everyone's amazing support, we're now actually able to put out Golden Age as a full length, 12" LP! We're still on track to release the record next month, on glorious translucent gold vinyl.

Here's the track list:

side a:
golden age
everything follows
the eternals
cold war
san francisco, 1947

side b:
the best and the brightest
high time
the world is ours
evangeline
geography

We've decided that we're calling our brand new record label Awkward For Life, and we're hoping this will be the first of many successful releases.

Over the last few weeks, we've completed the artwork for Golden Age. We're tracking some additional live drums and bass for the song "the eternals" this week and then we'll be getting the masters shipped out for pressing.

As soon as we have the test pressing, we'll have the record up on our bandcamp page for pre-order, and we'll send everyone a link to the digital download of the vinyl master.

We still need shipping addresses, t-shirt sizes and stuff from a few of you guys. Let us know when you can-we'll be getting packages out soon!

Also, for any of you guys who've been following along with our singles collection, we posted a couple new tracks this week:

http://beatradio.bandcamp.com/track/tom-courtenay-yo-la-tengo-cover
http://beatradio.bandcamp.com/track/city-of-thieves

All the very best,

Brian
Brian@beatradio.org

Guys, we made it! Last night we surpassed our goal, and with 4 days to spare! This morning when we woke up, we were a band with a record coming out. Seems like some sort of magic.

We're so amazed and deeply grateful for everyone's support. We were kind of naïve going into this. We had a dream that we wanted to make real. Each time we got an update for a new backer, it was an incredible feeling. Knowing people believe in what we're doing means the world to us. It makes us want to keep working harder, and it makes the whole process more joyful and inspiring.

With Golden Age, you've given us the chance to do it right. We're not starting out in a hole. We've got something we can build upon. You guys are our record label. We've been making music for a while now, but this feels like a big step in our journey.

We're not waiting around for anything to happen. There are so many amazing things ahead. We're finalizing the track list and artwork for the 10" now and we're looking to have the records out to you by the beginning of October. Also, we're currently working on putting together our first ever trip to play overseas with a small tour of Germany in February! We couldn't have even thought about doing any of these things without your support. So, a heartfelt thank you from all of us for giving us both the inspiration and the means to keep rocking, writing, recording, performing, blogging, and everything else.

See you soon!

Also, for all our backers we'll be in touch individually over the next week to get necessary info from you - t shirt sizes, cover song requests, living room shows, etc. If there is anyone that would still like to contribute, the drive is still open for a few more days. You can now officially consider it a pre-order for the record!

All the best,
Bri

I've been thinking a lot about this kickstarter drive, and why we feel so grateful for this unique opportunity to be able to make something like this happen. Yesterday we hit the half-way mark, and we're just about halfway towards meeting our goal!

Before we started I thought for a long time about whether or not this was the right direction for us to take. Pretty much everyone knows the floor fell out on the record industry a few years back. For us it seemed to happen at the exact moment we came of age creatively. We had lots of record labels coming out to see us, but it was pretty clear none of them were going to be able to afford to take a chance on signing a band like us. A&R guys were getting fired left and right. The industry seemed to be in a state of panic. I couldn't have blamed any of them. I mean, let's face it, we're kinda weird. I think I sort of knew that any deal we made at that time would probably have been the wrong deal for us.

Still, I remember watching The Last Waltz and lamenting on how there was once this magical time when artists who were as strange and idiosyncratic as Neil Young and Van Morrison could be signed to deals where creativity could be nurtured over the course of a few records. I mean of course, these are some of the greatest artists of the last century--and genius finds a way, but I couldn't help but wonder what they'd be doing if they were just getting started. Would they be going on American idol or something?

Anyway, I was never one to spend to much time looking back. As Patti Smith would say "I don't fuck much with the past, but I fuck plenty with the future." For us the digital revolution has never been a bad thing. It's actually been the thing that's made it possible for us to continue to exist. Still, the question of how artists are going to find support to continue to create art continues to fascinate me. I came across this post yesterday: http://ow.ly/2itQW Basically, it makes the argument that supporting a band by buying T-shirts is not an adequate substitute for buying their music. The tone of the article is not really my style. I'm admittedly something of an anarchist when it comes to the idea of the digital proliferation of music, file-sharing, downloads, etc. I remember reading on a message board once that "unless you can un-invent the internet all this arguing about the problem of file-sharing is pretty pointless." Kind of extreme, but true perhaps? Still, after reading the article yesterday one question that really hit home was this: Do we want to live in a world where artists thrive because of the quality of their art, or for their skill at merchandising and social networking?

I enjoy both. I have a real love for how I'm able to share and interact with people who are fans of our music. That sense of human connection is why we create music, and I wouldn't want have been born at any other time. I believe that this is the best time ever to be an artist, but I do ultimately hope that we have fans because they love the songs, and not because I'm a nice guy who posts on twitter a lot, you know?

So anyway, here we are. To use Evan's term, we're an "art gang". We're just friends really, but we take our craft seriously. It's who we are, on a basic level. It's what's in our soul. We're not going to sit around and complain how the music industry sucks. We're going to work as hard as we can to get our music out into the world. We're going to keep looking for a business model that makes the band sustainable. Basically, we're making this all up as we go along. So we're going to make records, so people have a chance to pay for the music. If you want to download our songs for free, we'd love that too. We made the songs so you can share them with your friends, or put them on mixtapes. Or play them really loud when you're driving down to the beach, or rock them on your ipod in the subway. If you can support us, it would mean the world to us, because we want to make this thing grow.

Sorry to get all philosophical on you again. We're so so grateful for everyone's support so far! Also, we'd love to hear what you guys think about this stuff.

'til the wheels come off,
Bri

wow, guys, we're completely humbled and amazed by everyone's support so far. We've got 24 days to go and we're already over a third of the way there!

It's a really wonderful and inspiring feeling to know that people are on our side. I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago and i let him know we were thinking about doing this fund drive, and he was like "Yeah, but what if you don't make it?" I guess what i like about this is that if the support wasn't there, we'd know that this project wasn't meant to be. But the truth is I didn't really waste too much time thinking about that. I believe in the music we're making, and i believe in all the people that we've been blessed to have the support of over the last few years. I believe in the law of attraction - if you can dream something, you can make it real.

Thanks so much for everyone who's helped out so far! We're marching ahead - please pass along to your friends. We're calling on the powers of the internet to make this thing a success!

for anyone who hasn't heard, you can listen to the title track for the record here:
golden age by beat radio
love bri