[JohnEsmoke]

Got mine since a couple of day and I'm so so so disapointed. I was'nt a great fan of "Rather Ripped" but I think the eternal is far way weaker. But I got to listen it more to make up my mind... maybe it will rise my apreciation.

[Rob Instigator]

picked it up from my Vinal Edge yesterday after coming back from road trip.
Have listened to it twice, and battery park 1nce.
think it is very good. wanna listen to it more and more and more but battery park is fucking amazing amazing amazing.


SONIC LIFE!

[Dead-Air]

Finally bought the real deal today!

I love that "What We Know" is a Lee song, but it's a total rocker that isn't a song about rainbows and what's on the other side (or ufos, endless highways, tripping, or surfing on the astral plane...)

[eternal]

fuckin finally got it. im impressed with the eternal LP, the vinyl sounds great and the packaging is solid, the whole thing is high quality (and VERY heavy!).

battery park is ok, i felt they left out alot of good songs from that set and included some random shit (jams run free? really?!) and i dont really like the fact that theres no sleeve, its just a piece of paper folded over but w/e i'll live.

the poster is random and i dont really care for it. i got a nice big poster of the beautiful album cover from a record shop for free, so i'm more happy about that to be honest.

still dissapointed about the ridiculous wait and the fact that i never got the "second email" for a code to the secret store and i think that promo is already over. so in conclusion, hooray for SY, and an awful first impression of matador

[gwfb]

Got it yesterday morning, 2xlp so heaavvyy and the 1 live lp in a solid sleeve, 1 sticker and 1 poster.

[nicfit]

I'm so glad the cd version "mimicks" the package of the lp.
I LOVE this thing.

[perverzion]

got mine today. happy!
ordered from the store on this site a week ago.
unfortunately, Matador won't deal with Ukraine, so, no pre-order for me.

[radarmaker]

Still fucking waiting.

[jetengine]

Originally Posted by DaveMartin

Hey sorry about that, either Beggars Canada did not run the BEGN program like we had intended or maybe the store misunderstood how it was supposed to work. We don't always have as much control over those sort of things as we would like, but I will definitely bring this up and figure out if they had run the promotion like we did here in the US. So, once again, sorry that your store and ultimately you felt that this promotion was not worthwhile and hopefully in the future we can work things a bit smoother.

None of what you say subtracts from my view that there is something innately unethical about this type of pre-order deal—whether one is talking about Sonic Youth's output on Matador or that of any other recording artist on any other label.


If we were talking about a pre-order bonus of, say, a 7'' single featuring an outtake from Rather Ripped on the a-side and a 1985 recording of Thurston telling drunken jokes and farting backstage on the flip, then that would be one thing; but in this case we're talking about a full-length official release on 12'' wax—the band's only official full-length 'live album to boot.


I would be interested to know how many Sonic Youth fans out there who have no internet access had no idea the band was releasing an album in the first place—you would be amazed at the number of SY fans (and music fans in general) between the ages of 35 and 47 who have no interest in the internet to begin with. I just heard a statistic on the news last night that at least one third of Britons have no at-home internet access. That should tell the marketing folk something. Before I got a PC a few years ago, I relied on Letterman appearances, SLR mail-outs, and the occasional word of mouth for knowledge of new Sonic Youth releases. At least one of their major releases took me completely by surprise: I didn't know there was a NYC Ghosts and Flowers in the works until I saw the CD in a record store in early summer, 2000.


I'm not saying we can go back to the days when every little pharmacy or hardware store in Nowheresville, Canada or U.S.A. had an LP bin and an 8-track rack next to the ice cream refrigerator or plastic-wrap dispenser (although the '70s were a great time, weren't they?); however, it seems to me that record companies and (in some cases) the acts themselves are driving a greater and greater distance between their products and the record-buying public. Inaccessibility is increasingly the order of the day. The whole process of purchasing an album can now involve going through so many near-impossible ‘filters’ or ‘channels’. Think about it: Find a record store→doesn't carry the new album→Walmart only→Starbucks only→pre-order with surprise bonuses→Find it online→PayPal only→“don't own a credit card”→limited to 500 copies→etc., etc. Bearing all this in mind, any sensible person can only conclude that the whole illegal downloading/file sharing/CD-r burning phenomenon of recent years is no longer the problem (if it ever truly was), it's quite often the only solution.


One thing's for certain from my perspective: I won't be picking up the vinyl edition of The Eternal unless the Battery Park LP comes with it—and I won't be paying some bloated price for it courtesy of eBay, either; I'll settle for a cheap disc (there are already a few secondhand copies turning up on eBay, I notice).



If Matador has any sense of fair play—and any real business sense, for that matter—it will do the right thing, and give this 'live LP a proper and wider re-release. It's a full-length 'live SY album, for Chrissakes—Who doesn't want a copy of that?

[greedrex]

Originally Posted by jetengine

At least one of their major releases took me completely by surprise: I didn't know there was a NYC Ghosts and Flowers in the works until I saw the CD in a record store in early summer, 2000.

o that happened to me also; although i remember i would stalk my local record store pre ATL to get and advanace promo tape and poster and shit so i was pretty uptodate in terms of gettting info about SY pre-internet era. Weird.

[HomelessArtist]

It's about time!
Matador included some samplers, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a "we're sorry it took so long" type of thing or what.

Anyhow, WHOOO! HOOOO!

 

[perverzion]

Originally Posted by jetengine

I'm not saying we can go back to the days when every little pharmacy or hardware store in Nowheresville, Canada or U.S.A. had an LP bin and an 8-track rack next to the ice cream refrigerator or plastic-wrap dispenser (although the '70s were a great time, weren't they?); however, it seems to me that record companies and (in some cases) the acts themselves are driving a greater and greater distance between their products and the record-buying public. Inaccessibility is increasingly the order of the day. The whole process of purchasing an album can now involve going through so many near-impossible ‘filters’ or ‘channels’. Think about it: Find a record store→doesn't carry the new album→Walmart only→Starbucks only→pre-order with surprise bonuses→Find it online→PayPal only→“don't own a credit card”→limited to 500 copies→etc., etc. Bearing all this in mind, any sensible person can only conclude that the whole illegal downloading/file sharing/CD-r burning phenomenon of recent years is no longer the problem (if it ever truly was), it's quite often the only solution.

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I COMPLETELY agree with that!

[pokkeherrie]

Originally Posted by HomelessArtist

It's about time!
Matador included some samplers, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a "we're sorry it took so long" type of thing or what.

Anyhow, WHOOO! HOOOO!

 

Mine came with exactly the same samplers.

[pbradley]

I like that cover photo of Battery Park.

[mindbomb]

Originally Posted by mushmanski57@hotmail.com

Woke up this morning to the UPS guy ringing my doorbell to drop off the package from Matador. Inside was my copy of the Eternal on CD (really strapped for cash, didn't want to shell out for the LP at the time but regret that now), the Battery Park LP, and two samplers from Matador and 4AD/Rough Trade respectively. Oh yeah, and the poster, which is one that was for the promotion of Sensational Fix and is all in French.

Am I really the first to receive my copy? I figured it'd take awhile, as I'm in Canada, but I haven't seen anyone else post about theirs yet.

I drove to Hamilton,ON to pickup the disc from Dr.Disc right next to Sonic Unyon's Headquarters. The Unyon camp didn't seem too thrilled about the release but they may have changed their minds by now as I was quite excited to be picking up the disc since I've sadly downloaded the last 2 major alumns but bought Thurston's 'Trees Outside....'. I also bought a couple tickets to the Massey Hall show in Toronto. Sweet.

I must admit the one figure in the artwork looks like Conan Obrien. I'm thinking it's a marketing ploy as Conan recently switched to The Tonight Show even though they're playing Jimmy Fallon anyway(Mon.June22). Maybe Sonic Youth are upset Conan left New York. Who cares? I do.
Long live Sonic Youth! I figure another 15 years with the energy they have.

[radarmaker]

STILL fucking waiting. "Buy Early, Get maybe 3 weeks after they're in stores if you're lucky". Thanks a bunch, Matador.

[greedrex]

"buy early get late", dontchaknow?
I'm in France and got it on the 5th of June!!!
I don't know what is wrong with yr order.

[Massenvernichtungswaffen]

wow. Just got the album and it's great. I can't believe how they can keep coming up with such awesome songs after so many years. So far I'm digging the paired vocals. I say it's about time they did that. They haven't done that since what.. I dreamed I dream??? Awesome

[frades]

"the eternal" costs only 2,99 euros on www.fnacmusic.com !!

[nicfit]

Originally Posted by frades

"the eternal" costs only 2,99 euros on www.fnacmusic.com !!

in mp3 format ?!?