no but really

the Microphones box set is available

At the risk of using this record label mailing list too much as an actual record label mailing list to let people know about records for sale (rather than an ambiguously anti-capitalist art place), I am once again asking for you to draw your attention to the existence of this product, a substantial chunk of sound and image, completely everything by the Microphones, 1996 - 2021.

Ten pounds heavy, 10 records long, 107 pages of book, a bunch of posters, 74 GB of downloads, including STEMS, outtakes, live shows, unreleased stuff. It’s comprehensive and all interesting.

It returned to print last week and orders are now going out. This is no pre-order. This thing exists and it’s available now. It was available briefly last year and sold out stressfully fast, so don’t snooze on this. There will be no more made (promise) and most of these records are now otherwise out of print forever.

Evie at The Business in Anacortes sending out the first batch

In this newsletter previously I’ve pointed you toward this short movie I made about the box set, as well as shared a bunch of pictures of the thing, all the records, the fancy ass box, the spreads from the book…

The book. The juiciest part. We splurged extra on this part and printed it at the highly esteemed Hemlock Printers in Burnaby, BC, Canada, the finest printer we know of. Here are some pictures of the book in process from their production floor:

"Details & Context" by the Microphones under production at Hemlock Printers

Personally speaking, it feels good and also intense, scary, to focus this intently on a specific chapter of my life like this. To sort through the scraps, organize them into a story resembling reality, polish them up, design as elegant of a thing as I can, spend all my money on producing this huge definitive thing, and then ask you for a bunch of money for it. It’s different than the usual just-making-a-record thing. It feels existential. That’s for me. For you it can just be a piece of art and music that can live in your house if you want.

Here are some pictures that didn’t make it into the book:

L-R: Larry Butler, Chris Sutton, me, & Karl Blau on a porch somewhere Midwest USA on the Dub Narcotic Sound System/D+ tour, September 1997

Calvin Johnson, Bret Lunsford & me, Dub Narcotic Studio (D+ session), Aug. 1997

the audience at Rock & Roll Pee My Pants (mini festival), Track House yard, Olympia, July 1999

I did actually take my shirt off in the yard, Track House, Olympia, late spring 2000

emptying the leaky back of the pickup mid-D+ tour, Karl Blau, Massachusetts, 2003

self-portrait in Dub Narcotic Studio, Olympia, 2000

with Kyle Field on the “Wise Old Little Boy” tour, the Palouse, Idaho, spring 2002

So yeah, this is the past, the collected debris from this art project the Microphones. And it’s the present, now, here, with me advertising to you that I made this thing and I’m pretty proud of it. It’s the best thing I could make, a dense and deluxe souvenir, a thick other-world contained in a ten pound box. I politely ask for you to consider buying one. Thank you!

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No further personal news this time. I will be back here before long with some concert announcements and other blips.

Thanks, bye.

Phil