Long-Distance Listening Party

Only together can we create a truly New Release.

Photo by Michael Raines

Hi! It’s been a whirlwind over here!

Before we get into it, we just want to say how thankful we are, these days, for our relationship with you, dear reader. It’s a risky business making physical things and you really make it feel like we’re doing this together. Thank you for your patronage!

LONG-DISTANCE LISTENING PARTY

We’ve been thinking about what makes a good listening party and have come up short. Maybe there’s something kind of fundamentally bad about a listening party? We probably just haven’t been to a good one. Here’s an idea: what if we could all be alone with the album, together? What if you could ask questions without interrupting the music? What if you could party from the comfort of your own home?

Introducing the New Release Long-Distance Listening Party System (NRLDLPS).

On August 20th, 2024 at 6:30pm PDT, Bandcamp will host a synchronized real time audio playback of New Release for us from start to finish, one-time only. There will be a chat window where we will focus 100% of our attention on responding to your burning questions, comments, compliments, and complaints. Claire (who has been semi-offline) will be joining live via subspace from New Hampshire. From technical to spiritual to organizational, we will attempt to tell you everything you want to know. RSVP here or click the big button below:

PS - Sources say Claire’s working on her follow-up to Broad Band? Sounds cool.

Here are some updates on how our first fully-independent album release is going:

NEW RELEASE FIRST EDITION SOLD OUT

ICYMI, we released a special “First Edition” of our new album, New Release on vinyl two months before its August 23rd release date—and it sold out in 90 minutes?! Thank you so much for making that happen. Since people were sad to have missed their chance, we put together an only slightly less special “Second Wave” Edition, which also comes with digital extras, and is also exclusively available on Metalabel.

We’re about halfway to selling those out too, so get on it quick if you want one:

NEW RELEASE SPECIAL CASSETTE SOLD OUT

We also made cassettes! We made 100 tapes total, but then had a vision to print an alternate version of the artwork on transparencies. This was time consuming and expensive, so we limited it to an edition of 31 copies, and they’re all gone. The standard-edition cassettes are now up for pre-order on Bandcamp, though—and if your heart is broken and you desperately want a transparency version, email us.

These suckers are GONE!

PRE-ORDER NEW RELEASE ON BANDCAMP

It’s Sound File Summer and now you can pre-order New Release on Bandcamp. In addition to high resolution 96kHz/24-bit FLAC, WAV, or MP3 files, you can also bundle the digital version with an LP or cassette, which we’ll ship on release day: 8/23/2024.

PRE-SAVE NEW RELEASE ON SPOTIFY

The countdown is on. Click the button to view the New Release countdown on Spotify, follow YACHT, and Pre-Save the album. Thank you for completing this digital task!

FINALLY, A REALITY SHOW SLOT MACHINE

Web surfing rules and I love the internet. I love following a rabbit hole on Wikipedia and coming out the other end even more curious than I was going in.

In an act of desperation, the band YACHT created a TikTok account to help promote our new album, which resulted in me (Jona) using TikTok, which I have been avoiding for years. Not because it’s bad (it is), or because it harvests our data (it does), but because it’s by far the most powerful attention vacuum ever created and I knew I was no match. I’m sure this has been written about before, and more eloquently, but here are my simple thoughts.

It doesn’t matter if you’re fully aware of what it’s doing to you. Whether you’re fascinated by how weird it is or you’re totally oblivious and drawn in by whatever’s happening on the screen, it’s all the same. Calling it a reality show slot machine doesn’t even do it justice. The way voiceover is used and reused, the way the same products are hocked over and over again in the same way…bizarre. The fake tips and life hacks? Stickers on top of videos that are just lies about what’s happening in the video? There’s just too much to unpack and I never want to look at it again.

No wonder the world has taken the shape it’s taken. Why would you believe anything? Or believe in anything? Even if there are beautiful worlds inside of TikTok (and I hope there are) why would it show me this one first? Anyway, now I’m making fake tip videos for New Release in honor of the time I wasted.

Whatever next?

Love,
Jona, Claire, and Rob