In this Update:

1) PIAPTK Palm Springs Pool Party at the Ace Hotel - July 22-24.
2) Grey Waves - VOID LP
3) Spaceface - Sun Kids 8" transperency pic disc
4) Forest Fallows - At Home LP!
5) Previous Preorder Updates
6) Survey Feedback
7) Lathe Cut Camp 4: Winter 2016

1. FREE PIAPTK Palm Springs Pool Party! July 22-24, 2016
After the last email blast I was beyond honored to be approached by The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs (one of the coolest/hippest/hipsteriest hotel chains in the world) to curate a PIAPTK/Lathecuts.com weekend. "Do a lathe cut camp and a PIAPTK pop-up shop, or whatever you want" he said. What he didn't bargain for was that, in typical PIAPTK fashion, I decided to take it much farther than necessary and blow the entire budget on a weekend full of so much goddamn vinyl programming and fun that your head will spin. Live vinyl cutting, MOOG modular synthesis classes, Mini-Lathe Cut Camp, DJs, PIAPTK showcase (Little Wings, Sugar Candy Mountain, Pall Jenkins, The Blank Tapes, Cy Dune (mems of Akron Family)), DJs, Hip Hop Pool party with some rad Tucson hip hop crews, Indie Label Popup Shop, Used Vinyl Record Swap, Industry Panel Discussion, etc. This weekend is going to be so ridiculous. And so FREE. If you are in the LA area and have a label, sell used records, etc (or know someone who does) and want to be a part of the action, please email me!

Here is the tentative schedule!

PIAPTK Recordings & Lathecuts.com Present: Palm Springs Vinyl Pool Party?/Hootenanny?/Summer Camp?
Join us for a weekend celebrating the history, science, technology, and art of vinyl records! There will be Industry/Artist Panel Discussions, A Live Vinyl Recording Booth, Indie Vinyl Label Pop Up Shops, A Used Vinyl Record Swap, Hip Hop Pool Party, Poolside DJs, and Concerts. Curated by Michael Dixon PIAPTK Recordings and Lathecuts.com.

Friday, July 22 –
10pm – 2am - Junkbin Jukebox - Join PIAPTK/Lathecuts.com founder, Michael Dixon, AKA DJ Bored-Er Lord, in the Amigo Room for a night of Obscure, Private Press, and Deep Cut Forgotten Honky Tonk Country 45s and LPs

Saturday, July 23rd-
11-5pm – Indie Label Pop Up Shop – Some of the best labels focusing on vinyl records and the art of packaging will be on-site displaying and selling their releases. PIAPTK, Soild Gold, Joyful Noise, Burger Records, Wooden Tooth, Baby Gas Mask, Folktale, Dionysus Records, Lightning Records, Fine Print Zine, Philthy Phonographic Records, Kerchow Records, and Hocus Bogus and more TBA.
12-1 pm – Lathe Cut Camp – The vinyl mastering record lathe and cutting process has remained relatively unchanged for more than 100 years. Come get an up close look at the equipment and process that makes up the first step of the vinyl pressing process.
1-2 pm - Moog Camp - Moog will be here hosting a modular synthesis class and debuting their new synth modeling app!
12-3pm – Live Vinyl Recording Booth – Come out and play a Moog, sing a song, recite a poem, or tell a joke and walk away with your own one-off record!
11-5pm – Poolside - Hip Hop Pool Party – Join Lando Chill and Jivin’ Scientists for an afternoon of live performances and Dj Sets.
6-7:30 pm – Industry Panel Discussion/Q&A – Meet movers and shakers from all areas of the vinyl industry. JJ Golden (Vinyl Mastering, Golden Mastering), Nathan Sabatino (Audio Engineer, Loveland Studio), Jake Ingalls (Guitarist, Spaceface/The Flaming Lips), Jake Sullivan/Kellen Fortier (Owner, Wooden Tooth Records).
10pm – 2am – Show with Little Wings, Sugar Candy Mountain, Pall Jenkins (Three Mile Pilot, Blackheart Procession, Mr Tube and the Flying Objects), The Blank Tapes and Cy Dune (mems of Akron Family).

Sunday. July 24th –
11-5pm – Record Junkies Used Vinyl Swap – Used and rare record dealers from all over the Southwest will be on hand selling everything from rare psych, dollar bin country, modern reissues, to classic rock staples.
12-1 pm – Lathe Cut Camp – The vinyl mastering record lathe and cutting process has remained relatively unchanged for more than 100 years. Come get an up close look at the equipment and process that makes up the first step of the vinyl pressing process.
1-2 pm - Moog Camp - Moog will be here hosting a modular synthesis class and debuting their new synth modeling app!
2-5 Recording Booth – Come out and play a Moog, sing a song, recite a poem, or tell a joke and walk away with your own one-off record!
11-5pm – Poolside – DJs spin whatever summer jams seem like a good at the time.

2. Grey Waves - VOID LP (with bonus lathe cut!)

Debut record from Seattle band, Grey Waves! Bonus lathe cut 7" in handmade covers available to the first 50 orders! 300 hand assembled/stamped/numbered jackets, hazy purple records and a lyric zine designed by Alison Pate.

Add on the Grey Waves - Faith/Void pressed 7" for only $4.99 (usually $6.99!)

If you haven't heard Grey Waves, they are sort of a Gothy/Grungy Replacements! Listen to some here! https://soundcloud.com/grey-waves

PICK THEM UP HERE!

Spaceface is going on tour! And to celebrate the occasion, we made a special Lathe cut 8" picture disc with two brand new songs! With art by Annie Lynch, these beautiful 8", double sided pic discs are limited to 81 copies and come in custom made heavy duty picture disc sleeves with a transparency side bar. Also, we used some new prototype cutting needles on these, and the fidelity is a serious step up from our previous cuts. We are really looking forward to getting more of the needles made and using them on all of our lathe cuts!

Listen to it here!

BUY THEM HERE!


Go see Spaceface live:

6/30 STL, MO @ Heavy Anchor w/ Minor Characters
7/1 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas w/ Minor Characters
7/2 Grand Rapids, MI @ On The Moon w/ Hi-ker + Mikaela Davis
7/3 Toronto, ON @ The Piston w/ Ginger Ale and the Monowhales + Mikaela Davis
7/4 Montreal, Quebec @ Divan Orange w/ Wizaards
7/5 Albany, NY @ The Hollow w/ Mikaela Davis
7/6 Boston, MA @ Middle East w/ Magic Island
7/8 NYC, NY @ Alphaville w/ Corbu
7/9 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle w/ Needlepoints & Gods
7/10 Ashbury, NJ @ The Yachtsman w/ Needlepoints and Gods
7/13 D.C. @ DC9 w/ Paperhaus
7/14 Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
7/16 Birmingham, AL @ Syndicate Lounge w/ Swear Tapes

5. Forest Fallows - At Home LP

FINALLY the vinyl version of this excellent LP from Tucson's Forest Fallows have arrived! This will be your new summer time jam! Influenced by early/mid 90's indie rock like Yo La Tengo and The Sea and Cake, with a fresh atmospheric psych twist, Forest Fallows in one of my favorite bands (and full disclosure, next door neighbors).

This is a co-release with Joyful Noise. The first pressing come in hand silkscreened covers, with a bonus track (which won't be on subsequent pressings of the LP) called Comfort Lime, and is on "Comfort Lime" Green Vinyl with hand-stamped labels. Hand numbered out of 350 copies.

Listen to the Entire Album HERE!

The story of this record is LONG, TWISTED, and FRAUGHT with FRUSTRATION. It involved 16 months, 4 rejected test pressings, a rejected first run of records, 2 phone calls a week for 8 months, countless broken promises, the new owner of a pressing plant telling me my "little indie label can fuck off and never come back, because (they) were going to be pressing MAJOR LABEL records, and didn't need my business.". Do not ever press records with a plant in Dallas, TX that used to have two letters separated with an & sign for a name and was bought out by an opportunist "business man" who owns a record store (and now pressing plant) named after a woman.

BUY FOREST FALLOWS "AT HOME" HERE!

5. Preorder Updates

So, it's no new story that pressing plants are backed up, unreliable, and a constant pain in the ass of an independent label. This goes for CD manufacturers as well as vinyl pressing plants. If you preordered the Saqqara Mastabas, American Monoxide or Sugar Candy Mountain LPs, or any of the new CD-Records, we are REALLLLLY hoping these things come in soon. We've been told that they will "ship next week" for the last month. One of these days, it really will happen (hopefully it won't end up taking 16 months like the Forest Fallows LPs did). We will ship them out as soon as they arrive, PROMISE.

New CD-Records (Nau, RudyWaltz, Floating Action) - these finally arrived the day before I left on vacation in Colorado, and I woke up at 6AM to get them cut before I left. We started shipping them out on Friday, so they should arrive soon!

6. Survey Results

I sent this survey out last time, and had an overwhelming response… My guess is that only people who actually LIKE the label read the emails, and therefore took the survey, but I’m super flattered and inspired by the responses I got. Most of them were extremely positive.

There were a few pieces of “need improvement” feedback that I got. I wish I could respond to each survey personally, but, like an idiot, I forgot to include a field for name/email address, so despite the fact that I would probably recognize a lot of your names from years of patronage, I have no idea who said what. So, to address the big concerns for those who posted them (and those who didn’t), below are my feedback to your feedback.

PLEASE ALWAYS FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME PERSONALLY AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON.

If you didn't take the survey last time, but want to, you can do so here!


In business school (can you believe I have a marketing degree???), they say to never publicly respond to your weaknesses, but here I go.

International Shipping:
I know this is expensive, unfortunately, there is NOTHING I can do. The USPS has almost tripled their international shipping prices since I started this label 10 years ago. I would love to get international distribution, but I make/sell so few records, and my releases are so limited (out of necessity), that no international distro will touch me. The more you buy each time, the cheaper the shipping gets per item.


Lathe Cut Lo-Fidelity vs Pressed Records:
Some people requested I do more pressed records vs lathe cuts because of the lower fidelity of lathe cuts. I am ALWAYS working on improving the fidelity of lathe cuts. Unfortunately, the only way to improve the fidelity is to quadruple the price due to an insane difference in the cost of the materials, cutting needles, and hi-fi capable machines for higher fidelity lathe cuts. I wish that EVERY record I did could be a pressed record, but unfortunately, I honestly don’t sell many pressed records. 90% of pressed records I’ve released (even though they are all limited to 300-500 copies) are still in print, (aka haven’t broken even, financially). Also, because of the labor intensive nature and (and usually found/thrifted/garage sale/dumpstered) unique materials and processes involved, I wouldn’t be able to do nearly as cool packaging if I had to make more than 75-100 copies of something. And a lot of the weird formats (shaped discs, eulerian circles, etc) that people really seem to like are completely impossible to make as pressed records. I try really hard to keep a balance. Records that MIGHT sell enough to press through a plant, I do, and ones that are either not possible, or require being kept limited due to artist obligations are done as lathe cuts.


Things That Sell Out Too Fast
This one was kind of confusing to me. At least 75% of people listed this somewhere in their survey. Very few of my releases sell out in less than a week. Usually, anyone that opens my email in a timely manner is able to get them. The reasons that they are limited when they might be highly sought after are:
1) They are uniquely handmade by the artist: in which case, the artist only WANTS to make 50. And then they want some to keep for themselves. Therefore, we only have 25-30 to sell.
2) The artist has other label obligations that require a TINY run. Scott McMicken, Flaming Lips, etc are great examples of this. Their official labels would NEVER agree to a full run that was kept in print. We are only able to work with artists of this caliber because what we do is so weird, limited, and immediately out of print. Would I love to keep these releases in print forever and actually make a little money on them? Sure! Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. I’m honored to just be able to work with these artists at all, and I have to do so on their terms.

Sound Samples
This is another one that confused me. Almost everyone requested more sound samples, but we’ve tried for the last year to upload everything to soundcloud and include it both on the site description and in the email. I will try harder to make it more apparent where you can hear the tunes in the future!


Website difficulties
Some people reported having a hard time navigating the site. The platform we use is FAR from ideal, but I’ve done the best I can to categorize everything and link from the artist page. I’m too busy making these fucking things to sell them appropriately, and I admit that I’m not super thorough and organized with it, but there are several different ways to navigate the site (clicking on the ALL category will take you to all products in reverse chronological order).

More newsletters?
My philosophy has always been to not send out too many emails. I always wait until I have at least 4 or more things to talk about before I send out an email. Because I, personally, ignore or immediately delete, all emails from companies that send out too much spam unless they are few and far between. So, I usually save up and drop multiple things at once. This also plays into the ridiculous shipping cost debate. I would love for people to be able to lower their overall cost by being able to buy several things at once, rather than buying/shipping a new thing every week or two.

Shipping Time/Preorders
A few people mentioned the wait time for shipping. Sometimes we have to release things as preorders, before they are ready/back from the plant. We have to do this for several reasons. 1) The record is being pushed through a PR company. 2) The artist is touring 3) The pressing plant is backed up (as always) 4) we have a new email going out and won’t do another for a month or two. 5) we are broke as hell and need to pay the final payment on the run.

Also, these things are really time consuming to make. I’m only one man, but I do have an awesome buddy (his name is Seth) that does the majority of mailing now (thank GOD). But, he only mails out once or twice a week (largely because we don’t get enough orders to justify daily trips down to the studio and then to the post office). We are a tiny weirdo indie label run by people who are out of town a lot, not a mega-corp like Amazon. Believe me when I say, we never make you wait longer than absolutely necessary. I am the most instant gratification guy in the world, and I will never slack (and neither will Seth). We are conscientious about getting things out as soon as humanly possible.

Pricing
Most people that listed this qualified it by saying they understood why things were expenses. Records and Lathe cuts are insanely expensive to make, in materials, in time, in packaging. AND, because all of our releases are one time pressings and we don’t really sell on-going digital on most of them (we made $138 on over 100 digital releases available through our site in 2015), we pay the artists up front in VERY generous artist copy percentages of 35-50% of the run. This is NOT 35-50% of PROFIT, this is of actual copies. Meaning that if we make 100 copies of a record that we sell for $10 that costs us $6 a disc (cutting time, labels, packaging, needle wear, materials, poly bags, etc) to make ($600) and we give the artist 35 copies, we sell 65 copies for $650, netting us a cool $50 profit. And we keep a few for our self, so at best we break even. Also figure in the fact that many records (pressed records especially) never sell out at all. Even some lathe cuts take YEARS to sell out (we’ve still got some of the 100 hand-colored copies of the excellent Juston Stens lathe cut from 2011, if you are interested). So any potential profit is sitting in unsold copies of records that will be buried with me in the Maricopa County Landfill when I die. PIAPTK, as of Dec 2015 was $76,000+ in the negative. And that isn’t accounting for the $49,000 in inventory (most of which probably won’t sell) that we have taking up space in the studio. So, a total of 1/8^th of a MILLION dollars is how much I’ve lost so far on this label in the last ten years. And that’s ok. Just understand that I always try to keep the pricing as reasonable as I can.

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE!



7. Lathe Cut Camp 4: - Winter 2016

We've sold out the last 3 Lathe Cut Camps, and are now looking to book one for the winter. If you are seriously interested, please email me at lathecuts@yahoo.com and let me know which dates work/don't for you and I will try to schedule around ya! For more info on the lathe cut camps, go here!

3. Grey Waves - VOID LP (with bonus lathe cut!)

Debut record from Seattle band, Grey Waves! Bonus lathe cut 7" in handmade covers available to the first 50 orders! 300 hand assembled/stamped/numbered jackets, hazy purple records and a lyric zine designed by Alison Pate.

Add on the Grey Waves - Faith/Void pressed 7" for only $4.99 (usually $6.99!)

If you haven't heard Grey Waves, they are sort of a Gothy/Grungy Replacements! Listen to some here! https://soundcloud.com/grey-waves

PICK THEM UP HERE!

I know it's rare for us to have this many updates in the same month, but there has been a lot happening. So, here we are... again...

In this update:
1) New CD-Records (Michael Nau (Cotton Jones/Page France), RudyWaltz (mems of Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Carissa's Weird), and Floating Action (covering the Stones!). ALL TRACKS ARE NOW STREAMABLE!
2) Simon Joyner Lathe Cut 10"
3) Sugar Candy Mountain - 666 LP Preorder!
4) Lathe Cut Camp
5) Rarities and Outtakes and Test Pressing Private Stash restock
6) New Distro - Advance Base Nephew in the Wild, Burger Records, K Recs, Polyvinyl, etc
7) Survey - PLEASE take this and let us know what you like (and don't) about PIAPTK. A little feedback goes a long way in helping us stay motivated and on track.

1. New CD-Record Series Discs!
Rudy Waltz - We are so excited to have the debut release from Pacific Northwest Supergroup, RudyWaltz, who will be on tour with Built To Spill this summer. RudyWaltz is Eric Judy (Modest Mouse), Robin Peringer (Modest Mouse, 764-Hero, Band of Horses, Carissa's Weird), and Mat Brooke (Grand Archives, Carissa's Weird).
Floating Action - Seth Kaufman does it again, with a one-man, full-band take on the Rolling Stones classic, Lies.
Michael Nau - The man behind Cotton Jones Basket Ride and Page France

Pick them up here (will ship in early June). And you can now listen to ALL Cd-Record tracks here!

2. Simon Joyner & The Ghosts - Salt Across Your Wound Lathe Cut 10"s

A limited edition 10" made for Simon Joyner's upcoming tour. Only 100 lathe cut 10"s made. 32 on Clear Records with Yellow Dust Sleeves, and 68 on White Discs with Green Sleeves. Black sleeves silkscreened with silver ink. Originally released as part of an 8x Cassette boxset on Unread Records.

Tracks:
The Sirens Sound Like Laughter
Deluge
Paralyzed Man
This Is The Ache I Was Talking About (Another Midnight Special)
Every Sin Is The Result of a Collaboration
A Simple Wish
The Sailors They've All Scattered

PICK THEM UP HERE!

3. Sugar Candy Mountain - 666 LP Preorder!

Joshua Tree's Sugar Candy Mountain and PIAPTK have a ton of mutual friends... The Blank Tapes, Graves, etc and we are super excited to release their new LP!

We only have 100 copies of the Pink Vinyl, which will never be repressed! All pink vinyl preorders include a bonus Lathe Cut with a cover of the Zombies' Beechwood Park!.

4. Lathe Cut Camp 3 - Aug 12-14, 2016

Lathe Cut Camp Number Three! Aug 12-14, 2016, Downtown Tucson, 9am-4pm daily.

Spend three days in scenic Tucson, AZ learning (almost) everything you need to know about DIY Record Cutting! The focus of this camp will be on mono "semi-professional" machines, with particular focus on Presto 6Ns, which are one of the most common and affordable vintage machines around. You can do some amazing things with these incredible machines, and I will show you how. Bring your own music and we will put it onto discs for you to take home. We will touch on professional record mastering/pressing, but my main interest and experience, and the focus of this camp will be on the more DIY and experimental side of the hobby. There are only 8 spots available, so buy early!

Perfect if you are interested in:
Vinyl records and how their masters are cut
Learning how this strange black art works
Buying a lathe to make your own records
Ordering lathe cuts from a lathe cut service
Cutting your own music to disc

Topics covered:
The science behind vinyl record cutting
Lathe Operations and equipment
The pressing process
Lacquer dub plate cutting
Experimental and alternative materials (plexiglass, laserdiscs, picnic plates, etc)

Please Note: You are responsible for your own transportation to/from Tucson and your accommodations. However, the hotels here are pretty damn cheap.

About the Presenter: For more info on me, please visit the About page of this site

Only Six Spots Available! Pick one up here!

5. Rarities & Outtakes/Test Pressings Stash Update

With every release, we put back a handful of copies ito the archives for us to keep, for problems with shipping, for cases of website glitches/oversales, artist/friend requests, etc. And when we get desperate for cash, we have to dig deep and bring out one or two of them at a time. This time we've pulled out releases and test pressings from Scott McMicken, Grandaddy, Flaming Lips, Eric Slick, Ariel Pink, R Stevie Moore, and a ton of other old stuff.

Check them out here.

6. New Distro from Orindal, Burger Records, Polyvinyl, K Recs, etc!

We occasionally do some distro and label trades. We recently got a new stock of stuff from Owen Ashworth at Orindal Records, AKA CFTPA AKA Advance Base. We got some copies of his excellent new record, Nephew in the Wild on both lavender and black vinyl.

We also still have a ton of other new Orindal, K Records, Burger Records, New West, Polyvinyl, Folktale Records, Electricity and Lust and other releases in the Distro section, so Check them out here.

Some of the NEW DISTRO TITLES we have are below:

K Records:
Calvin Johnson & The Sons of the Soil (with Kyle Field)
D+ ST (Phil Elvrum, Karl Blau, & Bret Lunsford (Beat Happening)
Mirah - Changing Light

Orindal Records
Advance Base - Nephew in the Wild
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - In Cambridge LP
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - In Sydney LP
Advance Base / Concern - Traditionals 7"
Advance Base - Our Cat 7"
Advance Base - World is in a Bad Fix Everywhere

Burger Records
Natural Child - Hard in Heaven (Colored Vinyl!)
King Tuff Is Dead (Blue cover, blue with orange splatter vinyl)
Nirvana - Cult (60s psych band) - Colored 2xLP
Jaill - Brain Cream
Dead Ghosts - Love and Death and All the Rest
Jessie Jones - ST
Natural Child - Hard in Heaven
Nobunny - Raw Romance (has a golden Boots cover!)
White Fang - Chunks

Polyvinyl Records
Pillar Point - ST
IDA - Tales of Brave IDA 2xLP
Mates of State - My Solo Project
IDA - I Know About You
David Bazan - Fewer Moving Parts EP
Of Montreal - Aureate Gloom
Sonny and the Sunsets - Talent NIght at the Ashram

Folktale Records
Whitman - Restoring Darkness

New West
Benji Hughes - A Love Extreme 2xLP 180g
Steve Earle - Townes 2xLP 180g

Browse Our Distro Titles Here!

7. Survey - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAKE IT.

PIAPTK is a serious passion project. It's an addiction that is arguably as expensive as many other addictions (though I would imagine more fun and rewarding) in it's costs. It is something that I have done for almost ten years, with varying waves of feast and famine, intense public interest and equally universal apathy for what I do. But, let's be real... I do it how I want to, with whom I want to, and don't get too hung up on whether anybody cares or does not. I do it as a creative outlet that allows me to work with artists that I adore. I do it to amuse myself. And I do.

However, PIAPTK is also an extremely personal "business" to me, and I would really love to know about every hand that my releases get into. Each release is put together with an unbelievable amount of love and sweat. It would really mean the world to me if you would just take a few minutes to answer ten questions about your experiences with PIAPTK, what you like/don't, etc. It's sometimes hard to understand what customers want/like/feel, when you are just a faceless Paypal order. I've always tried very hard to keep PIAPTK very personal, to let you know who the weirdo behind the releases is, to be accessible and to meet as many of my customers as I can. I think I'm up to well over 100 IRL encounters/new friends from this endeavor.

Give me the good AND the bad. I can't grow and improve in a one-person vacuum.

If you would take this survey, I would be SOOOO appreciative!

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE!


As always, I am extremely grateful for your support, and even just bothering to read this email.

With love from the quickly-overheating-desert.

Your Friend, Mike.

Well, a lot has happened recently. And a lot is coming up. PIAPTK has always been a passion project and has never broken even (let alone turned a profit), but if you enjoy the weirdness that is what we do, we would really appreciate your support, now more than ever, by picking up some things. If an excellent record is released into a vacuum, does it make a sound? Or does it just sit on a cinder block shelf in a basement?

In return, for the next week, we are offering a discount code for 25% off any combined purchases over $100 (including lathe cuts, preorders, test pressings, and archives purchases). Enter code "PIAPTK" at check out and save some cash!

PS. We have 1997 of our 2000 "free" subscribers on Mailchimp, so we will be cleaning up the email list for next mailout. If you haven't bought anything in a while, and want to stay on the list, please go download the free MP3 sampler here. Or you can buy one of the releases below.

In this email:
1) Upcoming Releases (TONS of them)
2) Saqqara Mastabas LP Preorder
3) American Monoxide Preorder
4) Homely Singles Blind Date Club Concession

1. Upcoming Releases - soooo much in the pipeline for the next few months.
a) Soild Gold 000007- Be Gulls (Little Wings + Lee Bagget) Play The Grateful Dead into their Iphones.
b) Soild Gold 000008- Scott McMicken (Dr. Dog) - In Your Dreams LP
c) New CD-Records - Michael Nau (Cotton Jones, Page France), RudyWaltz (mems of Modest Mouse and Grand Archives/Carissa's Weird), and Floating Action (playing a Stones cover!).
d) Simon Joyner 10" EP
e) Sugar Candy Mountain - "666" LP
f) Grey Waves - Debut LP
g) Skrill Meadow - On Vacation LP (Mark from LAKE and Lazer Zeppelin)
h) Haboob LP - Psychedelic Jazz Supergroup from Tucson
i) Golden Boots Cassette Reissue Campaign (with brand new covers, rarities, and live tapes)
j) Forest Fallows - At Home LP.
k) S.M. Wolf (mem of Amo Joy) - Kooky Format single.

2. Saqqara Mastabas! - Libra LP PIAPTK-203

So, you may remember this band from the anonymous IVL series (which is, btw still available here), a series of established bands performing under avant garde alter-egos. ... Well, they are now fully out of the shadows and not anonymous anymore! Matthew Friedberger from the Fiery Furnaces and Bob D'Amico from Sebadoh! There are only 400 copies on Silver Lava vinyl and we are splitting them with Joyful Noise, who we are co-releasing it with! PREORDER IT HERE

The Spiel!

We have an unusual, yet highly enthralling, release for you! Saqqara Mastabas (suh-kah-ruh muh-stah-bus) is a new project by Matthew Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) and Bob D'Amico (Sebadoh, Fiery Furnaces). They have gifted us with their new album titled, Libras.

With Libras, they take on the names of Hermopolis Magna (Matthew) and Waan'Ubyee Shemayet (D'Amico) to become Children/Mature Students of the Upper Light. They are now proud makers of Joyful Noise (insert plug here), made possible by their Outlet to Eternity.

...We can't make this shit up.

Libras is now available for pre-order on: Black Vinyl, CD, Digital and...

Limited Edition Vinyl! Limited to just 400 hand-numbered copies on Silver Lava Vinyl with Clear Splatter.

Check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/joyful-noise-recordings/uto-on-the-upswing/s-vKT20?mc_cid=4cc93a00eb&mc_eid=1469472fa7

3. American Monoxide's New LP, Web Content! Preorder.

The new American Monoxide (Dimitri Manos of Golden Boots/Dr Dog) is your weird electronic feel good summer jam. Breezy and clean like Tucson's creosote desert winds.

Check out this Stereogum preview of the debut single!

Dimitri and I handpicked our favorite labels to go Co-Op style on this one, and have encouraged all of them to create their own "Variant" with some sort of bonus item. Please go check them all out before buying from us, and choose your favorite bonus item. PIAPTK, Soild Gold, and Almost Halloween Time versions available here (while supplies last), the rest can be picked up at their respective sites.

Labels Involved, bonus items/price (links coming soon).

Standard LP - $15:
PIAPTK - Bonus Lathe Cut $20
Almost Halloween Time Records Bari, Italy) - Incredible, unique, hand painted covers! We will be selling some of them here for US buyers, but we HIGHLY recommend you go visit the AHT time site (www.UnderwaterNow.com), because you will want to buy their entire catalog - $35 from PIAPTK, maybe less from AHT.
Soild Gold (Tucson) - Soild Gold Style Bootleg Cover - $17
Baby Gas Mask Records (Tucson) - Library Style Mylar sleeves with Bonus Cassingle with unreleased track - $18
Hocus Bogus (Tucson) - Bonus Zine with Lathe Cut cover! - $20
Lazy Boy Recording Co (Lynchburg, VA)- TBD
Wooden Tooth Records (Tucson) - Cassingle with bonus track - $18
Shot By A Fan (Austin) - Bonus video content!




4. UPDATE: Homely Singles Blind Date Club: Shaped 7"

UPDATE: BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL PITCH, AND THE WAY I ALWAYS HOPED THIS WOULD GO DOWN. I loved the idea of allowing people the excitement and adventure of acquiring a cool, weird shaped record, from a band that they may or may not have heard of, totally randomly. However, the people have spoken with their purses and said "fuck that". So, you got me. I concede defeat and will now offer these amazing little oddities individually. You can choose the one you want. You bastards.

A new series that combines the unlikely elements of record club, speed dating, body love conference, upcycling, and shopping mall sticker vending machine. Limited to 50 copies per disc, all packaged in thick picture disc sleeves.

All purchases receive full 22 track digital download.

HOMELY SINGLES:
The Homely Singles Blind Date Club is a record club that seeks to utilize the leftover router drop plastic that happens when I cut circular discs. I buy the plastic in strips, but due to the sizes of the strips, there is usually a smaller than 7" section that is leftover. So, we utilitze that space the best we can, but when cut with our circle router, it produces some strange shapes. We have been stockpiling these "Homely" records and are now allowing these pieces of plastic to fulfill their destiny, which has long been denied them... we are making these "unique" discs beatiful on the inside by putting new tracks by some of our favorite bands.

The shapes pictured are only examples and your discs MAY NOT be in the same shape pictured.

BLIND DATE CLUB: (BOOOOHHISSS)
The Blind Date aspect of this is much like a sticker vending machine at the mall. You know what is available, but you DO NOT GET TO CHOOSE YOUR DISC. You put faith in the universe (and PIAPTK) that your audio date will be with a worthy companion. Discs will be rotated through in order. So, if you buy more than one, you will not receive any duplicates, and the only way to guarantee you get any particular disc is to buy one of each.

Artists Include:
1. Jack Lewis: Brother of Jeffrey, with David Herman Dune. Heavy Metal Kidz b/w This Land Is Your Land
2. Sandman the Rappin Cowboy (with Khaela Marcicich (The Blow)): People Are Sexy b/w Miss Rodeo Montana
3. Turner Cody: Kingdom II b/w Lola
4. Krab Legz (Dimitri Manos (Golden Boots/Dr Dog) and Ben Schneider (Otherly Love)):Line Cook b/w Hollandaise in the Sun
5: SpaceFace: Trust b/w Madness
6. Strong Martian (80% of Spaceface, side project): Running Back b/w Paint My Past
7. Graves & Kacey Johansing: Everywhere/Silver Wings
8. The Blank Tapes: The Shaft b/w Chasing the Sun
9. Fur Family: Airplanes and Cigarettes b/w Aztec Road
10. The Coke Dares (mems of Magnolia Electric Co and The Impossible Shapes): Fantasy Book b/w Nobody Knows Who You Are, Pillbottle.
11. Golden Boots: Pray For Surf/It Could Be Easy

STREAM THEM HERE

PICK THEM UP HERE.

Well, we only have three new releases this time, but they are weird! Do us a favor and buy some stuff HERE, please?.

JNRxPIAPTKxSXSW
We are throwing a day party with our buds at Joyful Noise Recordings on Thursday, Macrh 17th at SXSW! Come Hang!

Joyful Noise Recordings/PIAPTK SXSW Day Party
Thursday, March 17th
Obsolete Industries
1700 E 12th St, Austin, TX 78702
1pm - 8pm.

Two Stages!

Inside Stage:
1:20pm - Advance Base (formerly Casiotone For The Painfully Alone), 2:40pm - Yonatan Gat, 4:00pm - New Science Projects, 5:20 - Devin James Fry, 6:40 - Globelamp.

Outside Stage:
2:00pm - Jad Fair, 3:20pm Sound of Ceres, 4:40pm - Pearl Charles, 6:00pm - Sugar Candy Mountain, 7:20 - The Blank Tapes


National Crab Meet Day is March 9th! Claws Across America! Crab Legs vs. Krab Legz.

This is the Tail of Two Crab Legs.

There once was a band called Crab Legs in Fargo, ND. A bunch of punks, doing their thing. But several years into the career of the Fargo Crab Legs, a new Crab Legs came on the scene. A couple of weirdo whippersnappers from Tucson, AZ named King and Snow. The Fargo Crab Legs decided that the US wasn't big enough for two Crab Legs and sent a Cease and Desist order to the Tucson Crab Legs.

Both sides agreed that they didn't trust the corrupt American Legal System and Prison Industrial Complex. So, they decided that the only way to settle it was a West Side Story style RUMBLE. A date was set, and it was agreed that the rumble would take place halfway between them on the neutral turf of Selden, KS, and that the winner would take complete control of the Crab Legs moniker. High kicks were kicked, fingers were snapped, leather jackets (studded black for the Fargo Crab Legs, brown suede Members Only for the Tucson duo) littered the parking of the Selden Waffle House. After the dust settled, it was clear that the Fargo contingent had the Tucson boys outnumbered, and despite the fact that King pulled a switchblade comb (he claimed coiffure self-defense), they were roundly defeated.

Despite a decisive victory by the Fargo bros, the Tucson dudes refused to honor their agreement and threatened to crowdfund a smear campaign in the press to malign the punk integrity of the victors. They claimed to have evidence that various members had once owned Backstreet Boys pillowcases (non-ironically), and yearbook photos that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a certain unnamed member had once "been into Phish".

Luckily, world renown record label owner, Michael Dixon of PIAPTK Recordings, happened to be sitting in the window of the Waffle House, watching the melee. And in an effort to keep Iowa Ave (strangely, 80% of streets in Selden, KS are named after other states) from running red with the blood of struggling musicians, he stepped in. Always a peacemaker (and opportunist), Dixon saw an intense artistic human interest story that he could take financial advantage of. He made a deal that will go down in history as one of the shrewdest music business moves that had ever been negotiated in Selden in late August of 2015. The Tucson Crab Legs would receive a cash payout to change their name to Krab Legz (the exact monetary payment has not been disclosed, but there are rumors that it was in the high double digits), and in return, and as a sign of friendship and hatchet burial, the Fargo Crab Legs would agree to release a split 7" with Krab Legz on the PIAPTK label for charity (though rumors have persisted that PIAPTK stood to benefit heavily from the release as a tax shelter). A new non-profit organization was founded for the occasion called Claws Across America, which was intended as the torchbearer to previous peace and love based initiatives such as "We Are The World", "Free Tibet", "Artists Against Apartheid", and "Mark Zuckerberg Invest A Billion Dollars in Kanye Ideas".

You can contribute to Claws Across America by purchasing this piece of history on clear, square, lathe cut 6" vinyl. All proceeds go to promoting peace between bands formerly or presently known as Crab Legs.

Want to read a rap about the whole situation set to the melody of Paul Revere by the Beastie Boys? Click the link below!
Support Crab Peace by purchasing here!

T-Town Sessions Gallery Pic Discs!

These 7"s were made for the one-year-anniversary of the amazing Tucson video series, T-Town Sessions. T-Town Sessions is a collaboration between four amazingly talented female producers/videographers, St. Cecilia Studios, and Cloud Microphones that puts a spotlight on the wide range of incredible artists in Tucson. Indie, blues, punk, and mariachi bands have all been featured.

We partnered with Photographer Abril Castillo to make transparency picture discs, modeled to look like photographic negatives, inside custom die cut covers that make them look like vintage slides.

There are 10 different images, 3 copies each. Only 30 copies were made, 10 sold to benefit T-Town Sessions at the One Year Anniversary Party, 10 for the band, and 10 for PIAPTK to sell to recoup the costs of production.

We are only selling SIX records, and you will get a random disc. To see all 10 images, click below!

Each one has been signed and numbered by Abril Castillo!

PICK THEM UP HERE!

New IVL! COLD'diss'Play

If you remember, the IVL is our weirdo side label of established bands performing avant garde music under pseudonyms. Only 53 copies made, and there are a ton of rules to this strange little label, to read more about those rules go here. Some of these bands may be bands (or members of) that you know and love, but you won't know until they sell out and we announce it, and then it will be too late. This new record is no exception. We now have a new one by the hottest anonymous band that ever existed, COLD'diss'Play. Two smoking hot jams recorded on a tour bus and during soundchecks from an undisclosed sold-out theater somewhere on the planet Earth. The A-side is called Bungus Bay, paired with the aptly titled Bungus Bay Part Deux.

MORE Floating Action: Hold Your Fire 2xLP - Handmade versions. 5 left! Everything else is SOLD OUT!

WE sold out of all of our copies of the 2xLP in only a few days, but Seth Kaufman sent us his share of the hand drawn copies to sell for him, and we have only 5 copies left! Every other copy (including the regular version is completely sold out through us. You might still be able to get them at www.BabyGasMaskRecords.com. And while you are there, pick up some of their "West Foot Forward Series" 7"s. They are doing an amazing job chronicling the quiet mainstream musical subversion happening in Tucson right now!