Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War

The Night Starts Here

Stars

I apologize for not posting this sooner but I had to go in for some oral surgery today. Now I'm holding some frozen burritos up to my face and I'm a little loopy from vicodin but I love this band so much I had to post this before I went to bed. First news is, Stars' new album In Our Bedroom After the War is set to be released on CD and double-LP on Sept. 25, 2007. But, in keeping with current technology and downloading trends, they have decided to make their new album available for legal download now:

From their myspace:

Friends, fans and supporters of Stars...

On September 25th, Arts&Crafts will release Stars' fourth studio album, In Our Bedroom After War.

We love it and are excited and proud to be bringing it to the world.

We enlisted Joe Chiccarelli to mix the album. He finished in early June, passing the tapes along to Emily Lazar at the Lodge for mastering. Last Friday, July 6th, a final master was delivered to us.

Traditional music business practice says we are to begin sending out copies of this album now. We give advance copies to print publications in hopes of securing features that coincide with our September date. We meet with radio stations in hopes of securing airplay. etc, etc.

Inevitably someone will leak the album.

Throughout this process, the most important people in this value chain, the fans, are given only two options - wait until September 25th to legally purchase the new album or choose from a variety of sources and download the album for free, at any time.

We hope you'll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album. However we don't think it's fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.

We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey.
What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their lastfm channel? or their myspace page?

As such, we are making the new Stars album available for legal download today, four days after it's completion. The CD and double vinyl versions of the album will still be released on our official release date, September 25th. We hope you will continue to support music retailers should a physical album in all it's packaged glory be your choice of format.

It's our hope that given a clear, legal alternative to downloading music for free, you will choose to support the creators.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Sincerely,

Stars and Arts&Crafts

Now, I'm still a big fan of buying CDs (call me old-fashioned but there's still a great feeling about ripping the plastic off a brand new CD that just came out that day) so I'm sure I'll be buying their CD when it comes out but the temptation of being able to listen to it NOW is also pretty great. I'll probably compromise and buy a few tracks now and the CD later. But if you're curious about their new album you can download the song 'The Night Starts Here' for free off their myspace, or from here. Or just listen to it here on W♥M!

Also, they will be touring in the fall to support their new album. Some pre-sale tickets are available through their website now, which I would recommend as it means you'd be avoiding ticketmaster and their exhorbitant "convenience fees."