Blog Releases Archive

Every couple of years or so we like to bring The Strychnine back from the dead in the form of another box or, in this case, Macy’s bag of CDs found in someone’s basement or, in this case, parents’ garage.

I haven’t pulled them all out to count them but it looks like around 20-25 discs all still in their factory wrapped glory. This may or may not be the last of them, but I’m leaning towards may. They’re back in stock so get one while supplies last.

As an added bonus, CD Baby is donating $1 from every sale (until 2/7/10) to Haitian relief efforts. We’ll go ahead and double that with no time limit. So we’ll donate $2 for every one of these CDs sold, until they run out. If you need help with that it comes out to $3. Plus you get your hands on this classic piece of Pennsylvania Rock History.

If you already have one of these you could always pick up a few extra to hand out at parties or your next ice cream social. And it’s red so it makes a great Valentine’s day gift. Or you could just head over there and leave a review. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

Our hugely successful Sound Share project has a new home on Bluskreen.com

From there you can download samples from both Sinch and Bluskreen tracks and make your own remixes, mash ups, monster mashes or whatever you want. All the samples are released under a Creative Commons license.

You’ll find more information there as well as links to a bunch of audio apps to get you started.

Bluskreen Sound Share Project

A New Music Store

Yes, we have a new music store.

This time around we’re using a relatively new service called Bandcamp. There’s a few things about our new store that are different:

1. We’re now selling all our releases (except for the self-titled album and Imitating the Screen EP, both still on Roadrunner).
2. Everything you buy in the new store you’re buying from us. And it all helps support the band.
3. You can buy full albums and/or individual songs. In our old store you could only buy full albums.
4. All the downloadable stuff is available in a variety of formats: MP3, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless and Ogg Vorbis.
5. We’ve included some extra bonus materials in all the downloads, including liner notes, bonus tracks, desktops and more.

Live Cuts 2005: The Album

Second, to celebrate the launch of the new store, we re-released Live Cuts 2005 as a full length album. The album now includes all 9 songs from that show, including some live versions of songs from the self titled album.

Here’s the full track listing:

1. To Die In Fall (Live) 04:34
2. The Power of Suggestion (Live) 03:47
3. Identity Theft (Live) 03:52
4. The Last Scene (Live) 04:04
5. The Projector Breaks 00:34
6. Bitmap (Live) 04:54
7. Something More (Live) 04:15
8. 433 (Live) 03:38
9. All That’s Left Behind (Live) 03:36
10. The Silent Acquiescence of Millions (Live) 05:36

Live Cuts 2005: The Album is available now.

Our first full length album, The Strychnine, is finally available again on CD. But not for very long.

Update (6/16/09): We sold out of these CDs last weekend. Apologies to anyone who didn’t get an order in before they were gone. There’s always the digital version.

We originally only printed 1000 copies and honestly we thought it was out of print a while ago. Then we found a stack of unopened discs somewhere deep in the Sinch archives, where even the bravest of men rarely go.

We’ve now made these available in our online store for the entirely reasonable price of $12.99. That’s a little more than what you might be used to paying for a CD these days, but consider this: We only have 15 copies left. And the last time we found a stack of these we sold them for $18.95 so this is kind of a steal.

And if you’re on our mailing list, you’ll be getting an email about this very soon (like tomorrow) with a secret code that will give you $3.00 off, bringing the price down to $9.99. An incredible deal if we do say so ourselves.

If you’re not on the mailing list, get on it. You might still have a chance to grab that code before they sell out.

Since we launched the Help Us Get the New Album Made project earlier this year, we’ve gotten some questions about how the whole thing works and I thought the answers were probably worth posting here, so everyone can see them.

Date: 2/28/09
From: Mike N

I’ve been a since I saw you guys live in West Palm, FL in 2003(?).

I really like the chip-in idea for the new album. How much more do you need?

Mike,

Ok, so we kind of answered this a couple weeks ago. The new target amount we’re going for is $20,000. Maybe we’re shooting too high but I really don’t think so. We have thousands of fans around the world and we’ve gotten past $5,000 with less than 100 donations. I think the real issue we’re facing is getting in touch with all those fans, especially ones who haven’t been visiting the site and aren’t on our mailing list.

It probably goes without saying, but if you know someone like that please send them our way!

Date: 3/6/09
From: Xavier

Hi,

I can made a “gold level” from Spain? i wish i can get all the pluses of this level.

Many Thanks,

Xavi.

P.D. Your music is a part of our lives,

Xavi,

You can absolutely donate at the Gold level from Spain. Or pretty much anywhere else for that matter.

As long as you can send money with PayPal, you can get involved. Even if you don’t have a credit card you can make a payment directly from your bank account with an eCheck. And if all you have is cash… well, I have to wonder what line of work you’re in. But id that’s really the case, let us know and we can probably figure something out.

Date: 3/25/09
Name: Martin J

Hi!

I am a great fan of yours living in Sweden.. I have donated 30 dollars recently and Im planning to donate yet another 100 dollars next month.. I really wish you all luck with the new album and I cant wait until I get to hear the new material.

However, I want to buy some CDs from your official store, as another way of supporting you.

However, Im planning on buying a package-deal. And Only the big one is good enough for the big fans. But I am wondering a few things..

First up, and maybe most important – Can you ship the CDs to Sweden? And also, if I donate another 100 dollar, you wrote that I might get a CD and a T-shirt when its released, Is it possible to send that package to Sweden as well?

And my last question.. I like to have a CD in my hand, and not a digital version. However, there are no info telling if the big package available at your store is Digital or physical.
So my question is – If I buy “The BIG Package – 18.99″ Containing The Strychnine, Diatribe, Project: Bluebird EP and Subdivisions EP… Are those albums sent in physical version to my adress, or is Downloading from your server the only option?

Thank you very much for your help and I wish you all of luck with your future albums.. Keep up the good work and continue make great music!

Best regards // Martin

Martin,

Thanks for emailing us!

I guess I should make it more clear but the package deals in our store are all for the download (mp3) versions. There are links to buy physical CDs in the store, but they aren’t a part of the deals. We actually only have a few more copies of The Strychnine that we’ll be making available soon (it’s currently out of stock), but Diatribe and Project: Bluebird are totally out of print and the Subdivisions EP was never even released on CD. So the downloads are really the only way to get that stuff anyway.

I’m sending the rest of our Strychnine CDs into CDBaby this week. If you want to be notified when they’re available, you can sign up here:

http://www.cdbaby.com/sinch1

As far as the new album goes, yes you can donate at the $100 level and we’ll ship the stuff to Sweden! No problem!

Date: 4/9/09
From: Branden

ok let me get this straight..if i donate 10$ to you ill get a cd tshirt and youll play a local show or accustic at my house even tho i live in Cali ?dude ive loved sinch for years now i found a 3 song E.p in Rasputin records in san leandro Ca for 25cents it happened to have bitmap on it and a unreleased song bitmap became eveything to me [redacted: very personal info] after hearing bitmap 3 days later i was so glad i was alive long enough to have heard it that song changed my life and still has the power to do so as do alot of other sinch songs i dont hear them i feel them ..so if all this is legit shoot me an email and ill send you support funds for the new album ..

peace and thank you for what you have created its saved and changed a life..

Always

Branden

Brendan,

First of all, we’re really glad to hear that our music helped you through a tough time in your life. We’ve all been at those points and for a lot of people (including me) it’s things like music that help the most.

To your original question, unfortunately no, we won’t send you a CD and do an acoustic show at your house if you send us $10. The good news is we have a bunch of cool stuff (including a CD) that can be had in exchange for a donation to the Sinch Needs Some New Shoes (And a New Album) Fund.

We played around with the idea of having one of the rewards be a show at the donors house, but it would be for a lot more than $10. And because the cost of doing the show would vary so much depending on where the person lived, we’d have to make it so much that it would cover any possible case (like doing the show in Australia as opposed to somewhere near where we live) so we kind of scrapped that idea.

But seriously if anyone is interested in making a pretty major donation we can probably make something like this work. You can even invite people, charge them at the door and keep all the money. So potentially you could end up making some (or all) of the donation back. It’s a win for everybody. You really can’t afford not to. Get in touch with any reasonable offer and the details and we’ll see what we can do.

Date: 4/10/09
From: Wallace

I was wondering if, for example, I donated $50 today and $50 in a week. Would I then be eligale for the gold level or would i be double silver?

Wallace,

You can donate multiple times and your donation level will be calculated by your total amount donated. In this case you would be at the Gold level after donating the second time.

First things first: We have pushed back the end date (it was May 5, 2009) from our donation project and added a target amount ($20,000).

We’ve received emails from a lot of people suggesting that we add a target amount, even if it ends up being more than we actually need. Realistically we could spend any amount of money, but I think we’ve come up with a number that (if reached) would allow us to get a great quality recording and still have enough left over to do something really cool and unique with the CD packaging and other rewards that everyone’s getting for donating.

I originally just picked a date that was months in the future, but May 5 had no particular significance. It was really just a random date. We do plan on starting the actual recording soon and can easily get started with the amount that people have pledged already.

It’s been pushed back to Dec 31 only because they force you to choose a date. I guess you can’t let a ChipIn campaign go on indefinitely, not that we would want to anyway.

We’re all really excited to start recording and are incredibly grateful to everyone who’s donated so far. It’s really going to allow us to focus on the music rather than having to worry about where we’re gonna get money from every time we want to use some studio time.

Thanks so much from all of us.

(If anyone has any questions about this please let us know. We already have a few questions we’re gonna answer here on the blog very soon, but feel free get in touch with more. I know it’s a little weird to change the parameters of this thing after people have already donated so we definitely want to know if anyone has concerns about that.)

First, we’d like to thank everyone who’s donated so far. It really means a lot to us. So far all we’ve really said is that for donations of $10 or more, you’ll get the new album for free when it comes out. But a bunch of you decided to donate more anyway, and that’s awesome.

Well, we finally put together a list of more stuff that you can get for those higher donation levels.

Donation Levels

Copper Level – $10.00
You get the new album in mp3 format as soon as it is released ¹.
Your name goes in the credits as a contributor to the album.

Bronze Level- $25.00
You get everything from the Copper level, plus:
You get access to the live stream and recordings from the studio ².

Silver Level – $50.00
You get everything from the Bronze and Copper levels, plus:
You get a signed and numbered CD version mailed to you as soon as it’s released.

Gold Level – $100.00
You get everything from the Copper, Bronze and Silver Levels, plus:
A limited edition T-shirt (probably themed around the new album) that we won’t sell or make available anywhere else ³
A limited edition, signed and numbered poster ⁴

Platinum Level- $500.00
You get everything from the Copper, Bronze and Silver and Gold levels, plus:
You get an edited video of the studio sessions that only Platinum donors will get. ⁵
We call you personally from the studio or, if you prefer send you an email/letter thanking you for your involvement ⁶

Plutonium Level- $5000.00
You get everything from the Copper, Bronze and Silver, Gold and Platinum levels, plus:
You will be listed as an “executive producer” on the album ⁷
You will have bragging rights that you were a major part in making this album happen.
You will be awesome.

And don’t worry. Even if you have already donated money, you’re still eligible for the awesome bonus stuff. We’re keeping close track of who donated what and will be contacting everyone with more details.

Notes:
(1) – The album will be emailed to you as a free download from our online store.
(2) – To stream studio sessions we are using Ustream.tv, a free live streaming service. The quality of the streams may vary, depending on our connection speed, your connection speed, the availability of the Ustream service and possibly the alignment of the planets, in relation to the studio. We will be streaming throughout the recording process but not for the whole time we’re in the studio. There may be times when we want some privacy. We will give as much notice as possible for upcoming studio sessions.
(3, 4) – Because both the shirt and poster designs will be probably based on the new album artwork, it won’t be designed until closer to the end of this process. We typically don’t create the album art until after the recording is complete. In other words, we still have no idea what this stuff will look like, but we’ll make it as awesome as possible. The shirt will be a custom made shirt, and not a CafePress shirt like the ones we’ve been selling recently.
(5) – This video will be completed sometime after the album is recorded. You may receive some of the other items before this one as it will take time to produce.
(6) – We will set up a time with you to make this call. Not everyone in the band is comfortable making these calls, so we can;t guarantee who you’ll be talking to. If you’re not comfortable with the call either, we can send you a personal email or letter instead.
(7) – Your credit will be listed on both the website and the CD version of the album. This title does not give you any “points.” You won’t be getting any royalty checks. It’s just that: a title. But it’s a pretty awesome title if you’re a Sinch fan.

If you haven’t donated yet, what are you waiting for?

We are getting ready to start recording a brand new full length album. Since we are no longer supported by a record label, we’ll be paying for everything ourselves.

Be a part of Sinch history and help us get this album made!

The more money we raise, the faster we can finish the album and get it released. Any amount is welcome, from $10 to $10,000 (or even more if you’re super rich and want to executive produce the album!)

With your donation of $10 or more, you’ll be able to download the new album for free as soon as its released. You’ll also be immortalized on our website with your name listed among all the supporters that made the new album possible!

We are also thinking about other ways of giving back for larger donations. Nothing has been decided yet, but some of the ideas are:

• Signed and numbered CD version of the album shipped to you on the release date.
• Signed and numbered T-shirt not available anywhere else shipped to you on the release date.
• Signed and numbered poster not available anywhere else shipped to you on the release date.
• A phone call from a member of the band thanking you for your contribution
• Free all-access tickets to one of our shows
• A day in the studio
• An acoustic performance at your home
• A full band performance at your home or nearby venue

We’re open to other suggestions as well. The important thing is that we love what we do and want to give you a chance to be a part of the process. So feel free to contact us with any other ideas.

As things are starting to move forward with our new album, I started thinking about the possibility of making our music available in some other formats. Currently, everything we have in the store is in MP3 format, encoded at 192k. Almost all of my personal music collection is at this format/bitrate and I find it to be a pretty good compromise between sound quality and file size.

But I realize there are other formats out there that people might be interested in. And we also want to get a sense of how many people are interested in buying the new album on CD.

So, if you have a minute, take this quick poll and let us know what you’re looking for.

If some of those options don’t sound familiar, you can find more information at the links below:

• MP3
• WMA
• AAC
• Apple Lossless
• FLAC
• Ogg

For the most part, if you have an iPod, you’re going to want mp3 or aac. But you may also want a higher quality version like FLAC or Apple Lossless that you can use as a backup, burn to a CD or to encode into some other format.

We recently got an electronic mail from a fan name Diogo with some words of encouragement.

Greetings from Portugal guys!!

I’ve been a big fan of your work for the past 6/7 years now! As it stands, you’re one of my favorite bands and I really enjoy your work. Too bad I know that I’ll probably will never get to see you guys live (no plans to visit Lisbon right? eheh) but I’ll be looking forward to hear stuff from a future release! In the meantime, good luck to you guys and keep doing it because you definitely have talent :)

All the best!

Thanks Diogo!

We don’t have any plans to visit Lisbon (or anywhere else for that matter). That doesn’t mean we’ll never get there. Either way, it’s pretty safe to say that it’s going to be a while before we get anywhere near Portugal.

The good news is we have a lot of new stuff and we’re gonna be heading into the studio very soon. So a future release is pretty much inevitable at this point. The important question is when. That, no one knows. Not even the 8-ball at the center of the universe.