Happy Wednesday!! I'm sitting at the back computer at Asian Man as I gaze out the window and see blue skies and tons of greenery. I never appreciate the surroundings that I am in, but damn... It's pretty nice working out of the Asian Man garage. I had mentioned last week that I would be putting up the 2nd pressing of Alkaline Trio vinyl up for sale, but it's gonna have to wait another week or so.. If you positively can't wait to spend your money, you can head over to Vinyl Collective and pre-order there. We should be shipping out all the LAWRENCE ARMS pre-sale vinyl next WEDNESDAY. We have two good lads from Vallejo named Gabe and Paco who are coming in to help out on that day. If you want to join them, please write me and I'll order pizza. FUN FUN eh?

NO TORSO has played their first shows in the US, as 8 members and their equipment have been traveling the east coast. So far so good. I've gotten lots of positive feedback from patrons who've made it out to see them and now they're gearing up for the south with no air conditioning in a cramped 12 passenger van. Glad I'm not in a band anymore. But I remember being young and touring in sweltering heat. It was fun back then, but when you're old like me, it's doesn't sound as fun anymore.

We do have a brand new NO TORSO EP called "READY ALREADY". I'd like to challenge the SKA fans in the world to scrape up the $5 dollars for this album. I truly believe this band is one of the best bands playing SKA. Again, you can hear a track off their myspace.com/notorsoska
There's nobody out there that tingle my ears in this genre quite like NO TORSO is doing.

MIKE HALE fans can finally pick up the vinyl version of "Broken With No Hope". There are 100 on black vinyl and 500 on white vinyl. Everything about this record is beautiful. The music, the melodies, and the artwork blown up for 12" really looks wonderful. It's crazy seeing records again and at such at exhausting pace. We had released vinyl on almost every release for the first 4 years and now it's back to the old days of vinyl being a viable medium to listen to music. HOORAY for that. I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive to manufacture. Oh well.

And here's some promotion for a new podcast called ON THE LIST. They did an interview with me last month while I sat in an airport in Baltimore, MD.
Here's the link if you're interested in listening: media.libsyn.com/media/onthelistpodcast/OnTheList05.mp3

So what have we learned this week? Vinyl is expensive.. Yes.. No Torso plays good ska.. Yes.. Living in Asian Man, California is nice.. Yes... Mike Hale makes pretty music.. Yes. We have learned so much.
Be well people.

Peace always,
mike park