Somehow I've become a record company exec

I'm the Associate Producer and Artist Wrangler for the second annual Record about Records for Record Store Day to be produced by the ever-embiggening staff over at Bubbles in the Think Tank.  This year's edition is "Eponymously Entitled" and we just started taking advance orders for the record over at love.bubblesinthethinktank.com

That's right ... "record" ... real vinyl ... 7 inches of it, in fact.  Last year we made a purple record, "The Petite 7 Inch Record."  This year we did something completely different.  We made a clear record.

The color is different, the artwork is different, the artists are different - but the love for records is the same.

This year we managed to get brand-spankin' new tracks about records from guitar legend Deke Dickerson; Cape Cod supergroup The Catbirds (featuring Rikki Bates & Chandler Travis from the Casuals, Steve Wood from the Freeze and the Greenheads, and young upstart Dinty Child from the Funky White Honkies and Session Americana); Boston-based, mostly instrumental group The Weisstronauts; members of Chicago-based group The Chuckleheads coming together in the form of SEMIchuck; a collaboration between long-time Boston-area musicians Mr Curt and Bird Mancini; and "the Sasquatch of American Music" himself, Pete LaBonne.

We also somehow convinced Japanese artist and musician Yutaka Suzuki (of the band Movin' Jelly) to create our cover image, a cartoon version of Belinda & January Fairy having a dance party in their basement.  Not only that, but we bagged the one & only Cal Schenkel (Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart), to create our label art, a very Calvinesque collage.

But wait! There's more!  We also have bonus download tracks from Chicago-area's Chris Ligon and Boston-area's Twink, the Toy Piano Band that come along with the record download you get when you buy the record.  Geez, can it get ANY better?

YES!  It can!  We're throwing a party!  On that most special of holidays, Record Store Day Eve (Friday, April 19, 8pm), join us at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA (3496 Washington St) for our record release party, featuring artists from both "The Petite 7 Inch Record" and "Eponymously Entitled," The Catbirds, Mr Curt and Bird Mancini, The Weisstronauts, and Western Mass favorite Ray Mason (whose track on "The Petite 7 Inch Record," "Liner Notes" is the song that got the idea in Belinda's head that she had to make that record).  Oh, and you get a copy of the record with your $15 admission to the record release party.  The hits just keep on a-comin'!

So, to summarize:

• You can buy the record at love.bubblesinthethinktank.com; we plan to ship in time to get it into your hands by Record Store Day 2013 (Saturday, April 20)
• We're throwing a record release party at The Midway in JP on Record Store Day Eve (Friday, April 19).  Things start around 8pm, the admission is $15, and you get a copy of the record with your admission.

Really ... get this record ... I can't tell you how proud I am to have worked on it.