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The IFTF Blog
Rethinking the Album Release: of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping Collection
Yesterday I chatted with Kevin Barnes, frontman of Athens, Georgia's of Montreal, for the upcoming issue of Chord. The band has something interesting planned for the release of their new album, Skeletal Lamping. Instead of a standard CD in a jewel case, the band and their label, Polyvinyl, have teamed up to offer fans seven different options of collectibles that accompany their purchase of the album.
From Paste magazine:
The different choices are as follows: a CD, 180 gram LP, tote bag, t-shirt, button set, paper lantern and wall decal set. But here's the kicker: each item in the set will come with a download of the album, as well as the unique packaging of the album art. No matter how you choose to get your fix, Of Montreal has you covered.
The album art merits a mention all on its own. The vinyl will come with the 3x4 foot (!!!) fold-out horse poster pictured above. For the CD, it'll be a foldout poster you can mount on the CD trays to form a delightfully morbid floral-and-fang diorama.
Kevin's wife Nina and brother David worked together to produce the collection of artsy merchandise, and all versions come with a digital download of the album. I haven't transcribed the interview yet so I don't have any quotes to post, but Kevin expressed that they really wanted to offer something more valuable to fans than simply an ordinary CD. Certainly, an independent band like of Montreal has more freedom to experiment with merch/art/album combinations than someone held under the thumb of a $17-a-CD major label, but there's a lot to be learned here about the concept of creating a brand around a band and, more specifically, a new album.
My conversation with Kevin came a day or two after the album, due to come out in October, had been leaked to the Internet. Kevin was hardly upset about it, and seemed even a little relieved that it happened now as opposed to a few months ago. Kevin believes that a leaked album generally works to the band's advantage, as long as it isn't leaked too long before the release date. Their 2007 release, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, leaked to the Internet 5 months before its release date, making the actual release "anti-climactic." He's happy that they were able to keep it under wraps until now.
The beauty if this collection is that there's still a reason—seven reasons, to be accurate—for people who grabbed Skeletal Lamping to support the new album buy purchasing something from the collection.