May 27th - 17:00 PDT - Tomorrow's Harvest Listening Party

if it ruins your experience, avoid it. if you can't appreciate that some of us recognize it both as marketing and good fun, then you're the one with the problem. not everybody else. so go hide and protect your precious experience from the harm that marketing does to your fragile brain. the rest of us are having fun.

did something really bad happen in Yermo or just things closed down and folk fecked off?

something really bad?

  On 5/28/2013 at 11:11 PM, RadarJammer said:

  On 5/28/2013 at 10:56 PM, azatoth said:

 

 

I don't really understand why you are getting annoyed by this hype Osc? If you don't care about it, just ignore it, it's really easy and in a couple of weeks the mailman delivers the new album, no frills attached. I don't get what you are trying to achieve by moaning and whining about it constantly in these threads for people who happen to enjoy all this hoopla. No one is forcing you to read the threads or even acknowledge the PR. Is it because you don't know how to be anything else than a miserable cynical cunt?

 

 

when you scrape away all the sentimental precum what you have is mainstream marketing tactics which will forever be a shit stain on the albums experience, at least for people who have trouble disassociating or mentally untangling products with their hype and viral history.

 

WARP marketing doesn't seem evil or anything but you should respect that it may seem to be totally incongruent with the nature of the music to some, and that it irritates people because they have invested so much energy into the music in the past and they got to see a record label canibalize the integrity of a band they know and love

 

What a fucking load of shit - "integrity of the band", fucking LOL. Boards makes music because they love to, and so they have more time to make it, they sell their music so they don't have to waste time with non-music careers. WARP markets and distributes their music to increase sales for both the band and themselves so they can release more music, etc.

It's not as if we've had some crass commercialization of Tomorrow's Harvest/BoC - if anything, it's been fairly low-key, and quite fan-friendly, as evidenced by the FREE* listening party with all the promotional materials (posters, stickers) they gave out.

*I don't recall seeing anything about having to buy tickets, etc. to attend

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:28 AM, zupiclone said:

did something really bad happen in Yermo or just things closed down and folk fecked off?

Lost popularity in the late 1980's and closed.

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:38 AM, Lucy Faringold said:

 

something really bad?

ah so who are you Lucy Lu? you seem dead keen on me

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:01 AM, LOL Alzado said:

if it ruins your experience, avoid it. if you can't appreciate that some of us recognize it both as marketing and good fun, then you're the one with the problem. not everybody else. so go hide and protect your precious experience from the harm that marketing does to your fragile brain. the rest of us are having fun.

it doesn't ruin it, it just cheapens it to some degree. it only seems like a precious experience being harmed because of the personal nature of the music. the more personal something is the more its gonna be mutated by the things surrounding it. all the marketing makes BoC feel less like a band and more like a brand. in the end i'm not gonna punch a hole through a wall and don't feel strongly towards BoC one way or another but I do feel turned off by what WARP is doing here.

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:39 AM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 5/28/2013 at 11:11 PM, RadarJammer said:

 

  On 5/28/2013 at 10:56 PM, azatoth said:

 

I don't really understand why you are getting annoyed by this hype Osc? If you don't care about it, just ignore it, it's really easy and in a couple of weeks the mailman delivers the new album, no frills attached. I don't get what you are trying to achieve by moaning and whining about it constantly in these threads for people who happen to enjoy all this hoopla. No one is forcing you to read the threads or even acknowledge the PR. Is it because you don't know how to be anything else than a miserable cynical cunt?

 

when you scrape away all the sentimental precum what you have is mainstream marketing tactics which will forever be a shit stain on the albums experience, at least for people who have trouble disassociating or mentally untangling products with their hype and viral history.

 

WARP marketing doesn't seem evil or anything but you should respect that it may seem to be totally incongruent with the nature of the music to some, and that it irritates people because they have invested so much energy into the music in the past and they got to see a record label canibalize the integrity of a band they know and love

 

What a fucking load of shit - "integrity of the band", fucking LOL. Boards makes music because they love to, and so they have more time to make it, they sell their music so they don't have to waste time with non-music careers. WARP markets and distributes their music to increase sales for both the band and themselves so they can release more music, etc.

 

It's not as if we've had some crass commercialization of Tomorrow's Harvest/BoC - if anything, it's been fairly low-key, and quite fan-friendly, as evidenced by the FREE* listening party with all the promotional materials (posters, stickers) they gave out.

 

*I don't recall seeing anything about having to buy tickets, etc. to attend

 

not crass commercialization just half baked treasure hunt mind game more suited for a cereal box prize. if WARP did that to an autechre release it would feel like they undid 2 decades of silent cultivation of dignity

I'm ready for this. Now.

In case you have not seen them already from my postings at Twoism, here are the links to the video and photos I shot out there yesterday.

Reach For The Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BIv8Kd2kMo

Photo Slideshow

Just to throw in my 2 cents on the marketing thing. The guy from Warp I spoke with pretty much confirmed what I suspected that BOC had never been to the places in the RFTD video. The creative people found the locations and the brothers liked what they saw in the images and signed off on it. BOC make music. Record companies make marketing campaigns and sell the records and that's fine with me.

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:28 AM, zupiclone said:

did something really bad happen in Yermo or just things closed down and folk fecked off?

i think i read that once air travel became ubiquitous and affordable, small towns that served essentially one purpose--providing fuel for travelers' cars-died.

as far as being annoyed by the pr stuff, here is my take...

pr is to drum up publicity and get people excited to buy the album. in the old days, way back when, this served a purpose to gather momentum so that on release day, people would line up and hand over money because that was the only way to get the album.

after the whole numbers code craze (which was very unique) they got everyone's credit card purchase. so now instead of having the record, we are forced to sit through teases and more hype, when we all get it! it's boc, w've waited 8 years and we already gave you our money, just give me my download already, I don't want to hear a song on someone's phone recorded on a Tokyo street on a Wednesday afternoon and I don't want to hear anything from a cell phone transmission in a wind tunnel. to me, you are muddling what is ultimately going to be an experience ive waited eight years for, and paid you for 7 weeks ago. stop flaunting it in my face.

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:27 AM, pattern recognition said:

 

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:28 AM, zupiclone said:

did something really bad happen in Yermo or just things closed down and folk fecked off?

i think i read that once air travel became ubiquitous and affordable, small towns that served essentially one purpose--providing fuel for travelers' cars-died.

 

Even back when this place first opened, it was so far away that hardly anyone I knew went there. It's very expensive to run a place like that and keep all the plants in the landscaping watered out in that heat. There were multiple incarnations of it. The first I remember from the late 70s/early 80s was over the lake which was just a basin where water settled. They had these crazy tall chute slides. Some people would stand up in them. You could really eat it if you fell. They also had high swings that you could launch from. The more traditional waterpark which you see in the ruins today came later in the 80s as Oasis and then Rock A Hoola. I think it was closed in the late 90s. I passed this place so many times over the years, wanting to check it out and finally got the chance to AND in combination with hearing the new Boards album. I have a feeling they will be getting more visitors wanting to explore it. There looked like there was a docent who lives on site in a trailer with a pit bull. Not the trailer near the speakers. I imagine they chase people out of there on occasion, but there were some local artists painting throwups inside some of the buildings. The smell of the paint fumes was overpowering when I first got there around 3. The Warp guy said the owners wanted everyone out by around 8 p.m. It could very dangerous to walk around in there after dark on a moonless night.

i'm usually pretty put off by marketing shit, especially the viral 'leaked' kind of fake stuff. Like how Red Bull Music Academy drives a stupid ass truck through SF made to look like a riot vehicle with giant subs being projected off of it for new shit like Clams Casino. It drives me mad because of how asinine it is. However I think what Warp and BOC managed to pull off is fucking excellent marketing.
There weren't any shitty brand tie-ins, it seemed very mysterious and the whole thing was extremely well executed and fairly simple.

I commend Warp for not falling prey to the all too common American corporatism that's infected 'indie' electronic music out here. There are so many goddam dumb corporate tieins to these type of events in San Francisco it makes me sick to my stomach.

If this was Ed Banger or Triangle records you damn well better believe there would have been a Scion rep and a Red Bull Music Academy cunt waiting there like vultures passing out 'free' shit

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:56 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i'm usually pretty put off by marketing shit, especially the viral 'leaked' kind of fake stuff. Like how Red Bull Music Academy drives a stupid ass truck through SF made to look like a riot vehicle with giant subs being projected off of it for new shit like Clams Casino. It drives me mad because of how asinine it is. However I think what Warp and BOC managed to pull off is fucking excellent marketing.

There weren't any shitty brand tie-ins, it seemed very mysterious and the whole thing was extremely well executed and fairly simple.

Yeah I've enjoyed all but one day's worth of this marketing campaign.

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:03 AM, RadarJammer said:

 

not crass commercialization just half baked treasure hunt mind game more suited for a cereal box prize. if WARP did that to an autechre release it would feel like they undid 2 decades of silent cultivation of dignity

 

no it wouldn't. If Autechre did that for a new album I'd totally flip out and like the fan boy that I am go drive hundreds of miles to go check it out. Autechre are not stone giants who don't interact with fans. There was no 'silent dignity' when Sean Booth would be caustic and mess with fans in newsgroups back in the 90s.

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:27 AM, pattern recognition said:

 

  On 5/29/2013 at 12:28 AM, zupiclone said:

did something really bad happen in Yermo or just things closed down and folk fecked off?

i think i read that once air travel became ubiquitous and affordable, small towns that served essentially one purpose--providing fuel for travelers' cars-died.

 

ah ok i thought there was a radiation leak, looks the part though...well almost.

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:41 AM, jules said:

as far as being annoyed by the pr stuff, here is my take...

 

pr is to drum up publicity and get people excited to buy the album. in the old days, way back when, this served a purpose to gather momentum so that on release day, people would line up and hand over money because that was the only way to get the album.

 

after the whole numbers code craze (which was very unique) they got everyone's credit card purchase. so now instead of having the record, we are forced to sit through teases and more hype, when we all get it! it's boc, w've waited 8 years and we already gave you our money, just give me my download already, I don't want to hear a song on someone's phone recorded on a Tokyo street on a Wednesday afternoon and I don't want to hear anything from a cell phone transmission in a wind tunnel. to me, you are muddling what is ultimately going to be an experience ive waited eight years for, and paid you for 7 weeks ago. stop flaunting it in my face.

i would have to agree there

  On 5/28/2013 at 5:42 PM, sunshine recorder said:

 

  On 5/28/2013 at 5:22 PM, SPD² said:

 

  On 5/28/2013 at 1:23 PM, sunshine recorder said:

the moment that done it for me was when the drone/bass of gemini kicked in and the guy at the front in the hat and glasses sitting down with his female friend just shook his head and smiled,speechless,knowing what was about to happen

 

That was probably me.

 

have you come back down yet!

 

It was kind of a down that I had to go back to work this morning but I'm still in a bit of a glow from it. Unique experience to have been a part of for sure.

  On 5/29/2013 at 1:56 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i'm usually pretty put off by marketing shit, especially the viral 'leaked' kind of fake stuff. Like how Red Bull Music Academy drives a stupid ass truck through SF made to look like a riot vehicle with giant subs being projected off of it for new shit like Clams Casino. It drives me mad because of how asinine it is. However I think what Warp and BOC managed to pull off is fucking excellent marketing.

There weren't any shitty brand tie-ins, it seemed very mysterious and the whole thing was extremely well executed and fairly simple.

 

I commend Warp for not falling prey to the all too common American corporatism that's infected 'indie' electronic music out here. There are so many goddam dumb corporate tieins to these type of events in San Francisco it makes me sick to my stomach.

 

If this was Ed Banger or Triangle records you damn well better believe there would have been a Scion rep and a Red Bull Music Academy cunt waiting there like vultures passing out 'free' shit

qft

It's always good to step back and take a deep breath, I think those most getting bent out of shape are those who were so inflamed by waiting that any marketing would just seem like an infuriating delay and/or cocktease. Can't blame these folks as, I admit, I care less about BoC these days and it's made it easy to just "go with the flow" on this one.

I did like the comment about "If Ae did this, they'd be undermining years of building up quiet dignity" (sorry for the paraphrase). In a way, while I don't mind this marketing, I agree. BoC have always struck me as a bit odd. They seem to enjoy mediated/controlled interactions with their fans, and manipulation (the cult references). I think they do enjoy fucking with their fans, maybe not as much as RDJ, but it would have been easy for them to drop a facebook message or otherwise saying "we're still working on the new album". I mean, didn't even Kevin Shields do that? (on the downside, I guess he raised false hopes a couple of times too, right...). The lack of any clarification about the Redmoon thing left me with a bitter taste that, yeah, they don't really give a shit.

I think their excruciating sense of control extends to their music, which can be both a good and bad thing. Good because it leads to a unique sound and lots of rich detail, but bad because to me at least, in some cases, their recorded output seems a bit stiff, compared to their early "we truly don't give a shit, we're just bursting with new music" Old Tunes through Maxima/MHTRTC" period. In interviews they do seem to care a bit too much what their fans think, they talk about not including their weirder tracks because it would upset the BoC image, etc...It certainly can't be easy with a huge number of fans breathing down your neck about how much your music has changed their lives...but I hope they can learn to "own" this expectation and more-or-less accept it.

So, BoC don't have the "dignity" of Ae (imagining that video of Sean picking his nose here) mainly because they've been so reclusive. Ae's "dignity" is only due to the fact that they work hard, and keep pumping out the great tunes. Ae have built up a great reputation simply through hard work and devotion to craft. With BoC, it's all more touchy-feely, we don't know if they are still dedicated to their craft, or have fallen out of love with making music, and find it to be a frustrating chore...like others, I'm really curious about any new interviews.

Not really sure what my point is here, I'm rambling. Actually I think the marketing has been handled almost perfectly. Although warp set it up, I feel BoC had some hand in the puzzles, and they clearly cared enough to tune into the Lake Dolores event (and send a message). I do wish they were as stubborn, tough, and "we-just-don't-give-a-shit" as Ae, but that's just not how they roll. And until their muse bites them in the ass again, and they find themselves overflowing with music again, that's how it's gonna be from here on out, I suspect. Warp have to mitigate/recoup their losses, after all. It's not that the marketing has been bad, it's that their output has been so delayed and spotty of late that it doesn't justify this level of marketing. Ok, maybe I'm coming around to the other way of seeing things. You know how when the prodigal son returns, first the mom bursts into tears, but then after a moment she scolds him for causing her so much anguish? I'm betting that's how how the fans feel. And this hype build up, as playful as it has been, is sort of like the prodigal son returning with a zoot suit on, lots of bling and sunglasses, and winking "didja miss me?" I can see how that's annoying.

I guess I'm of two minds about it. I don't think the marketing is bad per se, but I do wish they would release albums every couple of years like Ae, and have their fun with the marketing/treasure hunts. That would be a win-win.

BoC casual.

the marketing isn't so bad as much as it all seems pointless when they are just sitting on the album, already paid for and have had our full attention from the jump.

huge marketing campaigns are for products that are generally more hype than they are worth (cough daft punk cough). really good products sell themselves from word of mouth after they are being used. what music fan in 2013 who is on the fence of buying a $10 boc download is going to be swayed by some journalists review before its all over the Internet?

thanks kaini, for that moment of clarity

yea, the hex nut is perfect

I didn't mind any of the marketing and pr of this album, except when I learned there was an event in the desert just 7-8 hours drive from me! I ended up not going since it didn't seem worth the drive. Figured it would have been a listening party, so why bother when I already pre-ordered the album? When watching the Ustream, first impression was 'what a bunch a dicks', lol. Then after thinking about it more, this was me just being pissy and negative for not being there, yet really wanting to be there.

When the music started playing, any negativity I had immediately ended. What a great moment! Everyone there seemed pretty chill and was only there for one reason, to listen to new Boards of Canada music. Without much talking at all when it was playing. Fuck yeah. It was a good crowd after all. So, props to everyone who made it there who had a good time. Next time I'll be there. Really if you think about it the campaign has been pretty low-key, nothing to get one's knickers in a twist about. It has seemed gimmicky at times, but probably more Warp's doing than BoC themselves.