Wizard Rock EP Club: Newsletter #2

Hey guys,

Paul DeGeorge (aka Harry Year 7) here to introduce you to Volume 2 of our awesome EP Club Newsletter. I thought I would use this opportunity to give you a little insight on what's involved in running the EP Club. Today, we're talking about packaging!!!!

If you've already joined the EP Club, then you've seen the first three releases from 2008 and you know how awesome they look, sound, and feel. This year, in honor of the Whomping Willow's participation, we've printed the jackets on 100% PCW recycled cardboard stock. The incredible design work you've seen on the sleeves was done by my dear friend and one of my favorite artists, Marty Allen. Marty plays in the band Uncle Monsterface and also produces and sells sock puppet portraits. Marty collects all the artwork from each band, as well as tracklists and liner information, and then seamlessly integrates them into the overall design aesthetic that he's crafted for this year's CD covers and discfaces. When that's done, we send them off to Bellwether Manufacturing, our CD manufacturer. They make sure everything is cool, send us some PDF proofs and then we tell them that everything is cool and they make the CDs.

We had a little hiccup in the process of manufacturing the 4th, 5th and 6th CDs. When we got the quotes back from Bellwether, we discovered that their CD jacket printer (a separate, contracted company from Canada) had raised their prices for printing on the cardboard sleeves. And this wasn't just a slight increase, they more than doubled the prices. This really freaked me out because at the new price level, it was going to cost us $6000 more than we anticipated to continue printing on these awesome cardboard sleeves.

Fortunately, the folks at Bellwether Manufacturing were super helpful. I've been working with them for 6 or 7 years now and they are great people who take a lot of pride in what they do and really care about making sure every project comes out right. The EP Club is a something they are really excited about, and so when the price increase came in, they were just as concerned as we were. They really went to bat for us with their jacket printer and were able to lock-in a much smaller price increase which will enable us to continue to print on the cardboard sleeves for the duration of the project. Their efforts saved us nearly $5000, so I'd like to use this opportunity to thank Michael McPeek and Kristin Londergan, of Bellwether Manufacturing. They are truly some of the unsung heros of this project.

In the next edition, I'll give you an update on the new Harry and the Potters EP. Joe and I recorded it a couple weeks ago in the basement and we're really pumped about it. We can't wait to share more with you.


From The Basilisk In Your Pasta:

So far it has been really great to build this project together, because as a gigantic band we all have ideas for songs and it's fun to experience different styles. As this EP will be our first release, we have decided not to go for a specific theme or genre, we are just going to record any song that is ready. The EP will then be a kind of compilation of all the member's songs- because there are some that we wrote all together, and others that were invented by only 2 or 3 members of the band. For example, Nelly wrote "Bad Guy" on her own, and then Glutte added some chords to it. Also, we include a lot of our friends into the band, whether it's for writing lyrics, playing guitar or singing- because the whole thing about our band is to share the fun with as many people as possible. Lately, we haven't been able to see each other a lot to rehearse, but hopefully when everyone is on vacation we will write some more kickass songs! That's it for the update, we'll keep you posted :) Oh and Lou just called me to say that we received the EPs, I can't wait to listen to them!


From The Nifflers:

Update time baby boo!

Our recording from the EP of the month club has gone so well over these past few months. Our tracks our better than we could have ever hoped for and we think you'll think the same when you hear the EP. If you haven't noticed yet our page has a brand spanking new version of the smash hit song "Sweater For Christmas."It was just uploaded last week-ish. I'm in love with this new version, it's too sweet. The new electric parts, Christian from Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls put in, is sooooooo good. So if you have the time please feel free to check it out along with our other new songs if you have not heard them yet. There is still one more song coming that is being brought back from the grave of Nifflers songs, and it is going to kick mega butt. I'm not just blowing smoke either. That song is in the works and should hopefully be finished by the end of the month.

Both the Nifflers want to thank our amazing buddy Christian, from Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, for helping us record and mix our songs. Without him we wouldn't be able to give the subscribers the best. You can check him out at www.myspace.com/oliverboydandtheremembralls.


Finally, here's an awesome video of Matt and Justin packaging CD mailings! Woo!



www.wizardrockclub.com