SKiN GRAFT News for You's

B A L L P E E N ( ! ) B U L L E T I N S

updated: April 20th, 2013

UP FOR PRE-ORDERS:

US MAPLE
LP / CD

ATHLETIC
AUTOMATON MOD CD

ARAB ON RADAR
LP / MOD CD

All available for ORDER at

- AND OUT NOW -

LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS
LP / MOD CD / ULTIMATE EDITION

YOWIE
LP / MOD CD / ULTIMATE EDITION

CHROME JACKSON
LP / MOD CD

DOOMSDAY STUDENT
LP / MOD CD

XADDAX
LP / MOD CD

PRE
EP / MOD CD

KOENJIHYAKKEI
LIVE DVD

RUINS ALONE
LP / CD

CAMP SKiN GRAFT
MOD CD

SATANIZED
LP / MOD CD

KOREKYOJINN
MOD CD

All available for ORDER at

IN THE NEWS:

U.S. MAPLE
vv - "Long Hair In Three Stages" LP / CD Pre-Order
vv - Standard LP / CD - and (2) Metal Sleeved Vinyl Editions
ATHLETIC AUTOMATON
vv - "5 Days In Africa: Extended" MOD CD Pre-Order
vv - Includes (2) new Bonus Tracks & Vocals by 6FS' J Ryan
ARAB ON RADAR
vv - "Soak The Saddle" Pre-Order
vv - 12" Colored Vinyl LP / MOD CD / Ultimate Edition
LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS
vv - Eastwardly Tour begins April 24th! Dates Below!
vv - "Cleaning the Filth From..." LP / MOD CD / ULT Ed Out Now
and some more odds and ends...
vv - broken bones, broken stampers, hints about future releases
vv and 25 years of STRANGULATED BEATOFFS

US MAPLE "Long Hair In Three Stages" LP Aluminum Sleeve 2013
Below: Circular Die Cut Variant Expanded View
Hi Everybody -

This is Mark writing. It's time to update the News Desk, and as usual, News Reporter "Jazzy" Joe Romita is nowhere to be found, so I'm stepping up to announce that as of today, we have three new re-issues up for pre-orders, from ATHLETIC AUTOMATON, ARAB ON RADAR and US MAPLE!

But before we get into that nitty-gritty, this just in...

Breaking News Dept:
In the last update it was reported that the anticipated release date for our upcoming titles was May 28th, 2012, but events have conspired against us and we may run a bit late...

I just received word that the original stamper for SIDE B of the vinyl edition of "Long Hair in Three Stages" split on the record press and has been renedered useless. The original mother of the plate is no longer available to us, so we're going to have to do an emergency re-master, re-lacquer and re-plating to get things back up to snuff. The printed jackets are done and fabrication on the metal sleeves has begun, but I wanted to give you fair warning that it looks likely we will miss our target date. But not by much - and rest assured that advance pre-orders will be the first to go out.

And the record stamper isn't the only thing that broke around these parts, I suffered a spine injury during a Harlem Shake video shoot here in Vienna, Austria - and am relatively fresh out of the hospital. It sounds worse than it is, but until this heals, I'm a bit limited in what I can personally do around here. Fortunately, our mail order maestro Dave is strong as an ox and so mailorders will be unaffected, but I may be a bit slow to reply to emails. I'm not supposed to spend much time in front of the computer at the moment.

Here's what happened:
Two weeks ago, I was asked to participate in a Harlem Shake video (everyone in here in Vienna was a little late to that viral party) that was being put together as a surprise birthday gift. The irony is I wasn't even supposed to be in the video. My years of experience coordinating the OOPS (!) iNDOORS Theater Group made me an ideal candidate to direct, so I assembled a bunch of costumes, (including the vintage Karate Chimp Costume pictured below) and readied them for the video.

Unfortunately, on the day of the shoot, there was a last minute conflict and I wasn't able to get out of there early enough to set up or do any directing at all. I arrived to find people had already thrown on the costumes and had begun filming - so I put on a flapper wig, grabbed a few pom-poms and got in the shot.

With the music blaring, cameras rolling and visions of James Brown's Future Shock dancers shimmying around in my head, I picked up a wastepaper basket, dumped it over my noggin', jumped to my knees from a standing position and "SNAP!".

I crawled out of the frame, so the video wouldn't be ruined - but needless to say I now have my own personal Zapruder Film. An ambulance came and whisked me to the hospital. The story was a big hit with the paramedics, nurses and doctors, but after the initial x-rays, the mood turned a little more dour. To make an already long story short, I'm going to be fine and I'm not in too much pain, but all of this has thrown me a bit behind schedule. As "Jazzy" Joe would day "Don't send flowers, just buy records".

Okay - on to the GOOD STUFF:

ITEM!: "Long Hair In Three Stages" is the debut album from Chicago's US Maple. It's ranked #85 on the Alternative Press “90 Greatest Albums of the '90s” list, but c'mon, we all know better...

It's been a long time coming. US MAPLE "Long Hair In Three Stages" will be available again as a COMPACT DISC with all artwork printed using three very specific metallic pantone inks - and on VINYL in three variations: A standard issue VINYL LP and two METAL SLEEVED limited edition LP variants.

US MAPLE Long Hair LP original pressing: 1995

This is actually the first time "Long Hair In Three Stages" will be available with a standard "printed" LP jacket.

The original pressing of 1000 copies from 1995 was packaged entirely in handmade individually polished aluminum sleeves in flat black jackets. You can read a bit about them HERE at the US Maple Band page.

The entire run sold out within the first month of its release, so now that another 210 months or so have passed and it's selling for tidy sums around the world, we can safely assume we won't be getting any returns from distributors - so the think-tank here at SKiN GRAFT has determined that we can safely go back to press.

For the reissue, it was important to offer an affordable LP since prices have been high for so long, but it also seemed like a great opportunity to revisit the sheet metal shop where the original sleeves were fabricated 18 years ago.

Die Cut Edition

Non Die Cut Edition

Collectors, no worries. These will be different and immediately discernable from the the original run. All LPs will include the vinyl only bonus track "Found A Place To Have My Kittens" (remastered for this release) and include a standard "printed" jacket. The metal sleeved editions will also include a metallic pantone printed lyric card tucked away inside. Unlike the original run of sleeves which were crimped and folded on the right side, these will be crimped at the bottom. Each will be hand polished differently -- will have the band name embossed into the metal on the front and will have an individual control number embossed on the back.

No two will be alike.

We are also offering a variant with a circular die cut in the front that allows a hint of the printed jacket to show through. Samples of each edition are pictured here.

These will be made to order and the qty will be determined by the orders we receive. So - if we get 36 orders for die cut aluminum sleeves and 105 for the non-die cut, then we'll see that they get made. The die cut and non-die cut sleeves will be numbered sequentially as individual editions (ie: there will be a #010 die cut and a #010 non die cut sleeve) and the edition number will be hand embossed onto the back metal flap. The final qty of all editions in total made for sale will not exceed 666, so these will be less common than the originals.

The first two US Maple records are among my favorites released by SKiN GRAFT, so it's really exciting for me personally to revisit "Long Hair" and get it back out there. Sang Phat Editor will follow, but I don't have an ETA for that one yet.

Check out sample MP3s of all the upcoming releases at the SKiN GRAFT AUDIO page HERE.

Available for ORDER at

But wait there's more...!

ITEM!: Post-ARAB ON RADAR and pre-DOOMSDAY STUDENT, guitarist Stephen Mattos teamed up with Patrick Crump for ATHLETIC AUTOMATON. The band released two albums on SKiN GRAFT Records “A Journey Through Roman's Empire” and a collaborative LP with Montreal's AIDS Wolf, titled "Clash Of The Life-Force Warriors" but their first album from 2004 eluded SKiN GRAFT - - - til now.

I'm very happy to announce that we're rectifying this glaring omission with a Manufactured on Demand CD re-issue of their long out of print debut album "5 Days In Africa" mastered by Weasel Walter and featuring two never before released bonus tracks. For those late to the game, ATHLETIC AUTOMATON sported headbands, '70s basketball jerseys, uncomfortably snug gym shorts - and came out playing a MINIMALIST sci-fi take on Sabbath/Stooge sludge filtered through no-wave knee socks. Six Finger Satellite's J Ryan provides vocals for three tracks, and we've uploaded a non-J song for you to check out HERE.

The CD can be pre-ordered HERE. And if you're looking for more, we've got just the ticket - the heavy dissonance first laid down by ATHLETIC AUTOMATON lives on through Stephen Mattos' solo “band” CHROME JACKSON, who's debut “Chrome Forest” is also available at the SKiN GRAFT Shop.

ITEM!: ARAB ON RADAR's scintillating SKiN GRAFT debut came with "Soak The Saddle" a unique and unprecedented brand of psycho-neurological terrorism - dished out as entertainment. This recording is legendary and we're taking orders again - so visit the SHOP to grab the MOD CD, the 12" VINYL or go balls out and score the ULTIMATE EDITION which comes correct on colored wax and comes complete with spiffy hand silk-screened sleeves, printed in metallic colored inks by Neil Burke.

And while the band is no more, we may not have heard the last of ARAB ON RADAR. Keep your bookmarks here, because in the coming months we may have news on two previously unreleased studio recordings - alternate versions of AOR diddies recorded during the "Yahweh or the Highway" sessions that have been kept under lock and key all of these years....

Available for ORDER at

ITEM!: Lucky number 2013 marks 25 years of STRANGULATED BEATOFFS. We're kicking off the celebration by announcing that their debut full-length album "Days of Our Lives" will be available sporting a new "title" (NOT a new song) "Good Things Come In Small Packages", for legal downloading on May 28th via itunes or the digital content provider of your choice. Watch this space for more Beatoffs announcements!

We still have a limited number of "Days" CDs in stock and their SKiN GRAFT long-player "Self-titled" aka "Beating Off All Over the World" is available on LP and CD in the SKiN GRAFT Shop. Check out some sample MP3s from each album HERE.

ITEM!: LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS are heading East in support of their new album "Cleaning The Filth From A Delicate Frame", (produced by US MAPLE's Todd Rittmann no less) the tour dates are listed on the poster above and have also been posted HERE. Needles to say you don't want to miss this. If you have yet to hear LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS, it's time to remedy that - we've got a free MP3 up and at 'em at AUDIO PAGE HERE.

And YOWIE's Chris Trull writes: YOWIE is playing as part of Euclid Record's RECORD STORE DAY extravaganza. We play at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 21st. Come out, drink some free beer, bring the kids, say goodbye to the Lockwood location of the increasingly inaccurately named Euclid Records. The address is 601 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Missouri and the FACEBOOK event page is HERE.

And it looks like both YOWIE and XADDAX will be supporting their new albums ("Damning With Faint Praise" and "Counterclockwork" respectively) by joining LOVELY LITTLE GIRLS for a special show this summer in my original hometown of St. Louis, Missouri on June 21st, 2013, so save the date!

More details to come.

Thanks Everybody -

-Mark

MORE NEW NEWS:

updated: March 26th, 2013

C O M I N G - S O O N :

SKiN GRAFT GOLD REISSUE SERIES
W A V E - O N E:

US MAPLE
LP / CD

ATHLETIC
AUTOMATON MOD CD

ARAB ON RADAR
LP / MOD CD

Releasing: MAY 28th, 2013
(or thereabouts - see the
April 15th New Desk update)

MORE DETAILS SOON!
... and steady yourselves, it's the

Lovely Little Girls Eastwardly Tour!

4.24.2013: Pittsburgh @ Howlers
w/ Bloated Sluts, Night Vapor
4.25.2013: Brooklyn @ Death By Audio
w/ Child Abuse, Cellular Chaos
4.26.2013: Philadelphia @ Highwire Gallery
w/ George Korein & The Spleen, Lion's Head
4.27.2013: Providence @ As220
w/ Tinsel Teeth and Unicorn Hard-On
4.28.2013: New York @ Cake Shop
w/ Infantephant, bbigpigg

Click HERE for MORE new NEWS ( ! )


US MAPLE LP / CD	ATHLETIC AUTOMATON MOD CD	ARAB ON RADAR LP / MOD CD