So only some of the Battery Park LP's are proper record sleeves, and the rest have just been printed and folded over? Strange that they'd do that.

I think people here just have different interpretations of which sleeves we're talking about.

1. the LP comes in a paper inner sleeve.

2. the actual "cover sleeve" is a fold paper, fold over the inner sleeve.

3. the fold paper "cover sleeve" then comes in your normal clear plastic outer sleeve.


Or maybe I'm wrong and some people really have a proper cardboard cover sleeve.

yeah i was thinking about that too and trying to crack the code.... maybe it is meaningless?

A reference to the Doomsday clock?

Although the Doomsday clock is always 11:53.


I don't know.

Man I hope my copy gets here tomorrow.

I just got in touch with the record store where I've been doing the majority of my (offline) business for more than 20 years: Fred's Records in St. John's, Newfoundland--the record store in the Atlantic Canadian region of 4 provinces; it's been in business about 40 years. Here's what they had to say about the Eternal/'Live Battery pre-order deal:

"The method that they wanted us to use to get the LPs to the
customer was convoluted and required us to order more product
than we can realistically sell. That borne in mind, the guy who
does the orders decided not to opt into the buy early, get stuff
program. It's a shame really. That being said, The Eternal is their
best work to date, IMHO."

Well, there you have it: Sonic Youth have ascended to musical Nirvana, the folks at Matador feed children to Moloch. Someone please write a sycophantic letter of apology to David Geffen, or otherwise let the bootlegging begin.

John 11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

Do you believe in rapture, babe.

I think it's got something to do with dragons fighting lions.


That's what I hope anyway.

11:40
Sonic Youth vibrations turned back the dooms day clock, so that we all have more time!

Man, checked my porch. UPS didn't show up early today. I've got a bad feeling about today. Like it's still not going to show up.

Hey sorry about that, either Beggars Canada did not run the BEGN program like we had intended or maybe the store misunderstood how it was supposed to work. We don't always have as much control over those sort of things as we would like, but I will definitely bring this up and figure out if they had run the promotion like we did here in the US. So, once again, sorry that your store and ultimately you felt that this promotion was not worthwhile and hopefully in the future we can work things a bit smoother.

Maybe it's because really good, lengthy gigs always end at 11:40pm.

i think it was explained quite clearly.i was kind of unhappy about the price when i signed up...until i got the records..i think the packaging on the LP's
is GREAT !......i do wish the bonus LP was in a nicer sleeve but compared to the Pavement BEGN LP and record store day release...the sleeve is awesome.
Hostess records sucks in my opinion...and anyone who knows me will agree with this statement "MATADOR RULES"

ah yes my package has arrived, waiting after work, such niceties

Mine's scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Alas! I'll get to listen to Live at Battery Park tomorrow!

I finally got mine (6-10) in the mail one day after advertised 'universal release' and think the cd is great ! My cd didn't quite fit in the "sleeve" it was inserted in, inside the outer cover. More of an observation than a complaint, I'm happy.

i bought the vinyl today. side 4 totally fucking rules.

Went to the local record store earlier and they had early copies of it. Score!

~Jeremy~

apparently nobody in Detroit did the pre-order thing because the record store gave me their promotional poster as well as the advertised swag.

So I think I scored bigtime.

Managed to pick up the live LP today, but my local indie store still hasn't received their allocation of the album proper. Ho hum.

Least the Battery Park disc is in a proper solid sleeve rather than a foldover whatsit like others have mentioned :) Looking at the earlier replies, I'm guessing the difference is a US / UK (or Europe?) thing - the rear sleeve of mine has Matador's London address.

Got mine yesterday :D

Got mine since a couple of day and I'm so so so disapointed. I was'nt a great fan of "Rather Ripped" but I think the eternal is far way weaker. But I got to listen it more to make up my mind... maybe it will rise my apreciation.

picked it up from my Vinal Edge yesterday after coming back from road trip.
Have listened to it twice, and battery park 1nce.
think it is very good. wanna listen to it more and more and more but battery park is fucking amazing amazing amazing.


SONIC LIFE!

Finally bought the real deal today!

I love that "What We Know" is a Lee song, but it's a total rocker that isn't a song about rainbows and what's on the other side (or ufos, endless highways, tripping, or surfing on the astral plane...)

fuckin finally got it. im impressed with the eternal LP, the vinyl sounds great and the packaging is solid, the whole thing is high quality (and VERY heavy!).

battery park is ok, i felt they left out alot of good songs from that set and included some random shit (jams run free? really?!) and i dont really like the fact that theres no sleeve, its just a piece of paper folded over but w/e i'll live.

the poster is random and i dont really care for it. i got a nice big poster of the beautiful album cover from a record shop for free, so i'm more happy about that to be honest.

still dissapointed about the ridiculous wait and the fact that i never got the "second email" for a code to the secret store and i think that promo is already over. so in conclusion, hooray for SY, and an awful first impression of matador

Got it yesterday morning, 2xlp so heaavvyy and the 1 live lp in a solid sleeve, 1 sticker and 1 poster.

I'm so glad the cd version "mimicks" the package of the lp.
I LOVE this thing.

got mine today. happy!
ordered from the store on this site a week ago.
unfortunately, Matador won't deal with Ukraine, so, no pre-order for me.

Still fucking waiting.

None of what you say subtracts from my view that there is something innately unethical about this type of pre-order deal—whether one is talking about Sonic Youth's output on Matador or that of any other recording artist on any other label.


If we were talking about a pre-order bonus of, say, a 7'' single featuring an outtake from Rather Ripped on the a-side and a 1985 recording of Thurston telling drunken jokes and farting backstage on the flip, then that would be one thing; but in this case we're talking about a full-length official release on 12'' wax—the band's only official full-length 'live album to boot.


I would be interested to know how many Sonic Youth fans out there who have no internet access had no idea the band was releasing an album in the first place—you would be amazed at the number of SY fans (and music fans in general) between the ages of 35 and 47 who have no interest in the internet to begin with. I just heard a statistic on the news last night that at least one third of Britons have no at-home internet access. That should tell the marketing folk something. Before I got a PC a few years ago, I relied on Letterman appearances, SLR mail-outs, and the occasional word of mouth for knowledge of new Sonic Youth releases. At least one of their major releases took me completely by surprise: I didn't know there was a NYC Ghosts and Flowers in the works until I saw the CD in a record store in early summer, 2000.


I'm not saying we can go back to the days when every little pharmacy or hardware store in Nowheresville, Canada or U.S.A. had an LP bin and an 8-track rack next to the ice cream refrigerator or plastic-wrap dispenser (although the '70s were a great time, weren't they?); however, it seems to me that record companies and (in some cases) the acts themselves are driving a greater and greater distance between their products and the record-buying public. Inaccessibility is increasingly the order of the day. The whole process of purchasing an album can now involve going through so many near-impossible ‘filters’ or ‘channels’. Think about it: Find a record store→doesn't carry the new album→Walmart only→Starbucks only→pre-order with surprise bonuses→Find it online→PayPal only→“don't own a credit card”→limited to 500 copies→etc., etc. Bearing all this in mind, any sensible person can only conclude that the whole illegal downloading/file sharing/CD-r burning phenomenon of recent years is no longer the problem (if it ever truly was), it's quite often the only solution.


One thing's for certain from my perspective: I won't be picking up the vinyl edition of The Eternal unless the Battery Park LP comes with it—and I won't be paying some bloated price for it courtesy of eBay, either; I'll settle for a cheap disc (there are already a few secondhand copies turning up on eBay, I notice).



If Matador has any sense of fair play—and any real business sense, for that matter—it will do the right thing, and give this 'live LP a proper and wider re-release. It's a full-length 'live SY album, for Chrissakes—Who doesn't want a copy of that?

o that happened to me also; although i remember i would stalk my local record store pre ATL to get and advanace promo tape and poster and shit so i was pretty uptodate in terms of gettting info about SY pre-internet era. Weird.

It's about time!
Matador included some samplers, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a "we're sorry it took so long" type of thing or what.

Anyhow, WHOOO! HOOOO!

I COMPLETELY agree with that!

Mine came with exactly the same samplers.

I like that cover photo of Battery Park.

Got The Eternal CD recently
 

I drove to Hamilton,ON to pickup the disc from Dr.Disc right next to Sonic Unyon's Headquarters. The Unyon camp didn't seem too thrilled about the release but they may have changed their minds by now as I was quite excited to be picking up the disc since I've sadly downloaded the last 2 major alumns but bought Thurston's 'Trees Outside....'. I also bought a couple tickets to the Massey Hall show in Toronto. Sweet.

I must admit the one figure in the artwork looks like Conan Obrien. I'm thinking it's a marketing ploy as Conan recently switched to The Tonight Show even though they're playing Jimmy Fallon anyway(Mon.June22). Maybe Sonic Youth are upset Conan left New York. Who cares? I do.
Long live Sonic Youth! I figure another 15 years with the energy they have.

STILL fucking waiting. "Buy Early, Get maybe 3 weeks after they're in stores if you're lucky". Thanks a bunch, Matador.

"buy early get late", dontchaknow?
I'm in France and got it on the 5th of June!!!
I don't know what is wrong with yr order.

wow. Just got the album and it's great. I can't believe how they can keep coming up with such awesome songs after so many years. So far I'm digging the paired vocals. I say it's about time they did that. They haven't done that since what.. I dreamed I dream??? Awesome

"the eternal" costs only 2,99 euros on www.fnacmusic.com !!

in mp3 format :eek::eek:?!?