I don’t know anything about roll out and marketing plans, but you would think you’d hold off on releasing Car Song until you’re a few months from release, given the momentum you’d want leading up to release. Releasing it a whole year ahead of the record seems wild to me. Hoping he can finish and release in early fall.
There’s a Ben Lee song joke to make probably in this thread that only this thread would get with that user name! NFG just did the same thing. I’m guessing that it’s because there’s good tours and playlists that still are worth getting on before the album comes out. I think at this point in both bands careers the album sales are gonna be negligible. It’s about keeping name recognition up for some tours and festivals and selling some 7” records and stuff like that.
You can release singles for different reasons: to promote an album or to promote the band. I think in this case, it's to get people talking about The Ataris again, remember that they exist, are active, and from that will get more followers for a more successful album release.
totally agree with both of these sentiments, and I know I’m not a reflection of the average listener, but Car Song is SO GOOD and got me hyped for a new record! I was definitely hoping a new one this summer after hearing Car Song.
It's working too. Seeing people post it that don't do a great job keeping up with new releases saying it's giving them "all the old feels"
All of this has made me just ... happy. To see Kris happy, to see music being released, a label behind them, PR company, recording, press!, it's been like a smaller scale version of the Blink stuff but with the same feeling of "joy" that that reunion brought me. Need more.
I don't recall a time before where Kris seemed this genuinely happy, hoping this wave of positivity continues for him.
Kris just finished a livestream from the studio. He confirmed he has 14 songs for the album, including an old Ataris song from the mid 90s that never got properly recorded. 4 of the songs still need to be finished.
"A rock and roll album, people that have heard the album say it sounds a little like a grown up So Long Astoria, and then a couple songs to end the album that sound like nothing we've done before." God damnnn.