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Happy New Year! Pre-orders are up for the North American 2xLP version of Utopioid. Colorways for this version are intimately tied in with the album's concept: 1. "Lifecycle" wheel colors (red/yellow, black/white) 2. "Pharma" trans blue 3. Black
We're happy to be partnering with our friend's brand new label, Hidden Deity Records, with Utopioid as their first release. These are already in the final stages of manufacturing and will ship very soon.
UTOPIOID
Utopioid is out. Go get it (pay what you wish).
Explainer:
Utopioid is our sixth full-length album and 12th release overall since our formation in 2003. It’s also our third full-length released independently as a pay-what-you-wish download through Bandcamp. By popular request, people who purchase the album will get an additional set of artwork and a lyric sheet as bonus downloads.
What we want you to know about it: This album represents the culmination of a shift in our working methods. Rather than each member having a defined creative role and ‘territory’ (as in the past), all members contributed to the album concept, instrumentation, vocals, lyrics, and production. Utopioid is the most democratic piece of work we’ve ever created, and we believe that its bedrock reliance on collaboration has also made it the strongest. Moreover, it has the deepest and most fully-realized concept of any of our releases, with every dimension of its composition and production serving narrative ends. All of the lyrics are first-person and in-character, though sometimes multiple perspectives are presented in multiple voices. There are four parts—like a symphony, or seasons, or cardinal directions. Each of the four parts intentionally sounds radically different from the other three. Find the best playback system you have access to, and turn it up loud.
Another thing: because we believe so strongly in this album, we’re making every effort to dramatically increase our touring after releasing it. Many of you have been waiting a very long time for us to come and play your state/country/region. We are doing the best we can to cover more physical ground in this album cycle than any before.
Some questions you might have:
Why digital-only? Where are the physical editions or pre-orders?
We self-finance and self-fund every aspect of the band. Digital sales pay the band’s bills, and everything we put out is first and primarily a digital self-release. We are wholly dependent on our fans to continue as a band, and every release is a test of our fundamental trust in our relationship with you, the listener. When physical copies happen, they happen later on, once we’ve been able to recoup our production expenses (which are quite high for a band of our size and profile). We have partnerships with small labels that help us by licensing our music to release on physical media, and it takes time to create and manufacture that additional packaging. But no matter how they’re released, physical media do not generate anywhere near the revenue of digital music, so we have to be judicious about how much time and money we put into them. Most of all, it’s important to us to get music out as soon as it’s ready, with no artificial wait before fans hear it. Physical media simply take longer.
If you guys are starving and broke and totally dependent on digital sales, why is the album pay-what-you-wish?
There are both moral and practical sides to this. On one hand, not everyone has the same resources or means. It might help to think of our digital pricing as “pay what you are able.” We would never want pricing to impede someone from hearing and enjoying our music. On the other hand, we also recognize that despite the enormous investment of time and money that recorded music requires, it is presently devalued in the market because of the ease with which it is copied and shared. That’s just a fancy way of saying that small, independent bands like us get hit hard by ‘piracy’ even more than big-name artists. You can’t charge people what something is worth, you have to charge what people are willing to pay. We are just as opposed to large corporations’ usurious pricing and burdensome DRM as anyone, but even though our music is legitimately obtainable for no money at all, people still take it and post it in other places where we receive no credit or compensation of any kind (please don’t do this!).
I don’t like the production/mixing/mastering/art/vocals/drum sound/clean singing/screaming...[etc].
That’s ok. We can’t please everyone and we don’t try to. But please don’t assume that anything we do is haphazard or accidental—this album, even more than the ones before, is the result of a deliberative decision-making process that deeply involved every member of the band at every stage. We made every creative decision to highlight something that was important to us, and to serve the underlying concept or ‘thesis’ of the album. As you listen, if something confronts you, we hope you ask why we might have made that choice, rather than dismissing it out of hand. And we hope you can enjoy the music anyway.
Update: Utopioid physical media, streaming platforms
Ahead of our US tour starting next week, we have two announcements today.
FIRST: physical media for Utopioid are here! CDs and cassettes, featuring artwork from Jordan Butcher/Studio Workhorse, are in now and we will have these for sale on tour. After the tour is finished, you’ll be able to order them from us online.
For vinyl fans, we’re happy to announce that a longtime friend (and practice studio roommate) of the band is starting a new boutique label, and its first release will be the North American 2xLP release of Utopioid. Packaging on this will be ridiculous, with three different vinyl colorways. We do not have a firm release date (so please try not to blow up our inbox asking) but the plan is to have it out near the end of 2017.
SECOND: all of our independent releases (since 2013) are now debuting on streaming platforms like Spotify, Google Play Music, etc. We have mixed feelings about this, but the decision stems from a recognition that the way people listen to and hear about new music has changed. When we first went independent in 2013, the landscape was very different – subscription streaming was in its infancy. Four years later, it has become common for people to say to us, “Oh, I didn’t know you had released anything recently.” We’re conflicted about streaming services because of the systemic problems with the way that artists (ESPECIALLY small, independent, or unsigned artists) are poorly compensated for their work.
That said, the MOST important thing is that people have access to our music. That’s the logic behind our pay-what-you-can pricing model. So here’s what we’ve come up with: all future releases are still going to premiere on Bandcamp. Later, at roughly the same time as physical media become available, major releases will debut on streaming platforms.
As a way of thanking those who continue to support us through Bandcamp, we’re making high-resolution 24-bit formats of all new releases available exclusively on Bandcamp (streaming platform versions will remain 16-bit). To start with, the Bandcamp download version of Utopioid has been upgraded to a 24-bit, 96kHz master with some extra dynamic range. If you’ve already purchased it, just head over to your collection on Bandcamp and re-download the album in either FLAC or WAV format. Though compressed formats like MP3 will remain 16-bit/44.1kHz, you’ll still get the enhanced dynamics. We hope you enjoy it!
tl;dr - Utopioid CDs/cassettes available on tour in October, online in November, North American 2xLP out end of year - Our music is coming to subscription streaming services - Bandcamp downloads of Utopioid and all future releases are going to be high-resolution & high dynamic-range
Matt spoke to the Creative Process Podcast about the Utopioid writing cycle and the ways that Rosetta has grown and developed both as a band and as people. It's a fairly in-depth conversation. Enjoy!
#Utopioid cruised to the top of Bandcamp yesterday. We are endlessly grateful to our listeners for your support and generosity. As an independent band, we are wholly reliant on fans to keep going. You never disappoint us. Thank you!
Stream a new song from Philadelphia's Rosetta before their sixth album drops tomorrow!
“Détente” from Utopioid is streaming right now over on Decibel Magazine. Check it out.
Tour is less than a week away!
FALL 2017 TOUR DATES (All dates w/ North)
10/05/2017 - Scottsdale AZ - Rogue 10/06/2017 - San Diego CA - Soda Bar 10/07/2017 - Los Angeles CA - Five Star 10/08/2017 - Merced CA - Laguna House 10/09/2017 - San Francisco CA - Brick and Mortar 10/10/2017 - Sacramento CA - Blue Lamp 10/11/2017 - Portland OR - Ash St Saloon 10/12/2017 - Seattle WA - Studio Seven 10/13/2017 - Vancouver BC - Pub 340 10/16/2017 - Edmonton AB - Brixx 10/17/2017 - Calgary AB - The Palomino 10/18/2017 - Saskatoon SK - Amigos 10/19/2017 - Regina SK - Cloud 9 10/20/2017 - Bozeman MT - Zebra Cocktail Lounge 10/21/2017 - Boise ID - Shredder 10/22/2017 - Salt Lake City UT - Metro Music Hall 10/23/2017 - Denver CO - Globe Hall 10/24/2017 - Lawrence KS - Replay Lounge (tickets @ door) 10/25/2017 - Ft Worth TX - Lolas 10/26/2017 - Austin TX - Lost Well (tickets @ door) 10/27/2017 - Houston TX - Green Room 10/28/2017 - El Paso TX - Lowbrow Palace 10/29/2017 - Albuquerque NM - Sister 10/30/2017 - Tucson AZ - Flycatcher
The cover for Utopioid was made by Jordan Butcher, a longtime friend and also the mind behind the art direction for 2013′s The Anaesthete. We were incredibly pleased to have him back to work on Utopioid, both because of his immense talent and because we felt that his skills were a unique match for the multipolar moods spanning this four-part song cycle. Just as we hope you’ll spend a lot of time listening to Utopioid, we hope you’ll spend a lot of time looking at it as well -- there’s a lot in there.
Utopioid will be out September 1st, pay-what-you-wish on our Bandcamp.
Tracklist: 1. Amnion 2. Intrapartum 3. Neophyte Visionary 4. King Ivory Tower 5. 54543 6. Détente 7. Hypnagogic 8. Qohelet 9. Intramortem
