#wire empire

[musicalroots]

[mr-maps-blog]

Here it is. Wire Empire on white vinyl and an accompanying CD of remixes. The first batch have already been shipped to our pozible supporters, so if you are one of the many wonderful friends who pledged to help make this happen, your goodies are on the way. Thank you! For everyone else, the rest of the super limited run is available to order via the Mr. Maps Bandcamp page. Don't miss out! In other news, in the obligatory flourish of end of year lists and rankings, Wire Empire has wound up at #40 on the Mess and Noise critics' poll, Tennis Party has ranked #24 on 4zzz's hot 100 tracks of the year, and various other Mr. Maps bits are scattered through the various staff lists of Rave & Time Off Magazine. So a big thank you is owed to those journos and critics who've had our back over the years! Regardless of your belief of the importance of December 25th, we hope you had a mighty fine day, and may this mark the beginning of an exceptionally good year.

[mr-maps-blog]

Help Us Get Wire Empire onto Vinyl!

Hi Friends,

So you may have heard about Wire Empire by now, the album we finished earlier this year. Well, due to popular demand, we've decided to press it to vinyl. It'll be a true collector's item, only 300 copies and on white vinyl. It will come with a bonus disc of unreleased Wire Empire remixes featuring Underlapper, Subsea, Oh Ye Denver Birds, Collarbones, Tara Simmons, Hunz, Restream, and more, as well as a high quality mp3 download of the album. The thing is, we need your help to make it happen! We're using Pozible - a site that helps artists source funding directly from fans - to raise the required dosh to get this thing pressed.

If you think it sounds like a good idea, head to our Pozible profile, where you can pledge money. You can pledge as little as $1, and you can get rewards depending on how much you're willing to donate. A $20 donation works as a pre-order for the record.

[mr-maps-blog]

Thanks, friends.

The launch show on Saturday night was a giant success. We totally sold out, and the crowd was so lovely and enthusiastic and fun. We couldn't have expected it all to go so well.  I garbled a brief thank you on stage to everyone that had helped, but I can't help but feel that didn't reflect the appreciation we owe to all the dedicated people who made it all happen.

Firstly a massive thanks should go to Skinny Jean, Doom Doom, and Grids/Units/Planes, who put up with the postponement and messing around, and delivered absolute quality performances on the night. We were honoured to have such talent to share a stage with. An equally huge thanks to Joss and Phil for their massive effort on making the bands sound amazing - a killer combo of two of the most sonically-obsessed Brisbanites I know. Joss was moving things around, testing, checking and EQing from late morning on Saturday, and Joss & Phil's tag team effort over the course of the night was unrelenting. Phil also generously lent his Volvo to the cause, without which nothing much would have been possible.

Anyone who rocked up may have noticed the art on the walls, the lanterns, projections, and the generally immersive ambience. This was the work of talented artist/curator Kate Palella, who with worked tirelessly to transform the Alley into a haven of coolness. Thanks also to the artists Peter Alwast and Alexandra Winters for allowing us to display their work, and all the volunteers who helped set up on the day including Rozi Suliman and Brodie Luttrell.

Were also grateful for our lovely bar staff, some of whom got pulled in at the last minute, and Phil, Coops, Nimai, Grace, Kaeli, Brodie, Emma, and Mem for running the door and merch.

We have to give a particularly enormous pile of thanks to our manager Tian Zhang, for her super-powers of co-ordination and the generous chunk of her time she's devoted to making the launch awesome. It was good to see Tian sinking some well-earned beers later on in the evening.

And finally a huge to thanks to the Alley for having us, and to lofly recordings and 4C arts collective all their support and help in presenting the event.

(photo above by Ned Guggenheim)

[mr-maps-blog]

Here's what you get if you come to the Mr. Maps Launch in Brisbane - a bit of keepsake reminder of the good times. It's a unique, hand-made, hand-numbered edition of the album packaging, plus a cool make-your-own wire cube. The CD is in there as well of course.

You cannot buy this version of the album; the only way to get it is free at the door of our Brisbane Launch show on Feb 12. For those who can't make it to the launch, you can mail order our pretty but not-so-handmade regular edition of the album for $15 here, or get a digital copy from iTunes.