BEYOND INVERSION

Beyond Inversion got a nice mention in pitchfork's year end guest list thanks to Meredith of Perfect Pussy. Meredith said some really nice things about the comp. It goes without saying we are extremely thankful and very flattered!

Dischord Records now has copies of the Beyond Inversion comp here

We are working on the 2nd pressing which should be in stock come January!

First round of cassettes get mailed tomorrow.

Dischord Records should have their copies by Tuesday

Here's what the cassette edition of Beyond Inversion looks like!

You can now download Beyond Inversion today here.

All downloads are "pay what you want" with your choice of MP3 or FLAC. Also, all downloads come with hi-res versions of artwork and inserts!

The Beyond Inversion cassette is sold out. We are going to do a second pressing in early 2014.

The digital version will be released 12/2 with hi res PDFs of insert and liner notes.

If you haven't ordered your copy of the comp you might want to ASAP. We don't expect this first pressing to last too much longer. There will be a repress of sorts in January! 

Also, if you miss out ordering direct from Accidental Guest, Dischord Records will have their copies next week.

We are very excited to announce you can stream all of Beyond Inversion over at Rookie. Jes also wrote an accompanying piece on how to make your own benefit comp! Super thanks to Jessica Hopper and all of Rookie for help making this happen!

This is our final week of interviews leading up to the 12/2 release of the Beyond Inversion comp. This week we begin with downer punks, Technicolor Teeth.

Technicolor Teeth

1. Why was being a part of this comp important to you?

We are not a political band. We are usually much more concerned with the emotional and spiritual “politics of the soul” than with any of the tortuous political dialogues of this stupid, fallen world. But I suppose if we were going to lend our name to any cause, it should be one that empowers those marginalized by society to “take control of their lives and advocate for themselves”. That alone is something I believe in with all my heart. On another level, being a part of this is great, because in the future people will be able to look back on Beyond Inversion and see a snapshot of where underground/punk music was at in 2013.

2. Tell us a little bit about the song. What it's about etc?

Some of it is about being in love with stillness, and darkness, but that's only the first few lyrics. When I was recording the demo I needed to write more lyrics so I grabbed a book on death for inspiration. The stories of people waking up from being “dead” screaming that they had just been in hell really struck a chord with me, as someone who grew up believe that hell was a very real place, and had to struggle for years (even after rejecting Christianity) to overcome the fear that I would go to hell. My family loves me and that love has been the basis for all they've given me, it's just a shame that it led to so much fear and terror, when there's so much comfort to be found in total darkness.

3. What are some of your favorite comps?

Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics, The Maritime Trade, Pebbles vol. 1-3, Jingle Bell Jazz

4. Anything else you'd like to add?

For the next few weeks leading up to the release of Beyond Inversion, we’ll be posting short interviews with the bands on the comp. We end this weeks interviews with Failed Mutation.

Failed Mutation

1. Why was being a part of this comp important to you?

Nikki: Honestly, it was a no brainer. Not only do we get to play on a comp with some really awesome, talented, and passionate bands that I already greatly admire, but Rachael’s Women’s Center sounds truly amazing with everything they do and the methods in which they do them in empowering struggling women to reach their full potential and regain meaning and positivity that may have been lost somewhere along the way.

2013 Demo by FAILED MUTATION

2. Tell us a little bit about the song. What it's about etc?

Katherine: It's about being frustrated with people who are hyper-critical of what other people do. The main example being Rush Limbaugh who criticizes people who use birth control, but then also criticizes families with children who at times need to use food assistance programs or other services included in the social safety net.

3. What are some of your favorite comps?

Nikki:  Put No Blame On The Master – Jamaican Gospel # 2, Nuke Your Dink, Ethiopiques series

Eric Schultz: Bubblegum Motherfucker series, Killed By Death series, Power Pills series, Bloodstains Across series

Eric Mayer: America’s Dairyland, Holland Hardcore Volumes 1-3, Beware of the Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing LP

4. Anything else you'd like to add?

Eric Mayer: Listen to Big Zit, Lumpy and the Dumpers, and Trauma Harness

For the next few weeks leading up to the release of Beyond Inversion, we’ll be posting short interviews with the bands on the comp. Today we talk to Bad News

Bad News

1. Why was being a part of this comp important to you?

Washington DC was one of our favorite shows on our tour this last summer. The enthusiasm and support was really appreciated. We had a bummer show the night before and it got morale back up. There are lots of great people there and we're happy to contribute.

The Bay Area, San Francisco in particular, is a wreck right now. There's another huge tech bubble fueling a completely untenable real estate bubble. People are being pushed out of their homes by landlords trying to cash in and speculators snapping up what they can at incredibly high prices. SROs are being turned into condos. More people are ending up the streets. People are increasingly desperate, crime is rising in some neighborhoods. Non-profits that act as support structures are getting edged out as rents skyrocket. The minimum wage here is high but doesn't even remotely cover cost of living. If it weren't for tenants staying put in existing rent-controlled housing the working class would practically disappear but, still, state law gives landlords an 'out' to evict people from these rent-controlled properties. The local government and tech industry shows zero social conscience and behaves as if they want to eradicate everyone making under 100k from city limits. SF just decided to close down city parks after midnight, a move that specifically targets and displaces people who rely on them to sleep and live in. Oakland is changing rapidly by the trickle-down. Never-mind the country's problems.

It's important for everyone, artists and musicians included, to acknowledge and assess their complicity in changing the communities they live in and what of actual value they can give their neighbors. Boutiques, cafes, loca-vore-whatever restaurants, galleries that exclude the people they set up shop next to it ain't. Redirect spending to legacy neighborhood businesses of local ownership, support nonprofits doing good work, etc.

I don't have a predilection towards activism and am generally cynical but things are pretty fucked, everywhere. It's been on my mind.

Rachael's may not work with folks directly in our backyard but they deserve support, of course. It'd be nice if Beyond Inversion and projects like it inspire similar work and keep the ball rolling.

2. Tell us a little bit about the song. What it’s about etc?

Bad News might be the odd band out on the comp: I guess we're an electronic band that has guitars and songs. Sarah and I are both from noise backgrounds and are big on performance and physicality so there's a commonality there. The last band of Sarah's that she toured with, Work, was way more in the punk zone. 

I think Sarah's lyrics are pretty direct on this one. She's off somewhere remote without much access or she'd say something. This version's a weird 'remix'.

I wanted to have some friends of Bad News play on it, ultimately it ended up being our friend Greer on bass. She's a neighbor and is similarly stubbornly staying in SF, for now. Greer's bass line is completely unlike anything Sarah or I would come up with on our own and sidesteps the "industrial" tag a bit, or at least brings it back to when the genre was more about subversion and weird experimentalism. Dreams Less Sweet was practically a Beach Boys record, after all. Inadvertently this remix ended up more fluid and less rigid than our other recorded material, it might bug some people on both ends of the spectrum. I like it.

3. What are some of your favorite comps?

"If You Can't Please Yourself You Can't, Please Your Soul" really got me at a youngish age. "Wild Dub: Dread Meets Punk Rocker" was a CD comp of old punk/post-punk dub mixes that I listened to a ton years ago, I guess this mix sort of calls back to that. I have a weird archivist sensibility so comps like Messthetics and other Hyped To Death stuff appeal to me.

4. Anything else you’d like to add?

For the next few weeks leading up to the release of Beyond Inversion, we’ll be posting short interviews with the bands on the comp. We start this week with Sadie Dupuis who also fronts the mighty Speedy Ortiz. Dupuis contributed a solo track on Beyond Inversion.

Sadie Dupuis

1. Why was being a part of this comp important to you?

Aside from liking and respecting the organizers of the compilation and the other musicians involved, contributing to Beyond Inversion introduced me to Rachael's for the first time, which is an amazing service for women who need a little external help to improve their lives. I'm thankful to know they exist and am happy to contribute a song if it helps bring more attention (and cash money) their way.

2. Tell us a little bit about the song. What it's about etc?

It's actually a re-recording of a song I wrote when I was eighteen called "Big Bug." I wound up stumbling across a pretty fucked up-sounding demo of it and figured it deserved a remake. The name came from a dream I had about a friend who was pretty anxious--in the dream I called him by the name "Saint Fret," and I liked the weird formality of that name, so stuck with it for song title. It used to be about having a flu, but I changed the lyrics quite a bit now that seven years have passed since the first demo. Now it's (loosely) about time and distance forcing relationships to change and people to grow up. Boooooring.

3. What are some of your favorite comps?

For the next few weeks leading up to the release of Beyond Inversion, we’ll be posting short interviews with the bands on the comp. Today we talk to Washington, DC's Jail Solidarity

Jail Solidarity

1. Why was being a part of this comp important to you?

When we learned that this comp would benefit an organization that provides direct services to women in our community, we were immediately excited. None of us even asked who else was involved before deciding that we were in. However, we couldn't have been more thrilled when we learned that we'd be on a comp with such awesome bands with such varying styles. Some bands we have already discussed playing with (like Clean Girls); a few we learned about from following members' previous projects, and we were excited for the new music (like Perfect Pussy and Roomrunner); and some we learned about through our recent tour, like Failed Mutation, who let us crash at their place. It is such a solid group of bands, and we are thankful to contribute music to such a great cause.

2. Tell us a little bit about the song. What it’s about etc?

Cries and Hues is about a few things. The lyrics were inspired by Kristin's re-reading of Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. The song, itself is a cathartic way of dealing with being sexually assaulted at 18, with Kristin's daily work with survivors of sexual assault, and with the constant and unceasing presence of rape culture and misogyny in our society.

Any Space, Whatever by Jail Solidarity

 3. What are some of your favorite comps?

That's a hard question. One semi-recent one that I enjoy is actually this Comp Kills Fascists Volume 1. Tons of ridiculous grind bands on there like Triac and Drugs of Faith. I also wasn't personally familiar with Extortion until I grabbed this. My all-time favorite, though, is All The President's Men. It is a classic 90's comp full of sick bands like Hoover, Max Colby, and Shotmaker put out on Old Glory Records.

 4. Anything else you’d like to add?

Here is the finalized insert for Beyond Inversion. The art for this was done by the amazing Leah Wishnia we seriously can't thank her enough. This 11"x17" full color insert will be included in all cassette copies of the comp.