PICTURE ATLANTIC

The fires in the North Bay have weighed heavy on us in PA. We have some close friends of the band and some team members who are being very directly affected by the fire in the Napa/ Sonoma area. When we were out playing in Sacramento on Monday, the smoke near the Highway 80 change over was pouring out over the hills like some kind of strange slow fog. It was unsettling, to say the least.

At times, especially with back to back tragedies it can feel exhausting, or be paralyzing; for that, we truly don't judge. It's easy to get emotionally exhausted seeing death and destruction in the news all the time. However, there are some great ways we can help even from our computer desks with a simple click and some typing - Donate to the various charities working on fire relief for the victims of the fire, which are listed in the article below. There are A LOT that you can choose from, and some of which you may be able to interact with directly yourself. This can also include Safeway or various supermarket chains, who usually ask for donations at check out. We don't all need to be Superman, we just all need to be helping out in whatever small or big ways we can, consistently. Please also considering giving multiple times over the next month or more as your paychecks come in.

Read Here How You Can Support!

To put our money where our mouths are as a band, we are going to be giving half of all the proceeds of our Vinyl Pre-Order to one or more of the charities listed below.This includes previous pre-order purchases. If you were planning on getting one anyways, at least this way you can also help support the fire relief a little too. You can pre-order here: http://www.pictureatlantic.com/store/vinyl-preorder 

 Pre-orders end this Friday at noon, PST.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in the North who are being affected by the fire, and we will be giving all that we can as a band to help support in whatever ways possible.

Our new album ‘Assouf’ has officially dropped. We hope you enjoy it :)

On October 21 we are finally releasing our new album & celebrating with a show at Slim’s w/ Rin Tin Tiger and Winter. 

Chocolate & Art Festival 2016 - San Francicso, CA

Greetings, and a happy New Year to everyone,

We hope that the beginning of 2016 has been good to you! 2016 is shaping up to be an exciting and fun year for Picture Atlantic.

This blog post comes at an interesting time for the band. We’re on the cusp of our 3rd LP release, we’ve been working with a new sound (live and studio), and 2016 marks the 11 year anniversary of the band.

So this brings me to the main point of this post. A lot of time has gone by. A lot of changes have taken place in the band, and with each album or release, our sound changes, or we explore a different facet of our influences and tastes. Each one of our releases has it’s own feel, sometimes drastically so.

When the band started, it was the passion project of four teens in their friend’s garage.  When we recorded and released our first batch of music, in 2006, it was an EP entitled ‘Change is Welcome’.

Last week we got an email from the company who handles distributing all our music  to places like iTunes , CD Baby, Amazon, and streaming services. It said that our annual renewal payment for ‘Change is Welcome’ is coming up. Ryan and I talked briefly and decided that we think its time to end that annual payment for ‘Change is Welcome’ and let it come to rest.

Now, some of you are probably asking yourselves ‘Why?’ and others are probably saying ‘Who cares?’. More of you will probably be saying ‘Wait, you have a very first EP?’. The reason we’re putting word out on this is two-part:

One, and most important, is that many of our long time, devoted fans, found Picture Atlantic through that recording and started supporting and following the band because of that EP. In fact, as silly and surreal as it sounds, when we broke away from that sound and album in 2008, we actually had people leaving comments on our MySpace page (yes, that’s how long ago it was) to the effect that they didn’t like our music anymore, and didn’t want to listen to the band. That’s how much some people connected to that album! We’re a small band that not many people have heard, so you have to understand how wild and ridiculous that sounds to me now, even as I type this. However, a lot of you took faith in us and came along for the ride when we dropped our first LP ‘Kleos’ and have been with us since! But regardless, we acknowledge that our first EP holds a special place in some people’s hearts, and for some, is the reason that they even still listen to us.

Secondly, and also importantly, we simply feel that ‘Change is Welcome’ just doesn’t represent or portray the band and people we are today. It’s so far outside our sound and artistic direction, that to us personally, we haven’t identified with that EP in probably 8 or 9 years. Furthermore we haven’t even played any of those songs live, for about the same amount of time, for that same reason. We think it’s fitting and symbolic to say goodbye to that recording, as we get ready to release a new recording that we are insanely proud of. Our new album, will in all ways, describe the kind of band that Danny, Ryan and I are now.

Out of respect for our fans though, we thought it should be mentioned what our plan was, and why. Especially since that means our first EP will no longer be attainable directly through the band, or through an official portal. It would also give everyone a chance to check out or purchase the music if they haven't yet. Simply put, it felt right, and nice to communicate a little.

So come February 13th, ‘Change is Welcome’ will in essence be no more. We only did one printing of 300 copies of the physical album in 2006, and iTunes is the only way right now to get the album (to our knowledge).  If you want to take a last listen, feel free to find it online. I think the dichotomy in where we started as a band might be interesting for some of you. You can take a peek at the EP through this iTunes link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/change-is-welcome/id356008202

With that I’ll let you get back to your lives. Thanks for reading, and to all our fans, whether you started listening to us right at the start, or more recently, thank you for everything you’ve done to support us, and have a great 2016. Be expecting new album news soon!

Been a while since we posted on Tumblr, but this was worthy of a post.