This Frontier Needs Heroes on PIAPTK Records

Mike from PIAPTK told me a while back about another amazing idea he had to cut a record groove on top of a CD of the track burned onto the CD, basically so you could play the disc in your cd player or turntable. I'm not sure if he had to specially manufacture CD's to fit a turntable spindle which would be at least one of the hurdles with this project. Not to mention Mike must have had to cut each of the 300 discs himself for the 22 !!!!!! artists involved, everyone from Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Money Mark, R. Stevie Moore and This Frontier Needs Heroes. It's a massive manual undertaking and this isn't even the first time PIAPTK has cut a lathe disc for the band. Back in 2012 I found out about the sibling duo and their eight inch picture disc thanks to the label.

This is a great project on so many levels, especially my nerd technical side that loves when vinyl is taken to a new and weird place by people with crazy ideas that will now live forever as legendary...like the piss and hair single from Eohippus. I hope someone publishes a book about the craziest pressings of records because Mike would have an entire freaking chapter.

This Frontier Needs Heroes is also a unique group to end up as a cd/records. You don't come across too many related duo's and for good reason. You would think it would be natural to want to play in a band together given you'd already have that unspoken telepathy when performing but for all the things that make it easy I bet that makes it hard as well. "I can't live like this anymore" opens on a lonesome sounding, slightly distorted, hot electric, with the mic cranked up next to the amp trying to capture notes from barely brushed strings. It's setting that sad Songs:Ohia feel when all of a sudden this launches right into the chorus, their vocals playing off each other in a deadly perfect way that would be impossible to duplicate on so many levels. It's not even an obvious harmony, Jessica takes her own higher path but with her own melody, far off, the echo strong in the distance, not just the complementary chords. They introduce the only thing to take this to a more apocalyptic place; a single violin sounding like all hope is lost. Like the Bowerbirds despair or early Iron and Wine except eventually they break that horizon to horizon sound with an edge of the cliff solo coming in with that final I can't live like this anymore and you've been through it all from hopelessness to futilely fighting and back to submission. Your choice, hit repeat or put the needle back at the beginning. I want a turntable with a laser reading the bottom of the disc while the needle plays the top at the same time. My guess is this gets even better with the natural hiss and crackle of grooves cut into the obsolete format known as the compact disc. I could imagine it would be great to pull this out of your discman and slap on a friends turntable just to see the look on their face.

PIAPTK says:

The CD-Record series is an ongoing series of CD singles with one song on the burned part of the CD and the same song with lathe cut grooves on the backside of the CD so it plays on your turntable and in your CD player. Each CD-Record will come with a center spindle adapter. Each disc comes in a professionally printed mini-LP sleeve. Discs are sold individually or as a set.

Artists in the first series:
Scott Mcmicken (Dr. Dog), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Circulatory System, Little Wings, Wooden Wand, Simon Joyner, Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), R Stevie Moore, Benoit Pioulard, Julian Gasc (Stereolab), Spaceface (mem of the Flaming Lips), The Blank Tapes, This Frontier Needs Heroes, Juston Stens, Great Lakes, Cory Gray, Briana Marela, Assateague, LABRYYYNTH (mems of Dr Dog and Golden Boots), American Monoxide, and Graves.

All CD-Records will be limited to only 300 copies each.

Order the disc/record from PIAPTK.