Hadoken / Luminary ER007 · 2010.03.09 / order now
Arms and Sleepers /
Black Paris 86 2xLP
ER006 · 2008.10.28 / order now
The Baltic Sea
Through Scenic Heights...
ER005 · 2008.07.29 / order now
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11.12.11 The biggest release package in the label's humble history is now complete. The Baltic Sea's sophomore full-length Period Piece has completed it's launch on CD and 2xLP. The vinyl arrived back from the plant last month and looks great - check out some photos of the 2xLP and the CD over on flickr.

Now that the pre-ordering is complete, it's time to announce the winners of the test press raffles! We had 2 raffles going - one for the vinyl pre-orders, and one for the limited Foss EP from last winter. And the winners are:
- Pre-order raffle / Marlen Austin from Texas
- Foss EP raffle / [only know this guy's email right now...]

Each winner receives 1 of 8 existing test presses for the record (we got a few extra copies for the band members, so earlier plans were for 5. it's still pretty limited, jeez!)

That'll be all from Ericrock for the rest of this year. Our first release in 2011 will be the 2xLP release of The American Dollar's 'Atlas', followed by an Animal Hospital project that's been lingering for well over a year. I'm slowly getting the web-store/distro back online, so check back periodically to see what i've not been selling for the last year!
07.12.11 One more thing... in the media section, i've added an episode of the Freezing Process podcast featuring Todd, Ray and Jeremy of the Baltic Sea discussing the new record as well as a bunch of other stuff. It's a good long listen and might give you a little insight into what makes these guys tick.
07.12.11 Hey folks! It's been a bit quiet since the release flurry in April of From The Inland Sea and Cinematique LPs. Thanks to all who pre-ordered, or just regular ordered! White vinyl of Cinematique is sold out except for the collector's pack, which includes all 3 variant colors. There are still a dozen or so combo packs available. Clear vinyl is still available for From The Inland Sea, but it's running a bit low. Special thanks for everybody's PATIENCE while i worked my way through shipping all of the orders. It was a pretty big project to get through single-handedly, and some of you definitely had to wait a long time for your records.

Are you ready for more? In an unprecedented THIRD release for this calendar year, we're plopping a huge one down on August 2nd -- the new full length from Portland Maine's The Baltic Sea. Entitled 'Period Piece', the new record catalogues 4 years of growth as a band, including the addition of 3rd guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Nate Johnson, and a new drummer. Even if you didn't think it was possible, the new record is longer, more expansive, and more dense than 2008's 'Through Scenic Heights...'. It is simultaneously more pop, more prog, and more experimental than any of their previous work; i really think that this album proves once and for all that these guys are so much more than a 'post rock' band, and it makes me excited to even think what lies in store for the next record.

Period Piece will be available on CD-digipak as well as a limited run of 300 units on 2xLP. The vinyl version of the album contains the 7 songs from the CD plus 7 extra minutes of music interspersed throughout the album. More release details as well as pre-order information will be released in the next week or so. To get a sneak peak, head on over to the release page and check out the beautiful artwork (graciously donated by photographer Alan Doyle), and preview (prehear?) the album on the bandcamp widget.

Period Piece arrives on August 2, and will be greeted at Port City Music Hall by The Baltic Sea (duh) and Nice Places. The show starts at 8pm and only costs $2! Presented by Shipyard Brewing Co. & The Portland Phoenix. $2 cover/ 2 bands/ $2 beer specials.
04.12.11 Wham, bam thank ya ma'am! The pre-orders for the 2 new LPs are complete! With no further adieu, i present to you... your champions!
1) IN THE BLUE CORNER, sporting a brand new test pressing of ER008/From The Inland Sea... the Bosstria from Austria: Rainer Stark!!!
2) IN THE RED CORNER, slinking around to some ambient new grooves as found on his brand new test pressing of ER009/Cinematique.... Mark McGlinchey aka 'The Clincher' of the United Kingdom!
3) and lastly, as your wildcard competitor, weighing in at 119lbs and sporting a rare copy of ER006/Black Paris 86 on BLUE vinyl... Pry Guy Michael Hartmann from the Lone Star state of texas!

Congratulations men, on a battle well fought!

And for all, here's a little update on the pre-orders: we're out of white vinyl in Cinematique, unless you order the collector's combo which contains all 3 variants. All single orders for Cinematique will be filled with black vinyl from here on out. A little less than half of the clear vinyl remains for From The Inland Sea. I'll be starting to ship all of the orders this week as soon as the rain dies down >:@. All orders containing ER008/From The Inland sea will be waylayed for a few days due to some small delays during manufacturing. I should have them all in hand by the start of next week, and those orders will start shipping then. Please be patient for your order to arrive, as i'm just 1 dude with a bicycle and this is a lot of records!!!!
03.11.11 Two news posts in two days? That's two years worth of updates! This time i bring some minor notes:

-- all of the releases now have streaming bandcamp widgets, which can be played in popout boxes while you browse, or shared via embeddable widgets on your blogs (or livejournals if you're still an emo).

-- Also, we've added a release page for the new Baltic Sea single for FOSS. Check out 2 new tracks from the upcoming full length Period Piece, as well as some short ambient pieces and a bit of cool artwork.
03.10.11 So... the past 14 months... no big deal really, right? Lots of people didn't update their site, so give me a break! But seriously, i am going to try to keep more on top of this thing than i did last year. For starters, we've actually got a busy year in store for 2011 (unlike most of 2010, aside from Hadoken's 'Luminary', which was/is pretty awesome). As i'm sure you've noticed if you accessed this site via the main page... we've got our first ever SIMULTANEOUS release coming up in April! ER008 and ER009 are arriving April 12 and are available for pre-order starting at midnight. See below!
The vinyl edition of From The Inland Sea was announced way back at the end of 2009, and has been sitting in limbo as i got my shit together. AT LONG LAST we officially welcome The American Dollar to the Ericrock family, as they provide half of the album. The other half is, of course, provided by Arms and Sleepers in a return to form (that is, if you dig the earlier, more trip-hop/elecronic style that they've since branched away from a bit). I'm sure if you're a fan of either band, you've probably already heard this album. However, the vinyl version features all new artwork printed on a fancy matte-gatefold jacket, and a bonus 7th track composed/performed ina joint effort by the contributing bands. Also, the first 100 units (out of 500 total) are pressed on semi-clear vinyl. Check it out!

ER009 brings us the long-awaited (and much-rumored) vinyl edition of Arms and Sleepers' ambient/piano album Cinematique, which has been discussed and toyed with for almost 2 years itself. Originally planned to be self-released by the band back in 2009-ish, i was happy to pick it up last fall and execute what may be the coolest package/collector's piece i've done to date. This pressing is limited to 300 units with a numbered silk-screened wraparound and comes in 3 variant color combinations. Check out the release page for details.
Hot on the heels of these two releases is the new full-length from The Baltic Sea, entitled Period Piece. This thing crushes, and is basically ready to go. I just need to wrap up the artwork and get enough funds in my coffer to gussy up the simultaneous CD and 2xLP release that it deserves (another Ericrock first!). More to come on this later, but stay tuned in the next week or so, as i'll be posting the first single from the record available for stream/download.
Lastly, and it seems i say this every year (which i guess is every time i post a news entry), i've revamped the site again! This time i've abandoned all of my loyal followers who use 800x600 resolution monitors, and i've loosened the belt on the site design, which has allowed me to expand each section and add more content. Once again, lower priorty pages are still under construction, but check out the all new band profile pages (now with show listings) and release info pages (adding more rich media like images, photos, and audio). i'm doing my best to provide a personal touch to the band info while at the same time providing accurate and complete release specs.

We've also switched all of our embeddable album streamers from last.fm to bandcamp, as last.fm sucks more than ever and broke the full album streamers. it's important to me that all of the label's releases are available for free full streaming, and bandcamp is awesome for that purpose. check out the widgets on each release page (filling them in slowly, but all of the releases from The Windmill on up should have embeddable/popout players).
01.01.10 Oh, hey... So i figured i'd start 2010 off with a long awaited site update just for the heck of it. Why not, right?

For starters, this is a pseudo-new website; almost every section has been revamped with better code, better features, and better editing! There's a ton of stuff going on back on the server side to optimize the site for search engines and to make linking to internal parts in the site a little easier (bye bye, iframes!). Some of the sections are still under construction and a low-priority (services, show promotions), so bear with us on that. The media page now has individual release pages integrated into the site, with every release fully streamable from the site (you still have the option to stream via m3u). The media server and the message board will see replacements launched shortly (with any luck!). The webstore has been updated, but i'm still making some tiny adjustments.
Releases? Funny you should ask! It's been over a year since our inaugural vinyl release, Arms and Sleepers' Black Paris 86 2xLP, and you might think that killed us. It did, but only for a little while! As of right now, we've got 3 releases in the pipeline for early 2010, starting with the 2nd full length from Amherst MA orchestral rock-types HADOKEN. In my opinion, it's a great step forward from 2008's The Ancient Machine, with much more of a technical math-rock flair to it. This is butter for fans of Caspian, Maserati, and Sparrows Swarm and Sing stuff. This will be the first new release, and it should be available for pre-order like... NOW. Pre-orders come with a free poster and 1" pin, and will ship sometime in early february. Street date for this baby is March 09 2010.

Next up, we've got another special vinyl project that welcomes one of my fave bands to the label. From The Inland Sea is a split/collaborative album between Brooklyn's The American Dollar and Arms and Sleepers. The bands self-released a CD version of this at the tail end of 2009, but the vinyl sees new artwork and the inclusion of a collaboration track produced cooperatively by both bands. Despite rampant internet speculation, artwork for this release has yet to be completed, but it should see a release in the first quarter of 2010.

The third release is a secret right now, so let's get some rumors started!
10.25.08 STATE OF THE WEBSITE ADDRESS!
Ok, so we've had this very same web design since 2003. Granted, i've added a lot of content, a few sections, dropped some sections, and revamped how most of it has worked, but it's still the same old thing. SO... i'm shaking things up a little. I'm starting off by changing some of the parameters of the site, sizes, etc. (hope you're not using an 800x600 monitor anymore!) I'm going to try and eliminate some of the redundant data and get rid of some of the outdated sections. While i don't want to specifically "go web 2.0" i do feel like i want to try and incorporate my last.fm and flickr pages into the site's functionality a little bit more. Additionally, i'm going to work in a bit of php on the server side of things to hopefully make things a bit more efficient. Lastly, i'm going to try and make sure the site works correctly in Safari and Chrome browsers, in addition to IE and FireFox (the only 2 i've checked until now). You might notice some broken links, messed up code and lots more fun stuff in the coming weeks as i tweak around. Please bear with us!
BLACK PARIS 86 SMOOOOOOOOOTH VINYL!
The pre-order is over! We flew through the first half of the blue vinyl during the pre-order period, and the rest of the units are going at a pretty steady pace. We've got a little under 50 left, so make sure you order one now or you will regret it later. Trust me, i can see your future. All orders are shipping as they come in, at this point, and will be filled with the blue units until they're all gone (unless you specifically request black vinyl).

We had a fantastic vinyl release show at TT the Bears on October 18 with Asobi Seksu and Broken River Prophet. There will be 1 more chance to get BLUE vinyl at a show, and that will be the NYC portion of the LP release event on SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15 @ PIANOS. This show will also be a part of Fake Chapter's 10th anniversary celebration. Speaking of Fake Chapter... they are running quite low on Arms and Sleepers' "Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive" EP! I'm told there are less than 50 copies remaining of the initial pressing, and it's uncertain at this point if the release will be re-pressed. Get your copy from the webstore before they're all gone!

Congratulations goes out to Luke Mollan of Dublin! He won the pre-order raffle for 1 of 5 existing test presses for Black Paris 86. THE REST OF YOU SUCKERS ALL LOST!
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