Midway through Cloudkicker‘s first ever legitimate tour (featuring Intronaut as mastermind Ben Sharp’s backing band), word got out that the event would be immortalized by way of a live album. Now, six months later, the release — simply titled Live With Intronaut — has been officially announced and is due out on November 24th through Century Media Records.
The live album being released through Century Media is a bit of a surprise and is pretty much antithetical to the Cloudkicker modus operandi, prompting Sharp to comment via his blog:
Obviously this is a bit of a departure from the usual way that Cloudkicker music is released. On the plus side, this album will be afforded all the press and promotion that is expected when a proper label puts an album out. I imagine that the distribution will be another plus for those of you living in parts of the world that pay very high shipping costs from the U.S. The drawback is that I won’t be able to extend the courtesy of free downloads like I normally do. In fact you won’t be able to download it from Bandcamp at all, although you will be able to stream it from there. I’m sure those of you that are more resourceful will not find yourselves impacted much from this change.
The complications that arose from Intronaut being on Century Media made it so this was the most practical way to release the album. I don’t have the infrastructure or accounting know-how to take care of the financials otherwise.
So yay! Live album! Also no, I am not on Century Media now nor will I be going forward. Or any label for that matter.
Intronaut’s contract with Century Media likely included the stipulation that the label had rights to anything the band recorded, and Sharp didn’t want to bother with the licensing issues. Allowing CM to release the recording is a pragmatic solution, and I can’t imagine why anyone would be bothered by this in good faith (ie., not feeling entitled to the free download).
Live With Intronaut‘s opening track, Subsume Part 1, is available for streaming below:
Pre-orders (which include vinyl!) are available at this location.
– JR