CONTEST TIME - TRI-COLOR GIVEAWAY!
Brendan Benson
“Half a Boy (And Half a Man)” b/w “Big Kid Face”
179 tri-color copies, unlimited quantity on black vinyl
I just want the whole world to know, I am so incredibly excited to have a Brendan Benson record on Third Man.
Yeah yeah, I know we put out Raconteurs and JW and the Bricks stuff that he slays on, but this is different.
Brendan was the first musician I ever really met who I considered having “made it.”
He was signed to Virgin! He bought a house with record label money! He opened for the Wallflowers! He got fan mail from Japan! He jammed with Dave Grohl!
For me, at 16 years old, that was eye-opening.
And as his career has progressed, both solo and in bands, he’s never failed to make a record that was interesting or tuneful or compelling.
Dude just does good work. And this a-side is quintessential BB like he has not lost a step. You need this in your life. Much respect to the first lyric in the song referencing his obscure b-side “Son of a Welder.” Also, so stoked that we’re pressing tri-colors in Detroit and how sick they look!
Side notes: in the height of my Sub Pop collecting phase I bought a copy of the Flaming Lips 7” off of him. He gave me a bowl of blueberries and cream (or was it milk?) It was, at the time, the most exotic thing I had ever eaten. He was amazed I had never eaten a salad. I would not eat my first salad until the age of 21.
On the way to a JW & the Bricks rehearsal back in ’99 I wrecked my car. I was 17 years old. I asked all the other band members how old they were the first time they’d wrecked a car. Jack and Kevin both responded “16.” Brendan responded “15” and I thought that was BADASS. Like he stole the car or something.
I hopped in the Whirlwind Heat tour van for a day back in 2003 when they were opening for the Dirtbombs. They put in the “Lapalco” CD and all three of them together just got SOOOO EXCITED to be listening to it, like it was some long waited-for treat. So I asked them how often they listen to “Lapalco” and they said “Once a day, every day.” They just loved the album so much they couldn’t contain themselves.
I sing “Jet Lag” to my daughter Violet usually 4th or 5th in my setlist of “Shit I Know All the Words To While I’m Trying to Get This Booger To Bed.”
I’m giving away one copy of the limited edition tri-color of this record. In the comments below, do whatever…tell a story about Brendan, make me laugh, make me cry…it’s free reign to impress me. Whichever comment I like most gets the prize. SIMPLE!
Brendan Benson backwards is Nosneb Nadnerb.
I was recently forced into a family game of Monopoly on a Saturday night, My wife had decided to play by these “new” internet rules (which apparently have always been the rules) I sadly sat at the table with my family and a glass full of Crown Royal and Coke.
As the game started I realized I had to come up with a strategy that would end the game the quickest, I decided that the trusted old (I can win the whole game with the whole block of Broadwalk, Park Place, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Pacific Avenues)
So a few times around the board (and a couple visits to Jail later) I had acquired said properties, purchased some houses and eventually hotels………finally I knew I could have them all beat by owning just one block.
As the game progressed my family kept missing my properties, and I thought "Oh shit, what have I done) I ended up in Jail twice, my family kept missing my properties and I could’ve even get past GO to get 200 dollars.
I thought I was doomed, but just then, my wife lands on Boardwalk with a hotel and I went from 1 dollar to a 2000 payment, now I had 2001 dollars, I was invincible………..I spent the 2000 dollars on all the Railroads (a purchase from my sister who was sitting on all 4 of them)
Now I was back down to 1 dollar and I was concerned, slowly but surely my doomed family kept landing on these properties, and I kept getting paid as a terrible landlord……..first my stepmother went broke, then my father, then my wife, now it was done to my sister and I, I knew to win that I had to play Mental Monopoly and get inside her head…….
I told her that I knew she was going to win, and that I was destined to lose.
She came around the board towards my “BLOCK OF EXPENSIVE HELL” she lands on Pacific, and I get 1300 dollars, she lands on the railroad and I get 200 more, and finally she lands on Boardwalk and pays me 2000 dollars, she’s broke and I own everything.
I look at the clock and realized I just spent 4 hours playing monopoly with these people and I won with a very basic idea of being a slumlord and then I look over to my drink and realize I haven’t even had a sip and now my Whiskey is watered down from the melted ice……
In conclusion, what did I learn on a Saturday night……………….
Buy Whiskey Stones……………….
Thank you for your time Mr Blackwell.
I think he is a great musician with mesmerizing eyes !At least in the video above!
I have a 2 year old daughter who’s obsessed with records. and by obsessed i mean she would rather watch a record spin than watch paw patrol. She’s got a collection going and that’s basically all the records I buy. Now I need one for me! I’ll be selfish with this one!
i had a really great idea to put a “can i haz tri-color” with a really cool picture of a cat, but then i see i cant post images, so if you could just google “cats” and pick your favorite cool cat picture and then imagine it says “can i haz tri-color” instead of “can i haz cheezburger” and then imagine the gif of carlton dancing right below it
Having a tri-color of yourself… that’s when you really know you’ve made it! I can only hope to make it like Brendan someday myself!
Just give it to me now. You and I can laugh while the others cry
Federico-Hahahaha- cue my Nephew spilling 7up on the first 3 Records in a stack. PJ Live @ TMR-RIP, Blunderbuss Lightening Bolt ed.-RIP, Roy Orbison Sun Ray Rockhouse-RIP. I deserved that for being an a hole because someone in this club mistook something at best and just wanted to gossip most likely. If I already hadn’t showed my ass I’d out them. If they had balls they’d do it themself.
Federico- my bad. I think someone got confused and threw you under the bus. Someone said you bagged on something I wrote. I don’t see it. People man. Disregard that long crAp. I wish I could delete it. If anyone can-do it. I’m going to make it up to you. Let me figure out how to contact you other than on a wall. Haha. Really, I feel terrible and I should have known better. They caught me in a mood.
Federico Giacobazzi- I apologize, but your English must not be great. Watch that hostility, especially when you clearly are wrong. If you are fluent then I’ll go over it. I don’t play for anything other than pleasure. I play when I feel like it, for who I want. I never claimed I got anything but just enough interest to keep me playing. The point obviously missed you by mile. . I ‘Made It’ in a different field. Taking advantage of what I call ‘seems’ in the stock market. These fluctuations that turn $100k into $1mil if you know what you are doing and dont let your ego ‘bet’ on the market. I never went to buisness school or read a book on it. I just studied it and did what was so obvious I keep toying with advertising it. But, I couldn’t be part of another 2008. My parents worked hard every day just to make it to the next bill cycle. I swore I wouldn’t end up like that and find a way to reward them. I wasn’t given anything and I’m proud my family, after working themselves to death, generation after generation, the older members can finally enjoy life without working, every kid will go to college and the ones in the middle, I gave them an ‘inheritance’ so they could take a breath and take a crack at doing what they love. Hopefully, the way I have things set-up, I changed my family’s status. All of that and none of the headache’s from fans. That’s ‘made it’ in my book.
Ok. That bugs me you just got ‘fame’ from what I wrote. You started it, so let’s say you are amazing and ‘make it’ in the industry. Making it in music isn’t all that it appears. Jack White is one of the few people that had the vision to not only retain ownership of his masters, which I have no idea how he pulled off, so he has a much higher royalty rate and with the amazing growth of Third Man, he owns the template(masters), can distribute 100% independently. The Jacks and Jay-z’s are in another league than famous musicians. You could be Adele and be broke a year after your last hit. Album sales? Don’t even consider making a nickel from those. Youd owe more taxes than you made. Haha. Today, If you are with a major label and can’t negotiate a system like Daft Punk where the label leases your music or another way around their stupid ‘Book based formula.’ A formula that’s Basically means the label gets 90% of the album sales. Author’s receive ‘a buck a book’ and that led to the term. Ok. You get signed and get an advance. Advance=loan. You could of done that at a bank. So forget that money too. So, the only way you can make money is to tour relentlessly while also being on a thin budget and saving as much as you can. You have to utilize their studio to make a hit to warrant a tour. This is their explanation when you ask them why they get $9 to every $1 you get. If your songs don’t sell, they don’t care. They will make a profit no matter what. They will charge you $200 if your drummer gets a Pepsi in the studio. Say you are a star. You get a five year career. This is a different world. That music you worked on gets listened to for seconds before a person forgets you and never listens to you again swiping their Spotify’s and If you catch their attention, the label sends you on tour. The overhead gets bigger as you get bigger. Do you think Jack likes having to play arenas and charging what he has to for tickets? Do you know how many people it takes to pull of a show like that? All of those people get paid. The label takes that out of what’s left after they take the percentage in your contract off of each engagement. Remember without them your hit wouldn’t be out there. Meanwhile you are staying in Nice hotels, driving nice cars, the few times you drive, you even think you own a house. The label owns that ‘House’ you are in one month out of four because you have to tour 300 days a year. No, we clearly have different definitions of ‘made it’. You want fame? Eat a Tide Pod and put it on YouTube. It’ll be better for you in the long run. I wish all the luck in the world. If you do ‘make it’ with your music, remember, they need you more than you need them and since electronics get cheaper as they exponentially get better the big boys will eventually go. You can theoretically do it all yourself. Write some songs, then some more, then keep at it. Your songs will suck. It’s ok. It’s a craft like any other. If you try to write the next big hit, you never will. The hit will be a song you made up lyrics to a Dylan melody making fun of a television show. You find the lyrics and write a new melody and music so you don’t rip off Dylan and you’ll have a hit. Haha. Record at home, distribute online, and tour. It’s a big ocean and only getting bigger. And it’s full of fish. Find something to make yourself jump out.