February 28, 2017
It's a book. It's an album. It's a... BALBUM! (KDATA News)
Except that starting today (Feb. 28, '17) King Dork Approximately the Album is available in general digital release. That means the sound files are officially decoupled from the book for those who want them decoupled, and are available to download on Amazon, iTunes, spotify, Pandora, Youtube, etc.
The best way to buy the album, though, is still to get it with the book because doing it that way gets you exactly the same digital files, plus you get a free book. And the best way to do that is to get it from Sounds Radical, because it comes in a sweet custom box with a cool print of Frank Kozik's original cover design, signed by me; plus the other extras that sometimes get offered and thrown in when you order and get on the super special mailing list. This edition of the book also contains the lyrics. You people like lyrics, don't you? Sure you do. The album without the book isn't quite the full "balbum", keep that in mind. They go together.
To commemorate this occasion, Sounds Rad is offering a free "MTX 800" amp head enamel pin for all MTX orders thru 3/6. Also, each order that includes a KDA album download gets the pin free, "in perpetuity", according to Chris Thacker. Perpetuity, that's a long time.
But of course in this day and age, an album isn't seen as "real" unless you can easily get it for free, so spotify and youtube to your hearts' content if you must. Play it in the background without listening too carefully like the value-less vanity it is. (Nb.: I've just learned that there was a goof and tracks 8 and 9 on the digital release are mislabelled/swapped. The titles are in the right sequence but the files themselves are swapped. Sorry about that. There isn't an easy way to fix it, but I'm working on it. The one you get when you download from the link in the book is correct.)
In other balbum news, the vinyl LP version is due to come out later this year, probably in June if all goes according to plan. There will be a gatefold cover, which we have designed so that the subsequent KDA 7" will integrate with the package, whether you buy them separately or together. Hard to explain but very cool (at least, that's the plan!) Oh, you don't know about the 7"? This is two, possibly three, new King Dork-related songs that will come out a bit after the LP, whenever we can manage to get it together, so stay tuned for info on that.
Finally, a plea from me to you. For some reason, our digital distributor (the Orchard) cannot manage to arrange for our product descriptions to appear on any platform. We enter them. They just never show up. (They had ONE JOB...) So it would be a help if you all, or even one of you, would include a description in a review, on Amazon and iTunes so people who aren't already in the club have some chance of understanding what it is. I could do it, but when I've tried it in the past they figure out that I'm an interested party and delete "review." They’ll sell it, sure. They just don’t want anyone to know what it is, apparently.
(For what it's worth, here's the official product description that no one will ever otherwise see:
The Mr. T Experience, known to fans as "MTX", has been a punk pop thorn in the side of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene for thirty years now. Typically regarded as among the founders of "East Bay Pop Punk" and led by singer-songwriter Dr. Frank (dubbed "the Cole Porter of punk" by one or two writers over the years) the band has released around a dozen albums and eps on Green Day launchpad Lookout Records throughout its heyday the 90s. Under his real name, Dr. Frank (Portman) has also published three young adult novels, including the bestselling cult favorite King Dork and its recent sequel King Dork Approximately.MTX returns with their eleventh full length studio album, titled King Dork Approximately the Album and released in connection with the paperback version of Portman's YA novel of the same name, the sequel to his 2006 bestseller, King Dork. The album consists of songs “written by" the novel’s rock’n’roll obsessed narrator and "interpreted and performed” by Dr. Frank’s very real band.
But doing it in your own words would obviously be better. Thanks in advance, I knew I could count on you.)
Posted by Dr. Frank at February 28, 2017 04:42 PM