Friends,
Did you hear the good news? Monday, November 22nd will see the release of the new Hiss Golden Messenger album Bad Debt via London/Tokyo-based record label and publishing house blackmaps.
In addition, Heaven & Earth Magic Recording Co. will be releasing Bad Debt in an edition of 100 numbered vinyl copies, complete with lyric tracts hand letter-pressed by Lampyridae Press.
Bad Debt comes from ten dense acres of oak, cedar, and apple trees in Pittsboro, North Carolina, directly south of the Haw River. The house where it was written and recorded was built in the early 1970s by a hippie cohort that settled along Brooks Branch; though this may sound like some kind of brag, I offer this to explain just how cold it was last fall and winter, the time when the record was conceived; most hippies—except for the most famous one, of course, and probably a few others—are shit carpenters.
Bad Debt is about my God: That is, whether I have one, and whether there is a place for me in this world. It’s also about donkeys, snakes, betrayal, redemption, scarecrows, wandering and love, though anyone that listens to the words may wonder whether I’ve gone off the deep end for the Lord.
I don’t go to church and I am not saved. I can party too. I can do a saxophone now and again, bang the proverbial drum. Some of you know this.
Bad Debt was meticulously mastered by Anthony Puglisi. Brendan Greaves put together the beautiful artwork for the CD and digital version, and generally arranged all the artistic motifs associated with the album. Thanks are due to both of these gentlemen.
While the CD and digital versions of Bad Debt will be available at record stores and online (a Google search should easily turn up where to obtain one), if you’re interested in obtaining a vinyl copy of Bad Debt (which will include an extra song), send me a note at hissgoldenmessenger (at) yahoo (dot) com with "Bad Debt vinyl" as the subject line to let me know you’d like a copy set aside for you. When I get them, I’ll notify you that they’ve arrived, and I’ll send along an invoice. Remember there are only going to be 100 copies, and I think they're going to go fast.
There will be a slew of UK dates in February 2011. Please join us on Facebook, where we do our most regular communication. Onwards!
-Jai Lil 'Slim' Diamond 17 November 2010
