Pacific Ridge Records and Why You're A Terrible Customer Extravaganza sale!

As we all know, businesses generally start discounting their products during the holiday season. Well, piss on that. Who needs Black Friday or Cyber Monday when you have cheap unpopular music and a second rate book that's being shilled out by a college dropout? It just makes good sense to discount everything three weeks after everyone's officially broke, right? In my defense, I'm of the opinion that the discounts lose their novelty when everyone's slashing prices. It would be like if everyone in your town decided to bake banana bread on the third Monday of October. The culinary majesty of that delicious loaf wouldn't quite be the same after the seventh Olympic swimming pool worth of bread was fork lifted onto your lawn. That's why I'm bucking this holiday trend, missing the profitable train, and discounting  several products right now. You know, when everyone's credit card is getting ready to spontaneously combust and a debtor is getting ready to magically appear State Farm-style. 

Anyway, a bunch of Pacific Ridge Records CD's will be knocked down 50% for the next couple of weeks in addition to a giveaway of my e-book, Why You're A Terrible Customer. You can download the free Kindle or E-Book version right here or in the store page. No strings attached. It's all yours to enjoy and never actually read.
 
Merry Tuesday and a happy New-second-week-of-the-Year!

Hardcore/Post-Hardcore

Just so you know, I haven't simply been sitting on my ass waiting for the Taking Back Sunday tribute to come together. Well, I guess I have, but I've been sitting on my ass doing other things too! For example, I'm 16 tracks deep into The Scene, Vol. 5. The problem is I'm trying to round out the roster with some post-hardcore/hardcore material and I'm coming up a bit short. So if anyone has some solid recommendations on quality indie acts that fall somewhere under the heading of those particular genres let me know at contact@pacificridgerecords.com.

Taking Back Sunday - Paper States

I just got another song in for the TBS tribute. It's Paper States' rendition of "Call Me In The Morning." In my opinion it's even better than their Get Up Kids cover, which is seriously saying something. I just can't get enough of their vocalist Ryan Stack. The man's got a gift for singing. Its been a while, but I'm still sticking to what I said in 2012-2013. Their EP "Be Alone" is the best EP of that particular year. Check it out if you haven't.

Taking Back Sunday - Knockout Kid

There are always a couple of cover tracks that catch me by surprise on each of the tribute comps. Knockout Kid's rendition of 'Timberwolves at New Jersey' is definitely one of those tracks. It's TBS gone punk, but with style. If you're a fan of The Wonder Years, but always wished they had more of an edge, then that's these guys. I highly recommend checking them out.

Why You're A Terrible Customer

What do naked chicks, drunks, junkies, assholes and the homeless all have in common? Pizza. They all order pizza. Whether it's with food stamps or a duffel bag full of recyclables, they all find some way to pay for their pizza and ruin the night of those unfortunate enough to be stuck on the wrong end of the order taking counter. What does this have to do with music? Nothing. I simply wrote a book about my delivery driving experiences called 'Why You're A Terrible Customer' and it's conveniently being published today. The book is an angry/comedic take on the figurative raping I've received from a wide variety of customers. You see, the music industry is just about the worst paying gig out there, so I thought delivering pizza would be the perfect choice for a flexible yet reliable part-time job for some additional cash. And it was, but convenience came at a rather steep price seeing as it nearly cost me my sanity.

If you're curious about the content of the book; I touch on moderately racist topics such as who tips the most based on race and gender. I dive into what topless chicks, drug addicts and white supremacists have offered me for free food, and overall I just try to humorously describe the terribleness that is the life of a retail peon. 

Personal Store
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"Why You're A Terrible Customer: A Compilation of Customer Horror Stories By A Jaded Pizza Delivery Guy"

Taking Back Sunday - Count To Four

I'm making the proclamation right here and now that I'm only announcing artists that have already finished recording their TBS cover. I'm not superstitious or anything, but it's hard to ignore the implosion of every band that I've ever tagged about participating on the tribute. So without fear of impending band death, I'm proud to announce that Count To Four has recently knocked out a rendition of "This Photograph is Proof (I Know You Know)." If you're unfamiliar with their sound you should do yourself a favor and check out their Scene Vol. 3 contribution. Then just multiply that sound by ten and you'll have an idea of how perfect their TBS cover is. 

A good chunk of the rest of the tracks are scheduled to roll in over the course of the next few weeks.


A Tribute to Taking Back Sunday - Track Listing

All right, I have the entire list of songs that will be covered on A Tribute To Taking Back Sunday. Here it is:

Great Romances of the 20th Century 
Cute Without The 'E' (Cut from the Team) 
You're So Last Summer 
Timberwolves at New Jersey 
You Know How I Do 
Number Five With a Bullet 
There's No 'I' in Team 
Bike Scene 
Set Phasers To Stun 
Bonus Mosh, Pt. 2 
A Decade Under The Influence 
This Photograph is Proof (I Know You Know) 
New American Classic 
One-Eighty by Summer 
MakeDamnSure 
Call Me In The Morning 
Your Own Disaster '04 
My Blue Heaven 

The album is definitely going to be heavy on earlier material, but I made sure it had a select few gems from some of the later albums sprinkled in for good measure. Thoughts? Snubs?

The Scene, Vol. 5

Pretty much the entire roster has been set for the Taking Back Sunday tribute, so while everyone is working on their recordings I'll be laying the groundwork for the fifth edition of The Scene. I'm open to any indie band suggestions if anyone has any. I've scouted out about 50 different bands, but I can't possibly catch all the potentially great ones, so the more suggestions the better. I try to primarily focus on unsigned talent, but indie label talent is great too.  

Shoot any thoughts or names by me at contact@pacificridgerecords.com

I thought I'd post a gem off of volume four. Enjoy.

TBS - Icarus The Owl/The Directive

I'm going to try and break the streak here and mention a couple of artists that will be participating on the Taking Back Sunday tribute that hopefully won't break up. Technical pop punk artist Icarus The Owl and Rock/Pop Punk artist The Directive will both be paying their respect to TBS by covering 'You Know How I Do' and 'Your Own Disaster.' Both have contributed to various editions of The Scene comps, so I know without a doubt that their style and set of quality vocals will lead to delightful covers (no pressure guys). 

Anyway, I'm more than ecstatic to finally have the project and the participants moving in the right direction again.

Taking Back Sunday - Shapes & Colors

I've got good news and I've got bad news. I'll start with the bad news. Every band I announce on the Taking Back Sunday tribute either breaks up (On My Honor, Farraday) or has a scheduling conflict crop up (Koji, The Scene Aesthetic) that prevents them from participating.
 
The good news is that the roster has already been re-set despite the setbacks. Even better news is that I just received a magnificent cover by the guys in the band Shapes & Colors. They tackled a track that one of the recently replaced bands was supposed to knock out and boy was I blown away. It's always satisfying to hear a brilliant response from a band that I am willing to admit I was unfamiliar with. Man, does it make me want to ratchet up the awareness of these guys. If you're a fan of indie rock what-so-ever, you'll find yourself a brand new love in the form of Shapes & Colors.

Taking Back Sunday - Contact

More TBS news! The band Contact will be joining the tribute project. They're a four-piece Rock group that features a combination of both male and female vocals. They're somewhat of a familiar face considering some of the members' past projects include And Then There Were None and Young London, both of which appeared on past iterations of our tribute series.

The band's in for a tough task seeing as they've chosen to select "Your So Last Summer," which is hands down one of the most beloved TBS tracks in the TBS library. If their past projects are any indication of their ability than I'm positive that they'll be more than capable of recreating a brilliant rendition of the fan favorite. Young London's version of The Movielife's song "10 Seconds Too Late" is proof of that.

TBS - The Scene Aesthetic

The Scene Aesthetic is the newest artist to join the Taking Back Sunday tribute. 

I can already imagine how masterful their cover of 'Bike Scene' will ultimately be, especially given the superb job they did on their cover of The Movielife. 

I just see The Scene Aesthetic's ability to adeptly use two vocalists in such beautiful harmony as something that should absolutely mesh delightfully with the multiple vocal stylings of TBS.

Taking Back Sunday - Koji

I've probably had the most people tell me that the Alkaline Trio tribute was the best tribute out of all six of the albums in the series. Well, I've added one of the reasons for that high praise, and that's the talents of indie singer/songwriter Koji. 

Koji did a killer stripped down rendition of 'She Took Him To The Lake,' so it'll truly be interesting to see what he does with the Taking Back Sunday song 'Where My Mouth Is.'