Out Now - Polyvinyl Reissues 15th Anniversary Vinyl Edition of Classic Debut Braid Album + 3 More

Braid LP Reissues

MP3s

"Hugs From Boys" (From: Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five)

"Movie Clock Star"  (From: The Age of Octeen)
"I'm Afraid of Everything" (From: Movie Music Vol. 1)
"Grand Theft Autum"  (From: Movie Music Vol. 2)

Polyvinyl is pleased to announce that today marks the official release of four classic Braid albums as deluxe vinyl reissues! In addition to Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five (2xLP) and The Age of Octeen (the band's first two records, both long out of print), Braid's two compilations albums -- Movie Music Vol. 1 (2xLP) and Movie Music Vol. 2 (2xLP) -- are also now available for the first time as separate releases.

    * All five members of Braid available for interviews.
    * Full digital downloads of all four albums available upon request.
    * Half of the limited edition colored vinyl pressing sold out before street date.
    * To celebrate the release of Braid's vinyl reissues, contests have been organized on sites like The
Tripwire, Threadless, Punknews and others to give away these monumental packages along with test pressings of each release.

Praise For Braid

"(Braid) laid much of the groundwork for the phalanx of pop punk upstarts that dominated the better part of the last decade. Respect is due."-Prefix

"Every lyric transmits Ernest Hemingway-like romanticism; every jagged chord or meter change serves its song perfectly." -Alternative Press

"I can understand people going out of their way to praise Braid. They took the aggressiveness of punk, pure pop melody and the kind of personal lyrics that by their nature strike a universal chord, and made it all into something special."-PopMatters


The making of Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five, Braid's ambitious debut full-length, personified the D.I.Y. nature of the early '90s punk/indie scene. The album was recorded in an Urbana, Illinois house by Andrew Bedinni, a friend of the band who graciously put up with the members of Braid for months while they crafted their 26-song record.

After the album was finished the band scraped together enough money for a run of 500 records, but had nothing left over to pay for jackets. Instead, the members went to a local Goodwill store, bought crates of old records and painted over the covers. Then, they individually hand-screenprinted each copy -- thereby making each record unique. See attached photos of one of the rare original versions on the left (this one was screen printed over a Led Zeppelin IV cover - sweet!) and the reissue on the right.

Even though FWBA5 eventually fell out of print for years on vinyl (making it only available sporadically on a few different CD configurations), it still managed to be an incredibly influential work for an entire generation of bands.

For the 15th anniversary of its original release, Braid and Polyvinyl set out to reissue the record in proper homage to the initial pressing. Of course, no one kept the original materials or screens (believe us, we looked), so the cover art was painstakingly scanned and recreated from one of the original, hand-printed LPs.

In a project over a year in the making, Todd Bell and Bob Nanna supervised all the art recreation and presentation of the original lyrics and liner notes. As well, John Golden (Nirvana, Melvins, Sonic Youth) was brought on to re-master all 26 songs. Finally, the album was pressed on handsome 180-gram white vinyl (limited to 700 copies) and 180-gram black vinyl.

To accompany the reissue of FWBA5, Braid's sophomore full-length, The Age of Octeen, has also been re-mastered by John Golden and is now available -- after over a decade of being out of print -- on 180-gram blue vinyl (limited to 700 copies) and 180-gram black vinyl.

As well, Movie Music Vol. 1(which compiles all of Braid's 7" and split 7" material) and Movie Music Vol. 2 (which collects all of its compilation and cover songs as well as five previously unreleased tracks), are available for the first time as separate 2xLP releases. In addition to the 180-gram black vinyl, the color for each album's limited edition colored vinyl was chosen to match its cover: red for Vol. 1 and orange for Vol. 2.

During its six years in existence, Braid released three full-lengths, nine 7"s and recorded numerous songs for compilations. Notorious for its extensive touring, the band played nearly 600 shows (including a short reunion trek in 2004) and left behind a trail of dedicated fans across the globe.

http://www.polyvinylrecords.com