Akron/Family Releases Banksy-Inspired ‘Bombs’ for Record Store Day

The strange folks of Akron/Family are planning on releasing a bizarre, not quite self-destructive, special double-vinyl collection for Record Store Day (April 16) this year. The release is a compilation of blown-out, warped versions of songs from their latest release ‘S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT.’ The thing is, fans who tried to download that album before its release date, via an Internet leak, may have wound up with one of several prank versions of the album, containing twisted, blown-out remixes of the original tracks. The band intentionally flooded the market with warped versions, initially as a tool to create interference and difficulties for anyone trying to illegally download the album for free. But, unintentionally, it raised the question, “Which versions are the definitive ones?” After all, the Hartford Advocate named ‘Shinju TNT’ the “Album of the Week.” But, without even knowing it, they were actually talking about one of the counterfeits.

“The idea of ‘bombing’ the Internet was inspired more by the art-pranking of Banksy,” Akron/Family’s Miles Seaton tells Spinner. “Or the Napster bombs of the ECC (Evolution Control Committee), who would post their own music or noise or someone else’s music on Napster with the label of Bruce Springsteen or AC/DC. So when people finally did get a chance to open their files (that likely took a looooooong time to download), they got something that likely sounded MUCH different than the Boss.”

But these blown-out Akron/Family songs don’t, actually, sound much different than Akron/Family. In fact, Seaton almost argues that, in the end, they might sound even more like the band than the official album itself. “In a way, at many times they are more aesthetically representative of that wild or magical energy that ends up being trimmed and trimmed and directed and ultimately a little stifled by the format of a record,” muses Seaton. “This isn’t to say that we don’t stand 100% behind ‘Shinju TNT’ — it’s more that there was a real extreme and feral quality about where we were creating from, that wasn’t ultimately highlighted by the record … So, without even noticing, those spirits took over and manifested in us aggressively re-approaching the record: the process, the presentation, everything.”
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Fans will be able to get their hands on the official presentation of the unofficial versions come Record Store Day, when their forgiving record label, Dead Oceans, issues them on vinyl. Of course, you’ll also be able to pick up the original album as well. You’ll be able to figure out which is which due to the packaging — but you can still choose which versions are definitive, in your book.

“In the end, we all went back to the various bombs and found ourselves totally surprised by how great they were, how much they really seemed to speak to the truth of the original vision we had of this phase,” says Seaton. “That, mingling with the art prank — though I do want to say that it was more about fun than art, in the best way — had us all excited anew about the whole thing.”

Yeah — what he said. But just so we’re clear: Akron/Family are making their fake counterfeits official? Exit through the record store…

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