The Prom!

This weekend is the 9th Annual Team Clermont Pabst Blue Ribbon Ball in Athens, GA aka Merge Radio Dept's fave event of the year! This year is even more special, because White Whale will be bringing the party to Athens on Friday night at the 40 Watt!

The "prom theme" is country western, and we promise to post photos of our fantastic square dancing dresses!

Click HERE for further info, and please come if you are within driving distance!

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American Music Club rocks The Gap!

Our favorite AAA radio promoter, Jennifer Daunt , sent us the following review of last night's American Music Club show at the Gap in the Marina district of San Francisco.

How we wish we had been there!

"AMC at the Gap...it was so bizarre, I couldn't help laughing the minute I walked in, all the gap moms and kids watching and the blaringly sober retail displays and lights on the newest denim line. all the AMC boys were wearing gap clothes!!!! I think they were all wearing matching Gap denim jackets!! One little boy kept bugging Mark, "excuse me, excuse me, you're very good at this!"

and get this, they end the set (or may have been 2nd to last) with PATRIOT'S HEART!!! some of the most obscene lyrics he's ever written!! I kept watching the small group of listeners, swooning unknowingly, no one picked up any of the lyrics or didn't want to. I loved it, BRAVO!!!

and actually, they were quite good! I'll try to send you the postcard and popcorn holder that the gap designed for the event, unbelievable...they had free popcorn and sodas for all.

It was truly a clash of worlds!"

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Fab Bar + Great Bands = PARTY

September marks the 5 yr anniversary of one of our favorite establishments: Orange County Social Club!

Trish, Mistress of the bar, Merge Alumna, and Hostess extraordinaire, has a bevy of events planned to mark this momentous occasion. Full info available here!

September 1: Superchunk & Tenement Halls @ Cat's Cradle!

September 6: Family Feud OCSC Style hosted by Carrboro personality, Mark Dorosin @ OCSC

September 12: (Not Indie Rock) Karaoke @ OCSC

September 18: Acoustic jams with Louis Schefano (Regia), Jason Ross (Seven Mary Three), Jenny & Lee (Work Clothes), Jeremy Chatelain (Cub Country), and David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Headphones) @ OCSC

September 24: Chuck Johnson and Phil Blank & Friends, Victory Factory (Ron from Pipe's new band), Hundred Air (Adam Price from Mayflies USA's new band), The Rosebuds, and a long-awaited Ashley Stove reunion (!!) @ OCSC

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ESSEX GREEN on WORLD CAFE (Today!!)

The World Cafe will be broadcasting their session with The Essex Green on Thursday, July 27th 2006.

(That's TODAY!!)

The World Cafe with David Dye can be heard on more than 180 radio stations nationwide. Fans can find their local station by going to the World Cafe website.

Or they can listen to XPN online Monday thru Friday at 2pm EST by going HERE.

Later in the day on July 27th, the audio will be available on the National Public Radio (NPR) website HERE.

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Thank you, Kansas!

Tomorrow is White Whale Day!

Finally, you will be able to go to your local record store and celebrate this most important of new holidays! The State of Kansas has recognized the members of White Whale on their achievement, and we made an
ECARD in honor of this momentous occasion.

What will you do to celebrate? Listen to WWI, and let us know how you took the whale for a ride!

Christina

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Inaugural Lindsey Post

I received 3 messages within a span of 30 seconds saying "why haven't you posted on the Merge blog yet, Lindsey??" so here I am, trying to make everyone happy..

Fridays are the best because you get to reflect on the crazy things that have happened that week. Like this week, for instance! I thought I was going to be left on the side of the road on the way to a lunch meeting, received a free plane ticket for being a "good consumer," and then I talked to a non-believer. I'm still thinking about a funny way to write about this, but let's just say our bands need more Myspace friends. If you'd like to help out a good cause, please go visit their pages and add them. They deserve it, you know? Here are a few quick links:
Spoon, Destroyer, White Whale, Camera Obscura, The Rosebuds, Arcade Fire, and M. Ward.

We appreciate your support.
Lindsey K.

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Links? We love links...

M. Ward talks about Post-War on the AOL MUSIC blog.

Lambchop gets a track review From Damaged on Pitchfork.

(Actually, "Paperback Bible" was originally comissioned by NPR as a companion piece for an audio-documentary on radio swap-shops, produced by Dan Collison And Elizabeth Meister as part of their Heartland Chronicles series. The piece aired on All Things Considered on April 14th, 2006. You can listen to it HERE.)


-martin

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10/20/92- Where were you?

Thanks to DirtDirt on the Superchunk message boards for digging up this nugget.

-martin

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CAMERA OBSCURA and WHITE WHALE get some online love

Hey look!

It's our first links:

White Whale tour info on PITCHFORK.

Camera Obscura interview featured on RollingStone.com.

-martin

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Here's a photo of the very first Merge Records tshirt silkscreen. In getting this party started, I thought we should post a picture from the office. I hope those of you who stumble upon our little corner of the web will enjoy our ramblings!

Christina

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Hello...nice to see you.

Here it is.
That one thing you have been waiting for.
That one thing that makes your life complete.
That one thing that makes the interent worthwhile again.

That's right. It's....

The Merge Blog!!

If all goes well, this should be pretty fun. We will be updating with news and notes about our bands, crazy stuff that goes on around the office, Lindsey's perpetual quest to find some "friends" she can "hang out" with, hopefully some input from our bands, and of course the usual ridiculous number of links, MP3s and kooky stuff.

We hope you enjoy.

We hope we enjoy.

DISCLAIMER:
This is all in good fun. If you are a news organization (This means you, Pitchfork), please contact your friendly Merge publicist before using any material posted herein.



Stay tuned for more to come...

-martin

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