Amoeba Gives Away Private Show Tickets with New Boris Release

Prince sold lots of show tickets with his newspaper album giveaway, but this is the first we've heard of an album purchase literally coming with a wristband that gets you into a private show. Only people who buy the latest release from Japanese noise rock band Boris at the Amoeba record store in Berkeley will be able to attend a private show the band the band will play in the store after it closes on June 22.

Update:

Southern Lord and Amoeba Music would like to give YOU one more chance to catch BORIS live in a very special limited engagement setting!

On the day of the show, the first fifty people to purchase any Boris release on the Southern Lord label will receive wristbands allowing access to the show.

This offer is open to all ages and only good at Amoeba Berkeley, while supplies last.

Smile, a CD/DVD combination special edition, also available via Southern Lords, differs significantly from the Japanese version of the album. The band apparently mixed two completely different versions of the album, one for America and the other for Japan. According to Southern Lords,

The main difference between the Southern Lord versionand the Daymare version is the mix of the actual songs themselves.
Where the songs on the Japanese version have a more electronic ornoisy-psychedelic vibe, the North American/European version herefeatures a heavier more straight-forward rock aesthetic. Its trulyremarkable how the band consciously have set out (and achieved) to maketwo completely different sounding versions of the same album.

(Could this be the start of another trend? We've also heard rumblings about My Bloody Valentine potentially releasing as many as three mixes of their next album, and with digital formats the inventory issues associated with that approach are diminishing.)

It'san interesting tactic, encouraging people to buy an album by makingthat the only way to see an event. After possibly being blown away byBoris at this show, fans will be sent home with a CD and DVD to remindthem how much they like the band. Guess who's going to buy the nextalbum and tickets to the next tour? Everyone who was in the audience.
Not a bad plan for maintaining a music career in 2008.

Here's the Japanese mix of "Message" from Smile (hopefully the American-mixed versions will show up soon on a site that allows embedding):

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See Also:

• Prince Shocks Music Retailers by Giving Away Album
• LA Times Kills Column Advocating Princely CD Giveaway
• Pavement Re-Release Comes with High-Quality MP3s of Live Show
• EMI To Include Free Music with NY Daily News
• Pepsi To Launch Massive Giveaway of MP3s and Other Prizes

Photo of Amoeba Records: Maol