AMPLIFY RELEASE DAY

Today is the release day for the new John Brown's Body album, AMPLIFY. It's something all of us at Easy Star (and everyone in the band and their management) have been working towards for over a year. So far, AMPLIFY has gotten some great notices, with a 4 star review from Glide Magazine being the latest.

Like it or not, as a record label, Easy Star needs to sell records to survive; the more we sell, the more progressive reggae releases we can bring to the world. Just as importantly, if you are a fan of JBB, the more AMPLIFY they sell, the easier it becomes for them to tour, make a living and keep recording new music.

We're not naïve - we're music fans ourselves - and we know the extent to which music is shared now, how easy it is to get for free, etc. Hell, we get our fair share of free stuff sent to us and we certainly aren't shy about passing around something great. But we try to give back as well. For every free record we get, we buy another, putting money back in so that other labels can keep putting out new music.

Please go out and buy a copy of AMPLIFY or encourage your friends and family to do so. If you've gotten it for free and like it, buy a copy as a gift for a friend. The more copies move off shelves at retailers, the more they'll bring it in and support it. These first week sales are always important to help establish the record on the reggae chart at Billboard, which helps the release and the band long-term. It should be at most major music retailers. (And if you don't see it, don't be shy, ask someone to order it in!) If you live in Boston, go to Newbury Comics and you'll be able to get a free signed digipack to go with the album. If you live in LA, go to Amoeba. If you live in Austin, go to Waterloo. If you don't have a reliable record store near where you live, go to iTunes to download it (along with two free bonus tracks you can't get anywhere else: a Ticklah dub mix of "Give Yourself Over" and a version of "Ghost Notes" with Vaughn Benjamin of Midnite) or to Amazon to order it (or download it). Or just buy it at the Easy Star web store.

Oh, and by the way, you may have noticed that JBB's page at Myspace has been down for a week. Myspace screwed up and accidentally deleted the band's page, but hasn't been able to fix it yet. In the meantime, we've put up a temporary placeholder page (myspace.com/johnbrownsbodyamplify), but hope the regular page will be back any day.