I’m not sure what the proper procedure is on blogging about yourself. I’ve already seen this mentioned in one paper, and most of you who know us are aware of what we’ve been working on (for fourteen months now), so we figured we’d just put all the details here and keep the backlash in one place.

THIS IS THE REVEAL. (click that)

Now I’ll answer some of your questions:

Wait, you’re in Deastro?
No. But my new record label is putting out Deastro’s first vinyl release. Our record label, I mean.

Our? You two bloggers started a record label? I hate you both and you are doublehandedly destroying the Detroit music scene.
You must be the reporter from The Metro Times. I’m surprised they even sent someone to this press conference. Nice to see you. Next question?

I thought Deastro signed to Ghostly International. What the fuck, mate?
He did but this was in the works before he signed, and Ghostly was nice enough to let us carry through with it. By “nice enough,” I mean we only had to argue over contracts for months and then give up and sign it anyway. I’m just kidding. We love Ghostly. And their lawyers. Our families vacation together now.

A record label? Don’t you hate the record industry? I’m going to steal these songs and give them to my friends and they’re going to steal them and burn them and I’m not giving you any money for anything.
That’s fine with us but you don’t have to steal them. E-mail us and we’ll give you the songs. No joke (except maybe for this release, if Ghostly’s lawyers are reading). This is our opportunity to put our money where are mouths are. I’ve made enough posts about the value-less-ness of digital anything. Are you someone who only listens to music on an iPod? Awesome. The MP3s are free. Are you someone who collects music and values it as a physical product? Awesome. We’ve got a beautiful piece of vinyl to sell you, packaged with a CD-R for your listening convenience (except maybe for this release, if Ghostly’s lawyers are reading).

25 hand-drawn covers by Randy? I’ve heard rumors of different color vinyl. This sounds like you are ripping off every fancy vinyl release ever.
We are. We are long-time vinyl collectors. We are making products we would buy based on products we have bought. We are like FUBU, but with records instead of urban streetwear.

Isn’t colored vinyl and all that crap expensive? You guys must be rich.
Remember last year’s tax refund stimulus check? We put ours together to release a 7inch. For real. This is probably the most productive thing either one of us has ever done and that’s why it’s taken over a year to almost-finish it. Well, that and the whole Deastro-getting-signed-to-a-real-label thing.

Doesn’t this create a conflict of interest? Now you guys can use your blog to promote bands on your label.
Yes, you’re right. We’ll probably blog about Deastro a lot now.

Seriously, assholes!
Here’s the thing — we’re not going to be releasing shit from crap bands. Any artist we press will probably have been featured on this site already since, you know, this site is about stuff we like and we will be pressing stuff we like.  We also won’t be “signing” anyone to any label-type contract so, technically, there will never be any bands on our label. You can still call it a conflict of interest, though. We don’t mind.

When will the Deastro record be released?
We don’t have a definite date yet because we’ve only gotten as far as test pressings. We should get the full shipment in a few weeks and then we’ll figure something out for the label launch / record release party. As soon as we know, we’ll inform you on our Blog Of Conflicting Interests so every other venue in the city has enough time to book awesome conflicting shows that night.

What songs are on the record?
The A-side is “Spritle,” and will be exclusive to our release. The B-side is “Tree Frog,” which will also be the last track on Deastro’s upcoming album, Moondagger, released by Ghostly International. We love sharing.

Who recorded these two Deastro songs?
Joe Frezza of The Wildbunch and The Octopus fame recorded them in Ferndale.  Joshua Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv fame mixed them at Benelli Sound Lab in Chicago. Someone else mastered them…somewhere…I forget…Village Green? It’ll be in the liner notes.

What’s going to be your second release?
It’s a secret, but I’ll give you a hint: Andrew WK inchophone singles.

What’s the name of the label?
Five Three Dial Tone Records.

Wasn’t that the name of a blog?
Yes but it’s not anymore, even though it still shows up sometimes in the address bar. We need internet technical support badly. There will be a separate website for the label…eventually.

Who gets to write your Wikipedia entry?
Preferably Ben Blackwell but first come, first served.

So many Detroiters have stolen your blogging style, aren’t you worried every label in Detroit will start copying the way 53DT releases music?
You mean producing something super fantasticly awesome that we want to buy? We hope so.

There will be more info to come, but hopefully this answers most of your questions and further polarizes the city’s feelings toward us. Oh, and I was kidding about the Andrew WK release. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening.