A huge congratulations are in order for Have Heart and their album Songs To Scream At The Sun debuting number #193 on the Top 200. Music industry people will probably not be too impressed with this as 2/3 of the sales were direct and non-traditional sales and by far the most immediate pre-order reaction we've had in Bridge Nine history. And when the album came out, our sales didn't drop off because why? Stores weren't taking this album as seriously as they should've. So in today's market, it's pretty gratifying to be able to fill the void that skeptical chains and record stores don't fill.

By offering the download with the album was something our distributor found intriguing to see the reaction. People were freaking out over it. While they weren't thrilled about it, they weren't all that bummed about it because in this day and age, the old model of holding your cards until release date is giving people an album for free for months while stores and bands and labels have to sit patiently when everyone is getting the album for free. The Hold Steady was recently strong-armed into releasing their album early on Itunes and putting out a deluxe edition of their new album on release date. We were stoked to control our fate and control the leak date and thanks to everyone at Caroline Distribution who at least let us get away with it and not punishing us for doing so.

While the vinyl itself was delayed (it's shipping-got pics to prove it), the CDs are all out in the world and we hope you're enjoying them. Soundscans are great measures of how records are selling-but it's not the be all end all of music and it's nice to crash a party that you weren't invited to from time to time

Independence rules.