Sturgill Simpson‘s new album as Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds, Mutiny After Midnight, is officially out today (3/13); he announced it as a physical-only release, but wound up giving it a surprise release on YouTube a week early. That’s since been removed, but in a new message on his Instagram stories, Sturgill says the album will “probably” stream “at some point,” unreleased bonus tracks included. He also offers some insight into the whole rollout, and his full message is here:
Thank you very much to everyone for joining in on all the fun and being such good sports over the past few weeks. We made this record with a sense of immediacy and in the moment expression with the pure intention of simply having fun and making people forget about everything else, even if for only 44 minutes. Thank you to everyone that “gets it” and to all the writers for the kind words and love.
We had originally planned a physical only release for at least the first 4-6 weeks to support and show solidarity with independent record shops and to promote an increasingly bygone physical and tangible connection between music and music fans… the almost mystical bond and stems from holding a new piece of artistic expression in your hands while hearing it for the first time… there were some hiccups (and some opportunists) thus some in the moment adjustments that only led to more fun and chaos.
Personally, I’m just here for the chaos.
Plus I’ve always really wanted to leak my own record…
I can assure you, if nothing else, there are meetings taking place right now throughout the music industry amongst those who pray to formula currently discussing and analyzing the fact that without interviews, tv performances, singles, music videos, or an ounce of “marketing” outside a steady steam of stupid ass memes, we have already had what those that follow charts refer to as the biggest “first week” of any album in my entire career… and “first week” technically just started today.
We’ll probably put it on iTunes at some point.
We’ll probably stream it (with bonus tracks) at some point.
But the album is out in stores today.
Go buy a physical copy… or don’t Stream it illegally… or don’t.
But as your attorney, I advise you to put the phone down, get out of the house, and go grab a copy and find a place to crank it with some friends or even strangers… you might even get laid.
It’s all the same fucking day man… so don’t let the bastards get ya down.
You can pick up Mutiny After Midnight on vinyl in the BV shop, and read Andrew’s review in Notable Releases.
