Hi there!
To cut a long story short, after coming back from the Punk Illegal festival end of June my computer decided to go on "full strike" (which sometimes ain't too bad in other contexts) ... This means I had no proper access to (older) emails and programs I use to process the orders (invoices, shipping etc). To say it was a catastrophy ain't too much of an exaggeration and I had to struggle with the fact that my Apple G5 calls it a day. Using my older Models (G3 and, thanks to Conny, a G4) doesn't really do the trick since not all of my programs are compatible with these older models.
Working here is at the moment no fun at all and I currently don't have enough money to buy a new one, so I might be a bit slow with answering emails. Apologies for that.
ZOUNDS, was another pain in the ass, since I got a letter from the
GEMA (German Copyright Wank) stating that the British labels
CHERRY RED and
COOKING VINYL claim license fees upon the ZOUNDS back catalogue. A mere €1300 has to be paid in cash (of course). Noone in the band informed me about this fact and their reaction was pretty much another downer since they don't see it as their problem, despite the fact that we arranged it as a fair, copyright free deal... - Fact is that I sold the Double LP way too cheap now (especially wholesale) but what can you do? I believed their
DIY ethics were still valid but i can't see this anymore really.
The record will stay available until we (Mero and me) run out of sleeves and then we might call it a day.
There has been some long waiting slots for people who ordered the
SJU SVÅRA ÅR - Storma Varje Hjärta LP and
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL / ICON OF EVIL - Split. LP. - Both records were supposed to arrive on time but sometimes things don't work out as smooth as they should and to this day neither of the records arrived here. Apologies again to everyone who waited. I throw in a couple of free stuff to make it a bit less painfull. Both records are now set as "Not Available", but keep an eye on the webshop, at some point they will show up here. Maybe even today...
Speaking of
"Webshop" ... to avoid troubles with non-functioning computer programs, I finally decided to set up a new online catalog with todays functional standards and all that riff raff that comes with it; "Customer" Accounts, Tracking orders, Tracking Stocks etc. Thanks to Sandra - and my alter ego - helping with editing, the whole new engine should be up and running within the next few months. It is more than a relief to finally be getting some help with the distribution and label issues. So you might hear from both of us in order to deal with Mailorder stuff soon.
It will save us from the hassle of moving the 2000+ address files and you will receive some extra email with specials and limited free stuff. === > > NOTE: the "Birth of Date" format on the English version needs to be MM/DD/YYYY not as stated there... Dunno how to fix this bug yet but I work on it. Thanks :)
Finally... August, September and October will bring a bit of uproar here. I gonna move to a new house as well as go on tour with
CROSS STITCHED EYES in the
US/Eastcoast - second attempt (see BLOG) ...
Tour goes on from the 5th of September until 3rd of October. Make sure your order come in before the 31st of August and check out the Website AND the Blog for updates on the moving plans and actions!
Cash is running very low here due to all the current and upcoming troubles (see above) and keeping RUIN NATION as a non-profit organisation is harder than ever before. I don't want to argue about business terms and rising prices and joining any more capitalist structures than I've already been forced to do. But, any order helps a lot at the moment and encourage friends ordering from RUIN NATION helps even more. I hope to buy a new computer as soon as possible and I won't mention how much I would like to release the MAKILADORAS LP within the coming three months, but have to pay off my ZOUNDS account now first. Sorry for that...stooopid.
OK, that's it for now. Keep an eye on
BLOG and
WEBSITE for news and check out the new stuff listed below... Cheers,
Stevie
