… a blog post from Chairman’s Corner

Hey hey hey everybody. If you’ve been checking out any of our past blogs and/or our site, you might be able to tell that us Spinney Media folks absolutely LOVE physical media. When a vinyl record, CD, or even a Blu-ray comes with beautiful, striking packaging, there’s nothing quite like picking it up, adding it to your collection, and holding it in your hand.

For example, Arrow Video‘s all-region Blu-ray for the 1979 teen rebellion cult classic flick ‘Over The Edge‘ (pictured above) contains (IMHO) extraordinary packaging, which includes reversible artwork (definitely not the kind of thing that comes with just streaming a movie) and TONS of special features.

I may be just a little bit biased though. Back in 2006, my prior band DRATS!!! created & released an album (a ‘rock operetta’, if you will) based on ‘Over The Edge’. I guess you can say that we were slightly obsessed with the rowdy, anti-establishment vibe of the movie that featured the ultra talented Matt Dillon in his screen debut. The film is quite the favorite amongst many musicians in general (Kurt Cobain wrote about it in his journal). As a result of our album release (and to my great surprise and delight), OTE screenwriter Charlie Haas quickly became a fan of our material. After gaining the approval from one of OTE’s two seriously awesome screenwriters, I always hoped that maybe someday our recording could possibly be included within some kind of official release of the film…

Flash forward 15 years later…and that is exactly what happened! Arrow Video was kind enough to include our album, Welcome to New Granada (also pictured above; on the TV screen next to yours truly), as a special feature on their 2021 release of the ‘Over The Edge’ Blu-ray. While I was (luckily) hanging out at the right place (and at the right time) online, I caught wind of this Blu-ray finally being in development. As a result, I promptly asked Arrow Video if they could possibly include our album on the Blu…and it worked. Of course I was most definitely NOT expecting them to say ‘yes’ to my proposal – but it all just goes to reiterate that classic rule in entertainment: It really never hurts to ask! From a musician’s standpoint, the ‘never hurts to ask’ rule can certainly also be applied to playing with bands you dig, playing at venues you enjoy, and it can even apply to getting press as well.

Cheers,

Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch

Music lover, creator & collector

chairman@spinneymedia.com

Chairman currently enjoys freaking out & creating panic with his spastic rock band Nasalrod, which is based in Portland, Oregon. He created this blog to share his serious love of music, the arts, and physical media.