I thought something was up when Sumerian Records head Ash Avildsen started a tirade on illegal downloaders with "hey all you jobbers…," which sounded a bit like a wrestling promo aimed at people looking to catch a sneak peak of Born of Osiris's new record, The Discovery. Ash pretty much let the whole world know the album leaked resulting in even more downloads than if he would've kept his mouth shut.
It turns out that's exactly what he wanted you to do! After posting the story, a few junkies on Facebook and Twitter noted to me that the leak was fake, with one incredibly kind junkie even tweeting me a link to the fake leak. I downloaded it instantly, and wanted to see what all the fuss is about. It ended up being fucking hilarious AND a brilliant marketing move! The first track on the leak is "Follow The Signs" which the band released on their Myspace page, so you get to hear the full thing. Once you get to track two, that's when the fun starts.
Within 15 seconds of "Singularity," the band starts farting over the music, and then talking over it, with the audio of the song lowered. Initially, I have to say I was a bit annoyed, and wanted to just hear the song. I quickly realized that's the point. The band was saying some really absurd things: "Dan Glenzing?," "OMG, is this a djent? band?" (Listen to a sample). At certain points, the band would just put vocal bleeps over the music (BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP) with another member of the band going OUMMMMMM, OUMMMMMMM, OUMMMMMMM. There are Charlie Sheen samples. There are silly dubstep interludes. Lots of farts throughout. There would be long pauses making you forget you're listening to the album, only to have it kick in again a few minutes later. Once I stopped listening to this as an album leak, and instead as just a bunch of people goofing off, the listening experience became way better. Some of the goof-off music they created was actually pretty fucking funny. Also, the small tidbits of music they would put through clearly sounded awesome. For any fans of silly music, I would recommend giving this a whirl.
So in the end, Born of Osiris and Sumerian Records win. They pranked a bunch of downloaders, goofed off and then got some of those downloaders, who are, without question, big fans of the band really excited to hear the new material, with the little taste they gave them. I guess this is how you market a record in 2011.
If you want more Born of Osiris sillyness, check out a classic interview we did with the band a few years ago.
