Friday, January 19, 2007

Sugar- Try Again

















Try Splenda.

Is there such a thing as being too good at your job? I'm a small part of the reason you're still finding Sugar in cutout bins over ten years after the great band's releases were originally issued. I was on the sales staff of Ryko's distribution company in the mid-90s. Our all-out promotional blitz for Sugar included flying key retail buyers to Minneapolis for a performance and meet-and-greet with Bob Mould. Ryko spent an insane amount of money on promotions at retail, radio and MTV. Sugar was the biggest of big priorities and guys like me were under enormous pressure to load our customers up. Too much wasn't enough. Needless to say, this campaign failed to make Sugar a household name, and today it's not difficult to buy the entire catalog for a sawbuck. A big part of the reason we were able to ship such large quantities of Sugar was the music's quality. Even this b-side, from the appropriately titled Besides, is first-rate. On "Try Again," Mould recalls the harrowing acoustic sound of Workbook. Don't miss the feedback squalls that conclude the song.

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I've made two minor changes starting with today's post. I switched to zShare to allow a more streamlined way to preview MP3s. The links also now open in new windows.

2 comments:

jonder said...

I've always wanted to thank someone at Ryko for the Mercyland retrospective.

Unknown said...

Oh, how I loved Sugar. I bought all the records well before they were in the bargain bins.