I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long long time. It’s not every day you get to work with one of your heroes on a record release! It’s With the Eyes of Conrad Veidt!
If you know me, you’ll know that Yehonala Tapes was one of the most important labels to me growing up. It almost single-handedly shaped my taste in music, and I think represented (and still represents)the best in techgrind culture. Its curated, deliberate, and just absolutely uncompromising. The ethos of Yehonala just always resonated with me in such a huge way. And the man at the helm is none other than Tom. AKA Tom is the Bastard.
I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in this scene that Tom hasn’t impacted in some way. Either from influence or art or even bands themselves. Like, did you know Mike from Inside the Beehive was in a band called “The Electrician” that had a tape on Yehonala? Or that WFAHM’s “Falling Upstairs” was originally released on Yehonala? Or that Zak Denham has a band with a Yehonala release (you might know him from recording every fucking Artisan Era Album). Like, the amount of influence and reach is INSANE. Every band on Yehonala is your favorite techgrind band’s favorite band. I know I overuse and repeat a lot of buzzwords and phrases, but I truly feel this way about every band. But like, sometimes a band supersedes even that. Just upper echelon techgrind culture.
Call Me Betty. Kids on Crack. Afterlife Kids. Ancst. And of course the mighty WTEOCV. The Tom Schmidt cinematic universe. I personally think it’s a coin flip between WTEOCV and Kids on Crack for ultimate Tom supremacy, but WTEOCV is shorter and has a better logo. So in terms of scene cred that edges it out. It’s a discography release that barely tops 10 minutes long. Its all the things you love about the genre. Short, aggressive, programmed, shrieking and powerviolence-y. It’s a snapshot of everything that made music great in the early aughts. This is the shit you’d load on your ipod mini. That zine shit. That “actually, they’re from Europe you probably haven’t heard of them” masterflex. I think so often the bands and releases I enjoy are bigger than the music they produce in terms of culture and impact. I think WTEOCV gets close to that tbh, but the tunes are so sick that I would also probably put this out even if the world’s coolest dude wasn’t associated with it.
I’m still kind of pinching myself that I get to work with Tom not only as a Yehonala fan, but now in this WV context. He not only graced me with permission to put this out, but also did the art (fun fact, his art aesthetic is a major influence on WV print-style skeuomorphism). He can’t stop influencing me even if he tried! The best tunes, the best art, and of course, the best variants. So happy we get to have WTEOCV on totally over the top single sided 12” sigs. Just a dream come true.
Audio was handled by Zach again at Third Eye Studios, and you know when Zach gets his hands on unmastered, raw fuckign cyber tracks he always pulls it out. Just an incredible job that really modernizes everything, and makes it flow as a complete discopgraphy. Tip of the hat!
As always, This one-time pressing is limited to 305 copies across five variants:
50 Twirling Sigsma (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Vineta Sigdrom (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Only Sigs Beneath The Digital Eclipse (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Eye(ball)prophet
100 Starlet Splatter
5 Golden Mage
All of this housed in:
1.5x thickness Matte single pocket jackets
Double sided matte full color insert
Black polylined innersleeves
Gold foil numbering
Stuffed into polybags
So there it is! My love letter to Tom and everything Yehonala. I’m so happy that WV is at the size it is and I can do a niche little passion release like that. I hope you enjoy it! These will be in hand before Friday, so expect pictures before they ship, which will be immediately. Not a preorder!
Orders go live this Friday 8/19 at 1:00pm CST. See ya there!
