When Allister formed in 1996, 7” vinyl EPs were all the rage. There was a sense (at least for us) that if we could somehow scrape up enough money to record and release our own 7” EP, we would have “made it.” So, that’s just what we did. For a few hundred bucks we recorded and self released an EP called “You Can’t Do That On Vinyl,” a tongue-in-cheek nod to the satirical sketch comedy show on Nickelodeon called “You Can’t Do That on Television,” from where we derived the band’s name.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty years since we released that EP. None of us would have guessed that we would go on to tour the world and release 5 full length records, along with a very successful EP of Japanese and American cover songs. Wild how shit happens sometimes.
To mark this milestone in our career, we are excited to announce that we’ll be releasing a new record. It’s a 20 song compilation that features songs from previous records as well as four brand new tracks. The record comes with a bit of a twist, though. Since we don’t own the recording licenses for songs on our first three records, we took the liberty to re-record and re-imagine some of them (we own the rights to the songs themselves).
None of the songs are drastically different, but we tried out a few subtle new arrangements and polished a few others with rougher edges. It was quite fun for us actually, as it gave us a chance to see and hear some of these songs in a new light. Purists may not agree with rearranging and re-recording old songs, and we can certainly understand that sentiment. But we also figured, what the hell. The original recordings will always hold a soft spot in the collective Allister heart, and they may hold the same in some of yours as well. We love that. But we’re positive you’ll dig this new record too.
The record is called “20 Years and Counting” and will be officially released through Universal Japan on January 30, 2019. Digital copies will be available on iTunes.
Track Listing:
1. Stay With Me*
2. Radio Player
3. Runaway
4. Somewhere on Fullerton
5. D2
6. Moper
7. Haley
8. Scratch
9. Peremptory Challenge*
10. Stuck Powered On
11. A Study in Economics
12. Flypaper
13. Back to Brookline*
14. All We Needed
15. 5 Years
16. Jacob
17. A Lotta Nerve
18. Carousel*
19. Overrated
20. Blackout
*Previously unreleased
We have tour dates in Japan set for March of next year and we’ll also be doing a few US shows over the course of 2019. Special thanks goes out to everyone who has supported us over the last twenty years. It’s been a hell of a lot of fun and we hope to continue making more records and playing more shows in the coming years…
Allister