Bandbox: an uncompensated review of an interesting new club

Mail delivery today!
View attachment 197492
From eBay not bandbox…

I managed to get Rendezvous when Dean/Luna announced they had some clear copies for sale.
I thought I was going to regret double dipping because Pam said shipping was finally going to happen and what was I going to do with 2 copies (albeit in different colors), but here we are.
 
I managed to get Rendezvous when Dean/Luna announced they had some clear copies for sale.
I thought I was going to regret double dipping because Pam said shipping was finally going to happen and what was I going to do with 2 copies (albeit in different colors), but here we are.
jealoussss. that's the last one i missed. I have two Penthouses (the test pressing + the actual press).
 
Email I just received from OK Go


Hello everyone,

A few months back we announced a limited-edition 180-gram maroon splatter pressing of Of the Blue Colour of the Sky that would be available exclusively through a company called Bandbox. We were very excited by this re-issue and it seems you were as well –– Bandbox sold through all 500 copies of the pressing immediately. There was a bonus element to this re-issue as well –– a 16-page "fanzine" featuring interviews and commentary from the band about the recording of this album and the groundbreaking music videos that followed. It all sounded very cool.

But as many of you are now painfully aware, something has gone wrong, and Bandbox has entered into what's called a "receivership." Apparently there has been some Game-of-Thrones-level treachery happening within the company, and we’re all waiting as it gets cleaned up.

What we can tell you for certain is that the records were pressed and they look awesome.


The records themselves were all delivered to Bandbox months ago and they assured us they were “finishing up” production of the fanzine. Late last year, the band gave them hundreds of photos from the era and spent several hours doing interviews with their writer, who'd done impressively thorough research, giving us confidence that the final piece was gonna be great. But we haven’t seen any drafts and don’t yet know how far from completion it was when the shit hit the fan.

We are so sorry for this pain in the ass, and we promise we’ll get it sorted out as best we can, as fast as we can. The receivership is as much a surprise to us as it is to you — Bandbox has done these reissues for years, and they had a great reputation in the industry until this bomb dropped. As we navigate our way through this process, our main goal is to make sure that you get your records. If we can’t, for whatever reason, we’ll refund your money out of our own pockets. We beg your patience during this, because we’re in the dark about what’s going on, too, and as you can imagine, we're not the only band freaking out trying to get answers. If there's a way to complete the fanzine, we’ll do that too.

Details about the receivership can be found HERE. If you haven’t already heard directly from a company called Lighthouse about this matter (they’re now in charge of sorting through Bandbox’s mess), you should email Bandboxclaims@lighthousemanagement.com and provide them with information about your Bandbox order.

We will share more info with you on process and timing as soon as we have it.

And hey, on the upside, if and when you DO receive your G.o.T-treachery/Bandbox version of Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, you’ll be the proud owner of the rarest OK Go release since OK Go & Appendices.



With apologies,
OK Go
 
An email from Dean Wareham/Luna

hey a note today for those of you who ordered the live Luna albums, on color vinyl, direct from Bandbox, and did not receive them. . you have likely heard that Bandbox have filed for bankruptcy, without shipping vinyl to thousands of customers who had paid for LPs by Luna and other artists like Elliot Smith, OkGo, Kurt Vile, Rufus Wainwright, and Barbie.

U.S.-based customers who ordered Live Bewitched and Live Penthouse did get those records, but Live Rendezvous was never shipped. And for international customers, who had ordered a bundle of all three albums, I know some of you have received nothing at all, beyond a promise that all three would ship together.

Just so you know, we have been pestering Bandbox about the shipping status for months. In December they told us that Rendezvous was delayed due to a problem sourcing the brown vinyl pellets (I have since learned this was not true). In January they assured me that the color vinyl had been pressed, and was on its way to their fulfillment warehouse (this was half true). Since February, repeated emails to the head of the company have gone unanswered. A couple weeks ago Bandbox sent an email to purchasers, stating that they were now working with a new fulfillment company and that LPs would be going out soon. And then finally last week, they emailed one last statement that some of you received directly: To Whom It May Concern: Bandbox is filing an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. They are doing this in order to allow a court supervised process to liquidate the company's assets and distribute the proceeds according to priorities established in law. . . thanks for the memories.

We find this last part pretty galling! But we have not given up; we have learned that the unshipped LPs are sitting in a couple of different places, some at Bandbox's own warehouse and others still at the pressing plant. We are in touch with the company who pressed the vinyl, and they too would like to find a way to get the records to those who ordered them. Technically some of the LPs are now under the control of the receiver company – Lighthouse. We are going to try to find a way to get those LPs, and a list of all unshipped orders, but there is a legal process while the receivers examine who is still owed money by Bandbox.

We will keep you posted on this. If you paid by credit card, it can't hurt to ask your credit card company for a refund, but I know it may be too late.

If you ordered the records and would like to get hi-res downloads for now, send us a note here, and we can at least get you those links.

Again, we're very sorry for this whole mess!

Sincerely,
Dean & the Luna band
 
i'm not a legal expert so i'm genuinely perplexed by the lie about moving warehouses when they were really just filing for bankruptcy
They didn't want to admit that were filing for bankruptcy because it wouldn't make them look good especially with lots of unfulfilled orders that haven't shipped yet. They should have stopped putting up so many new releases until they shipped their already announced albums.
 
They didn't want to admit that were filing for bankruptcy because it wouldn't make them look good especially with lots of unfulfilled orders that haven't shipped yet. They should have stopped putting up so many new releases until they shipped their already announced albums.
Are you new to American late stage capitalism? They didn't give a shit. The American way is to run it into the ground until everyone is screwed and the consumers have no recourse. The housing crisis in 2008 is a great example of this, won't stop happening till people who continue to do it go to jail for things like this. Not saying said Bandbox CEO deserves jail time, but he obviously knew things weren't great for a while but continued this huge ruse.
 
Last edited:
Emailed my list of outstanding orders (12 records) to the address from the OKGo email. Got this auto response back:

Thank you for your response to the notice of the Assignment for Benefit of Creditor of Bandbox LLC. At this time all operations have ceased, and no orders are being shipped. Further information will be provided as it becomes available on how to make a claim if you have pre-paid, unfilled orders.
 
Emailed my list of outstanding orders (12 records) to the address from the OKGo email. Got this auto response back:

Thank you for your response to the notice of the Assignment for Benefit of Creditor of Bandbox LLC. At this time all operations have ceased, and no orders are being shipped. Further information will be provided as it becomes available on how to make a claim if you have pre-paid, unfilled orders.
Someone posted about getting that auto-response from that address on the day that Bandbox sent the email out
 
Back
Top