Game Theory And Sneakers Go Vinyl On Omnivore

GAME THEORY AND SNEAKERS
HEADLINE OMNIVORE’S VINYL OFFERINGS
FOR BLACK FRIDAY RECORD STORE DAY, NOVEMBER 28

Game Theory’s early EPs Distortion and
Pointed Accounts of People You Know reissued on 10″ vinyl
Sneakers featured Chris Stamey and Will Rigby (later of the dB’s)
with Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and Don Dixon.

Their 1976 EP, which gets expanded edition reissue,
was a prototype of American indie rock

Omnivore Recordings’ contributions to Record Store Day Black Friday will feature coast-to-coast exemplars of smart pop: Davis, Calif.’s Game Theory, whose early EPs Distortion and Pointed Accounts of People You Know will be issued as 10″ vinyl EPs (in clear and green vinyl, respectively) and Winston-Salem, N.C.’s Sneakers, whose influential self-titled 1976 7″ EP will be issued as an expended-edition 10″ clear vinyl EP with added tracks. Street date for both is Black Friday, November 28, 2014.

Game Theory followed up their debut album, Blaze of Glory (recently reissued by Omnivore Recordings as the beginning of their Game Theory catalog re-launch) with a pair of EPs — 1983’s Pointed Accounts of People You Know and the following year’s Distortion. Omnivore is pleased to present the next two pieces of the Game Theory puzzle with collectible, one-time only 10″ pressings of these landmark releases (Distortion on green vinyl; Pointed Accounts … on clear vinyl).

Distortion contains five tracks, including Game Theory staples “Shark Pretty” and “Nine Lives to Rigel Five.” Lead guitar was provided by David Bowie’s then-axe man Earl Slick, credited for contractual reasons on the original release as Ernie Smith.
Produced by the Three O’Clock’s Michael Quercio, Distortion showed another musical growth, as Game Theory moved toward the sound they would refine on later releases like Real Nighttime and Lolita Nation (reissues of which are on the horizon for 2015). Distortion’s green vinyl 10″ contains a download card for the entire program.

Pointed Accounts of People You Know contains six tracks, including Game Theory classics “Metal and Glass Exact” and “Penny, Things Won’t.” Also featured is the original version of “Selfish Again,” recently covered by Eric Matthews (who also appears on Omnivore’s new retrospective from Ireland’s Pugwash, A Rose in a Garden of Weeds). The band’s Scott Miller produced Pointed Accounts of People You Know. The vinyl EP also contains a download card for the entire program.

Both Distortion and Pointed Accounts of People You Know will see their full reissues in this one-time pressing of 1,500 units for Record Store Day Black Friday. They are destined to be highly sought-after pieces, and vital additions to any collection.

Selected tracks from both EPs also comprise the CD reissue of the French compilation Dead Center, available November 24th, and intended to remain part of the permanent Omnivore catalog.

Game Theory
Track Listing for Pointed Accounts of People You Know:
SIDE ONE
Penny, Things Won’t
Metal and Glass Exact
Selfish Again
SIDE TWO
I Wanna Get Hit by a Car
Life in July
37th Day

Track Listing for Distortion:
SIDE ONE
Shark Pretty
Nine Lives to Rigel Five
The Red Baron
SIDE TWO
Kid Convenience
Too Late for Tears

* * *
Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter, icons of indie pop, first began to explore recording techniques in Winston-Salem, N.C., during their youth. In 1976, Chris and his band, Sneakers (including drummer Will Rigby, with appearances from Easter), released a EP on Stamey’s own Carnivorous Records (later to morph into Car Records and release Chris Bell’s “I Am the Cosmos”). The sessions were engineered by Don Dixon, who would eventually produce bands such as R.E.M. (with Easter) and the Smithereens. Stamey and Rigby would go on to form the dB’s, and Easter would reappear in Let’s Active. The Sneakers EP — one of just a handful of self-released records that created the template for the modern indie avalanche — remains vital in not only independent record history, but music in general.
Omnivore Recordings is proud to reissue this seminal 7″ EP as an expanded 10″, clear-vinyl EP for Record Store Day Black Friday. Sneakers’ original six tracks are joined by three more tracks, including a previously unissued cover of The Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live for Today.”
Housed in a sleeve that replicates the first issue, this pressing includes a download card for the entire program. Sneakers’ 1,500 units will give people the opportunity to experience the birth of the music they love. Whether to run to the record store or just to dance, everyone needs Sneakers.

Track listing for Sneakers

SIDE ONE
1. Ruby
2. Condition Red
3. Driving
4. Love’s Like a Cuban Crisis
5. On the Brink
SIDE TWO
1. Let’s Live for Today
2. Story of a Girl
3. Nonsequitur
4. S’il Vous Plaît