News

The Raconteurs have released their second full-length record, available now, through Third Man/Warner Bros. Records. Consolers of the Lonely was completed the first week of March and has been rushed to the market like recent releases by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails.

"We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter," the band wrote in a statement. "The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first week sales, pre-release promotion or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it."

While a complete high-quality download of the album will be available through the Raconteurs' Web site at 320kbps, iTunes and Amazon will also carry it and retailers will stock both CD and vinyl versions.

"I admire the band's attempt to keep it under wraps until the last minute and provide all formats at once," Doyle Davis, co-owner of Nashville's Grimey's, told Billboard.com. "We've been trying to get vinyl to street same day as CD as much as possible and I'm ecstatic over the fact that here's a release that doesn't go to iTunes a month before I get to sell it."

"Typically with a major-label set-up, the single is out a month or more at radio before we get anything to sell," Carl Mello, head of purchasing at Newbury Comics, added. "All that time, people are coming in but we can't sell them anything because it's not out yet. Now, with the Raconteurs, they can hear the song on the radio, come in and its right there for purchase."

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
03.19.08