POLYVINYL TO REISSUE 15TH ANNIVERSARY VINYL EDITION OF CLASSIC DEBUT BRAID ALBUM. AND FOUR MORE VINYL BRAID TITLES - ALL COMING APRIL 13TH!

At long last, Polyvinyl is pleased to announce the vinyl reissues of Braid's first two albums: Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five (2xLP) and The Age of Octeen.

The making of Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five, Braid's ambitious debut full-length, personified the D.I.Y. nature of the early '90s punk/indie scene. The album was recorded in an Urbana, Illinois house by Andrew Bedinni, a friend of the band who was just learning about engineering and graciously put up with the members of Braid for months while they crafted their 26-song record.

After the album was finished the band scraped together enough money for a run of 500 records, but had nothing left over to pay for jackets. Instead, the members went to a local Goodwill store, bought crates of old records and painted over the covers. Then, they individually hand-screenprinted each copy -- thereby making each record unique. See attached photos of one of the rare original versions on the left (this one was screen printed over a Led Zeppelin IV cover - sweet!) and the reissue on the right.



Even though FWBA5 eventually fell out of print for years on vinyl (making it only available sporadically on a few different CD configurations), it still managed to be an incredibly influential work for an entire generation of bands.

For the 15th anniversary of its original release, Braid and Polyvinyl set out to reissue the record in proper homage to the initial pressing. Of course, no one kept the original materials or screens (believe us, we looked), so the cover art was painstakingly scanned and recreated from one of the original, hand-printed LPs.

In a project over a year in the making, Todd Bell and Bob Nanna supervised all the art recreation and presentation of the original lyrics and liner notes. As well, John Golden (Nirvana, Melvins, Sonic Youth) was brought on to re-master all 26 songs. Finally, the album was pressed on handsome 180-gram white vinyl (limited to 700 copies) and 180-gram black vinyl.

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To accompany the reissue of FWBA5, Braid's sophomore full-length, The Age of Octeen, has also been re-mastered by John Golden and is now available -- after over a decade of being out of print -- on 180-gram blue vinyl (limited to 700 copies) and 180-gram black vinyl.

As well, Movie Music Vol. 1 (which compiles all of Braid's 7" and split 7" material) and Movie Music Vol. 2 (which collects all of its compilation and cover songs as well as five previously unreleased tracks), are available for the first time as separate 2xLP releases. In addition to the 180-gram black vinyl, the color for each album's limited edition colored vinyl was chosen to match its cover: red for Vol. 1 and orange for Vol. 2.

Finally, I'm Afraid of Everything, Braid's most popular 7", is being repressed on mixed color vinyl. B-side "Radish White Icicle" features Steve Lamos of American Football on trumpet.

During its six years in existence, Braid released three full-lengths, nine 7"s and recorded numerous songs for compilations. Notorious for its extensive touring, the band played nearly 600 shows (including a short reunion trek in 2004) and left behind a trail of dedicated fans across the globe.

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MP3:"Hugs From Boys" - Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five
MP3:"Movie Clock Star" - The Age of Octeen
MP3:"I'm Afraid of Everything" - Movie Music Vol. 1
MP3:"Grand Theft Autum" - Movie Music Vol. 2