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Please enjoy this video (LINK) for the song "Master of Dancing" from the upcoming EP by Champion Kickboxer (presently out on their UK label).  The song is lovely.

54º40' or Fight! CATALOG DISCOUNT EXTRAVAGANZA
Part one:  "Don't call it math-rock"
In the early years of running this label - and even as we expanded and further diversified our roster - our "sound" was pegged as "math-rock." Extolled by many and derided by some, "math-rock" was fitting for many of our releases in as much as the bands we signed tended to play songs with complex arrangements, unusual time signatures, and with a hefty amount of skill.  But rather than it being a cold, mathematical exercise, these bands also played with plenty of intensity and emotion.  If you witnessed a show with 31knots, The Building Press or Dilute, then you know what we mean.

To celebrate our past, and to make room for the future in our cramped studio office, we're running a sale on some of these "math rock" albums. Now you may add these titles to your collection at a fraction of the cost.  Get it? Fraction - that's a math term.

Hubcap - Those Kids Are Weirder (Polk001)
Moreland Audio - Turbogold (Polk011)
This Bright Apocalypse - Motion and Rest (Polk014)
Ring, Cicada - Good Morning, Mr. Good (Polk015)
The Building Press - Young Money (Polk022)
Valina - Epode EP (Polk026)
Regular price:  $69  Sale price:  $30
Free domestic shipping.
Foreign shipping $8 extra.
BUY IT NOW!

Part two:  Don't Kill Yr Idols; Release Thr Records
We've been honored and humbled to have been able to work with some of our favorite musicians and people since starting the label.  If you would have told me in the mid-to-late-'90s that I would become affiliated with the likes of Nick Sakes (Sicbay), Alex Dunham (Abilene), Fred Erskine (Abilene) and Allen Epley (The Life and Times), whose prior bands (Dazzling Killmen and Colossamite for Sakes, Hoover for Dunham and Erskine, June of '44 for Erskine, and Epley's Shiner), I would have thought you were putting me on. Yet here we sit in 2008 with a catalog that boasts the recent work of each of these men, and damn fine work it is.  Purchase these records and listen for yourself.  Then go back to find their earlier bands' records, if you don't have them already.

Abilene - Two Guns, Twin Arrows (Polk012)
The Life and Times - The Flat End of the Earth (Polk018)
Sicbay - Suspicious Icons (Polk029)
Regular price:  $33  Sale price:  $20
Free domestic shipping.
Foreign shipping $5 extra.
BUY IT NOW!

Part three:  Love at first sound
Everyone has those moments when they hear a band and fall instantly in love with its music.  Listening to a three-song demo by The Double back at the beginning of the decade is what ultimately prompted us to start 54º40' or Fight!.  Along the way, there have been others, and among them are England's Champion Kickboxer, Raleigh, NC's Ticonderoga, and the Austin, TX band Mandarin.  A couple of these were accidental discoveries (we found Champion Kickboxer by browsing MySpace band pages, and we're almost certain if we never found Ticonderoga's website (thanks to Schooner), they'd still be releasing rough sketches of their music for free online. Mandarin has since disbanded and The Double has moved on to Matador Records and tours with Interpol.  2/3 of Ticonderoga is playing in Bowerbirds, while Champion Kickboxer is taking the fall to recover from a summer of mild touring.

The Double - Loose Crochet (Polk002)
Mandarin - Fast>Future>Present (Polk023)
Ticonderoga - s/t (Polk024)
Ticonderoga - The Heilig-Levine LP (Polk027)
Champion Kickboxer - Perforations (Polk034)
Regular price:  $60  Sale price:  $35
Free domestic shipping.
Foreign shipping $8 extra.
BUY IT NOW!