See also last year and the one before that. Same drill applies; you give me stuff you give away for free here, I go overseas, I give your stuff away to people who wouldn't come into contact with it otherwise. I'm going to have about as much pack space as last year, when I took over about 50 CDs and the better part of a hundred stickers, promo cards, and other small pieces, passing nearly all of them out (essentially, everything but the buttons). The following are the basic rules:

- Don't send anything that breaks. This is traveling by air in a frame pack, so I can't guarantee integrity for anything frangible that isn't in a case. You'll be out a stack of 7"s that people here would actually listen to, and I'll be on the ground in Helsinki with a pack full of broken vinyl. CDs work better if you want to send music.
- Unless you have nothing else, no buttons. They're hard to move and don't have your contact information on them. I'm sick of taking buttons over, not being able to pass them out, and feeling bad about coming home with half of them left.
- The literal dregs of your merch bucket are OK. As long as it's got contact info on it, or room for me to write such on the back while I'm on the boat from Helsinki to Stockholm, it's useful, and your new audience in Europe doesn't know or care that it's last year's/last tour's junk, or that you've retired that logo.
- Any CDs in full-height cases will get repacked into half-height cases for space reasons. This has never been an issue yet, as all of the bands I've lugged stuff for have sent only burns/demos in sleeves or half-height cases, but just in case. If there's a tray inlay with the CD for some reason, it'll be packed along.

If you go to shows in eastern New England, you should be able to find the large bearded guy in the excessively overbuilt patchjacket (Hypocrisy with seven bands of shoulder studs and full sleeves, or alternately Revocation (sleeveless) depending on weather and other circumstances) before the last weekend in July. This is the tentative schedule of shows at which you'll be able to give me stuff:

May 24 - Nocturnal - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
May 26 - Acaro, Untombed - O'Briens Pub (Allston, MA)
Jun 2 - Metal Thursday CXXVII - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jun 4 - Gravewurm - Midway Cafe (Jamaica Plain, MA)
Jun 9 - Metal Thursday CXXVIII - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jun 18 - Summoning Hate - Champions Cafe (Everett, MA)
Jun 19 - Dysentery - Palladium (Worcester, MA)
Jun 23 - Abnormality - O'Briens Pub (Allston, MA)
Jun 24 - Faces of Bayon - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 9 - Hate Eternal - Palladium (Worcester, MA)
Jul 16 - Abnormality, Human Infection - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 23 - Vital Remains - Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

Other opportunities will likely come in as more shows are announced, and an updated version of this list will get posted here in July as I get closer to flying out. As last year, this is the billing for Wacken and Party.San, so that you can check and see if the people there would include your band's likely audience. (The answer, in case you're lazy, is probably "yes".)

Fire in if you have any questions, or want to be sure I find and take stuff off you at one of the above gigs.

We don't have anything yet, but we will. Plus we've already talked about this. Thanks again!

Only the HeavensJail headbob headbang is real.

i was just informed the other day of who you are.

One-month-remaining bump; the remains of the tentative schedule look like the following:

Jun 28 - Scaphism, Totality - Church (Boston, MA)
Jun 30 - Coffin Birth, Totality - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 7 - The Accursed, Warblade, Hirudinea, Autolatry - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 8 - Untombed, Humanity Falls - Champions Cafe (Everett, MA)
Jul 9 - Hate Eternal - Palladium (Worcester, MA)
Jul 14 - Truckfighters, Black Pyramid, Mockingbird - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 16 - Abnormality, Human Infection - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 17 - Ash Borer - PT-109, Allston
Jul 21 - Morgirion, Nathruzym, Vattnet Viskar, Bog of the Infidel - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 23 - Vital Remains - Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

So far I have a bunch of stickers, a few buttons, a couple CDs, and two very random T-shirts to distribute; I'm not anywhere near out of space, even though I haven't done a full load-in check yet. I'll bump this again in a couple weeks as my departure date gets closer.

We'll give you a bunch of Abnormality stickers to take overseas... thank you!

I'll have to make them but how many of our demos could you fit? They're in a full height cases though. Could you take some that way if you still have a plethora of space?

I'd say about ten; as mentioned in the original post, I'll repack them into half-height cases, with all content included, unless you've got like digipaks or something where the art's integral with the case. I've got on the order of 1500 used half-height cases sitting around, so repacking stuff isn't going to be a problem.

Very well. I'll have to redo the front insert so that it has track titles but that should be no problem. I'll be at ralph's tomorrow but I don't have time to make them today (takes about 40 minutes each). I'll get them to ya at ash borer or morgirion. Thanks!

Two-weeks-remaining bump; as above, the rest of the schedule looks like

Jul 16 - Abnormality, Human Infection - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 17 - Ash Borer - PT-109, Allston
Jul 21 - Morgirion, Nathruzym, Vattnet Viskar, Bog of the Infidel - Ralph's (Worcester, MA)
Jul 23 - Vital Remains - Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

If you've got stuff you want taken over, this is the week to get it to me; I go on-call on Friday the 22nd and thus will be kind of shackled to my work phone from then until I fly out. Response has been really good so far, but I still have space remaining, and since I have a significant layover in Iceland and am staying in one place in Finland for a couple days, I can probably make more by assuming my pack'll get through and ditching some backup camping gear.

Hey folks,

There is one week remaining till I go over. I go on call tomorrow night. If you want to give me stuff to take over, haven't gotten it to me yet, and won't be either at Metal Thursday tonight or Vital's "fest" Saturday, drop me a line and we should be able to set up a time/place to meet.

I think I'm running low on space, with somewhere around 80 CDs in, but I haven't done a full load-in and may be able to make more room. What you've got, I'll still take

GREETINGS AND SOLICITATIONS CHILDREN OF TECHNOLOGY!!