45

Real talk. For me, getting “Sumo” pressed on vinyl was an all-time bucket-list win. This record is part of my DNA. Every word, memorized (yes, even the “run” at the end of “Dry Run”… yes, even the 26th through the 42nd word in “Spice Drops”). The story of the impact of this band, at a very impressionable time in my life, is the kind of material that could fill MULTIPLE podcasts, but just as a matter of “record”, I DID tell a great deal of that story on Magnified Pod Episode 99 (beginning at about 2 hours into the Episode). I realized, however, that my version of this band’s enduring legacy & importance in my life, felt a whole lot like the story of a bunch of other people out there just like me, so I asked legendary scene champion Brandon of Indie Vision Music to write HIS version of the story for the retrospective commentary in this packaging. He was very considerate to oblige. Also, the boys in Ghoti Hook themselves crawled out of hibernation to write an additional 25th-anniversary essay, in which they declare themselves to have made “the greatest album of all time.” No “surprises” there. The test pressing jacket artwork (both the “rejected” tests & separate “approved” test jacket artwork) is a send-up to “the greatest heel turn in WWF History: Lex Luger at Summer Slam '94… because what is more “surprising” in this world than a “Sumo getting a suplex?” If I were you, I would scoop this pressing up faster than a dinky takes to shrink, because we have no idea if this one will ever make the pressing line again!