We would like to get the word out on a new band that we just printed some awesome merch for:

GOLD MOTEL doesn’t exist, but if it did, you’d find it on a winding road somewhere in the sun-drenched hills of Southern California. Singer-songwriter Greta Morgan wrote her first song at age three and never stopped, cutting her teeth in the music business and honing her chops as a driving creative force of the Chicago jangle-pop act The Hush Sound. After four years, three albums and a relentless touring schedule that included shows to devoted fans on three continents, Greta packed up her guitar, her piano, and her record collection and headed to Southern California to write the songs which would become her solo endeavor.

Gold Motel represents the evolution of a musical identity that hearkens back to pop’s crowning achievements: the dreamy energy of The Kinks, the quickwitted lyrical dexterity of Elvis Costello, the unassuming sophistication of a Beach Boys melody, light as air and deep as the Pacific. The youthful energy and sheer joy of Greta’s work is captured on the Gold Motel EP, recorded with friend Dan Duzsynzski (of the band This Is Me Smiling). Until then, old and new fans alike can catch Greta at live performances throughout the US, where she charms and beguiles with all the talent and soul of a singer in the lobby of a gilded motel. –Lauren Henry

You can check out more on Gold Motel by following one of the links below-
goldmotel.com
Twitter
MySpace

Here at Vertical Merch, we like to take any opportunity to support and promote the bands that we print for. This week that band is Vega Under Fire. VUF is an Indie Dance Rock group based out of Naples, Florida. With the five members all coming together from previous bands with contrasting styles and backgrounds, Vega brings a new but familiar sound to the stage. Their music is full of energy, powerhouse choruses and intricate breakdowns as they constantly strive to create something new and never merely blend in with the current flavor of the week. They’re one of those bands that while you may love their albums, you’ll love their live performance even more. They never fail to bring their fans an awesome, sweaty night of music.

Vega is in the running to be the local band performing at the 97x Next Big Thing on December 6 at the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa. They would be performing with bands like Panic! At the Disco, Rise Against, Matisyahu and The Used. You can vote for them up until noon today which gives you just under 2 hours to throw them some support and score another great band to see at the show. To vote for them, go to 97xonline.com/nbt9bandsearch/ and help out local bands!

To visit the band’s sites or hear their music, go to Facebook.com/VegaUnderFire or myspace.com/vegaunderfire.

We’ve been pretty slammed at the VertMerch warehouse the past couple of weeks. Aside from taking care of stuff for some of our regulars, like Squaresville, and working on FEST orders, we’ve had some awesome new clients as well.

Type O Negative is doing a Halloween Tour and we’ve been working on getting all their merchandise printed. The heavy metal group started in 1990 in Brooklyn, NY, incorporating elements of doom and thrash metal into their music. Their lyrical focus on depression, romance and death earned them the nickname “The Drab Four.” The tour also coincides with the release of their album Slow, Deep & Hard Remastered. We’ve also been doing the merch for special guests on the tour, Seventh Void. SV is a hard rock band, including 2 of the members from TON. They originated in 2003 and are on Big Vin Records.

We’re stoked that Type O and Seventh Void are letting us take care of all the merch for this quick tour. Here’s to the guy in Type O Negative for rocking out for almost 2 decades and letting us be a small part of that.

We’re always happy to have new people printing with us. As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.

This week we got a ton of use out of our flat-press for a bunch of prints by artist Leon “Tes One” Bedore. These prints can be found at an upcoming showing called “Repeat Offender” at RedLetter1 Gallery which opens October 3rd. For more information on Tes One go to his website HERE or you can read below:

Combining traditional and non-traditional techniques, Tes One creates contemporary works of art that contrast nature with technology, grime with grace. Allowing himself to find beauty in the mundane, he is able to juxtapose rejected landscapes with figurative illustrations, all the while identifying what is common between the conversing elements. These opposing forces coexist to create paintings that are both symbolic and metaphorical. Tes One’s conceptual paintings are assembled from the foundation up; color and cast blanket organic substrates. Incorporating movement within his work brings his energy and message to the viewer, emotions envelope and hold focus.

Tes One’s imagery has appeared in numerous publications in both advertising and editorial capacities. His work has enjoyed acclaim in places such as London, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland and San Francisco. Repeat Offender is Tes One’s second exhibition at RedLetter1.

Go on out and support local artists by going to his opening reception.
October 3rd, 2009
7pm – 11pm
1818 North 15th Street
Tampa, Florida 33605

We wanted to take the opportunity to extend our Fest 8 specials a little bit to accommodate those with smaller orders, as well as including pricing for our koozies. This will provide everyone with the hopes of printing limited edition Fest koozies and t-shirts the ability to take advantage of our awesome pricing. Details can be found below:

25 Shirt special:

Gilden: White – $3.25
Colored – $4.25
Tultex: White – $4.00
Colored – $4.50
American Apparel: White – $5.50
Colored – $6.25
Tultex: Black 5.3 oz – $3.75

50 Shirt Special:

On the 50 shirt special, our t-shirt pricing remains the same. However, we include an order of 250 black and white stickers in these sizes:
2.12 x 2.75″
4.25 x 1.38″
2.75 x 2.75″
3.5 x 2″
5.5 x 1.38″
5.5 x 1.5″

100 Shirt Special:

Once again on our 100 shirt special our t-shirt pricing remains the same. This time we include the order of 250 black and white stickers, as well as an order of 10 free koozies (black w/ white ink).

We also felt the need to provide you with our extremely cheap koozie printing prices in case that’s the only item you need!

1-sided koozie – $1.00
2-sided koozie – $1.25
(minimum orders of 50)

All other merch items will receive a discount of 10% off.

These prices do not include applicable tax and setup fees.

All orders for this special must be received by October 16th so we have ample time to get them printed. We’ll all be heading down to the Fest, so you can save cash on shipping if you pick the shirts up from us on Friday afternoon.

As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.

We’re trying out something new at the warehouse this weekend, and you’re all invited to take part! New Bruises (which features one owner and one employee of Vertical), Used Kids (NYC) and Tenement (Wisconsin) will be performing here at an afternoon matinee show this Saturday September 12th. It’s $5 to get in and begins at 3pm sharp so don’t be late! Just come on out to 202 N. Rome Ave in Tampa and you’ll have the chance to check it out!

We decided to up the ante after last week and run one more special. This one is available only through August 28th, so you’ll need to act super fast to make the deadline! We’ll go ahead and detail your options below:

Anvil #779 5.5 oz basic tee and Gildan #5000 5.5 oz basic tee:
White $3.00
Color $3.75

Anvil #979 6.1 oz ultra tee and Gildan #2000 6.1 oz ultra tee
White $3.25
Color $4.00

Tultex #0202 4.5 oz unisex fashion fit tee and #0213 juniors tee
White $4.00
Color $4.50

These are our starting prices based on a 1 color design. Normal up-charges, setup fees, tax and shipping costs are not included. Please respond to any inquiries with “August Special Pricing” to receive these deals!

As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.

We’re going to be running a couple of specials for The Fest 8 this year where we can offer some great prices along with some freebies to help promote your band or label.

50 Shirt Special
Prices start at:
White shirt – $3.75
Colored shirt – $4.75
Black shirt – $4.25 (Tultex 5.3 oz jersey)

This special comes with a free order of 250 black and white stickers in these sizes:
2.12 x 2.75″
4.25 x 1.38″
2.75 x 2.75″
3.5 x 2″
5.5 x 1.38″
5.5 x 1.5″

100 Shirt Special
Prices start at:
White shirt – $3.25
Colored shirt – $4.25
Black shirt – $3.75 (Tultex 5.3 oz jersey)

This special comes with the same offer of 250 black and white stickers as well as 10 free black koozies with white ink. The koozie print will be one sided with the Vertical Merch logo on the other side.

All orders for this special must be received by October 9th so we have ample time to get them printed. These prices do not include setup costs or applicable taxes. We’ll all be heading down to the Fest, so you can save cash on shipping if you pick the shirts up from us on Friday afternoon.

As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.

What started as a 60 band 2 day Gainesville fiasco in 2002 has evolved into an annual pilgrimage of indie and punk bands to the bearded mecca. Known just as The Fest, the now 3-day festival boasts over 200 bands every year and thousands of attendees. Arguably every punk rockers “favorite weekend of the year” is fast approaching with the dates for The Fest 8 secured as October 30th – November 1st this year. Past performers include Against Me!, Hot Water Music, Mastodon, Ted Leo, Bouncing Souls, Naked Raygun, and this years lineup boasts acts like Snuff, Samiam and Strike Anywhere.

We at Vertical Merch end up working with a lot of bands that need t-shirts and other apparel for tours, so we thought we would do our part to bring some attention to the hard-working musicians that keep us in business. There are still tickets available, but the Fest has been notorious for selling out in past years. So snag your tickets, purchase your flight and reserve a hotel room and get ready to watch some excellent bands and have a great time. For more information go to The Fest 8 website and check out the list of bands, ticket prices, etc.

We will start getting busier at the shop the closer we get to The Fest, so make sure you plan ahead to get your merch in time! As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.

This week at Vertical Merchandise we would like to highlight another company that frequents our business as a client in many shapes and forms. Paper + Plastick is an exclusively vinyl and digital record label started by Less Than Jake drummer/lyricist Vinnie Fiorello. The concept behind the label includes a focus on the artistic side of the music with souped up packaging on many of their releases and limited prints by up-and-coming artists. Lately we’ve had a bunch of shirt orders come in for the label. Here are some of the simple logo design shirts we printed:

Secondly, we printed some shirts for Shook Ones. Shook Ones new record “The Unquotable A.M.H.” just came out on Paper + Plastick recently and it has already garnered rave reviews. The band is currently on its way to Oxnard, CA to take part at the annual Sound and Fury Festival. Check out the shirts we did for them below:

Last but not least, we also ran off a reprint of some shirts for the Paper + Plastick band Protagonist. Protagonist have been touring hard all summer and now the members find themselves helping the label out by working the Paper + Plastick tent at Warped Tour. These shirts will be for sale there:

Paper + Plastick not only prints a ton of their awesome merch through us, but they also take advantage of the order fulfillment services we offer. We take all of the orders for their online store and handle shipping, customer service and inventory for the label. Needless to say, they are valued customers to us, so we wanted to take the opportunity to inform you of what they have been up to!

As always, if you need anything at all you can contact us by emailing verticalmerch[at]gmail[dot]com or call 813-489-6144. You can also submit artwork and your order online at Verticalmerch.com.