Adam Gnade

Look at this amazing Pioneers Press shout-out. I told you guys we’ve been fighting all week to not go under, right? Well, goddamn, this makes it feel a lot better. Puts some fight back in you, to be sure.

thismightwork:

I got an order in the mail today from Amazon.  Every time I come home to find that brown cardboard box waiting on my stoop, I must admit I feel more than slightly guilty.

Yes, that box contained three books by very talented writers that I’m looking very much forward to reading.  If you’re a writer, it is so important to read widely, to challenge your mind, to expand your perspective.  But, I can never get the thought out of my head that the company that just made it so easy for me to obtain these books is the reason brick and mortar bookstores are going extinct.  Hell, most of the really good ones, the independent neighborhood bookstores, already are.

It’s people like me (by which I mean damn near everyone, since very few people don’t shop at Amazon) who have hastened the demise of that holiest of places for bibliophiles everywhere.  Yes, Amazon is convenient, but at what price does that convenience really come?

There’s this great small press that I was introduced to a couple of months ago that has been having a rough go of it lately.  These people are in it for the right reasons; they’re advocating for real art, advancing social consciousness, and giving voice to marginalized folks who are never going to hit the bestseller list.  Seriously, go check out Pioneers Press and pick up some books and zines and music you’re not going to find anywhere else, from writers and artists who are doing it for the best reason: it’s what they were born to do.

I may have gotten my order from Amazon today, but it’s the order from Pioneers Press that shipped yesterday that I’m truly excited to receive.  If you’re an artist, a writer, or even just someone who thinks a little bit differently, I highly recommend checking out the folks from the Hard Fifty Farm, and the thousands of other small presses and distros out there, and support the little guys.  

Amazon doesn’t want the little guys to exist.  They want nothing more than complete online retail dominance (seriously, they started as a bookstore and now you can buy a frickin’ small boat from them ).  Our society can’t afford to become any less intelligent, any more homogenized, or to marginalize voices that fall outside the status quo.

So, I am resolving to cut off my Amazon addiction.  No more one-click buying, no more searching for one more book to qualify for free shipping, and no more voting with my wallet for the destruction of intellectual curiosity.  I’m not saying anyone else needs to follow suit, this is a personal decision.  

So get on Tumblr and find some indie distros.  Go to Etsy and find someone in a remote corner of the earth putting their time and effort into a zine.  Scour the net far and wide to find people who actually make you think, and then give them a few of your dollars so they can keep going.

Long live the little guy!

Dear friends: sorry for not returning any messages this past little bit. Kinda in the fight of our lives keeping Pioneers Press afloat and a lot is slipping by the wayside. Planning to get at all those this coming week. Sorry about that. I don’t want you guys to think I’m being a jerk. Just in the trenches and getting knocked around a little. (A promise: We plan to do our share of knocking back.) Onward, bootstraps, stiff upper lip, and all.

And then sometimes it’s not. “Sometimes” is good enough. “Sometimes” will happen soon. I hope. What a fucking week. Puts hand on table. Hits hand with hammer. Shakes it off. Laughs. Goes to bed.

We’re pretty beat up over here from trying to save Pioneers Press all week but we are FULL of love for all you guys out there who have been supporting us during this shit season. You guys—especially close friends we haven’t seen in ages—are life-givers. Fuckin’ a. So tired but so much love for you all. Thanks struggling with us.

rustbeltjessie:

“DIY GUIDE TO KILLING OFF ALL BOREDOM Go outside. Scream your name into The Void. Sit in the sun and feel godlike. Go swim somewhere illegal. Cook a nine-course meal for your friends. Get drunk and cry. Throw up on public property and shout about Tolstoy. Ride a train. Ride a bus. Tell someone off. Smash something important. Climb a tree and read a book. WRITE a book. Be sweet to a baby and let them know that all big people aren’t a) dead inside, b) bored, or c) afraid of adventure. Make your own everything. Stay up all night and walk around the city alone. Learn that you can be a patriot for the land while still hating the government (be a patriot for the deserts, the plains, the mountains, the buffalo, for Woody Guthrie and Frederick Douglass, for 250 years of good books). Find the best genius, which is the genius that speaks plainly. Grow something from a seed. Talk to a dog. Go visit a friend and throw your knife into a river. Sing. Sleep in. Quit your job. Make a zine. Start a war within yourself. Break a law. Destroy all uncandid thought. Open your heart to the sky. Live.”

—

Adam Gnade, from The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad

Do yourself a favor and buy this zine.

The stress and heartbreak of trying to keep Pioneers Press from going out of business is matched only by the exhilaration of being in the fight.

http://pioneerspress.com/

Man, it has been a STRUGGLE this past week trying to save Pioneers Press. If you haven’t heard, after a terrible month and a half for sales, our little publishing house/distro was left on the verge of going out of business. That’s how it rolls with small businesses; just a quick tip of the boat can capsize you. Crushing … and scary. To paraphrase an old commercial, there’s a lot riding on these tires—the financial security of my family (and our farm animal sanctuary) being paramount. We lose this and we lose a lot. It’s been a struggle, yeah, but all of you who’ve helped us out by placing book/zine orders or by spreading the world or sending encouraging notes are what’s keeping us here. Thank you for that. We still have a long way to go (a daunting long way) and a big fight ahead but your help (any kind of help) is pretty damn life-affirming. http://pioneerspress.com/

Hi pals,

Just wanted to type you all a quick note and let you know how grateful I am to everyone who’s been supporting us this week in order to save Pioneers Press. We’re pushing as hard as we can and it feels good to have some extra hands pushing with us. You guys are all in the hall of fame forever. Thanks for being in the struggle with us. I don’t want to see Pioneers Press go down; we’ve got too much in the works, too many big plans and wild dreams. Thanks for sticking it out in the fight with us. We can do this. I love you guys.

-Adam

wearepioneerspress:

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gnade:

Dear friends,

If you’ve ever considered ordering from my friends and I’s publishing house/distro, Pioneers Press, now’s the time. We had a horrible April for book and zine sales and May is looking even worse. At this point we’re already unable to pay rent on the rescue animal sanctuary/farm this month and if sales keep on like this we’re going to have to shut the business down completely. Two more weeks like this and we’re done. Stuff is pretty dire.

So, if you want some great books, zines, records, patches, pins, shirts, stickers, posters, etc, here’s our website http://pioneerspress.com/ Anything helps. We’re fighting to make this happen and promising things keep coming up but these past two months have been astoundingly shitty for sales and without sales we can’t run Pioneers Press any longer. 

We’ve got huge plans in the works … we just need to get over this hump. Thanks for reading, pals.

-Adam Gnade

From Jessie’s tumblr. Some things you can do to save Pioneers Press if you don’t have money to order stuff. Thanks, friends. I think we can do this if we do this together…

jessie-duke:

PIONEERS PRESS NEEDS YOUR HELP! 

Hey folks! We’re still trying to recover financially and emotionally from our mega-bad breakup with Microcosm Publishing (you know how it goes, he got the house and the car, we got the hungry kids, the dog, and the therapist bills) and we’re having a hell of a time keeping the lights on here at the distro.

People have asked us how they can help besides ordering from us so we put together this list. Anything you can do would be hugely appreciated!

*Help Spread the Word! Let your buddies know about the new Pioneers Press!  Link to us on your blog. We need all the help we can get to let people know who we are and what we’re doing.

*Pass out our catalogs or flyers! If you’re down to drop off some of our flyers at your neighborhood bookstore or venue, get in touch and we’ll send you a stack. 

*Be Our “Friend”! When we split from Microcosm Publishing we had to start from scratch out in the social networking world. (Oh, the horror!) Want updates on new titles, contests, and sales? Follow us!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wearepioneerspress

Tumblr: http://wearepioneerspress.tumblr.com/

*Sign Up For Our Newsletter! This is another great way to find out about new titles, our monthly contests, and super-secret deals for our newsletter subscribers!

*Give Us Feedback! Love the zine you just bought? Go to our website and add a comment on the zine’s product page. Happy with our service? Spread the word! Think we screwed something up? Let us know so we can fix it! Can’t find the zine you’re looking for? Tell us and we’ll try to track it down for you. We want to stock awesome stuff and provide great customer service but we can’t do that without your input and feedback.

*Share some loot! We love to include freebies with our orders, so if you’ve got free mini-zines, stickers or patches promoting your zine, postcards advertising your indie business, bookmarks promoting your latest project, or other small fun things that’ll fit in a priority mail envelope send them our way!

*Send us a postcard! Dudes, some days we get so bummed out and weighed down by messages from haters, ex-friends, and bill collectors that we want to throw in the towel and never leave the farm again. Love letters and care packages from strangers are what got us through this winter. Keep ‘em coming!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Orders@pioneerspress.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! 

<3 Jessie, Adam, Thaddeus, Rio, and all the animals on the Hard Fifty Farm

PioneersPress.com

Dear friends,

If you’ve ever considered ordering from my friends and I’s publishing house/distro, Pioneers Press, now’s the time. We had a horrible April for book and zine sales and May is looking even worse. At this point we’re already unable to pay rent on the rescue animal sanctuary/farm this month and if sales keep on like this we’re going to have to shut the business down completely. Two more weeks like this and we’re done. Stuff is pretty dire.

So, if you want some great books, zines, records, patches, pins, shirts, stickers, posters, etc, here’s our website http://pioneerspress.com/ Anything helps. We’re fighting to make this happen and promising things keep coming up but these past two months have been astoundingly shitty for sales and without sales we can’t run Pioneers Press any longer. 

We’ve got huge plans in the works … we just need to get over this hump. Thanks for reading, pals.

-Adam Gnade

• The Heat and the Hot Earth novella

• Hymn California novel

• The Growling Mouth novella

• The DIY Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad zine (second edition)

• The Hard Fifty Farm (with Jessie Duke) zine

• Hey Hey Lonesome novella

• 1 Adam Gnade button

EXCERPT FROM THE DO IT YOURSELF GUIDE TO FIGHTING THE BIG MOTHERFUCKIN’ SAD BY ADAM GNADE

1) BENEVOLENCE Pledge to be benevolent, moral, and honest in the midst of online shit-talkers, surface thinkers, and secret capitalists. Be noble while the hate flows forth.

2) TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER You won’t find what you need on the internet.

3) SUICIDE IS NOT PAINLESS The feelings you have are the feelings we all have. Let’s fight together. Here: gnadegnadegnade@gmail.com Any time. I’m here.

4) YOU’RE AS STRONG AND AS READY AS YOU WANT For years I let people tell me I was useless, that I couldn’t make any decisions for myself and that I couldn’t fix or build or create anything substantial. Living out here on the farm I’ve been forced to push myself and I’ve learned I’m a lot more capable than I was lead to believe. Fuck the unbelievers in your life. You’re as strong and as ready you want.

5) YOUR LIFE, THE MOVIE This line always gets me: “If your life was a movie would you want to watch it?” I’d like to say yes but a lot of the time I can’t. And when I can’t I feel like a goddamn bomb about to explode. Can you say yes? Ask yourself that right now and if you don’t like the answer do something about it.

6) TAKING YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY FOR TOO LONG WILL HAVE THE OPPOSITE EFFECT ON EVERYONE ELSE I’m all for believing in what we do. I believe in work and self-seriousness and the quiet power of confidence and resolve. I believe in pushing for the thing you love until the fucking doors creak and break and smash inward with a great cloud of splinters and dust. But you need to know when to step back and have a laugh at your own expense and lose your driven fucking attitude for a while. A little pressure let off is a good thing. Taking yourself too seriously for too long will have the opposite effect on everyone else.

7) WHEN THE SAD STARTS TO HIT Open the door, leave the house, walk. It helps. Also, ask for help. It might be the bravest thing you’ll ever do. Sometimes we all need to reach for a light-switch in the dark.

GET THE DO IT YOURSELF GUIDE TO FIGHTING THE BIG MOTHERFUCKIN’ SAD RIGHT HERE FOR $5.50 FROM PIONEERS PRESS

This made our week. Little nod of love for our publishing house, Pioneers Press, from the LiberationOrStarvation tumblr. It’s not easy making ends meet when you make a living off art so anytime we get kind words like this it feels like things are going to be okay.

liberationorstarvation:

PIONEERS PRESS APPRECIATION POST

Yo, I just wanted to make a post saying thanks to Pioneers Press for providing such great literature in so many forms with so many radical ideas and stories.  The above picture is just some of the free stuff that has been sent with orders I have purchased from them, not to mention handwritten thank you notes and other little gems.  I always feel like my money is going to a good place when I make an order or purchase a book.  I really dig their mentality and take on life, and the world is a better place because of them.  The fact that they put so much care and give so much extra into their orders needs to be noted and praised, nobody does that these days.  If you’re looking for books, zines, patches, and other goods on radical/political/lifestyle topics or issues, or looking for good, inspiring, life-changing fiction/non-fiction stories, give their website a browse and it’ll be hard to leave without finding something that calls your name. 

Thanks again.

pioneerspress.com

Adam Gnade & The Hot Earth All-Stars, AMERICANS (Blessing Force) deluxe cassette/download box-set

Listen/order here.

1. Hello America
2. The Whole Lonesome Thing
3. The Ballad of Tom Bluefeather
4. You Got Mean
5. Supper’s Waiting On The Table
6. This Is The End OF Something (But Its Not The End Of You)

Credits: Damon Moon, Sydney Eloise, Adam Laidlaw, Jacob Smith, Chris Cooke, Adam Gnade