Robin Parrish – CMCentral

With anticipation building for the upcoming spring 2003 release of Relient K’s next record, Gotee Records has planned a sneak peak of the new project with Relient K’s Employee of the Month EP. The EP features two new songs from the forthcoming project, due March 11, 2003, as well as three cuts exclusive to the EP.

For fourth quarter sales, Gotee is shrink wrapping the EP to the existing best-selling CD, Anatomy of the Tongue In Cheek and re-soliciting the record through the Chordant Distribution sales book. Additionally, the label is pursuing ads within CBA retailer catalogs.

“We expect this to be the biggest album that Gotee will release in 2003,” comments Ben Eisner, Gotee’s Director of Marketing. Relient K is experiencing the kind of growth that all record labels hope and pray for with their artists. It is going to be a marketer’s dream for us to work this record because we know that there are literally a few hundred thousand fans out there who are chomping at the bit to just get a sneak peak of this new record. It is a lot more fun to market to a fan base of that nature than to have to strive for a consumer’s attention in an effort to prove to them that that your music is what they want.”

To date, Anatomy of the Tongue In Cheek has scanned over 160,000 units, and spent 61 consecutive weeks on CCM’s Top 100 chart where no other album has ranked higher as of October 30 of this year, or been on the chart longer. As the fastest selling punk/pop album in Christian Music history, Anatomy of the Tongue In Cheek scanned 80,000 units in its first 6 months of release, with over 60,000 units scanned in last six months, creating a very sustained sales life, consistent chart positioning, and an average of 2700 scans a week (as of 10/29/02). To show the growth the band has had between their self-titled debut and Anatomy of the Tongue In Cheek, note that their debut project sold 50,455 units in first 60 weeks, where as Anatomy of the Tongue In Cheek has sold 160,000 (over three times the sales) in the same amount of time.

In addition to their successful album sales, Relient K’s first headline tour, the Back to the Few Tour is continuing to sell out venues all over the country. The tour has played to over 26,000 people in just over a month, with 20 sell outs shows, including upcoming dates in Grand Rapids, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Jacksonville, and Pomona. On average, the tour is averaging over 1,000 fans a night.