Originally released in March of 2012, This Betrayal Will Be Our End is the magnum opus of San Francisco’s Merch – a genre-decimating musical project from the brain of Joe Medina. Created in the aftermath of a gut-wrenching breakup, this epic record is twelve songs of intense loss, interpreted through Medina’s unique brand of psychedelic, string-laden and fuzzed-out rock music.
On Black Friday, the cassette version of this album will be released to a select number of independent record stores. For this release, Merch has partnered with As Green As it Gets, a co-op that aims to facilitate the independent and sustainable sale and distribution of coffee by collectives of small farmers in Guatemala by empowering the farmers and providing them with the tools to earn a fair working wage. All profits from the sale of the cassettes will be donated to the families of those farmers.
Last December, Joe and his partner spent a month in Guatemala, where he would begin writing songs for the eventual follow-up to This Betrayal Will Be Our End. It was during this time that they were introduced to and became very fond of the kind, passionate local coffee farmers and their families. As such, it is with great excitement that Joe looks forward to the profits from this cassette release benefiting the farmers that showed him such warmth.
Stores and individuals can pick up the cassette for Black Friday here, along with the LP version.
If you represent an independent record store, you can email Sassafras Records & Distro at sassafrasrecs@gmail.com for details on purchasing the cassette and LP at wholesale cost.
