The Path Less Traveled Records
PO Box 273
Normal, IL 61761

You can send digital press kits, Bandcamp links, etc. to: tplt08@gmail.com

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference" - Robert Frost

Suppor these fine folks. They're trying to make a difference:

Currently jamming:
Despise You/Agoraphobic Nosebleed - And On And On... (grind)
Leviathan - True Traitor, True Whore (black metal)
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans(rock/punk)
Neurosis - A Sun that Never Sets (legends)
Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner (legend)

Upcoming shows/sponsorships: N/A

News:

1/31/12 - King Giant's DIsmal Hollow comes out TODAY! Go buy it or download it wherever cool music is sold!

1/19/12 - Greetings. How's it going? We may have a taker for the Flourishing vinyl. Sadly, we're still paying off the IRS and have a few other issues going on, so we won't be involved. We will pimp the hell out of it once the news is announced on who will get this pressed up. The plans are heavy vinyl and cool packaging so stay tuned.

We have a few new bands we're distributing music for in the near future. Sadly, this is the first year and digital music outsold physical. Looks like the time is nigh. We have some music coming from Croatia, Australia, and the USA.

We didn't do a year-end list this year. There was so many fucking lists this year, I didn't even feel like doing on. Tombs, Tom Waits, and Hammers of Misfortune were some of our favorites.

12/29/11 - Check out some new stuff on our Bandcamp site: Densetsu Stream!!! Also, go to our media page and look at all the love our bands have received.

12/25/2011 - Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!

12/16/11 - Check out the debut video for "Summary" by Flourishing on Metal Injection!

12/10/11 - Flourishing made the Top 25 on NPR. Quite an achievement. If you want to help them (and us) put "The Sum of All Fossils" out on vinyl, you can do so by going here: Kickstarter.

To answer the question, "You guys say you're broke yet I see you're putting out a CD and vinyl version of King Giant's "Dismal Hollow". What gives?" We are ONLY distributing this title. The band paid for the recording, mixing, mastering, and getting the physical product put together. I thought I'd clear the air here instead of having to explain to each individual what's going on. It's a great album and the majority of what you buy (like all but 10%) will be going to the band so support them!!!

11/28/11 - Top 40 lists have begun to pop up. So far the only release we've had mentioned is Flourishing's "The Sum of All Fossils". It was an honorable mention on Pitchfork's list. It's a great album and nice to see it at least recognized.

News on the label forthcoming. Seems a lot of small labels are getting hit by financial issues and we're no different. Like other like-minded labels, we're not asking for pitty, just letting the bands/fans know what's going on. More to come.

10/20/11 - Greetings. I guess numbnuts from Libya is dead. Nice to see.

We'll see how things go, but the label isn't doing so well right now. CD sales REALLY took a hit recently. It's the worst I've seen in 3 years which means our direction for the future is uncertain. We still plan to be involved, but the days of printing up 500 - 1,000 CD's are gone.

We have Kaliya, Tiger Flowers (digital), and Man Will Destroy Himself (digital) available everywhere. Next month we will have Omitir (digital and probably a limited edition CD-R) and Super Bowl Rocket Ship's S/T 7" (they paid for these themselves) and it includes a digital download code.

9/30/11 - To those who ordered last week, I was out of town. Sorry about that. Orders will ship immediately. Man Will Destroy Himself and Tiger Flowers are in the digital world now. Go buy a copy!

Also, we were supposed to work with Across Tundras and it fell through on our end. Go here to help them out: Kickstarter.

9/16/11 - Kaliya is here and ready to ship. Thanks to everyone for their patience. Next week is Tiger Flowers and Man Will Destroy Himself! Both will be digital only for now but phyiscal product will be available in 2012!

9/5/11 - It's Labor Day and we're working. What the fuck? Anyway, hope you all have a great Labor Day. Kaliya CD's are on the way. Tiger Flowers comes out 9/20 digitally and then physically at a later date. Omitir will be out on 11/15.

8/26/11 - Kaliya CD's showed up but were fucked up. They were supposed to be 8-panel but came back with 4-panel. Shit happens. It's being corrected. So starts the slow time for the industry. Those that don't know, the last major release date for things is usually 11/15 which means you need your shit in by 8/31. We will be releasing some cool stuff like Tiger Flowers, Omitir, and a couple other suprises. Stay tuned.

7/24/11 - Flourishing CD's are here. We decided to put up a Big Cartel site instead of our shitty store page which is clunky. Head on over to pick it up: HERE. We will have more of our stuff up there soon and our STORE link will eventually all be on Big Cartel. With all the stuff we have, we'll have to pay a monthly fee so if you buy some stuff, it would help us out a lot. The street date is 8/2/11.

Kaliya CD's are in the works and should be here in couple weeks. The street date is 8/30/11. Physical releases will probably be few and far between from here on out with only limited editions coming out. Folks aren't buying music anymore so we'll try to make the physical more special in the future.

Thanks to everyone for the support.

7/8/11 - I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. The new Flourishing CD is here and looks/sounds great! You should start to see press on it. A review in Decibel and many other magazines/blogs is forthcoming. Look for it everywhere on 8/2/11.

Kaliya's Annihilator will be out 8/30/11. Great mix of metal, grind, and thrash. They've been part of a feature we've been doing on the Invisible Oranges blog.

We have some other cool things in the works so stay tuned!

5/30/11 - Hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day. Today is about honoring fallen soldiers, not getting shitfaced and cooking out. Enjoy the day and pay your respects.

In label news, things have been tight around here. We have a donate button on the front page. Every dollar counts.

We're excited to be releasing Flourishing's debut full-length The Sum of All Fossils on 8/2. We will also have Kaliya's Annihilator coming out this summer.

4/16/11 - HAPPY RECORD STORE DAY! Everything in our store is at regular price, but if you buy some, we're going to send you some extra goodies we have here. Better yet, get off your computer and go to a record store near you (not Best Buy) and buy something. You don't have to spend a lot. Every dollar counts for the little guy.

In other news, this week we found out HUMANITY FALLS is opening for death metal legends SUFFOCATION in blhalbh albh and IMBROGLIO is opening for hardcore legends CONVERGE. Also on that show is TRAP THEM, aldfjaldjfa. We're very happy for the bands. Some of these guys grew up listening to these bands and now they get to open for them. Have fun guys!

3/17/11 - Happy St. Patrick's Day (if you're Irish). I think most in the USA just use it for an excuse to wear green and drink. There isn't a whole lot going on around here these days. We're still paying of some debt (both person and business) and trying to get things in order. Life throws curve balls sometimes. We're trying to learn how to hit them. We added a donate button on your index page. If you hate our music but dig what we're doing, throw us a few bucks (if you happen to have any).

We want to send our thoughts/prayers to those in Japan and Libya. I think a lot of good is going to come out of these situations eventually. Here's to the Libya rebels for fighting for their freedom. Hopefully we can help them out in some way soon. If Gaddafi happens to read this, please fuck off.

2/17/11 - Sorry it's been a bit since our last update. Things are cooking along. Orders keep coming in and we can't thank you all enough. We're still digging out of debt and we still owe some folks money so every dollar helps us out.

For those that haven't heard, Flourishing (we released their EP) will be putting out a full-length with us this summer and we're extremely honored. I believe the plan will be a CD release and very limited vinyl run for all us vinyl nerds. I think it'll be 100 or so. Also, we'll be putting out the vinyl for Across Tundras' "Sage" which is being released on Neurot.

We have some others in the workds like Roberta Sparrow, Czar, Kaliya, and a few others, but it'll be summer time before we get our ducks in a row. I plan on putting together a free sampler soon and getting it out on Facebook.

That's all for now.

1/25/11 - So the Bears lost. Fuck. Humanity Falls' Ordaining the Apocalypse arrived today (finally). Thanks to everyone for their patience. These guys rip and I can't wait for you all to hear it.

I'm working on a media player for this web page so folks can actually l listen to stuff before they buy it instead of listening to crappy MySpace (which we just cancelled FYI). I have to do it myself since others want to charge and arm and a leg. I found some code for $5 so I'm going to attempt it.

Also, Ryan from Body Hammer is giving this web page an overhaul and it will look much better and flow better as well (I've seen it in action). He's busy with school but it'll be up sometime this year for sure.

Next up is paying some bills. The fine folks at AtoZ Media and Pirates Press sent us product before we paid in full. They've been very understanding and I can't thank them enough.

Also, I've had 4 folks sign up for the VIP lifetime membership so far. I will probably stop at 10 so if you want in, go for it.

We're meeting up with Czar from Chicago since they're coming down to Tolono to record with Matt Talbott from HUM at Great Western Record Recorders. Check out his studio for reasonable rates.

1/15/11 - Hello all! Humanity Falls is finished! Talk about stress. We also have some stickers in for those guys. I expect the CD's to be here Monday or Tuesday so if you pre-ordered one, I'll ship it out immediately.

We are featured on Cosmo Lee's Invisible Oranges blog. He's one of the best metal writers out there and writes for many publications/website. We're going to follow the release of Kaliya's debut CD from start to finish. The reaction has been positive so far so stay tuned and take a look around the site. Cosmo will turn you on to various forms of metal as well as other thoughtful writings.

Also, we got rid of our MySpace page. What a piece of crap that turned out to be. Had they left it along, they would've been much better off. We're on Facebook now. Check it out here!

Thanks for the continued support and GO BEARS!!!