Deluxe 2LP is indie-only & includes a bonus 12” (“Blood Capsules” b/w “Dub Capsules”). It is pressed to colored vinyl (LP1 is gold, LP2 is green, bonus 12” is blood red). - Limted to 500 copies. Beat the Champ is about professional wrestling, which was an avenue of escape for me when I was a kid. Wrestling was low-budget working class entertainment back then, strictly UHF material. It was cheap theater. You had to bring your imagination to the proceedings and you got paid back double. I wrote these songs to re-immerse myself in the blood and fire of the visions that spoke to me as a child, and to see what more there might be in them now that I'm grown. — John Darnielle, Durham, NC