The Rational Academy

Since forming in 2004 The Rational Academy have gone through numerous configurations and reincarnations, releasing albums and singles that have gained attention and praise worldwide. This has allowed us to tour internationally on multiple occasions, tour with a diverse array of groups including Deerhunter, Deerhoof, Mum, Xiu Xiu, Tujiko Noriko, Tenniscoats, Beach House, The Blow, Scout Nibblet, Dear Nora, Grouper & Spoon, and motivated us to push further forward in new directions with every release.

To date we have released 2 albums, 3 EP's and 2 7" singles on lables including Room 40's Someone Good offshoot and local imprint Bon Voyage, almost all of which have now sold out. In the interest of continuing to expose these eclectic releases to the wider public all of these titles can also be download on an "pay what you like" basis from our website - www.therationalacademy.com

"ALBUM OF THE WEEK. "A Heart Against Your Own" is one of those rare albums that takes the fundamentals of the guitar band format and somehow organically expands upon that framework, incorporating the modernity of the electronic avant-garde without you even noticing you're listening to something as awkward and experimental as it actually is. Massive Recommendation."... Boomkat (Europe)

"There is a fundamental difference between the motivations of experimental artists and a pop band: While the former demand respect, the latter want to be loved. With the release of "A Heart against your own", the Rational Academy might see both dreams fulfilled at the same time with their very first album." ... Tokafi (Europe)

"It would be nice to think that one day all such music will be of this caliber, but for now we will have to be satisfied with these little diamonds."... Brainwashed (USA)

"I have long been of the opinion that The Rational Academy are one of the greatest undiscovered talents this city has produced....distinctly ‘Brisbane'. It's a tactile feeling: old Polaroid photographs, held hands. A slow, dizzy afternoon with no regrets."... Four Thousand (Australia)

"Songs like "A New Berlin" and "Summer Husbands" could've been recorded by the Zombies" ..... Brainwashed (Europe)

About this project - "Winter Haunts" : Album number 3

Upon returning from Japan Late 2011, We settled into Cam Smith's (No Anchor, Turnpike etc) "Incremental Records" studio here in Brisbane, and over the next 6 months painstakingly pieced together our brand new album. In keeping with our desire to never make the same album twice we drew on the inspiration gathered from the last few years of touring to create something wholly new and exciting to us as a group. This entire project was self funded, squeezed in between day jobs and responsible for many late nights and drowsy mornings.

Now we need your help to release it into the world.

International touring and the costs of recording albums tend to run quite high, and as we are still a "fringe" group without mainstream ambition there is only so far we can stretch a budget. We are really proud of this new record and want to see it done justice - the kind of justice that only Gatefold Colour Haze Vinyl can bring!

CD's are dead, cassettes are quirky but not that practical and Digital Downloads seem like a wasted opportunity to us. We buy records. Our friends make records. Records are the future of Physical editions.

We have tried our hardest to come up with worthwhile pledges to show you how much your support means to us. Every Pledge can be thought of as a pre-order for the new album. On top of that we are Excited to offer you the chance to own Exclusive T-Shirts, Custom one of a kind guitar pedals and even 4 of our highly prized guitars (if you've ever dealt with us in the past you will know how seriously we take our gear and that parting with any of it is a realllly big deal).

In the above video you can hear an unmastered mash-up of the 9 tracks that make up "Winter Haunts". The final Vinyl and Digital Masters are being prepared by Lawrence English (Room 40) as i write.

Any support that you can show us in helping achieve this goal will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

The Rational Academy

therationalacademy-at-gmail.com

www.therationalacademy.com

http://www.facebook.com/therationalacademy

Some more details on the individual pledges....

About the Vinyl -Vinyl can get held up, this is just a fact of life we all have to live with. It should be ready to be shipped by November, but it could be a few weeks later. However, we will release All Digital Downloads in October and items like the guitars and pedals will also be sent out as soon as the project end date has been reached.

About the T-Shirts -These are strictly one offs designed by our drummer Tom - meaning we wont order an extra 100 to sell at shows. You will be the only people who have them - like a secret club, you can pass each other in the street and hi five! The only way to own one of these shirts is to purchase it here! Matt at #7th Disaster does an amazing job printing on only the best quality shirts. They are only available in black with white print. Please don't forget to let us know your size and gender!

About the "Winter Haunts" Guitar Pedals -These are one off even more so. Matt's developed a special new Fuzz Pedal he describes as a tweaked "Rams Head" style fuzz. There are only 2 of these being made... ever!! We're gear heads ourselves... we know how much you want them...we want them too but that would kinda defeat the purpose!

Some more about THE GUITARS

(The prices on guitars do not include postage. If you live in Brisbane we'll deliver it to your door - if yr elsewhere we're going to have to talk postage! International shipping probably isn't worth anyones time sadly)

Les Paul Copy used by Ben on the record- We've long held the belief that cheaper guitars, mixed with our "high end" ones can help colour the sound on our records - it works for Sonic Youth! To this end we have quite a few. This is one of Ben's purchased back in 2009. Feeds back real good and with a decent fuzz it even sounds mean and almost expensive. Ian Rogers also used this for his "Ambrose Chapel" project (he named it "Yellow Pony") + it has some cool stickers on the headstock of girls with machine guns and a white lion!

Epiphone SG used by Ben on the record - Another of our slightly less "high end" guitars. This one came into our possession back in 2010 and ended up being used a startling amount. After Campbell Kneale of Birchville Cat Motel tried his best to completely destroy it during a show at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2011, Ben pulled it apart, fitted a 70's style Les Paul Pickguard and replaced the pickups with GFS Liverpool Retrons. It also has a sticker of a Viking longboat on the body and a cat sticker, purchased in Tokyo, on the back headstock. We used it to record the fucked up double tracked solos you can hear on the song "Vast Uncertain" off our new record.

Orange "Stratocaster" rebuilt by Ben used by Luke on the record - Of all the guitars we're offering up here, this is perhaps the hardest to part with. Mainly due to sentimental value. For years this was a constant live "backup" guitar for both Ben and Meredith - look at any photo from 2004 to 2008 and you'll see that one of us is using it. Its also been used on every record we've ever made. Purchased in a Toowoomba second hand joint circa 2004, Ben had the guy knock $50 off the price tag by convincing him that the crackling sound was due to a bad input jack (really it was the cheap lead plugged into it... ah, memories). Anyway thru its lifetime its been pulled apart, upgraded (it now sports a really nice aged cream pickguard, pick covers, knobs and a sneaky "Fender" decal on the headstock), thrown around onstage and deep deep down really loved. Could use a decent setup and an eventual fret dressing probably, but i love it just the way it is. Also used to have a picture of a drunk Jim O'Rourke singing karaoke stuck onto it. Cat from Brisbane band Dreamtime refers to it as "Tangerine Dream" and swoons whenever she passes by it... true story. Luke used this on our new record for the song "Great Care" and a few others.

1970's Greco SG used by Luke & Ben on the record - Now this is a GUITAR. Purchased in Tokyo's Famous Ochanomizu neighborhood for our 2011 tour - at this price its actually less than what we paid for it! There's hardly a song on our new record that this doesn't get played on - thats how good we feel about it. In fact turn back now... don't buy it...we really should be keeping this one! Its in perfect condition, all original, looks and plays like a dream. One of the best SG's i have every played, oh and its a nice dark cherry red!