Welcome To The Family, the long-out-of-print and highly-coveted Drive-Thru Records label compilation is now available for the first time ever on limited edition vinyl via Drive-Thru Records/Field Day Recordsl! The Double Vinyl compilation comes in a full-size custom-printed pizza box and includes a double-sided vinyl slipmat and a 12-page color photobook. See the available variants and bundles below.
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‘Welcome To The Family’ limited edition vinyl on sale now at:https://www.shopdtr.com
The comp. (originally released on November 20, 2001, at the height of the label’s popularity) famously came in a miniature pizza box, and featured a jawdropping collection of mostly previously-unreleased songs and rarities by the beloved label’s star-studded roster of bands, most of whom are now highly considered to be cornerstones of the pop-punk and emo sound of the early to mid-2000s.
With contributions from the likes of New Found Glory, Something Corporate, The Starting Line, Midtown, The Movielife, Finch, RX Bands, Fenix TX, the album (and the label itself) helped chronicle the booming 00’s pop-punk scene, which grew out of suburban garages and all-ages basement shows all over the US and beyond, and spawned a number of acts that went on to achieve mainstream success.
Started by siblings Stefanie Reines and Richard Reines, Drive-Thru Records’ impressive 12-year run helped the label go on to sell over 8 million CDs worldwide, in turn, serving as a launchpad for the aforementioned bands and many others, such as Hellogoodbye, Dashboard Confessional, Steel Train, The Early November, Senses Fail and Halifax.
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“As we were putting together the compilation, we wanted to do something different and fun. The mob theme made sense to us for various reasons, the most obvious being that our label and bands were very tight-knit, and we were known as the “Drive-Thru Family”. Add in the fact that we grew up in New Jersey with at least one amazing Italian joint in every strip mall, plus our love of mob movies like “Goodfellas”, “The Sopranos” and “The Godfather”, and ‘Welcome To The Family’ was born!
Everything back then was done on a shoestring budget, so in lieu of hiring a model to pose for the cover, we had our accountant at the time assume the role as “The Godfather”. He was this crazy guy and seeing him with the bat posing as a mobster was funny to us. We always liked to amuse ourselves. So many inside jokes appeared on Drive-Thru Records releases over the years.
For the booklet, we took advantage of all of our bands playing at the Skate and Surf Festival in Asbury Park, NJ, and did part of the photoshoot on the boardwalk. Those shoots were fun because we got to mix band members for the different “mob” scenarios.
I believe we ordered 10,000 copies of the cd. The plant wouldn’t assemble and pack it because they said it was too complicated and time-consuming, so we said we would do it ourselves. We had no idea what we were getting into. I remember our entire office including the two of us, and all of our interns spending days putting together those pizza boxes! Our office was FILLED with CDs and pizza boxes, the conference room table piled high. We had to first put together the boxes, which came flat, insert the booklet into the cd, then put in the stickers and whatever else we had included.” – Stefanie Reines & Richard Reines
