Big news, folk fans. Michigan native American Opera has revealed plans to release his first CD just in time for the start of the Vans Warped Tour 2015.

Today, Antique Records announced it would release a limited run CD from American Opera titled Retrospective this Friday, June 19. The album brings together all three of American Opera’s incredibly popular digital EPs and places them side-by-side on disc for the first time ever. The label claims only 600 copies were made in total, and only 20 will be available online. The rest will be available at AO’s merch table on Warped Tour. You can view the track listing and cover art at the end of this post.

Writing to fans about the release, AO commented:

“Three completely different records. All in one place. Each of them made by accident. None of this was ever supposed to see the light of day. But here we are. And there we were.

I toured for the better part of eight years in a post hardcore rock band called Your Best Friend. We had no idea what we were doing… I still don’t. We booked our own tours (I still do), released our own albums (I still do), and did our own stunts (I’m too old for that now). We played the shittiest basements and slept on the hardest floors. We played sold out shows and slept two-to-a-bed in the seediest motels. It didn’t matter. At its best, or at its worst… I loved it. That band was my life. But every life ends. People grow up. People grow apart. The band called it quits. I couldn’t.

I worked as a delivery boy whenever I was home from the road. I drove a decrepit little blue Cavalier that my dad gave me just after he rolled it over 200,000 miles. I loved that car. It would be perfect for any 16-year-old girl… if it weren’t 12 years old and rusty as hell. It didn’t have a radio so I would drive around for hours at work, singing to myself. After work I would write music to go along with the songs that I wrote in the car. That’s how American Opera was born.”

American Opera may not seem like your typical Warped Tour artist, but thanks to the acoustic stage, mastermind John Bee has found a home at the world’s largest traveling music festival. American Opera will be appearing on every date of Warped, and we’ve heard rumors he’s already planning to tour well into the Fall while promoting the eventual release of his long-awaited debut album. Click here for dates and ticket information.

• Author
• Recent Posts

James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

Latest posts by James Shotwell (see all)

• 2015’s Most Underrated Films - December 29, 2015
• Passing The Torch: The End Of An Era For UTG - December 1, 2015
• UTG PREMIERE: Before The Streetlights – “Private Browser” - November 26, 2015