Believe me, I am still a fan of this band. I have enjoyed their music for years and I like the current major label release. So I find it weird that this release is even in my hands. This is supposed to be a retrospective of the band while on the Nitro label. I know the label invested a lot of money trying to promote the band before they departed. But to release songs that are still in print and readily available? Most of the tracks that are termed rare are not even that rare. Yeah, they are B-sides and bonus tracks. Woopie. Those releases were pressed in the thousands. Rare is what people pay for: the Dork 7” or the other three 7”’s and splits that were released before the Nitro era. In my mind, I believe they are trying to take advantage of the band’s new release and to recoup money by bringing on more interest on their available back catalog. A special note from the bands website: To any of our fans who may have bought Nitro Records’ AFI anthology, we would like you to know that the decision to create this compilation was made solely by Nitro Records. While we are extremely proud of our body of work over the years, we would like you to know it was not the band’s decision to compile, create or promote a “retrospective” at this point in our career. If you should enjoy it or hear something you’ve been unable to find elsewhere then great, but please understand it was conceived and sold without our input. We are much more focused on creating our new record for our fans and seeing you all on tour next year. If you are a fan of this band, you will already have these songs. If you are now just discovering them, go buy the actual records. This is a waste of money.
–don (Nitro)