Well I'm sure glad you all recognized that all that "street team" nonsense was just window dressing and I was actually just looking for your opinions of System of a Down.
Actually, I don't give a fuck about System of a Down, I was only saying that they are an example of a success story for the street team approach. Same with Rasputina, they tour all over the place and sell out some pretty good venues in NYC. By the way, for the truly curious, go to
www.rasputina.com or look for them under "R" at your local record shop. But before anyone gets pissed at me, be forewarned - they are NOT metal. And they play cellos.
ANYWAY, all I'm saying is I like Opeth enough to be willing to do the legwork for them and put their name out, and I know there are a LOT of people in my area who would be interested if they only knew that Opeth even exist. For those who haven't noticed, I live in Missouri -- fucking MISSOURI! It's not like I live in the great cultural hub of the world here. Sometimes I'd swear this place doesn't really exist, it was all just written by Mark Twain. Don't get me wrong, the folks around here really are good people and a lot of them would get what Opeth is doing, if only they were ever exposed to anything from the world outside of Huckleberry Junction. And if I don't step up and bring this area into the 21st century, no one else will. So I'll do the work here, but it won't be worthwhile for Opeth to have the stuff printed up if I'm the only one doing it.
Also, I think some people don't really understand what a street team is. Some of you said you think the "word of mouth" method has worked fine for Opeth. Actually, a street team IS word of mouth. You take a stack of flyers or cards out to some place where potentially interested people go (i.e. a club, record shop, etc.) and you hand someone a card and drop the name of the new album, tell them a little something about Opeth - whatever it is you like about them - then you find someone else and give them a card.
It's not a "sell-out", it's just another way to get their name out in the public. It doesn't garantee record sales, it just gets the name out. And no matter how "popular" anybody thinks Opeth are, there are still a hell of a lot of people out there who haven't ever heard of them.