After noisily spamming your iTunes account with Songs Of Innocence, their turgid chore of a new album, U2 have quietly slid a few vinyl copies of the LP to a few independent retailers, just in time to qualify for next year’s Grammys. The album’s official white-vinyl release isn’t until 10/14, but the fan site @U2 reports that a few black-vinyl copies showed up for sale at stores like Amoeba and Looney Tunes. According to Grammy rules, an album has to be sold commercially before 9/30 to qualify for the next year’s awards, and the album’s free iTunes release wasn’t enough to qualify, so they had to get a few of those physical copies out there on time. Ethically, this isn’t much different from showing a movie in two theaters a couple of days before New Years to get it out there in time for Oscar season. They’re gaming the system, but it’s not like there’s anything wrong with their tactics, and a few people will get collectors-editions copies that they can flip on Ebay for some extra money. But if anyone actually hands any Grammys to that boring, boring album, we’re going to have to burn the whole system down.

[Photo via ltcds.com.]