diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 36db2cd6..2d88d141 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -60,6 +60,25 @@ rescue LoadError
   puts "Jeweler not available. Install it with: sudo gem install technicalpickles-jeweler -s http://gems.github.com"
 end
 
+desc "Record the current git revision."
+task :REVISION do
+  require 'git'
+  
+  repo = Git.open('.')
+  open("REVISION", "w") do |f|
+    f.write(repo.object("HEAD").sha)
+  end
+end
+
+desc "Commit the revision file."
+task :commit_revision => :REVISION do
+  require 'git'
+  repo = Git.open('.')  
+  repo.add("REVISION")
+  repo.commit("Record current revision for release.")
+end
+
+task :release => :commit_revision
 
 desc "Compile Examples into HTML and CSS"
 task :examples do
@@ -92,15 +111,7 @@ task :examples do
 end
 
 namespace :git do
-  desc "Perform normal operations required for pushing to github."
-  task :push => [:manifest, :gem]  do
-    sh "git", "add", "Manifest", "compass.gemspec", "VERSION"
-    sh "git", "commit", "-m", "Updated Manifest and gemspec."
-    sh "git", "push", "origin", "master"
-  end
   task :clean do
     sh "git", "clean", "-fdx"
   end
 end
-
-task :manifest => :"git:clean"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/compass/version.rb b/lib/compass/version.rb
index 13cf60c5..368028cf 100644
--- a/lib/compass/version.rb
+++ b/lib/compass/version.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ module Compass
       return @version if defined?(@version)
 
       read_version_file
-      parse_version
 
       if r = revision
         @version[:rev] = r
@@ -29,17 +28,10 @@ module Compass
     end
 
     def read_version_file
-      @version = {
-        :string => File.read(scope('VERSION')).strip
-      }
-    end
-
-    def parse_version
-      dotted_string, @version[:label] = @version[:string].split(/-/, 2)
-      numbers = dotted_string.split('.').map { |n| n.to_i }
-      [:major, :minor, :teeny].zip(numbers).each do |attr, value|
-        @version[attr] = value
-      end
+      require 'yaml'
+      @version = YAML::load(File.read(scope('VERSION.yml')))
+      @version[:string] = "#{@version[:major]}.#{@version[:minor]}.#{@version[:patch]}"
+      @version[:teeny] = @version[:patch]
     end
 
     def revision