The thread for all things Ryko

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From the "Children of Nuggets" thread...

what is ryko up to nowadays? all their cash cows--elvis costello, david bowie, all that britfolk stuff--are no longer in their catalogue. i'm surprised they even exist at this point.
-- amateur!!st (-...), September 8th, 2004.

Not only that, but where can I get cool greenish jewel cases and cassette shells to upgrade my Sugar and 3 Mustaphas 3 collections?

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

some of the first cds i ever heard were ryko comps. they were cool. schooly d and birdsongs of the mesozoic together at last.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Just pulled out a broken green jewel case last night...Fairport Convention, I believe. So beautiful. So fragile.

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, that's right! One weird range (and hey, they had Mission of Burma for a long while too).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

A truly wondrous label for awhile, and they have my eternal gratitude for rescuing the Bowie catalogue. Seems quaint now that Ryko's initial selling point was, I guess, that they were releasing stuff on *compact disc*.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

the fairport and richard/linda thompson cds have now been reissued by island (uk). i presume the sandy denny cds will go the same way.

i owned a lot of ryko stuff when i first started buying cds. a lot of those britfolk albums (i forget to mention nick drake! i think that box set goes for $$ now right?) were pretty poorly mastered to cd. but the elvis costello reissues were state of the art for the early-mid 1990s.

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Come to think of it, I think that Nick Drake box set is the only Ryko release I own where the jewel case is not somehow damaged. Prolly cause I keep it away from the others and took greater care with it whilst in college.

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha, that Birdsongs of the Mesozoic compilation was one I used to freak out my freshman year roommate. That and Diamanda Galas...

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Interest piqued, went to the site, and just found out this is out:

http://www.rykodisc.com/Catalog/dump/rykoalbums_1436.asp

Cheese and Onions, ahoy!

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

they've had the same site design for at least 6 or 7 years...

i dunno, i associate ryko with that moment in time where big labels were uninterested in exploiting the farther reaches of their catalogs and it was left to smaller labels to reissue such things on cd. obviously there's still a lot of cases where that happens, but the last 5-6-7 years have definitely seen renewed interest in reissues on the part of the majors and their subsidiaries, leavig ryko with a less exciting catalogue than they once had.

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

they have also picked up / reissued early releases by galaxie 500, the replacements and the flaming lips. so not completely unexciting.

personally, i associate the early ryko years with the residents.

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, plus all the sst meat puppets stuff, as well. i wonder how well those sold...

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah. the galaxie 500 stuff has been in their catalogue for a while. and i did see that flaming lips box come out a few years back. so i guess they're not moribund...

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't say enough about 'em - they were a model for other labels to aspire to. That Mission Of Burma collection (first disc to cross the 80 minute barrier!) was the second CD I ever bought & I still happily play it. Those reissues: Zappa, Bowie, Soft Boys, Hendrix, Incredible String Band. Can't say enough.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

why don't they reissue Starsailor by Tim Buckley again? what the hell is up with that?

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Until they put out a Samira Tewfic box CD, they are rubbish. (Psych!)

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

some of that stuff must be getting cut-out, I recently got Meat Puppets II at Virgin on Ryko for like 8 bucks.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Nice. I have the first Meat Puppets on SST so I am missing the EP. I should really slsk that.

― artdamages (artdamages), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Speaking of Ryko, whatever happened to East Side Digital (aka ESD)? Sorta the same idea, right?

― Formerly Lee G (Formerly Lee G), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Still around, now that I actually search it, though it doesn't look like they're up to much.

― Formerly Lee G (Formerly Lee G), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

How can they be so bold-faced as to trademark a green tint?

Their MoB and Meat Puppets re-issues are great though.

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 9 September 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

First time I got Sugar's Copper Blue, I thought to myself "Wow, they even color-coded the jewel box to fit the album title."

Now you're saying it's green. I guess it is, but green stoplights always look blue to me, too.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 9 September 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I got replacement green jewel cases from them for free after writing a letter!! [caspar's early years! hunched over writing desk scribbling paeans to brittle plastic!]

I also won a free copy of a Morphine record on their early web site for identifying which animal was on the cover (don't remember the album but I could tell it was an owl, I think it was 1994 or so)

They did that Black Arc thing, right? With the laswell axis + funkadelic people? I very vaguely remember this. God knows where all those dozens of CDs I bought from them are now. I also remember them eating up Gramavision.

― caspar (caspar), Thursday, 9 September 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

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