National Record Store Day

damn that's even more than i expected

Maybe transatlantic distro is included in that price and it'll be cheaper in the US?

maybe!
one cool Ork thing i'd never heard before is the Link Cromwell single -- Lenny Kaye's 60s band, which appropriately enough would've fit right in on his Nuggets comp.

I can assure you the Sharpless Franz Kafka is REALLY weird

― Bringing the mosh (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, March 24, 2015 9:41 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://soundcloud.com/fatherdaughter/sharpless-franz-kafka/s-GAaTc

'franz kafka' is one of the greatest accomplishments in animation

would totally buy a cd of the ork thing. hope they put one out. or a two cd thing. 7 inch thing is just annoying.

or does a cd comp already exist? i've never actually looked...

i think this is the first time they've been compiled in one place -- it's definitely the first time those feelies demos have been released.

some links in this linked round-up: http://blurtonline.com/news/last-minute-record-store-day-2015-titles-announced/, which I don't have time now to check further, but I'm curious about these:

The H-Bombs – The Great Lost H-Bombs Double EP (two 10” Eps; pre-dB’s/Let’s Active band featuring Peter Holsapple and Mitch Easter)

Big Star – November Boys 7” one-sided single (long-rumored “answer single” that Chilton, Stephens and Hummel had reportedly cut one Quaalude-fueled night at Ardent Studios in Memphis after watching a Bangles video on MTV, includes digital download for the track + special “Stringfellow remix” version of same) (3000 copies)

Shoes – Boots ‘n’ Laces b/w Brannock Device 7” (power pop icons’ 45 reissued; originally released as fanclub-only single 4/1/81; shoe-black vinyl) (750 copies)

Doors – Rock Is Dead mega-mix 12” (legendary final studio session from the late Jim Morrison, rarely bootlegged, in which he chronicles a semi-history of rock ‘n’ roll; benefit disc for Save The Whales Foundation; special Ralph Steadman artwork) (4500 copies)

The Sidewinders/Sidewinder– The Sidewinder(s) Sessions split 7” EP; “depressed grey” vinyl (legendary Tucson desert rockers and legendary Raleigh classic rockers bury the hatchet and do two songs apiece of each other’s faves as voted on by fans; includes bonus flexi disc from the Sand Rubies doing “special Tarheel mix” of their own song “Goodbye”) (100 copies REGIONAL EXCLUSIVE, 50 apiece for NC’s Schoolkids Records and Tucson’s Zia Record Exchange)

think you've been april fooled!

Cleveland Indie opts out of Record Store Day because it's become too big to fail:

As a small brick and mortar shop owner, the frustration starts with the ordering process. Here is how the RSD ordering process goes down. All music stores have “distributors” that we “order/buy” the releases from. Typically, big labels (say, Columbia) use big distributors (probably, Super D). For RSD, the shops usually start getting lists from their distributors as to what they are carrying in late January. Record stores have to compete with one another as to what we want to carry. Since we all know that volume will give the stores an advantage, we over inflate an order hoping to get at least a couple pieces of that title. For example, last year we might have ordered 20 copies of the Joy Division 10” hoping to get at least 3 or 4 copies for the shop. (In actuality I think that we got 1 copy.) It is the distributors that control the fate of who gets what. Typically, it is the big independents (like Ameoba, or locally, The Exchange) that get priority. OK, that’s just how it is. Since we are way down on the food chain, Blue Arrow Records got accustomed to our small allotment of “pieces.” Typically, the shops would get notified of what our allotments would be a month or so prior to the big day and we would then start to get our allotments during that period 2 weeks prior to RSD.

Last year, I ordered over 125 separate titles; most of the titles from a single distributor (whom I will not name at this point). We started to receive our allotments from the smaller distributors roughly 2 weeks prior to RSD (which was Saturday, April 19th). In an April 3rd email from my largest distributor, I was told that they would start shipping on Monday, April 7th. So I thought, “OK, that is plenty of time.”

In my experience, it's been that most stores don't know what actual product they're getting until they open the box.

it's truly the weirdest way to do things.

i mean there has to be a way for people to make something and then sell it and ship it before a specific date to the people who purchase it? or am i crazy?

What I find hilarious is the handful of limited releases every year that aren't available until AFTER the proper RSD date.

Cause they're limited?

No, because they flubbed the deadline.

it's truly the weirdest way to do things.

It's so bizarre. And I spend the month before RSD explaining, over and over, that we A) don't know what we'll get and B) can't hold anything so if you want something, show up early. And we've got a much larger indie across town who order at least 10 of everything so when people do come here early and leave without their precious Guardians of the Galaxy cassette they just think we're assholes.

RSD spreads the love...

I'm sure we will see some long winded apology penned by RSD staff, followed up by a "we're going to do our best to improve this situation" blah blah. Just scrap the whole thing.

No, because they flubbed the deadline.

― austinato (Austin), Monday, April 6, 2015 2:17 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OH! I skimmed over the "until" in your post.

Add in the fact that majors are monopolizing limited pressing plant resources with rsd releases, causing months-long delays for indies (and likely contributing to the increasing crapulence of new pressings):
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/how-independent-artists-and-labels-are-getting-squeezed-out-by-the-vinyl-revival

the compact disc is really the way to go when it comes to 95% of new releases.

you know what else is awesome? spotify!

Can't tell if you're being facetious.

no, I'm not joking about new releases. most new vinyl releases are digitally sourced so why bother with vinyl? and I just started checking out spotify for the first time this week and it's cool! it's probably a fad with me though. it's still strangely airless like when I heard digital radio for the first time. but so much moombahton!

I have Spotify, but use it rarely. And even then, it's mainly to preview stuff I want to buy anyway.

Good point, though RE: new release vinyl.

in my experience w diy shit the point of vinyl is that it's a precious object (...that you can justify owning because the grooves last forever, man, and that shit won't decay like a cd, maaaaannnn...) more so than an actual medium. Yeah, you can listen to it at home but 90% of the time it's just the digital download code on your iDevice. The vinyl is the illusion that you actually BOUGHT SOMETHING and the fact that the something is BIG is important.

A lot of smaller DIY types (inc some friends of mine) are big into cassettes for the same reason, only the illusion that they will last forever is a non-factor. Think a music-based Hummel. It's actually junk but you can convince yourself it's cute if there's, like, a hand printed cover or some shit.

The CD as initial release is fine logically in that digital origin --> digital delivery makes sense. The problem is the youngs don't value CDs bc they have always been able to copy them willy nilly -- and rightly so. CDs are light, cheap to produce, unpleasant to hold in the hand. Further, bc your first move w a CD is to rip it into your computer you have the knowledge that you're "done with it" and can give it away to a friend/resell it. Y'know, typical audiophile complaints.

afaict the actual MUSIC part of RSD has always been BS. It's always been about the product, and I don't mean that in the hippie way. I can't think of a first run album that has come out on RSD, but frankly I think that'd be pretty awesome if Kanye released an album, vinyl only, in an Urban Outfitters-quantity run on RSD.

The inability for little labels to make anything between november and april is a whole other tragedy...

late 90s, in the U.S. at least, more new indie vinyl albums tended to be at least a couple of dollars cheaper than the cd. (kill rock stars, matador, merge..)

and they sounded really good. belle & sebastian and elliott smith sure did, anyway.

Yeah, but that's partially because the majors weren't hogging up the plants pressing Jimmy Ray and Orgy vinyl.

is jimmy ray the new jersey of alternative or is he a stage ahead?

who wants to know?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/alicia122011/m.html?item=201324884809&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

^this person gets it

Oh, good, now I don't have to wait ten days to get that coveted Ben Lee single. Can anybody break a thousand dollar bill?

**throws up hands in disgust**

This may make yall puke nails 2, but

http://www.superiorviaduct.com/blogs/news/18012648-shipping-next-week-punk-singles
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0219/8812/files/SV_blog_punksingles_grande.jpg?14664525711617416700

Those are kind of awesome, actually, just expensive. Also I was under the impression they were non-RSD? At least SV was selling them via their website I thought.

Yeah they're cool. Doesn't specifically mention RSD, but shipping next week, ltd. ed. color vinyl, so can be inferred. Guess they were pre-ordered from the site? This is very cool too, but think I've got all of it:
http://www.superiorviaduct.com/blogs/news/16155680-now-shipping-electric-eels

I've seen several things sold from sites that just happen to be shipping next week: promotions clustering, copping some of that RSD buzz, apparently.

those are not RSD releases, as far as I know from being on their mailing list and receiving initial notices

and yeah they are awesome but I have them in other formats already

Wouldn't mind that X 7" tbh. The Dils too. I have orig Flipper & Residents 7"s already. But I'm not gonna pay stupid money for some RSD thing to get them.

What is it that's stopping people from building more pressing plants? That seems like the obvious solution when faced with huge bottleneck + growing trend that doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. Surprised that Noisey article makes absolutely no mention of that

From what I understand, the parts used to make these gigantic contraptions either no longer exist, or are prohibitively expensive. And no one alive has anything approaching 'expertise' on how to construct these things. It's a pretty massive undertaking.

Equipment is so scarce that many of the plants that are still going are doing so with gear that has parts harvested from gear from plants that have shut down.

Also, what a bummer it would be if you invested half a million in a pressing plant only to find in five years time that the fad for "vinyls" is over (which is probably pretty likely imo)

Stevie here's a good link from upthread abt the pressing plant backup"

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/how-independent-artists-and-labels-are-getting-squeezed-out-by-the-vinyl-revival

Hmm I want to support my local record store and I like the celebration aspect of RSD, but I can't make much sense of making "rare" records on demand - like, rare records are really cool, but that's because the rareness tells some kind of story ("not a lot of LPs were made in those days", "this was ahead of its time", "this was a private press" etc.). I dunno, seems like it's a lot more fun when that kind of stuff happens accidentally.

Also, for instance the Strange Days mono reissue - it makes a lot of sense for people to want a mono version of this album, since the stereo mix is terrible iirc, but a) why not just release it the moment you get this idea b) I believe Discogs lists 7 different mono presses from 1967 that are reasonably priced, so why in the world would you pay for a new one when the internet has made it very easy for you to order the real deal?

To put it in grander terms, I reckon the vinyl "renaissance" can be seen as a materialist reaction to a predominant idealist understanding of what music is, but RSD is a very conceptual/idealist approach to vinyl. Maybe mp3s had people convinced that content was everything and form (vinyl, tape, cd, mp3) didn't matter much, and I'd call that idealist - this backfired because form ofc does matter + consumer culture, if you like music you'll probably want to spend money on it somehow. While RSD surely gets the spending money part right, I can't really see how a release like the new Strange Days uses vinyl as a format to make the music matter in a different way. Hmm, sorry if this reads a bit incoherent, hung over.

the record labels made it dumb. they are good at that. they want to squeeze any money they can out of people after they ruined their own business by continuing to sell CDs for 17.99 for decades.