it’s from fairfax so you know it’s a shtty article before even opening it
extrapolating broad generalisations from one minor observation is for idiot reactionaries on social media, not for paid writers
-edit- unless of course your primary audience is idiot reactionaries, in which case play on, i guess
Why anyone would want to pay top dollar for poorly manufactured product with poor content on a day that is less about promoting record shops and more about profiteering is quite beyond me. Yet they do. Fair enough, their choice.
Ive got some excellent RSD releases. The content isnt my issue. Its the concept, the execution and the results (flippers).
It’s a very tongue in cheek article, a bit of old man shouting, but he does appeal to the cantankerous me here:
“This stuff was supposed to be cheap, the discards you found while crate-digging in dusty stores frequented by lonely guys in western shirts. I know because I was that guy, in a long ago time (the mid-2000s) when I was able to waste four hours daily flicking through milk crates full of endless unwanted copies of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Southern Accents , looking for a cheap thrill.
I wasted so much time in record shops, looking for… what exactly? For anything from Cherry Red Records circa 1988-1992? From Homestead Records circa 1986-1993? I scoured my way through record shops and market stalls in Osaka, San Francisco, Boston, Montreal, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Valencia, even freaking Avignon (the French papal seat from 1309 to 1376), returning home on planes carrying about 120kg of exclusively square-shaped hand luggage.
But at least there was a point to buying vinyl, which was the hunt for bargains and rarities. To flick through a cardboard box in Shibuya and find a Japan-only Saint Etienne 7-inch for 500 yen, or a Flipper’s Guitar castaway for the equivalent of $4, was like striking gold. You’d feel just like Charlie, golden ticket in hand, running home to a bed full of grandparents (and then you’d eventually listen to the record, like, six months later).
What’s the thrill in shelling out $64.99 for a reissue of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours , only the most easily accessible album in the history of music? Is the thrill in throwing away money? Throw it at me!”
Excellently articulated my friend.
PS
I always wanted to wear a western shirt, but Ive never found the courage.
I put REM’s Document on this morning, dropped the needle and cranked the volume and realised I heard some pre-echo drums before track 1 kicked off. I had read about it but never heard it before. This explains, not sure whether 1 or 2 would be the cause:
This Pre-Echo can have two sources:
1- From the vinyl grooves being too close together and the louder (more intense transients) parts are actually affecting the previous groove, usually this can be determined if the time it takes between pre-echo and the actual sound is exactly the same that takes for a full turn of the disc as it plays (33 1/3 or 45 rpm or whatever).
2- From the analog tape (or digital transfer of an original analog recording where this has occurred), where the magnetic “leak” has contaminated the adjacent section of tape.
Done!!
Love that!
Got some albums of Ratcat if you are interested
How’s this for a cynical cash grab?
16 different variants of a collection containing “reimagined” versions of their best known songs (read: tiresome, near acoustic retreads with all of the life sucked out of them).
Sixteen!!! And there’s another couple that aren’t shown here…
When sh-t like this is going on, no wonder vinyl pressing plants are snarled up and indie acts can’t get a run of 500 done for 12-18 months.
It’s not great.
And I understand your complaint, but I feel like the real issue is a lack of pressing plants.
I feel like blaming established acts is reasonable but not anywhere near the whole story.
It didn’t used to be that hard.
Not so much the established acts… more the established labels…
But…why aren’t presses keeping up with vinyl sales?
You answered that yourself… a chronic lack of vinyl pressing plants, which were not geared-up for a relatively sudden surge of vinyl demand.
I read somewhere not so long ago how few there are now. I can’t remember the exact numbers but the number left in the world is a tiny fraction of what it once was. Those remaining are being clagged-up by the greedy big-player labels re-pressing Rumours for the 87th time, Taylor Swift’s latest, RSD re-releases or the variants of U2 lame “greatest hits unplugged”.
Can’t blame the plants - they know full well what side their bread’s buttered on - but it makes life hell for indies…
There are more being built. Perhaps it was considered a passing fad that has grown beyond expectations. Setting up a plant would take time and huge investment, I’d imagine.
I just hope the quality picks up, with mastering engineers who know vinyl and don’t just think you slap your loud compressed digital file onto a stamper.
Indies not only got to the front of the line to get pressed back in the day, they got top engineers cutting the lacquer and basically keep the businesses going when the big labels all but jumped off, proclaiming it a dead medium. I get Baker’s point, it sucks to see them muscle in and clog up the output with coloured cash grabs.
Amen to this!.. unfortunately a lot of the original vinyl specialist mastering engineers have now sadly gone to the great gig in the sky…
Can I just say that I don’t need the new Smith Street or Amyl or King Gizz single (or 12’” single) on coloured 180gm (or whatever the fark).
I just want it.
Edit: I really feel like all three plus Barnett would be waaaay bigger if they could release singles on vinyl.
