Vinyl Collective

FRANZ NICOLAY “Corkscrew” MERCH BAG

Team Science has put together a nice teaser package that includes a Corkscrew and 3 buttons which comes in a plastic bag. Only 100 sets will be made, we have 17 coming in. If you need a nice Corkscrew/Knife/bottle opener, you need to get this.

MIKE PARK Limited Edition 7″ + Art Print (signed)
LA DISPUTE “Vancouver” LP white w/ pink splatter LP

Just got in restocks of the very fantastic Mike Park limited edition 7″ which I urge everyone to pick up in case you haven’t picked it up yet. The packaging is amazing and they were all signed by Mike and the artist, Kevin Verner. We also got in more of the La Dispute record.

Truth be told, 2009 has been a tough year for our small, independent business. I guess every business in America can say the same thing. Instead of scaling things back and burying our heads in the dirt, we have figured out ways to take our business to the next level and make moves that will not only ensure we are around for another 14 years but position ourselves in a manner to help every small band and label help find their releases homes around the world.

This isn’t the first time we have found ourselves in a tough situation and as such, we have constantly evolved what we do at Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective to make things work. How else have we found a way to have been around for 14 years? We are developing a number of new projects that will ensure Vinyl Collective and Suburban Home a long future, but we could use your help in the short term. For a quick word on these projects, we are currently working on:

1. Our equivalent to CD Baby where we help every small band and label out with International distribution. We will soon be in a position to help artists who have a demand for their releases find distribution all over the world (U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan). We are working out the kinks and getting all of our ducks in a row, but this could be one of the biggest deals in independent music (no exaggeration).
2. Digital Retail Store in the Vinyl Collective store. Our buddy Robb from Limbeck has developed tools that will allow us to sell digital albums in our online store. We plan to launch the store this week and will be offering Flac as well as MP3 Albums at a much lower price than Itunes/Amazon.  Expect a huge announcement this week.
3. The Mary Kay / Pampered Chef Pyramid Scheme at Vinyl Collective – I jokingly call it a pyramid scheme as this idea was inspired by Mary Kay and Pampered Chef where people help sell Vinyl Collective/Suburban Home titles in their community to make extra money. It won’t be a scheme though. Do you remember when distros would set up at shows? We want to see this again and will soon be calling upon people all over the world to help us sell our records as well as non-exclusive releases. Can you imagine having 50 to 100 Vinyl Collective representatives selling our records and those of the small labels we buy from? It could revolutionize and uplift our small scene. Sam from Goodcore and I are bouncing ideas off each other to make this work.
4. Used Vinyl Sales in the VC store – this project was put on the back burner for a little while, but we will soon be launching this. The integration of Google Docs into the VC site will help make this run very smoothly.

We need your help. We have come up with a number of ways you can help. Understand that we would love to figure out an easy way to offer stock in Vinyl Collective/Suburban Home so that our friends through music could also be part owners in VC/SH making Vinyl Collective a true Collective. Because of all the red tape involved with the SEC, we are not ready to make that plunge just yet (but maybe sometime in the future). We did, however, come up with a bunch of ways to help us out while helping yourself out:

• Vinyl Collective For Life - for $1,000, you will receive every piece of vinyl that we release for as long as we exist. The 10 people who take advantage of this will receive the rarest variant of every 7″, 10″, LP, double LP, and/or boxset we release from here on out. These 10 people will also automatically receive one year’s membership to the VCCC (more on this later) and be enrolled in Suburban Home for Life (more on this later).
• Suburban Home For Life – for $100, you will receive every digital release we put out for as long as we are a record label. We tend to release 10 to 12 albums a year so if you think about it, this could pay for itself in one year considering albums cost $10 on Itunes.
• Under the Influence subscriptions – I said in the past that I really didn’t want to offer subscriptions of the Under the Influence series as it is a pain in the ass to keep up with, but the more we thought about it, we figured out an organized way to implement this. We will offer 100 subscriptions of the rarest color of volumes 15 through 24 (picked these volumes since we sold subscriptions of 5 through 14 previously).
• Vinyl Collective Club Card (the VCCC) – Kind of like how a Costco or Sam’s Club membership works, you become a member of the club which entitles you to special pricing and offers. For $75 per year, you will become a member which entitles you to a VCCC Card, a unique coupon code entitling you to 10 percent off of every order for one year, and special offers for only VCCC members. If you don’t spend over $750 in a calendar year (amount to make the $75 VCCC pay for itself), we will give you a gift certificate for the difference so this will pay for itself no matter what.
• I Celebrate Their Entire Catalog Sale (CDs/T-shirt) – We have offered this deal for quite a while but for those of you who prefer their music on CD, you get every in stock CD that Suburban Home has released, an I Celebrate Their Entire Catalog T-shirt, and our next 10 CD releases mailed to you over the course of the next year.
• 1 of every record we currently carry (a Raffle) – Enter to win 1 copy of  every single 7″, 10″, LP, and double LP we carry at Vinyl Collective. This is between 3,000 and 4,000 records valued at between $40,000 to $60,000 depending on the number of records we have in inventory at the time, we select a winner. Instantly have one of the biggest record collections around. We will set up a Kickstarter project as we will need to reach a certain threshold in order to make this work. $3 is the cost of a raffle ticket.

We are hoping to raise over $100,000 to cover some debt, to help us launch these new projects, and to hire a full time music buyer for Vinyl Collective. There comes a time when most small businesses need help to get to that next level. That is where we are right now, but I assure you that this will not only help us, but it will help everyone around us as it is our goal to help the independent music community any way we possibly can.

I feel as though I was put on this Earth as an Independent Music Evangelist. It is hard-wired into my DNA and I cannot imagine doing anything else. I would appreciate your support in helping our little company raise these funds. Please pass this onto others, please post this on your blog or on your Facebook/Myspace pages.

Thanks for your consideration and support of what we do. Your friend through music, Virgil Dickerson

APPLESEED CAST “Two Conversations” LP monster electric green vinyl

Buy this and automatically be entered to win a test pressing! After the experimentation of the Low Level Owl series, Appleseed Cast left Deep Elm for Tigerstyle and returned to a more structured approach. Like Mare Vitalis before it, Two Conversations is made up of a peppering of 3, 4 and 5 minute songs, only they have a twinge of the post-rock neurosis explored on Low Level Owl Vols. 1-2.

This new version includes new artwork and a song not included in the original track listing on Tigerstyle Records.

10 Shows, 10 Breweries, One Day

Chad Price, of Drag the River, is about to release his debut, solo album, and we have hatched up what will be one of the greatest days of music and beer drinking. To promote Chad Price’s album release shows and new album, Chad has agreed to perform 10 Shows at 10 Breweries/Bars all in ONE SINGLE DAY. We at Suburban Home are almost as passionate about Craft Beer as we are with Independent Music and could not think of a better way to combine our passions.

The Tap Room Tour will start at Odells in Ft Collins at 11 am and will include Left Hand Brewery, Oskar Blues, Avery, Upslope, Mountain Sun, 2 Breckenridge Breweries, Great Divide, and Road 34. Chad will perform 20 minute sets at each of these destinations, we will drink a beer or maybe 2 at each of these spots, and then move onto the next brewery. We will be documenting the entire trip on video and hope to find new friends through music. We encourage everyone to join us for part or all of our beer tour and will be announcing more details soon.

The image at the top of this post has our schedule although it is subject to change slightly as we finalize all of our arrangements (like fitting in time to Eat some food!). Brandon and I will also be making a mini-site detailing our favorite beers at each of the breweries, addresses, and will be posting updates to our Twitter page. Mark Saturday, October 17th on your calendar and if anything, join us for the performances at your local brewery.

The following weekend, Chad Price will be celebrating the release of his new album, “Smile Sweet Face” at the following fine establishments:

Thursday, October 22nd at The Triple Nickel (Colorado Springs)
Friday, October 23rd at The Oriental Theater (Denver, FREE SHOW)
Saturday, October 24th at Road 34 (Ft Collins)

Chad Price has spent over 10 years as 1 of Drag the River’s 2 vocalists/songwriters. He was also the vocalist of legendary punk rock band, All. “Smile Sweet Face” is Chad Price’s first Solo Album. It will be in stores on October 20th, but you can pre-order it now on vinyl or CD here. While ordering Chad’s new album, make sure you pick up our newest shirt, “I Listen to Independent Music and Drink Craft Beer” at this link.

1 WHATEVER 64 copies
2 THE SWELLERS “Welcome Back Riders” 7″ black vinyl 49 copies
3 FRANK TURNER “The First Three Years” dbl LP red w/ white splatter vinyl 31 copies
4 MURDER BY DEATH “Finch: Instrumental Album” 10″green vinyl 25 copies
5 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ white vinyl 23 copies
6 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ brown vinyl VC exclusive color 14 copies
6 THE SWELLERS “Welcome Back Riders” 7″ pink w/ blue splatter vinyl 14 copies
6 HEAVY HEARTED “S/T” 7″ mixed color vinyl 14 copies
9 HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW “Turtle Nipple…” LP brown/pink 13 copies
10 CHUCK RAGAN “Gold Country” LP black vinyl 11 copies
10 LIZZIE HUFFMAN AND HER BROTHER BAND “S/T” 10″ red/burgandy vinyl 11 copies
12EVERY TIME I DIE “Hot Damn” LP silver/black 8 copies
12 CALEB LIONHEART “Think Hardcore” LP 3rd press bootleg jacket /70 8 copies
12 CHUCK RAGAN “Break Our Bread” 7 8 copies
12 Suburban Home Pick 5 for $25 Sale + 5 FREE CDs (CDs, Vinyl, Pint Glasses) 8 copies

Before – filling up on Burritos to have a solid base upon which we planned to pour a lot of beer.

At some point in the middle of the Beer Fest. Feeling good but still ready to drink more.

This was Pretty much the end of the night. There didn’t seem to be a sober individual at the entire Fest.

Pretty much the same photo as the one above, but this time we had 2 surprise guests.

Highlights from the Great American Beer Fest include:

• Meeting the owner of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione. I gave him one of our Independent Music / Craft Beer shirts and he said he would send me a Dogfish Head shirt in return. He is a really nice guy.
• Trying Royal Oil from Bull and Bush (denver, co) which was my favorite beer of the night. It’s an unbelievable Barley Wine.
• All the beers from McCoy’s in Kansas City particularly the Broadway Coffee House Stout
• Mirror Mirror at Deschutes, Bourbon Stout at Goose Island, all the beers at Great Divide, having Gnarley Wine and Hop Stoopid at Lagunitas, having Pipeline Porter at Kona, and trying about 100 different beers.
• Having the brewers at Mountain Sun tell Brandon that their favorite record label is Suburban Home. They are stoked on the new Chad Price album.
• Getting compliments on our Interdependent Music / Craft Beer shirts from all sorts of people.
• Having some Troegs because all you Pennsylvania cats are always talking it up, it was very good.
• Seeing only a few people interested in Coors or Budweiser, but seeing huge lines at Dogfish Head, Great Divide, Stone, Deschutes, and Oskar Blues. Craft Beer reigned supreme all night.
• Going to McCormicks for their happy hour menu and pigging out like no one’s business.
• Hanging with my bros for one hell of a night.

If you have yet to go to the Great American Beer Fest, put it on your calendar. It is such an epic event.

Patrick Dangermond and Nicole Nelson (9-25-09) – Patrick and Nicole are big Suburban Home/VC supporters and when I went to San Diego for this year’s Narm convention, Patrick was kind enough to take me to a few record stores and to Pizza Port which has killer beer. We boozed it up together one night and at the end of the night they took me to Del Taco which ruled. They are in Denver for this year’s Great American Beer Fest and stopped by the office. I told them about how much fun I had last night and told them a few stops they had to make. Oh man, they are gonna have a blast tonight. Thanks for stopping by guys.

Other Visitors to VC can be seen here. And if you are coming to Denver, make sure you drop us a line and come by.

We just got in a bunch of great records including the Frank Turner first 3 years (on 2 different colors of vinyl). Unfortunately, the records were not labeled so we are just sending everyone the record and hopefully you get it on a color that makes you happy. We also got in all the variants for the In the Red/Anchor Down/Bastards of Young/Drunken Boat 7″, one of the colors of the Portugal the Man satanic satanists Euro release (this packaging is bad ass), the other color should show up any day now. As well as all 4 colors of the Swellers, the Gatorface repress and the Coffee Project repress. Holy Moly.

CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ black vinyl
CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ brown vinyl VC exclusive color
CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7″ white vinyl

Side One ended up with 50 more copies on Brown vinyl, the Vinyl Collective exclusive color and while sending those to us, they said they had 5 extra on black and a handful on white. Get these while you can. These will be gone super quick.