Vinyl Collective

When starting the Vinyl Collector of the Month, I had a handful of friends in mind who would make perfect candidates. I had these people in mind, but I did not want to make them a Collector of the Month until we had a number of people not previously affiliated with VC first. Joey Bullock was one of the guys I had in mind early on as he used to work for Suburban Home, was around when we first started Vinyl Collective, and his involvement had turned him into a crazed record collector. Joey is always the first to volunteer his services when we need help with a mail out and on top of it, he is a great friend. He and our other good friend, Zach from Grey Flight, are also starting a new vinyl label and will be releasing Dear and the Headlights on vinyl soon. He also happens to be one of our board members for the Vinyl Cooperative label. When I asked him to be our May Vinyl Collector of the Month, he asked if he could send a naked photo and I assumed he was kidding. As you can tell above, he wasn’t.

Joey was kind enough to answer questions I sent him regarding his collection, why he buys vinyl, his recent purchases, and more. Thanks Joey for taking the time to do this and congratulations on being our May Vinyl Collector of the Month. Here’s hoping this doesn’t start a string of naked COTM photos!

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Another photo was shared with me yesterday and I had to post it. I mean it was rather cool seeing her represent the Vinyl Collective bumper sticker, but take a look at this photo, she has the Every Time I Die box set we released in the background as well as records by Matt Skiba/Kevin Seconds, Alkaline Trio, Poison the Well, Thursday, and a record I can’t identify. Can anyone guess that what record that is?

She also posted on her blog the fact that we posted a photo and she write that she loved Vinyl Collective. How fucking cool is that? Sassie, if you are out there, please email me, it would be cool to run an interview with you on Vinyl Collective about your record collection. Thanks for all the support.

(photos by Alan Davis)

A while back, we mentioned starting a Vinyl Collective cooperative imprint where shareholders could buy in and in part help us decide which records would come out on this label. This label would give record collectors an opportunity to be involved in running a vinyl imprint without taking much of a risk.

I am working out the details, but here are the basic principles. And feel free to offer suggestions and a name for the label. I like “The Collective”, “Cooperative Records”, or Armchair Mogul. (Click the Link to Read More)

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Steph and I had an incredible trip to Seattle and I wanted to share a few photos with you. This is an extremely long post so click the below link if you want to read further.

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Kay Kay performing “Hey Momma” at album release show  

Ok, let me explain. I have this crappy digital camera and I decided to film my first video on it. Understand that I am optically challenged, I didn’t have the best vantage point to film the entire band, and there is something else. I am tone deaf and for whatever reason (I blame it on the incredible beer selection at the venue) I decided to sing along about 10 seconds into the video. As the audio will attest, I am probably one of the world’s worst singers. This could be why I love the man, the myth, the legend, William Hung. Luckily, I realized that my camera had the possibility of picking up my drastically bad audio and I kept my mouth shut throughout the rest of the song.

As you can see from the rest of the video, the band are one of the best kept secrets in the Northwest. The show was incredible. The venue was easily the nicest venue I have ever stepped foot in. The dining was top notch and their selection of Belgium beers was fantastic. The band performed their entire album from start to finish to a sold out audience who loved every minute of it. Steph and I feel very lucky to have experienced such an amazing performance and I am really hoping that somehow, we are able to help this band get the recognition they deserve. Now we just need to figure out a way to get a 13 to 17 piece band out on the road without losing their shirts.

Not only were the band fantastic, they were all really nice folks. Same goes for their manager, Mike Kaminsky, and their booking agent, Will Evans. I plan to share some photos from our whirlwind trip, but I thought I would share with you a little bit of our experience from the show.

Again, i am really sorry about my singing. You never realize just how bad you are until you hear yourself recorded or you see those folks on American Idol.

Robert Benson, the author of “The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting” has been so kind as to offer us vinyl collectors his ebook for free. When I first started talking to Robert, his ebook contained around 40 pages. Now it is over 100 pages and it has something for every level of record collector. Robert tackles issues like grading vinyl, where to get insurance for your collection, interviews with collectors and people involved in selling records (including yours truly), and on and on and on. It is really a great resource and Robert is quite the authority when it comes to the topic of collecting. Please check it out. Thanks Robert for the kind gift.

Free Ebook “The Fascinating Hobby of Vinyl Record Collecting”  

My good friends through music, I write this to you today to give you a few things to think about as it pertains to Vinyl Collective. I have planted a few seeds of ideas that are in my head and I wanted to put them together a bit more concisely. I will try to keep this short and simple:

1. Vinyl Collective 7″ series - I have been quietly talking to bands about doing a series of split 7″s called Under the Influence where each act does a cover of a song that has influenced what they do today. I had originally thought of doing something like the Fat Wreck 7″ of the month club, but I just am not dialed in with our pressing plant like Fat is with theirs and I don’t need more stress to meet a monthly deadline. Instead, we will do a new pre-order for each 7″. With luck, you will be interested enough to pick up the entire series. There are still a bunch of other things to figure out, but so far we have firm commitments to do splits with Chuck Ragan / Tim Barry, William Elliott Whitmore / Josh Small, Fake Problems / Look Mexico, Rocky Votolato / Chad Price (of Drag the River), O Pioneers! / New Bruises, Ben Nichols (of Lucero) / Jon Snodgrass (of Drag the River). I also have the following acts that are into the idea, but we are not yet sure who we are doing the flip side with: Cory Branan, Austin Lucas, Limbeck, Teenage Bottlerocket, LaGrecia, The Playing Favorites, Bomb the Music Industry (or Jeff from BTMI or both??), and I think that while hanging out with the American Steel guys in Vegas this weekend, I might have drunkenly got a verbal ok. Dont’ hold me on that one. I am not sure yet when all these records will come out, but I hope to get this rolling as soon as this summer. Stay tuned.

2. Side Label through the Message Board that I mentioned in a recent thread - I invariably get emails to put out certain records on vinyl, records that are truly great, but it always tends to be by a band that had broken up and therefore might be a risky thing to do. I was thinking that it would be really cool to start a series of LPs where we collectively decide records like this to put out and then release the record together. We could do on record a month where we press either 500 or 1,000 copies. We set up a pre-order where each single LP would cost $10. That $10 contribution will get you the rarest version of the vinyl. If we can get 300 people to contribute, that would come pretty close to covering a pressing. Each of those first 300 people would then be involved in a vote to pick the album. I realize that there is a good chance that you might end up with a record you don’t love. For example, if you love metal, you may end up with a punk record or vice versa but the record will be rare and would become good trading material down the road. It would be a fun process and my hope is that it would document some really great records on vinyl that might not normally see the light of day. With your help, we could come up with a cool way to find these records. We could have a nominating session which leads to certain individuals campaigning for certain titles and then those titles would go up for vote. Kind of like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame where certain folks are nominated and then have to be voted in to make it. There would be a lot of details to work out, but it would be a great way to get some really great vinyl and be involved in more than just being the purchaser.

3. Invest in Vinyl Collective - I will only briefly touch on this. I feel like we have a really great business developing and I was trying to think of our next step and the bigger picture. I think that at some point in the near future, I am going to have to take a serious look at bringing on investors to raise enough capital to take this business in the direction I would like to see it go. I plan to work on a business plan that lays out where we are at, where I would like to see things, and what we will need to make this happen. I have a lot of things to figure out, but I think that offering all of you a piece of the business would be the best way to go. I have a lot of respect for each of you and have really appreciated the amount of support you have given us. I know that most of you care quite a bit about us which is really rare to see in this industry. I think that we have come a long way with our limited resources, but there comes a day when a business could benefit from outside help to reach that next level. I will talk about this more soon, but I wanted to get people thinking.

Please let me know what you think of these ideas.

Friends, much like we did with the Poison the Well “Versions”, I would like to get your help in deciding the colors for Every Time I Die’s “Last Night In Town”. I have posted a thread on our message board where you can suggest the colors. Here is a link:

Help pick the Colors for ETID’s “Last Night In Town” 

Thanks.

I just wanted to share with you a really cool email I got the other day.

To Virgil and your companions in vinyl propagation,

I wanted to write to thank you for the amazing work you and yours have been doing. I usually don’t take the time to write emails like these, but I thought I had something special to share. I have always been passionate about music. I have spent the majority of my time listening to albums, going to shows, and writing music. It is the largest part of my personality, and I love every minute of it. A few years ago, I bought a few pieces of vinyl for the personal value (PMFS “Up In Them Guts” at a show, no one was buying their merch, and those dudes are amazing, and the Appleseed Cast “Low Level Owl”, from Gilead Media, possibly my favorite album of all time), but never got too wrapped up in purchasing records, as I had no means of listening to them. This christmas, I finally got my first turntable, and I rushed out yesterday to get a receiver and some speakers. At this point, I have a small stack of records. Nothing too respectable, but it makes me happy. I think I have a case of wax fever, I am always online checking to see what records to find, and I am often stepping away from my desk to make sure I’m not buying records that I really can’t afford. Last night when I got home from work, I cracked a beer, set up my player, and put on “Planet of Ice”, which you pressed beautifully, and I sat. It felt right. And there was something about just listening to that record play, and it felt like that same distinct yet indescribeable feeling you get when you drink a beer with friends at the end of a long day. It was a heart warming feeling. Listening to that record felt right, like it was the right way to be doing it. With album sales dwindling off and the constant buzz about “digital media”, listening to that record felt like I was reclaiming what was supposed to be mine in the first place, that my place in music last night was on my couch watching that record spin and feeling good. So I wanted to write and thank you all for what you are doing. You must get that same feeling about records, or else you wouldn’t be putting them out. If there is ever anything I can do to help you in your efforts, aside from spreading the good word about your site, please let me know, I would be more than happy to help. Thanks for taking the time. Take care.

-Luke
Fear of a Robotic Media

I am excited to bring your another volume of our “celebrity interviews”. This time around, Jacob Bannon of Deathwish, Malfunction, Converge, Irons, and about a million other projects was kind enough to answer some questions about why most of his bands put out vinyl, and you will be surprised to hear his answers to his most prized record, what he would kill to own, and his last 5 record purchases.

It should go without saying (but I will say it) that I have nothing but the upmost respect for Jacob, his labels, and pretty much everything he does. There are a lot of label owners and band members out there that just don’t get it. I can say without hesitation that not only does Jacob pay close attention to every detail of every decision he makes, he has adapted to the many changes that continue to occur in the music industry. Everything he is involved with is done with so much care. Look at their website, for example, and you can only imagine how much time and effort that was put into it. Look at the vast catalog of releases from his labels and from his bands and you will see that the not only are his releases well recorded and mind blowing, but the artwork and packaging are artistically beautiful. Besides being a label head and band member, Jacob handles the art for so many of his releases and releases on labels all over the world. He has a style all his own and you can usually identify a release he prepared the art for as it looks like nothing else out there. It is because of this that I recently asked if he might be interested in designing a future Vinyl Collective t-shirt and I am excited to say that sometime in 2008, we will have a Jacob Bannon Vinyl Collective T-shirt.

Thanks Jacob for taking the time to do this interview and I hope everyone out there takes a second to not only read the interview but to also check out his labels, his bands, and his artwork.

Oh and on a side note, Jacob Bannon is a member of the Vinyl Collective message board. How cool is that?

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