Vinyl Collective

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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Wired recently published a piece called, “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin”. It is an interesting look at Vinyl’s recent rise in popularity which has become a hot topic amongst various publications. Since this piece ran on Monday, I have had at least a dozen links to the story forwarded to me. I would like to offer my own thoughts on the post.

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Our good friend, Mike Park, at Asian Man Records has been so kind to offer us an exclusive color of the upcoming Alkaline Trio “Goddamnit” vinyl that you won’t be able to get anywhere else. When we were discussing this, I suggested we let the fine folks from our Vinyl Collective message board help choose the color.

So for the rest of the week, I will be taking suggestions for colors. If you have a good idea, let us know.

“Goddamnit” will be available in March of next year and will be released on 6 different colors (500 of each) and the copies will come with a DVD. The album will have all new artwork, was remixed and remastered. It should be super sweet!

After being a lazy ass for way too long, I have finally updated the store categories, Pre-orders and New Releases. I hope to update them every couple of weeks so that they remain current.

While doing this, I decided to add a new category for Exclusive Releases which will contain Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective in house vinyl releases.

I am thinking about adding a category possibly called Essential which would contain vinyl releases that through your suggestions feature are considered absolutely legendary. What do you think? While on this topic, do you think our store needs any other categories?

It was recently suggested that we should have a message board for Vinyl Collective. I like this idea, but I wanted to see your thoughts. Do you have suggestions for categories? I might need help with a few folks being moderators, too. I know that I don’t have lots of free time to moderate. Are there any cool, free message boards that you guys recommend? Let me know.

In a related topic, a big Vinyl Collective supporter recently started Burnt Wolf, a Vinyl wiki. This was an idea that I had thought would be a great resource for vinyl collectors and before I could even think about how to proceed, Burnt Wolf had already started. They explain their site as, “The Burnt Wolf wiki project aims to build a comprehensive database of limited pressing information (mainly focusing on, but not limited to, vinyl) and provide a directory of record stores that still carry vinyl and other collectibles.” Check it out.

Also leave your comments on thoughts on a message board. thanks.

After about 5 emails from you folks suggesting we look into doing the vinyl for Strung Out, I decided to write my friend Bart at Fat Wreck about licensing the album for Vinyl Collective. He wrote me back with the following email:

Hey Virgil,

Bart

I wrote my friend Bart after seeing the following post on Fat Wreck’s RSS Feed of which I ask, why not do it as a double LP? I tried friends, but it wasn’t meant to be. Here is that post:

Alright…it seems that some of you are filling your diapers over the fact that we aren’t putting out vinyl for the new Mad Caddies, Strung Out and No Use for a Name. Here are my two favorite bits of constructive suggestions that came into ye ol’ digital complaint box, “the cunts arent gonna press this on vinyl either” and “guess I will just download it loosing money from me….”. Well…we don’t want your money to get any “looser” with gas prices rising and all so we thought we’d let you know that the reason we aren’t putting out these records on vinyl is because they are too LONG. The more music you stuff onto a single LP, the worse it sounds so we decided we didn’t want to compromise the recording quality. Fear not because we actually have a couple of really cool secret vinyl projects coming up. We apologize if you are bummed and as a peace offering we give to you the first Strung Out mp3 for the song Calling. I again apologize but this mp3 will not be on vinyl.