even if you have not played a wayforward game you NEED to listen to some of Jake Kaufmans tracks, man is freaking amazing and he put these up there for any price including free.
[url]http://virt.bandcamp.com/[/url]

Been over a month since I've bought any new vinyl but stumbled across this seller on ebay recently who looks to have come across a box or something of old Led Zeppelin, Beatles and Pink Floyd albums. So I parked myself on those auctions. The Led Zeppelin albums being sold I already own, and first pressings + great quality as well, so I didn't bother with those. The only Beatles albums being sold I already owned, UK pressings + great quality, except for Rubber Soul, Revolver, and For Sale. Rubber Soul I got a cheap copy of, it was a US release but it had seen better days and some of the songs had some pops and cracks. I missed out on that one, and Revolver went for way more than I was willing to pay. However, I did get the copy of For Sale:



It's the Odeon ‎TOJP 7074 Japanese import, released in 1992, with YEX 142 1S and YEX 143 1S runout etchings. Pretty pristine and plays with almost no noise. It was really quite a steal as it's a limited mono edition (only 5000 were made) that was released on the 30th anniversary of their debut.

I started liking The Beatles probably starting from Revolver onwards, and more of a "gets better the further down the road you get" sort of thing, which was why I was willing to live with my ok copy of Rubber Soul and not willing to spend very much on a Revolver in this auction. This album was more of a deal that I couldn't walk away from because of the price, eventhough I'd probably not be listening to this very often.

The rest of the auctions were all Pink Floyd albums. I put a bid for Animals but that went for more than I was willing to pay. Next up was the double re-release "A Nice Pair":




This 1974 Harvest, SHDW 403, UK release contains both "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "Saucerful of Secrets", with runout etchings: YAX 3419-2, YAX 3420-2, YAX 3633-2, and YAX 3634-2. Not to be confused with the 1973 release which featured a sign of a dentist on the upper right corner instead of the 1974 version which has a monk. I don't think there was any real difference between the pressings, just that the dentist objected to being on the album cover because of some law that said dentists can't advertise. In later re-releases of this album, they put stickers over the nipples of that girl ("a nice pair" har har).

The first disc, Piper, is in nearly flawless condition, not a hint of noise and visually looks brand new. Saucer has a bit more wear on it, but the occasional pop or crack doesn't really get in the way that much because eventhough some of the album is pretty quiet, the sound profile is still pretty thick. The Heart of the Sun probably has the most noticeable pops, but Saucerful of Secrets is crystal clear.

I've always liked Saucerful of Secrets better than their first album, just never been a big fan of that sort of pop that Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett was a part of, though it does have Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive.



This is the 1983 SKBB-388 US re-issue of Ummagumma, the double album that includes a live disc and a studio disc. My runout etchings doesn't exactly match but it can only be one of the 1983 Capitol re-issues.

Honestly, I've always been a little mixed about this album. The live disc is great, and embodies some of the best things I like about older Pink Floyd, kind of spacey, open, improvisational, clever use of effects, highly dynamic, and the live sound as opposed to heavily produced. It also happens that the condition of the first disc is great.

The second studio disc is kind of a mixed bag. It embodies some of the things I don't really care for of the older Pink Floyd. A lot of this stuff is "interesting" and cool in that sort of way, but not really the kind of "interesting" that makes me want to listen to songs on repeat. It's not that the studio album isn't good, it's definitely worth owning and listening to, just not the sort of thing I like best from pre-Dark Side.

I will say, however, I've always thought the album art was pretty cool.



This is actually my second copy of the exact same release of Meddle, the 1971 SMAS-832 Harvest US first pressing, runout etchings SMAS 1 832 F16=16, SMAS 2 832 G21 * 3. The first copy I got as part of a deal and was incredibly cheap, as well as not being in that great of condition. There's a lot of quiet bits on the album so the noise can get annoying. This copy is in great shape though, with only the occasional pop here and there that's barely noticeable, and a bit of noise at the beginning of Echoes (which is unfortunate, but is common being the outside most part of the vinyl where it gets handled the most).

And like I said in my other post, the best thing about Meddle is Echoes being on the entire side 2.

Finally, I have:


This is an album I've always wanted to own on vinyl if only for the suite. It's a 1975 SMAS-382 US re-issue (has writing on the cover as opposed to just sky), runout SMAS-1-382-G24 ML and SMAS-2-382-G39. This album was listed as "stunning" with a very good grading, and visually it looks great, but it's one of those things where it looks awesome but when you play it, it's just an overwhelming amount of noise. All the damage is microscopic. I'm not that surprised because I got it for so cheap, and I'll probably ask for a refund but the album, re-issue or not, usually runs in the $40-50 range, with good copies going well north of $100.

I haven't really compared them to the CD counterparts. The only one of these albums that I've listened to recently was Atom Heart Mother and this copy is too terrible to do any kind of comparison. Though I will say, during some of the louder orchestrated parts of the suite, it does sound more fuller and bigger than I remembered it did on CD.

Ornette wrote:Been over a month since I've bought any new vinyl...

Dude, you've been carving it up compared to me - I've probably bought fewer than 10 records this year so far. I've been super slack.

I think I really got into music in the 7th grade, when a friend introduced me to Green Day. I don't really listen to them now, but I guess listening to music in general has become less a part of my life in recent years. Well, after Green Day I searched for other similar music, so I got into Rock music in general. I deluded myself into thinking that I liked certain popular bands just because they were popular. The Foo Fighters eventually became my favorite band. I was inspired to seek out more of their music once I listened to Everlong for the first time.

I actually played Guitar Hero 3, Metallica and 5. I only got into Metallica because I got the Guitar Hero game, not the other way around. I tried to learn to play the guitar, but stopped after a few months. Now I don't think I'd be able to play anything aside from a few chords that I forgot the names of.

I've expanded my tastes to include a wider variety of genres, from jazz to classical to rap, though I don't become too deeply interested in any of them (as I did with rock), which I guess would be true for most people.

Here are some of the bands that I still like. I'm not so sure about some others that I have on iTunes since I haven't listened to them in so long. Maybe I just don't like them anymore.

Foo Fighters
Nirvana
Broken Social Scene
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
blink-182
The Joy Formidable
Company of Thieves
Electric Light Orchestra
Led Zeppelin
Pixies
Queen
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Smashing Pumpkins
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Based on this list, does anyone have a recommendation?

Blue Monday wrote:Dude, you've been carving it up compared to me - I've probably bought fewer than 10 records this year so far. I've been super slack.

Didn't mean that to come off that way. My wife told me not to buy more records for a while but this one particular auction was something of a windfall, so that made it ok.

Really sweet purchases Ornette, I'm impressed and a bit jelly. I have Harvest first print Ummagumma myself and what you write about the music I agree with almost completely. I'm also happy to say it really deserved that EX quality tag I bought it with as it's pretty much good as new. Apparently the guy I got it from had played it like twice during his whole life.

I haven't bought LPs much this year myself because I need to fix my system before going back to collecting and that's expenditure I've just kept pushing off again and again. However I did end up buying used copy of Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man last month for its great price as well as LP of his newest actually-bloody-brilliant Popular Problems when it came out.

Speaking of Floyd I'm getting my third LP this year next monday since The Endless River just came out and I'm not 'bout to miss new release by my in general favourite band I thought would never happen. Funnily enough I don't really expect much from music itself (I mean, album full of atmospheric noodling based on The Division Bell outtakes? Yikes.) but as long as it's ok tribute to Rick I'm fine with it.

On the other hand I'm also picking up this 6CD baby on monday so I'll be getting some A+ stuff regardless. Glad I didn't have to wait 50 years for this release like some fans.

StarShaper7 wrote:Based on this list, does anyone have a recommendation?

Listen to Radiohead and Interpol. Be merry.

Ornette wrote:Didn't mean that to come off that way.

Nah, that's just me lamenting that I've been really lazy with music in general this year anyway, especially compared to the last couple of years.

A duo of two office ladies rapping about their frustrating daily lives has been making the headlines in Japan recently. Here's one of their songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffH_Mp74xh4

Listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony all the way through for the first time. Just got to the Fourth Movement. This is heaven.

Hey Everyone. Just poping out of my blackhole to share my recent concert experience.

So, I saw Interpol last week and they were AWESOME!!! Definitely a highlight for this month. They played almost everything I wanted to hear from them. Breaker 1 and Everything is Wrong are my top favs from the new album so I was really hoping they played them, which they did . And I squeeed during Leif Erikson and Take You on a Cruise. If they'd done Narc it would've been the cherry on top. But all in all, it was a great show. I'd definitly see them again if they come back.

Here's a copy of the Setlist

1.My Blue Supreme Play Video
2.Say Hello to the Angels Play Video
3.Anywhere Play Video
4.Evil Play Video
5.Leif Erikson Play Video
6.My Desire Play Video
7.Take You on a Cruise Play Video
8.Everything Is Wrong Play Video
9.Lights Play Video
10.Breaker 1 Play Video
11.Untitled Play Video
12.PDA Play Video
13.Not Even Jail Play Video
14.Slow Hands Play Video
Encore:
15.All the Rage Back Home Play Video
16.NYC Play Video
17.Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down Play Video


As a side note.....I really need to find a concert buddy. Mainly because I always end up going to these things by myself and then to make it worse I end up being 1 of 3 people of color in the crowd. Then I start getting the side glances......oh well. I still enjoy myself!

Thanks for sharing - that's a pretty cracking setlist, MW. 'Blue Supreme' is an interesting choice for an opener (and probably the track that's grown one me the most from El Pintor) and it's good to see all the love TOTBL is getting (fuck yeah 'Angels' and 'Leif Erikson'), especially closing with 'Stella' - considering how rudimentary and crude that song can be at times, it's still a personal favourite of mine. Pretty disappointed with the lack of cuts from the self-titled (I see 'Lights', but 'Summer Well' or 'Barricade' would probably go down better with the newer stuff) or OLTA. Also, as #1 Interpol song, it's a grievous error that there's no 'C'mere'.

;)

moonwolf2024 wrote:I really need to find a concert buddy.

Shame we live in different countries. We have pretty similar tastes in music. The disparity's even more glaring knowing that I don't even get any shows at all where I live.


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Tokyo Disk Unions were out in full-force with their stock for Record Store Day this year. The amount of good stuff was truly unbelievable and I managed to snag two white whales of mine in reasonable conditions for reasonable prices.



Beyond stoked. Also managed to grab myself a stack of cheap David Bowie records I'd been chasing, an OG Siamese Dream by the Pumpkins and got the repress of Mineral's EndSerenading as well. It's kind of a shame though, if I had more cash on me at the time I would've gotten a lot more.

I picked a few things up through the rest of the month of November, separate purchases from both E-bay and Discogs. Most of them were items that popped up that had been on my wishlist at prices that were really reasonable. The first was a Booker T. & the M.G.'s album called "Melting Pot"





Some of his band may seem familiar, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper were both members of the Blues Brothers band in the famous movie. Of course, Cropper was one of the founders of the M.G.'s and Dunn joined his long-time friend shortly after. This is a 1971 original pressing by Stax Records, STS-2035 with SS-0173/SS-0174 runout etchings along with hand etchings of MASTERCRAFT MEMPHIS HC on side A. The condition is excellent, hardly any noticeable noise at all, and it's a great album and one of the last ones from this iteration of the M.G.'s.

Along with Melting Pot, the seller had free delivery so I got my wife a Radiohead record that he was also selling at an ok deal.





Radiohead isn't exactly my bag of tea and that made it a little hard to make out some of the quality. This album was released in 2011 and there was only 1 pressing in the U.S. but it's not exactly readily available in a lot of retail stores.

Next, we have one of my favorite bands from the 80's, Voivod. Kind of a weird name, they're a Canadian progressive thrash metal band that was known for unconventional dissonant chords and science fiction themes. Well, at least until "Angel Rat". While I think "Killing Technology" is
probably their best album, but the height of their unique sound is probably "Dimension Hatross".





The album was released in 1988 and this was the U.S. FW 44262 release, with the original inner sleeve and even the T-Shirt order form. One of the things that made this album such a steal was that they're typically pretty pricey. Noise records never pressed a ton of them so it cn be hard to find one in good condition. This one was sold as all original but the vinyl was apparently used in a record changer, so there's a lot of fanned scuffs all over both sides.





You can see pretty clearly the spiral scuffs on the vinyl, but fortunately these have almost no impact at all on the sound, which is pretty amazingly clear and crisp. Eventhough I think "Killing Technology" is probably their best album (their previous album), this was the first album of their's that I've ever heard. I actually owned a vinyl copy of thing long ago in highschool, don't know what happened to it, but the first time I put it on and when "Experiment" came on, I was blown away.

Unfortunately, their next album was the beginning of their decline in the things that I liked about them. ''Nothingface" was still a pretty cool album, but it was less of that frantic dissonance and more clean and produced. I remember reading an interview with Voivod in Guitar Magazine (or one of those) where Piggy the guitarist was complaining that the music was too complicated and was hard to enjoy playing live. So the music got simpler and there was more production. One nice thing about Nothingface was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine". The trend continued with "Angel Rat" and after that, I lost interest.





Then, I found a first U.S. mono MAL-2835 pressing of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour". This was actually the second copy of this that I have, the first was the SMAL-2835, the stereo version of the first U.S. pressing, but there was some damage on the first side that pretty much made that side unlistenable. Which also means I can't enjoy songs like "I am the Walrus" which is sort of the point of owning the Mystery Tour.

The gatefold contains a 24-page color booklet that's attached to the inner spine. The majority of the pictures are all from the movie, which is only mildly interesting at best, even if you are under the influence.





It's hard to compare the two versions, and I think the CD release is probably the best sounding of them all, not so much because of the media but because of the way a lot of the songs are produced. There's a lot of fuzzy overdrive on certain instruments (or vocals) and maybe the digital mix is just better suited. One thing that I did notice about the mono version is that sometimes it sounds like the pitch is off, kind of like if the record speed up or slowed down ever so slightly for a short moment. It's also entirely possible that it's supposed to sound that way.

One last album that I got but didn't take any pictures of is Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother". I got a replacement for the one I got from the beginning of November which I returned because the vinyl looked fine but sounded horrible. I thought that I was getting a Canadian release but it was the 1983 U.S. SMAS-382 re-issue, and most importantly, it sounds flawless. Well, almost, the beginning of "If" has some pops and cracks but that's about it. Can't wait to blast it on a weekend.

Didn't bother with any pictures because it looks the same as the other one, except maybe a bit more damage to the cover.

Ornette wrote:

I'm quite partial to TKOL. Probably the band's most underrated and understated effort. The shorter running time makes it a treat as well.

^
I always struggle with the frantic first half, but there is a lot of musical quality to be found. The second half is more in the veins of classic Radiohead and is just beautiful to listen at. But after the wonderful In Rainbows (+B Sides) it's hard to craft something as amazing... But I guess, The King Of Limbs is another Album that will stand the test of time and will get better and better. It definitely has more coherence to it than All Hail to The Thief.

Also, they're finally back in the studio! Wohoo! Can't wait for new material from those guys.

Hail to the Thief (The Gloaming) just suffered from being overly long, jumbled tracklisting and a few of the songs needed more editing. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a revised tracklist from Thom Yorke floating around the internet somewhere. There are some great tracks on it though - I for one absolutely adore 'Sail to the Moon' for example. In Rainbows deserves all the praise it gets, but for some reason I just don't go back to it as often as say, Kid A, Amnesiac or TKOL. Which is odd, because I feel I should find their guitar-driven stuff more appealing, but over time their key or electronica flavoured stuff seems more charming.


Also, new Title Fight dropped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRGAcu2fb8

I really like the instrumentals but the vocals leave me a little cold. I hope the rest of the album has more grit and tempo to it. It could just be as they did with Floral Green however, as 'Head in the Ceiling Fan' was the lead single and it had a similar thing going on (except that it's shit whilst the rest of the record is mint). Pre-ordered regardless. I have fucking faith in Title Fight, man.

Blue Monday wrote:I'm quite partial to TKOL. Probably the band's most underrated and understated effort. The shorter running time makes it a treat as well.

Unfortunately can't really add much to the conversation here. Like I said it was a gift for wife because she's into them, I've only heard the album once and that was a play-through of the record to make sure it was graded correctly. Was actually a little hard to tell because the music has sounds that are similar to pops/cracks on a record so hard to tell which ones were which.

Blue Monday wrote:Also, new Title Fight dropped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRGAcu2fb8

The only Title Fight I've ever listened to was The Last Thing You Forget, but I've always really dug it(especially Symmetry). I suppose it's just always slipped my mind to check out their other stuff, but I guess nows as good a time as any to get to it.

I wouldn't have even guessed that new song is Title Fight though, but yea, it's not that bad.

The Last Thing You Forget is a crazy good little EP at only three songs. 'Introvert' is especially amazing as I love it when the band plays up the 90s emo sound/influence. The band really developed their style after that without completely abandoning what was established on TLTYF. Their first full-length, Shed, is quite an accomplishment and definitely worth checking out. 'Your Screen Door' is probably my favourite (although not best representative of the album as a whole) and the title track, '...Kingston Doesn't Love You' and 'Flood of 72' are all pretty good.

Floral Green however is by far and away their best effort to date. It's Hum's You'd Prefer an Astronaut if it went all Jawbreaker or Mineral. Much like the current single for the newly coming album, the first song premièred was a weird choice; 'Head in the Ceiling Fan'. It sounded completely different from anything the guys had done before and I hated it (still do, actually). Luckily, the rest of the record is fucking stellar. Plenty of fast tracks and the guitar riffs and tones are to die for. Seriously. 'Frown'*, 'Numb...', 'Like a Ritual' and 'In-Between' - check these tracks out if you're interested. Especially 'In-Between' because it's a good example of slower, moodier TF.


*This track is my jam. Makes me feel like I'm skating around Koenji, Tokyo on a cool, clear day without a worry in the world - sunlight warm on my face and all that kind of shit.

Blue Monday wrote:Hail to the Thief (The Gloaming) just suffered from being overly long, jumbled tracklisting and a few of the songs needed more editing. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a revised tracklist from Thom Yorke floating around the internet somewhere. There are some great tracks on it though - I for one absolutely adore 'Sail to the Moon' for example.

That's right. Hail to the Thief (The Gloaming) is chock full of cool ideas, and there are some beautifully crafted Songs on it. But listening to it feels too long and jumbled. I guess, if they would have given the Album half a year on their shelf, they would have managed to put it together much more organically. It is not bad, mind you, even very good. But I expect from Radiohead to make Albums in which every song enhances the other, generating a beautiful sonic scape in which you can get lost. And Httt(Tg) didn't have that.


On another note, I've listened to Bloom, by Beach House. It's absolutely gorgeous. So much hazy feels. I really like the new SBTRKT Album, but it suffers from the same problem it described Httt(Tg). But the reason on the new SBTRKT being that too many cooks spoil the broth. Weather house from Philip Selway, starts of hauntingly, but loses steam half way through. One can hear, it's the drummer from Radiohead, though. Yonezu Kenshi makes pleasant pop songs, some of which are better, some worse. FKA Twigs is interesting, she almost pulls off, what she tries to be with this first Album. I hope she evolves with the second one.

@Blue; Thanks for the write up on Title Fight, much appreciated. Been listening to Floral Green the last couple days, Frown is for sure a jam.

My record store of choice has a lot of obscure poprock/emo/HxC! whatever ya want to call it records, so now I may have to make a trip there this weekend.