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This band should come back.

haven't been on VC in awhile. just read this whole thread and had a wave of emotions. IMMENSELY appreciate all the support y'all have given us over the years. there were certainly hiccups in the transition to Awesome Merch. Overall, they're still a very new, small staff here in the US. But they handle our UK and Europe mail order and customer service EXCELLENTLY over in Leeds, so we're confident that we'll get this right together over time once they bring in more staff. We did pull the plug on the sub for 2019, yes, because it became apparent we'd be doing a huge disservice to everyone who purchased it by not having our mail order in tip top shape. We've been a label for thirteen years now, and done our own mail order out of our own space for the first twelve of those. So this is a HUGE change for us. There's some TLC that we and @MyEnemy used to be able to provide—we'd recognize names, start to know what certain people liked, threw in freebies and extras that we knew would be relevant to YOUR tastes, etc. Eventually though, rent costs to warehouse all of our inventory in San Diego just got really outrageous over the course of the few years since we relocated there. We couldn't justify doing it ourselves anymore when weighing the costs. So a few really difficult decisions were made. With this transition, a lot of the more personalized touches are gone—for now. In the meantime, I'm trying to come up with things we can be doing to replace that experience. If you've ordered from us recently, you've hopefully noticed our free swag game is really good right now (and not just throwaway bullshit—like actual free vinyl and pins and stickers, and CDs, etc.)!! Once the staff at Awesome gets more acquainted with our catalog, our customers, how we do things, etc. I think things will smooth out and we'll maybe revisit the sub idea. But all the same, thanks for riding this little experiment out with us to the end. As a more general update, outsourcing our mail order (and thus de-anchoring Topshelf to any set physical space), allowed us all to pursue different things in our personal lives. I've since moved to Portland, OR, Seth has moved up to LA, Danielle has moved on to work for Marathon Artists in LA and we've hired two new employees: Sofi Padilla in LA and Will Osiecki in Seattle. The little Boston-based label you remember from years ago is now spread out down the whole west coast lol! Combined with the Awesome Merch thing, this is a HUGE shift for us. With a lot of new blood in the fold, there's a lot of new ideas and energy, but also, a lot for Seth and I to teach and instill before I feel like we are off and running again on all cylinders. I think it's an exceptionally volatile time to be running an independent label that relies heavily on selling physical media so, again, thank you for any modicum of support you have given us to this point. It's hugely appreciated!! While there is no sub, I wanted to let you know about some of our upcoming 2019 titles. What I am most excited about is that Topshelf is an extension of Seth and I's music tastes over the years—but also the people who we have worked with as well. Our tastes and interests have evolved just like anyone elses. This year more than any other I think will be reflective of that in what we release. There are no rules!!!!!! Here's some of what you can expect from us: Bellows - "The Rose Gardener" Elephant Gym - "Underwater" Ratboys - LP3 Queen of Jeans - LP2 Another Michael - LP1 Alfred. - "Like You!!" Field Mouse - LP3 No Vacation - EP Us and Us Only - EP Mid-Air Thief - "Crumbling" and everything else is TBA for now ❤️ If any of y'all ever wanna hit me up about anything directly—a mail order problem or anything, really: kevin at topshelfrecords dot com. 🙏

It’s really been driven home the past 3 years, but people are really fucking weird on the internet.

Come on, everyone. Buy a copy. These guys need our help! https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/28/sigur-ros-band-members-charged-with-tax-evasion-by-icelandic-authorities

Tour copy

If you go please ask can they press W/P and Captain also 😁

I never thought Sigur Ros and Yoshi would have anything in common, yet here we are.

Pressing https://imgur.com/gallery/dE4QQAK

Great news on both. 8000 will be readily available online.

I was looking at the list again and the pressing numbers for The Crow and Lost in Translation were both updated to 8000. It looks like there should be no issues grabbing these

Who can I give my money too right now!?

It took a few days for Soccer Mommy to sell 300 copies of various special editions of Clean in her bandcamp. And the /1000 pink is readily available at retail price. 1800 is a lot. I dont think it will be impossible to find. Also, it’s not gonna be an insane secondary market for it. Dont sweat it.

Massive 8 year bump. S1D finally marked down the leftover flexis for Missed/Dreamcatchers from $30 to $5. Get 'em now if you want 'em. https://www.sideonedummy.com/product/title-fight-misseddreamcatchers-flexi-2011/594

Hoping to see Us in the next few weeks, movie came out at a bad time for me, haha. Here's what I've watched in the last month or so. Urban Legend - Nothing special, but there were some fun kills in here. Not too surprising that this franchise was mostly forgotten. Urban Legends : Final Cut - This was pretty awful. Tries to be clever and fails badly. Urban Legends : Bloody Mary - Kind of cheap, but fairly fun. The bar is low, but I'd say this is probably the most enjoyable UL movie. We were also drinking Bloody Marys while watching it, which probably helped. Book of Monsters - I mostly liked this. It would've benefited from a bigger budget quite a bit. Decent horror comedy with some cool monsters. Leprechaun - I'd somehow never seen this. I got quite a few laughs out of it. Not Troll 2 bad, but it sits real close. Slaughterhouse Rulez - Complete waste of potential. First half is a fairly boring coming of age / boarding school movie. Second half is where it gets into more of the horror movie territory. It's got some decent moments, but I don't think the payoff is there. Blue My Mind - More of a dark fantasy or coming of age movie with some body horror thrown in. I thought it was good. Indigenous - Wouldn't go out of my way to watch this again. Not really a bad movie, just nothing to remarkable. Every character is an asshole, so the kills are kind of rewarding due to that. Cold Prey - I'm a bit of a sucker for slashers and thought this added a nice survival element to the genre. I'd recommend it. Into the Dark : Treehouse - First one that I was a kind of let down by. Something about how it lets the main character off the hook left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. The exposition dumps at the end didn't help either. Level 16 - More sci-fi than horror. Girlfriend and I both liked it a lot. Little easy to guess what's going on, but that doesn't take too much away.

Slipmat & Alternate Jacket Bundle Limited to 50 https://www.merchlimited.com/products/grad-life-graduating-life-vinyl-lp-slipmat-bundle

Not familiar with them, but as soon as I saw Drop Nineteens I had to check it out. Another track on their BC page w/ a solid pink variant for the UK https://moeldk.bandcamp.com/album/i-ii

Just want to say this album came in today and it sounds really great, better than the original press I own. They also cut this on at 45 while the original is 33 1/3.

Some great points Alex. I generally agree with what you're saying. I like streaming as a process, but absolutely see the issues with it. I love sites like Bandcamp for its immediacy to artists, but not nearly enough artists are on there. I've also found that on Bandcamp, I will gladly pay $5 for a free/name your price album, but will balk when they charge $10 (I'm not sure why. I just do...). I love that book you linked to - Do Not Sell At Any Price is both a great read and very relevant to the way that 'timeless' music is found, but also the hierarchy of historical blues is created to establish worth for the exceptionally rare records. Further reading how the music industry works and what it has become (one of my favourite topics): David Byrne - How Music Works. Sort of autobiographical about his music and how money is made from the perspective of a successful artist. It was written in 2012, and unfortunately doesn't address the shift to streaming (it sort of ends with artists selling their own things on webstores and such, and iTunes). I'd be curious to hear Byrne's thoughts on it. Stephen Witt - How Music Got Free - there's a fantastic article from a few years ago about the one guy in a CD pressing plant responsible for some of the biggest music leaks of the 90s, and its impact on the industry. This book takes it further. It traces the history of mp3s, and how pirated music affected the industry, and quite frankly, how stupid and unprepared the industry was. The industry has always been terrible, but their utter inability to adapt or even acknowledge digital music until it utterly destroyed their model makes me feel a lot less sympathy for the major labels. I'm pretty sure What, Oink, and Waffles all get a shout-out in the book. David Hajdu - Love For Sale: Pop Music in America - talks a lot about how popular music is disseminated, how that has changed over time, and how it works in the modern era. I honestly think that as shitty as streaming is as far as making money for artists, the record labels are still completely clueless as to where this is all going moving forward. Even 20ish years ago the only way to hear a song you didn't own was to hear it on the radio, or tape it off someone else who had it. There is a significant generation of people who don't understand the idea of not being able to hear something immediately, which in itself is fascinating.

Out for delivery! Super stoked!

I think everyone understood. I for one was just joining the fun.

No problem dude, I'll take one after work tonight

I've started listening to a lot more digital over records in the past few years, in part because I listen to music on high end headphones about 75% of the time (at work and home). I'm the type of person that is extra enticed by a lossless download that comes with a record, or an option to buy from Bandcamp. For the past few years I've been collecting the highest res downloads I can find from places like What, Apollo, open Torrent sites. And then I got a deal for Tidal (this year I'm paying $12 CD/month rather than $20). And honestly, it's just so much fucking easier. I actually loathe Tidal's UI in comparison to Spotify (for whatever reason, even though much of the music is the same, looking at an artist's discography often has like 5 multiples of the same album on Tidal). I can definitely tell the difference between Tidal Hifi and Spotify at 320. MQA is still sort of a work in progress - at work I use my work laptop so I can get somewhat higher than CD quality for certain albums, and my new amplifier has an add-in module that is MQA friendly, which means up to 192-24 hi res for some albums. It is frustrating when an album isn't on streaming services, and there isn't an easy way to download (even legally at times), but honestly, since I joined Tidal, I've found there's been little reason to need a site like What/Apollo/etc.

I’d like to see one if you don’t mind posting a pic.

Invada webstore exclusive variant for A Field In England is now up - limited to 250 copies. Retail clear version also available https://www.invada.co.uk/collections/all-products/products/jim-williams-a-field-in-england-ost-ltd-edition-exclusive-2-x-frosted-clear-vinyl-w-red-blob

Hello!!! Getting in front of this before it becomes a thing. Deep breath. So we have fucked up and sent out like 50 of the /350 variant to people who should have received the /150 variant. It's causing some delays for people who've ordered the /150 and the /350 variants as we've paused shipping either to ensure we have the correct quantities going to the correct customers. Some mislabeled boxes from the manufacturer that we discovered after shipping several dozen copies are to blame here. If you are one of these people, we will be in touch shortly about it via email. You won't pay anything extra and we'll get you the correct record as quickly as we can. So sorry for this mishap. Running a label is funnn!!!!

USPS is having delays here the past couple of weeks, not sure why, but have had many packages do that lately as well. 1 still hasn't shown up

Bumping this to unfortunately let everyone know that Coasta announced their breakup about 10 minutes ago on Facebook. Here's the statement copy and pasted since I'm dumb and can't figure out how to link the actual post on my laptop: "We are obviously not a band anymore. Sorry to anyone who was waiting for another release from us. We are so appreciative to anyone who listened to our music, or bought any merch from us. Thank you. It was fun while it lasted. Jamey has started a new project called pool hop, and will be making announcements about new music being released in the upcoming weeks. You can follow him on Instagram@pool_hop" Super bummed about this. They only released that one EP but goddamn was that EP flawless. I still listen to it every once in a while and get goosebumps all the same. To this day, I was still holding out hope that they would announce a full-length or SOMETHING else. It's such a shame these guys never took off cause man they were great.

90% of the time I picture Derek as a Pitchfork review writer when I read his responses. About 3 lines in, I have usually lost interest in why I started reading it

This got really cringey.

I hope they do something similar with ( ) and Takk as well.

(What I assume to be) Grown men arguing and insulting one another in a Taking Back Sunday vinyl thread in 2019. Bravo, VC.

It contrasts a fair bit with a few of the “had to buy this without blinking” posts (including yours) so I had no idea what to make of your comment. I definitely do not consider myself to be “the buzzkill guy” on VC and do love me a good boxset — all the Radiohead boxsets, for me, have been complete no-brainers and worth the price of admission. Listening to AB in honor of today’s announcement and the 20-year anniversary. Chilly day with ample overcast from my view at work; pretty great fit. I’d place it within the top 3 of their discography for me, and I know a few people who have it firmly at #1. “Go big or go home” feels like a nice sentiment to have with this record, for anyone missing it from their collection.

https://www.bullmoose.com/p/29606485/mindless-self-indulgence-frankenstein-girls-will-seem-strangely-sexy-green-vinyl

My main issues with streaming is that it's an ongoing trend that is totally screwing artists out of money. I get that what I'm asking for offers artists NO money, but it being a selective system of admission seems to weed out the majority of potential users. I like to think that most of the people that set up and used What still had a massive music collection like myself and were actively buying releases and going to shows to spend money on merch. I can't speak for others, but that was the case for me. I used it as a means to download and try new music and it's nice to have FLAC of something I eventually went out and bought on vinyl. The obscure music access is a big enough reason anyways. I have several tapes, CD's, and 7"s that aren't commonly found on the streaming sites from what I understand.

Echoing this. Love the band. Love this album. But even as someone who occasionally springs for reissues, variants, and deluxe editions that I don’t really need... I can’t justify this one. If there was more unreleased material, I could maybe be swayed. I will undoubtedly check out the live performance of the album, but realistically just once or twice at most. Really don’t feel compelled to use the funds or shelf space to physically own a copy of it. And demo versions are cool or whatever, but I’d be lying to myself if I said I’d ever reach for them over hearing the magic that they’ve fully realized in the studio version of the record. The presentation sounds great, and I’d love to get my hands on that hardcover art book. I think that if you don’t own already own copy of this record for whatever reason, and you have the wherewithal, this boxset would be a nice addition. As someone who’s becoming increasingly aware of shelf space and also content with a copy for a while now, I can’t talk myself into it. And for once I’m a little proud of myself since I seem to lack self-control with this band especially.

It's inside the 1975 EP sleeve

Vanum repress gold /100 up at Profound Lore.

It's better than Some Cities. There. I said it. I might even pass on SC if there's a reissue campaign. I would spend crazy money on box-set versions of all the albums, though, with all the remixes, b-sides, etc.

I've successfully entered my thirties and still listen to complete garbage 😎

Picked up the WEEZER "Dusty Gems" release, already opened, at a used record store in LA this weekend. Guess one slipped out into the wild early. Here's a closer look for those interested. Sound quality of the pressing is alright; nothing to write home about. But these are all demos (essentially) anyways.

The “what happened to RFC/Topshelf?!?” comments are always pretty hilarious. I hear Pure Noise and No Sleep are still catering to pop punk “kids” and they’d love your business.

New 2nd pressing: cloudy clear/500.

Out 10/5/18 digitally and 11/9/18 on vinyl. http://www.topshelfrecords.com/products/626947-lite-blizzard Opaque Purple/300 Bone/700 From Topshelf's website: "Entering their 16th year together, LITE boasts a tremendous back catalog of five full-length albums and six EPs, including 2010's Illuminate (Recorded with John McEntire) and 2012's Past, Present, Future, which featured Caroline Lufkin from Mice Parade. We were honored to welcome LITE to the Topshelf roster with a re-issue of their 2014 album, Installation, which also marked their first proper U.S. release. The prolific quartet's latest offering, Blizzard , is a 7" single that showcases the band's renowned style of cinematic, melodically rampant math rock. Side A explores a host of stylistic influences, with skittering call-and-response guitars building over an electronic drum loop into a shimmering climax that consumes the listener like a blizzard. B side, "Zone," returns to the signature urgency of LITE, crashing straight into a breakneck, noodling ostinato that perfectly captures the group's cinematic style of composition."

Forgot to chime in and say that this album is killer. The singles appealed to me a fair bit and the remainder of the album is just as good if not better – I really enjoy it when that's the case. Very pleased with the way this one turned out.

I still need to pick this one up....

I remember back in the day people were asking Topshelf to do a subscription and they said (on this board I think) that they'd never do one because it would present a lot of problems.

So Topshelf is completely a math rock label now? Lol

Is this the Chicago band Colossal?