Troy plays bass

There's one of these with my address on it lost somewhere in the depths of the US postal service.  I would sell it to you if I had it.  The band had run out when we finally decided it wasn't getting to my house, but they were cool and gave me a WABTT test pressing instead.  Good luck on your search!

PM'd.

It wouldn't make sense to have a sub b-side label for a record thats a sub exclusive. The Swellers 10" was a repress and already had labels and stuff from the initial release. The Swellers initially put that 10" out themselves. Its kind of a No Sleep release.

Yeah, the labels for the Warehouse sessions actually look really cool, so I had no issue with that.  There's a No Sleep logo on the Swellers 10" labels, so I assume those were made for the new pressing.  I could be wrong though, and like the obi things, it's not a big deal.  Just wanted to let people know.

Should have mentioned that the two records without obi strips also don't have the subscription B-side labels.

How far back did you pre-order it?

I pledged to the Kickstarter on the second day it was open.  It was November or December of last year, I think.

A few months ago I emailed the dude Chris and asked if the ones without obi strips would be numbered. He was kind of a dick and said, "If you read it says no obi-strip so wouldn't that tell you its not numbered." I apologized and said that I understood there was no obi-strip, I was just wondering if there was a place to hand number them. He completely ignored me, all he had to say was they're shrink wrapped so that wouldn't be possible. Thanks for letting us know what's inside. That TRC album is a little too generic hardcore for my tastes if anyone wants it (price of record+shipping). I won't be getting mine for a week or two tho cause media mail takes forever to get here.

I didn't even know they had said some wouldn't have obi strips.  It's obviously not that big of a deal - records are records, but the inconsistency surprised me.

Got my most recent sub package today.

For anyone wondering, it has B&C, State Faults, Sainthood Reps, TRC, Warehouse Sessions, and both Swellers releases.  The Swellers 10" and the Warehouse Sessions were shrink-wrapped and don't have the obi-strip things, which I found surprising (especially for the Warehouse Sessions, since that was subscription exclusive.

 

 

 

This is hardly a review....

I posted much more detailed thoughts a few pages earlier.  I will quote them below for your convenience.

Got mine today! Here's a pic: http://instagram.com/p/fdj3bNhpQo/

 

Some initial thoughts:

 

-Setting this up was stupidly easy.  Granted, I've never put a turntable together out of the box before, but I expected more assembly than this.  Just put the platter and slipmat on, put the belt around it, plug stuff in, and play.  I don't know for sure if the counterweight was set up perfectly out of the box or not (I'd appreciate some advice on how to tell), but it seems fine to me so far.  No skips or anything yet.

-My first impression of the sound is that it's really good.  Comparable to my Technics SL-QD33, at least, and far better than my ex-girlfriend's Crosley and the Denon DP-29 at my friends' place.  This is definitely a cut above the cheap stuff.

-Plays well on both speeds.  No weird pitch wobbling or anything so far

-It does sort of bug me that the platter doesn't stop spinning when the arm is in its clip, but I don't know if that's a standard thing or not.

-This is my first experience with a table where I've had to manually change the belt to a different part of the spool.  I don't mind it too much, but the belt feels a little fragile to my fingers.  Again, maybe that's normal.

-I wish I could actually A/B this with a Carbon to give people some better feedback on that comparison.

-I wonder how many times I can listen to the A side of this Pet Symmetry 7" on each turntable for comparison's sake before my housemates wonder what I'm doing.

-It's nice and heavy.  Doesn't feel cheap or plasticky in any way.

 

Disclaimer: I don't claim to have a trained ear for this stuff in any way.  

 

The rest of my setup, for reference:

Nad 7140 Receiver

Technics SH80-57 graphic EQ

Boston HD5 speakers

 

Feel free to ask any questions you have, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

The first couple sentences of the promotional blurb thoroughly confused me until I realized that this is reissue of an old album and not the new one they recorded with Evan Weiss this year.

Alright, I don't get it. Why do people collect cassette tapes?

I'll buy stuff on cassette if it's the only format it's released in.  It's far from my preferred format, obviously.  I picked up a Technics tape deck for $1.25 at a yard sale over the summer, and while it doesn't get much use, it's functional and that's all I was looking for.

This one isn't bad by any means, but I don't like it as much as "Blood Balloon" or "Upstate Mosquito."

I really like this album.  The transition from "Spectral" into "Incantations" is crazy.

I can't decide yet if I want to go for it again next year.  I definitely enjoyed having it, but I probably only would have bought five or six of the releases on their own  However, they'll probably start announcing some cool releases for early 2014 next week and sucker me in again.  Plus there will probably be a new La Dispute LP next year, and that in and of itself is tempting.

I'll grab this in the future.  Probably once the Polar Bear Club bundles get split up and I get the Blood Balloon 7" by itself.

been listening to Upstate Mosquito on repeat for at least the last hour. Love it.

I'm fighting the urge to do this so I don't get sick of it by the time the album is out.  It's constantly in my head.

I have a letter and a few photographs from their Kickstarter, maybe we can make a circle of candles and perform a ritual. It seems like the only reasonable answer to this dilemma we're currently faced with.

You might have missed my edit to my previous post, but I put my copy on my new turntable just for kicks, and it pretty much played through the part that used to have a giant skip on my old table!  No idea what the difference is, but I'm happy.

That said, I will definitely help you with any Graduate-related ritual.  I really do hope you can find a copy soon, and I'll let you know if I see any posts about one around the web.

It is pretty terrible.  I didn't even realize these were hard to find until very recently when I started looking for a replacement.  There's one on Amazon $118, which I assumed was absurd, but maybe it's not if they never show up on Ebay or anything.

I also kick myself occasionally for not buying the CD for $2 in a Hot Topic that was closing a few years ago.  Even that is like $16 on Amazon now.

EDIT: I put my copy on again because I got a new turntable since the last time I tried to listen to it. I didn't think that would make a difference, but it played right through the spot that used to have a terrible skip with only a couple tiny pops! It's a Christmas miracle. 

Best of luck in your search!

I assume that you want a copy you can actually listen to, but if for some reason you don't, I'll send you my copy that has a giant scratch (I honestly don't know how it got there) in the middle of "Permanent Tourists" for the cost of shipping.

Either way, I'm in the same boat as you.  I love this record, and I'm really bummed that I can only listen to one side of it.

This record really did get lost in the shuffle of all the ADTR news around that time.  Also, all of the promo videos for this came off weird, like the people in them (many of whom I like a lot) were just begging you to buy the record instead of being genuinely excited about it.

Regardless, my biggest complaint about this album is the guest vocalists.  I don't mind a good guest spot, even if it seems like it's trying to sell records by association, and I love Soupy, Jimmy Stadt, and Lynn Gunn's parts, but in the context of the album, they just highlight the fact that AL4W's vocalist isn't anywhere near the same level.

PM'd!

Hey - how do you mean? Like, does it go all the way back - or does it flop down on your hand when your replacing a record?

 

Thanks dude!

It tends to flop down on my hand.  It's definitely possible to get it to balance, but even then, it always seems like it's about to fall down.

I like it more and more as I keep using it.  It really does seem like a great deal for the money.  My only complaint is that the dust cover doesn't balance well when it's up for flipping over/switching records, but that's not a huge deal.

I'm very glad I hadn't already spent the money my grandma gave my for my birthday last week.  A good chunk of it went to this.

I went with DP, I+L on black, Swans, Snails CD, and that Format starter kit because I like the shirt and wanted the DVD anyway.

I talked to Sam a while back and he said it was unlikely any time soon.

 

ALTHOUGH fun. did just end their touring for some time and said they were going to record a new album and do some other "long overdue things"

 

I hope one of the long overdue things is releasing a studio version of "What the Fuck."  That is such a great song.

I don't see another Format tour happening soon, if ever.  I'd buy tickets in a second if it happened though.

Whenever that Dog Problems preorder goes up, I'm going to splurge on Format merch.  There's a lot of cool stuff in that store.

Free bump because it was cool meeting you at the TBS show the other day.  Sorry you have to sell that 3EB record, especially after we talked about how much it means to you.