slushy

Very true! In a lot of ways White Crosses is their worst album, but I love it for totally different reasons, mostly for just how it's just this really great, refreshing take on slick sounding arena rock.

How do you guys rank the Against Me! discog? Me: 1. Axl Rose 2. White Crosses 3. Eternal Cowboy 4. Transgender 5. Clarity 6. New Wave

It's more like asking if people would prefer a hot lunch or a sandwich. No answer is certain, but I think most people would find themselves leaning one way or another. And who cares? Man, this is a fucking forum where people are freaking out over email receipt order numbers and posting photos of furniture they got from Ikea that they've decorated with fairy lights. I'm sure there might be a couple of people who would be into discussing where their preferences lie when collecting.

This thread is just this person asking people to share those preferences. And plenty of people have. It's no big deal. Plenty of people are sharing their answer to the question.

Asking a group of record collectors if they prefer a first press or a rarer press when making a purchase is a perfectly acceptable discussion point. It's no doubt been covered before extensively, however the fact people are adding to the discussion is proof of it's validity. It's way more interesting than reading more about RSD or Brand New reissues or whatever the fuck.

Don't be a dumbfuck, it's a perfectly valid question to ask.

A first pressing is more appealing, however I don't care that much.

This is a great question! I love record stores! As a kid I got so many great recommendations from visiting the cool record stores and talking to the people working behind the counter. Whenever I'm visiting a different town/city/country the first thing I often do is check out the local record store(s). A lot of record stores are really great places that make the world a better/more interesting place. However, when it gets to the point where it's necessary for them to charge $5, $10 etc. extra for records that are clearly available for way cheaper elsewhere, then it really makes you wonder if it's all such a good idea. There are definitely great record stores that I would have no problem making a monthly donation to to ensure they remain open as they feel that important to me, but there are others that I just feel don't really need to exist any more. It gets weird when you start reading interviews with record store owners (usually when music websites/blogs/fanzines are doing features on Record Store Day or the vinyl resurgence), and they are really bitter and talking about how they're not doing so well because "the kids" are down to buy beer & weed but not purchase physical music, or about how "the normies" are shopping at chain stores, and it makes me real angry and wonder why it is they have such a huge sense of entitlement.

nothing, just sharing some views on the world wide web

This is my favourite album of the year so far! After seeing a few live shows in recent years and seeing how material from the first album had been reimagined into heavier grunge-y sounding tunes when in full band mode, not to mention how heavy sounding some of the Great Thunder stuff is (which I love by the way!), I was worried this may be a darker, heavier album, but holy shit is it all so freaking good. The fact that some of these tracks feel like they could be P.S. Eliot songs makes me so happy!

I have never purchased a new bootleg, and don't think I would. Maybe if it was being sold at cost I'd pick something up, but they always seem to be shit I'm not interested in enough to fork over loads of money for.

They used to release a lot of ska records, and then jumped over to the more indie rock influenced punk stuff. They've released a lot of good stuff, nothing that great in recent years though. The last essential release was the Classics Of love LP.

Once again, I am talking about the article using Asian Man as the example of "the only clients keeping these few pressing plants in business through the darkest and least popular era of the vinyl format’s lifespan", when the reality was that they did in fact drop the format during this era. AND secondly, it feels very hypocritical as AMR have done the same silly collector baiting shit the article is talking about (for the record, not just the Goddamnit reissue, they did similar stuff when pressing the Lawrence Arms records with all the variant covers and shit). These are both more criticisms of the article than AMR, mostly just pointing out that the author of the article didn't pick their interview subjects as well as they could have. I completely understand and agree that a major label reissuing Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and AMR releasing a Lawrence Arms record with multiple variant covers are two completely different levels of unnecessary shitful-ness, but both are still super lame. I'm not slamming the label that hard, they've released plenty of records I have enjoyed and purchased, and I will no doubt purchase from them in the future. I'm just saying that rather than trying to paint AMR as this perfect, completely altruistic effort, lets be fair and acknowledge that they've done their fare share of lame stuff that has in some way contributed to this problem independent labels are now facing.

There was a period where they definitely stopped releasing LPs full stop, made an announcement and did a sale on all existing stock. I remember because Mike Park talked about how people at shows always thought they were calendars. Creating multiple variants of records intended for collectors to "collect em' all" is the same thing as all the labels churning out limited edition shit on RSD knowing that people will buy it just because it's limited edition and because it's RSD. It's on a smaller scale of course, but it's the same, and for that reason Mike Park is not the best person to be commenting on this issue when he is obviously guilty of doing similar things and has had his part in the creation of this new obnoxious level of limited edition/variant collecting that is now causing all of these problems for independent bands and labels.

I get all this. I am talking about the article using Mike Park as the example of "the only clients keeping these few pressing plants in business through the darkest and least popular era of the vinyl format’s lifespan", when Asian Man did in fact stop pressing vinyl when it wasn't in fashion. It would have been better to talk to Todd C or Jesse Lucious or Var or someone from one of the several independent punk labels that continued pressing vinyl even though it wasn't selling that much. And it's even more ridiculous when you look at how Asian Man was very much into the creating of instant collectables, limited edition culture of record pressing. No, I just think Asian Man is a terrible example to use in an article like this as they are guilty of the same shitty tactics, albeit on a smaller scale.

this sounds very very niche

I don't get this streaming shit at all. When at home I will listen to records or occasionally mp3s on my computer, and when at work/out and about I'll listen to mp3s (from bandcamp or soulseek) on my phone. I checked out the free Spotify trial and it's so shitty compared to just having albums on your phone.

It's kinda lame to hear from Mike Park on this topic considering Asian Man was one of the labels to stop releasing vinyl when vinyl wasn't selling, but then jump right back and go harder than most with all the variant shit in when there was more $$$ to be made.

This is not exactly on topic, but usually how often do ebay usually do those 200 (or whatever) free listings offers?

The google description for the site says "Vinyl Collective Forum is a message board community for vinyl record collectors." It's not crazy that an individual using the internet to research a record they have in possession would read that and think "the people accessing this internet forum will probably be interested in helping me find out if this record I have is worth anything!"

That is ridiculous and lame as fuck. Hang your head in shame, Interpunk.

The copy I ordered from Bachelor arrived in like 2-3 days as well.

It sounds like they're going for a surprise thing like Lemuria do with their secret bundles. I assume there will be a bunch of extra shit added to warrant the $20 price tag, no? I would never buy a copy at any price, but just the way it sounded to me.

just buy 100 8" mailers and save some for later

I have received more fucked up records in mailers from people who don't know how to pack a record in a mailer properly than I have records being sent in taped up cardboard. Seriously, the old wrap the record in newspaper, slap between two 12.5x12.5 sheets of thick cardboard and tape up is a classic that rarely fails.