slushy

it would be tough for me to rank them... theres a lot of totally different records in there. White Crosses is my least, and Cowboy is probably my favorite... the rest of the list would be really tough.

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

This is like asking what I should eat for lunch. Where's who cares?

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.

Don't be a dumbfuck.

If every new VC member/new collector started a thread like this, it's all the board would be.

This is like me saying, "Hey, what's more desirable, a blue suit or a black suit?"

Guess what. Depends on the situation, and your personal preference.

That should have been the first answer, and then the thread should have been locked.

This thread is just this person asking people to share those preferences. And plenty of people have. It's no big deal.

Thank you.  This is all I'm getting at. There is no overarching "correct" answer.

 

Some first presses sound like shit, some represses sound great. Some super rare pressings are pressed on fucking glitter or glow in the dark. Are they cool to have? Sure. Do they sound good? Probably not...

 

What's important to you?

 

What's your favorite color?

 

What's the best day of the week?

 

This question is 100% situation-based and there is no answer.

Plenty of people are sharing their answer to the question.

lol go fuck yourself if you think this thread has a shred of validity.

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.

I don't understand this thread.

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.

The struggle IS real.  I'd love to hear how you get to that point though.  

 

"In order to stay in business/feed the cat, I have to sell this record to an idiot/pre-teen for nearly 3 times its market price."  How does it feel to be in that place in your life, you know?

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.

What's wrong with you

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.

Just cos I'd probably weigh into the discussion on the label and get called a hypocrite again by someone for some reason.

 

What do Asian Man Records release? What kind of stuff?

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.

So, are you basing this all of the Goddamnit reissue from 2008 and then you never checked out anything they did again? Because last I checked, Asian Man stuff comes out on 1, maybe 2 colors at a time, doesn't engage in any of the splatter/swirl/haze garbage, IS TWELVE FUCKING DOLLARS, and contains music that the label owner thinks deserves to be heard. You want to infer that there is even a hint of cynicism to their release strategy, never mind a blind thirst for $$$ comparable to the "specialty markets" division of Universal Media Group? Well that just makes me want to puke on your head, sir.

Also, if you're the kind of person who sees 4 variants or whatever and thinks "shit, now I have to buy 4 copies", then I hope you do, and I hope your bad investments in pop punk futures lead you to financial destitution. No sympathy for collector scum, as long as it doesn't distract from the music and I can still pick up a copy at a fair price I say play on.

In a previous comment you brought up Var as a more fitting example of a trü vinyl punx. Asian Man has always stuck in my mind as a very close spiritual cousin of No Idea, with very similar ethics and passion for music above all else. I would guess that AMR would've been happy to keep pressing vinyl too, if they were a bigger operation, and if they'd had a few more Fuel for the Hate Game/Reinventing Axl Rose type releases to bankroll it, but if each new release just added boxes to your garage and took money from your bands' checks, what would you do? It's cool that some labels pressed vinyl even when no one was buying it, but you can't pay rent in punk points, man.

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.

Asian Man may have slowed down the amount of albums they released on vinyl during the 2000's, but stuff was definitely still getting pressed.

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. 

Laughing my fucking ass off at comparing Asian Man to any profit-minded enterprise. Please tell me more about how running a punk label out of your mom's garage for 20 years and pressing records on a new color of vinyl when they sell out is "being guilty of the same shitty tactics" as the multinational conglomerates shitting out live Bowie picture disc singles and goddamned Doors reissues. I'm all fucking ears.

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.

Vinyl costs a lot of money, plus it's the dude's living. Asian Man is by no means a major label, very much DIY at heart still. Vinyl has lived on throughout the years due to independent artist/label support, where there is a demand, supply follows. I understand the motive behind majors cashing in on the vinyl craze, but the amount to which they saturate the market and slow down pressing is ridiculous.

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.

Would you rather the label have folded?

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.

Lossless streaming to an iPhone is not what tidal is really about.

If you have a hifi system at home with a DAC and PC or other device that you use to play lossless audio, this is another option.

The nice thing is that tidal does give you the option to stream lossy audio to your mobile device to alleviate that issue while still letting you stream lossless to your hifi system.

In that application tidal is really great. Only complaints are price and the selection is good but not as deep as spotify (yet)

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?

So how the heck do the people who post these random "What is it worth?" threads find Vinyl Collective and how the heck do they not see that the records they ask about (usually the stuff of flea markets and dead relative's attics, often fifty years old at best) don't really fit in with the 'emo/Jack White/cult horror flick' vibe of the site?

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.

...what about for an 8"...

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.