Oblivions

I'm just more of a "cringe and shudder inwardly" kind of guy than a "fuck you" kind of a guy. That poster is probably 45 years old and able to fight their own battles but I always imagine naive new people who come on here excited about their silly projects as being 14 years old like I was when I'd post a terribly written review on my mp3 blog and then go google punk message boards to share it on. 😁

In the late 90s/early 2000s, I started a few mp3 blogs as a non-expert, often-wrong kid who just loved music and building websites. No one told me to fuck off*. No one co-opted my blogging into a larger point about the decline of the scene/society. In fact, I got like hundreds of free CDs from cool labels and learned a TON more about music, met a ton of people whose songs I loved, and had a great time being a wrong, non-expert learning about music as I went along. The point of this post is that the OP should time travel back to 1999 and build Trill Vinyl as a Tripod page with a free cjb.net redirect URL and then today you could be in your 30s/40s and tell the new school of amateur music writers/bloggers to go fuck itself. 😊 *The guy who owns Hush Records did tell me to fuck off. LOL.

Yeah. They actually give records to each other for free and cut each other pretty solid deals all the time. From what I remember, they were OK with flipping in general on Discogs or eBay but they would dog pile on egregious flipping or trying to gouge other forum users. There is a stronger sense of wanting to maintain good standing there, as well, so, if you got called out for flipping, you couldn't just do a heel turn and become an ironic and defiant troll. So, if people do flip there, it's less loud and off forum.

Wouldn't $3,000 fund a web forum for like 10+ years? I've built websites for 15+ years but never ran a large forum. Would you need an expensive private server plan for something like that?

Double post.

The theory the forums floated that they’re trying to trim liabilities and shiny things up for a big payday sale of the company sounds like a reasonable possibility, IMO.

Listen to it in any order. The film is mostly a ton of awesome National drumming and little tinkering guitars and piano and bits. There are some vocals and extended song pieces but it's not a real spoiler, IMO.

They got this rare opportunity to do something kind of brazen and weird, 20 years into a pretty solid and consistent showbiz career, and they went for it. R.E.M. did something similar with Up but I Am Easy to Find is more successful at what it's aiming for, it's more bold in it's dialing back of it's lead singer (versus ditching a full time drummer), and it comes in their prime (versus after some 'at-the-time' missteps like R.E.M. 'departure record' did). I'm loving this long, wild, laid back, weird album.

It really is. I expected the guest vocalists to cause a stir amongst fans who are expecting the same heavy dose of Matt but I honestly didn't even consider that there'd be a minority of fans who take offense over the guest performers specifically being women and people of color. Seeing a guy on the National sub-Reddit lose his shit because women are singing on his National album is like a little cherry on top of this really beautiful, inspiring music sundae.

Thanks to the folks who helped with my query!

DEAL ENDED

Yeah. TTL have had that "advice" posted on their site for a while, as a subtle nudge for people to not contact them about warps. Personally, I prefer the alternative method where you put the vinyl on your lap and pet it softly until it relaxes into being flat.

The busted VC forum won’t let me leave feedback but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that @thefavoriteplay is my personal RSD hero. Buy/sell/trade with him forever!

Based off these two tracks and the clip of studio Rylan, this one is shaping up to be another Trouble Will Find Me style collection of straightforward decent/dope songs. I’m also kind of stoked at the destinct lack of High Violet EPICNESS for a third album in a row. If this band retires with England and Vanderlyle being their most pandering big arena tracks, I will start calling up local trophy shops and getting quotes for a “best/most consistent rock band of my generation” plaque.

That Fat Beats sale is a good invitation to stock up on Waxahatchee and Mount Eerie/Microphones records, if you haven’t already. I almost grabbed the Mount Eerie ‘Ocean Roar/Clear Moon’ LP and the new Preoccupations for $30 shipped but my self control kicked in. I’ve been cutting down on the “here and there” “maybe I should get this?” albums that I used to gobble up because of sales.

Update: finished playing everything in my color set and it was dead silent except for two quick pops on the last side. Good enough for me! I was also lucky to have the outerwear box and all jackets in OK shape. No bends or splits.

Full disclosure: I don't have the best ear for picking up the small differences between a good and an amazing pressing, so, I'd have to pass the question about mastering along to another user who does. I can tell when something sounds really bad (distortion at high volumes, 'flat' with no highs/lows, surface noise on the record itself, etc) but there have been CD sourced pressings of records that people say are unlistenable and I think they sound totally fine, hence my caveat. Not sure where it was pressed. I don't think it mentions it on the jackets and the run out groove I checked only has a digital etching of the Numero catalogue number and some random numbers. No initials or pressing plant abbreviations that I saw.

Half-way through the set and this is the least-warped, least-noisy vinyl I've received in a long time. I'm very happy.

This sounds very rad. Almost grabbed a clear but the $6+ Media Mail pushed me to wait until I find a black copy for under $20 somewhere else. I will be on the lookout.

I may have been unlucky then. I got a record that skipped and I got one “we’ll look into this!” email and then silence for two weeks. I had to open a PayPal dispute before someone from their parent company stepped in and said they’d get SmartPunk to help. I got a 2nd “sorry we’ll look into this!” email within an hour. Two weeks went by and I got a 3rd reply from someone at SmartPunk who said “I’m looking into this! Can you tell me what your issue is and send photos?” I said “I already did. It’s on this email chain below” and I never heard back. A week or so later my PayPal dispute closed due to no response from the parent company and I got my $$$ back but seemed like a needless month of waiting for an actual reply.

The UO near me used to have an entire wall and corner of their space dedicated to vinyl. Now it's a small 5 x 5 cubby/rack on a small platform you pass while taking the stairs from the first floor to the second. Vinyl must not be as cool anymore.

Didn't an article mention they already had a second album in the works or even completed? Am I misremembering this?

Different company but SmartPunk is weak too. The punks just won't deliver.

Oh I’ve seen pics of Sloppy Jane’s sets. Did Bridgers also play in their band? I think she used to be in it?

How have the live shows been? I've never seen Bright Eyes/Oberst live but I've seen Bridgers and I thought her solo material and performance was still a bit too sleepy and on the same level/pace (outside of Emotional Motion Sickness). On the record, this project has added that tiny bit of variation of energy that I feel would make her really fun to see live.