Oblivions

My disc 3 is also badly scratched. I emailed AK about it a few days ago and haven't heard back. I wonder if they're going to have to do a mass replacement like they did for Vol. 7 of the other set.

Weekly Deal (ends 11/22 at midnight): DEAL ENDED

Thanks for organizing this, @backpackoat. I'm excited to be a part of this leaner, meaner, and more intimate VC Secret Santa.

This is your periodic reminder to sign up for Lauren Records' record club*! Best no frills, straight up record club for my money, alongside the Community Records label sub. *If you can afford it and if it's still available by the time you google it and get to it's product page.

In the mid 2000s, I saw MK as Owen open up for Rocky Votolato and he walked off mid-song because some bros in the audience kept "WOO!"ing mockingly during his set. Maybe those bros were Decay's friends?

A vinyl bud getting caught flipping and then leaning hard into the villain role is a tale so common you'd be lucky to get your money back on it.

Weekly Deal (ends 11/15 at midnight): DEAL ENDED.

The Slowreader LP needs to be pressed yesterday. Basic paper sleeve 1 LP. I don’t care. As long as it sounds decent, I need a copy of it in my collection.

This is a decent supplement as well: https://forum.vinylmeplease.com/index.php?threads/pre-order-goodness.757/

These are essentially donations to Polyvinyl with a free test pressing thank you gift. I would ask your tax preparer about writing these off as a charitable contribution.

If you have some old cans and string, you can make your own amp and headphones.

I'll make my debut this year. My name is Rich and I'm a married 32 year old dude with 2 cats living in Los Angeles, CA. When I was 8, my uncle gave me his beat up Dookie cassette and I officially started my music collecting addiction. When I was 13, I built my first website, a music review page called "Cheap CD Reviews", and I ended up on the CD promo list for Sub Pop, Tooth and Nail, Hush, Barsuk, Drive Thru, and about a half dozen other indie labels. In college, I started collecting records exclusively. I started with grunge and alt-rock (Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Third Eye Blind), moved to pop punk and ska (Reel Big Fish, Aquabats, Lagwagon), then transitioned into indie rock (John Vanderslice, The National, Kind of Like Spitting), which has been my main genre of choice over the last 15+ years. I am the only member of my family who isn't musically skilled. My 18 year old brother plays lead guitar for Maximum Bob's new band, my other younger brother is the archetypal singer-songwriter with albums of unreleased material on his hard drive, and my sister writes the occasional song. The best I can do is collect records and tapes. My biggest sub-collection is R.E.M. bootlegs from the 80s and 90s. I have over 40 of them, as well as every R.E.M. official album and live album and 95% of their 12" and 7" singles. Outside of music, I've been improvising and performing comedy in Los Angeles for over 12 years, off and on. I gave up on the SNL dream early on, in exchange for being employed and being able to afford to be a happy adult. I still enjoy performing and taking the occasional improv class without any professional ambitions. This summer, I started a pin company and am launching officially sometime this month. I've been a member of VC off and on for a while under various random usernames that I lightly used and then abandoned. I did a Secret Santa for another vinyl forum last year and I had a great time coming up with a high concept theme for the packaging and bonus material. I'm excited to participate in the VC Secret Santa for the first time. I hope this was long enough and filled with the right amount of extraneous detail.

I live in SoCal and my static situation is out of control and a Minty ZeroStat gun works wonders. Could be worth looking into grabbing one, if you don't already use it.

That is odd! The "reading into it" interpretation would be that it's kind of weak that they did the bare minimum required to thwart the Seller Not Responding function but who knows. I will say it doesn't sound like there is a realistic scenario where they have a reason for the delay that would make any customer satisfied but hopefully they'll eventually fulfill the order. If you haven't already, you can always send them another message and start the clock for another Seller Not Responding, in case it's needed. But I feel like you have probably open a support request at this stage if you get no updates in the next few days and skip the SNR process.

Haven't bought from them yet but, just in case you aren't already familiar with it, a "Seller Not Responding" button will appear on your order page eventually, if they don't respond to a buyer message for several days. I believe if you click that, the seller is contacted by Discogs saying they need to respond to you or they could risk having their account suspended. 9 times out of 10, they'll respond right away unless they're on vacation or something serious is up. If you already know all this, consider this post for someone reading who isn't yet.

These buds are tied with Lauren Records for the best no frills record label sub out there. Varied, good bands. Healthy number of releases a year. Everything arrives on time and D-Ray is there to help when needed. Def recommend folks raiding this stash.

Sounds cool but, lately, it seems these 7" single subscription clubs have failed to satisfy either the 'music listener' or 'valuable rarities collector' side of my record collector psyche. I usually end up with 12 singles of which I only really dig 3-4 and could have bought individually on Discogs for less than $40. That said, what do I know. This could be much doper than what I expect.

Weekly Deal (ends 11/8 at midnight): DEAL ENDED I also removed all the crossed out, sold items from the spreadsheet, so it's hopefully easier to scan/browse.

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It will be up for a while but in 5-10 second increments.

Polyvinyl should change the label from "Early Bird Variant" to "Slightly More Expensive Color Variant".

I agree with the take of "who cares" but my follow up is "if someone cares about the marketing or package details of a release they like/own". Personal preference and personal interest are enough justification for caring about something as small and niche as the details of the numbering on a release.

I listened to chunks of this album and, then after the last song, Spotify played Firefly. Firefly is a great song.

The podcast Song Exploder has a new episode that breaks down the creation of the Halloween theme with John Carpenter and his son and god son. It's really short but interesting.

Hey, while I'm here, I should mention that weirdly shaped lathes that don't have the proper amount of lead in area need to go far far away. A label I love adds in these weird shaped lathes as pre-order bonuses and they often skip and, once, an 8" rocket shaped lathe threw my needle off the record and then smacked the cantilever/headshell with it's 'rocket' fins 3-4 times before I could lift the tonearm. Never again.