AlexH.

I'll admit to being blown away by those numbers. $1.75 million in merch sales in 2019 is nuts for a band that I would have guessed had peaked with their inclusion on one of those "Punk Goes" compilations. I'll also say that as someone who would love to live in a world where artists are able to subsist solely on their art and don't have to become super-savvy strategic marketing gurus or rely on commodity fetishism to survive, it does bum me out a lot to read an interview with a guy who can say "it really changed the way that the band thinks about merchandise" without throwing up! Bands with more shirt designs than songs fuck off!!!!

Those side splits are weird - is side D really just In a Sweater Poorly Knit? No hidden demo version or anything?

Also I feel like anyone who hung onto some of those Ferret Records releases that Virgil was blowing out during the fall of VC 1.0 has claim to posting in this thread. He was giving them away with each order and selling huge bundles for dirt cheap. I had at least 3 or 4 and sold them eventually for maybe $10-20 thinking I was coming out way ahead, but I looked them up recently and I don’t think any of them go for less than like 40 bucks now, with some in the $100+ range.

Starflyer 59 - Everybody Makes Mistakes for $8 on eBay in ~2008 because the seller didn’t have the band name in the listing. Found it through sheer chance browsing based on other things they had listed. The vinyl was in great condition but the sleeve was pretty beat. Then 2-3 years ago Velvet Blue found some extra sleeves in a box and put them up for sale for a few bucks, so I basically have a mint copy for under $20. It was a $50 record when I bought it and a >$150 record in recent years. I sold the Paper + Plastick pressing of fun’s Aim & Ignite for like $150 which I bought the day it went up for preorder. Not sure I could ever sell a record for more than that even if it was worth more, I think it would stress me out.

Ah he's just been laying low, although he did put out an open letter in the Daily Mail(?) earlier this month with the standard oh I'm sober now, sorry to anyone I may have hurt, I've been working on some new material blah blah blah. And of course he put out the statement without actually attempting to privately make amends with any of the women he did hurt! https://www.stereogum.com/2090466/mandy-moore-karen-elson-response-ryan-adams-apology/news/

A lot of people were "on this label" depending on how you want to define it, including about 7/8ths of the American garage/jangle/fuzz/beach rock scene, but yeah they did put out a bunch of material from one of his side projects: https://www.discogs.com/artist/2732185-The-Shit-3 Hard to say this whole thing is surprising in retrospect. Virtually everything in this label's orbit gave off powerful "27-year old burnouts who go to high school parties" energy.

Glenn Branca is so fucking cool. Would love to hear Suf integrate some no wave into his sound.

LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO Also of note: "America" 2-song 12" with an exclusive B-side "My Rajneesh" to be released July 31st:

Added a few Polyvinyl CDs, please let me send you things

LOL judging by Twitter replies, the deluxe package sold out in 3 hours. Would've liked the limited color but I've come to accept that I don't need more posters or stickers that will end up in tubes and boxes. Wonder how many tracks this EP will have considering how short his recent albums have been.

All SMLXL releases are 30% off this weekend, so good time to pick up anything you've been thinking about. Bummed they never got to The End is Near or Legend of Chin, it seems they've stalled out on putting out any new releases at all out. Guess CCM on vinyl isn't as hot a commodity as they'd hoped.

Got a truly random assortment of stuff here, $3 minimum, shipping is $3. Have at it. I also have CDs and records for sale. $3 Ahem - Chutes & Ladders Al Scorch & The Country Soul Ensemble - Tired Ghostly Town Big Eyes - Demo Cory Branan/Jon Snodgrass - Split The Cassettes - Countach Choke Up - Demo In//Via - Meditations $1 Audio Adrenaline - Bloom Audio Adrenaline - Some Kind of Zombie Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love DC Talk - Nu Thang Eric Clapton - Unlugged Man's Assassination, Man ‎– The Big One Patsy Cline - Greatest Hits Ted Nugent - The Best of Ted Nugent: Great Gonzos! Von Ragan ‎– Experiment Y'all Various - Radio K: Stuck on AM Vol. 7 Various - Romeo + Juliet OST Stephen King - The Mist in 3-D Sound Blues tapes - $1/piece, $5 for all: B.B. King - The Best of B.B. King B.B. King - Got My Mojo Working George Thorogood & The Destroyers ‎– Bad To The Bone George Thorogood & The Destroyers ‎– More George Thorogood And The Destroyers John Lee Hooker - The Hook John Lee Hooker - I'm in the Mood Muddy Waters - 16 Blues Classics

You say that now, but I count 6 colored variants of Con Todo el Mundo on Discogs, and none of them have copies for sale under $50. Granted, that's after two years, but the Turntable Lab, VMP and Secretly exclusives of this album are already sold out. Seems like this band is blowin up! I dig the disco sound of the single. Not sure how I feel about a more vocal-heavy album, but I'm sure it will be great in its own way.

Added a bunch of stuff: Andrew Jackson Jihad - Only God Can Judge Me 10" Salesman - Skull Shang-A-Lang - Collection (red) Shores - Coup de Grace Shores - Leavening STNNNG - Empire Inward Talons - Hollow Realm (clear) Teengirl Fantasy - 7AM Winter Break - s/t (blue) [members of Summer Vacation] [split] - Giant Haystacks/Young Offenders [split] - Candy Claws & Mike Adams at His Honest Weight Sing Starflyer 59 10" You can also get some free CDs if you buy records from me.