beta114

Thanks for flagging the Paste review. I like this album quite a bit, but also agree with the critical review completely. https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/taylor-swift/taylor-swift-strikes-out-looking-on-the-tortured-poets-department
 
I did not pre-order the record, but I did go to Target Friday morning to pick it up. The clear vinyl sounds great and the packaging and artwork is nice and elaborate (good to get back to that after the simplistic/cheap Midnights). I do wish I had the Black Dog vinyl edition (1) because the black cover is awesome and (2) I think that is one of the top 5 best songs out of the 31.

I'll chime in if not just to mix things up a little bit.  I've been chipping away at this reply on and off in a separate tab for like a week now.  Forgive any redundancy or incoherentness, I feel like it's probably all over the place.  But the thread is starting to sputter out so... why not?
2023 felt no different than any other year of the hobby™, barring a few exceptions.  In terms of how much did you end up buying?, the answer for me is – a lot.  I'm either doing something very right or very wrong.
But the biggest differentiator to years prior, I think, boils down to 1 concept: patience.  Sometimes it took months for pre-orders to go live.  Other times a release was riddled with delays for weeks or months on end.  I've come to accept [some years back] that we no longer get the luxury of spinning a record the same day an album is released digitally.  If a record shows up on release day – or early! – it's a rarity, and one I appreciate.  But it's absolutely not the norm among the artists and labels I frequent, and that just is what it is.  The silver lining there is that we sometimes get months to allow the dust to settle and decide if that new album is truly worth picking up.  With that in mind, sites like Zia, Bull Moose, and Rough Trade were all key-players in my 2023 preorders.  Any site that doesn't charge until shipment, with easy 1-click cancellations – those were my bread & butter.  Can't tell you how many cancellations and re-orders I'd place with Bull Moose to maintain free shipping.  Sometimes that meant that I'd receive a record 1-2+ months after everyone else, but it felt worth it.  Again; patience.
Record MSRP has been ass, I have nothing to really contribute to that discussion.  I think Covid was just the perfect maelstrom of opportunity to up the price of records; a nice trajectory of record sales, crippled supply chains / materials, and newjack collectors thinking $50+ is acceptable to drop on a double LP because they've never known better.  The wrong people took note of how willing collectors are to wait extended periods of time to receive a lackluster product of something they overpaid for... and here we are.  Imagine spending $39 PPD for a bare-bone, no-frill, flimsy ass colored 12" that you had to wait 6 months to receive.  You probably don't have to use too much of your imagination, because I bet that's happened to every single one of us in the last year or two, and I just see it more and more.  Shit sucks.  On the subject of MSRP, I will say I try my best to vote with my dollar.  Labels trying to produce the bare minimum for $40 will probably still sell out of a limited release, but at least I won't be contributing to those sales. 🤷‍♂️ There were some pretty rare exceptions here and there since those are tough guns to stick to.  Those Hum reissues were one of my favorite releases of 2024, and they were $40 a pop I think.  (But also double LPs with nice jackets, and lots of love into the mastering and pressings.)  Or Nouns' Still Bummed, which has been desperately overdo for a vinyl press.  Also $40+ spent mumbling under my breath, but having the opportunity to own a cleaned-up mix on something that's not a lathe?  Had to be done.  (It was also released on the band's own label which they just opened.  Overpaying for stuff sucks a little less when it's going to DIY roots.)
Trying to think of what else felt different in 2023.  I think I definitely coordinated a few more imports with friends, on stuff that was only available from abroad.  Gotta' soften that blow as much as possible, when possible.  Also being real with myself when cheaper options were offered.  Do I need the extra 12" of remixes I'll never listen to, housed in the exclusive boxset casing, for an extra $25 imported?  Or could I probably settle for an equally boring variant in a normal gatefold from Bull Moose and get free shipping?  This was something I'd always ask myself, but I guess in the last year or two, I've become much more comfortable not going nuts to butts on every single pre-order I was excited about.
It's cool to see more people become disenchanted with the idea that owning all releases for an artist is mandatory if you want to call yourself a true fan of said artist.  There are some artists I thoroughly enjoy with an album or two that just suck.  And no amount of bells and whistles on a fancy reissue are going to change that for me, so I'm not taking that bait.  (Especially when said reissue is probably $30+.)  On that note, I think in 2023 I've just placed more priority than ever on respecting the bang:buck ratio.  People dropping $37 PPD on a 15 minute EP is cool, I guess, but it ain't for me – even if the EP is enjoyable.  At the end of the day, I've found that no one gives a shit if you own every obscure split, 7", 10", comp, and cassette tape for an artist that you're into.  Chase all that stuff if you genuinely love the hunt and it scratches some kinda' itch for you, but it's nonsense to feel like you need that stuff on your shelf to prove that you can hang with the "real fans".  I see that mentality constantly on Reddit, it's wild.
The last thing I'll touch on is that the people who are really assessing their shelf estate and wondering "am I really going to spend time listening to this more than once?" – 100%, that's the ticket right there.  I've gotten pretty good at being honest with myself over that question, as years have gone on.  I can shrug off quite a few "impulse buys" I know I'd never listen to.  And I think I have a pretty good track-record on preordering stuff with confidence and not getting stung by it.  (The new album from Grails was my 1 dud purchase of last year.)  But with everything costing as much as it does anymore, absolutely ask yourself if it's worth actually owning, yeah.
At the end of last year, I actually added a new feature to my collection's spreadsheet – an Attachment column.  It's just a 1-5 rating on how attached I am to a given record in my collection, considering a few key factors (the music, the exclusivity, variant / packaging / press quality, the current value, sentimentality, etc.)

At its essence, it's like asking "if I lost this record in a fire, how bummed would I be about having to replace it?"  (A 5 would be crushed; very expensive or time-consuming to find a replacement in the condition my copy is in.  And a 2 or lower would be indifferent or carefree.)  I'm now in the process of revisiting everything I own and assigning it a rank, and the idea is to identify anything that's a 2 or lower to weed them out.  It's not a perfect system, especially since it leans so hard into my own personal value which is purely subjective.  But it's already helped me spot a few things here and there that I could live without, and with the size of my collection and amount spent in 2023, that's a healthy thing.  I know I'll have a problem if I start accumulating anything from 2023 / 2024 that becomes ranked a 2 or lower, because it means by ability to sniff out staying power or replay value is dwindling and that's bad news.
TL;DR – still bought a ton in 2023, but relied more on bundling for free shipping... even at the cost of waiting an extra month or two to receive my order.  Coordinated with friends for imports.  Avoided gimmick releases like usual and tried my best to "vote with my wallet" to dodge stuff excessively priced.  Still plenty of good stuff to be had for fair prices and reputable labels, especially if you're fatigued on splatter variants and have no interest in paying extra for them.  Still gunning for preferred variants, but also realistic with myself in not needing the best-of-the-best mega-deluxe-slipmat-boxset-signed-insert-bullshit version of everything, all time.  That's about it.

I know you’ve all been dying to hear my 2 cents so here it goes…

I’ve curbed on buying a lot of new releases and focused on grabbing 1st presses of my favorite records.  Early rev stuff, first presses of some equal vision releases.  I feel like I kinda hit the wall with new music and not many new hardcore bands do it for me.  But I’ll find out about some old band and go after that collection like most recently Unwound and codeine, which thanks to numero isn’t too hard!
 
The price of records hasn’t really dissuaded me from buying infact it’s encouraged me.  I’m an independent contractor and we have a record player at work so I write off all my record purchases.  I understand this is 100% not ok, but I don’t give a shit.  And if anyone on here works for the IRS I’m just kidding.  

Probably how he afforded his new recording studio 

Hey if anyone wants to pass a referral link to me, i'm probably going to sign up for a year. DM me plz. Thanks! 

i got my blue copy in today and holy fuck this things gorgeous. more than happy with how this one turned out.
 
 
 
fuck ETR btw. 

I actually have all the variants of that, but thank you!

The new EPs have been complete bangers. Some heavy material mixed with a lot of synth/keyboards. I like it a lot.

I’m out the building after about 24 tracks no matter who the fuck it is. Tighten that shit up.

Would love to eventually press Body of Land too but no plans for that yet. 

You'd be amazed how many newbies in the New Vinyl Releases group on Facebook think $30-35 for a single LP is totally reasonable. I'm with you though, I've been pickier than ever. I'm trying to travel more and this hobby will hold me back from that if I'm not more selective.

dont you flip records? 

Pre-orders for Dad Hats - Spill LP are live now!
Dad Hats | Spill (mindovermatterrecords.com)
 
Meet Dad Hats, your new favorite band. Spill is their second full length and their first with Mind Over Matter, and we are so excited to get these songs out into the wild. We've cooked up some fun vinyl variants and our usual DIY approach to the artwork should make this a great release for everyone!
PLEASE NOTE: This item is a pre-order. It will ship on or around February 17th with the release of the full album.
Pressing Information
15 Test Presses 1 Solid Opaque Purple 1 Baby Blue Swirl & Purple Merge 1 Transparent Swamp Blue 52 Opaque Green w/ Black & Purple Swirl 74 Baby Blue w/ White Swirl 75 Opaque Purple w/ Pink & Green Splatter

Dad Hats are right up my alley.  Those two songs are both really good. I'll definitely check out more.
 
(Really waiting on some new Bad Rabbits though. Sounds like this year is the year. 🙏)

The clip from the new song is just kinda meh (I was hoping they were gonna come out with a reunion album that was more akin to Boxcar Racer but with more production ala Untitled, especially given Mark's struggle with the big C), but I don't wanna write it off till I hear the whole song. In all fairness mainstream rock doesn't really exist anymore so Blink can kinda do whatever they want, with that being said, Edging sounds '22 as hell, this is neither an insult or a compliment lol

I see you're likely referring to this part here:
we have a modest savings as a business to sustain payroll and continue to pay out artist royalties, etc. we also still have cashflow to sustain our day-to-day and continued operation via physical and digital revenue from our distributor, sync placements, etc.. we are exploring options to take out an interest-free advance from our distributor if needed. we have access to up to $33k via a Paypal “Working Capital” loan at a flat fee of $6.3k (19%). we'd like to avoid using this if we can because the fee is so high, but it's there as a last resort should we need it.  
If all those things are real, true statements, then why beg for money from customers via kickstarter and crypto donations? To fight their lawsuit? That should be a consideration when putting aside money for an emergency, and I'm sure in the future they'll take that into consideration.
 
I get that people are really emotionally invested in this. I'm not trying to say that anyone who wants to donate/Kickstart this shouldn't. I'm just very skeptical about this whole thing and I think everyone should stop to think critically about it.
 
From re-reading the statement from Topshelf it looks like there were a lot of red flags that should have forewarned them about this. I understand that they may not have realized what was going on, and it looks like Awesome really did fuck them over, which sucks.  But they also needed to do their own due diligence when things started looking hinky.
 
I want to address some points individually here now:
we have a modest savings as a business to sustain payroll and continue to pay out artist royalties, etc. How much is their modest savings? Is it enough to continue for 1 month? 1 year? Who knows. To me pointing out that it is modest is a quiet way of saying "not much."
we also still have cashflow to sustain our day-to-day and continued operation via physical and digital revenue from our distributor, sync placements, etc.. Digital I get. Sync placements...sure, but I can't imagine that's going to provide a ton. But they're saying they have cashflow via physical (sales I assume) through their distributor. Is that not Awesome distro? Possibly a different distro for non-NA orders? They previously said Awesome owes them money, so I have to assume they expect to bring in cash from somewhere else since that Awesome distro money likely isn't coming.
Edit: I've been corrected on this point. They're talking about physical distribution to record stores handled by Redeye.
we are exploring options to take out an interest-free advance from our distributor if needed. This seems like what I would expect a company to try to do. These are their business partners. This is who they should be going to for money. But again, another distributor? I'll admit I may not understand what they're talking about here.
Edit: again, they're referring to Redye. Doesn't change anything about the first part of this section though.
we have access to up to $33k via a Paypal “Working Capital” loan at a flat fee of $6.3k (19%). we'd like to avoid using this if we can because the fee is so high, but it's there as a last resort should we need it. I looked into how these working capital loans work and the amount you can take is based on your PayPal intake. This doesn't inspire a ton of confidence, because it shows how little they were actually taking in via digital sales and licensing which is where most of that money is coming from, as they mention that Awesome was receiving all paypal funds from physical sales instead of Topshelf being paid directly and then paying their distro/warehouse via invoice.
 
• Awesome also owes us over $40k in revenue they’ve collected on our behalf but have ceased paying or even accounting to us for. our statements are months behind. we’ve made repeated requests over the last half year to reconcile this and have yet to be directly told whether or not we will receive this money at all.
 
6 months of requests to reconcile a decent sum of money is way too long to pretend you didn't know something was going wrong and not get your inventory out of there.
 
• because we can’t currently ship anything, we don’t feel comfortable continuing to accept orders. we have now turned off our stores since we have no idea when we’ll even be able to ship an order again, let alone where it’ll even ship from!
 
This just straight up contradicts what they say about having incoming revenue from physical sales?
 
I just want everyone to think before they immediately jump in due to an emotional connection with the label. The whole thing seems sketchy to me, and I don't like companies begging customers to keep them afloat when they don't have a real plan moving forward and the reasons they've given for the current circumstances seem shaky at best.
 
 
Edit: And you may be right. I may be misreading this and all my skepticism may be misplaced.
I'm not trying to be a dick here, but this whole thing rubs me the wrong way and I think it's important to put that out there. I was trying to avoid a huge drawn out post, but here we are.
Please feel free to correct me anywhere you find issue with my thought process or if I'm misinformed in any of my points.

Y'all...It's home! Thank you again for your help and lbw87 for the very reasonable trade! I'm so stoked to have this thing back. My expectations that it would happen were extremely low and I still can't believe it happened.

All I am going to say is that Aly & AJ's A touch of the beat... is easily the best vinyl release of 2021. Everything about it is the dream of a vinyl nerd: the vinyl weight, variants, colors, jackets. The whole package. 

If you Iike indie/emo pop and you aren’t on the new Kississippi record yet then you are fuckin up.

Huh. I don't recall this, but my apologies. That shirt is obviously inappropriate.

Sooooo...Brooklyn Vegan were supposed to premiere the video for Duncan Barlow's "Love Me The Way You Do"...instead they buried it in their daily new songs feature. Very lame of BV. 
 
So here's the video for all to enjoy. And hopefully you've picked up the Colony Collapse record. It's a beatiful record. 
 
Duncan Barlow - Love Me The Way You Do (Official Video) on Vimeo
 
 
 
 
 

Just updating that all non-box set orders have shipped!  The USPS is still fucked, however, so exercise patience. 
 
For the box sets, I’m just waiting on the shirts. I only ordered the sizes/quantities to fulfill the box set orders, and once they’re printed I will assemble, pack and ship!

what the fuck is the password? 

Anyone who has ordered from me in the past knows that I always hold onto a few copies in case of USPS shenanigans. If anything doesn’t need replacing, there will be a very VERY few copies left over that will go up later. 
 
just gotta let the dust settle and let people get their records first.