petgrief

The image of the dude was not licensed. Not sure if they got a C&D on it, but that's what I was told way back in 2001 or whenever I noticed it. That's correct. The band used the image of Mark Morris from a performance of "One Charming Night" without his permission. I'm not sure exactly how it went down since I wasn't working at the label at that time. I was friends with Todd though, and when he told me what happened I died laughing. I thought it was hilarious that they just threw that image on the cover and didn't worry about it. From what I was told, Morris wasn't super angry or wanting to sue or anything... he just asked them to change the cover when it was repressed. I don't think they had to destroy any copies, but I could be wrong about that. Here's the image they used: http://carmen.lamonnaie.be/pls/carmen/carmen_modules.imagearchiefstuk?archiefstukexemplaar_id=507453

Just heard back. They want me to not say anything... I'll have to make you wait until there's an announcement. Sorry again, not trying to be a tease. But I just wanted to let you folks know that there are things in the works that will make many of you happy. Some very soon, others a ways off. Whenever there's an announcement, I'll try to jump in on those threads here and give any additional info I can at that time.

suchashorttime: I asked the powers that be about any hints I could give, and haven't heard back yet. But I'm guessing I'll need to keep things under wraps until there's some kind of official announcement. Sorry that sucks, but if I get the green light I'll let you guys know what I can right away. Kjm23: Regarding the smaller pressings... the problem is that the fewer we press, the higher the cost. Especially true for jackets and inserts. The smaller the pressing, the harder it is to do a quality pressing with decent packaging. Our list price would have to go a lot higher, which doesn't benefit anyone. We try to print as high a quantity as possible, including doing extra print for the next run, so we can keep our costs down. Vinyl costs in general have been going up, so it can be a struggle. I agree, it's cool to do different colors when repressing, but as I mentioned before, it's kind of a company philosophy that we don't go too far in the direction of encouraging variant collecting. There's been debate about it here over the years... on one hand you don't want to be boring and want to give fans something cool... but on the other, you don't want to be seen as greedy, trying to get people to buy the same record a bunch of times, or like we're "cashing in".

I didn't take it that way, no worries. Thanks for the kind words! I'm a bit of a variant collector, but I don't have it anywhere near as bad as a lot of people I see on here. Luckily I don't like many bands that have 10 (or 30!) different vinyl colors of their releases. I'll usually buy an original press and then one reissue, especially if it's markedly different, like colored vinyl or different packaging. And I only do that for a handful of bands I like a lot. It can be cool to do something a little different with a release after it's been out of press for a while, like doing Domestica on 180 gram red this last time around, when it had previously only been on black or standard red. But we don't want to ever appear like we're releasing different versions so people will buy the same record multiple times, that's never been something we've wanted to get behind. I guess there's a balance out there for getting something back in print in a cool way that will appeal to people who hadn't yet bought the release on vinyl, and overdoing it with different versions...

Keep in mind that it's not just a label decision. A band like Cursive gets a pretty big say in what gets reissued and what doesn't. They're looking at the same numbers we are. We both want things to be available for fans, we just want to make sure that it doesn't turn into a huge cash sinkhole for the band or us. Also, there's the consideration of whether a title would be just put back into print vs reissuing something "deluxe" or an expanded edition. Planning a deluxe edition with bonus material takes quite a bit more time to sort out and get everything in place after it's decided on. I'll just say things are happening in SC reissue world.... some faster than others. But there will be some good things coming for 2012. Others maybe not in 2012, but I think they will happen at some point in the not too distant future. Sorry, that's all I can say at this point, I don't want to get in trouble.

It was actually 220 gram vinyl, not 210. It's like a damn manhole cover. If you go to discogs you can see the 220 weight listed on the cover sticker if you look closely at the image. Label was SNC Empire in Germany. http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1968732 And never say never about a repress!

It's hard for a band like Ladyfinger that doesn't move a lot of units. It would take them forever to recoup... We don't have the rights to Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, unfortunately. I love that one though, it's what got me into that band. There's been talk of Novena and maybe Black Out. I think it'll happen eventually. I've been lobbying to do those. I'd love Album of the Year acoustic, that would be awesome. Maybe as a Record Store Day release some year....

Antarctica - 81:03 The Wrens - Silver The Wrens - Secaucus (well there are supposedly a few copies of this on LP floating around, but the band knows nothing about it and I think it's a bootleg)

Just unwrapped my copy. Nice glossy tip-on jacket. I would have liked album art on the printed inner sleeve instead of the label catalog they used, but not the end of the world. I'm excited to give it a spin tonight... I've never heard it on vinyl. I just couldn't ever bring myself to spend $200 on it when there are other records I need more. You can tell they didn't have much in the art department to work with here. The front and back covers look like they enlarged the CD-sized artwork, and maybe even printed from scans?

Hello all, first time posting here, although I've been lurking a while. I'm an employee at Saddle Creek. The 10" picture disk is actually printed at Erika, not United, sorry for the earlier misinformation. The LP (both the colored and black versions) are being done at RTI. RTI doesn't do picture discs, that's why we went with Erika for that. We'll have Paypal back up on the site soon, but I don't know an exact date. We're working on restoring it after our switch over to the new website. I heard maybe a week until it's live as a payment option again.