Vinylcast

I’ve been noticing a lot of reference vinyl on ebay; more and more actually.  As far as counterfeiting a one-of-a-kind piece of collector’s gear, I’d think that a reference record would be right on top.  Cheap straight black logos, typewriter song lists… hell, no one knows what the actual reference disk looked like, I mean it’s not documented anywhere because there’s only one out there, and since there was only one pressed, its automatically worth a ton.  Isn’t that a counterfeiter’s dream?

A quick ebay search resulted in 257 test press auctions.  Really?  Is it possible that 257 real test presses are out there for sale right now?

Look at Nirvana’s Bleach in this search result – it’s in there twice!  Now obviously, there can be more than one test press, each member of the band may get one, the producer, maybe even for different versions of the album as they are released… but honestly, what are the chances that they’d show up on ebay during the same auction time-window?

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I was stumbling around on the net and found this painting on a record.  It’s from suckatlife.com.

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A daunting task for a magazine, or single-handed blogger, a list of 100 “best” albums of a decade seems like a great way to celebrate a generation of music.  Every decade becomes a self-contained generation of music, as the 80’s saw post-disco synth-pop, and the 90’s was filled with post-metal classics from grunge to a 2-year thrash-metal explosion.

Here is my small contribution to the previous decade with a passionate, thought-out, slaved-over “Decade’s Best” list of albums.  The past decade has had the most complicated and varied music of any 10 years in history, from indie to post-metal, to a resurgence in 80’s metal bands, to bands inspired by the best the 70’s had to offer.  I sincerely hope that 2010-2020 expands on the complexity of the last decade.

Love it or hate it, but if it’s on this list it made a contribution to modern music or expanded on past contributions to earn it’s place on my list.  Any list is highly subjective, and if your favorite band is on this list, you will wish it were in the top 10.  My wife, for example wanted Depeche Mode much higher on the list, and while I thought it was the best Depeche Mode album, skyrocketing over their other albums, mature, and original, it just couldn’t “beat” bands that I thought were less polished and more original.  Regardless of your love or hate for my list, please enjoy the Vinylcast 100 albums of last decade!

1    Isis – Panopticon
2    El Caco – Viva
3    Them Crooked Vultures
4    Mars Volta – Deloused in the Comatorium
5    Clutch – Blast Tyrant
6    The Sword – Age of Winters
7    Shrinebuilder
8    Wolfmother
9    Clutch – Robot Hive
10    Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
11    Mars Volta – Tremulant EP
12    Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
13    Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
14    Red Sparrowes – Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun
15    Hellacopters – High Visibility
16    Dwarves – Come Clean
17    Goatsnake – Flower of Disease
18    High on Fire – The Art of Self Defense
19    Mastodon – Leviathan
20    YOB – The Unreal Never Lived
21    Sleep – Dopesmoker
22    YOB – Catharsis
23    White Stripes – De Stijl
24    Ryan Adams – Rock N Roll
25    Che – Sounds of Liberation
26    Solace – 13
27    Witchcraft
28    Blind Dog – The Last Adventures of Captain Dog
29    Color Haze – All
30    Dozer – Call it Conspiracy
31    Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide
32    Probot
33    The Hives – Vini Vidi Vicious
34    Down – Down II: A Bustle in your Hedgerow
35    High on Fire – Surrounded by Thieves
36    Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
37    Neurosis – Eye of Every Storm
38    Fu Manchu – California Crossing
39    Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies to Paralyze
40    Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
41    Ryan Adams – Gold
42    White Stripes – White Blood Cells
43    Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger
44    Isis – Oceanic
45    Mastodon – Crack the Skye
46    Dozer – Madre de Dios
47    Hellacopters – By the Grace of God
48    Fu Manchu – King of the Road
49    Gnarles Barkley – St Elswhere
50    Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
51    Jets to Brazil – Perfecting Loneliness
52    Egypt
53    Firewater – Psychopharmacology
54    Foo Fighters – In Your Honor
55    Abdullah
56    Black Mountain – In the Future
57    Mystic Krewe of Clearlight
58    Red Sparrowes – At the Soundless Dawn
59    Tom Waits – Alice
60    Spiritu
61    Thumlock – Sojourns Lucid Magic
62    Sunn 0))) – Altar
63    Mellowdrone – Box
64    Sucking the 70s – Compilation
65    Hank Williams III – Lovesick, Broke and Driftin’
66    Deftones – White Pony
67    The Black Keys – Thickfreakness
68    Sunn 0))) – Monoliths and Dimensions
69    Pelican – The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
70    Depeche Mode – Playing the Angel
71    Cave In – Jupiter
72    Corrosion of Conformity – In the Arms of God
73    Alabama Thunderpussy – Constellation
74    At the Drive In – Relationship of Command
75    Sixty Watt Shaman – Seed of Decades
76    Fireball Ministry – FMEP
77    Mushroom River Band – Music for the World Beyond
78    Pelican – City of Echoes
79    Minus the Bear – Highly Refined Pirates
80    Mastodon – Blood Mountain
81    Kevin Drew – Spirit If
82    Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris
83    Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
84    The Black Keys – Attack and Release
85    Girls Against Boys – You Can’t Fight What You Can’t See
86    Spirit Caravan – Jug Fulla Sun
87    Torche – Meanderthal
88    Brant Bjork – Local Angel
89    Beck – Modern Guilt
90    Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81
91    Dead Meadow – Shivering King and Others
92    Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
93    Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
94    Electric Wizard – Let Us Pray
95    Beck – Sea Change
96    Derek Trucks Band – Songlines
97    Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
98    Metallica – Death Magnetic
99    Burning Brides – Fall of the Plastic Empire
100    Dead Meadow – Old Growth

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The other day I came across Decibel Magazine’s top 100 albums of the last decade.  Of course, I recognized a lot of the albums and artists on the list, and the ones that I knew, I really liked.  So, I thought, why not start buying and listen to the other ones?

It’s been a great week so far, I’ve really been digging into Cave In, At the Drive In, Torche, and Baroness.  I love discovering new music, especially when it’s really good.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I can only go so far into the depths of noise and screaming before I give up.  For instance, Converge’s album Jane Doe is the number 1 album.  It’s almost unlistenable!  It’s noisy and about as fun as scratching a yeast infection.

Everyone has issues with Top 10/100 list of albums.  How can you not?  Black Sabbath is better than Pink Floyd.  That’s completely unanswerable and if you think it’s the other way around, then you work for Decibel.  Let it be known, I’m thankful for any list of music that someone out there is passionate enough to make, and if it’s not full of Boyz to Men albums, I want to listen to it.

I’ve listened to At the Drive In in passing, but I had the opportunity to sit down and really listen to their album Relationship of Command.  It’s original, raw, emotional, aggressive, unrestrained and just amazing.  It’s bound to be a top album in my collection, and it came in at a whopping #53.  Converge is #1?  While the great and completely left-field Cave In Jupiter came in at #2, the album of the decade, Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf came in at a mediocre #7.  To add salt to the wound, the wonderful Isis, with an incredible album – Panopticon, somehow Oceanic made the list at #4 under Opeth’s Blackwater Park?

Ahh well, enough list-gnashing, I’m sure I could go on forever about how bad they fucked up this list, in the end if one just flattens it out, its a good “listing” of albums, even if THEY’RE order of them sucks bad.  I know they put it at the crappy 100 spot, but Slayer’s awfully ridiculous World Painted Blood made the list.  They may as well have put the new Motorhead album on there too, if you’re at a loss for space.

I can’t help it, Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone made #10!  That album is as deep and original as a spoonful of water.  Now, just think about this, there’s not a single Southern Lord album on the list.  Also, there’s not a one Clutch album here.  WHAT? Iron Maiden came in at #8 and Clutch is somewhere below Slayer’s epic failure?

Well, see it for yourself, here’s the list:

1. Converge – Jane Doe
2. Cave In – Jupiter
3. Opeth – Blackwater Park
4. Isis – Oceanic
5. Mastodon – Remission
6. Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down
7. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
8. Iron Maiden – Brave New World
9. Pig Destroyer – Phantom Limb
10. Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
11. Torche – Meanderthal
12. Discordance Axis – The Inalienable Dreamless
13. Baroness – Blue Record
14. Napalm Death – Enemy of the Music Business
15. Pelican – The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
16. The Red Chord – Clients
17. Converge – Axe to Fall
18. Neurosis – A Sun That Never Sets
19. Melt-Banana – CellScape
20. Agalloch – Ashes Against the Grain
21. Enslaved – Isa
22. Tragedy – Tragedy
23. Fugazi – The Argument
24. Mare – Mare
25. Celtic Frost – Monotheist
26. Jesu – Silver
27. High on Fire – Surrounded By Thieves
28. Dimmu Borgir – Death Cult Armageddon
29. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine
30. Andrew W.K. – I Get Wet
31. Mastodon – Leviathan
32. Craft – Fuck the Universe
33. Isis – Panopticon
34. Anaal Nathrakh – The Codex Necro
35. Shellac – 1000 Hurts
36. Witchcraft – Witchcraft
37. Killswitch Engage – Alive or Just Breathing
38. Pig Destroyer – Prowler in the Yard
39. Converge – You Fail Me
40. Deathspell Omega – Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
41. Primordial – The Gathering Wilderness
42. Opeth – Ghost Reveries
43. Nile – Annihilation of the Wicked
44. Watain – Sworn to the Dark
45. Between the Buried and Me – Alaska
46. Evoken – Quietus
47. Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today
48. Mastodon – Blood Mountain
49. Arsis – A Celebration of Guilt
50. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
51. Ludicra – Fex Urbis, Lex Orbis
52. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command
53. Isis – Celestial
54. Jesu – Jesu
55. Enslaved – Below the Lights
56. Cult of Luna – Somewhere Along the Highway
57. High on Fire – Death Is This Communion
58. Disfear – Live the Storm
59. Dying Fetus – Destroy the Opposition
60. Napalm Death – Time Waits for No Slave
61. Deftones – White Pony
62. Botch – An Anthology of Dead Ends
63. Converge – No Heroes
64. Hatebreed – Perseverance
65. Withered – Memento Mori
66. Leviathan – Tentacles of Whorror
67. Meshuggah – Catch 33
68. Thorns – Thorns
69. Rotten Sound – Murderworks
70. Trap Them – Seizures in Barren Praise
71. Deathevokation – The Chalice of Ages
72. Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle, Part I
73. Immortal – Sons of Northern Darkness
74. Nasum – Human 2.0
75. Fucked Up – Hidden World
76. Neurosis – Given to the Rising
77. Taint – The Ruin of Nova Roma
78. System of a Down – Toxicity
79. Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
80. Warhorse – As Heaven Turns to Ash
81. Mayhem – Chimera
82. Gojira – From Mars to Sirius
83. Drowningman – How They Light Cigarettes in Prison
84. Pig Destroyer – Terrifyer
85. Watain – Casus Luciferi
86. Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache
87. Psyopus – Ideas of Reference
88. The Haunted- The Haunted Made Me Do It
89. Cryptopsy – …And Then You’ll Beg
90. Asunder – Works Will Come Undone
91. Godflesh – Hymns
92. Cathedral – Endtyme
93. The Paper Chase – Now You Are One Of Us
94. Decapitated – Nihility
95. Coalesce – Ox
96. In Flames – Clayman
97. Battle of Mice – A Day of Nights
98. Cobalt – Gin
99. My Dying Bride – The Dreadful Hours
100. Slayer – World Painted Blood

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Come on, Gizmodo.  I love your blog.  I love it so much.  But why call an 8-track player shameful?  I’m proud of my 8-track player!  Actually I think he’s proud of his too, and this  is a cool 8-track anyway, I love the bubble looking player.  It’s too bad it looks like they just taped an Ipod to a cool looking 8-track player.

Gizmodo goes on to say, here, that Cheap Trick will release their new album on 8-track!  Now, I love vinyl records, but I’m really not buying 8-tracks at this point for over 2 dollars.  Cheap Trick is charging a not-so-cheap 30.00 for theirs.  Whatevah.

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Ebay never ceases to amaze me.  Someone has put up a signed Michael Jackson Thriller album, and signed not by Michael Jackson, but by Vincent Price, and not for any reasonable price, but for a laughable 2 million dollars.  I had to read, and count the zeros a few times to actually understand what I was looking at, I thought “is that 2 thousand dollars, no, it’s more, is that 20 thousand dollars, it sure looks like it’s 2 million dollars”.

He can’t be serious that it would ever sell for that much, so it makes me wonder why it’s on Ebay at all.  He isn’t even allowing bids, so it is only for sale for 2 million dollars and that’s it.  Not accepting 1 million.  Nope.  He will not back down, lol.  At least he’s offering free shipping.

Besides, I still stand by my assertion that signed records are ivory.

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As the Olympics starts, I’m glad to have HD, and a DVR.  I can live without football, baseball, and most other sports, I live 99% of my life without watching any competitive sports, aside from Hell’s Kitchen – which is definitely a sport!  One time every 4 years I get excited about a sport – Curling.

Curling is on track to become a young sport, and according to the Olympics web page:

Vancouver (AFP) – Curling is poised to cash in on its new, trendy image at the Olympic Winter Games.  Four years ago, the sport boasted the oldest Olympian at the Torino Games in 54-year-old American Scott Baird.  But it’s suddenly almost as trendy as snowboarding as teenagers get in on the act.

Well, I can’t wait.  It’s the only sport that I love enough to record every episode with anticipation.  I don’t even know or care who played in the Superbowl, or when the last World Series was televised, but I’ve been waiting 3 years for my Curling!

Verizon cable is thankfully broadcasting a lot of curling this year, starting on Feb 16, 2010 with USA vs Germany.  Verizon is even covering men’s and women’s events separately.

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I was honored to be asked to do some vinyl record reviews for a seller/website www.lprevival.com. This weekend, I made a couple videos and when they’re finished and posted to youtube I’ll link to them here. Meanwhile, check out www.lprevival.com!

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A phosphorus inked vinyl record, and the needle replaced by an LED emitter, the record actually displays current news headlines in the ink and it fades away to  be written again and again.

Check it out:

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I have simultaneous batches of an original recipe of honey mead (recipe consisting of a bunch-load of clover honey from Walmart, some tea, cloves, and water), and a California Cabernet Sauvignon bubbling nicely in their respective fermenters.  I made the mead before I left for 6 months, and it didn’t finish fermenting, so after six-months in the keg sitting on gas, I poured it into a primary and added champagne yeast and a bit of yeast nutrient and it’s off, cooking like a beast.

The Cabernet is smelling up that whole corner of the house.  Man making wine is super super easy compared to beer and even mead.  It’s just sterilize, pour, pitch yeast and cover.  And, the best part is that at the end of a month I’ll have wine at 2.00 a bottle that costs 25.00 and up at the store.  Yay!

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