Vinylcast

Goodbye George Carlin, you’ll be sorely missed. It’s because of you that we had to have the Supreme Court rule against expletive content on public broadcasts. That’s something to be proud of, in my opinion.

Well, someone is bound to cash in. I wonder how long this guy held on to the album waiting for Carlin to pass. He appears to be cashing in, selling this album for a starting bid of 140.00.

I’m not saying he’s a jerk or anything, it’s great that he has the record and if it’s worth the price, why not, I mean, George Carlin made the recording to make money in the first place. The album looks legit, I’d really be pissed if it looked like a fake, but this could go into someone’s collection really nice-like. Look how young he is…

He didn’t put as much of a discription as I would have liked… the album is from 1963, not actually recorded at a Playboy Club and was recorded in 1960 but not released until 1963. This was also a duo, not a split release, as the Two Georges performed together from 1960 to 1962.

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Some unknown guy in Russia put up an ebay auction, listing his incredible Iron Maiden record collection.  This has to be the most amazing single artist collection I’ve seen!

I’ve seen some limited genre collections, mostly a lot of punk fans that have mostly punk albums. But this guy has a collection of Iron Maiden albums that look as big as some people’s whole collections! He’s selling it piece by piece, starting with 7”s and singles.

There must be some doubles in here, but from the looks of it, I’ll bet there are 300 Maiden records all in one place.  I wonder if he collects any other band’s records, or are they all just Maiden?

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This Hendrix album, supposedly the Star Spangled Banner with stars cut directly into the blue vinyl looks neat, but is it really worth $150.00? I haven’t seen this before, and my first guess is that its not manufactured by an authorized distributer.

This Bob Dylan album, Free Wheelin record, the mono and stereo versions were released in 1963 and are prized by collectors. They contain four extra songs which were deleted from subsequent pressings. The stereo version, in excellent condition has sold for $25,000 at auction, and contains the “missing” extra tracks printed on the cover. The mono version can sell for $12,000 and does not list the extra tracks.

The holy grail is the album that has the retracted tracks listed on the album, and the inner sticker, and also plays them – there are only 2 known to exist (that’s the one sold for $25,000). There are many many variations that exist of this album, some that list the retracted songs but play the replaced songs. The only way to know if this is worth the $5,000 asking price is to look up all the serial numbers, check the inner vinyl sticker color, and looking at the width of the tracks on the actual album, determine that the album contains the correct songs in the correct order. Otherwise a person could really get screwed out of $5,000 (and this guy could just go to Christy’s and sell it for himself???) Also note that he doesn’t really give a good high quality picture of the album sleeve, or the actual vinyl at all, or any serial numbers. Also, the description is very short.

The seller has zero feedback, zero other albums, spells Jimi Hendrix incorrectly, and became an Ebay member 7 days ago. A lot to chance for $5,000!

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Release July 8, 2008, The Lost Tracks of Danzig – Limited edition colored vinyl. The songs are never before released, some abandoned by Danzig, and released in chronological order. It also contains a 10 page booklet with a forward written by Danzig and an anticdote about each song.

Release July 8, 2008, Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendon Canning - I have to admit, this is a nice marketing ploy. Give us the original, awesome album by Keven Drew, then slowly release breakouts by the other artists. Get us in, then stock the pond. Brendon Canning is a songwriter and founding member of Broken Social Scene.

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Source From Here

Bands may be loosing money by pressing vinyl:

And thanks to higher fuel prices (oil is used to manufacture plastic vinyl, and LPs are shipped by truck) and the scarcity of pressing plants, an LP can cost as much as $4.50 per unit to manufacture, compared to roughly a dollar for a CD. “There are still reasons not to do vinyl,” says Mac McCaughan of Merge Records, which has seen an increase in sales of vinyl releases by Arcade Fire and Spoon. “It’s more expensive, it’s more complicated, it takes longer. We try not to lose money, but we probably are.”

A bit on the sound:

Also abetting vinyl’s homecoming is a growing disillusionment with CD and MP3 sound. The CD has long been known for its clean but overly bright (sometimes grating) audio. “With vinyl, the range is from accurate to warmer” when it comes to reproducing the original source material, says renowned mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who has worked with everyone from Springsteen to Nirvana. “With digital, it’s totally the opposite: accurate to brighter. The brightness in the digital domain is a sound our ears don’t seem to like that much, whereas people don’t seem to be bothered by the slight loss of top-end you might get with vinyl.” (Ludwig, like others, does separate mastering sessions for CDs and LPs.) The compressed audio heard in MP3s has only exacerbated the trend in audio degradation. “It’s taking 90 percent of the music and basically throwing it out,” says Ludwig. “It takes the bad part of digital and makes it even worse.”

From the bands:

When the Doors’ Ray Manzarek listened to recent high-grade reissues of the band’s original studio albums, he was stunned. “On ‘Light My Fire,’ the guitar and organ solos are like, ‘Yeah, that’s it — that’s the way they’re supposed to sound,’” Manzarek says. “Vinyl has a warmth and crispness without the edginess of CD.”

Before releasing Consolers, the Raconteurs announced that they “recommend hearing it on vinyl.”

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So I got the new Kill ‘Em All album mastered at half speed, on 180g vinyl. This is my first experience with anything mastered at half speed, except for some “single song” 7 inches on 45 rpm that I have of Tears for Fears and maybe a couple other 80s bands.

This is considered an “audiophile pressing”, so that means they apparently took some extra care mastering it from the original tapes. I can hear some things I never heard before, and I listened to this album A LOT. But, it also seems to lack in the bottom end and be overly loud in the upper end. Overall, its very clear, and definitely different than I ever heard it before, on CD and cassette, but I want to turn it down when the vocals come in or a solo, and turn it up when there’s only guitar/bass/drums going on.

Mastered at half speed – almost like mating at “half-breed”, allows the nuances in at the mastering process. Cutting the master lacquer at half speed in theory allows more of the little things in, rather than at the same speed as the recording. Plus, the needle won’t jump out of the deeper groove as easy and allows for the mastering engineer to cut a “louder” record.

It was expensive, more than I’d pay for most vinyl at 35.00 for a single record. It didn’t come with anything “extra”, but it is in pristine condition. There are two songs per side… well maybe two to three, but the songs look huge, like I’d be listening to this all day.

Ironically I wanted to see what it’d sound like at 33 rpm, and MAN THIS RULES! It no longer cuts into my ears, it sounds METAL. I think I like it just as good that way too, it’s like I bought two albums – the original and a cover by some killer death band.

Anyway, its a classic, and I’m hearing it like never before. If you play it on 45 rpm, just don’t turn it up, if you play it on 33, crank it!

Now that I have Kill ‘Em All, I’m SURE to buy Master of Puppets, because it’s like adopting the sister without the brother! In the end, don’t buy this album, it’s mastered with too much treble, too loud, and comes with a treble ear knife that’s sure to waste your ears way too soon. Or, buy it, play it on 33 rpm and love the cover of one of Metallica’s greatist albums.

P.S. Yes, those pictures are in front of my collection

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NPR audio about the recent vinyl resurgence.

Producer talks about crappy sound quality from CD’s.

An exerpt from this Rolling Stone Article, The Death of High-Fidelity:

Rock and pop producers have always used compression to balance the sounds of different instruments and to make music sound more exciting, and radio stations apply compression for technical reasons. In the days of vinyl records, there was a physical limit to how high the bass levels could go before the needle skipped a groove. CDs can handle higher levels of loudness, although they, too, have a limit that engineers call “digital zero dB,” above which sounds begin to distort. Pop albums rarely got close to the zero-dB mark until the mid-1990s, when digital compressors and limiters, which cut off the peaks of sound waves, made it easier to manipulate loudness levels. Intensely compressed albums like Oasis’ 1995 (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? set a new bar for loudness; the songs were well-suited for bars, cars and other noisy environments. “In the Seventies and Eighties, you were expected to pay attention,” says Matt Serletic, the former chief executive of Virgin Records USA, who also produced albums by Matchbox Twenty and Collective Soul. “Modern music should be able to get your attention.” Adds Rob Cavallo, who produced Green Day’s American Idiot and My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade, “It’s a style that started post-grunge, to get that intensity. The idea was to slam someone’s face against the wall. You can set your CD to stun.”

To an average listener, a wide dynamic range creates a sense of spaciousness and makes it easier to pick out individual instruments — as you can hear on recent albums such as Dylan’s Modern Times and Norah Jones’ Not Too Late. “When people have the courage and the vision to do a record that way, it sets them apart,” says Joe Boyd, who produced albums by Richard Thompson and R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction. “It sounds warm, it sounds three-dimensional, it sounds different. Analog sound to me is more emotionally affecting.”

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The Traveling Wilburys – Collection: If you haven’t seen the new Wilburys reissue vinyl, you’re missing out.  Released on 180g vinyl, cut at half-speed, contains every song recorded by the Wilburys and includes a bonus track disc as well as vintage postcards and posters.  This album will climb in price for sure.  George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan made The Traveling Wilburys and you just can’t beat that lineup with a stick.

Steely Dan – Aja On 180 Gram Vinyl mastered by Kevin Grey from the original analog tapes, and authorized, overseen and approved by Donald Fagen and original audio engineer Elliot Scheiner.  One of my favorite albums, this one is about too good to pass up!

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison On 180 gram German Vinyl.  At this rate I could just spend a fortune on 180g vinyl!  Cash at Folsom was a truly amazing recording and performance.

Jethro Tull’s epic album Aqualung on 180g vinyl repressed from the original tapes.

Muddy Waters The Lost Tapes On 180g, this recording takes place in 1971, and contains some of the Muddy Waters standards.  Muddy was one of my favorite guitarists, I’m glad to see this released.

Jakob Dylan Seeing Things On 180g Vinyl LP + MP3 Download, Jakob doesn’t like to be called “Bob’s son”, but I really liked his first release, I haven’t heard this yet.

Now the new releases…

Release August 19, 2008 – Radiohead OK Computer On 2 x 180g Vinyl LP Set 2008 Limited-Edition.  OK Computer showed the artistic side of the amazing band.

Release August 19, 2008 – Jimi Hendrix Band Of Gypsys On 180g Vinyl LP 2008 Limited-Edition Capitol Records 180g Vinyl.  I know you already have the old version, but here’s a chance to get a virgin copy on 180g vinyl!  If you don’t have the original, you NEED it!  Hendrix feels free to jam unabashed on this album, since he released the white dudes with afros in favor of some old army buddies.

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Releasing June 10, 2008 Bauhaus In The Flat Field on 180g Vinyl. Remastered from the original analog tapes and jacketed in 350g double white heavy board. The first studio album by Bauhaus, an awesome addition to any audiophile collection, or just any old collection of vinyl (like mine).

Releasing July 8, 2008, Cream Disraeli Gears on 180g vinyl. I’ve sure listened to this album a thousand times. What a great and arguably best supergroup ever. This album is also arguably the best Cream album.

Releasing July 8, 2008, Both Jimi Hendrix albums Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love will be issued on 180g vinyl. Axis was arguably Hendrix’s best album, and I’ve heard it so many times, maybe listening to Experienced again would be nice. Both albums are a must in any serious collection.

Releasing June 10, 2008, The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath, Volta’s new concept album which is possibly cursed, or the result of a curse. If you’re like me and don’t believe in curses, or blessings for that matter, it still sounds like a great topic for a concept album. Check out the wiki for more information about the curse and the background behind it. That aside, this is supposedly a return to more of the De-Loused in the Comatorium type, which is welcome to me, I got put off by the experimental releases following that album. I’m sure to pick this one up. When Mars Volta is on, they’re extremely on.

Releasing June 24, 2008, MC5: Anthology 1965-1971, on 3 vinyl record set. I’m usually not one for anthologies, or best of’s, but I may have to grab this one. MC5, enough said.

Releasing July 15, 2008, Metallica Master of Puppets, on 180g vinyl. I listened to this until the cassette wore out. This album was almost a soundtrack to my life at the time. I think I’ll likely grab this one. What an amazing album.

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