LET ME RUN “Meet Me At The Bottom” LP clear w/ black/gold splatter vinyl
LET ME RUN “Meet Me At The Bottom” LP red vinyl
LET ME RUN “Meet Me At The Bottom” LP set of both colors

Formed in the summer of 2007, Let Me Run has captured a sound and a feeling that has struck a chord with a large audience in a short amount of time. Hailing from New Brunswick, NJ, members Travis, Corey, Louis, and Trevor make up a hard-working-hard-rocking band who keep it simple. Drawing influences from bands such as Hot Water Music, Polar Bear Club, and Elliot… Let Me Run has a lot on their plate with no signs of backing down. This is their debut release Meet Me At The Bottom, a collection of honest, eclectic sounds that stays true to their punk rock roots. In other words, imagine yourself drunk as fuck flying a fighter jet through the Grand Canyon at one billion miles an hour with a bear. That is how let me run lives every second, every day. Party invincible.

brokengold

BROKEN GOLD “S/T” 7″ clear yellow w/ blue splatter vinyl

Our good friends at Good Friends Records (an members of Fake Problems) are stoked to be putting out this project from Riverboat Gamblers members, Broken Gold. If I werent’ so busy, I could tell you how the 7″ sounds, can someone chime in and tell me what everyone thinks of these guys? Riverboat Gamblers are rad.

new_frontiers

THE NEW FRONTIERS “Mending” LP solid brown vinyl
THE NEW FRONTIERS “Mending” LP brown/white marble vinyl

Our friend at Vinyl Summer recently released the New Frontiers’ album, “Mending”. I really like this record a lot and was originally offered the opportunity to put it out (don’t tell Jessica). At the time, I didn’t think I liked the record, but as songs popped up on my random playlists, I would look and every time it was a New Frontiers song. This is a great record and glad to have it on wax. The pressing run is out of 500 copies split between the 2 variants you see above. The jackets are silk-screened with hand-stitching.

DETROIT COBRAS “Mega-Soul Grooves” 7″

For all you jukebox hounds who have been complaining about the profound lack of rump-shaking soul available from our Detroit heroes, your wishes have been answered. Stag-O-Lee Records in Germany pressed up 1000 of these babies with two of the Cobras’ TOP SHELF party songs unearthed from Detroit’s historic R&B past.

2 previously released tracks on a limited edition import.

Got in a few restocks over the past week including some of Whoa Ohs final copies of the Ergs/Lemuria,Grand Prixx, Triple Bypass. We got in some Byo records stuff including a bunch of the splits and the very good One Man Army album. We got in some Frank Turner, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, and more.

ACADEMY FIGHT SONG “Don’t Break Vedge” black SHIRT large
ACADEMY FIGHT SONG “Don’t Break Vedge” black SHIRT medium
ALKALINE TRIO/ ONE MAN ARMY split LP
ANTI FLAG/ BOUNCING SOULS split LP clear vinyl
ANTI FLAG/ BOUNCING SOULS split LP purple vinyl
FRANK TURNER “Campfire Punkrock” 10″ yellow vinyl
LAST LIGHTS “S/T” 7″ clear yellow vinyl
LEATHERFACE “Horsebox” LP
LEATHERFACE / HOT WATER MUSIC split LP blue grey vinyl
MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON “S/T” 180 gram LP
NOFX/ RANCID split LP
ONE MAN ARMY “Rumors And Headlines” LP
RANCID/ NOFX split LP
THE ERGS!/ LEMURIA split 7″ black vinyl
THE ERGS!/ LEMURIA split 7″ orange vinyl
THE GRAND PRIXX/ THE PROTEENS “Wicked Split” 7″ black vinyl
TRIPLE BYPASS “Memories We Never Had” 7″ red vinyl

Since we took a few weeks off from announcing winners, here is a test pressing winners’ extravaganza. Congrats to all you winners. Everyone else, your time will come. For a current list of Test Pressing Contests and a list of past winners, click here.

Nigel Wood - DILLINGER FOUR “Vs God” LP
Daniel Carbajal - DILLINGER FOUR “Midwestern Songs Of The Americas”
Patrick Helms - TAKERS “Curse of a Drunk” 7″
Shawn Lang - V/A “Delicious Vinyl: Fest 08″ LP
Aaron Brooks - WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2″ 7″
Aaron Miller - MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY! Under the Influence Vol 3 7″
Andrew Sherlock - FAKE PROBLEMS / LOOK MEXICO “Under the Influence Vol 1″ 7″
Nathan Curry - LOOK MEXICO “Gasp Asp” 7″
Antonio Bellanich - THE BANNER “Frailty” LP
David Hawkins - ANCHOR ARMS “Cold Blooded” LP
Zachary Cosby - SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY “Intervals” LP
Zach Pierson - HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW Turtle Nipple & the Toxic Shock LP
David Parris - SONIC BOOM SIX “Ruff Guide to Genre Terrorism” LP
Dylan Davey - TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET “Another Way” LP

Since there is so much going on around here (as usual), I figured I would put together a quick update of things to expect this week from your friends at Vinyl Collective.

  • We will be posting a pre-order for the 11 song debut album by Let Me Run, “Meet me at the Bottom” at 2pm today (4pm eastern, 1pm pacific). There are 2 colors of wax and Devildance have been so kind to give us a test pressing. Check out a few songs now and see what you think.
  • We will post the pre-order for the repress of Joey Cape’s Bridge on Thursday. There will be 2 colors (1 is gonna be a Hot Topic Exclusive), but we will be offering some of them for those of you who might not be able to find their way into a Hot Topic. The jackets for the repress will have the correct track listing which was incorrect on the first press.
  • Either today or tomorrow, we will be posting the vinyl for the New Frontiers and Broken Gold (members of Riverboat Gamblers). The New Frontiers’ jackets are silk-screened and the jackets are sewn. The Broken Gold 7″s look really sharp.
  • Next week, we will be posting pre-orders for Stereotyperider’s brand new album, “Songs in the Keys of F and U”. We will also be posting pre-orders for 2 Drag the River 7″s, a Drag the River collection CD, and Jon Snodgrass’ debut album, “Visitor’s Band”. Be very stoked, all are super fantastic. There will be deluxe sets, pint glasses, shirts, etc. I will give more detailed info either later this week or early next week.
  • Many of the Teenage Bottlerocket/Ergs under the influence 7″s have been shipped. More will ship today. Expect news of the next few Under the Influence volumes soon.
  • I will soon be posting pre-orders for a new Bon Iver, Murder City Devils’ represses, a Detroit Cobras’ 7″, and we will soon be getting in new records from Kanye West, Clouds, GNR Appetite for Destruction repress, and lots more.
  • We are talking to the Builder and the Butchers about maybe doing an EP. The band features an ex-member of Portugal the Man and will soon be touring with Murder by Death. What do you guys think?

I think that is it for now, but we are working on a lot of stuff. We also have been enjoying new recordings by Austin Lucas, In the Red, Jon Snodgrass, and Drag the River. So much good music in 2009 already!

apron

bracelet

Not content with the haters hating our pint glasses, coozies, and shotgunators, we figured we would really stir up some shit with these Aprons, Bracelets, and Notebooks. The Aprons are great for those of you who want to share their love of vinyl while cooking that kick ass feast. The Bracelets are really limited in number and come from the “scraps” of the damaged vinyl that made Notebooks during the holidays. I am sure you can figure otu which records that most of them come from. And Brandon made 3 more notebooks (more to come!). Get em while you can.

Delicious Vinyl Collective APRON
Vinyl BRACELET lavender hand made
Vinyl BRACELET orange hand made
Vinyl BRACELET orange/white hand made
Vinyl BRACELET gold hand made
Vinyl BRACELET pink hand made
Vinyl BRACELET clear/gold hand made
Vinyl BRACELET grayish purple hand made
Vinyl BRACELET clear/rainbow hand made
THE PIXIES “Come On Pilgrim” black vinyl NOTEBOOK
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “Sink Or Swim” green marble vinyl NOTEBOOK
MINUS THE BEAR “Beer Commercials” fruity pebbles vinyl NOTEBOOK

Joey Cape and Jon Snodgrass are looking for people to sell merch at their upcoming U.S. shows below.
They need a local person at each show. They can offer 2 tickets, a CD and a T Shirt.
If you are interested hit them up with your email, phone number and the city at www.myspace.com/joeycape

And if you post in our comments or on our message board that you are interested and I know you, I will put in a good word with Joey. Regardless if you can help out, here are their upcoming U.S. dates. Don’t miss em as it is uncertain when Joey and Jon will be playing together in these towns.

Joey Cape and Jon Snodgrass upcoming tour (and Drag the River on some of the dates)

Friday January 9th Tampa, Florida at Cuban Club Cigar City (Drag the River)
Saturday January 10th Gainsville, Florida at Common Grounds (Drag the River)
Thursday February 5th Bremerton, Washington at Winterland
Friday February 6th Seattle, Washington at King Cobra
Saturday February 7th Portland, Oregon at Dante’s
Tuesday February 10 Sacramento, California at Luna’s
Wednesday February 11 San Francisco, California at The Parkside (Drag the River)
Thursday February 12 San Luis Obispo, California at Downtown Brewery (Drag the River)
Friday February 13 Glendale, California at The Scene Bar (Drag the River)
Saturday February 14 Lake Forrest, California at Gypsy Lounge (Drag the River)
Sunday February 15th San Diego, California at Casbah
Tuesday February 17th Hollywood, California at The Knitting Factory

Punknews.org’s editors all posted their tops of 2008 and many of them had discussions about the year that just passed. One editor, Justin, in his 2008 Year in Review said the following in his thoughts on the Vinyl Bubble:

I mean really — if you’re into buying it for the money, sell high, quick. Pressing eight colors and packaging them as a deal with a pint glass, beer stein and a bottle opener is quickly killing the joy of collecting. I’ve fallen prey to it myself — who wants a copy of the Falcon 10″? — and can see how it’s taking away the joy of actually finding rare vinyl. The Vinyl Collective approach has commoditized and ran into the ground the concept of colored vinyl. If you’re shopping for wall decorations it’s a nice, cheap way to get some pretty colored disks — but if you’re wanting to own a piece of history (in my eye, the purpose of “rare” vinyl), you’re just buying the Wal-Mart version of it. Sorry Virgil, this is no offense to you and I know you love what you do, but this isn’t fun anymore — it’s just tedious.

To be clear, I’m very pro- the institution of vinyl and colored vinyl as a special thing. What I take issue with is taking the fun, the danger and the hunt out of finding those rare pieces of wax — leading people to buy still-in-print 7″’s for 10 times the cost on eBay! I think everyone can agree that shit like that is ridiculous.

I had read it and hadn’t really thought about writing a response until I saw that our message board had over 130 comments about Justin’s Vinyl Bubble piece. Let me start by saying as Justin had mentioned, we are friends and I respect and value his opinions. Here is my take on what he had to say breaking up his Vinyl Bubble piece in segments:

I mean really — if you’re into buying it for the money, sell high, quick.
I agree. If you are into selling records for money, sell high, sell quick.

Pressing eight colors and packaging them as a deal with a pint glass, beer stein and a bottle opener is quickly killing the joy of collecting.
We have only pressed 8 colors of only 1 record (Minus the Bear’s Planet of Ice and that was over 3 pressings over a 2 years). In the past, we had pressed 4 colors of a record on a single pressing (Poison the Well’s Versions) and after doing so, I realized that was a bit excessive. Vinyl Collective is still relatively young and over the few short years, we have done quite a bit of experimenting. If you noticed, our releases generally are pressed on 2 different colors upon initial pressing.

Yes, there are labels that have pressed certain records on 8 or more colors. Sure, we carry some of those records. As a retailer, that is what we do.

With our deluxe sets, we have combined our love of music with our love of beer and have made packages with a pint glass, a coozie, a shirt, a cd, and vinyl. We have never, let me repeat never packaged 8 records in a deluxe set. No one is forced to pick up these sets and if anything, it allows a fan of one of our artists to get other collectibles. I noticed that a few people mentioned that they woulld prefer to have only 1 copy of the vinyl in our deluxe sets and maybe, we will do that in the future. We hardly invented the concept of merchandising and for the purchasers of those sets, we have received nothing but favorable comments. And with every deluxe set, you can pick up the vinyl separately. No one has been “forced” to buy limited pressings by buying into one of our deluxe sets.

Commenting on our bottle openers, we actually call them Shotgunators. Yes, they open bottles but more importantly they have made the world a better place to live. If making the act of shotgunning a beer easier is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Maybe Justin doesn’t like shotgunning beers.

I’ve fallen prey to it myself — who wants a copy of the Falcon 10″? — and can see how it’s taking away the joy of actually finding rare vinyl. The Vinyl Collective approach has commoditized and ran into the ground the concept of colored vinyl.
I think following up your complaint of our deluxe sets and of pressing 8 colors of vinyl and then giving the example of the Falcon 10″ is probably the worst example you could give. Only 1,000 copies were pressed of this 10″ and this release marks the first for our Vinyl Cooperative label, a really unique concept for a vinyl imprint. The unit holders nominate and vote on releases they would love to see pressed. I can’t imagine more joy coming from collecting than being a part of this cooperative. And when this record is sold out, it will never be pressed again.

I also do not agree with your use of commoditized with regards to Vinyl Collective. A commodity exists when items with no differentiation are sold across a market. So much love and care goes into every release we put out and we pay particular attention making each pressing special. And in the event that we repress a record, we do so because there are folks out there who still want a copy of the album on vinyl and when our bands tour, we want them to have something on their merch table that they are likely to be able to sell. We repress records on new colors to distinguish each pressing from another.

I think your complaint has more to do with how easy we have made it for people to get limited edition pressings and colors, but no one has forced you to spend your money with us. If you are looking for the thrill of the hunt, you can continue to find those hard to find records at mom and pop record stores across the land. I think that most of our customers not only buy from us, but they buy from their favorite record stores, and they also take advantage of all the great online resources to trade for records they don’t have.

The internet has changed the way we do so many things. I remember quite a few years back having to read about Punk News in the many print zines out there and until sites like Punkbands, Punknews, and Pastepunk came along, there really wasn’t an easy way to get the latest music news. I feel that Vinyl Collective has done for vinyl fans what Punknews has done for music fans. We provide an option for vinyl collectors to purchase, trade, and have a forum for discussion on most things vinyl.

If you’re shopping for wall decorations it’s a nice, cheap way to get some pretty colored disks — but if you’re wanting to own a piece of history (in my eye, the purpose of “rare” vinyl), you’re just buying the Wal-Mart version of it. Sorry Virgil, this is no offense to you and I know you love what you do, but this isn’t fun anymore — it’s just tedious.
I tried not to take offense to this comment, but I really can’t help but be bummed that you would compare us to anything close to Wal-Mart. If anything, I would think that a Punknews’ editor would celebrate the fact that a few of the good guys in independent music have been able to overcome some really tough times to find themselves having the best year of their career. I personally am having more fun running a label in 2008/2009 than at any point in our history. And the vinyl format has helped otherwise obscure indie labels like Asbestos, Team Science, Kiss of Death, and Underground Communique connect with bigger audiences for their bands and to be able to sell enough records to be able to finance pressing more releases. And being able to press more records from more bands creates more Punk News.

I agree that at times, pressings and repressings can be tedious. But those early pressings and even the represses are still a part of history. Sure, we get bummed out when certain customers care more about the pressing numbers than the way the album sounds, but we are glad that people care and we know that most of our collectors are really excited about music.

To be clear, I’m very pro- the institution of vinyl and colored vinyl as a special thing. What I take issue with is taking the fun, the danger and the hunt out of finding those rare pieces of wax — leading people to buy still-in-print 7″’s for 10 times the cost on eBay! I think everyone can agree that shit like that is ridiculous.
Not to toot our own horn, but I think we have inspired a lot of people to get excited about music again. I am not sure how much it has to do with Vinyl Collective, but I have noticed so many more people starting labels and pressing records. That, to me, is a good thing. I have found out about so much incredible music because of these newer labels and I think that vinyl has helped so many bands find audiences that they might not normally have. That, too, is a great thing.

Your point about Ebay, sure, we hate to see people spend 10 times the cost of a record on Ebay, but as long as people are willing to spend 10 times the cost, people are going to sell records for a profit. We hardly invented the concept of auctions and we realize that many of our customers buy records to resell. That’s the market we live in, but again no one is forced to pay those high prices. We always try to offer records as inexpensively as we can. We offer inexpensive shipping options. And one can argue that we repress records so that people are not forced into buying records for 10 times the cost as their only way to get an album on vinyl. And for those people who pay 10 times the cost of an in print record, that is just silly.

I realize that we can’t make everyone happy. We often try, but we know we can’t. With Vinyl Collective, we provide a retail destination for vinyl enthusiasts. I think we do a pretty good job, and  as I look back on the past few years, I still can’t believe we have been able to do all the things we have been able to do. With our help, albums that have never seen the light of day on vinyl have been pressed. We have created a community of vinyl collectors. We were able to move our business back from out of our house and into an office. And we are having a blast. I consider all of our customers our friends through music and I have more friends now than at any point in my life.

I almost forgot to thank Justin for including us in his post. It has created a lot of discussion about vinyl and vinyl collective. Thanks.

Next Page »