Triple box sets for Animal Collective and Magnetic Fields

For those who have perhaps missed this opportunity still sign up to the catsup plate newsletter to score Animal Collective's live LP releast "Animal Crack Box"

The triple lp contains an assortment of live tracks spanning their career carefully selected by the band and limited to 1000 copies.



The second release is the wonderful "69 Love Songs" by The Magnetic Fields. Never before released on vinyl it will be available on 6 x 10" via vinyl collective. (I always find the notion of multiple 10"s a little absurd however)

This has been long overdue for vinyl and has been on vinyl afficianodos "must have on vinyl" lists for years

Record Store Day

Matador has unveiled 3 limited edition 7" singles(2500 of each) in celebration of Record Store Day!

In honor the 2nd annual Record Store Day, we’ll be releasing the following limited edition vinyl titles, only available at independent retailers taking part in RSD.

OLE-864-7 Jay Reatard “Hang Them All” 7″ b/w Sonic Youth - “No Garage”
OLE-865-7 Sonic Youth - “Pay No Mind” (Beck cover) b/w Beck - “Green Light” (Sonic Youth cover) 7″
OLE-855-1 Pavement Live In Germany LP

Sounds interesting!

Direct Metal Mastering and Animal Collective

So Fat Cat have reissued Sung Tongs and Feels on vinyl again but with a new version which is meant to be far superior supposedly, the new reissue features Direct Metal Mastering.

This sounds like a clever marketing ploy by Fat Cat to reissue this album on vinyl again to would-be collectors and old collectors as well but the question begs is this "remaster" any better than the original? I'd have to purchase a 2nd copy of these albums to find out. A description of the new mastering below:

Direct Metal Mastering uses the most advanced technology in vinyl manufacturing.
The groove is cut directly in copper metal. Transient response is greatly improved. DMM yields better detail resolution and a lower noise ratio. remastered direct from the original master and pressed on heavy weight 180g vinyl audiophile discs. This release is strictly limited to 1000 copies and housed in a plastic wallet. Mastered at Abbey road studios and pressed by portal space records. This is your chance to pick up classic Fatcat records albums in the most lavish vinyl format available.

For the first time in limited edition 180g DMM vinyl, ‘Sung Tongs’ is a dazzling, bold and adventurous pop album. Diverse in its scope and yet fully coherent, the album moves from chiming acoustic guitar songs to gentler, more dispersed picked ballads, to sprawling, guitar-swell psychedelics, bubbling, acid-warped vocal fx, and tribal, almost shamanic trance-outs based around looping vocals and hypnotic kick-pulses.

Now i love vinyl as much as anyone but i doubt the untrained ear would be able to tell any difference, if anyone has both copies let me know!

Elliott Smith Vinyl reissues "XO" and "Figure 8"

Elliott Smith's previous album releases XO and the Figure 8 LP have been reissued by Plain who are known for seeing the reissue of albums by My Bloody Valentine and Flaming Lips in the past.

The two albums were out of print for several years on-the-now defunct Bong Load label and were in high demand on ebay. The reissue has a limited "colour version", although it may be already hard to locate in some stores.

Roman Candle is still yet to be reissued by Domino and is the only full length vinyl record that is still unaccessible by mailorder.

How much is your record worth?

Sometimes you might check ebay and not find a price for a record you want or you have..

The answer might be here.

Mind you popsike only notes records when they sell for over a certain price, so they may well sell for cheaper!

Half vinyl, half CD, all new format

From The Guardian


Rock band Fightstar is releasing its next single on a disc that is vinyl on one side and a CD on the other. Its record company Gut admits the vinyl-disc is a gimmick but hopes it will capture fans' imagination.

Maybe this will be the compromise to keep everyone happy? Frankly im not interested..

Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin

Wired reports:

"For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release," said Matador's Patrick Amory. "The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music."

I will always love vinyl and i agree with Patrick. Although if i ever moved overseas it could be somewhat of a hassle moving them all around, the price you pay for being a purist i guess!

Warped records no more!

Its a vinyl collector's nightmare and a problem that has seen many people searching for solutions:

"How do i flatten a warped record?"

Well if you have some spare coin this device might be the one for you!




Furutech DFV-1 LP Flattener

Every vinyl enthusiast has records in their collection, or come across LPs they’d love to own, but were just too warped for any cartridge/arm to track. The DFV-1 the one-stop, one-button solution to your problems! The DFV-1 provides controlled-heat perfect flattening for all your warped records, even those with only slight irregularities just enough to unsettle your cartridge and cause mistracking.

Like most people who collect records, out next pay check is going to more records so some other less costly solutions could be:

• A pile of books (take the record out of the sleeve first of course)
• An oven (dont bake it for too long!)
• The Sun and two plates of glass (thank you mother nature)

My Morning Jacket issue album on vinyl

My Morning Jacket have had their Chocolate and Ice album released on vinyl as a one-time pressing,

you can get it here.



It looks quite chocolatey!

The Picture Disc

With the apparent "vinyl revival" its become quit common for artists to release a normal(black) vinyl version and an "alternate" picture disc version which is always limited to appeal to the avid fan.

I like the appeal of picture discs, usually they look quite aesthetically pleasing, though there is debate whether they hold the same fidelity as a standard vinyl release.

Available for preorder from jens lekman's own official site right now is Night Falls Over Kortedala


Bloc Party have followed up their latest album again on picture disc "A Weekend In The City" is a must have for a Bloc Party completest.

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The Decemberists Vinyl Discography

I posted this complied collection of the Decemberists vinyl discography over at the Decemberist's forum.
I'm not sure if people have this information, i'm also confirming this information for all you decemberist collectors and vinyl aficianados.

Pressing info of all releases:

"Castaways and Cutouts" LP (Jealous Butcher/Hush)
2000 total:
300 on sea green
1700 on black

"Her Majesty" LP (Jealous Butcher)
1523 total:
1st press - 523 total with silk screened covers , numbered
200 on white
323 on black
2nd press- 1000 total copies
200 on red
800 on black

"The Tain/5 Songs" 12inch (Jealous Butcher/Hush) 2 EPs on one 12" record. 1 on each side. 2000 total:
300 on grey swirl vinyl
1700 on black

"Billy Liar" 7" (Jealous Butcher)
1000 total:
1st press- 500 total
200 on white
300 on black
2nd press- 500 total
200 on red
300 on black

"Picaresque" 2 x LP (Jealous Butcher)
???? total:
500 on maroon and navy blue

feel free to correct this if there is any discrepancies. Of course there are test presses as well, but these are somewhat intangible.

St Ives records

Saint Ives is owned by Secretely Canadian. Its a DIY subsidiary label that gives indie bands the opportunity to release handmade records.

Saint ives records discography:

SAINT01 - Microphones - Blood LP limited to 300
SAINT02 - tba
SAINT03 -Microphones - Little Bird Flies into a Big Black Cloud limited to 400
SAINT04 -Animal collective - forest children limited to 300
SAINT05 - Impossible Shapes - The The Current LP limited to 350
SAINT06 -Mirah and ginger – songs from the black mountain music project limited to 400
SAINT07 - Scenic - The Long Sun 10” limited to 200
SAINT08 - Fruit bats - tragedy + time = fruit bats limited to 400
SAINT09 - John Wilkes Booze - The Heliocentric Views of the John Wilkes Booze Pts. 1 & 2 limited to 300
SAINT10 - Thousand Arrows - When I Go" 7”
SAINT11 -Sound team – marathon lp
SAINT12 - Impossible Shapes - The Tum LP limited to 300

Most records are made available through a handful of mailorders, mainly www.scdistribution.com and if you have the opportunity to catch one of these bands on tour. Most of these records are out of print and your best bet to find these records now would be on ebay.

Out Of Print Obituaries

I've been trying to compile a discography of St ives records releases ill post this once someone from Secretly Canadian contacts me to complete the discography for this diy label.

I've been following mt eerie/microphones and woelv's(phil's wife) discography, which is almost impossible to follow. I can still follow woelv's discography since she has only released the one LP under her name Genevieve Castree which is titled Pamplemoussi(limited to 800).

Records which she will be releasing in the future as stated from www.pwelverumandsun.com will be 2 splits with mt eerie:

Danish 7inch “O My Heart/Le Bébé Canard Noir” split with Woelv and Mt Eerie
American 7inch “O My Heart/Le Bébé Canard Noir” split with Woelv and Mt Eerie, except with the singers of each band switched.

Deerhoof have released a limited 7" of 333 at http://spockmorgue.com/ which will probably be ebay gold in the future. How popular is Deerhoof? I'm not sure. Apparantly Reveille was repressed and will be available at krs mailorder in April.

In other news, ive done some fairly extensive research into all Sigur Ros vinyl that was ever released. Von brigdi, which is Sigur Ros's most sort after vinyl release, or perhaps release across all media had 100 copies pressed on green vinyl. It was a 4 track promo which was made by the record store Smekkleysa, where friends and family probably snapped most of these up. So all eyes turn to ebay for any further luck.

Dismemberment Plan on vinyl

This is my first entry obviously and i feel the need to address this in my opening sentence.

The Dismemberment Plan never released any full length albums on vinyl, although they did release 3 7"s, one of which was a split with the band Juno.

Dismemberment Plan - Can We Be Mature 7" on alcove
Dismemberment Plan/Juno split 7" on bcore
Dismeberment Plan - What Do You Want Me To Say? 7" on DeSoto

As for the possibility of a future release of the full length LP s Emergency and I and Change onto vinyl in the future i received a response from DeSoto via email:

The Plan themselves were never particularly interested in doing vinyl so we didn't. I wish I could consider it, but I can barely keep up with the current DeSoto work right now. Sorry...I know it's frustrating for the vinyl aficionados out there.

Apparantly there was a bootleg LP of Emergency and I made in Japan out of 70. The details of this are limited but "It had a plain black cover that says "d-plan" embossed in white, plain black labels on black vinyl".

I have located copies of what do you want me to say 7" in a distro as for the full length releases we can only hope and wonder something may happen in the future.