New vinyl

[jimac51]

With the music industry in the doldrums, how about resurrecting an abandoned format? This month,Rhino is bringing out ten reissued WEA titles on 180 gram vinyl,starting with three Grateful Dead titles and ,in May,Yes' 1971 "The Yes Album" and T.Rex' 1970 "Electric Warrior". These titles have been remastered with additional material on CD recently and the new vinyl versions will contain the bonus material,as well as mimicking the original album artwork. 2004 will see an additional 30 titles,not including an already released vinyl reissue of the Band's "The Last Waltz"(which did not contain the additional 2002 box set material)available via RhinoHandmade. Quoting Warner VP,Mark Pinku,"Nothing feels better in your hands than a beautiful 12X12 gatefold jacket,and nothing sounds better." In the immortal words of the Cowardly Lion,"Ain't it the truth." Even with the Foos Bros. out of the picture at Rhino,you gotta give them credit for this action. I would redirect you to www.rhino.com,but the press release is not on the website yet. Info is courtesy billboard.com. Here and there,vinyl rears its beautiful head-BMG pressed the new FooFighters on a double 10" set,as well as the White Stripes catalog and a collection of soul jazz from the Flying Dutchman holdings. Mac

 

[Rudy]

Several years ago, a lot of the alternative bands were putting LPs out. Pearl Jam even released theirs in advance of the CD release. I only bought one of them, Live's Throwing Copper (on the Radioactive label). I must say I still prefer the CD of this one, since the inner grooves (as with all LPs) is a little more distorted. But the first Garbage album was released by Almo Sounds as a double-LP set, and Nirvana's Nevermind was a MoFi release at one time.

A&M should reissue Joe Jackson's Look Sharp in that dual 10" format that I bought many years ago. Mine even had the wearable button you could remove from the cover.

 

[LPJim]

The most recent Garbage album, BEAUTIFUL GARBAGE, also came out as a 2-LP set on Almo/Interscope.
Back in 1994 A&M released Soundgarden's SUPERUNKNOWN as a 2-LP set with a bonus track not contained on the CD version, reversing the usual practice.
Pearl Jam on a couple of occasions had the vinyl version released a week or two ahead of the CD, a real boost for LP sales.
JB

 

[Rudy]

I think Pearl Jam's first vinyl pre-release was for their Vitology album, which had the song "Spin The Black Circle", an homage to the LP.

Going to go spin some vinyl now, in fact...once Pat Metheny's Secret Story is done on the CD player.

 

[Mr Bill]

A&M should reissue Joe Jackson's Look Sharp in that dual 10" format that I bought many years ago. Mine even had the wearable button you could remove from the cover.

Hehehee! Flashback to the early 80s! When I was a troublesome little Airman (that's the Navy equivalenmt of a Private) I wore that button on my uniform. THe best demonstration of how clueless my superiors were was when they'd yell at me about it I'd say it was from the Chief Of Naval Operations' new uniform appearance program "Look Sharp!" They'd buy it and leave me alone. Now as a superior I have to deal with subordiantes who.... wear buttons or have body piercings. Payback's a b!tch, they say!

--PH1(AW) Gowdy (aka Mr. Bill)

 

[Rudy]

Hey, I'm wondering if the original 12" LPs had that button also. I only ever owned the 2-10" set. I never wore the button, since I was afraid of losing it or damaging it. So it's safely in the jacket right now.

It would not be hard to have this kind of button duplicated. It's generic enough not to have the copyright gestapo coming down on me.

 

[Tim Neely]

With the music industry in the doldrums, how about resurrecting an abandoned format? This month,Rhino is bringing out ten reissued WEA titles on 180 gram vinyl,starting with three Grateful Dead titles and ,in May,Yes' 1971 "The Yes Album" and T.Rex' 1970 "Electric Warrior". These titles have been remastered with additional material on CD recently and the new vinyl versions will contain the bonus material,as well as mimicking the original album artwork.

I also understand that before the end of 2003, there will be new vinyl versions of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and Sweet Baby James by James Taylor.

 

[Rudy]

No vinyl for me for the next couple of weeks...I just popped the stylus on the Shure. No idea how, either! Good thing is, i can send the old one in to Shure and they'll exchange it for $50. Beats $160 for the replacement.

 

[Harry]

No vinyl for me for the next couple of weeks...I just popped the stylus on the Shure.

Ouch!

Gives new meaning to the term "needle-drop!"

Harry
...heading home, online...

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, I know...I've done it about four times over the past 18 years. Thing is, Shure never used to have this out-of-warranty exchange program. But hey, I'll have a brand new stylus out of the deal.

Using the old "beater" turntable now with a Dynavector DV10X3. Not my favorite cartridge, but I'm actually watching a couple of turntables on eBay right now and may move that cartridge to it. If I don't get another V15 cartridge. Best $229 a person can spend on a turntable.

 

[Mr Bill]

Hey, I'm wondering if the original 12" LPs had that button also.

Nope. There was also a 5-record 7" box of I'm The Man as well. It came with a poster. It was looking like A&M was going to do the same thing with The Police. Their Second LP, Regatta de Blanc, was also a double 10" (no button, sadly) but Outlandos d'Amour did not get the 5-record 7" treatment...

--Mr Bill
who also owns a 5" A&M vinyl single of Squeeze which doesn't look nearly as strange as it once did in these days of CDs...

 

[Rudy]

I almost bought that Reggatta 2-10" set even though I had the 12". Wasn't high priority since I already owned the standard version. (Were they stock A&M labels, or a custom?) I never got I'm The Man until the CD era (and only just recently...of course, mere months before the remastered version came out ). But while the 5-7" set would have been a great collectible (and I still wish I'd bought one), for playback it would have been a pain.

Maybe today they should issue albums on two 8cm CDs instead of the standard 12cm.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

OK, here's an idea I've had kicking around for a long time. Since this forum is read by several industry movers and shakers, maybe now's the time to reveal it.

My idea is...forget about the vinyl, but resurrect ALBUM COVERS. Put a coupon in with the CD, where you could send in 2 or 3 bucks and get back a 12x12, gatefold cover with lyrics, photos, etc. The sleeve could be partially glued closed so the CD would fit inside, if desired, without flopping around.

I would think if this got popular enough, eventually CDs might be released in 12x12 packaging along with the standard jewel box pack.

There could even be a website, where you could order covers for your old CDs. "albumcovers.com" sounds good, eh?

One of the coolest things about a new release was always opening the cover. With my idea, we could have it both ways! At the very least, this would make a great publicity stunt for somebody. Can you imagine being able to buy a brand new cover for Sergio's FOOL ON THE HILL? (They could put in an innersleeve with outtakes from the photo session!!!)

DISCLAIMER: I know, I know, most people today use those dopey "CD Wallets" so a thief can steal their entire collection in one convenient easy step, and they toss the jewel boxes out, so why would they buy 12" covers? Like I've said in many previous posts....I can dream, can't I?