omg forgotten/private press/lost "classics"/lost "masterpieces"/reevaluated/etc. LPs from the obscuro reissue craze that you think are terrible/overrated/eh/fuck no.etc

inspired by a comment by tylerw on a thread on the velvet underground's squeeze (which he thinks is good; he says it's better than some of the more obscure stuff that's been fawned over)

thanks to internets and blogs and niche reissue labels (numero/light in the attic/etc.) it's a Golden Era for the sudden exposing of previously-unknown LPs... tax-scam label soul... private press mopey singer-songwriters... cassette-only new age drones... major-label releases that seem to have fallen into a sink hole....

we all know that some of these are really good, even great (IMO jim sullivan/hackamore brick/iasos)... but c'mon. some of these have got to be bunk. you probably have experienced the displeasure of buying some $30 slab of vinyl advertised as THE LOST LINK BETWEEN FUNK, KRAUTROCK, and WEIRDO C&W and then realize it's a bunch of shite.

so let it roll, people... which of these rediscoveries do you think are wearing the emperor's new clothes? which example of "inspired incompetence" is just a bunch of yawping? which lost soul label from a small town in ohio was better left lost?

TELL IT.

or don't. fine. maybe taste is beside the point.

hey cleveland isn't a small town!

squeeze is not better than anything ever

i thought numero group's ladies from the canyon was duller than i expected it to be
that's all i've got for complaints, really

hey cleveland isn't a small town!

― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Thursday, December 12, 2013 7:36 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sure but some of the other labels were from small, distant suburbs of cities

also allow me a little hyperbole

i allow no hyperbole because that's what got us in this mess to begin with ;)
also where have they drawn labels from that isn't cleveland or columbus? maybe i'm missing one.
anyway akron produced one of the most famous lost classics comps ever (has it been reissued? i have no idea) and it's not a suburb!

For a while I was buying everything Akarma released that had, like, a skull on the cover. Lotta promises of proto-metal and blistering psych...lotta albums that sounded like Bad Company.

Don't get Todd Tamanend Clark at all. No idea what the big deal is about that guy.

Never really warmed up to Dwarr, Gualberto, or Nicodemus, either.

Artists / LPs that are worthy of their rep, off the top of my head: Relatively Clean Rivers, New Tweedy Bros, Paternoster, George Brigman, Vulcan.

haha, i was just shooting my mouth off about Squeeze. I don't think it's amazing or anything, just that if it didn't have the stigma of being a faux-Velvets album, it's pretty pleasant. there's definitely something a little bit goofy about the "lost classic" marketing tactic -- I didn't think the Rodriguez album was all that great -- but I understand the feeling behind it. I try not to totally overrate these things, but just take them for what they are -- minor curios, idiosyncratic takes on the music of the time, oddball excursions. i mean, there's a reason all those soul artists on the numero label or whatever aren't better known: they're not as good as say stevie wonder, marvin gaye or michael jackson or whoever. they're totally marginal, but there's something pleasing about their ummm marginality? just rambling.

I feel this way about like 50-75% of such artists.

Relatively Clean Rivers is actually a good example of one I find blah.

Since you mentioned Hackamore Brick, One Kiss Leads To Another has lots of quotable lyrics and titles, but sounds to me like power-pop demos recorded so Mom can't hear. Should say "sounded"; haven't listened in quite a while--ditto Grow Fins, but, despite keepers (maybe a twofer's-worth), always did seem irritatingly swole. This year, Townes' Sunshine Boy (demos)are nice but not essential. Several from Tompkins Square: any of Lena Hughes' mountain guitar stylings could be sterling on a comp, but as a whole, get fancy-predictable pretty fast. The latest collection of Charlie Poole airchecks might put even completists back to sleep, missing their walks to Civilian Conservation Corps jobs, even though they need 'em to feed their babies. Feel like even non-specialist I have heard most of even the better stuff on Imaginational Anthems Vol. 6 way more times than necessary, although a few keepers and Lemuel Turner is awes; can see how he inspired Fahey (but anybody the least bit more a specialist would be long since familiar with his complete works: four tracks, according to the notes). But none of these are truly outrageous hypes. (Don't sell your babies for Grow Fins, though [prob what it costs nowadays]).

I try not to totally overrate these things, but just take them for what they are -- minor curios, idiosyncratic takes on the music of the time, oddball excursions. i mean, there's a reason all those soul artists on the numero label or whatever aren't better known: they're not as good as say stevie wonder, marvin gaye or michael jackson or whoever. they're totally marginal, but there's something pleasing about their ummm marginality? just rambling.

this is totally my feeling too - and like I know this is corny but I really prefer listening to things that totally aren't masterpieces. like most of the time. I don't want to be listening to Only The Best. I take more pleasure in hearing music that misses the mark it's aiming at or doesn't quite know what it's doing or is written by people who're intimidated by the people they think are their betters (shoutout to Brahms and Bruckner you both ruled) - I really enjoy reissues of things that aren't really GREAT but are weird, that're off. I got some obscure-soul-label comps that're totally fascinating because the musicians are good, the engineers are quality...but the label didn't have an in-house songwriter that was really up to the task. something just really worth listening to in that, in my opinion. plus, when it's a well-researched comp and you learn why the label folded or how it kept going as long as it did, etc...idk there's lots of ways to enjoy music and "this is simply the best music" is only one of them & not even the most interesting one.

Some of the Numero Eccentric Soul artists are really good, and even the bad ones can be fascinating--something that's gone out of the biz, for the most part.
Father Yod sister-wife Aquariana's "album" is voice and piano, like living room tapes: good at first, when she mentions God the Father making love to Man, who makes love to Woman, or Women--but gets esoterically humdrum after that, at least to unsaved ears. Although I enjoyed The Source Family soundtrack, but we're not talking about the good stuff here (see Rolling Reissues threads for that, o course).

i mostly agree with that, xp. There's also just something neat about hearing "lesser" examples of a style, like realizing that "great" records weren't created in a vacuum and didn't invent everything they featured.

Sorry, combination hair, you said it more & better.

the eccentric soul stuff works because of how listenable it is--almost all of those records have good performances and lots of energy, and they work well in many situations. i don't think i have as much time for these types of reissues in other genres--like, a psych record or rock record is more likely to have songwriting that ranges from unmemorable to pretty bad, and to me that makes it a lot less valuable to have around.

Don Muro reissue from this year is really cool. It's almost prog but I think it's too catchy and un-fussy to qualify. prog like mid70s non-utopia todd, maybe? "Breathless", gary wright, synths aren't too cheesy 70s of w/e.

lol missed the last part of this thread title. well listen to the don muro disc anyway.

xp re: genres...it depends! like, this - is just a gem, it's weird in spots and great in spots but it tells such a compelling story. you're right that listenability is important, gotta have somebody curating with an ear for the wheat vs the chaff unless it's some crazy "here's every single this one label put out" comp...but then I find those incredibly interesting too. even if they don't get a lot of repeat listens from one I'll have a really enjoyable afternoon doing a more engaged thing than just listening for sheer pleasure. which I also do and enjoy! but there's just so many ways to listen to music and one of them is more like the pleasure of reading history.

xxp I love the Don Muro record a LOT, that thing is just a blast.

I think about this a lot. Sometimes I fear that I've forgotten what good music actually is after listening to so many vanity records. But, maybe it's all in the ear and maybe the stories we tell ourselves about the music we listen to, at least for me. I think at least 60% of the records I'm into, most people would find them horrible and untalented. But a certain ineptness and failure goes a long way in showing the musican's personality and motivations, it's not just charming, it's can be surprisingly good despite the short comings, even magical or transformative. A few reissues I would recommend are these:
Wilcox Sullivan Wilcox- beautiful hippie folk with fragile strumming under starlit dreams, One of the best private folk records to surface!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk93pG9HI04
Luie Luie - Touchy Latin Lounger does ballroom salsa for the psychedelic set, serious it's that good, also he introduces each touchy with a nice preamble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEXSzvl40Ho
Time Wasters - Nice UK folk with Neil Young moments, nice sad record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZNMsOrdls8
I can't say much about numero's soul reissues, but Rob is a great guy to buy records from.

Sometimes I fear that I've forgotten what good music actually is after listening to so many vanity records

haw

having it occur to me that the heitkotter album actually was complete trash made this worry disappear

awwww i like that one a lot

i dunno but i like the vast majority of reissue stuff i hear

I still haven't heard the heitkotter record, Paul Major's write up on it is a great read. I wasn't blow over by the Stan Hubbs reissue like some many people I know, maybe if I still smoked pot.

Yeah, that really does make a significant difference, it seems---although with some shit, I know if I were stoned, would be even harder to pay attention/stay awake/give an elf.

lool i really dug hubbs and i don't slowburn.gif

I liked hubbs for what it is, but I'm baffled that it sold out while Good Morning Kisses didn't!

having it occur to me that the heitkotter album actually was complete trash

oh yeah, was listening to that one the other day whilst reading the liners to that "enjoy the experience" comp and was like, "i've been had"

a lot of the stuff on that comp (the stuff i didn't already know, in most cases) is only interesting if you really think that mixing up two disparate genres or sensibilities is inherently interesting. a lot of it seems genuinely demented but that too holds a limited fascination for me

but one man's trash...

merry airbrakes is great, these trails is great

father yod stuff is VERY hit or miss. much of it = unlistenable, esp. when the good father starts singing. some of it = quite good.

honestly even for me the thread-starter it's hard to think of much of this type of thing that i truly dislike

i guess i think those rodriguez LPs are some bullshit. it's sub-sub-sub dylan. i find him irritating, in general. sorry. maybe i'm biased b/c i thought the documentary, while it of course had a good story, was incompetent and full of the worst cliches of that type of thing. but even well before that documentary i thought his music was, at best, mediocre. he seems like a nice guy i guess

spiritual singers LP (does anyone remember this one? it was an early mississippi records reissue, an unauthorized one) was/is pretty bad.

i say all this as a guy who has really liked the shaggs for decades (?!) now. so i'm not against this sort of liminal inspired(?) incompetence on principle or something. though the whole "outsider music" label still bugs me

The Enjoy the Experience comp is odd, because they they pull from really great records like Vinny Roma, Arcesia, Silk and Silver and Michael Farneti, almost all of them, but for some reason the mix doesn't engage me really. I feel like if they left out the funky breaks and "psych" and stuck more with failed MacArthur Park versions or weird organ standards it would've been more worthwhile. Hasn't everyone heard Gary Wilson, maybe it was whatever was easiest to licensed?

the whole gary wilson "revival" is like the granddaddy of today's private press craze.. way back in... the late '90s?

i find g wilson really difficult listening

numero eccentric soul comps were really appealing to me at first but now i don't really enjoy them outside of a handful tracks (like spirit of israel - daniel which still holds up imo)

there's just too much of it

that's the other thing... the hyperabundance of stuff. some of those numero comps even have CDROMS with a full label catalogue on them... the recent light in the attic lee hazlewood box does this too (but on a USB drive I think). and there is just such a steady stream of reissues. i wouldn't begin to have the time to sort through the 85,000 songs or whatever that numero has put out

it's kind of overwhelming. when the obscuro reish shiz began i bought a lot of those LPs just based on the dusty groovish front sticker blurbs but got burned a few times. now i kinda limit myself w/a few rare exceptions (that amazing "I Am The Center" compilation, "Work Hard Play Hard Pray Hard" on tompkins square, don bikoff and lena hughes, etc.) i just don't have the time. i should in fact probably sell a shit-ton of the vinyl i've already got at some point.

Oh there's a lot of these in Krautrock circles. The first one that springs to mind is that album by Sand. Not "terrible" though.

Hey's it's another I Hate Music thread!

Father Yod sister-wife Aquariana's "album" is voice and piano

Drag City's Yod-related reissues kind of typify the obscuro craze for me. Barrel bottom-scraping lost tapes and they should really be doing nice vinyl reissues of the better Yahowha albums before getting into the leftovers. Especially now that there's a documentary out.

XP: Sand rules, but it helps if you listen to it on headphones (it was recorded with one of those binaural artificial head setups) late at night.

thanks for pro tip. i like the Sand but i don't love it, wd probly say that about a bunch of albums tho and more often than not that's just down to not spending enough time with them

Lewis - "L'amour"

started a thread on this record but very little answers. soon to be reissued dreamy Arthur Russell-Badalamenti 80's biznizz.

Aero's on fire itt!

I really prefer listening to things that totally aren't masterpieces. like most of the time. I don't want to be listening to Only The Best. I take more pleasure in hearing music that misses the mark it's aiming at or doesn't quite know what it's doing or is written by people who're intimidated by the people they think are their betters

This expresses my feelings in a way I've never been able to. I recall a thread on this site where underground music was referred to as "the shadow" of the mainstream, not in an outright disparaging way but definitely in a less-than tone, and I've always been fascinated (and prefer) things like The Associates version of "Boys Keep Swinging" rather than Bowie's, or Robyn Hitchcock's takes on Dylan classics. Barrel-scraping compilations are the potatoes to my musical meat. Having said that, there's plenty of stuff on, say, the Messthetics compilations that isn't worth more than a few spins, but it's worth the effort for the best bits.

there's just so many ways to listen to music and one of them is more like the pleasure of reading history.

Again, another truth bomb. I may not revel in everything I listen to but sometimes it's just about the exposure to things outside my regular listening realms. I'm not a huge fan of soul but I'd rather listen to the compilations mentioned here than the classic soul radio hits.

what was the Gary Wilson reveal? I like selected stuff by the guy but don't know a lot and I'm not sure if I want to keep picking up his albums

on topic I'd nominate the Black Devil album which was praised extensively for being so ahead of its time and revolutionary but was really just an elaborate rip of Giorgio's "From Here to Eternity"!!

really just an elaborate rip of Giorgio's "From Here to Eternity"!!

Not sure it was that good tbh

there's just too much of it

Basically, this. There's nothing wrong with any of these being repressed, it's good that obscure stuff gets a new lease of life, of course the labels will claim extravagant quality when they want to sell something. But just... there's too much. It's exhausting.

Agreed with aero's take. I love the random splashing around in all the stuff to the side that has emerged over the years -- and of course no question a slew of it has been oversold. I keep wondering how much stuff, say, over the past twenty years will start getting that treatment, esp. when it comes to pop, hip-hop and so forth -- things that tried but failed, for any number of reasons. Sure there's hints of a poptimism alter canon here and elsewhere...but what is it? Does it ever get its due? Should it ever?

i'm sure there'll be comps of rad myspace emo from 00s that we'll all be excited about in 2023

Is there comparable archive trawling in the classical world? I keep thinking about this explosion of music over the past century, there IS too much, and future generations will have to approach it all in a very different way. We who have grown up with this stuff can put the top tier aside and focus on these archival reissues but I'd guess not many 100 years hence will as they'll have way more top-level music to get through.

Aero (and others) OTM, even if these records are often things I only want to listen to a couple of times, they can be really rewarding in their own way. With things that aren't quite great it's sometimes interesting to think about what's missing - it's the same reason I enjoy listening to demos/works-in-progress/green early material by artists I really like.

there was something i think in reynolds' retromania about numero where he wrote kind of disparagingly of this type of thing as "history rewritten by the losers." but when i read that i thought, yeahhhh, i like history rewritten by the losers.

my usual beef w/ these kinds of reissues is overpriced vinyl, I can be pretty forgiving re: quality of the music/performance/etc.

only thing I have felt like this about lately was that Afflicted Man reissue of Get Stoned Ezy, pretty marginal

lol, xp --
my beef is not as much with the quality -- i have liked just about every thing like this that i shelled out for -- but the cost is ridiculous. i paid how much for that 2 vol/6LP cumbia compilation? on the other hand, i would have never heard that wonderful music otherwise, so w/e.

i'll keep giving sound way records my money as long as they keep finding stuff i wouldn't have heard otherwise, which is most of it

Analog Africa too! Aero otm.

Oh, and re ODs: the Lee Hazlewood Industries box comes in two editions: you don't have to buy the data discs, USB etc. As we agreed on the Hazlewood thread, the 100-plus track version (now on Spotify) is plenty rocket fuel---for now...Seems like some of these labels study each other, see what might be feasible for their own niche markets, and hopefully the truly monster offering will remain just one option in most cases (not like on Mosaic).

guys just buy the CDs! they are often 1/2 as much as the vinyl and then sound just as good, no really. don't swallow the pill.

xpost

unless you have like a $20,000 sound system and/or are addicted to the sound of dust sweeping across your stylus

I've only ever bought one reissue on vinyl, but when I used to buy cds, I would buy almost everything Kent Soul would put out. I was surprised to see a few things Numero have reissued were already in print on Kent records. I guess there's not a large US market for that label? They aren't as artfully done as Numero, but they are throughly researched with great liner notes.

Sometimes I fear that I've forgotten what good music actually is after listening to so many vanity records.

This is just a broader issue for me wrt taking an "adventurous" approach to listening, trying to challenge my own aesthetics, etc. Sometimes I feel like I'm so eager to just listen to new sounds, but then I play something for my wife or someone else and they're like "WTF, this is awful" and I think "hmm, maybe it actually kind of is"

am otm re: CDs

I do buy CDs! sure as hell not paying $30 for an LP (unless it is a Popol Vuh reissue, I plead guilty there)

for example, i got that Soundways Cumbia comp that LL refers to on 2CD and love it, I probably saved $50

unless you have like a $20,000 sound system and/or are addicted to the sound of dust sweeping across your stylus

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, December 13, 2013 8:24 AM

not gonna get into this but I disagree with your basic premise here, in the end it is all subjective anyway

both vinyl and CD copies of most reissues come from the same re-recordings of the original vinyls, which often have similar sonic limitations to a CD

i mean you really think all this stuff is being mastered at 24-bit? or that you can really hear the difference on a half-decent sound system?

nobody sticks up for CDs these days, I will.

also they don't take up a lot of space. i have about 1,000 LPs anyway, I can scarcely imagine having to move with another 2,000 or however many CDs I have.

i mean the re-recordings are going to have similar sonic limitations

i can admit it! i was really weird about the cumbia comp (and all of their colombian releases really!) because i have a personal connection to it as dance music, and the idea of putting on a record and dancing to it was so much more appealing than pressing play that i shelled out like an idiot/addict. i have enjoyed them, and at least they offer free downloads so i can make cds for the car if i so wish.

i bought a bunch of this stuff on CD (all the cult cargo stuff, the kiddie bands comp) if that makes you all think more highly of my judgment. i'm not sure how highly i think of it myself, but i don't tend to buy a lot of other stuff.

i'm not judging anyone! just recommending that people get the CDs if the vinyls seem too expensive (which they are)

no, i didn't think that -- i just wanted to make sure it was clear that i am crazy, not reckless with money ;)

OK I can't resist a bit of conversation I guess

I'm not claiming that I think LPs are better sounding. I simply prefer them as a format, like the tactile aspect, love the 12x12 art and large booklets. It's not really an audio thing - fwiw I agree with your take on it regarding the same source tape limitations. And they don't really take up that much more wall space than a CD, somebody broke this down on some other thread.

When it comes to ambient/sparse music, I tend to go for CDs, but I prefer anything rock-related on LP.

But if an LP costs twice as much as a CD, I need a REALLY good reason to buy the LP (like, say, the bonus 7" single on the Hosianna Mantra reissue).

sorry for derail

yeeeeeeeeees
also agree with you re quiet ambient stuff on cd. i bought some george crumb lps that hardly ever get listened to because i can't hear well enough. i downloaded that new age comp from emusic because i'm going to be listening to it on my ipod 99% of the time anyway.

As hip hop (and the roots of the music) as my first musical obsession, I have had a hard time reconciling some of the genre's most well-known found-sounds with the fact that (most times) the entire albums that enveloped those neat little pieces were pretty mediocre.

I'll use the Incredible Bongo Band as an example. 'Apache' is, of course, a musical monument in hip hop. Then the Beastie Boys sampled a really nifty drum break from the other side of the record. So, going on those two instances, I was ready to have my mind consistently blown for thirty or fourty minutes. Turns out, the whole album is rather cheesy and hard to sit through.

And I encountered many other albums like this in my quest to track down sample sources. But I also discovered amazing music like David Axelrod and Kraftwerk (things that I never would have otherwise known or thought about) this way.

When I started to get out of that scene a little bit and just more into similar sounding things to the old records I discovered and really dug, just as music — that's when I became sour to the whole "obscuro" thing. I think the first time I really felt duped and burned and angry and bitter was when I drank the Kool Aid that Dusty Groove was trying to serve me that Johnny Harris' Movements album was like a British David Axelrod project. The album sucked, plain and simple. There were others, but that one really stung, for whatever reason.

Course, the revivals of really great music —Judee Sill, Nick Drake, Arthur Russell, etc.— keep me from writing off these sorts of albums completely, but I was definitely glad when places like Amazon, AllMusic, etc. started offering samples across the board. And now, there's Spotify, which is even better. It's saved me a lot of money and wasted time.

^^^ yes, to a large degree the risk that you'll buy something bad has been mitigated because it's much easier to listen before buying, first cuz of the cyberlocker sites, and now with streaming

spotify helped me not buy stuff that I was merely 'curious' about, leaving me to actively choose and buy stuff I love.

^^^^^That's it.

I think, most of the obscure re-releases are, mostly, just curiosities.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I'm shopping on a smaller budget than ever, so yeah.

yeah, seems weird to complain anymore. I got burned on stuff a lot in the '90s, but now it's easy to make sure I love something before I pay for it.

and there is just such a steady stream of reissues. i wouldn't begin to have the time to sort through the 85,000 songs or whatever that numero has put out

with stuff like this I like to throw it all into a big playlist, listen on shuffle, and delete anything that I don't like.

I mean it was okay to get burned in my late teens/early twenties when I was still living at home, had two jobs and no rent. But now I'm a grown-up, so I should probably start acting like one and not spend ridiculous amounts of money on records instead of, y'know, food.

But where's the fun in that? I mostly avoid youtube or other ways to sample a record before I buy, granted I usually pay a few dollars for most of the records I buy, but even if it's a high dollar record I'd rather take someone's word that I trust that it's worth it than to hear it first.

i've been loving that "The Weight" LP that you posted, Jacob. Is it some lost classic? Not really! Is it a good time? Totally! (Granted, I didn't pay for it, but ...)

It is a fun record! I'd love to have gone to see a band that, no pressure from a label to make it, just destroying beatles songs, vamping up CCR and um getting wasted on beam and coke!

Here is a short list of things I did not like very much:
Zerfas
Heitkotter
Stone Coal White (this one, actually, was REALLY BAD.)
Patron Saints
Death (sorry, there are like 2 good songs on that record.)
Moonkyte (stupid hippies)

really there are tons of crappy Shadoks/Akarma things out there, too.. but those were the first to come to mind.

ha, i like the Death record a lot, but watching the documentary I was kind of like uhhhh let's not go overboard here dudes.

Death (sorry, there are like 2 good songs on that record.)

"keep on knocking" and ... ?

The Enjoy the Experience comp is odd, because they they pull from really great records like Vinny Roma, Arcesia, Silk and Silver and Michael Farneti, almost all of them, but for some reason the mix doesn't engage me really. I feel like if they left out the funky breaks and "psych" and stuck more with failed MacArthur Park versions or weird organ standards it would've been more worthwhile. Hasn't everyone heard Gary Wilson, maybe it was whatever was easiest to licensed?

― JacobSanders, Friday, December 13, 2013 5:36 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

think this kind of thing has a lot to do with the perspective of the ppl doing the compiling. you're probably way more versed in, and have an actual love for, the sounds of DIY lounge/bedroom saddos/etc. These people just want the WILDFUZZ, FUNK BREAKS etc. they view these records as novelties to be sort of pointed to and laughed at rather than truly enjoyed. which is a bummer.

xpost, okay, one good song

i agree death is pretty overrated, as great as "keep on knocking". also agreed on the overratedness of rodriguez.

i think this sort of movement has really ramped up bc of those rare album/lost classic/pvt press blogs that used to be a lot more common and nowadays seem to have fallen by the wayside. riaa maybe? idk. maybe i'm not looking in the right places. after awhile it was just too easy to download a hundred albums a day. my wife one day told me to stop playing that "godforsaken carmen maki thing". also this had some truth to it: "Sometimes I fear that I've forgotten what good music actually is after listening to so many vanity records."

still, these complaints were more relevant in the past before i could screen music ahead of time better. i mean, there are treasures out there! it's not the music that's the problem getting through, it's the car salesman hypesmanship.

i can admit it! i was really weird about the cumbia comp (and all of their colombian releases really!) because i have a personal connection to it as dance music, and the idea of putting on a record and dancing to it was so much more appealing than pressing play that i shelled out like an idiot/addict. i have enjoyed them, and at least they offer free downloads so i can make cds for the car if i so wish.

I danced to those cumbias with a toddler last week and let me tell you that is about as much fun as can be had

i know! so fun for all ages!!

to address sleeve's pt upthread i also buy certain things on LP and certain things on CD. lots of jazz, blues, country, folk, experimental on vinyl. ambient, electronic, classical, jamiroquai i tend to do CD.

love those EAI albums the Jamiroquai boys did at the INA-GRM studio, the CDs really benefit from that Rashad Becker mastering.

back to thread topic, those Afflicted Man records are not that good and very expensive.

i think this sort of movement has really ramped up bc of those rare album/lost classic/pvt press blogs that used to be a lot more common and nowadays seem to have fallen by the wayside.

well, they kind of still exist, but on private trackers now. and there are still plenty of blogs but they've had to get more tricky with the downloading side of it and i think the extra 'work' kind of turns some people away.

i disagree slightly about the dynamics you describe. i think the years from, say, 2004 to 2011 were a golden era of obscuro music blogs with catholic tastes. a LOT of the records that are now being reissued (in full or in part/on comps) by niche labels were probably "discovered" by label-runners via those blogs. that is definitely true with, say, drag city's reissue of these trails. I think what we're seeing now is legit labels "catching up" with the blogosphere. partly just b/c it takes time to track down artists, figure out rights issues, master and print LPs/CDs, etc. whereas if I make a great thrift-store find on saturday afternoon, i can rip the vinyl, put it in a zip file, write up a few sentences of paragraphs of text, and throw it up on a blog by the same evening.

the death stuff is definitely a case where the full "album" doesn't fulfill the promise of the one great song.

another example of this is that sacros LP on shadoks. there's that one song ("su herencia") with the shimmering guitars that sounds like some amazing C86 track avant la lettre, but the rest of the album is (to my ears) much more pedestrian sonically.

This thread totally made me think of Death. I do like Politicians in my Eyes. They were a super tight band with a lot of potential, but they could have used better songwriting. I certainly think there's a bit of novelty effect with them being an "early black punk band."

I think when you first start "discovering" a lot of these bands as a music fan, there's excitement at the idea of a "hidden treasure" or whatever, but the internet has made them so easy to find and kind of unveiled how plentiful they really are. There are so many pretty good bands that never made it.

a friend of mine likes to say (and I'm sure it has been pointed out on ILX before), that most of these records were obscure for good reasons

yeah I think that's a little bit of a cliche tbh

The "good reasons" aren't always "the music isn't good." Sometimes it's "the band broke up" or "he couldn't get his act together" or whatever. But stories like that are very common -- in fact they're much more ordinary and likely than the stories of the people who actually do make it.

i would just imagine that the ratio of good to bad is probably about the same in mainstream and obscure, but obscure albums get the benefit of the doubt bc of the "hidden treasure" intangibles, so they're naturally spoken about in more hushed tones and w/excitable blurbs.

There are so many pretty good bands that never made it.

It doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine your personal favorite album of all time has been recorded and lost forever, or more likely, never ended up being recorded in the first place.

Whenever I catch myself having a challops moment of "this record is the REAL classic ____ record" I try to do a mental experiment where I ask myself "can I really imagine a world where this record is the canon one?"

I think it's more the other way around, that there are plenty of great mainstream records that would be more highly regarded if they were some lost obscurity. I agree with the "most of these records were obscure for good reasons" idea, but also Hurting is otm that the "good reasons" aren't always "the music isn't good."

Also I think the idea that "the ratio of good to bad is probably about the same in mainstream and obscure" really depends on what factors you're talking about. Like there are far fewer mainstream albums released by legit labels that have really atrocious recording quality, or amateurish playing for example. But I guess that's part of the factor that leads to the obscure gems. There are often great songs and great performances hidden beneath really awful lyrics and bad recordings while on the other hand, marginal mainstream records are more likely to be professionally polished but just boring.

i guess i mean the general "quality", not accounting for recordings that are unlistenable due to amateurish (or too polished!) production. actually i notice the too polished aspect in a lot of blues, or i did when i was keeping up with current mainstream blues back in my chicago days and was kind of hanging out in that scene. so many amazing musicians with actually good songs destroyed by alligator records style production.

mainstream blues since the mid 1970s is largely a vast wasteland IMO

soul-blues is a redeeming sub-genre, but not always

i once listened to a whole show of contemporary blues while driving from state to state, 50% was awful, maybe 30% was just decent, but there were a few tracks that shone through, including one very Hi Records-sounding soul-blues thing with good lyrics that I was shocked to find out was by a white guy from Indiana.

a friend just put this up on facebook, it is totally good! does anyone know what it is? my friend didn't really know either
https://soundcloud.com/mc-curds-and-whey/behind-these-bars

A LOST CLASSIC OMG

The album that springs to mind for me is Carnival of Sound by Jan & Dean. It was advertised as an unreleased psychedelic masterpiece,which I'm usually a sucker for. The cover shows a pic of Jan looking all serious conducting an orchestra ala Brian Wilson. The wrecking crew play on it. The Jan and Dean website has a bunch of reccomendations comparing it to David Axelrod, Phil Spector etc. And I figured it might be a fun kitch thing too. Plus I like Jan and Dean anyway.

Turns out it's a downer. Mostly Jan & Den by numbers with some wacky sitar or effect slathered on top. Some songs are quite obnoxious. The whole thing is hard to get through. One of the shittiest lost psychedelic masterpieces.

Mostly Jan & Dean by numbers with some wacky sitar or effect slathered on top.

this sounds great

will buy on deluxe vinyl

only $40!

xpost

to be honest I find many of the "lost masterpieces" rediscovered by sundazed to be among the worst examples of this type of thing. that neon philharmonic stuff--I can't get into that at all. or a lot of the boettcher stuff.

they really specialize in something a bit different, though: major-label, often big-budget releases that just kind of bombed at the time.

or just good-sounding reissues of really popular stuff, like the byrds.

yeah boettcher, he's got a few good things, but a whole lot of it is just kinda nothing.

i'm also depressed (and this is another topic) that good reputable record stores still carry phoenix/radioactive vinyl

xxpost I love Boettcher. The Jan and Dean thing is not even close to his most mediocre stuff. Boettcher has beautiful singers, clever arrangements, amazing recording quality etc. Carnival of Sound has none of these things.

Check out this pro-war classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wsE5wAIPPQ

NOT FEELING IT

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTFVvXE5fk-pbMdwbmqmi9RZOZYyFvw_bnnGe_AaJ_qD9EirNMkWw

I haven't heard that one but I have Mock Up and I like it.

what i'm learning most from this thread is it takes a lot of good posters at their best to counterbalance the shitstain that is amateurist shitting on shit he knows shit about.

I've never heard any bad Boettcher, but maybe I haven't dug deep enough? I've tried to hear everything I can find though and I love it all.

I guess the problem with this "genre" of stuff is that it's the intersection of a lot of different types of fandom, and people are listening for very different things. Like you have the collector dorks who only like stuff because it's rare, the cratediggers who are looking for funky breaks even if one 10 second break is the only good thing about the record, people who get excited about anything that's weird or off, and then the more casual fans who maybe like all of the above to a degree, but aren't obsessive completists about any one of those areas.

This year, Shuggie Otis' Information Inspiration was re-released as a twofer with the prev. unreleased Wings of Love The much-hyped former was a let-down, I thought: a few keepers, but otherwise, mostly some nice guitar moves with mild vocals and dated lyrics (colorful imagery, but I've seen better on Hawaiian shirts). However! Wings of Love is--- truly cosmic sunset starlight yacht rock r&b: not my usual listening at all, but I love being dragged from my niche/rut (doesn't happen very often).

Inspiration Information / Wings Of Love features the original Inspiration Information album paired with Wings Of Love, an album of 13 previously unreleased live and studio tracks recorded 1975-2000. The first CD will comprise the original nine-song Inspiration Information album, with the addition of four previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded in 1971. The second CD, Wings Of Love, is the first new music that the world has heard from Shuggie since 1974. Think at least some of these Information Inspiration bonus tracks were on the prev. reissue? But otherwise, like this says.

@tylerw: here's the original post that michael pulled it from. good luck finding a copy, though. i'm sure it's a self-released pressing of ~100 of which 95% are currently disintegrating in a landfill...

http://www.waxidermy.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38521&p=751589&hilit=random+country#p751589

to throw fuel on the fire, i thought that don muro thing was a total turd.

i also recently disliked ray stinnett, pete and royce, and mad music inc.

@ian: stone coal white first track is incredible but, yeah, the rest was pretty underwhelming.

dow:

Inspiration Information was reissued with bonus tracks on Luaka Bop, but those bonus tracks were from Shuggie's previous album, Freedom Flight from 1971. The bonus tracks on the new reissue are actual outtakes from the Inspiration Information sessions, which were previously unissued.

Wings of Love was all previously unissued tracks, spanning from the 70's up to the early 2000's. Hence, it being labeled as a "new" album, of sorts.

And I would absolutely call Inspiration Information one of my favorite albums of all time. I sought it out originally because Digable Planets had looped a piece of 'Island Letter' and the whole thing turned out to be just as wonderful.

Thanks, I'll listen some more---its proximity to/ my anticipation of Wings of Love does help.

worst reissue of all time: liquid swords chess box edition

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/albums/18026/homepage_large.19000fed.jpg

that's a whole different kettle of fish from "this should have been lost to the sands of time" tho

to throw fuel on the fire, i thought that don muro thing was a total turd.

flannelgraph sent me the don muro with a bunch of other stuff and I threw it in having no idea what it was - hadn't even looked at the sleeve, was just thinking 'play this, it'll just sit around in the to-be-played stack if you don't get it out of the way' and then it started and I was like whoa! whatever I was expecting it wasn't this! and it was just such an enjoyably different thing from whatever else I might have been listening to

It does stink how everything gets fluffed up to "lost classic" status. a record doesn't need to be 'classic' or 'near-perfect' to be totally fun as hell to listen to, e.g. don muro

Though I guess "fun" is pretty difficult to define w/r/t music from person to person.

what i'm learning most from this thread is it takes a lot of good posters at their best to counterbalance the shitstain that is amateurist shitting on shit he knows shit about.

― From the Album No Baby for You! (Matt P), Friday, December 13, 2013 4:54 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what exactly is your problem? what precisely did i do to offend you?

what exactly is wrong with the liquid swords reissue? i mean over the top yeah but?

I love this stuff (I don't think Light in the Attic has put out a bad record; happy to give them my direct debit details and let 'em keep stuff coming) but sometimes you look at Forced Exposure and it's like "$28.50?!"

http://www.forcedexposure.com/product_images/a/ALGA046LP.JPEG

Artist: VA
Title: Sounds of Silence
Label: ALGA MARGHEN (ITALY)
Format: LP
Price: $28.50

Sounds of Silence is an anthology of some of the most intriguing silent tracks in recording history and includes rare works, among others, by Andy Warhol, John Lennon, Maurice Lemaitre, Sly & The Family Stone, Robert Wyatt, John Denver, Whitehouse, Orbital, Crass, Ciccone Youth, Afrika Bambaataa and of course, Yves Klein. In their own quiet way, these silences speak volumes: they are performative, political, critical, abstract, poetic, cynical, technical, absurd. They can be intended as a memorial or a joke, a special offer, or something entirely undefined. The carefully-chosen silences of this anthology are intrinsically linked to the medium of reproduction itself and reveal its nude materiality. They expose their medium in all its facets and imperfections, including the effect of time and wear. At the most basic level, these silences are surfaces. And it is in their materiality that they distinguish themselves from the conceptual experiments of John Cage with "4'33". Since the 1950s, silence has found a place in the economic structure of the record industry and since then it would increasingly be appropriated by a vast array of artists in a vast array of contexts. Indeed, the silent tracks seem to know no boundaries. The LP presents the silences as they were originally recorded, preserving any imperfection that the hardware conferred upon the enterprise, without banning the possibility of being satisfying to the ear. The liner notes provide historical background for each track, revealing the stated (or presumed) motivations for these silences, while providing novel sound correspondences or interferences. This album is meant to be played loud (or not), at any time, in any place: a true aural experience. Only 250 copies available for distribution, in a gatefold iconic sleeve.

lol god bless those guys

I'll wait for the remix album, done by silent DJs for mannequin dancers at next year's Niconacht.

Ha! That's gotta be a joke!

I don't think it's quite what you had in mind for this thread, but much of the "lost" power-pop from the '70s and '80s that I encounter on various blogs barely even counts as such to my ears. Now and again I will find something I love (e.g., Creme Soda), but most of it's a little wanting in the prodigal-son department.

a friend just put this up on facebook, it is totally good! does anyone know what it is? my friend didn't really know either
https://soundcloud.com/mc-curds-and-whey/behind-these-bars

― tylerw, Friday, December 13, 2013 9:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This indeed is really good. Anyone?

Tylerw is that from a lp or 45? It's really good, no idea who it is. Are the other songs from the same record? Where did it find it? I would spend money on it!

Sometimes it's a matter of finding reliable labels. For instance, I like Guerssen and Void a ton, but find Radioactive and Akarma p spotty in general.

um

you know about Radioactive, yes? please don't buy their stuff, or Phoenix Records either (same guy)

http://www.yogarecords.com/press/radioactive.html

If I bought reissues I'd buy Big Pink, which I think has gone under? Rivermen, Yoga, Companion, and these guys http://www.machupicchurecords.com

Jacob, I just listened to the whole Soundcloud Jukebox linked from that page. Mirkwood's "Love's Glass of Sunshine" is good, but what really gets me going are the Dark tracks---like these other bands, it's all about being still young in the early-to-mid-70s, replanting some of your favorite guitar and vocal bits from the mid-to-late-ish 60s, and growing them just so: can imagine the Neon Boys/Television getting into Dark; hell Mirkwood and Anonymous too (Anonymous has sweet harmonies and bold guitars, even getting heavy on "Sweet Lilac," even the acoustic). Distributed ny Light In The Attic, eh? H'mmm---thanks!

Was the Luaka Bop Shuggie Otis reissue back whenever kind of a watershed for these "rediscovered underappreciated artist" reissues or is that just my impression because it was the first time I became aware of and got really excited about one?

Actually now that I think about it the Os Mutantes revival was a little before that and also big.

i like that Dark album alright, but it does harbour some terrible, terrible lyrics

alls i know about that between these bars song is from that waxidermy link posted above -
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3690/10196184686_fd7a1fd36b_z.jpg
asked my friend about it and he didn't have any more info. and if he doesn't have any more info, there might not be any more info.
but it is great isn't it? listened to it about 50 times in the last couple days.

It is a great song! I was hoping it was from an lp, somehow I find it hard to get excited about collecting 45's. That why I like good soul mixes, I can't bring myself to pay $100+ for two songs. There is a lounge/soft rock 45 I would pay quite a bit for though called Peach & Pockets and I love both sides, hits that Good Morning Kisses, sleaze soft rock vibes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wI7qSh0pG8

^^^Sheesh, is that a warped copy or are my ears really going straight to hell that quickly?

I still think the Death album For The Whole World To See was pretty decent, and yeah Politicians In My Eyes is as much of a jam as Keep On Knocking, but that 2nd album Spiritual Mental Physical was basically terrible.

So, is it possible for someone to make new music in this sort of mode? Like a person that does stuff in limited runs and makes kind of intentionally awkward music and generally keeps a low profile. Do you think this sort of music could exist on a small scale now?

I would have thought so.

Wouldn't it be the easiest thing to do, make some 'alt-folk' with a more psyche-beat backing, call it 1969 vintage, press up a few, sell each for £50 or something?

And I mean that without cynicism, in a way. Would people love it truly?

xp the guy who did Jim Collins/Terry/C.C./Snake & Remus/etc etc. is doing a pretty good job of it.

All one guy under a variety of pseudonyms, seems to have no interest in promoting them or even being associated with them...

people are doing it for sure, but on tape & cdr not vinyl

Also, then again I just described old Beck, didn't I?

Ahh, sorry. Should have been more specific.

I meant someone making their own music, not trying to pass it off as something old and it just kind of getting ignored, only to be resurrected and hailed as a lost classic in 2038.

Do you think that could happen?

yes, assuming we're not all dead

Touche.

You just described Steven R. Smith!

absolutely i think it could happen now. i think further it does happen now. i personally have known at least a couple people who work boring office jobs, etc., who have tons of talent and record stuff that twenty years from now could pass for lost classics, but they don't get heard because they'd rather record music than whore themselves out on twitter, or because the time that would go to promotion goes to drinking instead, or you know whatever. not naming any names because i don't feel like having my friends shit on by the ilx hivemind, but if anything the lowered costs of recording your own music, and also the fact that all of these people have, just like us, basically the ability to hear anything ever recorded, means that statistically there are probably more, not fewer, people making mindblowing future "lost classics". some of them probably nobody will ever discover!

Enh, I can see what you mean.

I've posted my own music on the I Make Music board and wasn't —perhaps surprisingly— trashed for it (not that I'm calling myself a candidate for future lost classic, because I make very boring music; it's most likely easier to ignore than hate).

But still, my point is that I share it around a bit (how hard is it to put stuff on Soundcloud, after all?), even though I have absolutely no intentions of making records and being in a band or whatever.

I like to hear home recorded music that my friends and acquaintances make. Terrible or amazing, that's not really the point at that juncture, is it? Sometimes it's just fun.

Sounds of Silence is an anthology of some of the most intriguing silent tracks in recording history and includes rare works, among others, by Andy Warhol, John Lennon, Maurice Lemaitre, Sly & The Family Stone, Robert Wyatt, John Denver, Whitehouse, Orbital, Crass, Ciccone Youth, Afrika Bambaataa and of course, Yves Klein. In their own quiet way, these silences speak volumes: they are performative, political, critical, abstract, poetic, cynical, technical, absurd. They can be intended as a memorial or a joke, a special offer, or something entirely undefined. The carefully-chosen silences of this anthology are intrinsically linked to the medium of reproduction itself and reveal its nude materiality. They expose their medium in all its facets and imperfections, including the effect of time and wear. At the most basic level, these silences are surfaces. And it is in their materiality that they distinguish themselves from the conceptual experiments of John Cage with "4'33". Since the 1950s, silence has found a place in the economic structure of the record industry and since then it would increasingly be appropriated by a vast array of artists in a vast array of contexts. Indeed, the silent tracks seem to know no boundaries. The LP presents the silences as they were originally recorded, preserving any imperfection that the hardware conferred upon the enterprise, without banning the possibility of being satisfying to the ear. The liner notes provide historical background for each track, revealing the stated (or presumed) motivations for these silences, while providing novel sound correspondences or interferences. This album is meant to be played loud (or not), at any time, in any place: a true aural experience. Only 250 copies available for distribution, in a gatefold iconic sleeve.

i sort of adore this as a concept--especially the idea that the "silence" of each track should reflect the technologies of their respective moments in time and place (i.e. the reminder that even "silence" in the context of recorded sound is a mediated artifact). i doubt in practice that it realizes that concept in any real sense (you'd have to actually own all of the original LPs). and of course I'd be a fool to buy it to find out.

i have some friends who made really good music in the 1990s and put it on CD-Rs of which they made maybe 25–100 copies. the original recordings are probably on DATs molding in someone's garage if they exist at all. I can easily imagine one of these things lighting someone's fire 20 or 30 years from you.

of course, CDs and DATs being a higher tech format than vinyl LPs, there's less likelihood that somebody in the distant future will be able to play them. then think of all the great recordings whose "masters" are low-res audio files made on some really early release of protools or whatever.

it's like if some undiscovered auteur made the best movie ever on U-Matic.

20 or 30 years from NOW

Do cdrs make good kindling, like?

As someone who gets excited about all kindsa obscure reissues but wonders whether I'm chasing my own tail with them, it's nice to read that other people wrestle with the same issues.

The most recent reissue that I got burned on was the Chance "In Search.." on Paradise of Bachelors. First track was a ripper, the rest seemed like same-y third-rate country ballads sung by a guy with a pretty limited vocal range with cheseball synths glopped over it. Didn't quite live up to the Waylon Jennings meets Funkadelic hype, but maybe that's my problem for thinking that such a meeting might sound good? I get swept up in the intrigue, though. At least I didn't blow $25 on the vinyl. CD's are still really great for these kinda things.

That Dark reish is really cool and much more satisfying to me than the related (and similar) Wicked Lady records from last year, which I still like but don't love. I may have reached the saturation point where proto-metal obscurities don't have much chance to blow my mind anymore.

So, is it possible for someone to make new music in this sort of mode? Like a person that does stuff in limited runs and makes kind of intentionally awkward music and generally keeps a low profile. Do you think this sort of music could exist on a small scale now?

I feel like I have a lot to say about this question, but I'm not sure how to say it. How the limitations of the era made a certain magic possible that happened without the artist's intent. A lot of those genres have just died, biker rock, lounge, freaky christian rock, country outlaws. I believe most private/vanity records were made by people who wanted to be heard or to promote themselves. They were forgotten about because mostly only their friends and family cared. What make these records endearing to me are what artist did with the standards or even originals while never entirely perfecting them. It can very intensely personal or off putting. Some exist within this alternate 70's lifestyle of key swapping, drunken hippie chicks, over toked paranoia, and the even stranger late night sober cordovox/drums combos that sound like lost twin peaks ost. I'm sure people will always make home recordings or self release their music, but I feel like things are more willful now, easily tag as this or that. I dunno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6w7QP3S52U&feature=player_embedded

you know about Radioactive, yes? please don't buy their stuff, or Phoenix Records either (same guy)

― sleeve, Saturday, December 14, 2013 5:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.yogarecords.com/press/radioactive.html

― sleeve, Saturday, December 14, 2013 5:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
======================================================================================================
That whole Radioactive = ? other named record labels still gets to me. I don't know what all the other later names the label has used so am always suspicious when I come across a name I don't know like Kismet. Is there a definitive list of what is and isn't a bootleg label anywhere?

not really but it is usually worth asking. some labels do some boot and some legit stuff as well, so sometimes it can be on a case by case basis

Phoenix, Kismet, Bamboo, Fallout, etc are his newer labels. To give the guy a tiny little bit of credit, his product has gotten better since Radioactive went under, but he's still not paying anyone I'm sure.

I think he also runs Past & Present, who basically just do reissues of compilations and box sets of multi-volume comps (Texas Flashbacks, Perfumed Garden, Mindrocker, etc).

but but but how will we ever hear anything on the japrocksampler list?

somebody should make a "self-released drone rockers of the aughts" compilation

I went searching and found a bunch of my ambient music I had up on the old mp3.com site on some weird Russian MP3 site a few years ago. Alot of that music seems to be in constant recycle somewhere out there in the internet hinterlands.

a record store clerk was talking up some radioactive reissue the other day. the music was good. i didn't have the heart to tell him about the deal w/ radioactive, but i should have. :(

somebody should make a "self-released drone rockers of the aughts" compilation

― Red Bitchass, Sunday, December 15, 2013 8:58 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some trackers (torrent sites) already do this kind of thing... in fact on some of the biggest ones there are whole sections for music made by members and it's often in a kidn of drone/minimal/electronic mode.

I'm getting this feeling from the Disco Discharge series. Lots of great tracks but some really bizarre inclusions. The entire second disc of the Euro Disco set isn't even disco.

^^ yes

Disco Discharge is hit-and-miss, but the Disco Recharge album reissue series by the same people is awesome: they've been reissuing the whole disco oeuvre of Boris Midney, Tantra and Voyage, the first two albums by Evelyn Thomas, the first two albums by Change, etc... And it all comes with bonus 12" and 7" mixes, and decent liner notes.

I assume the problem with the Disco Discharge is that Harmless is a relatively small company, and they do want to license everything properly, so they can publish only stuff they can afford and can get the rights for. And the rights and master tapes for some of those rare disco tunes are sometimes pretty hard to acquire. Ben Liebrand has written some informative stuff on the site for his magisterial Grand 12-Inches series about the difficulties he's sometimes had in trying to acquire the master tapes for various disco singles.

don't wanna turn this into vinyl vs CD, but I wanted to note one other reason for buying vinyl - resale value. If I buy a $30 record, and it sucks, I can probably get rid of it for $15-20. If I buy a $15 CD and want to sell it, I'll be lucky to get $3.

if you resell a $30 lp for $15 you are out $15. if you resell a $15 cd for $3 you are only out $12.

$3 was optimistic, but I see yr point, I'm talking about recovering sunk costs as opposed to limiting your liability, vinyl can also appreciate in value which CDs almost never do

i.e. if I already made a mistake buying the vinyl, at least I can get more $$ back (enough to buy another CD instead of a latte)

it's pretty rare that i'll put an LP up on ebay and get far, far less than what i initially paid for it (brand new.) whereas i've sold CDs on there cheaply enough that in the end it would have been more worth it to throw them away, for the time it took to create the listing and go to the post office.

Discord could be yr pal

Discogs. Not discord.

thank you al leong for expressing what I was trying to say in a much clearer fashion

The other day there were all these Puerto Rican records from the 70's and 80's for under a dollar at a thrift store and I got a bunch of them. "La Tuna De Cayey" from 1973 is owning my record player these days. The front looks like a futurist Christmas and the back is a couple dozen flower people hanging out in a beautiful forest. It says Hit Parade on it, is that private press or what?

I have no idea how to answer your question, but I'm interested in what you found! I have a disco cumbia record that totally rules. i guess i like latin/caribbean/african/south american/other country of your choice international music more than random 1970s county rock band. whoever said there are different kinds of customers for these things was otm, obvs.

Is this Hit Parade Records I don't think it's private, Alfred D. Herger was it's creator and I'm sure it had funding from some major recording label, maybe?

La Tuna De Cayey "Lo Mejor de la Tuna y Algo" Nuevo looks great!

thanks to this thread for reminding me of how much i love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj3bTv4hbgA

http://www.discogs.com/La-Tuna-Estudiantina-De-Cayey-La-Tuna-Estudiantina-De-Cayey/release/2860085

Yeah, this is the one! Great stuff. Lots of vocal silly bits thrown in here and there.

Feeling dirty from still owning a Radioactive release (Farewell Aldebaran)

On the grand scale of human evil paying $15 for a shitty reissue is pretty low.

i gave my copy of that away after scoring a vinyl copy (shifting the guilt). though i was tempted by the les rallizes denudes lps phoenix put out a few years ago.

Rallizes stuff is ONLY available as a bootleg, right? The main guy doesn't want anyone reissuing their stuff or something?

don't know where else to post this, but if you're in chicago, the logan hardware store (actually a record shop) has a HUGE section of private-press LPs, mostly xian stuff. i don't have the energy to wade through all of it, but i did pick up a few things that looked intriguing.

and it's all crazy cheap, like mostly well under $4/LP

I really prefer listening to things that totally aren't masterpieces. like most of the time. I don't want to be listening to Only The Best. I take more pleasure in hearing music that misses the mark it's aiming at or doesn't quite know what it's doing or is written by people who're intimidated by the people they think are their betters

I prefer the woods at the back of my house to the Louvre or the Taj Mahal or Yosemite, I wouldnt say they were 'better' than the Taj Mahal or Yosemite, but thats where I'm happiest and most comfortable, there's a lightness and forgetfulness about things without associated weight

there's just too much of it

this is a plus not a minus for me (anything being sold as 'lost classic' is kind of missing the point, and making the woods at the back of my house a destination they should put on their list and come and visit, but they shouldnt, it wont be the same for them! they'll just add to their overlong list to tick off, they should throw away that list and not worry about it.

There being too much is a plus, all the trees and paths in the woods, i dont need to tick them all off, i just need there to always be a bits i dont know yet, and maybe i'll go that way today or maybe i wont

Im actually talking more about the mountains of unheard house and techno records from the last 25 years more than private press, but its similar (other than they are commercial releases which you can find on discogs if you're ok with digging around and seeing what pops up, so there's no reliance on curatorship to find lost gems). In a way once something becomes a 'rare lost classic' it sort of becomes a facsimile of a weighty record, and people make comparisons, but if they're just some records you find on discogs then thats all they are, and thats better than anything, you find a gem and its like the woods at the back of the house, and there's hundreds of other diamonds hidden away and you'll never hear them but thats just fine,

Relatively Clean Rivers is actually a good example of one I find blah.
― signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2)

I'd never even heard of this until someone posted a link on Facebook the other day. I like two songs a lot: "Journey Through the Valley of O" and "Hello Sunshine." "The Persian Caravan" starts off like Kaleidoscope's great "Egyptian Gardens." The rest is okay.

Actually, "A Thousand Years" is really good too.

this private press action is one of my fave reissues from this year
http://media.paradiseofbachelors.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/PoB-18-KK-front-cover-web.jpg
http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/pob-18/

i think it's all context. i heard "relatively clean rivers" as part of a mixtape combined with a bunch of bands who were clearly and obviously far worse than them, so i really like them.

ugh i'm trying to think of one of these... it's not Jackson C Frank or DR Hooker but someone/a name like that. Private press sorta downer acoustic stuff with a couple real good songs. Cover was like off-white and I think the artist is in an oval on the front cover, or there's like an old portrait on the front????

oh, and it's not terrible/fuck no/etc. just thought this would be a good thread to bump

spirit of the golden juice? that's a good record.

omg thank you. yes it's good