Mercury Rev on vinyl

High level of surface noise and a quiet pressing. Avoid the blue vinyl, folks.

My sounds fine -- got it double-packed with delightful "Lego My Ego" album.

There was a semi-opaque, swirly dark blue Mint Films pressing of this that was widely available in the early 00s -- sounds like shit. You can actually see the pitting on the surface if you hold it so that it catches the light. I've looked at/listened to several copies, and they've all been equally crap. Maybe the black vinyl is better? Wouldn't be surprised.

While we're on the subject, anyone else notice the MASSIVE decrease in vinyl pressing quality over the past decade or so? Seems to be particularly true of records pressed in Czechoslavakia by tiny indie labels, but even bigger indies like Sub-Pop suffer for it. Especially ironic when the vinyl object is absurdly fetishized, as with all those heavyweight, crazy colored Pirates Press jobs that (for instance, prime culprit) Southern Lord puts out. If you're gonna spend a ton of money on snazzy/ugly packaging, why not try to put a half-decent record in there along with it?

In bringing this up, I'm thinking in particular of recent stuff on S-S and Columbus Discount Records, both of whom go for relatively restrained (dirt-cheap) packaging. I understand that $$$ is tight and that audiophile fidelity is anathema to both labels, but some of the vinyl they put out is so shitty sounding as to be nearly unlistenable. Hate to have to download songs I've already bought on LP just to listen to them...