Ravenous

Speaking of great record stores, if you ever find yourself in Santa Fe, there's this amazing store that's about the size of a walk in closet. It's called Guy in the Groove and he had some amazing stuff that I couldn't even purchase. I spent $100 and didn't think I'd find a thing. The best part is that they were all affordable. About $6 average.

Dan

I picked up a good handful of stuff on Friday. Only two "RSD" titles, one of which was for my wife as a Christmas gift. The other one, I thought I wanted, but now I'm not sure.

I did grab a used 180g copy of Her Majesty by The Decemberists for $12. I had seen the CD album cover countless times when I worked at a corporate music/movies/whatever store in the early/mid 2000's. Coworkers raved about it, but I never bothered to check it out until buying it now. Turns out... it's damn good.

Geofferson

I prefer Village Green and the albums onward in stereo. Their style and tune shifted in a way with that album such that the 2-channel output is hard to beat. I have VG on both an the stereo gets more play.

Regardless, I may pick up this set. Great opportunity to get their early works in Mono.

Supermallet

Here's a good looking vendor that gets recommended on the Steve Hoffman Forums: http://www.jmkdisplays.com/cases.html

Much more reasonable prices. I will contact them after I get the Classic to see if they can make one to fit it.

Supermallet

I may have what you're looking for. $120 shipped from Pop Market with coupon code POP20: https://www.popmarket.com/products/t...-vinyl-box-set

The site is legit if you haven't heard of them. For $12 per disc I ordered.

auto

Damn! I jumped on that. Thx Suprmallet.

MBoyd

Ah what the heck. And I thought the best of was all I needed...

Supermallet

I could have done without the live album or the repeated tracks on the black album for an even cheaper set, but the material on the studio albums is remarkably excellent, especially once you get to The Kinks Kontroversy and on.

slop101

Thanks!

I have ordered from popmarket 3 different times, but every time I have, they've been out of stock of what I've ordered with no idea if they'll ever get it, even though they're not supposed to list something that's out of stock.

But maybe pre-ordering might be different!

Supermallet

Hopefully they don't overbook! It says it will ship before or on December 16th. For that price in willing to wait a bit longer if they're overbooked on orders.

Supermallet

My turntable and Fight Club soundtrack arrived today!

Why So Blu?

I have yet to see pics of an open Fight Club vinyl set. I really wish Mondo hadn't designed the box the way they did. Granted, I didn't buy it to not listen, but it's cumbersome as all hell.

statcat

Thanks I ordered one too. I noticed they had the Free studio vinyl set on that site a few days ago for $100 shipped but I passed.

Supermallet

They had a video of someone opening it. There's a tab on the back that says "Sacrifice" and it runs all the way across the mid section of the outer packaging. The sleeves are held inside. I've now got the sleeves sitting outside the outer packaging in an external sleeve, which is what I do with all my albums anyway so in that sense it's not really any worse than any other album. But if you keep your inner sleeves in the original packaging then yes it will be cumbersome.

If you try to open the flap on the outside instead of using the rip tab it says underneath "Stop trying to control everything and just let go"

statcat

Does anyone have the rolling stones mono set? I ordered one over the weekend.

Hokeyboy

For $120 shipped, I couldn't say no. Thanks for the heads up

Why So Blu?

Damn!

Supermallet

I'm waiting for the individual releases. The Stones' 60s discography has always been super haphazard compared to The Beatles. The Beatles made it real easy. The UK releases are the "real" albums and all the non-album tracks fit onto two discs (unless you're counting mono vs stereo mixes but even then it's not much). All of their albums through Magical Mystery Tour were mixed to mono with the band's approval and then stereo without input from the band, and the band mixed the White Album in both stereo and mono themselves. After that, no mono.

The Stones are not so neat and tidy. The band didn't really care about the tracklisting on their albums until Aftermath, and same with mono or stereo mixes. Releases would have a mix of mono and stereo, or mono fold-downs of albums only mixed in stereo or fake stereo made from mono-only mixes. So there is a lot of content in that box that isn't true mono, and also a lot of duplicated content because there are UK and US versions of the same albums (and US only compilations like Flowers that duplicate material elsewhere in the box). I know that the entirety of Beggars Banquet is a fold down from stereo, albeit a very well done one, and I believe that Let it Bleed is the same. It's a mess really, which is why I can understand the everything and the kitchen sink approach they took.

Personally, all I want is Aftermath and Between the Buttons. Supposedly Satanic Majesties is better in mono but really my problem with that album isn't stereo, it's the songwriting. And maybe I'll get Beggars Banquet too because the fold down on that really is excellent.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, the music in that box is uniformly excellent, and the sound quality is great too.

I'm happy so many people decided to jump on that deal. It's a great set by all accounts and of course the music is just terrific.

statcat

I know the discography is a complete mess and very confusing. Aftermath in the box and some others are supposed to sound superb. I always liked Satanic Majesties but unfortunately this set doesn't reproduce the lenticular cover. I don't think it's as well done as the Beatles mono set (book looks cheap, cover art quality/colors sometimes lacking and the source isn't strictly analog). The attention to detail like the Beatles set just isn't there. I bought the stones mono set for a little under $200 shipped so I couldn't refuse though. I had no intentions of buying it but for that price it wasn't much of a decision.

This is the most detailed review I've seen so far,

Note: I wonder why they cropped UK Aftermath and changed the scaling on Satanic/cropped the back

Supermallet

Honestly it's a ton of great music, and yes the records themselves are supposed to sound fantastic. Hard to go wrong, IMO.

statcat

Another thing I grabbed was the Queen Studio box. Again something I never intended to buy but for a bit over $200 it was a must buy to me.

slop101

It's one of, if not THE greatest box-set I have.

CRM114

I don't even know what the "Black Album" is but you need that because it has "Days" - one of the finest Kinks songs ever.

As for mono/stereo, I was once berated by an old guy in a store when I was holding an original copy of "Something Else" - I was told that it was crap and only the mono was worth listening to. I have two stereo copies - monos are hard to find as they are only UK I believe.

Haha. I was just reading a back and forth between Andy Partridge (XTC) and Robyn Hitchcock on Twitter debating what was the greatest psych album of all time: Satanic or Piper. (Andy chose Satanic, Robyn Piper) Andy believes (and I tend to agree) that the Stones get a bad rap for that record - it's actually really good and original stuff.

That being said, I don't buy any reissues if the originals are accessible. I make exceptions - for example, I've yet to find a quiet copy of Love's Forever Changes so the reissue is welcome.

CRM114

So my RSD as I mentioned involved no RSD merch but a frenzy on semi-tough to find albums.

I got a bunch of original Blue Notes, some Coltrane, Black Flag, and various other stuff. Anyone ever hear "The Legend of Henry Cow"? Wow.


On Sunday, I went to another record store to see what was left of the RSD merch. I got:

- Bob Dylan - The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert
- Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff - Strung Out In Heaven (Bowie tribute with ex. cover of Blackstar)
- Jaco (Original Soundtrack)
- Middle Brother 10" pic disc

Ravenous

So for you Mondo shoppers, they are doing Free Shipping on Vinyl the next week I believe.

Today they made available an awesome release of Gremlins. I watch that movie every year and though the soundtrack is not epic, I think the package they are doing is very cool where it reacts to sunlight and even moisture. Hope they're not substituting packaging for sound.

I also decided to blind buy Naked Lunch. I have never seen the movie but their write up caused me to hear some of the tracks on youtube and its a pretty neat jazz infused score. Im really excited for it.