nicest guy in indie rock

[solipsistnation]

So, I bought the double-12" vinyl album of John Vanderslice's latest album. He signed it and everything, and thanked me sincerely for buying the vinyl, as if he was surprised that people still listen to records.

When I got it home, it turned out to consist of two identical slabs of vinyl (and I do mean slabs. he sprung for the heavy stuff, 180 gram virgin vinyl, 45rpm and everything. it's about as heavy as six or eight of the lame-ass mid-80's as-thin-as-we-can-get-away-with records everything got pressed onto then, when digital was the Wave of the Future and audiophiles told everybody about aliasing and the Nyquist frequency and why CDs were bad). That's right, I had two of sides 3 and 4 and no side 1 or 2.

I checked the record label site. They were sold out. Finally, figuring it couldn't hurt, I emailed Mr. Vanderslice himself and explained, not sure whether to expect an answer beyond "here's the label's customer service number."

About a week later, he wrote back, apologized for taking so long to reply, explained that he was in Europe on tour at the time but that I should give him a call when he got back in December.

I wrote back saying, "Uh, okay, but what number? The Tiny Telephone studio number?" and he replied with "Oh, sorry. Here's my cell phone number."

So I called him yesterday, got him at a bad time, called back today, talked a bit, was hung up on and called back when he dropped the phone, and after all is said and done, he's sending me the only copy of that particular record not already sold-- the test pressing of sides 1 and 2. Dang.

I guess I shouldn't really be that surprised-- this is, after all, the guy who (at the urging of cyclopslincoln called my house to ask stophittinyrslf to come to the show the next day, since it hadn't been advertised or anything and we hadn't even heard about it. At that point, how could we refuse?

As far as the record itself goes, what I could listen to on vinyl (sides 3 and 4) sounds great. Not even just audiophile-weenie "With this $8200 speaker cable you can really hear it has more PRESENCE" sort of great, but actually better. Most vinyl records are pretty lame-- 33.3rpm, cheap recycled vinyl, or used and scratchy. Not this one, though. Even on my not-particularly-amazing turntable, it really fills the room. I could A/B the CD and the vinyl and the differences would be obvious.

Plus it's a good album. Even the last song, which reviewers seem to think is a happy pop song tacked onto the end of an otherwise complex album. It's a perfect coda, I think-- a heaping helping of self-aware denial to round out the record.

So, yeah. John Vanderslice, nicest guy in indie rock. He's kind and generous. There you go.

Comments

[friode.livejournal.com]

Huh. I hadn't realized that there were ways to spend more money on a pressing of a vinyl record to make it better. Wendy Carlos's website has a lot of whining about the poor quality of vinyl, and it seems to go beyond her wanting more than two channels. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if she lacked the ability to persuade the record companies to go for quality in terms of the materials used in pressing vinyl records, etc.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are a couple of things-- not using recycled vinyl is the easiest. Most records are made of vinyl melted down from returned unsold records. Virgin vinyl isn't. I read an interview with the drummer from Ultravox recently where he said that they tried to get their singles pressed on colored vinyl as often as they could because that was almost always virgin vinyl-- you couldn't squoosh up all kinds of returned (black vinyl) records and still have blue or red or clear vinyl as a result.

Spinning at 45rpm instead of 33.3rpm should be obvious, right? It means you only get 3 or 4 songs to a side, but oh well.

180 gram vinyl I'm less clear on, except that I suspect it means that there's significantly more vinyl in the original lump that gets pressed into a record.

Also, since it's a physical object that gets stamped into pucks of hot vinyl, the actual master wears down after a while. There will be a notable difference between the first few pressings of a 10,000-disc run and the last few. They only pressed 250 copies of this album, so that's not going to be a problem at all, although the test pressing would have been before that even began.

So, yeah. Vinyl got a bad name in the 80's and 90's when record companies tried to cheap out on it. Not really a surprise there, I guess... I won't say I'm a vinyl snob, but I do find 12" records physically satisfying-- bigger art (more art, sometimes), more stuff usually (lyrics, inner sleeve art, foldouts, and so on), and so on. That this one sounds so good is a bonus.

[highreseuph0ria.livejournal.com]

180 gram is the best. John Vanderslice is the best. His music is THE BEST. And this is the best thing I've read in a while. You made my day. Or rather, John Vanderslice did. Again =)

[quaintance.livejournal.com]

I love your icon. Did you make it?

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yup! Dig it.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

oh duh, i didn't see who you were responding to.

livejournal's links-in-email only give you the actual reply, not the whole thread of replies. Heh.

wheee. oh well.

[highreseuph0ria.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Sadly, I didn't make this one. This is Faye from the online comic Questionable Content. But this stuff isn't hard to make, I used to draw that kinda thing all the time.

[dj-muse.livejournal.com]

Heavy vinyl pressed well (as that one obviously was in nice, small lots, not until the plate goes to shit) is a joy to the ear.

Makes us DJs wet our pants with glee (or something) :)