Lathe Cut Camp, Skrill Meadow!! |
LATHE CUT CAMP! Greetings from Dunedin, New Zealand! I stayed on Mount Cook a couple days ago with a legit Nepalese Sherpa (who has summited Everest multiple times) who invited me to go on a month long trek in Nepal in May to help rebuild a Buddhist Monastery damaged in the earthquake a couple years ago. No joke. And, as is my motto, I said "Fuck it. Why not?". But that means another month of spending/not making money, which means I've got to get back in the quarry in the meantime and scratch up some cash. So... here comes another lathe cut camp!! This will be the fourth Lathe Cut Camp, and all of them have sold out in the past. So, if you have any interest in how these things are made, or in making them yourself, please come out and hang with me in Tucson for a few days! SKRILL MEADOW!! Also, I thought it would be a GREAT idea to launch the amazing new Skrill Meadow LP along with the Scott McMicken record. "Lots of people will read that email" I told myself. Well, lots of people read that email, but everybody was in such a goddamn hurry to snap up In Your Dreams, that everybody pulled a Trump voter on themselves and went against their own best interest by completely ignoring anything on the site or email not related to Scottman. Please for the love of everything holy, check out the amazing new Skrill Meadow Lp, Lost On Vacation. You don't have to buy it, but give it a gander at least!! Just click the ALL button to your left! |
| Buy them here! |
Well, even more than usual, I've got a ton of stuff going on. Starting Tuesday, I'll be in New Zealand for a month, then flying directly back into LA to cut records at the Grammys. Then I'll drive back to Tucson for three days for my daughter's 6th bday party, after which, I will drive BACK to LA to cut records at Shaun White's Air&Style Festival. After that, I come home, drop off the van, pick up my daughter and take her BACK to LA for her bday present... a trip to Disneyland. Then, I'll drive back home, drop her off, pick up the van and drive to SXSW. Then, after that MobileVinylRecorders.com has got a ton of other gigs on the books. So many, that despite the fact that I've got a billion amazing releases in the queue, it may be a while before I can actually get around to them. New releases from Will Johnson (Centro-Matic), Mirah, Golden Boots, Lori Goldston (Earth, Nirvana), Dread Cat & The Transitional Wave, American Monoxide, Golden Boots, etc. They will be slowly working in the background while I am in and out of town, and we will get to them eventually.
I'm also going to try to fit another LATHE CUT CAMP in there somewhere... so if you are interested, please reply to this email and let me know!
Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me again for a couple months... but then again, if you have been on this list for a while, you probably won't be surprised if you hear from me in the next week or two.
Anywho, enough flirtin'...
This Installment...
1) Edmond Lapine Ghostship Fire Victim Benefit Auction - We made almost $700 (after the crazy ebay and paypal fees) from the test pressing auction and bandcamp download. We will be working on getting a 7" and zine together in his memory. Please read below to refresh your memory on the project and please download the Edmond Lapine sampler HERE. It's pay what you want, including zero, but please consider donating something towards the project.
2) Skrill Meadow - Lost on Vacation! Solo LP from Lazer Zeppelin and LAKE member, Mark Morrison.
I love Mark Morrison. He's an old friend from my days in Olympia, and he is a truly gifted weirdo soul. He is a member of LAKE and Lazer Zeppelin, and Skrill Meadow is his longest running solo project. Mark has amazing intuition for all styles of music the sound of Skrill Meadow is always shifting from lo-fi noise, gospel, country, electronic, whatever. Lost On Vacation is full on soft yacht rock with Mark's own weird slant.
LPs come in repurposed dollar bin LP Sleeves and include a lyric insert.
Check out the full album length video for Lost On Vacation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oFPrBK_GvE. Burn a doobie of "the weed" first...
3) Soild Gold - Scott McMicken - In Your Dreams LP
- Songwriter/Singer for Dr. Dog returns to Soild Gold for another solo album!
You probably know Scott McMicken as the songwriter/singer from Philly Psych-Pop modern day cult legends, Dr. Dog. If you don't know them, well... that sucks for you. If you love great songwriting and amazing hooks, this is your guy. We were extremely happy to release his first solo album, "IT" a couple years ago (They sold out in 8 minutes!). Now we have the great pleasure of releasing his second solo album, "In Your Dreams", an album that was written and recorded, entirely by Scott (on every instrument) in 48 hours. But this is far from some weird avant garde throw-off record that stat might infer. This is a cohesive pop masterpiece.
Limited to 200 copies on "Soild Gold Gold Vinyl". 35 randomly inserted copies are on Soild Gold Gold with Brown Splatter Vinyl". You can also join the "Test Pressing Guessing Game" by adding some extra change onto your "Pay What You Want". For example, if you pay $22.38 and Scott chose the number 38 for this release, you win a free test pressing along with your order!
STRICT LIMIT OF ONE COPY PER PERSON/HOUSEHOLD, ETC. Any orders of more than one copy will be canceled. And please don't be a jerk and buy it just to flip on ebay. There are a LOT of people who want this record, and we would prefer they don't have to pay 10x the price because some opportunist asshole who didn't want it bought it just to flip. Don't be that opportunist asshole... I watch discogs and ebay and I will send bad vibes your way...
NEW TO SOILD GOLD? SAVE CASH AND CATCH UP WITH OUR MULTI-PACKS of still-in-print releases!
SG - 4xLP Multi-Pack - Scott McMicken "In Your Dreams" + Jeffrey Lewis "Outtakes" + Be Gulls (Little Wings + Lee Baggett) "Dead Giveaway" + American Monoxide "Web Content"
SG - 2xLP Pack - Scott + Be Gulls.
SG - 6x Tape Multi-Pack - Scott McMicken "In Your Dreams" + Jeffrey Lewis "Outtakes" + Be Gulls (Little Wings + Lee Baggett) "Dead Giveaway" + Eric Slick "Out of Habit" + Floating Action "Research".
1) Mythbusters Spinoff
This spring, my MVR business partner Kris Dorr and I were flown out to Los Angeles for a while to help the former Mythbusters crew do a thing. We can't tell you what that thing is, but you can find out for yourself on December 9th, if you have Netflix. Supposedly, our episode will be the first one of the series. It's called White Rabbit Projects. Hopefully we don't get totally cut out or look like complete Rubes.
2) New Zealand Pilgrimage
If you've been following PIAPTK for the last ten years, you will remember that I started the label by ordering lathe cuts from the OG Godfather, Peter King. He's still doing his thing, just like he has for the last 30 years, and to celebrate my 38th Birthday and the 10th Birthday of PIAPTK, I am making a pilgrimage down to Ashburton, NZ to meet the Lathe Wizard of NZ. This has been a dream for over a decade and I finally have the opportunity to do it. If you've got any tips, tricks, or hookups and connections down under, please hit me with them.
Releases from Jad Fair, Wooden Wand, Surfer Blood, Reptar, Salesman, ALL CD-Record Series releases, Homely Singles Blind Date Club Releases, Keith John Adams, Southerly, Casper and the Cookies, Norfolk & Western/Graves, Anni Rossi/Whitman, Golden Boots, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Amo Joy!, Javier, Solid Home Life, Devin James Fry, Grey Waves, The Crash That Took Me, Lazer Zeppelin, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Impossible Shapes, Karl Blau, Graves, Gift Machine, Nate Ashley, Carcrashlander, etc are ON SUPER SALE!
Check out the overstock sale HERE!
4) Record Cutters for Sale!
Want to cut your own records? Well, in order to raise money, I'm having to thin the lathe herd again. All of these machines are fully functional, restored, come with a starter pack of blanks and needles, and tech support or training in Tucson to get you rolling. I've got 5 lathes available ranging from beginner suitcase units for $1800, mid-range more versatile units for $3750, up to the big bad boys, Stereo hi-fi diamond cutting lathes if you got the budget and want to really go hard for $8500. For more info, email me at peopleinapositiontoknow---at---yahoo---dot---com.
New Soild Gold Style LP! Be Gulls – Dead Giveaway – Little Wings + Lee Baggett Cover the Grateful Dead on their iPhones
****Please note that this is a preorder... we dont have the LPs, yet. Supposedly they are going on the press early next week, once the pressing plant solves a couple technical problems. Usually, I would wait until we had the records in hand, but the Scott McMicken "In Your Dreams" LP is hot on its' heels (hopefully in time for Xmas!) and we really need to get this record out before that one arrives.****
I know that EVERY indie rocker in the known universe is giving props to the Dead these days (as they should), but this release has been in the works for YEARS. So, please don't think we are some sort of Johnny Come Latelys... Also, lest you forget that Be Gulls also covered Cassidy on the Be Gulls 2 boxset that PIAPTK released in 2009.
Have I told you that I love Little Wings? Because I do. I REALLY REALLY do. I love Little Wings almost as much as I love Kristofferson, but I’ve loved Little Wings longer, so I guess that would make it a tie. I love Little Wings. Like, so much I wish I could marry them, but alas, Man/Musical Project unions are still illegal in all 50 States and Puerto Rico, and I don't see that changing under Trump. Be Gulls is the side project of Kyle Field and Lee Baggett from Little Wings.
The Impetus for this record...
I’ve been to a LOT of shows. Big ones, tiny ones, theaters, house parties, etc. But hands down, one of the most moving and amazing show experiences of my entire life happened in the mid-to-late-aughts (2007?). I was in Anacortes, WA for What The Heck Fest, a weird little DIY festival in a tiny fishing town that was organized by Phil Elverum, and featured a pretty consistent cast of characters drawing heavily from the K Records and related rosters. After a very late night of watching music, night swimming, drinking, possibly smoking things that were, at the time, illegal in Washington State, and generally sucking the marrow out of the bone of life, I went to sleep in my tent, which, along with dozens of other tents, was set up in Karl Blau’s back yard. I was awoken a few hours later at about 9 am to the sounds of two acoustic guitars around the smoldering fire pit (10 feet from my..uhhh…feet). It was Kyle Field and Lee Baggett playing Box of Rain. For the next hour or more, they sat alone (everyone else was asleep) playing Grateful Dead songs and talking and just generally enjoying each other’s vibes. I lay silently in my tent, vibing on the vibes of them enjoying the others’ vibes. Heavily posi hangover healing vibrations in the vibosphere that morning. That morning is burnt into my brain like the birth of my daughter or the day I met Kristofferson and got to give him a copy of the 2xLP Tribute PIAPTK released. I’ve been begging Kyle and Lee to record an album that attempted to recreate that morning for years. Now, it is finally seeing the light of day.
And they finally did. And it is great! Here is the track listing and liner notes:
Be Gulls
Dead Giveaway
A
Mexicali Blues 3:56
Shake Sugaree 5:07
Box of Rain 4:01
Ship of Fools 5:24
B
Stella Blue 5:52
Eyes of the World 13:55
All songs by The Grateful Dead. Recorded to various cell phones by Kyle Field, Lee Baggett, (Aram Stith, and Ned Oldham of The Anomoanon appear on Mexicali Blues).
As is Soild Gold’s style, it is limited to physical analog formats: 100 tapes and 200 LPs sold on translucent gold vinyl, 30 of which will be randomly inserted and have Red, White, and Blue splatter. Comes in bootleg style jackets with a 12x18” poster of a picture of Lee B’s desk in the mid-90s, because, inquiring minds want to know… what Lee B’s desk looked like in the mid-90s.
Gratis Test Pressing Guessing Game: If you want to add some change onto the end of your purchase, i.e. $20.37, and your change amount matches the number that Lee B chose, you will also receive a free copy of the test pressing. If you don’t guess correctly, your change (and any additional dollars you want to contribute) will be used to buy beer for the Soild Gold Packing Party that we throw to help assemble these monsters. You have no idea how much time, money, and expertise goes into making something look this quick, cheap, and amateur.
Listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/piaptkshop
Well, hopefully you've come out of your alcoholic stupor due to whatever your reaction to the outcome of this totally miserable clusterfuck of an election and need a little retail therapy and art in your life.
In this episode:
1) New Business Model
a) Foxx Bodies - ST 2x10"
b) Lee (Baggett) Gull and The Graves 2x10"
2) Nothing else... weird, huh?
1) New Business Model Overhaul for PIAPTK:
I know I whine a lot about how hard it is run this weirdo money pit of a label. It’s a ton of work and it sometimes feels like I’m casting this amazing shit out into a void to a world that couldn’t possibly care less. But, if you are reading this, you obviously care (at least a little), so I’m preaching to the choir. I catch a lot of shit from people because some of my releases sell out way too fast, but on the flip side of that, I also make too many of some releases that nobody has heard of/won’t bother listening to sound samples of/or just don’t like, and they end up sitting on my shelf forever. So, to try to strike a balance, I’m going to try something new. Well, not totally new, we toyed with it a few years ago with the RSTVMO Saturday Singles Series. We are now going to be a lot of records in this new “Made to Order” format.
Made To Order Production on select releases:
To give everyone at least a week to order, and to prevent having a ton of money tied up in records that don’t sell, we will now start doing one-week preorders on some items before we make them. So, here is the formula for copies produced: Number of Preorders + 10 (to sell after the preorder) + 33% free to the artist copies + 5 PIAPTK Archives copies. And that will be it. Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mam/Man. Then it will take a couple weeks to get them together and shipped out (but I guess that’s nothing new around the PIAPTKsphere, unfortunately (but always remember, we never slack… delays are almost never within our control. PIAPTK is a label that’s never sleepin’ run by a dude who’s always creepin’)).
Not all releases will fit into this model, but the plan is to try to use it for any release that fits. For right now, we will have two series’ that will be done this way:
2x10” Album Series: This will be a series of albums that I love that will be issued/reissued on double 10” lathe cuts, made to order after a one week preorder. Some will be new albums, some will be older albums that have been important to me, but they will all be (in my eyes) total classics.
The first two in the series are:
1a) FOXX BODIES – ST Album 2x10"
Foxx Bodies are a Tucson Riot Grrl/Boyy band. They rule and are taking Tucson and the West Coast of the US of A by storm. They are coming to a town near you very soon, and if you like angry womyn and dudes with facial hair/facial glasses playing surf influenced garage punk, you would be foolish to miss them. But just as a primer, pick up their ST Debut album on Double 10” in gatefold chipboard sleeves with tip-on style full color foldover.
Listen to some audio here: https://soundcloud.com/piaptkshop
1b) Lee Baggett & Graves – ST 2x10"
Lee Baggett is a weirdo, a shredder, a chiller, a gardener, and an all around incredible sweetheart of a surf/skate/hang dude. He’s got a weird Neil Young Meets Daniel Johnston type of hippie outsider vibe that always makes for some challenging, but rewarding, listening. It exists in between the realms of what you understand about music and that which is beyond you, but it glides back and forth between these zones quickly and fluently, creating a feeling that never quite lets you drop your guard, but permeates your psyche and massages your soul. It sometimes feels like he is channeling an AM Radio station from an alternate reality. Years ago PIAPTK released a 3 EP set called Summer Grass on three 10”s. Since then, Lee has been busy going back to school, playing with Little Wings and occasionally recording some things here and there. (Check out his excellent split with Bob Thayer on Curly Cassette). But, in honor of the oncoming fall and retreating summer, Lee teamed up with Greg Olin and The Graves to record Lee Gull and The Graves, an ode to the disappearing warmth of another year. Greg adds his silky smooth, sexy chill stoner lounge production and musicianship to Lee’s Gram Parsons on Acid songwriting style resulting in a beautiful new masterwork to usher in the winter.
Listen to some audio here: https://soundcloud.com/piaptkshop