Vinyl Lessons and Favorite Acquisitions

Foreign.

Welcome to the Syndicate X Library. I'm Chris Collins and we love books, but we also love vinyl and hi fi here at the library today. I just wanted to go over my favorite vinyl moments of 2024 reissues and then a couple, you know, just insights or lessons that I've learned. So we'll start off.

This UHQR release of the Doors LA Woman. Now I buy everything that UHQR puts out, even if it's a band that I'm not interested in. I just get it and try to understand it. I. I have a. A system or kind of a game that I play with myself is if other people really like something or it's popular and I listen to it and I don't get it, or I forced myself to listen to it at least three times all the way through because familiarity helps you kind of understand a lot of times. And so I was excited about this Doors LA Woman.

Because, I don't know, a lot of their stuff is kind of more progressive or jazz, which I love, but I'm probably a rock guy at heart.

And so I got it. It came interestingly, it was in a different kind of box. So usually their boxes have like this sleeve, but this one is a box. It's more like.

Other, you know, labels in the way that they do it. But it's a box, which I thought was interesting.

It looks weird on my shelf with all the other UHQRs. But I listened to it and like most of their releases, I was like, okay, this is really good. And I played it for a bunch of people and I listened to it and I like, you know, really, really dug it. Riders on the Storm is kind of my. My favorite song on here just because.

I don't know, the Weather Channel meets rock music. Just really cool how the. This, the actual storm comes in and out of the song.

Then I see somebody whose YouTube channel I subscribe to and I watch his videos, which is Michael from In the Groove. He has a record shop in Phoenix, Arizona, and he put up his review of this album.

Basically, he didn't. He didn't like it. He explained that this is one of his favorite albums of all time. Maybe he says that this album was.

The reason why he got into vinyl, something like that. But the album is. Is something that he holds very special and he knows a lot about it. Has a bunch of different pressings. Now, previous to this, I had the Doors box set and that's the. The one, you know, the ones I was listening to. So this was different.

And so he he's going through his review and basically he's just trashing it, you know, towards the middle, he's like, nope, it's not how it should sound. And he's kind of explaining it. And so, you know, this pressing, which I acquired after watching his video, is the one that he says is the better of of all of them. And I think this one's a 45.

Yeah, it's a 45.

So I got it, I ordered it because he, you know, he knows what he's talking about and I wanted to learn and understand. So then I did an AB where I ABed him and I. I beat it for a bunch of people to see if they can hear the difference. And, yeah, it's a huge difference. I get it. This is. This feels less compressed.

And it's just mass. Yeah, it's master different. The mastering makes it sound like a different album. And so I haven't gone back to this since.

And I. I learned something and I. I love it. Like, I love it that he was honest about his feelings and that he was very specific in what he thought was different. Because then I had a road map when I listened. And it's great. Like, I thought it was really, really fun. And it was a. It was a way to have a connection with this album that I might not have had otherwise. So thank you, Michael from the In Groove, for that. By the way, if you ever go to Phoenix, you should stop by his record store. It's really cool. I went. He's got a lot of great stuff. I wish there was a record store like that here in LA where you could get.

That broad of a mix. Most of the stores here in la, even though we have a ton of them, don't. Don't have the hi Fi stuff. It's just hard to find the good stuff. Next one is this UHQR Exodus by Bob Marley.

I don't even know how to explain it. It's just incredible.

The pressing, how it's, you know, Bob Marley, that album.

But you just can't. I don't know. For me, I just take the needle and go back to the beginning on that side over and over again. And then I'll flip it and I'll do the same thing. But I probably do it three times. Every time I put this on, I just listen to the same side.

Just sonically.

It'S an incredible piece of work. So if you haven't experienced this, you will not regret picking this up. Then a couple other ones that came out. It's this Bill Evans.

There's actually two that came out.

It's great. I get it. It's worth, you know, it was worth having. Same thing with Love supreme here by John Coltrane. I. I thought the pressing was.

Really good. It's not my favorite Coltrane album.

Yeah, I don't know how UHQR works. Like, I wish I could have a vote in what albums they do. Like when they did the White Stripes, I thought that was so great. There's so many albums out there that I wish somebody would put this sort of attention into and press them like this. But.

It'S great. Okay, now let's go to.

This release. So they re released. Mark Lanigan.

Bubblegum. I can't believe some. Some of These albums are 20 years old. It makes me feel so old. I got this out of the uk, though. You couldn't get this in the us. You could buy the album here, but not this one with.

All of these different vinyls. But it's got a great book in here. I actually emailed a guy who owns a record store in London and convinced him to sell this to me.

Because they sold out quick. And I saw a couple on ebay, but they were crazy what they were going for.

But it's. I. I love this so much. This. If you haven't heard this album. Well, depending on your style, like, I've played this year in the library and the team always is kind of like, this is depressing. I think that was the comment. Like this. This, you know, isn't the mood. It's kind of my mood for sure. But Mark Lanegan is by far and away one of the best.

Let me say that a different way. He has one of the best voices.

Ever. Like, he could sing any.

And he did. If you, if you're not familiar with him, check out the Soul Saver stuff. He did some of the stuff with Greg Dooley with Twilight singers. It's great. But I love this. I love the book that it comes with. And then there's a couple vinyls in here that have songs that are harder to find.

That are just singles. You can stream them, but you can't get them on vinyl. So.

Really, really fun acquisition. Next one is they redid Loud Love finally. So Soundgarden Loud Love. When I was in high school, my buddy Jay.

Loved this album and I listened to it and I didn't get it. And I was kind of more into metal, that sort of thing. And then he convinced me to go to their concert at the Moore Theater. So we lived on the other Peninsula So we would have to ride a ferry across. And I think we're like 16, 17, but we do this all the time. We would go wait in line at Ticketmaster, get the tickets. There was a Tower Records out where we lived on the peninsula, so that's where we would wait in line and get them. Then we would ride the ferry over, walk to wherever the concert was in Seattle and then walk back. And we had to catch the last ferry going back, which was usually 12:30 or 1:00 clock in the morning, something like that. And so this was one of those concerts. He convinced me to go. We bought our tickets. We were sitting way up high in the Moore Theater, like, you know, nosebleed, basically. But the Moore Theater is kind of small, so you can still see really well. But this was the first concert I'd ever been to where there was no laser show or curtain drop or anything. Like they literally just walked out, looked at each other and then started playing. And there, there's a song on here.

That.

I believe was the first song. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong, but it's gu.

And the song kind of like gets slower as it goes. It's, it's. It's really cool. But, you know, after this I think Soundgarden got a little more commercially friendly and they definitely took off. And Chris Cornell is unique amongst singers and Matt Cameron, who now plays for Pearl Jam, incredible drummer. They, they were amazing. But this to me is the kind of the last time they were like a Seattle grunge band in that sense.

And there's a connection to my childhood. And it's a great pressing. The pressing sounds really, really good and some of the songs sound like you're hearing them for the first time.

You know, just it being remastered that way. Next one is Massive Attack Mezzanine. They re released it. The pressing that you can get right now. This is really good. If you've never experienced Massive Attack Mezzanine.

I don't know. This album is probably 30 years old, but it sounds like it could have been made today. But this is what trip hop sounds like if you do it on two inch.

Like it's not, you know, it's. It's not Pro Tools. This is before Pro Tools was.

Good, you know, before everybody was using it.

And you've. If you're not familiar with Massive Attack, you've heard songs off of this album because they've been in movies and TV shows. But this is, is the perfect album. Like from beginning to end, you're going to go on a journey and you'll just listen to it over and over again, but it's, you know, it's up there with. With some of the best albums ever. Next is they re.

Press these from the Masters, Jellyfish, Belly Button and Spilled Milk.

Like, I. I have pressings of these and like, I don't know if they were doing it during a recession or what, but the vinyl is so thin and so flimsy and they. They don't sound good. These sound great. They're. They're remastered, so they're different than what you stream or what I was used to. You can hear the separation between the instruments a lot more.

And I don't. How would you explain Jellyfish to somebody who hasn't heard them before?

I guess Beetle esque a little bit. They're unique and they. They made other albums, but these two are.

They're in a league all their own. It's pop, it's poppy. But I'm so glad I like. This would have been one of the ones I would want UHQR to do, like, especially.

Well. Man, it's. You know what? It's hard to say that because I was gonna say Belly Button, but I would do both because they're. They're nuts. Like, the.

Work that they put into these albums and the.

Instruments and.

Production is.

Something that you don't hear anymore. It's just incredible. Jellyfish. If you haven't checked them out, check them out. Pick those up if you. If you can. Next one is a redid Mad Season. This was a little side project with Lane Staley From Alison Chains McCready from Pearl Jam, some others. Lanigan sings on a couple of these songs. Mark Lanigan does.

Sounds so good. This pressing. As soon as I put it on, I was like, oh, feels. Feels like Seattle. Feels like home to me.

But it's great. Really, really good. And then there's like some bonus stuff on here with Lanigan, but Mad Season.

Really cool that they redid that. Another one that I picked up, Beastie Boys, Ill Communication. The. The pressing on here is great. There's other stuff in here and there's a book, but I really just go right to the album and listen to it. I got check your head when they did it and then this is as good. Sonically incredible.

And then here. Here's one that I really only listened to one song on this album, but it's worth the whole album, which is Cortez the Killer. So this is Neil Young, Crazy Horse, and.

The second song on side one, Cortez the Killer is one of the best guitar rock songs of all time. And this, this pressing.

Guy had an older one, but this is really, really well executed. And yeah, like I said, it's really the only song that I listen to on here. But maybe once every other week, like a couple times a month, I put this on and listen to Cortez the Killer. If somebody wants to hear My System at Home, oftentimes this will be the song that I'll go to. If they're into rock, if that's kind of their.

Palette, because they've probably never heard the song. And it builds. I mean, the vocals don't come in for quite a while, but it's just got like a cool vibe and it just pulls you in and it's almost hypnotic before the vocals start it. The only other there's a song by Paul Simon that you. You can only stream called Stranger.

That the one of the guys that worked with like Kanye and in some hip hop stuff, I forget his name, but he produced it. That song is like this too, where it's hypnotic and then the vocals don't come in for a long time. And when by the time they come in, it's. It's just like the perfect, you know, setting for it. It's. The vocals have been set up really, really well.

This is like that.

Then the last one that I have here. Oop. It's trying to run Away is this album that they put out by Satchel called the Family. So Satchel is the band that Sean Smith was in before.

He and Stone Gossip from Pearl Jam Cross created the B band Brad. Sean Smith has a bunch of incredible solo stuff. If you just go to YouTube and type. Type in Sean Smith.

Sopranos and watch that trailer that they did for the Sopranos in between seasons for his song Lost in a Memory, it's. It's incredible. That's Sean Smith. He's a. He's a, you know, kind of icon in Seattle, passed away. So I should have said the late Sean Smith.

And kind of. I think what happened is when Pearl Jam started to take off, Stone Gosser from Pearl Jam got his own label, signed Brad to it, and then they made some. They would make albums in between what he was doing with Pearl Jam. But Sean did solo albums. He did stuff with Satchel and then he had a couple other projects.

And so this is produced by Stone Gossard and Matt Wallace and co produced by the Satchel Partnership.

But it's great. Like I have. I think I have every Brad album on vinyl, even the harder ones to get but just, I don't know. Sean Smith's voice and his songwriting, I just love. So if you've never heard of Sean Smith or Satchel or Brad, check him out. Like, you'll, you'll, you'll like it. Like, he's really, really good. And his, his, his solo live stuff is a great place to start too, because he was a incredible piano player. So those are kind of my 2,024 vinyl lessons and highlights. If you have any that were special to you, please put it in the comments because I'd love to learn something and I'll see you next time.