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my friend's dad is starting a plant right now called Gotta Groove Records LLC in the Cleveland area.
No website yet.

He's a pretty determined person and he's purchased the equipment to be able to handle big orders, so hopefully in the next couple of years
he'll have established a good company. Probably comes down to wooing the right engineer, huh?

If you're doing a record in Cleveland, or starting a pressing plant there, you should be talking to Paul at Suma...

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Music Shit / Re: Crass Records

« on: June 15, 2009, 09:59:20 AM »

Wish those Bullshit Detector comps would get reissued...#1 is great in my book

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Music Shit / Re: Bottom Of The Barrel(or great dollar bin finds)

« on: June 10, 2009, 12:17:04 PM »

Quote from: neighborhoodwatch on June 10, 2009, 10:39:00 AM

M.A.N. is alright, but i will ride for detestation any day of the week. i probably listen to it once or twice a day. sometimes ill be drunk/stoned/whatever and randomly put on a song, after that i have to listen to the whole thing fuck

The real GISM item is the laserdisc. Never seen it, even a photo of it.

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Music Shit / Re: Bottom Of The Barrel(or great dollar bin finds)

« on: June 10, 2009, 09:38:16 AM »

Larry Holmes and the Easton Assassins, autographed, $0.25.

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New Releases For Sale/Distro Updates / Re: all the new 1977 Records 7"s now for sale at Smog Veil: $9.99

« on: June 09, 2009, 12:43:21 PM »

We got totally swamped with orders between the new 1977 stuff and our new Unknown Instructors release, but as of today, all are shipped.

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Music Shit / Re: Mirrors "Something That Would Never Do" LP

« on: June 06, 2009, 05:19:53 AM »

Quote from: SSR on June 05, 2009, 03:36:20 PM

Great about your office. And, yes, vinyl isnt green. But dont kid yourself that CDs/DVDs are. Both vinyl & the plastic used for CDs/DVDs are petrol products. Cds are also made of aluminum, the mining of which is as destructive, if not more so, than drilling for oil. Theoretically both CDs and vinyl are recyclable, however trying to find local CD recycling places is a bitch. None exist for vinyl. At this point, records are seen as something of value and people tend to keep them and resell them. The opposite is happening with CDs. They are routinely tossed, especially CDs overproduced for promotional reasons. If you wanna argue that downloads are "green", fine you have an argument there. But from the materials used to manufacture CDs/DVDs to the problem with CDs being seen a disposable, they are not "green" and there is nothing "sustainable" about then.

I agree with most of what you say. No one has the answer right now. No one knows how to make money consistently running a record label right now. For us, it's more than just the hard good, because among hard goods, it's a pick your poison deal. Each of the formats has it's limitations and negative impact. Obviously, everyone loves vinyl, but we just spent a trillion dollars to make sure the oil keeps flowing and you can't play them on your way to work. In a way, they're just as disposable as CDs, check out the dollar bin at Amoeba in LA. CDs are disposable, but solved a couple promotional and marketing issues, but still use natural resources. Downloads, although as close to invisible as you can get, lack a certain charm (but aren't entirely charmless judging by the number of people here who trade .mp3's, or by the standards set by Anthology, hearpen.com, littlehits (defunct?)). DVDs are just another animal all together. There's little alternative--indies aren't readily accepted by the download retailers. A carefully/lovingly packaged CD/DVD combo is a cool product--check out Dengue Fever's 'Sleepwalking Along The Mekong' for example. I've advocated, and said in interviews that I look forward to the death of the CD. When that happens, who knows what will be the way to sell, promote, and market music in a sustainable way. What Smog Veil did is commit to the idea and find a solution.

I'm thinking though that vinyl plus download will probably be the best way to go. That's why I'm pushing the plants to find a solution. I think it'll happen, and then I hope everyone follows along or finds a solution that'll work for me. I look at Smog Veil's revenues across al formats and can say with 100% certainty that the bands we have make way more net on downloads versus any other format. RFTT is the best example. The record did great, sold out 3 pressings, but even with the premium price, deduct out the licensing and mechanicals and the net isn't as big as you'd think. Hobbyist labels (well-intentioned as they may be) and bootleggers ignore those costs so make a larger net. We don't cheat the writers like that. Rubber City Rebels are another example. The LP (sub'd out to Munster) didn't sell worth shit, but we licensed a song for a video game, and that brought home the bacon. To this day that song downloads a thousand times a quarter. If a tenth of those kids bought the LP, it would be worth it, but didn't happen. Plus with downloads, you get paid every month. You don't have to chase a distributor for download cash. Add vinyl to that with a download code and I think everyone's happy for now.

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Music Shit / Re: Mirrors "Something That Would Never Do" LP

« on: June 05, 2009, 02:20:05 PM »

Quote from: Guy M. on June 05, 2009, 01:26:31 PM

Quote from: SmogVeil on June 05, 2009, 12:56:18 PM
As soon as the pressing plants figure out a way to do records 'green', we'll go back to it.

ROFL!
(as we used to say)

Well, Smog Veil has a certain set of principles we do business under, that we instituted before it became fashionable again to buy records, and we found that making records the way it's always been done doesn't fit within those principles. I guess we could have made more money producing a product that we have issues with, but, like I said we operate with a certain ideal in mind...if that makes us a laughing stock, cool, at least we made you laugh, and I always wanted to be a comedienne. On the other hand, when we redid our office a few years back, we invested in a couple solar panels and decided to stop mailing paper press materials, and will probably save enough on electricity and printed press materials this year to pay for 1 or 2 of our November releases.

That being said, we haven't just sat around and thumbed our nose at the records issue. We have searched for a way to make records from a raw material that is sustainable;: we are talking with 2 pressing plants about how to do a green record, and understand the largest of those 2 will be running tests with some alternate materials. We think that it'll happen and we'll be able to get back to records in time for our Laughner release.

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Music Shit / Re: Mirrors "Something That Would Never Do" LP

« on: June 05, 2009, 12:56:18 PM »

Quote from: CollectorScum on June 05, 2009, 12:14:39 PM

You're not going to make many friends here running your label as CD/digital only.

Quote from: SmogVeil on June 05, 2009, 11:36:37 AM
Quote from: I Am Not Marty Feldman on June 05, 2009, 07:57:52 AM
I hear Scat's also going to do an Easter Monkeys reissue of some sort.

As wonderful as Scat is, it's a Smog Veil project, CD/DVD deal, in the studio to master in June....should be out November 17, along with the Tin Huey early years retrospective (CD), and Pistol Whip retrospective (CD/DVD).

Haven't had a problem with that way of doing business for 18 years running. I do note that we haven't figured out a way to get video upon a vinyl record, hence the DVDs.

As soon as the pressing plants figure out a way to do records 'green', we'll go back to it.

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Music Shit / Re: Mirrors "Something That Would Never Do" LP

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:36:37 AM »

Quote from: I Am Not Marty Feldman on June 05, 2009, 07:57:52 AM

I hear Scat's also going to do an Easter Monkeys reissue of some sort.

As wonderful as Scat is, it's a Smog Veil project, CD/DVD deal, in the studio to master in June....should be out November 17, along with the Tin Huey early years retrospective (CD), and Pistol Whip retrospective (CD/DVD).

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