V/A – 7″s For Planned Parenthood

Politics aside, this box set was released in 2017 and was done so to raise funds for Planned Parenthood. It features a star studded track list, and includes 10 7” records, all pressed on pink vinyl. When it was first released the only place to buy it was a directly from Planned Parenthood via their website, and it cost a whopping $100 before shipping. Over the years they never lowered the price, never ran a sale; nothing. Then all of a sudden it was removed for sale for whatever reason. I’m not sure when it was pulled for sale however. I stopped checking in on it after several reputable indie record stores started listing copies for sale on Discogs.

 Not only was music featured; but stand up comedy was as well, which was all recorded at the same club. The likes of Foo Fighters, Björk, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Elliott Smith, Chvrches, and Bon Iver all contribute songs. With Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Tig Notaro, Pete Holmes and Janeane Garofalo contributing stand up tracks. Only a handful of songs were released digitally. I bought this for the Foo Fighters song, which is exclusive to this release. Though it was one of the songs released digitally. Their song is “Soldier.”

Regardless of the fact that this was a charity release, it was expensive, but not overpriced. It cost $100 and has 10 records in it; so $10 per 7”. And that is not even counting the massive book that is included; a fact that is inexplicably not mentioned anywhere about this box set. Nor is that break down factoring in the box itself, which people often forget does cost money to not only manufacture, but design as well. Though odds are since this was a charity fundraising release, almost everything involved in the artistic side of was donated, and Planned Parenthood likely wrote off all their expenses regarding this box set because they are a 501c tax exempt, non-profit entity. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the $100 price tag included shipping, which would have been a lot considering this is a heavy box set. But again, Planned Parenthood would have wrote that expense off too.

I mentioned above that after a while some indie record stores started selling copies. I’m not sure what happened here. Sure, some people likely traded in copies in various conditions. But for a while there were far too many copies listed for sale by indie record stores to account solely to people trading in copies. The copy I bought, in September 2022, was listed as used (I don’t remember what the store graded it), but it was still factory sealed. The store had it listed for $50 before shipping, which was surprisingly less than $4. Since Planned Parenthood pulled this for sale, it’s likely OOP. Prices on the secondary market have begun to catch on to this, as sellers are asking for more than double original retail price. But the going rate is actually far less than original price as of posting this.

Pressing info was not released, and likely never will be. All copies had every 7” in the box set pressed on pink vinyl. Each of the 10 records come in their own sleeve with unique artwork on each side of the sleeve to reflect each artist. Some of the artwork on each side is very similar to each other, while others are drastically different. All of the records feature two songs; the track listing on Discogs is wrong. Yet another reason that Discogs is not the end all be all. For example; whoever submitted it has the 7” featuring the Foo Fighters song being single sided (M), when in actuality their song is found on the a-side of disc 7 with the b-side featuring Zach Galifianakis’ contribution, which Discogs has listed as the first track on the disc 8 (N1). And the best part is, this entry has been wrong for going on five years. And odds are nobody (myself included) will ever edit the release info to make it correct and/or accurate because Discogs is so tedious and cumbersome to submit or edit releases.

David Cross – Oh, Come On

David Cross’ sixth album; Oh, Come On, was pressed as a double LP. Thankfully this was not released by Stand Up Records, who overprice most of their releases. Instead it was put out by Comedy Dynamics. I mention that because considering this is a double LP, and Comedy Dynamics and David Cross are only charging $20 for it; Stand Up Records would charge more than that. But with that said, David Cross is selling autographed copies of this album for $35; why his signature cost $15 is beyond me.

For whatever reason the label does not sell vinyl, so the only place to buy this directly from a source is David Cross’ web store. This record is distributed to some extent, but it’s hard to find. I got lucky and stumbled across it from Target when they were having one of their buy two get the third free sales. Not as good as a BOGO, but I was still able to get every record I ordered (and it was a large order) for between $12-15 shipped.

Pressing info has not been released for Oh, Come On. But all copies were pressed on yellow with green blob, with the blob being around the center label, as is usually the case with “blob” variants. A download card/code is included with the record.

Oh, Come On is a better album than … America… Great… But that was not a tall task. It’s still not his best album, but I laughed a good deal. Which is all you need from a comedy album. One weird thing, the label says it was recored during a performance in Asheville, North Carolina, but in the opening track he thanks Birmingham. Now I am a whizz in geography, and Birmingham is not in North Carolina…

David Cross – … America… Great…

David Cross’ fifth album, released in 2016, is overly political. There are a handful of tracks with very little comedic value because they’re mainly there for Trump bashing and/or soap boxing. Politics has always been the low hanging fruit of comedy. And after 2016 it’s only gotten worse. We’ve all heard the Trump jokes, several times over. I don’t care for politics whatsoever. I’m not pro or con any party, candidate, issue, etc. I buy and listen to comedy albums to laugh. And there were a handful of tracks that simply were not funny at all; they were just a guy’s opinion on politics.

Given the title of the album; …America…Great… I don’t know what else I expected. I have a complete David Cross collection going, and genuinely enjoy his material, even his voice over work on Futurama for example. This album was not his best work. Also, the irony is not lost on me that this was recorded during a performance in Canada…

This album was released by Stand Up Records, who tend to overprice their records, and not only that, charge more for certain variants because they’re either rarer or on colored vinyl. But mainly because they’re rarer. To make matters even more ludicrous, pressing info for the variants has not been released.

There are three variants for America…Great…, and as you’d expect from my last statement, each one is more expensive than the last. Kicking things off is the $45 variant; the tri-color pressed on red, blue and white vinyl. I wish I was kidding when the label charged $45 for this. Considering David Cross sold this for $50, with a slipmat and the jacket being autographed (the …America… Pretty Good? Bundle), or with all the aforementioned items plus a trucker hat for $75 (the America… really, really, great! Bundle); the price the label charges is ludicrous. And yes, the label did, for whatever reason, place the colors on the record itself out of order from the well known, and proper red, white and blue.

Next up is the yellow/orange variant, which is half orange/half yellow split diagonally down the record. The order of the colors I listed is what the labels calls this variant.  This one cost $25 (before shipping) and as far as I can tell is only available directly from the label, I’m not sure if David Cross’ store ever sold this variant.

Lastly is yellow, or “piss” yellow. The label uses both to list this variant. If you order a copy of this record from anywhere other than Stand Up Records or David Cross’ store, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a copy of this variant. But with that said it’s somewhat tough to find from a distro. This variant cost $20 before shipping from the label, and $30 with a slipmat from David Cross’ store.

All copies come with a download card/code. Other than that this release is barebones. It’s just a record stuffed into a single pocket jacket.

I bought this for $12 including shipping. In other words ridiculously cheap. And I’m glad I did because like I said in the opening paragraph, this is his worst album to date.

Kyle Kinane – Loose In Chicago

Kyle Kinane’s latest album, Loose In Chicago, was recorded at The Metro and released on vinyl as a double LP on translucent blue vinyl. It comes in a single pocket jacket, which is a disappointment considering two of his other albums were released in a gatefold jacket. A download card is included for high quality 320 kbps MP3s.  There is a black circle hype sticker placed on the top left corner.

Some of the jokes on Loose In Chicago are older ones that were released on previous albums. An interesting thing Kinane did with the track listing is have them be random food, ingredients, condiments, or elements found in food; like “Beef,” “Corn Syrup,” “Mustard” and “Sodium.” The track listing printed on the back of the jacket reflects this randomness, as instead of having it printed in a numbered sequence or each track on a separate line; the tracks appearing on each side are listed out in order in one line, separated by commas.

The album was released by Comedy Central Records, and pressing info has not been released for it.  As far as I know it was only pressed on this translucent blue color. If you’re a fan of Kyle Kinane’s standup, you’ll enjoy this album.

Kyle Kinane – Death Of The Party

Kyle Kinane’s debut album, Death Of The Party was first released in 2009, but didn’t see the light of day on vinyl until a few years later in 2012. It was released by Stand Up! Records on three variants; white with black haze limited to 100 copies, half white/half clear with black splatter limited to 100 copies and black limited to 300 copies. The haze was a tour exclusive, while the splatter was partly a 2017 Black Friday Record Store Day exclusive. I say partly because it was finally put up for sale online on Black Friday 2017. It was not an actual RSD release sold in physical indie record stores. Based on Pirates Press record of the week blog, where this record was featured back in 2012, all three variants are pictured, Stand Up! sat on this variant for over five years.

Retail price on Death Of The Party, is a bit squirrely in my book. The two colored variants cost $25, while the black variant cost $20 (all before shipping). It’s nice that the label eventually put up the splatter variant for sale, but it’s not cool that they charged $5 more for it. And it’s not just that colored variant they charged more for, it was both colored variants. One of my pet peeves is colored variants costing more than a black variant. I understand it’s a bit more expensive to press colored vinyl as some plants charge extra set up fees, especially the more extravagant variants like splatters, swirls and hazes; but it doesn’t come out to $5 per record. Clearly some labels don’t up-charge for colored variants, which means if you’re a label that can’t afford to press colored vinyl but want to anyway because you’ll just charge more for that variant(s); please don’t do it. Vote with your wallets people.

As of posting this the only variant not sold out is the splatter, but according to the label (where I got the pressing info from) there aren’t many copies of it left. So if you’re looking for this album and aren’t willing to wait looking for a better deal, you should jump on buying it from Stand Up! Records now. This is one of the harder to track down Kyle Kinane records, which is partly due to how long ago it was released, with the other part being how limited it is compared to some of his other releases. While his album I Liked His Old Stuff Better was a RSD release only sold in a select few record stores since it was one of RSD’s “limited/regional release” releases, there were more copies of that pressed; 1,000 copies. But with all that said, prices aren’t crazy for Death Of The Party on the secondary market. You can actually pick up a copy for less than original retail price, at least the black variant. The problem is, copies rarely pop up for sale. I bought a used copy for $15 shipped off ebay.

Death Of The Party is probably Kinane’s weakest album. Not to say it’s a bad album, it’s just not as funny as his later efforts. While I found myself hysterically laughing at least once per every track/bit on his later albums, there were a handful of tracks/bits on this, his first album, that I wasn’t even laughing. The album was recorded live on 8/21/09 at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. The final track on the album, (B5) is a bonus track not listed anywhere on the release (CD or vinyl version). Though it is included on the download card found with this record, with the track entitled “Live At Budokan.”

Patton Oswalt – Annihilation

As Netflix attempts to expand and diversify their offerings, they have gotten into the stand up game by signing loads of comics for exclusive stand up specials, with Patton Oswalt being one of them. For Record Store Day 2018 they (along with Comedy Dynamics) released the only audio release for his newest special; Annihilation.  The special was initially released (video) in 2017, and to date audio files have still not been released in CD or even MP3 form. So they only way to listen (not watch, because obviously by watching you can listen as well) is to buy this record and spin it.

Annihilation was pressed as a double LP on black vinyl, limited to 1,000 copies. Apparently the jacket, which is a lame single pocket instead of a gatefold, has black light artwork. But I can’t confirm this as I don’t own a black light. Original retail price on it was around $25, but as time wears on prices have started to drop significantly. You can easily find this on the secondary market for around $15 (before shipping). This record appears to be one of the RSD releases caught up in the post-RSD mark down frenzy, as stores take stock of what they still have left three months later.

It’s no secret that Patton Oswalt is my favorite stand up comedian, but I think Annihilation is his weakest effort to date. Not that it’s an awful special/album; by comparison it’s bad. Maybe it’s because this was his first special/album after his wife’s death (a topic he tackles in this special/album) but for whatever reason, this is my least favorite of his specials/albums thus far. Though there are elements of brilliance found scattered throughout it, as it appears that the spotlight will not be closing on Patton Oswalt anytime soon.

Mitch Hedberg – The Complete Vinyl Collection Box Set

With the popularity of vinyl you get some surprising releases. One such release is the Mitch Hedberg box set. His entire discography, even though it’s only three albums, is found in the box set, along with a “36 page” book and a USB drive containing both audio and video files that span his entire career.

Strategic Grill Locations, Mitch All Together and Do You Believe In Gosh are the three albums in the box set, which the title of is The Complete Vinyl Collection. They all feature alternate artwork than their respective original CD releases. Strategic Grill Locations is the only album in the box to be a double LP, and the only one to come in a gatefold jacket as well. The jackets for each record is very thick, probably the thickest in my collection and that I have ever seen. All the albums are on standard weight black vinyl, and none come with an insert. Which is not surprising because these are comedy albums, so what exactly would they put on an insert? Transcripts of the set?

The box itself is a slip case, which is made well. It’s sturdy and fits the records and book perfectly. There is little room for the records to jostle around, which is good because otherwise there is a risk of damaging the jackets. But after seeing the superior quality of the jackets, I think they could be put in the dryer and come out with no seam splits. I think the printing of the jackets is done reverse board style, but I’m not 100% sure. There is a long, vertical hype sticker on the front of the box, which almost stretches from top to bottom. And the spines of each jacket match, which brings a clean look to the box set as they face outward.

The book is on the large size, 13”x13”, but it’s not actually 36 pages. Unless of course you count the front and back covers, which are not actually pages. There are only 34 pages of actual content. It features full color photos, writings from Lynn Shawcroft, Mitch’s widow, and “essays” from fellow comics Mike Birbiglia, Margaret Cho and Doug Stanhope. I say “essays” because they’re literally a couple paragraphs long. This blog post is longer than those “essays.” Both the front and back covers are designed to look like one of Mitch’s notebooks, with the front being the front and the back being the back of the notebook.

The USB drive, meant to replicate a credit card, can be found inside one of the jacket pockets of Strategic Grill Locations. Apparently some people had some trouble finding it. How I don’t know. Maybe they expected it to be loose inside the box. It wouldn’t surprise me if these people don’t actually play their records. But had they actually explored the contents of the box completely the USB drive would’ve been easily found. I had more trouble figuring out how to open the drive. It looks like it might slide or pull out from the plastic, but it folds open. It’s an odd and flimsy design, and I strongly advise having something underneath it to support it when you go to plug it into your computer. Otherwise it might actually break off.

Along with MP3 files of the three albums in the box set, the USB drive features MP3 files of an additional performance, Opening For The Neville Brothers. This Neville Brothers set is actually two performances from 1995, an early and late show. It’s not broken down into separate tracks, just one long audio file for each set. Two video files are also included on the drive, Premium Blend from 1998 and Mitch’s 1999 Comedy Central Special. There are lots of complaints about the playback quality of the videos, ranging from lag, random artifacts during playback and that they never worked at all. One person chimed in saying he copied the video files to his desktop and they played fine. Other people tried that method, with one saying it worked while another said it didn’t solve the problem.

I tried both methods, playing them directly off the USB drive and copying them to my hard drive. First off, both videos do in fact work, not matter where you play them from. The first video, Premium Blend, has artifacts in the form of green bars and blobs, which only happens at the beginning of the video. That is the only place they appear. This happens whether you play them directly off the USB or off your hard drive. The second video, the Comedy Central Special, has no problems, no matter where you play the file from. Both videos are a bit grainy though, but it’s not out of the ordinary as these aren’t in HD. They weren’t filmed in HD and they were upscaled for this box set either. I suggest using VLC Player for playing videos, as it’s able to not only play a wide range of video file types (MP4, MPEG, etc.) but other files such as audio files as well.

The box set is advertised as “limited edition,” but the exact number of copies pressed has never been officially released. Discogs has a number, which I won’t post here because everything on there is not only user submitted, but edited as well. So any info found on there may not be accurate. Like I said, an official number has never been made public. I only post pressing info when I can substantiate it, as in from an official source like the label or band/artist.

Retail price when this box set first came out in November 2016 was $100. As time went on the price has dropped, but not by much. Amazon, the apparent official retailer of the box set based on the press release Comedy Central Records sent out, is now selling copies for $90, which is pretty much the cheapest you’ll find this. Most places selling this are between $90-100. I was able to nab this for $73 shipped after taking advantage of a $15 off coupon on ebay.

Kyle Kinane – I Liked His Old Stuff Better

Despite Record Store Day (RSD) growing in size and notoriety, some releases don’t get on the official list for whatever reason. Yes, RSD does reject releases. And yes, RSD does prevent many an album from getting pressed in a timely manner. Often times those releases end up coming out on RSD despite those hurdles, they’re just no on the official list. One of those releases from 2015 was Kyle Kinane’s I Liked His Old Stuff Better. This record was not on the official list, in any of the subcategories. But with that said not every store got in copies for whatever reason, but it had nothing to do with RSD allotments.  My store did not get copies in, but it wasn’t limited to certain parts of the country, it was available at stores all  over the country.

I Liked His Old Stuff Better was pressed as double LP on clear vinyl, housed in a gatefold jacket. The jacket has a matte finish and its nice quality. The gatefold has an old photo of Kyle Kinane on one panel with liner notes on the other panel. There are unique center labels for each side of the record, though they are just different shades of the same color. Sides A/B are green an sides C/D are red. The records themselves are in thin glossy paper dust sleeves; they’re almost like wax paper. I’ve never seen any dust sleeves like this before.

All copies come with a download card too. There is a vinyl exclusive bonus track, “Sold Out, Suck It,” which is the only track on the d-side. Not sure if it’s available on the download card though, because when I entered the code I got an “expired code” error message. Apparently Drop Card codes expire after two years, which is an absurd policy. There is no expiration date printed on this Kyle Kinane download card (nor any Drop Card code for that matter), I only found out the expiration date by clicking on the help button on the download website. So buyer beware if you’re buying records that are two or more years old, as the download codes may not work. I’ve never had this problem before, no matter the download card host. And I’ve only ever actuallly seen an expiration date printed on one download card for a record I own, out of the thousands I own.

I did some digging and couldn’t find pressing info for this record. Had this been an official RSD release the amount would be published. When this originally came out the price was around $20. Prices have started to come down a bit, I got this for $15 shipped, but they’re not the easiest record to find. Though more and more copies have started popping up on eBay, that used to not be the case. Discogs has a handful of copies though. At this point you’d be hard pressed to find a brick and mortar store with copies.

 

 

Kyle Kinane – Whiskey Icarus

Kyle Kinane’s albums have steadily been released on vinyl, and his second album, Whiskey Icarus, was released on vinyl in 2014. The album was pressed as a double LP, and to my knowledge only comes on one variant; black with yellow splatter. I was surprised to see this come on colored vinyl. I fully expected it to be on black vinyl, especially since no color was mentioned anywhere. And I mean anywhere. No stores selling this, not the label releasing it (Comedy Central Records), not Discogs. Plus, I’ve never seen photos of this record prior to buying it. Since I wasn’t even aware it would come on colored vinyl, it should be no surprise that I don’t know how many copies were pressed.

All copies come in a gatefold jacket, and a download card/code is included as well. The gatefold is rather bland and pointless in terms of artwork/creative packaging. It’s a tiny picture of Kyle Kinane on each panel, set against an all black background. Rather than traditional paper dust sleeves, each record comes in card stock dust sleeves. And is there anything even printed on these more expensive dust sleeves? Nope. They’re completely blank. All they do is drive up the price of this release. Not that this record is expensive (around $20 retail), it just could have been cheaper. And should have without having the unnecessary gatefold jacket and cardstock dust sleeves. You’re not really getting a good bang for your buck here. Had there been nice artwork, or really anything better than what is actually printed inside the gatefold, and the same goes for the dust sleeves, the price would be more justified.

Kyle Kinane/The Slow Death – Under The Table #2 Split 7″ (1st Press)

Kyle Kinane’s albums have steadily been released on vinyl, even releasing a split 7″ with a band. Which may seem like an odd pairing until you consider the standup comic was briefly in Masked Intruders. The split, part of the Under The Table series (#2 in series), was done with The Slow Death, was released by Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club and Rad Girlfriend Records in 2014, and has already gone through a second pressing. What is featured here is the first pressing.

The first pressing was pressed on three variants; “black death” limited to 220 copies and “skunk-piss” yellow limited to 330 copies. If it’s not obvious enough, “black death” is simply black vinyl, and “skunk-piss” yellow is yellow. Translucent yellow actually, in a golden hue. Didn’t know skunks pissed in that particular shade of yellow. But it’s good knowledge to have. Especially when those trivia nights at the bar come around and every other table is stumped when the “what shade of yellow is skunk piss” question comes up.

But in all seriousness, the name for the yellow variant is inspired by the lone track/joke Kyle Kinane contributes to this split; “Skunk.” The third variant is a 2014 Awesome Fest exclusive, with the only difference making it a separate variant is that is comes with a different cover. The covers are apparently black and yellow, and those covers came with random colors of vinyl. I’ve never seen a photo of this Awesome Fest exclusive, so I have no idea what those exclusive covers look like. I’m just going on info posted on Discogs, which can be a double edged sword.

An insert is also included with all copies from the first pressing. I’m not sure about the second pressing. The second pressing was done on only one variant, “skunk stink” green, limited to 500 copies. The green is translucent.

If you’re looking to buy a copy of the split after reading this, you’ll likely get a copy from the second pressing. But with that said, I bought a copy from a distro about one month after the second pressing was released (I bought this a long time ago, June 2016, but just got around to posting this now) and got a copy on black vinyl from the first pressing. Needless to say I was shocked. I didn’t care what color and/or pressing I got, because I was able to buy this for $5 shipped.