Vinyl: My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade as a regular double LP and because both the music and artwork are incredible, I had been looking for it. Chuck found it down at Sound Garden and called to see if I wanted him to pick it up or...there was this incredible box set of The Black Parade as well. I just couldn't justify the $50 though and told him to hold off. He didn't though. Instead, he picked it up for me as a thank you for some work I'd done on his site. The $50 price tag crossed a line for me, but, while my heart was in the right place, my head wasn't. Fortunately Chuck's was and now I have what is probably the nicest item in my record collection.

  

The box features two LPs, both on 180 gram audiophile vinyl and two 15 page booklets, all in a slipcase. So what you say? Well, first of all, the booklets fold out and when sat next to each other, form the Black Parade itself. The CD might have the same image, but this one is 12" by 48" and it is hauntingly beautiful...and huge.



Inside, the booklets don't feature a bunch of band photos and lyrics, but a two volume Making of the Black Parade. The first is the story of how the album was conceived and created from the concept to the music to the artwork. The second is track by track commentary from the band about what the album means to them. Both maintain the artistic excellence of the standard artwork, keeping the same antiqued pages and sepia images.






All of this fits into a slipcase that is equally beautiful. The box isn't just a haphazard bunch of extras thrown together to make an expensive package, but a piece of art that provides both style and substance. Is it worth $50? Every penny. (Especially since it was Chuck's pennies.) Oh yeah, they only made 2500 of them.

Vinyl: Bad Brains - Build a Nation 7" Box Set

Last year, Megaforce Records released the Bad Brains' Build a Nation on fantastic red, gold and green vinyl. That sold out, but there is still cool Bad Brains vinyl to be had. On April 1, they released the Build a Nation 7" box set. It consists of four records (one red, one gold, one green and one picture disc) and a poster. If that's not enough, there's also a bonus track (sorry CD buyers).
  

Vinyl: Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

Deloused in the Comatorium is one of the most incredible debuts I've ever heard. The vinyl is almost as stunning. Yeah, it's silver. It didn't photograph all that well, but you can see it better in the close-up. I also like how they left the labels blank.

Cool Vinyl: Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

I picked up this copy of the Simple Minds' New Gold Dream on ebay. I don't remember any marble vinyl like this as early as 1982, but apparently it did exist. Even by today's standards when there's so much great colored vinyl out there, this one looks really nice.

More cool vinyl...

Here's another piece of cool vinyl from my collection. This one is from Montreal punk rockers, Fifth Hour Hero.



It's hard to tell in the first picture, but you can see that it's clear with bits of color when I hold it in the sun.

The record was released by No Idea Records who always puts their best foot forward with the colored vinyl and completely outdid themselves here.

Bad Brains on vinyl!

For those of you stuck buying it on the inferior compact disc format, here's how cool the new Bad Brains album is on vinyl:

Maybe I should give it another point just for a great package (and because the colors are like my dreams: red, gold and green).

We've all seen Enhanced CDs...

...but what about Enhanced LPs? Check this out.