Vinyl Me Please Anthology

Teeeee said:
Thank you for asking that.

And I was going to ask about Stax. Are there not any women that could be included? I honestly don't know, it's a legit question. @TCell - you seem pretty knowledgeable about it. Was Stax just not known to have many women artists?
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I figured I would clarify before commenting that it appears the only way to include women in anthology is to have one dedicated to the women of a specific label.
 
JonnyH said:
I figured I would clarify before commenting that it appears the only way to include women in anthology is to have one dedicated to the women of a specific label.
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I'm going to give voldemort the benefit of the doubt because this is only their 4th anthology. (I'm not sure why I'm giving them the benefit of any doubt though, they have 4 years worth of track records with me and they don't deserve that benefit but I'm feeling generous today). I know nothing about Ghostly, maybe there aren't many female artists on the label (which if so, shame on Ghostly!). Blue Note and Stax aren't known for their female artists.

It will be a watch for me at this point.
 
JonnyH said:
I figured I would clarify before commenting that it appears the only way to include women in anthology is to have one dedicated to the women of a specific label.
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That may be true but that's a bit unfair given the second Stax release Storf did was Carla Thomas which came after an Alice Coltrane Classics selection. Also a tad bit ironic given there was derision over VMP even doing a "Women of Motown" Anthology as the verbage was offensive to some.
 
Teeeee said:
Thank you for asking that.

And I was going to ask about Stax. Are there not any women that could be included? I honestly don't know, it's a legit question. @TCell - you seem pretty knowledgeable about it. Was Stax just not known to have many women artists?
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The most important woman at Stax was Estelle Axton, who was the co-founder of Stax (with her brother Jim Stewart, hence the name St-Ax) and fundamental in it's early growth.

As others have said, the two star female artists at Stax were Carla Thomas and then Mavis Staples, both of who whom VMP has released albums by in the past, and have a multitude of recent reissues by. And while I know there's the new Staples Singers box set ($150), I am surprised they didn't do Mavis' Only For the Lonely, which isn't part of the Staples box and hasn't had a reissue.

The other notable female performers at Stax (Shirley Brown, Jean Knight), had "Hit singles w/ filler" albums that could've been included. Jean Knight's Mr. Big Stuff album hasn't been reissued. I legitimately don't understand why this wasn't a pick over whatever the Eddie Floyd album is. And Brown's Woman to Woman was reissued in 2013 so they probably could've included with the Anthology. Feel free to include it in your BYO Stax Anthology, as it's still available online at a reasonable cost.

TL : DR - I understand why they went all male, but there were probably a couple albums they could've swapped in if they wanted, in Jean Knight's Mr. Big Stuff and/or Mavis Staples' Only For the Lonely.
 
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Storf's answer:

storfer

Official VMP Employee2 points·6 minutes ago

  1. I would argue there are no second tier Eddie Floyd releases.
  2. The last one we carried in the store, and the other two Stax has plans with. And we already did the Carla Thomas album that would have made the most sense for Classics. Wasn't an intentional thing to do all men, just ended up that way. Where Women of Motown felt like a guiding principle that gave the box set a cohesive form for celebrating Motown, the Stax box is celebrating Stax, which had something like 98% men on its roster. Just sheer odds thing happening, really.
 
mdmost said:
Storf's answer:

storfer

Official VMP Employee2 points·6 minutes ago

  1. I would argue there are no second tier Eddie Floyd releases.
  2. The last one we carried in the store, and the other two Stax has plans with. And we already did the Carla Thomas album that would have made the most sense for Classics. Wasn't an intentional thing to do all men, just ended up that way. Where Women of Motown felt like a guiding principle that gave the box set a cohesive form for celebrating Motown, the Stax box is celebrating Stax, which had something like 98% men on its roster. Just sheer odds thing happening, really.
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Yeah, I can't really fault voldemort for not having women in the Ghostly or Stax box sets when the actual label did nothing to advance women in the industry.

That being said, it would be nice to see voldemort supporting labels that support and actively advance women.
 
botherly said:
Any individual Otis albums you'd recommend instead of the full box?
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Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul of Otis Redding. I love pretty much everything he's put out, but this compilation is one of my favorite albums of all time. Not a greatest hits comp, but rather a themed comp. It's amazing, and can be had for cheap:

Otis Redding - Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul Of Otis Redding [LP] - Amazon.com Music

Otis Redding - Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul Of Otis Redding [LP] - Amazon.com Music
www.amazon.com
 
Teeeee said:
Yeah, I can't really fault voldemort for not having women in the Ghostly or Stax box sets when the actual label did nothing to advance women in the industry.

That being said, it would be nice to see voldemort supporting labels that support and actively advance women.
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Which labels would that be exactly?
 
JonnyH said:
Were any women musicians in the ghostly box?
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There are a handful on the compilations, but it's also complicated. If you think rock music has underserved women, electronic music really lowered the bar historically. They're out there, and there appear to be more than ever before, but it's been truly male-dominated. I do think Ghostly has gotten somewhat better at signing female artists, but that also meant they all have recent enough pressings to not work for this box. Taken as a whole, this Anthology is a fairly good look at the early history of the label & what made them stand out. It probably still wasn't as complete as it could have been because so many records have been reissued. I think VMP probably stepped up because it was the 20th Anniversary. The other label that might have made sense in that regard, Merge, has already covered their beginnings (the 20th Anniversary oral history book, Our Noise) and been doing their own special subscriber-only releases for the 20th, 25th, and now 30th Anniversaries.

All the guesses in this thread point to my problem with them choosing Stax, as I predicted - maybe a couple of genuine gems, but also a handful of albums that deserve to be reissued but don't really fit the concept of a label Anthology. They're only included because the one that would be a better fit was already done (perfect example - The Soul of A Bell). While I don't care as much for Motown, I appreciated the focus not just due to it being all-women but also because it told a specific story. It's disappointing that VMP has already gotten to the point of 'cramming square pegs into round holes to justify issuing a box set' because it speaks to a lack of creativity. No matter how awesome Stax is, if the execution can't match the concept, it shouldn't have been forced.
 
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Teeeee said:
Yeah, I can't really fault voldemort for not having women in the Ghostly or Stax box sets when the actual label did nothing to advance women in the industry.

That being said, it would be nice to see voldemort supporting labels that support and actively advance women.
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tbh I doubt there’s the will to do it at VMP. Out of 36 RoTM albums this year only 7 were women as solo artists or bands which were led by women or where the majority of the members were women. That’s only just over 1 in 6 which is pretty weak considering that most people I respect think that they should be striving for 50/50 in such things. I think we can file that in the oversized cabinet in their office titled “things we must do better”.
 
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mdmost said:
Which labels would that be exactly?
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I'm going to also give the benefit of the doubt to the point of this question.

I'm not in the record issuing business, so I'm not hugely versed on this. I would hope that the people that are in the record issuing business actually do some research on this. Because a very very quick internet search of this revealed the following list from the first hit I visited. And I know this list is not exhaustive. So it seems with very little effort, someone issuing albums would be able to support women.

Amateur Pop, Inc.
Ambrosia
Arbutus Records
Arrowhawk Records
B4 Sounds
Bayonet Records
Beyond is Beyond is Beyond
Bikini Kill Records
Bitchwave
Bubble Bath Records
Buffet Tapes
Chatterbot Records
City Slang Records
Club Queen Records
Cultivated Sound
Danse Noire
Decemberism
Deep Sea Records
Dero Arcade
Dove Cove Records
Earth Libraries
Ethereal Beatbox
Etruscan Gold Ltd.
Eye Vybe Records
Fake Accent
Father Daughter Records
Feel Trip
Femme Culture
Fixture Records
Future Audio Graphics
Get Better Records
Grimalkin Records
Grind Ethos
Heavy Blossom
Hospital Productions
Infinite Weed
Jacktone Records
Lazy Tapes
London Field Recordings
LV Music
Knife Play – Curating from Hell
Knock Em Dead
Merge Records
Midwest Action
Mindrider Records
Minimal Wave
Mom + Pop
Mount Analog
Mutual Aid Records
Naive
Never Normal Records
New York Trax
Nicey Music
No Rent Records
No-Tech BK
The Nothing Song
Objects Limited
OK Tapes
Paralaxe Editions
Peach House Records
Plan B Recordings
Rice is Nice
Righteous Babe
Sargent House
Sister Polygon Records
Sleep Well Records
Soap Library
Spinster Sounds
Spirit House
Stay Tropical
Sub Pop
Substitute Scene
Swamp Circle
Thrill Jockey
Trans Trenderz
Trouble in Mind Records
Unheard Records
Vain Mina Records
Wild Flesh Productions
Yesmissolga
Zhe Rocks
 
Teeeee said:
I'm going to also give the benefit of the doubt to the point of this question.

I'm not in the record issuing business, so I'm not hugely versed on this. I would hope that the people that are in the record issuing business actually do some research on this. Because a very very quick internet search of this revealed the following list from the first hit I visited. And I know this list is not exhaustive. So it seems with very little effort, someone issuing albums would be able to support women.
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Not sure why I wouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt on the point of that question as I really had no idea which labels that would be. I thought about saying Sub Pop as that's one that VMP has produced exclusives from and is a rumored label that might be an Anthology later. I was genuinely asking what labels those would be that you think VMP should be doing an Anthology for.
 
mdmost said:
Storf's answer:

storfer

Official VMP Employee2 points·6 minutes ago

  1. I would argue there are no second tier Eddie Floyd releases.
  2. The last one we carried in the store, and the other two Stax has plans with. And we already did the Carla Thomas album that would have made the most sense for Classics. Wasn't an intentional thing to do all men, just ended up that way. Where Women of Motown felt like a guiding principle that gave the box set a cohesive form for celebrating Motown, the Stax box is celebrating Stax, which had something like 98% men on its roster. Just sheer odds thing happening, really.
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That is a weak-ass answer from Storf. He's the main guy curating and is the editorial director; he has a say in how things end up.
 
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