Vinyl Me Please Anthology

TCell said:
When I asked Storf about this last week I got this:

“Hopefully soon. We announced it bc Herbie wanted to make a splash for his birthday, which was far in advance from when we might have announced otherwise. Summer is young though, so hopefully soon.”
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Yea--I thought it was really weird to announce that early and then do the GD box...it did kinda seem like they only announced it because of his bday and for no other reason hah. But whatever Herbie wants!
 
I finally have gotten around to listening to the Zamrock podcasts and I have to say, I'm really enjoying them! I never bothered with any of the others because I never got any other box so I can't compare it to those and I'm not sure if there's any added value but it's really informative and I'm enjoying the inclusion of music throughout!
 
4080 said:
I finally have gotten around to listening to the Zamrock podcasts and I have to say, I'm really enjoying them! I never bothered with any of the others because I never got any other box so I can't compare it to those and I'm not sure if there's any added value but it's really informative and I'm enjoying the inclusion of music throughout!
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Nice! I gotta check them out. I think my dislike of the Blue Note ones have stopped me from listening to this one.
 
MikeH said:
Nice! I gotta check them out. I think my dislike of the Blue Note ones have stopped me from listening to this one.
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I like it because it's all made of clips from the artists talking about their music and the scene, sort of like the documentary! It also has music playing throughout which I personally love but others might find distracting but they do play a lot of songs throughout as well!
 
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
 
MikeH said:
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
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Yep. Not the best idea.
 
MikeH said:
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
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Considering this box is most fitting for people with lighter knowledge of the Dead (despite it being extremely cost-prohibitive for most newcomers), I’m not really opposed to the podcast hosted and through the lense of those also with limited exposure. Some of the complaints about Storf podcasts is that he speaks too much, fanboys, and interjects with his own knowledge a bit too much. Likely won’t be the case here, and the experts will be given much more time to speak.

And I could have missed something but did Storf and Amileah actually do the curation or just the podcasts? Because I do agree it would be very silly for them, or any newcomer, to actually pick the albums (especially the live ones) but saw no indication that was the case.
 
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wynn72 said:
Considering this box is most fitting for people with lighter knowledge of the Dead (despite it being extremely cost-prohibitive for most newcomers), I’m not really opposed to the podcast hosted and through the lense of those also with limited exposure. Some of the complaints about Storf podcasts is that he speaks too much, fanboys, and interjects with his own knowledge a bit too much. Likely won’t be the case here, and the experts will be given much more time to speak.

And I could have missed something but did Storf and Amileah actually do the curation or just the podcasts? Because I do agree it would be very silly for them, or any newcomer, to actually pick the albums (especially the live ones) but saw no indication that was the case.
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Based on the titles, it seems to have been curated by a newcomer. And Storf has been heavily involved in every box set’s curation so far. I wouldn’t mind them doing the podcast either because it could be an interesting angle.

As a relative newcomer to the Dead, I would have signed up for this if it wasn’t for the prohibitive cost as you mentioned. I’m guessing the licensing was a crazy price though. Pauly recently hinted on reddit that it hasn’t sold well at all and they have plenty of slip mats left. @jamieanderson1968 i feel like they did lose a ton of money on this. Will be interesting to see if they put it on sale at some point. Can’t imagine the cost of having 5000+ 14LP box sets sitting on shelves. They haven’t really updated when the boxes will ship right? I’m starting to wonder if Herbie will be the last box or even come out at this point.
 
MikeH said:
Based on the titles, it seems to have been curated by a newcomer. And Storf has been heavily involved in every box set’s curation so far. I wouldn’t mind them doing the podcast either because it could be an interesting angle.

As a relative newcomer to the Dead, I would have signed up for this if it wasn’t for the prohibitive cost as you mentioned. I’m guessing the licensing was a crazy price though. Pauly recently hinted on reddit that it hasn’t sold well at all and they have plenty of slip mats left. @jamieanderson1968 i feel like they did lose a ton of money on this. Will be interesting to see if they put it on sale at some point. Can’t imagine the cost of having 5000+ 14LP box sets sitting on shelves. They haven’t really updated when the boxes will ship right? I’m starting to wonder if Herbie will be the last box or even come out at this point.
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Yeah not sure what they were thinking. Id have to assume licensing was so expensive that they had to sell 6k at this high price to turn a profit, and they were so excited by the idea of doing a Dead set they didnt think about if that was really possible and it was worth doing from a business perspective .

I agree they’ll probably lose alot on this one and it is probably a nail in the coffin to Anthology (the main reason I think the original more tracks plan is coming back).
I just wonder what their plans are for all these unsold boxes. As someone who did purchase, it will certainly hurt to see a massive sale on it, but it’s got to happen to at least recoup some costs.
 
NewsFedora said:
Herbie will sell better than the Dead anyways. Jazz cats have more disposable income than Dead heads.
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Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here.

I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.
 
wmeugene said:
Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased Live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here. I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.
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As the only person who bought this I look forward to receiving my numbered 1/7500 box. And my slip mat. Also numbered 1/7500.
 
wmeugene said:
Not necessarily true. Look at the resell value of the Dead archival releases and the healthy market doing so. 14lps of unreleased live material on vinyl would have sold like hotcakes, even at that price.

Problem is this set was picked by a bunch of people who had no idea a) what makes the Dead special and b) what Deadheads want. Most Deadheads don't care about the studio albums and that stuff has been packaged to death. And Storf clearly doesn't know what he's talking about because the contemporary live albums really aren't reflective of the live shows. Except probably Skulls & Roses, which isn't even on here.

I'm sure the powers that be at Grateful Dead Merchandising laughed all the way to the bank at this idea that VMP would pay a premium to release American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and Live Dead for the hundredth time. Without A Net is the only rarity and that was thrown in literally for that reason and that reason alone.
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Yea...it's still baffling to me. It was too expensive for most people new to the dead (like me) to find it accessible. If this was $250 like the others even if it had less albums in it, I would have hopped on it for sure. I'm not sure who put this set together and thought "yea--we'll sell over $3,000,000 worth of this box set!". The bigger number pressing also made less people buy it I think. Had this been 1,000-1,500 I think it would have sold out within a week.

@wynn72 - I'm sure you will like the box though. I don't doubt the quality of the records will be good. I've gotten the BN and Zamrock boxes and the records + box were both great quality. I haven't been disappointed yet by the actual music + vinyl. Podcasts were always a throw in for me as were the other little things. But I have actually loved both Anthologies I have gotten. I just truly wish the price point was less on this one because as someone who didn't own any Dead on wax prior to this, it's been really fun exploring their catalogue and picking up a few choice live and studio releases.

I was trying to remember how long the other box sets took from purchase to arrival but can't quite remember. Plus they likely have delays from pandemic and every week feels like a month at this point hah. Hopefully they mail yours out soon though!
 
MikeH said:
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
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“They are the rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are of being of fan of them.” What does this mean? I’m not trying to be funny or sarcastic.

Also, I think the idea of selling something so expensive that really only works for people who aren’t yet fans of the band doesn’t seem like a smart business model.
 
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