…and we’ve got Omnivore vinyl giveaways every day this week!
I like to say we do things here at TVD in a very transparent manner. If we’re fans of your band, let’s get them on the site. If you have a brick and mortar record store, you get a free ad. If you’ve got a Kickstarter in the works for a project we endorse, let’s have that be known. Playing a gig? Let’s get the word out.
So, it thrills me to no end to kick off Omnivore Recordings Week here at TVD and to place a spotlight on the semi-new record label out of L.A.
“Our business plan is not to screw the fans,” Omnivore’s Brad Rosenberger told the L.A. Business Journal recently and with that simple and straightforward manifesto, the label has garnered our attention with a meticulousness when it comes to its mastering (or remastering) of a given project, the quality of the vinyl pressings themselves, the attention to design, and the all but forgotten liner notes and details for any release that bears their logo.
Initially however, Omnivore impressed us with their taste level—Big Star and Alex Chilton, Jellyfish, The Motels, Richard Thompson, Leon Russell, Buck Owens and more, have all been given the Omnivore reissue treatment.
Omnivore has dug into their ever expanding catalog to give us a stack of records that we get to put in your hands all this week—and we’re kicking it off with Alex Chilton’s Free Again: The “1970” Sessions Limited Edition LP/7″ Bundle.
One winner will receive the clear vinyl LP Free Again: The “1970″ Sessions and a special 7″ of the original mix and demo versions of “All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain.” Both versions are previously unissued and the single comes in a special picture sleeve, and is limited to 500 copies.
Some background on Free Again via the Omnivore Store: “In the latter months of 1969, somewhere between the moon landing and the start of the Vietnam draft, the concerts at Woodstock and Altamont, Alex Chilton decided to take back his life. During that annus mirabilis, while the world experienced a generationally sparked social, political, and cultural upheaval, the 18-year-old Chilton was in the midst of a revolution of his own.
For the past year, Chilton had been strapped in a creative, professional, and personal straitjacket. He was the lead singer of a million-selling band, The Box Tops, but felt like little more than a puppet of the group’s producers. In the era of free love, he’d been pressured into a shotgun marriage and fatherhood. And he’d ultimately come to see himself as the pawn of an unscrupulous business machine, sent to grind it out on the road in a series of silly lip-synched TV performances and one-night stands while someone else cashed his checks.
As he entered the studio that summer to make his first solo recordings, the man who would come to define the very spirit of musical independence was still bound in chains. At a time where liberation and self-expression were rallying cries, Alex Chilton was about to break free.”
So, how do you win the bundle, you’re asking?
In the comments to this post, appeal to Omnivore’s (and TVD’s) taste with a suggestion as to the artist or band who most deserves the meticulous Omnivore reissue treatment—and why. Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire us!
One winner will be chosen a week from today (1/16) and will find the vinyl in his or her mailbox and as always, all winner must have a North America mailing address to be eligible.
