Tag: Box set

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lowest of the Low “Do the right now”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Lowest of the Low
Album Title: Do the right now
Year released: 2017
Year reissued: 2018
Details: Black vinyl, part of five album box set, autographed and limited to 300 copies, (box set includes booklet, lyrics sheets, poster, and stickers)

The skinny: The fourth instalment in this series featuring the five pieces in Lowest of the Low’s “Shakespeare my box” vinyl box set is the most recently released album in the set. It also happens to be the one with which I am the least familiar*. Released in 2017 after the band had already broken up and re-formed twice, “Do the right now” features a Lowest of the Low lineup that only includes two of its original members. Still, it is an album that feels very much in touch with what made their debut album, “Shakespeare my butt”, so successful and even includes two songs that had been written around the time of that album’s circulation but had never been recorded. Indeed, there is some excellent material here and even saw the Canadian indie stalwarts garner a tiny bit of exposure south of the border.

Standout track: “Powerlines”

*I say this with the exception of next week’s instalment but I will save this explanation for then.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lowest of the Low “Sordid fiction”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Lowest of the Low
Album Title: Sordid fiction
Year released: 2004
Year reissued: 2018
Details: Black vinyl, part of five album box set, autographed and limited to 300 copies, (box set includes booklet, lyrics sheets, poster, and stickers)

The skinny: So yeah, today marks four years that I’ve been going strong with this blog. I thought long and hard about doing some sort of special post but in the end, I opted instead for experimenting with the format of the site* and another instalment on this “Shakespeare my box” series that I’ve been working on. Disc three in this Lowest of the Low set, like last week’s focus, is another disc that is seeing its first pressing to vinyl. Originally released ten years and a breakup/reunion cycle after their previous album, “Sordid fiction” was welcome news to fans like myself and of course, I bought it as soon it was released on compact disc. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the album fell somewhere in between the folk rock sound of the debut and the harder edged sophomore album and yeah, it had all the great Hawkins/Stanley songwriting. And whenever I listen to it, I think of the first time I attended Osheaga back in 2012 because this album was always being played between live acts on the small “Green” stage.

Standout track: “A casual overdose”

*Perhaps I’ll get myself together enough to pull together a special 5th anniversary post next year…

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Lowest of the Low “Hallucigenia”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Lowest of the Low 'Hallucigenia' on vinyl

Artist: Lowest of the Low
Album Title: Hallucigenia
Year released: 1994
Year reissued: 2018
Details: Black vinyl, 2 x LP, part of five album box set, autographed and limited to 300 copies, (box set includes booklet, lyrics sheets, poster, and stickers)

'Hallucigenia' pronunciation

Box booklet 'Hallucigenia' blurb

Box 'Hallucigenia' stuff

Box lyric sheet reproduction Bit

Box booklet 'Hallucigenia' paraphenalia

Box booklet 'Hallucigenia' lyric sheet

'Hallucigenia' Black Monday lyrics

'Hallucigenia' insert 1

'Hallucigenia' insert 2

'Hallucigenia' inside gatefold

'Hallucigenia' back cover

'Hallucigenia' on the turntable

The skinny: Last weekend, I took the opportunity to do a Vinyl Love revisit of Lowest of the Low’s “Shakespeare my butt…” (my favourite album of 1991) and it also served as an introduction to the next four weeks of Vinyl Love posts. I finally broke down and purchased the “Shakespeare my box” vinyl box set just after Christmas this year using money received as gifts. The box includes the group’s first four records, as well as a bonus disc of rarities and b-sides, not to mention a 24-page full colour booklet and various other goodies. No regrets at all. The only reason I had put it off so long was because I already had the debut and hoped that the other albums would be released individually. “Hallucigenia” was a big part of why I finally bit the “Bullet”*. Interestingly, I was originally disappointed with Lowest of the Low’s sophomore album when it was released in 1994 but I grew to love it over time and many of these tunes became personal favourites in their catalogue. This first ever pressing to vinyl is done over two discs and side four, includes 3 B-sides that weren’t on the original release.

Standout track: “Black Monday”

*The pun was not intended but appreciated after re-reading what I wrote.