Mazzy Star on vinyl

General discussion about Mazzy Star

Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Sat Apr 19, 2014 4:15 am

Homeostasis: I wonder if extra hassles of ordering vinyl from the U.S. may dissuade Irish (& other European) record stores from ordering some records in from the U.S.for Record Store Day -? I hope you find one via mail order okay.

I just heard the complete studio single version of "I'm Less Here" & saw the complete video for it online. You can watch all 4 minutes+ of it at yt, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQhNp5 ... e=youtu.be

The video has a few similarities to the so-called "fan made video" for "In the Kingdom" which is rumoured to have been made by Colm O'Ciosoig, & maybe he made the "I'm Less Here" video. I'm pleased to see Mazzy Star's "totem animal," a cat, makes an appearance near the end, & just might be Hope's & Colm's cat "Herman" who got a mention in a 2013 Mazzy interview (or maybe one of their other cats if they have more)!

-Later Update,8am,Record Store Day: No record stores are open yet at this early hour here, but here's some info tweeted by Mazzy fan Vanessa ( @freeseasons ), QUOTE: "Mazzy's 7" is in both clear and green vinyl. Holy Jupiter! The clear is limited to 3,000 copies."
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:26 pm

Was anyone more successful than me in snagging a copy of the vinyl April 19? Unfortunately, stores were sold out by the time I arrived. Someone knowledgeable about Record Store Day informs me there may be a wait of about a week before stores are allowed to sell RSD releases by mail order, & that next Saturday might be a good day to start looking for mail order copies. Maybe a digital release will be out soon too. Since the green edition vinyl reportedly isn't limited, we'll hope it's easy to get hold of. Someone kindly let me hear a 30 second clip of "Things" from a vinyl rip, definitely a song I've not heard before. It's electric guitar based instead of acoustic like "I'm Less Here," but it's not the full band.I saw a photo of the back of the sleeve of the 7", & it credits just 3 musicians on two-song single, Hope, David, & Colm O'Ciosoig.

Judging by changes in Hope's voice of recent years (slight deepening, & slight alteration in style, e.g. doing more note bending & stretching on single syllables nowadays on newer songs, such as when she sings the word "things" on "Things") compared to the 1990s, my guess is the studio version of "I'm Less Here," which we know is a 1990s song, was likely recorded in the '90s (& may have been slated for the album "Among My Swan" as the song contains that mysterious line). "Things" sounds like a more recent Hope recording. She sounds great on it.
Last edited by Hermesacat on Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Emma » Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:24 pm

I wasn't able to find a copy of the RSD vinyl either. Being in Europe, I knew it would be difficult to get my hands on this release.
Has anyone tried to get a copy on Ebay? I checked the Ebay site and there are more than 20 copies currently on sale... with prices ranging from $5 to $99 :o .
Let's hope the release will be available through mail order next week. I'm looking forward to listening to the brand new song "Things". :)
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:36 pm

Emma: Some gouger is trying to get $99 for the single via ebay?? Good luck with that. I don't care much whether I get the limited edition clear vinyl instead of the "less exclusive" greenie. And it seems likely the green one, at least, & perhaps the clear one too, will be easily available from record stores by mail order at a decent price.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:15 pm

Good news, Emma & others! A generous benefactor has provided a 320kbps MP3 recording of the B-side, "Things", ripped from their own vinyl copy, & has given permission for it to be shared in the forum. So, those who missed out on buying the vinyl so far (like me), or who don't have a turntable, can have their curiosity about the B-side satisfied. I've re-upped it to a file hosting site where anyone can DL it, here:
[Later Update: The link's been retired/removed as Mazzy Star is now selling, as of May 20, official digital DL versions of both songs of the single]

The link I was provided for the original vinyl rip file was apparently for a streaming link, not a link to a file one can actually DL to ones computer. At least,I couldn't figure out any way to DL it instead of stream it. So I recorded the stream as it played with an audio stream recorder. My first attempt & first upload I posted a link for here was terrible quality, much worse than the original stream, which I didn't realize till later. But I found a better way to record it (I wasn't used to using the recorder yet) & the new link above sounds very good. All the crackling noise of the first attempt is gone.

Anyone wanting to hear the original stream of Vanessa's vinyl rip can access it from where she upped it, here: [Later Update: The link's been retired/removed as Mazzy Star is now selling, as of May 20, official digital DL versions of both songs of the single]
The site asks for your email address & emails you a link where you can listen to the stream. It says you're only allowed to access the file once on your computer, which I think means if you close its window/tab, or close your browser, it won't let you re-access it. There are ways around this though by removing their cookie, & using a different email address next time. That's how I got to re access. But you can listen to the song repeatedly so long as you keep that browser window/tab open. Btw, I avoid that optional software ("Illivid", plus some player) the site, & some other file hosting sites, try to get you to DL.

Many thanks go to Mazzy fan Vanessa, who I know from Twitter (Vanessa @freeseasons), for kindly sharing her audio file. Thank you Vanessa! I'll leave the links up in this post until a legit digital version of the song is for sale, then they'll be retired. I hope all who DL the file above will also the purchase the official vinyl and/or digital release, when available, to support the band.

The song sounds like it's just David & Hope, with David playing simple electric backing chords behind Hope's singing. Minimalist, yes, but with the band having a singer/writer as talented as Hope, hey, who does "minimalist" better than Mazzy Star?
Last edited by Hermesacat on Wed May 21, 2014 9:17 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:23 pm

I just read a correction from Vanessa re. the clear vs. green copies of the vinyl single, as if there are two choices.She says she was mistaken. There's only one version after all, the so-called coke bottle clear one.It has a slight greenish tinge to it, & some others referred to a "green" version, which is what threw her off, making her think there were two versions.Now that I'm reminded of it, I recall glass coke bottles that were clear, but with a green tinge.So, it looks like 3,000 copies only is what's being issued, after all, in one colour.

Be sure to read my prior post from earlier today for a new DL link to an audio file of "Things."
I may as well add it here too: [Later Update: The link's been retired/removed as Mazzy Star is now selling, as of May 20, official digital DL versions of both songs of the single]
I updated the info. in it with the new DL link, different than the first file factory link I posted here today. The new link is for a new file that has far better audio quality than the first one that was full of crackling sounds.
Last edited by Hermesacat on Wed May 21, 2014 9:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Wed Apr 23, 2014 1:14 am

Anyone who DL-ed the MP3 audio file I posted a link for earlier today for a vinyl rip of Mazzy Star's new single's B-side "Things" received a very bad audio quality file. I was still learning how to use my new audio stream recorder, & didn't realize how bad the first result was till after I'd upped it & posted a link. Then it took me a while to figure out how to fix the problem. You can replace it with a much improved file I've upped to filefactory in its place, here:
[Later Update: The link's been retired/removed as Mazzy Star is now selling, as of May 20, official digital DL versions of both songs of the single]
The bad file's title is: Mazzy Star - Things - B-side vinyl rip 2014, 320kbps mp3

The new file's title is: Mazzy Star -Things B-side, vinyl rip 320kbps MP3 converted mp3
If you have the bad file, dump it, & DL the new one.
Last edited by Hermesacat on Wed May 21, 2014 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Spoon » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:46 am

Hermes - Thanks a lot for the link to Things!

I am lucky enough to have a friend in California who found and bought the single for me. This will tide me over until it arrives although I don't really have the capabilities of playing vinyl so this will have to do anyway.

How is everyone liking the tunes???
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Hermesacat » Thu Apr 24, 2014 2:20 pm

Here's an additional upload of "Things," this one in FLAC format:
[Later Update: The link's been retired/removed as Mazzy Star is now selling, as of May 20, official digital DL versions of both songs of the single]
This one seems to be slightly better audio quality than the MP3 version upped earlier although I didn't realize it till now. Vanessa's original 320kbps MP3 stream I recorded in lossless WAV, then coverted to lossless FLAC, which is what the new upload here is.

The file upped earlier was an MP3 as converted from the FLAC file. But it appears (according to my Winamp player) that it plays at 256kbps, a diminshment from the 320kbps of the original, for some reason.*The FLAC version will have no diminishment in quality, & appears to be best of the two. At 11.4 MB, the FLAC one's a larger file size than the MP3.
* [Later Update: I think the audio converter I used, Freemake, is limited to producing 256kbps MP3s, which is the second best MP3 bit rate. But today I found & tested a different audio converter that converts FLAC files to any MP3 quality one prefers, including 320. It works fine. I posted info. on where to DL it in the boots list thread (in the boots list itself), in case anyone's interested in it].
***********************************************************
Spoon: No problem. It was nice of Vanessa to share her vinyl rip, & to okay my re-sharing it in the Forum. She started out by posting a link to just a 30 second snippet of the song, but, thankfully, ended up going the "whole hog," & upping all 3 mins.+ of "Things."

Some Mazzy Star songs grab me completely the first time I hear them. A few others I get to like more with repeated listenings. "Things" is one. "Common Burn" was another one like that. It took a while for its magic to work fully. I like Hope's singing & melody on "Things" more the more I hear it. "I'm Less Here," I always liked from the two live versions I know. It's nice having a studio version, plus an official video.
How do you (& others?) like the single?
Some of Hope's words on "Things" I find hard to discern. Has anyone figured out the lyrics yet?
Last edited by Hermesacat on Wed May 21, 2014 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mazzy Star on vinyl

Postby Emma » Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:27 am

Many thanks to Vanessa and Hermesacat for sharing "Things"!

Hermesacat wrote: There's only one version after all, the so-called coke bottle clear one.It has a slight greenish tinge to it, & some others referred to a "green" version, which is what threw her off, making her think there were two versions.


Here are a few pictures of the vinyl. (Click to enlarge.)

Image Image Image Image Image

Spoon wrote:How is everyone liking the tunes???

I like both songs even though I wished there had been more arrangements/instrumentation. The organ, the percussions, and the electric guitar (?) you can hear in the live version of I'm Less Here (Copenhagen 2000) were dropped in the studio version. "Things" is also a very stripped down song... That being said, I am pleased to have new material/studio versions to listen to!
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