SCOTS and New Vinyl!!

The company I work for, Max Media, has just purchased 4 more radio stations on the Outer Banks. That means I now have 8 total to run/manage. With the acquisition I have had little time to devote to Comboland Radio (a continuing theme in my notes). But I do try to work on it when I can. I do still look for material and have had excellent success recently.

I the world of vinyl record collection the grade a piece receives for the seller is important. NM stands for "near mint", VG is "very good". Then you have the "+" and "-" signs added to the grade to give an even better idea of the condition of the record. VG+ and VG++ are usually decent enough for a decent digital transfer and restoration. The Holy Grail for any collector is an SS, or "still sealed". Those are un-opened and therefore un-played!! Still sealed copies of old albums can be quite valuable. For example one of my favorite sites has a SS Beatles "Rubber Soul", original pressing, mono, and a rare promotional sticker on the cellophane. It recently sold for $6500. This same site has an SS "butcher cover" "Yesterday And Today", mono for sale right now for $47,500.

I'm not sure if any of the "Comboland" records will be worth quite that much in an SS state but I have found quite a few of them recently. They include:

X-Teens - X-Teens (1st LP)
Sugarcreek - The Creek
Bad Checks - Innocence
Southern Culture On The Skids - Southern Culture On The Skids (1st LP)
Brice Street - Imagination
Othermothers - No Place Like Home

The X-Teens disc is the second SS X-Teens LP I have purchased, the first about 10 years ago... a copy of "Love And Politics" I played it once to transfer it to digital.

I would love to think that one of these LP's would increase in value to an "Butcher Cover" price but I don't see that happening. So I will open them at some point. I've been considering getting a new phono cartridge and stylus so I will wait for that. As I already have copies of most of those LP's there isn't much new to add to Comboland Radio. However in the case of a few of those I will have much better copies with a lot less restoration needed.

Other recent purchases will make there way to Comboland Radio. Earlier solo works of Chris Stamey have been largely absent but I have tracked most of them down and will be adding selections from them soon. I mentioned SCOTS in my last post. They have a new CD/download coming out soon, plus a re-release of "Too Much Pork For Just One Fork". The SCOTS 45's released through the years offer some nuggets not otherwise available. I have obtained quite a few of them, including one which was only given to guests at a wedding. Supposedly only about 150 were pressed. One side is SCOTS performing "Wedding Bell Twist". A cool tune which I know SCOTS fans will dig.

I am contemplating a bit of a change in direction for the Internet radio station. While I am not going to abandon new bands and music those show the most interest in Comboland Radio seem to come here for the older material and for the new material from those artists. Especially in the Triangle there are great outlets for the newer bands, like WKNC. There are also folks there who can keep up with the new scene much better than I can from my outpost in Kill Devil Hills. While I enjoy the mix of new and old it is probably too broad for most folks tastes. There are no big changes yet but certainly on the way soon. Comments and suggestions are welcome!