Back in 1994, I signed up (and paid something like US$36 in advance) for a subscription to New-Jersey-based i-Sore records' 5" record club. I was indie-vinyl-crazy at the time, and I had never seen or heard a 5" record before (it's the same size as a CD, folks). i-Sore promised to mail me a new one every month for a year, featuring all kinds of up-and-coming indie bands, so I was pretty excited. I received the first record on time, the second one was late, and records 3-12 never arrived. I emailed the i-Sore guy to complain, and he apologized for the delay...he claimed he was having trouble getting the vinyl pressed. He claimed there was only one place in the US that pressed 5" records, and they were a Christian outfit, and they weren't happy with what they were being asked to press. Or, at least, this is my reconstruction of what he told me. I could be wrong (you are getting your facts from a guy whose head is covered with vinyl, after all). The guy was also fielding lots of complaints from subscribers who were having a hard time playing these little suckers on their automatic turntables. Indeed, everytime I tried to play mine, the tone arm would lift up and auto-return to its cradle. It was really annoying. Luckily, I owned another turntable, this sprite green number here...
...and it was able to play 'em...until sadly, it broke down.
When my new USB turntable arrived, I was disappointed at first that it wasn't automatic (and that it doesn't come with a dust cover...geez). But the good news is that I am able to play my two 5" records on it, so I've now converted all four songs to mp3. The January Lambchop/Spent 5" and the February(?) Babe The Blue Ox/Nectarine 5". By the way, if you're wondering how long of a song can fit on a 5" record, well...the longest of the four I have is 3:36, and of course, all of them were recorded at 33 rpm to squeeze as much music on as possible.
Even more sadly, after waiting more than a decade to be able to listen to these songs in a convenient format, I realize...none of them are especially good! Nonetheless, I'm gonna share 'em with you over time here on YSKOD. And if I don't, assume I have been struck down by the i-Sore curse/conspiracy.
If anyone out there knows more about the whole sordid i-Sore records scandal, please post a comment. I couldn't find anything about it on the web (although I did find a Lambchop/Spent 5" for sale on eBay for US$5...no, not mine). I feel sorry for the i-Sore guy. He had a great idea and he meant well, and everything turned to rat shit for him. If you're reading this, Mr. i-Sore, it's all water under the Bayonne Bridge.
Enough yap. It's time for an outwardly expanding sequence of B-bands here on YSKOD. We shall begin with Babe The Blue Ox's "Zero Gravity", from the i-Sore Record Club 5" released in 1995. It's an acoustic number. The singers don't lisp; I probably should have adjusted something on my turntable. But what? Pitch or anti-skate? Anyone know?
2 comments:
One of the worst bands I have ever seen. I don't remember much in the way of details (I think there was at least one girl in the band?), but they were terrible.
I remember going through the SAME spiel with that guy from i-Sore and felt completely ripped off and cheated. Hopefully the guy that ran that club is now working at a Wawa or something. Fucking prick.
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