The Dead C – DR503c (Flying Nun) 1999
I thought I’d post on this for two reasons.
The first is that I’m always a little nervous when delving into a great bands early output (a reason for my unease: I recently bought The Boredoms Oanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols. Holy shit, I’ll post on that one later). For the Dead C you can’t get much earlier than this. DR503c contains four tracks from the band’s debut Flying Nun LP, two from the cassette-only release DR503b, two from the Sun Stabbed EP, the entirety of the 15-minute Perform Max Harris cassette, a live version of “Sun Stabbed” and one previously unreleased track “Crazy I Know,” recorded in January of 1987. For the most part it is pretty great. Lots of lo-fi avant-rock gems. It’s certainly not as experimental as Future Artists but anyone who really likes the first disc of Vain, Euridite …. really needs to track this down.
Unfortunately this, like Eusa Kills, and about half of The Dead C’s back catalogue, is out of print. Most of Birchville’s releases are sadly out of print as well. I would start a record label just to make sure that anyone who wants a copy of Our Love Will Destroy the Earth can get one. And this brings me to my second reason for posting. Can someone tell me why great, even important, records go out of print? Is it really so hard to keep something in print. Is it really so expensive for a record company to every now and then get some of these made. A case in point is my search for a copy of Killdozer’s For Ladies Only which doesn’t cost me more than 50 bucks. Touch and Go hasn’t bothered to keep any of their records in print. Hey I realise that Killdozer weren’t the most popular band out there but fuck it, they did do the best Neil Diamond cover ever.
Seriously how much does it cost to keep a record in print. I really want to know.
Ducks Battle Satan 
November 9, 2007 at 1:06 am
I’ve got a few copies of For Ladies Only on vinyl that won’t cost you more than $50, I swear! Send me an e-mail if you want one.