829 Records | US | LP | 2020
We just got word from Skafish central that the wheels are turning for the DLX RM on LP of the debut Sakfish album will be happening in roughly a month. You may remember the months long saga that told the tale of how Jim Skafish won back his masters from I.R.S. Records [or whoever owns them in today’s hellscape] and finally made the CD we’d all been waiting for last year. In this inverted landscape of vinyl primacy, making a numbered, signed LP in an edition of 500 makes some kind of business sense. I’m betting that this will raise Skafish’s artistic profile in ways that the CD simply couldn’t. To that end, here’s the full skinny.
On May 7th, the newly minted “Skafish” LP will be ready for shipment from the artist’s Bandcamp store. The LP will include the amazing bonus track, “Sink Or Swim” that the CD added to the original running order, technically in between sides one and two, in the same place it is on the CD.
Skafish: Skafish DLX RM – US – LP [2020]
Side 1
- Introduction
- Joan Fan Club
- Maybe One Time
- Obsessions Of You
- We’ll See A Psychiatrist
- Romantic Lessons
- Sink Or Swim
Side 2
- Work Song
- Guardian Angel
- Disgracing The Family Name
- No Liberation Here
- Take It Out On You
Example: bronzed American worker
Not to worry audiophiles, because the total run time of the LP is still a reasonable 40+ minutes. The pressing is deluxe with red vinyl in 180g with a full color inner sleeve with complete lyrics, and each copy is signed and numbered by the artist. It’s also encouraging that this disc surmounts one of my biggest “problems” with neovinyl in that this wasn’t pressed by proles in the darkest bowels of the former Eastern Bloc. Nossir, this LP was pressed by Bronzed American Workers® at Chicago’s Smashed Plastic Pressing! That’s right. Skafish has upped the ante to incorporate artisanal, locally-sourced vinyl for this release. He’s keeping the money in the local economy. Sample, please!
And if you buy vinyl for the look of it, the album comes complete with a lossless download of the music. If you want one of these, it’ll set you back $40, American. I already have the original pressing and the modern CD, so my tale endeth there, but your mileage may vary. If you’ve an interest in hearing a singular work of uncompromising musical art and this LP sounds good to you, then click that button below.
BONUS NEWS FLASH:
This posting marks the 2000th blogpost on Post-Punk Monk in the [checks archives] the almost 10 years of diligent [and sometimes not so diligent] blogging that I began on June 24, 2010. It was a simpler, carefree time then of the early 21st century which had begun under a merely dark cloud of terrorism that quickly descended into an even darker time of endless wars and now have bottomed out into abject racism, insensate hyper-nationalism, existential climate threat, truculent thugs holding the reins of power worldwide, and now rampant pestilence. Soon to be followed by worldwide economic collapse. In the 80s we only worried about an itchy finger on The Button that might happen. Now, we have a whole smogasbord of destruction vying for the top of the queue of tribulation that can easily wipe out human society without much effort on our part at all.
And yet, we manage to post an average of 200 articles per year that have a reach to anyone who also has an interest in the fascinating subculture of unpopular “pop music” from roughly 1978-1985. We have dialogues and discussions here that are civil and hopefully interesting to those beyond myself. I have had the occasion to meet, both virtually and in the flesh, some of the fine voices that manifest here in the zesty threads of comment that make it all worth while for me. I wish for nothing more than to discuss these discs with anyone who might listen and that’s as fine an undertaking as I can imagine having in these trying times. Join us here at PPM for [hopefully] another 2000 posts in the coming decade…if we’re still here to read it.
-30 –
![REVO Remastering: Spandau Ballet – Canon boxed set [REVO 045]](https://postpunkmonk.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/spandau-ballet-canonbsoga.jpg?resize=200%2C200)
Post-Punk Monk 
Happy latest milestone, dear Monk. May you blog on and on and on.
LikeLike
Taffy – You are an important part of the PPM RokSteady Cru®! It wouldn’t be the same without you! If we ever head your way a meet-up’s a must.
LikeLike
Believe it or not, I am unfamiliar with the music of Skafish — however, I now have something to explore for the rest of the afternoon and I love discovering new / old music. (translation: new to me, old in the grand scheme o’ things). And your Bonus News Flash: absolutely brilliant.
LikeLike
desertcurmudgeon – Well, in the spirit of making things much easier for you to explore, I’ve embedded the Bandcamp player for the album into the posting! Dig in and thanks for the words of encouragement.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have the original lp and the ‘obsessions of you’ 45 (with ‘sink or swim’ on the b-side)… so I’m probably going to pass, especially in our current financially-threatened state.
Would love to see hard data on if the purchasers are folks of the expected ‘50 something’ age-range or if he’s snagging a new demographic.
Congrats on your milestone! I’m late to the party but have enjoyed digging though your archives on many occasions. Always informative but most importantly good, fun reading. And if you judge a monk by the company he keeps, you have pulled in some fantastic intelligent readers/commenters here.
Salut!
LikeLike
bpdp3 – Wow! You had the single too? That’s one better than me. I’ve never seen that one. I bet the new LP pressing will get some media pickup and would not be shocked to see a copy in my local hipster store. Thanks for the good words. I’m also impressed by the readers who comment here since the readership has built organically over a decade without social media getting in the way. The points of view on offer can vary widely from my own and thank goodness for that.
LikeLike
PPM: First, I am humbled to have been your 2000th post! Congrats on your voice being heard and your consistency! Also, thanks for posting about the vinyl reissue. This has been a decades long effort, as you know, and I am quite happy with how the vinyl turned out. It was great that you noticed that I worked with Smashed Plastic right here in Chicago. They did a phenomenal job on this! And, I was able to drive to the plant and pick up the records myself. Jim
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jim Skafish – I didn’t even know there were still pressing plants in Chicago, so this was good news on all fronts. Good luck on your continued efforts to keep your music reaching ears.
LikeLike
Congratulations!
Your postings are a consistently enjoyable beacon of sanity in the midst of all that you have already eloquently described.
Thank you.
LikeLike
SimonH – A beacon of sanity or a deadly distraction from the perils that bedevil us from all sides? I’ll let you be the judge.
LikeLike
Congratulations on post #2000, learned so much over the years from them and here’s to the next 2000+ despite the strange times we are living through.
LikeLike
Version Crazy – The learning is mutual, amigo. Your exceptionally curated blog (with great photography – a definite lacking at PPM) is like a slice of my brain given free reign to hone in with laser focus on one of the several threads that I try to collect here. And the stuff I didn’t know about before running into it on Version Crazy is the information cherry on top of the record collecting sundae.
LikeLike
A big congratulations Monk. May you entertain and inform for us many a year into the future.
LikeLike
AndyB – One hopes so. One day, ages ago, my spouse asked me what my perfect job was. Without missing a beat I said “curating The Museum Of New Wave.” Which is sort of what I’m doing, only without actually earning money.
LikeLike
Hurrah for #2000!!
May there be many more.PPM is an essential part of my day,every day.
LikeLike
Gavin – Hopefully mine as well! One day you may find me poring over your now alphabetized record collection, gasping in astonishment. Hopefully, you will have invited me in earlier!
LikeLike
Nearly 10 years and 200 posts a year?? YOU’RE THE HARDEST-WORKING MONK IN BLOG BUSINESS! (assistant throws cape over Monk as he stumbles off exhausted, only to throw off the cape and come howling back for more adulation and groove!)
LikeLike
chasinvictoria – Well, posts would be definitely 5 times a week if I didn’t have to work full time. A wealthy person with more money than sense could solve this problem quite easily by underwriting PPM [with zero say in how I run it, obviously]. Just saying!
LikeLike
Thought you may enjoy this article, there’s a Skafish intersection if you stick with it.
View at Medium.com
LikeLike
Tim – Ay-Yi-Yi. I’m so glad I don’t use Google products and services! I just use Vimeo, the better [if smaller] platform. But lately, I’m seeing troubling examples of copyrighted material being uploaded there by schmoes who had nothing to do with the production in question. In the old days, all uploaded material was by people who had some role in the production. I miss that more sensible time, thought the bulk of Vimeo material is by professionals. But…for…how…long…Spock?
LikeLike