Last night I was in prime mode for an Amazonian. I couldn't think of any more gifts I was getting people that would need to be bought through Amazon, so I didn't have that excuse, but I pretty much decided, "To hell with it. I'm putting in an order anyway because I want free shipping." I knew of one record I definitely wanted to get, Junior Kimbrough's All Night Long, an album I should have bought in some form years ago but, over the last several days, decided it was fate I did not because close to a week ago I found out the Amazon store had it on vinyl. But I didn't order it when I found out because I was pretty sure I needed to order other Christmas gifts through Amazon but wasn't sure what they were. That fell through, so I just decided I'd get All Night Long and then find something else. (Almost decided on being sinful and getting Alice Russell's new one Pot 'O Gold, pretty much the only one of these retro woman British soul singers I've heard that I can stand, on CD! *GASP* Why her album has not been released on vinyl, I have no idea. It's retarded.) So I go to Amazon ready to put in my order and now All Night Long has that dreadful listing of "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer." WHAT?!? In the week between when I first noticed it and when I went to order it, they decided to discontinue it? Major bummer, and apparently not really true, because I can still go straight to the Fat Possum site and order it, which I'll probably do, and also order Paul Jones's Mule and R.L. Burnside's Too Bad Jim, even though it will cost me $6 to ship them. But the LPs are $10 each, which is not bad at all for any new vinyl. But at the same time I still want to order something from Amazon to satisfy that jones! So I spent a few hours last night looking through Soulbounce and Allmusic end-of-year lists trying to see what I might be interested in that had come out on record, and the pickings were a little scarce. Estelle's Shine is a possibility, as is an older Platinum Pied Pipers record. Another one I came across was Eli 'Paperboy' Reed, but, I don't know. From what samples I've heard, he has the same problems so many other young "blues" singers have. The music is great, very good listening, but the vocals are douchey because they're trying to imitate someone, or everyone at once. Douchey. So I'll probably skip that one. The latest Q-Tip is a possibility too. They're all a possibility. This could get expensive.
Anyway, the lessons learned here are multiple. (1) If you're surprised to find that Amazon has an older record available on vinyl, directly through them rather than an auction or dealer and they're having some kind of special, scoop it up cuz it may not be there long. (2) More new releases need to be put out on vinyl. I'm sure we'll blog more about this in the future, but with mp3's now being so widespread and ideal for portability, there's no reason that albums, especially albums full of music that's just screaming for a vinyl release, can't be released as vinyl with an mp3 download. (3) A record's unavailability does not settle a jones. (4) "This item has been discontinued" seems to be a blanket statement for "We don't have any" on Amazon, so if the record isn't there, check the record label before you go pay twice the price on eBay or something. And, for a fifth, (5) speaking of that, why doesn't Amazon get some more? They could have some of my money.
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