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Kicking off a week about Kickstarter (and how I became a loyal Polyvinyl Records customer)

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattlunsford/help-us-save-our-office/widget/card.html]

You can’t turn around these days without hearing about Kickstarter. From movies, music, books or technology products, it seems everyone is using Kickstarter to raise funds to start a project. Over the course of the next week, I’ll be blogging about some of the projects I’ve backed, reviews, and thoughts about how Kickstarter may be used in the future.

What is Kickstarter? From their frequently asked questions:

_Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of others.

Since our launch on April 28, 2009, over $500 million has been pledged by more than 3 million people, funding more than 35,000 creative projects.

I first heard about Kickstarter in 2009 when Polyvinyl, a small music label out of Champaign, Illinois, started a Kickstarter to save some records:

Polyvinyl needs your help! Some of our distributor’s warehouses around the world are being downsized or consolidated and we either need to destroy over 10,000 records or face some high storage costs.

Destroying the records is not an option (it’s too wasteful and besides, these are great records, they’re just overstocked)! Storing the records at our warehouse is not an option (we cannot afford the storage costs). So to keep them from destruction, we’re hoping to have all the records shipped back to our office.

I had heard of a few Polyvinyl artists from listening to The Current, most notably of Montreal, and supporting their Kickstarter seemed like a great way to support them and to be introduced to some new artists.

The Kickstarter worked great. I received my CDs after the Kickstarter closed, but more importantly, I became a loyal Polyvinyl customer.

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I would go on to buy vinyl from Polyvinyl fairly frequently, buying artists I had heard on the radio (of Montreal, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin) to taking chances on new artists or artists I hadn’t heard of (Deerhoof, Stagnant Pools, Japandroids) because I knew Polyvinyl was a quality label and did a good job of curating artists. The best part? Polyvinyl always throws something extra in to each order. They’re famous for including a piece of Airheads candy with each order and always throw in an extra CD to introduce you to another artist on their label. Their vinyl records are high quality 180g releases, the album art and posters are printed on high quality stock, and they also usually have extras you can order, from buttons to t-shirts and more.

This is just one way using Kickstarter can introduce you to a new brand or company and hopefully I’m not the only person who became a loyal customer because of their Kickstarter.

  • in music
  • 1 min read

Record Store Day 2013 is fast approaching

We are only 49 days away from Record Store Day 2013, to be held on April 19th.

Support your local record store and get some cool, limited edition releases. The official records to be released isn’t out yet, but some sites are up with the leaked lists. Other than the Mad Season re-release, I haven’t seen a lot that I’m personally interested, but there are enough records coming out to make everyone happy.

Want to learn more? Watch Jack White, this year’s Record Store Day Ambassador, to learn more.

JACK WHITE: RECORD STORE DAY 2013 AMBASSADOR from Record Store Day on Vimeo.

Can arcades make a comeback?

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Having been born in the early 70’s, I am a child of the 80’s. One of the best parts of being a child of the 80’s was living through the boom (and later bust) of the arcades. Whether it was going to Godfather’s Pizza and playing a handful of arcade games or Chuck E. Cheese with dozens of games or getting dropped off at an arcade in a mall while my parents went shopping, the fun in plugging quarters in for hours can never be re-lived.

Or can it? In the last year, two arcades have popped up in the Twin Cities. Rusty Quarters, in South Minneapolis, opened last year and has an impressive list of arcade cabinets available for play at $0.50 per play.

Zap-Arcade, located in Jordan, almost an hour from the Twin Cities (but only 15-20 minutes from where I live in the suburbs) also opened last year and has a unique pricing model. You can buy a day pass for $5.00 or family pass for $15.00 and play all of the games for as long as you want to stay. They also have monthly plans available.

The kids had a blast, but they didn’t know better. Zap Arcade has two floors, with 12 cabinets one each floor. I was disappointed with the games available. They had three “A” games available – Pac-Man (a re-issue, which featured about 8 different ways to play Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man), Space Invaders, and Galaga (which wasn’t working). They had a few “B” titles – Double Dragon, Araknoid, X-Men, Zaxxon, and Raiden. The rest were third tier titles which few people would remember from the hey day of the 80’s. All the games were on free play, though there were times you had to grab an employee to open up the cabinet to add more credits.

The price was right – for two hours of entertainment for a family of 4, it was far cheaper than going to a movie and the kids had a blast. I was worried that Jack, who is only seven, would get frustrated, but he was happy to bounce from game to game trying different things and didn’t get frustrated.

I was happy to see the place was busy. We got there fairly early after opening, and more people and families filled the place up quickly over the course of the two hours we were there. Hopefully they will be stay busy over time giving them some revenue to buy even more cabinets. We’ll definitely be back.

If you, like me, are nostalgic for arcades, The Verge has a great look back on the rise and fall of the arcade industry.

  • in music
  • 2 min read

U-Turn Audio – The Orbit Turntable

Congratulations to U-Turn Audio for their successful Kickstarter campaign to bring to market a low cost, high quality turntable – The Orbit.

From their Kickstarter page:

We love listening to music on vinyl, and we believe that everyone should have access to a quality vinyl experience. But we found that capable turntables were prohibitively expensive. That’s why we designed the Orbit – a remarkably simple turntable that cuts the cost of high-performance playback in half.

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter and strongly considered buying The Orbit. I’d like to pick up a second turntable for the living room, which my wife thinks is ludicrous considering my setup in my home theater room in the basement. But something appeals to me to listen to records in a sun filled room on a weekend afternoon rather than my artificially lit man-cave.

I decided not to buy the Orbit though for a couple of different reasons. I was concerned about the opportunity to not see the turntable first and look at the build quality. It’s driven by a fully manual drive belt and I was concerned over time if it would need to be replaced and, if they can’t build a business model, if parts would be available. I also wanted to see how it looked, as it was made out of MDF.

It’s only $150 (including the $50 Ortofon cartridge), but I’m blessed that the Needle Doctor is based here in the Twin Cities. When (or as my wife would say, if) I buy a second turntable, I would buy it at the Needle Doctor. An entry level Denon DP300F, which includes a $100 Ortofon 2M cartridge, is $419.00. The ability to purchase it in person and have them help set the arm and load the cartridge is worth the extra money and not having to worry if something breaks in shipping. And that’s not saying anything about warranty support.

But that’s just me. I’m happy to see a company trying to make turntables affordable to the masses. $175, including shipping, is a great way for people to re-discover the joy of viny.

  • in music
  • 1 min read

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Vinyl Re-Release

The Phantom Menace Vinyl

Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace may be the worst of the six Star Wars movies (for a number of reasons we will not get into here), but the soundtrack is one of the best of the six. Duel of the Fates is one of the best songs written by John Williams for any of the six films.

A tiny imprint named I Am Shark has licensed the soundtrack for re-release on vinyl. They are featuring four special editions of 2000 each, as well as a normal black release for retail not limited to 2000:

  • 2000 – Hyperdrive (Black w/ White Splatter)
  • 2000 – Darth Maul (Black w/ Red/Gold stripe)
  • 2000 – Qui-Gon Jinn (Green / Brown Marble)
  • 2000 – Obi-Wan Kenobi (Blue)
  • Black / 180 Gram Versions will be constantly kept in stock and distributed to retail stores as well.

They will be doing limited edition releases of all three Star Wars prequels. I ordered the Obi-Wan blue.

You can pre-order here and the album will be released on March 4th.

Via Slashfilm

Happy 8th Birthday 89.3 The Current!

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It feels like yesterday that Minnesota Public Radio announced they would be launching their own indie rock station with a focus on local music. 89.3 The Current hired a number well known of on-air personalities who had worked in the Twin Cities for years, with experience at Rev105, RadioK and more, which just added to the excitement. Giddy with anticipation, I donated to MPR, becoming a founding member even before the station had launched. (Getting a free vinyl record to celebrate from The Current was just a bonus – who knew that I would get back into vinyl just a few years later and would make this the first record I would listen to after I bought a turntable).

And here we are eight years later already! For the last few years The Current throws a big birthday bash at the legendary First Avenue. I had to pass up tickets to the second night show on Saturday (twice) and as I followed the event on Twitter, I had to kick myself. In addition to an awesome line-up of Now, Now, Dave Pirner (of Soul Asylum), and Cloud Cult, the special surprise guest was the YN Rich Kids, the summer’s hottest local sensation.

You haven’t heard of them? A good friend of mine hadn’t either as I texted him at the show.

Hot Takis and Cheetos

If you missed it over the summer, this video went viral in the Twin Cities in a big way. Time Magazine even named it the #7 best music video of 2012 and The Current gave it some radio coverage, too.

I knew I should have bought tickets when I had the chance! Well, there is always next year…

Happy Birthday 89.3! Keep on rockin’!

[http://www.youtube.com/embed/7YLy4j8EZIk]

  • in tv
  • 1 min read

Fringe Finale

Tonight marks the end of Fringe’s five year run on Fox. Created by J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who were the early showrunners for Alias, and would the latter two would go on to write Transformers and Star Trek, which Mr. Abrams directed as well. Fringe began as a cross between the X-Files and Alias, featuring a monster of the week story in addition to the overarching story lines about Walter’s past.

I’ve written of my love of all things J.J. Abrams before, and Fringe has a number of parallels with Alias. The show has had a couple of reboots similar to Alias, but where Alias focused solely on Sidney over its 5 year run, Fringe has morphed from being Olivia’s show, to a show about the father / son relationship between Walter and Peter. Like J.J. Abrams biggest show, Lost, before it, Fringe is also at its heart, a show about love.

Since the end of Lost, Fringe has been my favorite show, far and away, on television. I’m sad to see it end tonight, but I have to give kudos to Fox for sticking with it as long as they did amid struggling ratings (but a rabid fan base). Fox has released a two minute trailer for the series finale and it will be fun to watch Fringe wrap up its various storylines, but sad at the same time.

[http://www.youtube.com/embed/x4jptm7Yedo]