Stark the Vinyl Shark: Heady Nuggs (Vol. I)

Hi. My name is Joe and I never get up before 6 a.m.--unless it is Record Store Day. In four short years, RSD has become something of a national holiday if not a national phenomenon. Falling on the third Saturday in April, what started as a small effort to boost business for local independent record stores has turned into a nation-wide celebration of music and community, and, of course, a treasure trove of exclusive vinly releases.

I was first in line at Slowtrain Records on April 16th with good reason. I wanted to give myself a good chance to snatch up some pretty exciting exclusives including: The Flaming Lips: Heady Nuggs – The First Five Warner Bros. Albums (1992-2002), various My Morning Jacket picture discs, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Class Mythology EP on colored 7’’ singles, and a re-issue of the classic Fleetwood Mac album Rumours pressed at Pallas on two slabs of heavy weight 45 rpm vinyl, ensuring the highest fidelity playback possible.

While waiting in line for the 10 a.m. opening time, I was able to chat a bit with other vinyl fanatics in line with me. For the most part, we all had unique items we were looking for though there was one common thread that ran through all of our lists: The Flaming Lips Box Set.

So what makes a re-issued vinyl box of five Flaming Lips albums so desirable? Especially on a day with hundreds of other releases, most of which are available of the first time ever? To answer this, we first need to cover a little vinyl history. In the 90’s, when the vast majority of these Flaming Lips albums were released (Hit to Death in the Future Head - 1992, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart- 1993, Clouds Taste Metallic – 1995, and The Soft Bulletin - 1999 ) the CD was king, and vinyl barely had a pulse. These albums were pressed in small amounts, went out of print quickly, and with low demand for vinyl, stayed that way. The two exceptions to this are The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Given this drought of Flaming Lips LPs available over the years, many vinyl aficionados were clamoring to get their hands on a Heady Nuggs box set.

So how does it look?

For the casual and diehard fan alike, this box set is beautiful and sets the bar for releases of this nature. These five albums, spread over six LPs are housed in a heavy duty box with never before released alternate artwork. Weighing in at over 10 lbs., even the most demanding fans can rest assured every LP has been recreated with care and an eye for detail. This box set is limited to 6,000 units, mine being #5,023.

So how does it sound?

Much like The Flaming Lips release from Record Store Day 2010: The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon, these albums sound great. I do not own originals of any albums in the box, with the exception of The Soft Bulletin, so I have compared the sound quality to my CDs only. It is an obvious improvement, with the first noticeable difference being a more established low end, and a warmer sound overall. Some of the 90’s Lips releases suffer from a bright CD master, leaving the listener with a diminished representation of what was created in the studio. This is the case with Hit to Death in the Future Head, which sounds amazing on vinyl. It is nice to know the producers gave us a mix that is not too loud or too soft. The instrumentation is brought out nicely, and not distorted at high volume.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the obvious sonic gem of the bunch. An album full of rich texture is brought to life beautifully on vinyl; all of the detail you are used to on the CD master is here, as well as content you aren’t used to hearing. Yoshimi could be one of the best modern day re-masters in my collection.

All five albums sound great here, and I’m excited to add these great albums to my growing collection. If you are a Lips fan and want to get your hands on one, check Ebay, as the entire run of these boxes is officially sold out.