Comments on: New Empress Valley

By: alucard72

alucard72 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:53:15 +0000

With any luck, we won’t have to wait too long for the Eelgrass version!!

By: gsparaco

gsparaco — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:04:05 +0000

Both astroidbelt and classicrawker make a valid point. It is about the music. And the sentiment expressed by Hager and others is that “Wilbur” and Empress Valley have forgotten that themselves. Recycling the same artwork is one thing, but charging close to $200 is quite another. If EV were to have released this as a $50 budget title (something they have done in the past), then questions about the artwork would be moot.

By: classicrawker

classicrawker — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:14:03 +0000

You hit the nail on the head Astroid…They are the only Led Zep label putting out these sound boards and as far as rcycling old stuff it is not like they are the only label doing this. Tarantura, TCOLZ and the others are basically doing the same thing..I am not a EV apologist by any means and only buy selective titles but to say they struck out because the artwork is recycled seems a little extreme to me. After all it is still about the music and not fancy packaging …isn’t it?

By: astroidbelt

astroidbelt — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:35:24 +0000

When I first saw the new artwork, and saw the duplication of the St Valentine’s Massacre cover, the first thing that popped into my head was “they’re obviously looking to get more profit”. So, they aren’t spending any more time on the artwork than they have to. Maybe that suggests that they are buying (or being given) these tapes one by one, and trying to turn them around as quick as possible, so as to get as much profit as possible, perhaps? So, the artwork becomes a complete after thought. For instance, the bonus t-shirt wasn’t even ready when the Type A edition went on sale. What’s up with that? They couldn’t print up a shirt, yet they could press up hundreds of copies of cds?

All of that aside, I still think that Empress Valley is the only true successor to the Tarantura label from the 90′s. Every label has misses, but no one has had nearly as many hits as they have. Tarantura 2000 may have the best artwork of any label right now, but Empress Valley is the only one putting out these soundboards, keeping this addiction going. The Long Beach board sounds awesome. As the other poster mentioned, it will be hard to ever need to listen to that amazing Millard recording again, it sounds so good.

By: eric99

eric99 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:21:15 +0000

I find this all fascinating.

By: gsparaco

gsparaco — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:31:33 +0000

Empress Valley have been occupied with repackaging their catalogue of past releases. They’ve been doing this since the release of the last soundboard in December 2008 beginning with Deep Throat. Since collectors already have these shows, I’m not sure exactly who EV are doing it for except for the collectors who have to have everything.

Mid Valley have continued producing desirable titles, but they are so hard to find that most don’t even notice. Remember, Empress Valley are aimed SOLELY for the Japanese market. Us gaijin don’t count one bit to them. So if you are a collector, you either try you best to find them or just ignore the label completely, something which is becoming easier to do.

By: sfibus

sfibus — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:44:10 +0000

I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like over the past several months the once prestigious Empress Valley label has taken a major turn for the worse. Not sure who is at the controls there anymore but to recycle previously used artwork for such an important new release is like a slap in the face to collectors. It’s not like there was a big rush to get it out the door…nobody else had it so they could have taken the time to do it up right! EVSD really had a chance to hit a homerun with this release but I’m afraid it looks like they’ve struck out.

Ok, I’m going to go sit in the corner now and wait for the 6th incarnation of Tokyo Tapes. :-(

By: Hager

Hager — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:56:20 +0000

It is a crying shame that Empress Valley has apparent exclusive access to these wonderful unreleased soundboard recordings. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to absorb this recording as compared to the Millard recording I’ve loved for all of these years, it’s not likely I’ll listen to the Millard version nearly as much as I will listen to the great sounboard recording. The shame is that a label that cares about collectors doesn’t have apparent access to these uncirculated recordings, such as Tarantura, Godfather, or TCOLZ, just to name a few. Empress Valley’s indifference to collectors, putting aside their patent fraud in the “MSG Working Tapes” released around the time of the TSRTS remasters, is blatantly displayed in the artwork for the Long Beach Californication title. The same image used on EVSD’s Fall, 2008 release of the 1975 Nassau Colisseum soundboard is recycled for the “Type B” version of this Long Beach title. I seriously doubt that another label proudly marketing this recording would’ve put no effort into the overall packaging like EVSD has obviously done. And packaging is a big attraction for a lot of collectors. Still, the Type A version of this most recent title sold out instantly, its scarcity demonstrated by Air Raid only showing Types B and C on its site. The banal artwork used on those 2 “types” shows, quite clearly to this collector, how little EVSD regards the interests of the Zep collecting community. This can be traced back to EVSD’s “Flying Circus” release, a magnificent recording accompanied by marginal packaging, at best. TCOLZ wisely improved its artwork after the first few brown bag releases. EVSD may garner greater collector praise if it puts more thought into how its product is presented and marketed. There should not be such disdain for such a special thing.

By: eric99

eric99 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:06:15 +0000

Since this one came back up, I’ll pass on to wilber a story. It recently dawned on me that when I was in my early teens, I believe I used to buy vinyl boots directly from whoever used to make them on Long Island. By that i mean all these great Zeppelin, and Floyd releases out there from Uniondale. He was in an indoor swamp meet, across from the Massapequa Mall, for those who know, and one day I saw his booth, had this feeling, and started looking through his boxes. ( Actually I was 16.) Found an albumn for The Who at Shea Stadium, on the night I was there, got all excited, I knew what it was but had to ask, and I did so real loud, “what is this”. The guy moved back, looked around and gritted his teeth, “It’s a bootleg”. I clearly remember seeing a boot for the Floyd Wall show in there also. I also picked a couple up for the Police that were taped on Long Island also. Excellent quality too!

By: gsparaco

gsparaco — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:02:40 +0000

“Hmmm. Now that you mention it, it is a bit strange that you have never bothered reviewing Flying Circus and yet you have managed to write reviews of every other release that copied the original Empress source. I guess you must have just overlooked it or maybe you’re waiting for a free copy in the mail??”

And this is why Eric “Wilbur” Sachs is pretty much hated by all the collectors I know. If you have a problem with my opinions then don’t bother reading site.

Regarding a lack of reviews for the EV Flying Circus. Because EV don’t support this site, and thus don’t care about collectors, I would have had to buy. And when we get to the issue of my money, only I decide what to spend it on and what not to spend it on. I didn’t think Flying Circus was worth the price. I wasn’t going to shell out $200 for it. That is an obscene price for a show I already have.

Many collectors support this site by donating funds and product to review. They keep the site going and they do so with the understanding that we will give a fair review, not favor it with praise just because it’s donated. Reading the reviews on this site is proof enough of our policy.

The reality is that Empress Valley / Mid Valley are afraid to fall under our scrutiny. And that is their choice. However I will not let Empress Valley’s international dealer tell me what to buy and what not to.

All further comments to this thread will be deleted.

By: eric99

eric99 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:32:30 +0000

Well that’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

By: walterfive

walterfive — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:11:52 +0000

Not today, but I *did*, back 20-odd years ago. When I was in the Army, a fella I knew (whose name won’t be mentioned) was a U.S. Army civilian employee living near Mannheim, West Germany had been a sound man at the Fillmore back in 69-71, his name was listed as part of the Fillmore Family on the Final Fillmore LP. He had about a thousand stories and a closet full of reel-to-reel soundboards, mostly of Frisco hippy bands that I didn’t really care a lot about at the time, like “It’s A Beautiful Day”, but he had shit like some 69 Zeppelin soundboards that nobody else had at the time; he claimed that the sound guys recorded every show, and swapped tapes with each other and the sound guys at other houses and ballrooms; if memory serves, those Zeppelin shows have all surfaced now on the Legendary Fillmore Series and other releases, but I remember when he had them and nobody else did; really nice fellow too. Happy to play them for you any time you wanted to stop by and visit…

By: eric99

eric99 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:35:41 +0000

If you don’t have it, then I would say it’s a great release. If you have a previous excellent version, then it’s understandable to not want another. I believe there is a simultaneous discussion about the demise of the silver cd. Well, I don’t think this could be considered a re-hash, being a soundboard. I wonder just how many real quality recordings are actually out there. Rumors spread like wildfire. Tell one person a story, and by the time it gets to the tenth, it’s completely different. And once something gets on the internet, fuggetaboutit. I compare that to all of the talk about hoarders keeping tapes to themselves. Does anybody really know someone with a box full of excellent recordings?

By: walterfive

walterfive — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:18:19 +0000

Uh… *what* 1968 soundboards? Gonzaga?
The Legendary New Yardbirds Scandinavian Tour? Led Zeppelin were *nobody* in 1968.

I dunno about ’69 soundboards. I doubt though if it’s EV that’s “sitting on them.” Tapes in their vault that they don’t release don’t make them money. Seems simple to me. Likewise “all the outtakes.” If they can do Scorpion one better than “Brutal Artistry” (for example), *not* whipping them out hurts their bottom line. The EV “Lost Sessions” and “Lost Mixes” series had a good bit of duplication in it from the 11 CD studio session box set (now 12 CDs from Scorpio in an upgraded edition). If they have it, it doesn’t figure they wouldn’t release it; if it gets leaked to a bit-torrent site they’ll lose a lot of sales.

By: gsparaco

gsparaco — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:51:37 +0000

npollack makes a good point. When is EV going to release all the 1968 and 1969 soundboards they’re sitting on? And what about the live “In The Light” from 1975 and all the outtakes they have? Come on Empress Valley, let’s have it…

By: npollack

npollack — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:37:34 +0000

After reading all the other comments it seems stupid to write mine but I must. I appreciate any LZ soundboard I can get my hands on but do the majority have to always be from the year 75? Let’s go back in time a little and feature something between 69 & 73 for a change, since this show has be released already with a excellent audience recording.
npollack

By: Lordbud

Lordbud — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:18:58 +0000

brianvy writ: “I do think that if a brand new 1975 PF or RS sbd had been unearthed, folks might be slightly more excited…”

Exactly! You know how few vintage RS SBs have come to light in the past decade as compared with LZ? LZ aficiados are so lucky to have a label like EV these days. You could have the constant rehash of DAC, SODD, IMP, the “new” VGP instead.

By: Pedro Moya

Pedro Moya — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:23:11 +0000

Ok guys, enough with the “aggresive and insulting” comments ( though you have to agree they are kind of fun!).
Just like it has been agreed since the first caveman banged on a dry animal skin with a bone : IT’S THE MUSIC STUPID!!!
On an excellent aud recording or on a warm sb disk the bottom line is always the music/the performance itself.
I only have the aud cd and i find it to be a good performance. Luis Rey despises the performance. Lewis/Pallet mention that the show got off to a slow start. Relayer 67 says it’s a well played show from start to finish. There are some equipment problems, the guitar is out of tune on TSRTS and Plant does make some comments that I find funny but I guess some people might find annoying.
So, what’s your opinion on the show, the concert, the music. Highlites and “lowlights”???
Remember, and I’ll say it in Spanish so you guys can get it in your head: ES LA MUSICA, ESTUPIDO!!!

By: LedMan

LedMan — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:44:24 +0000

I’m glad to know that we will be able to hear another soundboard . It will be interesting to compare this to Millard’s audience source. I can only speculate what the label paid for this and would like to think this is part of the costs collectors have to pay to obtain the original. I also find it interesting that EVSD is once again offering T shirts with special releases.

By: brianvy

brianvy — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:51:46 +0000

I do think that if a brand new 1975 PF or RS sbd had been unearthed, folks might be slightly more excited… just the nature of the beast I suppose. LZ fans are a bit spoiled with the breadth of amazing sources available. myself included… (as in VGP-175) ain’t it good to be alive? !!!! (as in Dylan) Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it. Hope I don’t blow it.