- It’s official, but it looks unauthorized
The night last week’s issue went to press I came across an unlicensed vinyl version of Kanye West’s Graduation at Laurie’s Planet of Sound. I’d previously only seen it listed online, which is part of the reason I ended up buying it. It may have been too late to get a photo of it for my B Side feature on bootleg rap and R&B vinyl, but my fascination with these releases didn’t end when that story hit the streets.
It’s clearly a bootleg, one that mostly lives up to music journalist Clinton Heylin’s definition as it includes material that’s remained mostly unreleased in any formal way; “Spank Thru” is the only song from the original Fecal Matter demo that’s available on an authorized release, and it appears on a 2005 Nirvana compilation called Sliver: The Best of the Box, which is basically an abridged version 2004’s With the Lights Out box set. Like Because the Internet, the Demo 1985 LP is clearly inspired by a bygone bootleg label, specifically a 70s rock imprint from Southern California called the Amazing Kornyfone Record Label. In fact, what little information is available on Demo 1985 says it’s manufactured by that very label; the hub labels on both sides duplicate the R. Crumb-inspired cartoons and lettering that appear on original Kornyfone releases, and the catalog number that appears on the front cover is an acronym for Kornyfone (“TAKRL 2013-02”).
