Matthew Sweet's Zoo Entertainment Era Albums Reissued By Intervention

"Indie production"? Don't forget that, in addition to producing Girlfriend, Fred Maher played a major part in several key Scritti Politti records, which regardless of how you feel about their artistic merits, are paradigms of high-end, big budget production. Listening to the Intervention edition reveals a lot of depth and texture to Girlfriend -- especially compared to the more low-fi indie records from the same era (which I also love -- Sebadoh, fIREHOSE, etc.). I don't think "indie production" is a fair characterization. That plus the enormous leaps made by D/A converters in the past quarter-century makes me think a newly mastered (SA)CD would be pretty revelatory...

 

I‘m sure your company has made a good release. If I see it on my travels I’ll consider it.

 

...it's not my company -- I'm just a fan. But yes, it's a great release!

 

I was on the Intervention website today and 100% Fun SACD was on sale for $19.99 and Girlfriend/Altered Beast were on sale for $30. I picked up Girlfriend and 100% Fun.

 

Going Out of Business?

 

I doubt it.

 

Go read the Intervention Records thread and all will be revealed.

 

Yes, Intervention Records is going out of business EDIT: having an "inventory closeout sale" as they shut down their physical office.

New Record Label: Intervention Records

 

I stand corrected. Thank you for the link. That’s too bad.

 

goodness, that's a bargain. 100%Fun on SACD and AB on vinyl. If either are even close to the excellence of the Girlfriend mastering/pressing I got from IR, this will be the best $55 I've spent on music in a while.

 

I was going to get the 100% Fun SACD, but shipping charges to the UK are insane.

 

Glad I read about them closing. Got my order in for altered beast before they're all gone

 

Yeah, I am playing it for the first time and I came here to make sure I didn't imagine it.

The depth on Winona is amazing. Hearing things I've never heard before and I am intimately familiar with this album.

 

So I bought this second hand and the albums were in MoFi inners. I presume these aren't original. Did they come in plain inners or am I missing some art?

 

Those thick RTI poly inners. You're never missing art with an Intervention sleeve

 

Thanks. I saw pictures of the tape boxes on line and didn't know if they came from the inners.

 

Damn! I miss those prices.

 

This bundles are coming???

 

When you go to the site, those links are dead. Does anyone know what is going on with these? As far as CD's go, it looks like 100% Fun is all they have in stock. Did the other ones ever get produced on CD before their closeout?

100% Fun Expanded Edition CD/SACD (ON SALE!) – Intervention Records

 

100% Fun was the only Matthew Sweet SACD to make it fully to production with Intervention Records -- and it's great! Definitely recommended!
The other two titles, iirc, maybe suffered some business mishap (did the inventory get flooded or something?) and then, as it turned out, the 100% Fun SACD didn't sell in the numbers needed to justify a second go with Girlfriend and Altered Beast, a deeply disappointing turn of events for the label and for the apparently too-small number of us who were waiting for them.

Shane, the guy who runs IR (and who posts around these parts!), is resolutely giving no happy signs about reconsidering Sweet for SACD release. But I say: who knows? Maybe he'll find better ways of reaching his market for 90's era titles and then we'll see what happens. But at this point, it's just a great missed opportunity.

 

Pity.

 

If you go to the Intervention thread here, you’ll get the whole story. Sift through it.

Long story, short, Intervention had some issues a little while back and was forced to essentially close up shop except clearing out existing inventory. But he/it is resurrecting the enterprise somewhat. So some things are being repressed. I don’t specifically recall the current availability status of the Matthew Sweet stuff (it’s covered in the more recent part of the thread), but I’m pretty sure the other Matthew Sweet SACDs in the series are DOA. In general, SACDs only generate a small fraction of the volume of vinyl for Intervention.

 

If ever there was a moment to ask Shane at IR to consider Girlfriend on SACD, it’s now, as SACD production has not shuttered during the pandemics as vinyl has. We as the potential buying public would just have to signal loud and clear that we’d financially support it at this moment — help a small business and all that — and that just might move the needle.

I’m in for a 30-count SACD box, but I think Shane already knows that. ;-)

 

Surprised the interest in the Matthew Sweet SACDs wasn’t higher.
But I suppose it depends on the definition of interest. There must a magic number that makes it financially viable, maybe the 2000 level that MOFI often uses?

 

You’d think 1000 run would sell.