A Bit About Bootlegs

Being a part of the internet generation, absorbing as much knowledge that existed at my fingertips in the digital library encyclopedia database, I realized a universe of unknown recordings from the world's most celebrated musicians.

Blashco Records is a side project of Blashco Productions, a birthday present to my dear friend Liane Pippin, and is an attempt to create conceptual mixes of unofficially released recordings from artists you know and love.  Once I discovered these so-called Bootlegs, which were originally traded in the physical form on vinyl and then on compact disc and now digitally, I quickly began combing the cyberweb for any and all new tracks.

In my subtle interactions with the bootlegging subculture, I have discovered that the movement was started and is being continued (and honestly, thriving in this new digital age) by "completeists" or people who desire to hear and own literally everything a certain artist recorded in the best quality available.  This means, firstly, that most bootlegs are rehashes of old collections with one new leak on it, making conceptual collections a less viable and profitable option.

This digital revolution of information has made many aware of these unheard recordings, piquing their intrigue, and causing them to research these songs, though in a world of completeists, this can be a daunting task.  I literally have 9,000 different songs by The Beatles.  Now even the most dedicated fan will see this as a wholly intimidating amount to jump into, especially when probably 75% of the songs are, ahem... crap.

So in honor of the idea of sharing the love of music to the world, and in the vessel that is the digital medium, I will be uploading all of my conceptual mixes (many of which I put dozens of hours and many different drafts into the tracklisting)  in the cheapest, most accessible and convenient way possible -- free downloads of mp3's in a folder.

This is not a place to obtain any studio albums.  I am not going to be uploading any officially released material from an artist that could be found easily in their recording catalog.  This is for the hidden and rare gems.  This is to honor some of the most revolutionary and impacting artists by giving their fans a look into their outtakes and recording processes.

What to look forward to:

Early work by The Shins
A Greatest Hits style bootleg series for Dylan
The unreleased album by The Beatles and Led Zeppelin
P-Sides by Gorillaz
Engineer Demos by Wilco
B-side album by Radiohead
4th album during his famous trilogy by Bob Dylan
A few other surprises