Well, hey, everyone, it's Nate.

Welcome to episode 299 of the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds,

and today, Nerd Away We Shall.

You guys have heard of bootleg records, yeah?

I mean, these are the underground records that were released without any permission or control of the artist or record label.

And often these bootleg records were live concert recordings made without the permission

of artists and generally quite secretive people sneaking recording equipment into concert halls

with risk of potentially great peril to themselves and their gear.

And sometimes bootleg records were unauthorized releases of artist demos or outtakes,

music that was never meant to be heard by the public,

and the bootleggers somehow got their hands on these recordings,

privately pressed up some vinyl, and put the profits into their pockets,

not those of the artist

or label. Now, many of these bootleg recordings just by their nature were pretty poor quality

and some of them are quite tough to enjoy. However, the company known most for high quality

bootleg records throughout the 70s was TMQ, or trademark of quality.

And there's a phenomenal new book out on the history of this record label, complete with

pictures of pressings and vinyl and packaging. The book is called A Pigs Tale, the underground

story of the legendary bootleg record label. Now, A Pigs Tail is put out

by Genius Publishing, and wow, it is gorgeous and fascinating, and I highly recommend checking

one out for yourself at TMQapigstail.com.

On today's show, we talk to the authors of that book on the story of trademark of quality,

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