Here at THE VINYL DISTRICTwe're good consumers. All Mp3's are posted to promote and give exposure to the music and are linked for a limited time. Please download to preview, then head promptly to your local vinyl vendor (or - OK, CD store too) and fork over your hard earned cash. You'll appreciate the piece of mind.
Got something you think we should be listening to or reading? thevinyldistrict (at) gmail.com
While I was doing a bit of background research on 'GFE' (yea, yea...) I came across (Ok, OK...) this little exchange from Dan Savage's 'Savage Love' column from 2006:
Hello, Mr. Savage. Could you please tell me what GFE stands for. Thank you. —Obtuse And Flummoxed
GFE stands for "Google Fucking Exists," OAF—or it should. Because if you had taken the time to type GFE into Google—which takes about 1/1000th of a second—you wouldn't have to ask me what GFE stands for: The very first result is "What GFE (Girlfriend Experience) Means to Me in Sexwork." GFE = girlfriend experience, which means the sex worker will, for money, treat you nicely, kiss, cuddle, etc. (Perhaps the acronym should be BNGFE, for "brand-new girlfriend experience.")
Vinyl Saturday will take place the third Saturday of each month and will offer music fans special vinyl releases that are limited and exclusive, along with highlighting non-exclusive but new vinyl releases and reissues.
The first Record Store Day Presents Vinyl Saturday will be on Saturday, June 20th and will feature a special Green Day 7" single that is limited to 4000 total being made. Each single is numbered. The 7" single will feature two tracks. Side A is "Know Your Enemy" and Side B is "Hearts Collide" (a previously unreleased track.)
Vinyl Saturday will also see the release of a new limited edition Pete Yorn 7" single and it will feature a duet with Scarlett Johansson and an unreleased demo track.
The next Record Store Day Presents Vinyl Saturday will take place on Saturday, July 18th. Keep checking back to TVD as we’ll highlight forthcoming Vinyl Saturday releases as they’re made known.
Last Saturday I stood smack in the center of what was Orpheus Records in Arlington, Virginia. I say ‘WAS’ because Orpheus is no more. Despite the continual delays on the landlord’s part and the many reprieves the store was granted and the life-extensions, push came to shove, the bins were sold, and that was that.
Honestly, you wouldn’t have recognized the interior at all. As I mentioned, the bins were gone from the center and outer isles, replaced with cardboard boxes on the floor along the walled perimeter which held what was left of the many thousands of LPs Orpheus once housed. The outlines of the relocated bins hung heavy on the outer walls, absences having shapes of course.
Even then I found something of merit in the dusty boxes—a sealed, albeit corner-cut copy of The Replacements’ ‘Stink’ which is selling for mad money these days on ebay.
One thing remained housed inside the shell of Orpheus on Saturday however—the spirit of community. The well-wishers staggered in alongside folks STILL just dropping off records for Rick to resell, never mind he was closing for good in three hours. I even scored a free Orpheus tee shirt in the waning hours of the store’s life. (And it most certainly wasn’t a black tee either. Blue. Dark blue.)
If I could be granted the largesse, I’d like to think some of that spirit resides here at TVD in some tangible fashion. Whether you check in once a week or once a day, I hope on some tiny level we can touch the essence of community that existed not just at Orpheus, not just among DC’s brick and mortar shops, but worldwide. Where you can pony up to the register and ask the cashier what’s new and good or what’s old and warrants a fresh ear.
In its infancy, this blog’s meat and potatoes consisted of plundering the old new wave and post punk vinyl and posting the rare and not so rare—the rare eventually becoming a tiny calling card. This week we’ll get back to some of that along with the spirit of community that brings us together for the one minute and twenty seconds (on average) we spend together each day.
We’re off to catch up on some sleep after this week’s marathon Telethon, so we’ll see you back here on Tuesday. Until then, an extended round of Shots for your extended weekend—all breezy and summery-like.
“When you blog through a storm hold your head up hiiigh...”
It’s about that time, right? Exhausted and leaden with fatigue, Jerry would slump over the podium and croak this standard out and confetti would fly.
And then just like that—The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon would usher out Summer and thrust us right back into the school year. (At least, that’s how it happened in New Jersey.)
Now let’s welcome to the TVD Writers Telethon Stage an up-and-coming band out of Canada, The Rest, whose new release ‘All At Once’ is now out on Auteur Recordings. We chatted with front man Adam Bentley earlier in the week, so how about we roll that tape first...
(Yea, I’m literally channeling Jerry Lewis at this point.)
"My first clear memory of being enthralled with vinyl records revolves around an early obsession with The Beatles when I was 6 years old. My obsession began with a radio program called the “Beatles Brunch”, which was hosted by a famous Canadian DJ by the name Don Daynard. I would religiously wake up every Sunday to listen to the show. I began my ritual by putting on my Dad’s old, coiled, huge muffed headphones (that I still use) and then would spend the next hour in a state of pure joy.
Shortly after, I found that we had The Beatles on vinyl, and that I could play them as much I liked without waiting for the show. Now, I don’t want you to get the idea that the concept of recorded music was something new to me; it wasn’t, as cassettes had been quite prevalent in our house, and the record player was in constant use, but for me their wasn’t much of a reason to use these mediums, that is until I couldn’t get enough of The Beatles.
Shortly after finding these records I began to take them up to my room where I scrawled my grade-one insignia, “Adam B” across every sleeve. This was done to establish that these albums belonged to “Adam B” and not “Adam K” who was in the same grade. I then played them on my fisher price record player until I knew every word. Now I could sing along to every track, how awesome! I then recorded (what I guess could be considered my first album) on my fisher price tape recorder. This recording consisted of me singing along to my favourite Beatles songs with John, Paul, George, and sometimes-even Ringo giving me back up.
Now here comes the part that I still find a little strange; instead of showing my friends The Beatles version of the songs I would show my own. I desperately wanted everyone to love The Beatles as much as I did, but I wanted them to experience them the same way I had. I guess that this is still a desire of most people have, as we want to have our favourite artist heard or viewed in a way similar to how we became familiar with them, to make sure people come away with the same feelings we initially had.
I tried to transfer my moments by having my friends hear my recordings of myself singing The Beatles---I guess this was my favourite way that I experience them, and had no idea that the events leading up to that experience would be needed by the other individuals to feel my same joy. This was why all of my friends didn’t like The Beatles the same way I did, my six-year-old voice confused many a child about how they felt about The Beatles. I kept recording though, even with the disinterest of my peers, until I finished off the tape with an original song called “Going To Atlanta Georgia”, written because I was going there. Even one of my friends, Paul Koehler (look him up), got involved. The tape was sent off to Paul McCartney for evaluation, but I never heard back from him.
Almost 48 hours into the TVD Writers Telethon, the sleep depravation is finally kicking in. How does Jerry Lewis DO this each year?
But it’s time to take a look at the tote-board and see where we stand after these many hours. Ed, if you’d do the honors....brrrrrr....ding!
...THREE! ...people have written in to write for TVD! And that’s great...I said aloud to the existing staff that if we got just one new writer, our sleepless nights would not have been in vain.
BUT—we can do better people. I just know it. (Don’t make me wheel out the children...)
Meanwhile, let’s bring a kid out who’s written a few catchy tunes in his own right over the years. (And look at the earnestness on that face...) Sir Paul McCartney!
One of the smartest things I ever did (and trust me, I rarely start a sentence this way) was to jump-start my career by doing an internship while I was still in college. Actually, it was an internship in structure but at the time was called a ‘co-op’ where I was able to earn some scratch via real-world professional development.
Now, we can’t offer any real-world scratch, but we can offer professional development for you bourgeoning bloggers and writers. Imagine if you will, spearheading the content of a blog that reaches nearly 40K individuals a month from all corners of the globe as a career track via an internship right here at TVD. I’ll sign the forms. I’ll report to your counselor. I’ll offer the professional advice. (Horn toot: 20+ years in marketing and art direction over here. Owned my own ad agency, etc.)
So...students of all stripes, don’t be afraid to pick up that phone and make your pledge this very day.
An internship. At TVD. The experience of a lifetime. (And when measured in internet time that's...er, what were we talking about again?)
Anyway, what’s a telethon without some big name talent to take the stage as to make you reach for that mouse and pledge your support to the blog? Why, that’s not a telethon at all. So, ladies and gentlemen, in support of TVD’s Writers Telethon—Sir Elton John:
Who says our tastes here at TVD aren’t diverse? (OK—we often do but not this time!)
TVD’s got TWO pairs of tickets to see world-renowned indy salsa band, Bio Ritmo at the Rock and Roll Hotel this Friday night (5/22.) Bio Ritmo combines “classica salsa” that sprung from Puerto Rico and New York during the 60's and 70's with an 80’s punk sensibility that attracts music fans of all stripes.
Adding to the evening’s palette is Som Record’s own DJ Neville C spinning samba, funk, tropicalia, bossa, forro, and more between sets. Neville brings out only original vinyl pressings (many of which he brought back personally from Brazil) and he's got LOTS of new ones this month.
How do you win one of these pair of tickets for what’s shaping up to be a stellar Friday night, you’re asking? Simply grab our attention in the comments section to this post and you too can be cutting a rug with Bio Ritmo and DJ Neville C. Remember to leave us some contact info and we’ll choose two winners on Friday morning (5/22.)
Close to two years ago now, I woke up on a Sunday morning beset with the faint traces of a hangover and began tinkering with Blogger. That very morning, pajama-clad, and well before a shower—TVD was born.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the some of successes that were in store for this blog that was literally conceived on a whim. For example, being named in the top five on the list of the Ten Best Mp3 Blogs Ever. (No joke—last summer by makeoutclub.com.) Toss in being chosen as the ‘blog of record’ for Record Store Day this past year. The promotions we’ve been involved in. TWO Washington, DC Record Fairs. The contests and giveaways we’ve run. The bands and artists who’ve become friends. Counting the many of you who stop by each day as a community of like-minded souls and the kinship that’s developed over time.
But the fact is, SO many opportunities have come our way that tending to the back of the store has left little time to man the front of the store which, let’s face it, this little endeavor is built upon.
So, breaking from tradition where one individual puts pen and pixel to a blog, we’re casting about this week for additional voices to join the TVD family. Writers with a particular perspective, varying points of view from our own, malcontents, misanthropes, and sirens are all encouraged to join the blog with its preexisting global readership zeroing in on 40K per month.
Write a few times a week. Once a week. Every day. Pen a column of your own definition. Show reviews. Artist interviews, you name it. And you don’t even need to be in Washington, DC to contribute.
See, there are so many opportunities that exist that we literally can’t say yes to everything.
So, how about it? Pick up that phone...and make the call.
Frankly, more stuff goes on in a day than what we can physically blog about. (Or bitch about as the case seems to be quite often.) So, why pontificate when we can just spout off in 140 characters or less?
TVD's embracing the beauty that is brevity with blog updates, vinyl news, music news, and random mindlessness, whenever the whim strikes on Twitter.
Just think of it as the blog you've come to know—with more fiber. Regular, and many, many times throughout the day.
I used to feel like a new man / After the day's first brew. / But then the new man I became / Would need a tall one too. / As would the new man he became, / And the new one after him / And so on and so forth till the new men made / The dizzy room go dim.
And each one said, I'll be your muse, / I'll trade you song for beer: / He said, I'll be your salt lick, honey, / If you will be my deer. / He said, I'll be your happy hour, / And you, boy, you'll be mine / And mine won't end at six or seven / Or even at closing time.
Yes, son, I'll be your spirit guide; / I'll lead you to Absolut, / To Dewers, Bushmills, and Jamisons, / Then down to Old Tangle Foot. / And there I'll drain the pretense from you / That propped you up so high; / I'll teach you salivation's just / Salvation without the I.
To hear his sweet talk was to think / You'd gone from rags to riches, / Till going from drink to drink became / Like going from hags to bitches, / Like going from bed to barroom stool, / From stool to bathroom stall, / From stall to sink, from sink to stool, / From stool to hospital.
Now the monitors beep like pinball machines, / And coldly the IV drips; / And a nurse runs a moistened washcloth over / My parched and bleeding lips, / And the blood I taste, the blood I swallow / Is as far away from wine / As 5:10 is for the one who dies / At 5:09.
“Purity rings (also known as chastity rings or promise rings) originated in the United States in the 1990s among Christian affiliated sexual abstinence groups. The rings are sold to adolescents, or to parents so that the rings may be given to their adolescent children as gifts.
Wearing a purity ring is typically accompanied by a religious vow to practice celibacy until marriage. The ring is usually worn on the left ring finger (but can be worn on the right ring finger) with the implication that the wearer will remain abstinent until it is replaced with a wedding ring.”
Believe me when I tell you, this week’s theme has nothing to do with the aforementioned.
Despite my grumbling yesterday, bands and artists and labels continue to fill the TVD HQ email in-box with some damn fine output. Case in point: the Brooklyn two-piece that is Heroes Of Popular Wars.
They garnered my attention initially by citing David Sylvian as an influence, yet drive home a point of their own—“drunken, leering robots patiently laying it all out for you and making you fall in love with them because they make you look them in the eye.” Or something.
We chatted up Stephe (aka the "Blue Eyed Devil") who proves that The Beatles are STILL inspiration for people—and robots—everywhere.
"I first new I was going to be obsessed with music young. At age 12 I had saved up money from mowing my Mom's lawn for a month and though my family already had multiple copies, in multiple formats, I wanted something very specific. The gigantic poster/4 small posters that came in the packaging for the vinyl version of the Beatles' White Album. As 96-97% of all music lovers know, the vinyl version, and only the vinyl, comes with one gigantic "collage of pics" poster and 4 8x10 of each Beatle and I wanted that poster as bad as I wanted the music.
My mother had agreed to drive me on a Saturday to the mall to go pick it up. However, there was some kind of disagreement, like I had an argument with my brother or I wouldn't take out the trash, I forget now. The end result, however, was that my Mom refused to drive me. Probably heated by the now-forgotten argument, I stomped out of my Mom's house and walked the 4 1/2 miles, got to the music store (I believe it was a one-off store called Musicsmith in suburban Massachusetts) and picked up the record. I walked out of the store, sat on a nearby bench, tore the plastic off and tore the poster out of the sleeve.
The poster has so much going on, I may have spent an hour trying to process every little piece of the collage (and rest my feet.) After taking long looks at each of the individual portraits, I packed up the whole thing and trudged home. I don't know if I ever "earned" a record as much since but every time I hear Rocky Raccoon or I'm So Tired I remember that hour on the bench and how mystified I was by the photographs all haphazardly piled on top of each other."
Well, we still have a limited number of these John Foster-designed gems for purchase over at Som Records. The posters are 18" x 24", silk-screened on heavy card stock, and signed and numbered by the aforementioned John Foster. And if it isn't obvious already: suitable for framing. And they're still just $10 dollars just like at the show.
Check out some more from the Washington, DC Record Fair last Saturday right here.
My dad used to use a word with a great deal of frequency: mishegas. To put it plainly, mishegas = wack.
For example, did any of you catch this mishegas on Letterman last week while we were away?
What utter horseshit. It’s f’n over kids—nothing to see here. And I mean NOTHING.
I hadn’t really planned on taking last week off. In fact I had a whole theme developed and a graphic—but then I thought better of it.
The theme was to be bands that you’d never ever see at TVD that many folks LOVE that I f’n loathe. Gouge-out-the-eyes loathing. Liiike – say, REM, Counting Crows, Phish, Jimmy Buffett ...and you guys who count yourselves fans of that mindlessness would tell me what I’m missing.
But frequent bouts with nausea kept that concept at bay.
I finally watched the movie ‘Doubt’ last night. Near the beginning of the film Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character Father Flynn delivers a sermon to the packed pews regarding ‘Faith’ versus ‘Doubt’ within a religious construct. Despite the prevalence of ‘Doubt’ among the faithful, he said, we’re all together within this community struggling to put the pieces together and makes sense of what we’re given and what we retain, what we value, and what we cast aside.
My friends, I have a music blog, but I also have Doubts. Won’t you join me?
I’ve seen the future of music and it’s three darlins standing front and center, slinging guitars, and honest-to-goodnight, straight-up whiskey soaked grit without one whiff of pretension or any lack or earnestness. (Unlike say, Animal Collective who many of you will flock to this evening. Please take a look at yourselves in the mirror. Thank you.)
The darlins I reference are Those Darlins who’re playing The Rock and Roll Hotel with the Features and the Dexateens tomorrow night and TVD’s got a pair of tickets for one wildly effusive commenter who’s primed to be over the moon with Those Darlins like we are here at TVD HQ. (Not to mention, their self-titled debut is released on vinyl on June 23...)
We’re not alone with our love for Those Darlins—The New York Times, USA TODAY's "Pop Candy," Paste Magazine, The Austin American Statesman, Billboard, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Observer, and The NY Press all heaped praise upon Those Darlins at SXSW ‘09. The band took pictures for Vanity Fair's party and were pulled on stage by The Black Lips for a King Khan and the Shrines set.
On top of that, Daytrotter, Buzzzine, and a dozen other blogs have written about Those Darlins in the past two weeks while they opened for The Black Keys's Dan Auerbach. Add that to the American Songwriter feature, NY Times Pick, Boston Globe "Break out of 09" pick, Nashville Scene Pick, New Yorker blogging, BUST magazine "Cool EP" Alert, and so on...
So, get with the well-deserved buzz. We’ll choose one winner for the pair of tickets by NOON tomorrow for the throwdown at The R&R Hotel. (Contact email required!) Those Darlins - Wild One (Mp3)
While I was doing a bit of background research on 'GFE' (yea, yea...) I came across (Ok, OK...) this little exchange from Dan Savage's 'Savage Love' column from 2006:
