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Autumn’s arrived and very soon the evening chill will seep through the window panes and you’ll hanker for someone to cuddle up with and get warm. Might we suggest the one and only Smokey Robinson?
Celebrating 50 years in the music industry, Smokey kicks off our random Fall Vinyl Giveaways with his new release ‘Time Flies When You’re Having Fun’ featuring appearances by Joss Stone, Carlos Santana, and India.Arie.
For this first Fall giveaway we’ve got TWO copies of ‘Time Flies...’ for two lucky winners. Smokey’s in top form on this new one, having recorded live in the studio with his stellar backing band which adds an element of warmth and immediacy to all the tracks on this set.
From a design standpoint, the LP sleeve itself is a knockout too. Shepard Fairy’s Studio One (the folks behind the iconic Obama ‘Hope’ image) have outdone themselves for Mr. Robinson. The 11 tracks span two 180-gram vinyl LPs which are housed in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve—and Smokey’s personally signed the cover of both LPs for TVD.
So, sing us a love song to the Motown legend in the comments (with contact info – important!) and he or she in the 50 States who croons the sweetest will win the LPs. We’ll choose two winners next Monday (9/28) so get to penning those notes!
On Fridays a while back, we’d do a post called ‘Fridays @ Random’ which was largely housekeeping info for the readers of the blog. And...I dunno. For some reason that stopped, but I’ve got some items of that variety that I thought I’d mention today.
Firstly, if you visit us just once a day (and what’s up with that?) you’ll sometimes see the same post at the top of the blog which may have you thinking that there were no new posts that day. Perish the thought. These are normally contests we’re running that we’d like to keep under your nose for a bit, so remember to scroll down beneath those giveaways for the undoubtedly brilliant content (...er) that we foist upon you daily.
Didja know that our daily 5 Mp3s and the Friday 10 are sequenced for your listening pleasure? Download ‘em all, kick back, and let us take you away. Like a Calgon bath.
So, we spent the entire week talking about ghosts which, we know, is well in advance of Halloween. See, we’re making sure YOUR playlists are timely when the holiday arrives. Thank us with candy.
...and we've got an exclusive preview before the book hits the shelves in early October:
“Even in the bacchanal of 1970s Los Angeles, the drug and promotional excesses of Casablanca Records stood out. In a period when cocaine use was probably at its peak in the music business, Casablanca set the pace...” —ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
“You stupid fucking idiot!”
I was pissed. I was so pissed I was shaking. I was on the phone with Bill Wardlow, the head of Billboard magazine’s chart department, holder of one of the most powerful positions in the music business. I had just called him a stupid fucking idiot. And I wasn’t even close to being done.
“You can’t do that! We had an agreement! I don’t care if their record is selling better than ours—that has nothing to do with it! Give them No. 1 next week. We discussed this yesterday, and you told me we would have No. 1! You have to change it back. I already told Neil that we would be No. 1.”
I wasn’t just pissed, I was scared. I had promised to deliver Billboard’s No. 1 album in the country to Casablanca, and now a done deal had been yanked from me—from us—at the eleventh hour.
I was intimately familiar with all the steps that had to be taken to get the top album in the country, and screaming at the head of Billboard’s chart department was way, way down the list. Yet it was a step I was taking. I knew that they weren’t going to let out the chart information for another two hours. They could still change it. I wasn’t going to stop screaming until they went to press.
“I couldn’t care less if Al Coury already knows about the numbers! Did he pay you off in cash? I helped you out where no one else could, and this is how you pay me back? You are a complete asshole to put me in this position!”
People were beginning to congregate outside my office to watch the meltdown. Neil Bogart walked in through our adjoining office door, clearly surprised at my outburst, and attempted to talk me off the ledge. No one had ever heard me yell with such venom and hatred. And they certainly had never heard me yell at Bill Wardlow.
Bill had promised me that our three-disc soundtrack LP for Thank God It’s Friday would be No. 1. Now he was reneging and giving the top slot to Saturday Night Fever. In truth, Saturday Night Fever deserved it. It was outselling us ten to one—easily—and I knew it. RSO, the label that had released Saturday Night Fever, shared a distributor with Casablanca, and I had access to their sales figures. The movie was doing much bigger box office than ours, too, but I didn’t care. Not only did I want to end Saturday Night’s impressive twenty-plus-week run at No. 1, but I also wanted the image enhancement that went along with being No. 1 and the increased sales for our picture and album.
For the past two years, I had had control over the Billboard charts and was able to significantly affect the positions of our records to help establish a perception that our company, Casablanca Records, and our artists—among them, KISS, Donna Summer, the Village People, and Parliament—were the hottest in the music industry. I was not going to accept a broken promise. This guy had screwed with the charts for years and years, and now he was screwing with me.
Casablanca was our child. We gave birth to it, we nurtured it, we fought many battles to keep it alive, and to have someone not give it the respect I felt it deserved was unacceptable. But this story begins long before I even knew who Bill Wardlow was, when Neil Bogart was not king of the hottest label in the record biz but just Neil Bogart, my second cousin from Brooklyn.
For additional information and to preorder your copy, visit the official site.
"FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD will release a new compilation 'Frankie Say Greatest' on November 2nd to mark the 25th anniversary of the original release of their classic album 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome'. The CD/DVD release will feature all the band's hits plus new remixes of 'Relax','Two Tribes' and 'Power of Love' and original remixes."
(Man, I've waited a long time to type that headline.)
Our friend Paul Michel is shooting a video this coming Saturday (9/26) at Saki in Adams Morgan for the track 'Surround Me' and he needs some happy brunch-goers to act as background extras.
"We need warm bodies dressed to the nines (suits for gents, dresses for girls) to show up at Saki in Adams Morgan at 10am," Paul told us earlier in the week. "We're gonna have some champagne and Jameson's to start the Saturday brunching off right."
Not bad, huh? Here's the link to the Facebook invite where you can RSVP.
Jupiter One pay a visit to Washington, DC next Wednesday (9/30) in support of their new release ‘Sunshower’ as openers for the wonderful Regina Spektor at Constitution Hall.
After speaking to Jupiter One’s Zac Colwell this week, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the band flipping through the bins of vinyl at any one of the shops advertised over there to the left while they're here...
"When I was growing up in South Austin, past the suburbs and before the pastures, my whole world was my parents' record collection. As soon as I could operate the turntable I was choosing my favorites: Fleetwood Mac "Heroes Are Hard to Find", Hugh Masakela "Is Alive And Well at the Whiskey", Cannonball Adderley "74 Miles Away", Stevie Wonder "Talking Book", The Uranium Savages, Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe", etc. and on and on and on.
There were no categories or "genres", just "with words" or "without words". Many of these records have not been reissued on CD yet and so the only way I can hear this music that shaped my tastes is to visit home. When I see the covers, I remember the reverence I felt for these artifacts. They were important. Someone made these covers to look at, and so I stared at them for the length of the record. Every time.
As I got older I managed to get the record player to live in my room. I would fall asleep every night with the arm back so one side would repeat over and over and fill my dreams. I was tired in high school. A trip to the record store with friends was a ritual and we were sooooo cool for being into it.
Just now I played another Fleetwood Mac record and Grady Tate's "Windmills of My Mind" on the record player in the house. I loved that these thoughts were interrupted when I had to get up to flip the record. It demands the listener's attention. And never gives one more that can be digested."
The evening concludes at 9pm at the Velvet Lounge (915 U Street NW) with a program that ranges from insane noise to precision electronics and elegant compositions. $10 gets you in. Details:
Fern Knight is a quartet based in Philadelphia and DC led by cellist Margaret Ayre, and delivers a heady blend of progressive rock, pagan folk, 60's psych improv, and the new wave of British heavy metal. Imagine Pentangle with a flying V...
Swiss audio magician Luigi Archetti might be known to some as the guitarist behind latter-day krautrock pioneers Guru Guru. He's also done fantastic work as a sound installation designer and solo experimental musician. His recent release Transient Places is a wonderland of drones, textures, and deeply heavy minimalism.
Netherlands-based madman Odal cannot be described, it must be experienced. Peter Zincken's Odal project is a full-on assault of old-school noise with a physical presence that is uniquely.....Odal.
DC native Chester Hawkins (known to some blog readers as Intangible Arts) has been performing as Blue Sausage Infant since 1986. The sound of BSI can range from brutal noise to deep drones, heavy rhythms, and psychedelic walls of sound. The goal is to induce epic trance states and a vaguely paranoid kind of euphoria...
Twilight Memories of the Three Suns is a DC-based experimental collective that explores unique methods of sound creation, from amplified objects (bug zappers, building materials, heartbeats) to abused or altered instruments. Watching Twilight Memories in the act is as enlightening as hearing the resulting sounds.
The Sonic Circuits festival celebrates unexpected music in all its forms, and offers a unique chance to see some world-class examples here in DC. Check dc-soniccircuits.org for further details.
Most likely in a testament to some personal fortitude, I often find that I can look back on horrible experiences or times of duress...with some fondness.
I mean, it doesn’t happen right away, but the gamut of experience infuses me with an appreciation for a time of crisis, most often after some reasonable time has expired.
I can’t say why this is and I’m largely thinking (er, typing) out loud, but there you have it.
“A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. When occurring by itself, a single grace note normally indicates the intention of either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura. When they occur in groups, grace notes can be interpreted to indicate any of several different classes of ornamentation, depending on interpretation...
...The term grace note is sometimes colloquially used in a metaphorical sense to indicate concerns which are of secondary importance to that which is of primary concern. For example, in planning a banquet, one might consider the decision of the color of napkins to be used to be a 'grace note' in relation to deciding the courses that would be offered on the menu.”
I’m having conversations with my Dad lately despite the fact that he passed away three years ago last week. I imagine catching up and filling him in on world events and the like. On my mom and her health and the dog he adored that now lives with me.
It’s cruelly ironic that when he was actually around, sometimes weeks would go by before I’d pick up the phone for a hello. He’d say, ‘Where have you BEEN—I was worried!” And I’d say, “Oh, I’m FINE...why would you WORRY?!”
“When you’re a parent,” he’d say often, “you’ll understand.”
“Ghost notes are musical notes occurring in a rhythmic figure which are purposely deemphasized, often nearly to the point of silence.”
The musical equivalent of a lost tooth for example, your tongue repeatedly flicking at its absence.
I’ve long been aware that absences have shapes—the loss or the distance becoming a companion. That absence is SOMEthing. A tangible intangible, maybe.
If you’re fortunate to live a long life, one of connections and entanglements, real or perceived—their departures announce themselves with tiresome frequency. Yet, SOMEthing remains. And we replay it over and over.
“Ghost notes, however, are not simply the unaccented notes in a pattern. The unaccented notes in such a pattern as a clave are considered to represent the mean level of emphasis--they are neither absolutely emphasized nor unemphasized. If one further deemphasizes one of these unaccented notes to the same or a similar extent to which the accented notes in the pattern are emphasized, then one has 'ghosted' that note.
In a case in which a ghost note is deemphasized to the point of silence, that note then represents a rhythmic placeholder in much the same way as does a rest. This can be a very fine distinction, and the ability of an instrumentalist to differentiate between what is a ghost note and what is a rest is governed largely by the acoustic nature of the instrument.”
...our Crosley Turntable Giveaway has ended. Thanks to all who entered!
What would our 33-1/3 Days of Vinyl Giveaways be without something to play those new records on? Well, happily we don’t need to ponder that dire scenario because our friends at Crosley Radio have offered TVD the brand new CR6007A Tech Turntable to give away as part of our 33-1/3 series of LP Giveaways!
The official info: Blast into the vinyl preservation revolution with the CR6007A Tech Turntable. Simply plug in a USB or SD card to transfer music from your records, giving you the flexibility to put the digital tunes on CDs or your MP3 player. The tech turntable’s playback feature can also be used to listen to prerecorded MP3 files. This Crosley turntable even features a PAR (portable audio ready) hookup for MP3 players, and an analog AM/FM radio for more listening enjoyment.
The CR6007A Tech features: USB/SD Encoding • USB/SD Card Reader • Belt Driven Turntable Mechanism • Plays 3 Speeds - 33 1/3, 45 & 78 RPM Records • Plays 7", 10" and 12" Records • Portable Audio Ready – Simply Plug in Your Portable Audio Device or MP3 Player • LCD Display • AM/FM Radio • Analog Tuner • External FM Antenna • Dynamic Full Range Stereo Speakers • Auxiliary Input • Auxiliary Output • Headphone Jack • Wood Style Cabinet • Remote Control
We’ll be sponsoring the contest to win the Crosley CR6007A Tech Turntable throughout the final 33-1/3 days of Summer 2009. To win, all you need to do is capture our attention in the comments to this post, and on 9/21 we’ll choose one lucky winner from the many witty and intellectual comments we’re certain to receive. (We’re optimists.)
So, make ‘em good. We’ll see ya back here on 9/21 when we choose our winner!
(...and many thanks to Crosley for their generous support!)
Oh sure, perhaps it's a return to summer with this morning's weather but don't be fooled - Fall looms and arrives this time next week. But we're going out on a high with our very LAST Vinyl Giveaway for the Last 33-1/3 Days of Summer!
ONE winner will receive:
...how's that for a finale?
Do whatcha' gotta do in the comments to this post (with contact info, please!) and we'll award one winner all three LP's to close out our series of contests. We're shutting the doors on summer and these giveaways next Monday (9/21) so get crackin'. Like Fall is.
Our Friday Ten operates as a less than subtle reminder to join TVD this evening at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda for the commencement of the Story/Stereo series.
We’d like to thank its curators Chad Clark of Beauty Pill and Matt Byars of The Caribbean for lending their sensibilities to the blog this week and Roofwalkers for just about everything else in between.
Like you didn’t see this Friday theme coming from a mile away:
If there’s any justice in the world, Emily Easterly will soon be a big star, and if you’re from DC and inclined to make the drive to NYC, you’ll be rewarded with an intimate gig at The Living Room and years of saying, ‘Y’know, I once saw her in this intimate club...etc., etc., etc.”
Now, let's see some justice prevail.
Emily, what’s the scoop on Saturday?
"I recently went back into the studio (Galuminum Foil Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) with the idea of recording two new songs to be released as a single. The “A side” if you will, is called “The Only Two On Earth” and was loosely inspired by the Cormac McCarthy book, The Road. Since we were recording a single and not a whole record, Chris Cubeta, who produced the single as well as my last full length release, 'Heart Comma Heart,' thought it would be cool to take the song in a different direction sonically. So, the track came out with a lot of cool drums sounds, drum overdubs and even a little synth part! I am super excited to share this track with people!
As for the single release, I will be doing a big show at The Living Room in New York on September 19th. For attendees, I will be handing out a free, limited edition copy of the new single with a handmade CD sleeve. The “B side” to the single is called “Montreal”. The new songs will also be available for free download on my website, after the show. I’ve been rehearsing with my band for the past couple weeks for this show and I’m super excited about it! We will be performing the new song, “The Only Two On Earth” for the first time live as well as covering one of my favorite Sparklehorse songs, “Cow”.
The Living Room is one of my favorite venues in New York. The sound is great, there’s a piano and the last time I was there, I saw Sean Lennon and his girlfriend trying to read each other’s minds by pressing their foreheads together in silence. What more could you ask for?"
Our special Story/Stereo event continues with more Roofwalkers. This morning we hear from the band's bassist, Chris Licciardi, with tales of teen angst and musical epiphanies. (Oh, like YOU never had any.)
"When I was in high school and my brother was in college and far from home, he told me about a band called The Modern Lovers. It was during one of those afternoon calls when he had probably just woken up from whatever college debauchery he was doing the night before, and I had just gotten home from school. These calls didn't happen all that often: usually every other month or so when he was broke. I would run to beat my parents to the phone, hollering "I got it, I got it!" I know my parents liked it that my brother and I got along so well, but they probably also liked the reprieve from being asked for money, so the competition to say hello probably wasn't as tough as it felt.
My brother has a way with words when talking about music. In a matter of minutes, he could (and still can) describe a band in such a way that I would have to go check it out. Conversely, I was often crushed to learn that a band I had been listening to for the past few weeks was a "load of shit" and "a total rip-off of ...". He'd mention bands like Sonic Youth or The Kinks and told me stop listening to the 3rd Oasis album.
This particular phone call was short. I remember this because of the cryptic nature of his description of The Modern Lovers. Ben was never cryptic about bands; he was always long-winded (and still is). He told me that the first album was the best; I don't remember what the justification for this was, but I bought it on his recommendation. He told me to listen to "Pablo Picasso".
So a week later I threw my backpack on the floor of my bedroom, unwrapped the newly purchased CD, put it in my boombox, and went straight to track four. Laying there, listening to "Pablo Picasso", I have to admit I wasn't sure what to make of the singer's head-cold vocals. Was this a joke? Had my brother been testing me? Why the hell did I waste my 16 bucks on this music? I mean, there were some cool guitar parts and, yeah, even at that age, I noticed they sounded a bit like the Velvet Underground, but Lou Reed exuded confidence and a coolness that Jonathan Richman only seemed to hint at.
Perhaps my brother had led me astray.
Song Seven: "She Cracked"
Now this was more like it! Pulsing and edgy, on the verge of falling apart, and Richman sounded like he was completely wasted. The guitars and drums were driving, and the chorus of Modern Lovers' voices jumping in was just right. The break made me want to bounce around the room and play air guitar. This Jonathan Richman guy could even say, "All right" at the end of a chorus without sounding like a dick. When I paid attention to the lyrics, though, I realized Jonathan wasn't your average doped-up rocker, which made him even more relatable. Most of my friends messed around with drugs, but Jonathan and I were both straight (song five). Not only that, but we both had awkward teenage relationship problems. I later heard that Richman was a teenager when he wrote those songs.
This is what I had been hoping for when my brother mentioned it. I'm still kinda hoping for this when my brother recommends a new band. Now that we're older and somewhat closer to music peers, I try to do the same thing for him."
Here is where we’d typically introduce Roofwalkers in our Wednesday ‘First Date’ feature, but seeing that we did so on Monday, we’re just going to dive in with Adrian Carroll’s tales of life abroad. On vinyl.
"When I was a college undergrad I lived abroad in Spain for a while. Lots of folks had painted living abroad as the best kicks of their life. But I didn't really find it to be. It was exciting and all that, and an important growing experience, but I found it pretty isolating and lonely at times.
I lived with an older divorced woman named Nieves. My room in the flat had once belonged to her son, and it was still furnished with much of his older belongings, including a turntable and his LP collection. There were nights when I could have probably attempted to be more social, at least with the other American students. But I figured I'd gone to Spain to learn a foreign language, not to hang out with other expats in Irish pubs. I was eager to meet natives, but the reality is that it takes a good bit of time to do that.
So on nights I didn't go out, I'd stay in and watch Spanish sitcoms with Nieves. And when the sitcoms ended, I'd retire to her son's former room and play records all night.
Her son's teenage years were in the 80s, and his record collection reflected that. I dug through them all--most of it was familiar top 40 stuff from the 80s. My top three were the first Dire Straits LP, Prince's "Purple Rain," and Sade's "Love Deluxe." I never thought I'd admit in public that I like Sade, but I gotta say it's good shit. A guilty pleasure perhaps.
And that Dire Straits LP--I still listen to it regularly. I'm sure it's about as uncool a record as you can cite as a favorite, but it is for me. Hands down, one of the best. For guitar dorks especially. "Six Blade Knife" slays every time. So on to the significance of vinyl with the whole thing. For me vinyl represents listening to music to listen to music--not to do the dishes, go running, or catch up on email. You sit there and open your ears for 20 odd minutes at a time, and then get up to flip the record. I still resist downloading music. I feel like the music I download ends up getting forgotten. If there's something I want to hear and really soak in, I'll go find it on vinyl."
Autumn’s arrived and very soon the evening chill will seep through the window panes and you’ll hanker for someone to cuddle up with and get warm. Might we suggest the one and only Smokey Robinson?
