TVD's Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week

I've got a little informal poll this morning for you guys who zip through here daily:

How many of you who drop by have turntables? How many of you collect vinyl? How many of you visit the blog for the free Mp3's? Or is it the contests?

I'm curious because, as the City Paper Arts Blog commented yesterday, "The Vinyl District is giving a way a shit-ton of vinyl as part of “TVD’s Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week.” Here’s the best part: to win, you simply need to make your case for winning in the comments section of whatever album you’re jonesing for (as of now, you can choose from the debut LP from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Damon and Naomi’s 1001 Nights, AND AND Gossip’s Music for Men. So far, ONLY ONE PERSON HAS COMMENTED! DO NOT LET THIS PERSON WIN ALL THAT VINYL! SUPPORT DISTRICT VINYL BY FIGHTING AMONG(ST) YOURSELVES!

So, yea...where's the fight? I mean, if you DON'T have a turntable, enter anyway and let us send you one of the LPs in the mail. Display it. Show it to your pals. The thing IS art, after all.

Speaking of art, our new friends at FACTORY 25 have given us another gem to offer today, the movie 'Frownland' on DVD and its accompanying soundtrack on good ol' vinyl.


First-time director Ronald Bronstein describes his extraordinary film as “a rotten egg lobbed with spazmo aim at the spotless surface of the silver screen.” Be forewarned: audience response has been intensely divided. Frownland has garnered both passionate raves and scathing denunciation, while festival screenings have ended in screaming matches between patrons. It is strong stuff, yes, but none of its notorious reputation does justice to its savage dark humor, emotional heft and stylistic audacity. Above all else, Frownland is a pitch-black character study of Keith Sontag (Dore Mann), a neurotic, manipulative, stridently unlovable New Yorker whose pitiless roommate aptly describes him, to his face, as “a burbling troll in his underwear.” With the most basic elements of human communication a struggle, Keith lurches his way through an uncaring city, attempting to aid a suicidal friend, evict his unctuous roommate, and simply attain some measure of self-respect. An apoplectic seizure of blind rage, sorrow and bleating humor...Frownland.

"This is personal cinema at its most uncompromising and fierce."
—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“When US independent film has become so drab, marching on Sundance to better reach Hollywood, it is high time it regained the essence it lost twenty years ago...This is the reason why Frownland is so important”
—Cahiers Du Cinema

"One of the most unusual and audacious American independent films ever made."
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“There is some kind of demented brilliance at work here”
—Scott Foundas, The Village Voice

"A horror film nearly as creepy as Eraserhead and more unsparing."
—Amy Taubin, Film Comment

"Frownland is like a shriek for help. It centers on an extraordinary performance that plays like an unceasing panic attack. To call it uncompromising is to wish for a better word."
—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times


So, to get back to that City Paper piece, SUPPORT DISTRICT VINYL BY FIGHTING AMONG(ST) YOURSELVES! In the comments, please.

TVD's Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week

Are you guys reading Scott Perry's New Music Tipsheet and receiving his weekly emails? If not, you should be. He's a pretty keen observer of the music machinery and just so happens to have written a piece on Monday on the band behind today's Fall Vinyl Giveaway, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

"You may notice that my weekly emails focus more on the business side of the music business, rather than the music side of the music business.

You all have two ears and you all know what you might like; we here at the Tipsheet just do our best to bring together all the week's new releases so you can find for yourself the bands that appeal directly to you, either for personal or business purposes.

But every now and then there comes along a band that meets both worlds -- a band that I like AND has an interesting business story to tell.

This week, that band happens to be EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, a band who are making waves in underground circles, but whose story has gone largely unheralded by the mainstream.


Yeah, they've gotten press by all the right blogs and papers. And they're starting to get some airplay as they tour the States, including indie stalwarts KCRW, WXPN, and World Cafe. However, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros is not one of those bands that are dominating blogs & press to the point where radio HAS to play them or risk looking like a fool for not playing them. Yet.

But what's unraveling in real time, in real life, is the band is selling out concerts with little fanfare, propelled largely by word of mouth. In all honesty, I haven't seen anything like this since the White Stripes were selling out multiple nights in San Francisco, New York, and Detroit while they were still signed to Sympathy for the Record Industry -- in other words, those who know, KNOW.

For the uninitiated, Edward Sharpe is a rag-tag band of about a dozen modern hippies, lead by the former singer of Ima Robot. In the month prior to the July 14 release of Up from Below, they were playing packed shows weekly at a beat-down old theater in downtown LA with minimal airplay from KCRW. But that's just the beginning of the story.


Read the rest right here and leave your entries to win the Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros debut LP in the comments to this post. State your case and make it good. Because you're in the KNOW ...right?

TVD's Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week

One of the smarter moves the music industry’s made where vinyl is concerned is to realize that those who appreciate the medium also appreciate convenience, which is why we’ve applauded labels such as Dischord or Merge who’ve made available a full Mp3 download of a LP with purchase.

So, you’ve got to hand it to FACTORY 25 who taken the medium one step beyond with another unique pairing: DVD and vinyl combos.

Quoting their website now, “High and low concept films and music docs have a home at FACTORY 25, the new Brooklyn-based independent film + music label. Beginning in September 2009, FACTORY 25 will release films, theatrically, digitally, and on DVD, and will curate provocative limited edition DVD/Vinyl combination packages. Specializing in indie niche projects, FACTORY 25 is committed to delivering films and music in perfect analog or digital quality on DVD and vinyl in aesthetically interesting packaging.”

We’re pleased to offer two FACTORY 25 releases during our Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week and the first of the pair is ‘Damon and Naomi: 1001 Nights.’


Synopsis: 1001 Nights is a comprehensive anthology of the ethereal Damon and Naomi with videos and live performances by the duo from 2001 through 2009. This road trip through the decade includes live footage of Damon and Naomi and friends they met up with along the way including: Ghost, The Clientele and Richard Youngs. Damon and Naomi curated 1001 Nights and included a rare live version of “Blue Thunder,” a song originally performed by their legendary first band Galaxie 500.

Featuring: Damon & Naomi, Michio Kurihara, The Clientele, Ghost, Richard Youngs, Rheinallt H. Rowlands, Thom Revolver, Bhob Rainey, Masaki Batoh and Helena Espvall


The drill is the same as yesterday's contest; plead your case in the comments to this post to have and own ‘Damon and Naomi: 1001 Nights’ and we'll choose the most compelling this Saturday (11/14) and we'll ship to the winner on Monday (11/16.) You can feel free to enter any of our giveaways this week but you can only win ONE LP. Fair's fair, right?

TVD First Person Single | Ed Hamell

Last summer as a build up to his six appearances at DC’s Fringe Festival, I bent the ear of anyone who’d give me the time about how truly great and unique and f’n hysterical a Hamell on Trial gig can be. Hell, I caught four of those six performances, did the lights for two of them, and STILL I was laughing my ass off each and every time.

Then the unexpected and the well-deserved occurred: Ed won the Fringe Festival's distinguished Director’s Award. That’s right—HE WON THE WHOLE FREAKIN THING. Not that it’s a competition, but it’s a fine honor indeed.

Ed returns to Washington with a series of dates that feature the best of the best of the Summer Fringe acts in a mini Fall Fringe Festival which kicks off this Wednesday the 11th and runs to the 22nd of November.

From the Fall Fringe Fest site: Returning bold and victorious as the Winner of the 2009 Capital Fringe Directors' Award, Artist Ed Hamell brings his terror-ist threat back to DC "...a one-man punk band-- and by punk we mean (mostly) loud, fast music informed by politics, passion, energy and intelligence, played by a guy with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor," Winner of the prestigious Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Anyone who witnessed the raw energy of “The Terrorism of Everyday Life” at this past years Capital Fringe Festival show knows that live performance is where Ed is at his irrefutable best.

Last summer we hit Ed up for his first person take on “The Terrorism of Everyday Life”:

"They've asked me to blog a bit as to what you can expect to see if you were to choose to see my show. Hell if I know. First of all why are you reading this? Do you have too much time on your hands? Are you scrutinizing each and every blog by each and every fringe act? Are you familiar with my work and wanna see what kind of wackiness I'm gonna write? I'll give you some basics and I'll shoot from the hip.

It's a one man show, pretty biographical, got a lot of hard hitting music, a bunch of social commentary, and you should, if all goes well, be pretty entertained, challenged and laugh your ass off. It's a reality show. Not like the ones on T.V. that are scripted and insult your intelligence. I'll respect your intelligence and tell you the truth, albeit in a humorous way.

I've been kicking around doing my potty mouth anarchistic folk punk for about 10 years and decided a couple years ago that I would script and mold it into a more theatrical setting. Hired a really great director, Kate Valentine who was a heavy hitter in the New York City Art/Burlesque scene and signed onto new management, "The Invasion Group" who brought the world the great comic genius Bill Hicks. My good buddy Ani DiFranco produced the entire venture and we brought our show over to Scotland for The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest in the world. I was honored to have won the coveted Herald Angel Award. Three thousand acts and they only pass out seven of those babies so it was extremely flattering.



Now we tour the States and Europe with the production and we'll be bringing it to Washington. Looking forward to it. But the real deal is as follows: Opening night will be a fair showing. How big is the venue? 120 seats? I'll have 40. But those 40 will tell their friends because maybe they're punk rockers and they respond. Or maybe they're artists with a dream who toil away at a thankless job and they need a shot of inspiration and so they get it that night and tell their friends, "I don't know how to explain it but you got to see this guy". Because were you to tell me, "Hey, he's bald, he plays the guitar like he did a kilo of Red Bull, he yells at the crowd, he's got a foul mouth and I laughed until I pissed my pants but then he made me cry and sing songs about genitals with my parents" I don't know that I'd be buying a ticket to wait in line either. Or maybe you got elderly parents and you don't know how you're going to afford to take care of them or you just lost your job and you don't know how you're going to keep your house and you just want 75 minutes, (or how ever long they're going to let me explode) to forget all your troubles. Then I'm your guy.

And you're going to tell your friends and I can guarantee by the last night we're gonna have a full house. Blogs ain't gonna sell it. I could wallpaper my bathroom with 5 star reviews from The New York Times, Playboy, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, The London Times and if truth be told that ain't gonna sell it. Word of mouth sells it. So...I hope you come out, I give 150% every night and I hope you spread the word. Watch the sparking demons escape from my brain."

Hamell on Trial - Sugarfree (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial - Disconnected (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial - Big As Life (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial - John Lennon (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial - Rupert Smiley (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial - Glover's Eulogy (Mp3)

Catch Ed Hamell's "The Terrorism of Everyday Life" From November 11th-22nd. Dates, times, and tickets can be found here.

TVD's Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week

Sometimes running this blog is akin to a juggling act. We’re quite happily inundated with offers and opportunities often too numerous to address, yet find ourselves saying “...yes!” to the point of having a backlog of contests in the queue.

With that said, ...welcome to ‘TVD’s Fall Vinyl Giveaways Week!’ whereby we get to upend the backlog of vinyl offers we’ve been given and pass on the vinyl right to you guys. Right from the ‘first taste is free’ playbook.

Here’s how it’ll play out: each day this week we’ll post a new LP on the blog in anticipation of your breathy comments to come. Persuade us in some manner that you should be the rightful owner of said LP, and in turn we’ll choose all of the winners this coming Saturday (11/14) and ship all of the vinyl out on the following Monday (11/16.)

And man do we have some cool stuff to offer every day of this week.

First up: The Gossip’s new Rick Rubin-produced ‘Music for Men’ on double 180gram vinyl which has seen pretty heavy rotation here at TVD HQ.

More surprises await tomorrow and all week, but for now, you’re up!

TVD's The Screening Process

I am often asked about the criteria for a great poster. The immediate answers are pretty simple: decent concept, nice image (boobs optional) and competent type. A more in-depth answer is that a poster must be able to hang on a wall for years, stared at and dissected AND still be able to hold your attention. It could be the poster is multi-layered with colors allowing the viewer to focus on different imagery. Or the designer could have placed small jokes, flourishes, text, details that takes time to find and enjoy.

Either way, the designers of Young Monsters (Zach Hobbs, Nick Dupey, and Scott Cambell with Alison running the store) have found a way to create time spanning, INCREDIBLE posters - posters I proudly hang on my walls to gaze at whenever I need a jolt to make my work better. Their posters are distinct, have incredible palettes, rich imagery, layers and layers of goodness, and come from an unknown time. And yes, some even have boobs on them.

Not content being solo, the designers have teamed up to make one of the best and most interesting new design firms out there creating posters. I am always eager to see their latest batches of prints. I was lucky enough to have two of the Monsters answer some questions! Enjoy.

Ages/Location
Nick Dupey - 30 - Chattanooga, TN
Scott Campbell - 31 - apartment hunting in New Orleans

How did you start doing posters?
ND - I played in a band and booked shows. I wanted to make the posters for them. Kinda typical story. The posters won the battle for my heart.
SC - I always made posters for my bands and friends' bands. That led to working with Bullhorn Bandits and Spanish Moon (Baton Rouge, LA), which has given me a chance to do posters for tons of great bands.

How did all of you start working together as Young Monsters as you originally worked individually?
ND - I got a grant from a local organization to start a screen printing / design collab. I had lunch with Zach and talked posters. We had meetings and decided how we were going to do this thing with Ali, Zach and Scott. Next thing you know, things are totally different than how we planned them.
SC - I was living in Atlanta last year and met Nick through a friend, after he had gotten the grant and set up the shop. I've been a fan of Zach's for a few years, so I was stoked work with him.

What's your favorite thing about being a designer in your city or town? The most challenging?
ND - Chattanooga is beautiful. We are between Nashville, Knoxville and Atlanta - so we get a lot of perks (bands coming through) with out the big city crap. We have a fantastic local music scene with a lot of talent. The challenge is finding work that pays the bills.
SC - I've moved around a couple times this year (Atlanta, Chattanooga), but I'm excited about living in New Orleans. There's a great vibe there right now, lots of new galleries opening & great music. I agree with Nick, the challenge is finding work that pays the bills.

You are primarily known as poster designers, do you have "straight" design work - such as logos, annual reports, etc. - that pays the bills.
ND - I just resigned from my day job to do Young Monster full time. Young Monster is now really scary!
SC - YM does it all



Describe Your Creative Process. Collaborative? Designated roles?
ND - I manage jobs as they come in. Or hustle to get them. Then I kick the coolest ones to Zach or Scott cos they don't really get paid much. We have mountains of top secret source material. We scan and draw a lot. Then we may or may not show them to each other. If we do we usually get a response like, "eh, that's pretty cool" which means its crap or, eh "it's cool" which means all systems go! Then we work out a print day and mix colors and DO IT!

Fight about clipart and bands?
ND - We have some secret magazines that Zach STOLE from me when I was on vacation. I want those back before he uses them all up! Steely Dan maybe the best band on the planet and I am not wild about Grizzly Bear.
SC - It's usually a first come, first served type of deal with the source material. There have been multiple usage situations, but we try to avoid them. Grizzly Bear maybe the best band on the planet and I am not wild about Steely Dan.

Describe your work day:
ND - Wake up at 8:30. Cereal or nothing. Emails and scanning and Facebook distractions. Lunch on the cheap. More emails and clients and bills and scanning and designing. Dinner and TV. Printing at night in our haunted building.
SC - Shower. Yogurt & grapefruit. Emails and Facebook distractions. Work on something. Cereal for lunch. More emails. Work on something. Dinner and TV. More cereal. More work. Sleep.



What has been your favorite piece you have done (gig poster or art print):
ND - I tend to be tough on myself. Especially with all the talent around me. I was really proud of my Superdrag poster and the Died Young Stayed Pretty poster that I collaborated with Print Mafia on. Also this poster I did for a Psychedelic poster art show that our friends at Leo Handmade Gallery did. (Of course, Zach did the second part of the exhibit and blew mine outta the water)
SC - I guess my favorite at the moment is the Andrew Bird poster I did recently

Group(s) you wish you could do a poster for (Current):
ND - I'm working with a lot of the bands I love (Hiddens Spots, Future Virgins, Harlem). I would love to do some bigger bands like The Flaming Lips, Jay Z, Lil Wayne... scary stuff like that that I would freak out and be all worried about whether or not it was right.
SC - Boards of Canada, Washed Out, Black Moth Super Rainbow

(Historic):
ND - Oh man. Talk about freaked out. I would love to do a take on classic bands like The Clash or the Stooges. Those bands are so classic historically that you would almost want to make something epic out of it while maintaining the rawness of the sound. But who knows, cos those bands are dead. I'll say the Wednesdays or Harlan. Those bands would be tough to please.
SC - Beach Boys, Kraftwerk (70s), Miles Davis (late 60s)



Do you do your own printing or outsource - pros and cons.
ND - We print 99% in house. It is difficult from an organizational standpoint, but it helps to know the process. That being said, eventually we would like to get to the point where we can just design and outsource to the real pros. (Even though I think we are pretty damn good).

Currently listening to:
ND - Jay Z, Blue Print 3 / Flaming Lips, Embryonic / Hidden Spots 100million Voices - WATCHING a lot of horror movies. This is a huge influence on what I do and October is our month! I stick to the classics (Halloween, Texas Chainsaw, Friday the 13th - boogie men!)
SC - Washed Out, Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, Grizzly Bear, Memory Cassette, Generationals, Cut Copy.

Upcoming projects:
ND - Mostly local shows. Monthly gig for JJ's Bohemia (local venue), Jucifer, A bluegrass Night, and I will be helping my friend from the Shaking Ray Levis with some art prints. Right now I am making beer bread with jalepenos in it!
SC - Shirt design for a surf shop in Belize, shirt design for Dirty Coast in New Orleans, album art for a friend's band, more posters for Spanish Moon.

It's a TVD Ticket/Vinyl/Meet & Greet Giveaway! | Eccentric Soul Revue, Tuesday, November 10, 9:30 Club

Man, we've got a great night of music planned for you on Tuesday, but first some background:


Motown had one, so did Stax. Three deep soul acts and one smoking hot band to back them up. The triple-header of R&B: the soul revue. Once a mainstay of theaters, gymnasiums and VFW halls everywhere, the soul revue ultimately vanished in the late seventies as recorded sound pushed live performance out of the limelight and onto car stereos and refrigerator-sized boom boxes. The performers returned to their day jobs and the world was the poorer for it.


That is, until April 4th, 2009, when the Numero Group, the world's premier reissue label, mounted the first Eccentric Soul Review, packing Chicago's Park West Theater with soul-hungry acolytes, satisfying them and then some with the real thing: a seventeen-piece band backing, The Notations, Renaldo Domino, The Final Solution, Nate Evans and Syl Johnson, putting on a show that combined seventies slick with revival meeting fervor.


It was a magical evening, as the past lived and breathed and got on down, right here in the present. Those in attendance went home that night knowing they'd seen something that just wasn't done anymore. And they went home wanting more. Well, the wait and the want is over. The Numero Group is taking this show on the road: Syl Johnson, Renaldo Domino and the Notations, backed by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound are hitting Columbus, Washington DC, and two boroughs of New York City.


Eccentric Soul Revue hits the East Coast in November with the totally explosive Syl Johnson, the silky smooth Notations, and the man with the voice like Domino sugar, Renaldo Domino, plus special guests, a slide show, and an autograph line.



There is absolutely nothing else like The Eccentric Soul Revue. A ticket is a time machine...and we've got a pair to give away for what promises to be one special night—which ALSO includes DC’s resident funk and soul archivist and curator, DJ Nitekrawler, spinning before and after the show.

In addition, the ticket winner will be granted access to the exclusive meet and greet before things kick off AND a 7" gem from the mighty Numero Group: Renaldo Domino's "I'll Get You Back" b/w "2 Years, 4 Days." Some background on the 45 from Numero's site:

Renaldo Domino's "I'll Get You Back" b/w "2 Years, 4 Days"
"Renaldo is one of our favorite artists and a great friend and it always brings us pleasure to release his music. Taken from an acetate turned up by Jamie Hodge years back, "I'll Get You Back" was a recording Renaldo thought was long lost. Produced by William Sandy Johnson and Nate Taylor, this was intended for release on Johnson's Sincere label, alongside LaShawn Collins and Wendy Woods. On the reverse is "Two Years, Four Days" which eluded release until last year's Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation. This is the tune's historic first appearance in vinyl form."

To check out the Eccentric Soul Review on us, the rest is up to you! State your case as to why YOU should be picked to attend Tuesday's show, the meet and greet, AND to take home the 45 in the comments to this post (with contact info — important!) and we'll choose the smoothest voice on Monday (11/10) by noon. Step to it!

It's Nicole Atkins' Vinyl District Parting Shots

...and so brings to a close our very first Blog Takeover Week. We’d like to thank Nicole Atkins from the bottom of our Jersey-loving hearts for her time and contributions during the week, for locking up and shutting off the lights to the office each night—and for restocking the liquor cabinet. How about that shit?

We’ll see all of you at The Rock and Roll Hotel tonight when she and The Black Sea roll into town, right?

‘Til then, Nicole’s DJ’d the week’s Final Ten from the road...


The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next to Me (Mp3)
Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo (Mp3)
The Flaming Lips - Silver Trembling Hands (Mp3)
Andrew Bird - Souverian (Mp3)
Laura Marling - Tap At My Window (Mp3)
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness (Mp3)
Bert Jansch - Reynardine (Mp3)
The Gun Club - Ghost On The Highway (Mp3)
MC5 - Teen Age Lust (Mp3)
Dax Riggs - Dethbryte (Mp3)

It's a TVD Ticket Giveaway | Peter Bjorn and John, Saturday, November 7, The 9:30 Club

We've been fans of Peter Bjorn and John from the first puckered whistle of 'Young Folks' but apparently we're pretty late to the party because the band is celebrating ten years together with a tour that brings them to the 9:30 this Saturday night with El Perro del Mar.

We've got three, count 'em THREE, pairs of tickets to give away for Saturday night's birthday party for the band. Leave your birthday wishes in the comments to this post (with contact info - important!) and we'll choose the most creative three to attend er, ...free.

Contest closes this this coming Friday at noon!

Peter Bjorn and John - Don't Move Me (Miike Snow Remix) (Mp3)

It's Nicole Atkins' Vinyl District

I'm in Nashville right now, just played the Ryman Auditorium with our dear friends the Avett Brothers. Sang with some ghosts in the dressing room. The feeling of playing on that stage was something between complete humbleness and a supernatural elation.

Anyways, today I met up with my friend Lisa from the band the Poconos and her boyfriend Quinn from the Gay Blades. We set out to do a little record shopping. We started talking about how when it's fun to go record shopping at your local, we do most of our record shopping on the road. The album serves as a reminder of where you were when you bought it every time you take off the shelf to listen to it.


My record collection acts like a memory trigger scrapbook. When I listen to my orange Sopwith Camel record it reminds me of the great little record shop next to the 40 Watt in Athens, GA. That store was the size of a closet yet they had every record you could ever want. When I listen to my "Songs to Read James Bond By" record, it reminds me of the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, OH. This venue has a wonderful thrift shop and record store in the basement. The backstage also resembles a basement from the 70s and every time we have played there they made us meatloaf and greenbeans and mashies. That record will always recall my moments there.

The same with my Otis Redding Anthology I got at Repo Records the day after I graduated college when I was thinking Philadelphia might be a great place to live. There are too many to list. These records will always serve so much more than just music for me. They help me remember.

Otis Redding - I Can't Turn You Loose [Live] (Mp3)
Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long [Live] (Mp3)
Otis Redding - Mr. Pitiful (Mp3)
Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine (Mp3)
Otis Redding - Amen (Mp3)

It's Nicole Atkins' Vinyl District—Vinyl & Ticket Giveaway

What would a week with Nicole Atkins on the blog be without a chance to see her kill it live and the opportunity to take home her Columbia Records debut? Well, that'd certainly be an incomplete week.

Being the completists that we are however, you won't need to imagine that dire scenario because Nicole's hooked us up with a pair of tickets to her show at the Rock and Roll Hotel this Friday night as well as the aforementioned debut LP 'Neptune City' on glorious vinyl for one lucky winner.

Nicole's spending the week here at The Vinyl District rummaging through her favorite record stores around the country, so we'd like you to give a shout out to your favorite shop (DC or beyond) in the comments to this post for a shot to win the vinyl and the tickets for Friday night.

Remember to leave us some contact info and we'll choose the best one by Thursday COB for the tickets and the vinyl. Get to it!


Nicole Atkins - Together We're Both Alone (Mp3)

It's Nicole Atkins' Vinyl District

For the last 8 years that I've lived off and on in Asbury Park, my friends and I have always been like "when is this place gonna get a record shop?" There's art galleries, bars, dance studios, gay specialty stores, doggie ice cream parlors, yet no record shops. In order to buy a record you literally have to drive 30 minutes into Red Bank to Jack's (which is a great shop but a bit tough on the gas tank these days.)

Finally our buddy Joe Koukas did something about it and opened up Holdfast Records on the plum little strip of Cookman Avenue. Holdfast specializes in used and hard to find Punk, Hardcore, Reggae, Old Country, Jazz and Dub 45's from artists like Barrington Levy and Big Youth. I recently picked up a couple of live Zeppelin bootlegs and an Edith Piaf boxed set. As well as a mint condition John Denver and the Muppets album. Score!

If you're looking for something in particular Joe can order it for you and they also offer a special service that I haven't seen at any record shops before. Personal shopping. So basically you hand Joe a list of everything you're looking for and he sets off to acquire all of it for you. This usually takes between 3 and 4 weeks. It's like vinyl bounty hunting.


Holdfast doesn't just have a great selection of vinyl but they also have great vintage clothes and vintage guitars and amps and pedals for sale. JoJo who works in the guitar department also does setups. He'll fix you up real nice! They also feature an awesome selection of graffiti art, rare prints and paintings from popular local artists such as Porkchop and Bradley Hoffer.

But the secret gem lies in the basement...

Silverball Museum resides in the basement of Holdfast. It's a vintage pinball museum featuring 150 machines in mint condition all available to play for ten dollars an hour. And its BYOB! Meowzers! Record shopping, getting your gear fixed, outfit for later, and an hour to kill on pinball and a couple of tall boys.

Holdfast is a little bit of paradise where the debris meets the sea.

Holdfast Records and the Silverball Museum
639 Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ

Barrington Levy - Shine Eye Girl (Mp3)
Big Youth - Four Sevens (Mp3)
Led Zeppelin - In The Evening [Live in Berlin, Bonham Last Show] (Mp3)
Edith Piaf - Vie en Rose (Mp3)
John Denver with The Muppets - When The River Meets The Sea (Mp3)

TVD First Person Single | Tina Sugandh

I met Tina Sugandh nine or so years ago and since then her star has not just been on the rise—it's been stratospheric. But events of a more personal nature have taken center stage recently, and in honor of October's Breast Cancer Awareness month, Tina has been giving away a download of what she calls the most important song she's ever written, “Snake Charmer,” free on her website. (...and it's linked a little while longer exclusively for TVD.)
 
"I started performing with my family, The Sugandh Family, when I was five years old. My older sister, my mother, my father, and I would all have school or work during the week, and then we would fly off and have these magical weekends where we would perform at all types of Indian events! I started singing on stage at age five, and then when I was eight I began to learn to play the guitar, drums, and tabla (an Indian drum). I am so grateful that my mother introduced music and performance into our lives. As kids, she always reinforced the idea that music is a tool used to bring people together, to uplift their spirits, and to make them smile-and I still retain these musical values today.

I began to heavily pursue a solo career in music while I was in college studying biology. This led to me simultaneously graduating with an honors degree in Bio as well as a scoring a record deal! I chose the record deal since music and performance is in my blood! Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have songs on several Hollywood soundtracks as well as on the Billboard Charts, and I’m in the process of releasing a full length album.



My mother introduced music into my life. She will always be my best friend-and the most radiant, beautiful, genuine, energetic, positive, glowing ray of sunlight that I will ever know. I spent the entire last year watching my mom fight cancer, and I did everything I could to save her. Cancer eventually took her from us. Now, I am using her lifelong lessons of ”positivity” and “focusing on only the good in every situation” in order to only focus on how grateful I am to have had such an incredible mother for so long. I’m  doing everything in my power to keep her legacy alive and to empower people with music and to make them smile as she did.



My mom actually grew up singing Beatles songs on the radio in India, and very shortly after my mom’s passing, Ringo Starr invited me to his house to sing and play tabla on his album. My relatives say that my mom set that up - and I would like to believe that’s true!
 
Last month, I had the incredible opportunity of hosting and performing for 18,000 people at the American Cancer Society. I was so grateful to be able to contribute, and now I am giving away a free download of the most important song I’ve ever written. It’s my song for survivors, called “Snake Charmer”. For a free download, please visit my website. "

Tina Sugandh - Jao (Mp3)

It's Nicole Atkins' Vinyl District

As I’ve mentioned quite a few times in the past, I grew up not in DC but at the Jersey Shore, NJ. In a town called Neptune to be exact—in a tiny enclave of this tiny enclave called Shark River Hills.

Just like our guest blogger all week, Nicole Atkins.

And while we’re huge fans of her here at TVD HQ, it’s not because she’s our hometown girl, but because she’s making music that’s head and shoulders above SO, so many these days.

Find out yourself when she plays The Rock and Roll Hotel this Friday night, 11/6. (...and more on that tomorrow.)

I guess there’s something in the water in NJ, right Nicole?

---

I had a friend while I was going to college at UNCC named Daniel Coston. He was a rock photographer and an encyclopedia. We'd sit at this little diner down there called the Penguin and over a plate of fried pickles and ranch talk for hours about bands. I'd take in everything he said like a sponge.

Right before I graduated he was telling me about a band from NYC called Television and how he was excited for their reunion at the Pop Overthrow Festival. I'd never heard of the band before (thinking of that time now makes me laugh) but they sounded like nothing I've ever heard before. We went to his house and he threw Marquee Moon on his turn table and it felt like my entire world opened up.

A week later I graduated and moved back home to Neptune, NJ with my folks. My room was the same as it was 5 years before, but I realized that that shitty little Sony plastic jambox I had had a record player in it. I went to our locals, the Soundwave in Manasquan (RIP) and Silvertunes in Belmar (RIP) and just spent hours talking with the owners and pouring over the plastic boxes underneath the CD bins. It went from "Hey you got any Television?" to them saying "Sure, if you like that you might like...."



All of my friends had either moved away or were at grad school. I'd just started writing my own songs. And so became my love affair with vinyl.

Bands like Circus Maximus, Love, Can, Otis Redding, and Leonard Cohen became my companions while I whiled away in solitude at my folks house writing my first record. Or mini record as I called it back then. During this time I took a job writing a small music column for a local magazine whose content was mostly about where the $2 Bud Light specials were and which coverband was playing where.

We'd get sent CDs from record labels. Mostly buttrock and forgettable singer/songwriters. Sometimes I'd find a couple of gems in the batch but most of the time I'd take the stacks of CDs and trade it in for store credit at Soundwave to buy vinyl. As my collection grew so did the people I was meeting locally at the time. Sitting on the floor of my room at my parents house listening to different albums with my new friends became the new Friday night hang.



Soon as the summer was closing out, I'd finished around 9 of my own songs and moved part time to NYC. From Monday through Wednesday I'd split my time playing open mics, playing songs with other artists in Tompkins Square Park, and drinking cheap beer at the Library on Avenue A listening to Television on the jukebox.

A month after that I would record that first "mini" album at this great little vintage studio in Red Bank, NJ called Retromedia. The Studio owner John Noll, randomly emailed Richard Lloyd of Televison to come down and play on a couple of my songs. All of this within less than a year. Its really strange how things come full circle.

Thanks Daniel.

Nicole Atkins - The Tower (Live at Stone Pony) (Mp3)
Television - Marquee Moon (Mp3)
Leonard Cohen - So Long Marianne (Mp3)
Otis Redding - Hard to Handle (Mp3)
Love - Andmoreagain (Mp3)

TVD's Comet Calendar for November, 2009 | The show of your choice is FREE!

TVD and Comet Ping Pong are excited to continue a new series of ticket giveaway contests where each month you can see your show of choice at Comet—FREE. Simply because we're looking out for you and your good time.

Here's how it works: each month we'll publish Comet's press release and full schedule right here at TVD. You choose the show you'd like to see and be the first person to claim the tickets for that show in the comments to this post (with contact info!) and you're in FREE—no questions asked.

It's just that simple. No long love letters, nothin'.

There will be just ONE winner for a pair of tickets allowed per show and you can't win more than once in a month. (Hey, we gotta have SOME rules...)

The ticket giveaways for November start...right now:

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
K Records Evening!
Jeremy Jay / Heaven / Black Umbrella / DJ Names Names (Ian Svenonius)
Jeremy Jay is a mixture of a storyteller, artist and singer. Following a series of 7" singles, he released his debut LP, A Place Where We Could Go on K in Spring 2008. Currently, he lives in Los Angeles, the dream city of films. Similar to films, Jeremy identifies with the visual stories of life and love, and his music touches on everything human. He draws much of his inspiration from American artists like Andy Warhol and iconic teen filmmaker John Hughes, to European French new wave filmmakers like Truffant and Goddard.

When you listen to Black Umbrella, you usually expect a schizophrenic madness to ensue, as if you’re happily running over a bunch of brand new babies with a lawnmower while eating your veggies like a good boy. However, with this record it’s as if you walked to a grand piano shop, found a discarded Steinway, and tipped it over onto your head, and just laid there. You have nothing to do but think about what just happened, and that’s just the way you want it for now.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Americans in France / Foul Swoops
North Carolina trio, Americans in France has the good kind of musical ADD—songs zig and zag, with scratchy guitars and anxiously shouted vocals, sometimes in unison, sometimes in response. The Chapel Hill area has set a high standard for this type of stuff and Americans in France live up to those expectations.

Foul Swoops, are obvious heirs to the local indie rock throne—once they all turn 21, of course. That youth is apparent in the quartet's songs, which are bursts thick guitar, growling vocals from that redhead drummer while the disinterested looking girl on keyboards makes sure there's some melody throughout.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Authorization/ Protect U / Maxmillion Dunbar (AFP from Food for Animals)
Authorization, if you haven't had the opportunity to hear them yet, is Jeff (from Insect Factory, Plums, Kohoutek) and Dan Caldas (ex-Black Eyes, Horses.) The duo trade off on synth, drum machine, electronics, guitar, and bass. The music they make has elements of dub, kosmische Krautrock, g-funk (of course), with plenty of angularity, and does not disappoint."

Maxmillion Dunbar is one of many positions on this Earth played by Silver Spring Maryland native Andrew F-P. Others include rappin' in MD next-hop trio Food For Animals, DJing and producing in Beautiful Swimmers, and going way way out with Cool Water. He also runs the very graceful Future Times record label. He has a 12"(the "Bare Feet" EP) coming out soon on Ramp Recordings out of the UK. After that he just wants to grow like a plan so be on the lookout.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
George Smallwood
Mr. “Mellow” George Franklin Smallwood’s own personal discography dates back to the early 70s when he started a record company out of the garage in Hyattsville, Maryland. Designed to showcase his original music with the group Marshmellow, Smallwood Records had several vinyl releases; Touching Is My Thing, Funk by The Pound, Mr. Sunshine,
Lady Disco.

Records were sold at house parties and shows, and never managed to find their way outside of DC, until EBAY. Records that originally sold for a dollar, now sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Several of the recordings have been reissued by Peoples Potential Unlimited (Washington DC) and Jazzman (UK).

Today, George just winterized the pool, got his keyboard serviced and is tearing cardboard beer boxes into fire starter for the home studio hearth. What seem like strange tasks are the routines of a blind man, who has been impaired even before his love of music began. George recalls, "Music never really took to me till I lost my sight..”

Over the years listening to cassettes and radio, Smallwood has amassed over 300 songs for his mental catalog of music. This human soft rock soul database extends from his originals to the hits of Steve Miller band, Christopher Cross, Michael Jackson, Queen, and Prince. All songs accompanied by Mr. Mellow with his Casio synthesizer, “the personal computer” he calls it. The only instrument in the world that has a fade-in, fade-out button.
 
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the greatest soul artist you’ve never heard of!!! Meet and greet with Mr. Mellow between his sets!
 
...more to come!

TVD's Parting Shots

While most of the blogosphere is celebrating the looming Halloween holiday, I thought it best this year to rattle the bones of some FM AOR dinosaurs to exorcize the demonic spectre that has become: ...Rocktober.

(And really, there’s no way I could top last year’s frightful Halloween mix. Truly scary indeed.)

Next week we’ve got something BIG planned that we’ve never—ever—done before! So, see ya back here Monday, right?

BOO.


Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times (Mp3)
Bad Finger - If You Want It (Mp3)
Cheap Trick - Surrender (Mp3)
David Bowie - Moonage Daydream (Mp3)
Kansas - Dust In The Wind (Mp3)
Foreigner- Fool For You Anyway (Mp3)
ELO - Can't Get It Out Of My Head (Mp3)
Elton John - Dirty Little Girl (Mp3)
Triumph - Fight The Good Fight (Mp3)
Rush - Spirit Of Radio (Mp3)