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It's Day #2 of Sockets Records'blog takeover in advance of Friday's label showcase show at The Black Cat, and we're joined by the super succinct Imperial China.
One of the cooler LP covers I've seen in recent years is the cover to Thee Oh Sees' 'Help.' Any and all Oh Sees albums/releases belong on vinyl, both in terms of artwork and music, but both for different reasons. Their music is so raw that nothing captures it better than vinyl, and their artwork is so weird and intricate that it would get lost on CD.
Sockets Records only came onto my radar about 2 years ago as they quietly—or at least as it seemed to me—amassed a local roster of diverse and eclectic talent. But hell, they're five years old and in celebration of this auspicious birth date, the label is hosting a showcase this Friday that label founder Sean Peoples elaborates upon below. Afterward, we're talking to all five bands this week about one of my favorite topics—album covers.
Sockets Records is marking its 5 year anniversary with a huge showcase blowout at the Black Cat this Friday (January 22, 2010) and The Vinyl District graciously asked us to take over the blog for the week and feature the 5 bands playing the showcase. Needless to say, we couldn't be more excited to oblige.
Sockets started off of as a small label at the end of 2004/beginning of 2005, issuing limited quantities of sound experiments by friends. Over the years, the label grew to accommodate an increase in output and creativity of said friends. Now the label maintains 10 active bands and aims to highlight a music scene once again thriving in our nation's capital.
The bands playing Friday's Black Cat showcase are an eclectic bunch - a reflection of the myriad sounds emanating from Washington, DC. From the conscious hip-hop of The Cornel West Theory to the experimental post-punk of Imperial China, you can get a good sense of the unique styles one can find on Sockets Records this Friday night.
Whether I'm traveling through the mystical unworldly environments of Roger Dean (yes!) or getting caught deep within the simple surrealistic concepts of Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) album covers have always held a magnetic force for my album gripping.
Not only are they usually my initial introduction to the musical world I'm about to dive into, they also create there own realities where the music can take me. Ultimately though nothing speaks louder then the stoic portrait of a single artist on the cover of an album. It's almost as if your looking into a morphed mirror of who will embody you as the record spins.
Though usually this approach is mostly associated with the jazz world – i.e. Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, etc – it was also wildly popular within the folk world as well – i.e. Blonde on Blonde or First Songs by Mike Hurley. For me, there's no bolder introduction then the silence of a single face staring unknowingly towards oblivion. —Britton Powell (HUME)
Our pal Jess and her BFF Alex Gruenburg take the stage over at DC9 tonight as openers for Young Buffalo...and, uh... is it just me or are they looking forward to it?
Ladies, Where have all our rock & roll idols gone? Have they gone the way of tape cassettes, record players, and beta tapes? I think not. Like any good man, the best of them are always hardest to find. You see girls, cute boys are one thing, but cute boys who write and sing rock & roll songs that you can’t stop dancing to to...? *swoon* Um, have I introduced you to Alex Gruenburg? Little did you know Washington, DC has it’s very own personal rock star and after you see him play, you’re probably going to want his poster on your wall. Apparently, The Beatles’ songwriting had a baby with Elvis Presley’s swagger and someone left it on James Brown’s doorstep and named it Alex Gruenburg. Girls, I encourage all you to put on your shortest skirt and your sexiest pair of dancing shoes and come out to see DC’s finest at DC9 on Monday, January 18th because Alex and I are having a good ol’ fashioned Boy/Girl Party. *wink, wink* Come out early and get ready to bat some lashes because I’m pretty sure that a few introductions are in order...) Love, Jess
Gentlemen, Do you remember your first crush? You know, that girl that kept you up at night because you just couldn’t stop thinking about the way she had looked at you that day. She tosses her hair back, smiles at you and all of the sudden you’re butter on toast. Yea.. we’ve all been through those times and honestly I thought I was over it. I thought that. And then I met Jessica Louise Dye. Not just any girl, she’s the singer and sexy frontman for Lightfoot. And let me tell you, Zooey Deschanel ain’t got nothing on this. Lightfoot sounds like your first date played back through a 45’ as you wake up on Sunday morning to breakfast in bed. Is it going to rock your face off? No. Is Jessica going to have to get a restraining order against you after you see her in concert? Probably. Washington DC must have asked for a indie boy’s wet dream for Christmas because that’s what it got. I’d advise you to put on your skinniest pair of jeans and skinniest tie you can find and head out to DC9 on Monday, January 18th. Lightfoot and me are putting on a sexy, sexy Boy/Girl party and she’ll be opening up the night. So make sure you get there early! How are you supposed to hit on her if you didn’t even see her set? Love, Alex
Ladies & Gentlemen, Pen your love letter to our cute couple in the comments to this post by 5PM today and the one that has us swooning the most will win a pair of tickets for tonight's Boy/Girl party. Remember to leave us some contact info! Love, The Vinyl District Photo: Joel Didriksen for kingpinphoto.com
In addition to The Subs swag left behind by Blake and John for you guys, they've aslo assembled your Parting Shots for the week. Because they're givers.
I admit I was a little late getting into TVD HQ this morning. We were up late last night hammering together details for the DC Record Fair and reviewing the final poster art, so I was unable to see The Submarines, Blake and John, off as we wind down their big blog takeover week.
They had tidied up the office quite nicely and tossed out all the pizza boxes and empty bottles which is always appreciated. And they’ve left a little something behind for TVD readers and Subs fans.
We’ve got a great litho, a portion of which is shown below, and a rare, unreleased remix CD of their second record ‘Honeysuckle Weeks’ for three of you who pipe up to claim the set in the comments to this post. We’ll give ya a week and leave us some contact info too, ok?
Track listing for the remix CD: 1940 (AmpLive Remix), You, Me & The Bourgeoisie (Tonetiger Remix), Brightest Hour (Morgan Page Remix), Submarines Symphonika (Ra Ra Riot Remix), You, Me & the Bourgeoisie (Alaska In Winter Remix), Submarine Symphonika (Wallpaper Remix), Brightest Hour (Free the Robots Remix), Xavia (Stryofoam Remix), 1940 (Sub's Section Quartet Mix)
"In the run-up to our free show at The Fridge this Saturday (1/16) and to our first album release, 'Soft Power' next month, The Vinyl District has asked us to do something a little different.
Some of you may have taken part in our boombox performance in October...in short, we wrote a piece of music called 'Cakeblood' and bounced each track onto a different cassette tape, over 30 in all. Each of those were placed in one of the provided boomboxes.
We did a countdown, pressed play at the same time, and walked around the city as the piece played in (relative) synchronicity. The Vinyl District has requested that we do something similar that readers could try at home or in their office. So we've put together a short piece called 'The Last Place You Look'.
It's a little over 4 minutes long and only contains 4 distinct parts. All you need is a few computers with internet connection and the ability to download and play sound from each of them. So when your boss is out to lunch, you and three coworkers in neighboring cubicles can fill the office with an unexpected musical interlude.
It's very easy. Each person should download one of the 4 links below, load in iTunes, and press pause when it's at the beginning. Designate a member of your group to do a countdown and, on 'Go', everyone clicks play. Remember, if your computer is not playing music right away, fret not. Not every track starts right out of the gate.
Any one of you who can prove you pulled this off—at work, or at home, or at Tryst, even - YouTube video or what have you—will get an autographed copy of the debut CD and a shit ton of bragging rights. (The show is free, after all.)
You have 'til Friday and we needn't say it but, ...'em—make it great.
This year, restored audio recordings and a number of short films made by Alan Lomax in Haiti in 1936 have been made available in the amazing box set, "Alan Lomax in Haiti." Here is a beautiful sacred song, called 'Gede Nibo, yo fè rayi mwen' from Volume 7, sung by Francilia, who worked for Lomax, and whom he recorded singing many traditional tunes.
While I'd love to devote this post to the music of Haiti and the Caribbean (including more contemporary artists) in tribute to those effected by this tragic event, I'm no expert and would be making a pretty amateur attempt. Thus...I'll now return to Subs-love-records blogging...
We, The Submarines, reside in a sleepy pocket of Northeast Los Angeles, in close proximity to many fine independently owned record-selling establishments, including these two lovely ones: Origami Vinyl is a shop and label in the heart of Echo Park, near our beloved venue, The Echo.
Territory Barbeque and Records is a hybrid BBQ restaurant and vinyl shop in Virgil Village in Silverlake, and has one of the grooviest looking bright-green storefronts around.
Another great vinyl-oriented establishment in the Echo Park area is the revamped former Ranchero bar, El Prado, which boasts 'beer, snacks and records' and is very pretty, indeed, with albums stacked up above the mirrored bar:
To close this post, I'd like to mention an album which came out the other day called 1%: the Music, Volume 1, which includes a Submarines song called, 'The Tide.' 1% is a non-profit which works to support environmental programs. We're really happy for them that this compilation has reached the iTunes alternative top ten this week.
And finally, here are a few things I'm rocking out to this week whilst running (training for the Boston Marathon in April):
The Brian Jonestown Massacreis back and set to release their tenth studio album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? on February 23rd. The 13-track album was recorded throughout 2009 in Iceland and Berlin and features Spaceman 3 legend Will Carruthers on bass, vocalist Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir and a variety of international musicians contributing textures not previously heard on a BJM album. It is to be released on bandleader Anton Newcombe’s own label, “a recordings LTD”, distributed though Red Eye.
The album marks the return of guitarist/vocalist Matt Hollywood, an original member/co-founder of the band who helped write some of the BJM’s classic material from their early albums (Strung Out In Heaven, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man, Spacegirl & Other Oddities, Give It Back) as well as penning the infamous dig at the Dandy Warhols, “Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth”.
If you want to go to a rock show and be home in time to watch Leno (wait… what time is Leno on?!) Julian Casablancas is your man.
The Strokes frontman, 31 year-old Julian Casablancas, dropped by the 9:30 club last night (Tues) to play his entire first first solo LP, ‘Phrazes for the Young’ to a sold-out show consisting mainly of mid-twenties Baltimorians. The entire LP (including the bonus track) is a only 43 minutes long and even by throwing in a new song and a Strokes cover (I’ll Try Anything Once) the show was over by 10:30pm.
Despite the brevity, however, Casablancas was able to bring his cigarette-raspy, super-sexy and unmistakable Strokes voice to the legendary club along with his new-found 70’s analog synth sound. When writing for The Strokes, Casablancas has mentioned that he’s always written songs first on the keyboard then translated these into guitar tunes whereas with ‘Phrazes’, it seems he never made it to the guitar (which, by no means, is a bad thing).
Julian was quite the funny-man, cracking jokes and singing improvised DC jingles while his drummers kick-drum was fixed. Mr. C even jumped into the crowd several times to the delight of many a young professional who got to touch the legendary icon. The show, although super short, was fantastic indeed.
As you probably know, the Strokes album “Is This It” was named the number one album of the entire decade by NME magazine! Quite the achievement. Although the band has not officially broken up they have been ‘on-hiatus’ since their third album, ‘First Impressions of Earth’ in 2006. Based on several interviews it seems the possibility of a fourth album remains…
Apparently Julian was rockin a way-cool 80’s-esque leather jacket too… but unfortunately I was too fricken short to see!
The Vinyl District is excited to announce that for the second year running, we've been named the Official Blog for Record Store Day 2010. We'll be the first to break news as the bands and labels line up unique releases for RSD2010 and we'll have the inside line on the day's events happening around the country (and around the globe) which we'll bring to you.
"Record Store Day is happy to be working with The Vinyl District again this year. Last year we released almost 100 unique vinyl releases just for Record Store Day and look forward to making some exciting announcements with The Vinyl District in the coming weeks and months. Look for the debut vinyl release from Broken Bells (featuring Brian Burton – aka Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer) in your local record store in the next couple of weeks," Michael Kurtz, the co-founder of Record Store Day wrote to us last week.
In addition to being the breaking RSD2010 news source as we were last year, The Vinyl District will once more be counting down to the event on April 17, 2010 with TENstraight weeks of vinyl giveaways, so keep checking back each week for a chance to take some vinyl home.
In the planning stage at the moment is something pretty huge for the evening of Record Store Day here in DC that we're not at liberty discuss at the moment. (Big benefit concert. *cough* Big venue. *cough* DC's best bands. *cough*) But you heard nuthin'.
All of us here TVD HQ are thrilled to be working with the Record Store Day team for another year. Be certain to check out the official site and to pop back our way for all of the the up to the minute RSD2010 info as we march toward the event on April 17, 2010—the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music.
It's Day #3 of The Submarines' Vinyl District Blog Takeover and John's pulled some tracks that are right up our collective alley:
Tonight I went over to our friend, Jebin Bruni's house. We met Jebin while touring with Aimee Mann last year and he's a super talented keyboardist who's also played with Fiona Apple and Liz Phair. So, when I walked in to his studio the first thing I saw was this!
(Aside from being an analog synthesizer buff, Jebin's also a big vinyl collector.)
Before we lived in Los Angeles, we lived in Boston. I moved there after high school overseas and it's where I started my first "real" bands, worked in coffee shops and eventually ended up slinging packages as a bike messenger. One of the first bands in Boston that I fell in love with was Galaxie 500. They're first single, "Tugboat/King of Spain", was released on a label called Aurora Records, which was started by a fellow named Marc Alghini. Marc also released a 45 that I really liked by a band called Ed's Redeeming Qualities.
...A couple of years ago The Subs recorded a version of "Tugboat".
The Teardrop Explodes. One of my favorite bands. "Soft Enough for You" is a track off of a gate-fold 7" that is apparently the last thing released using the band name. One of my favorite Julian Cope quotes: When asked if the Teardrop Explodes would ever get back together, he said: "Would you ever return to having your mother wipe your asshole?"
So, it's our first 'First Date' for 2010 and appropriately enough, with ...The Hussy. (Here's to poetic justice.)
The Madison, WI band will see their split 7" (with The Zygoteens) released tomorrow, January 14th, on Big Action Records and will be doing four release shows in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Appleton.
...and they'll send you one if you impress us sufficiently in the comments to this post. No foolin'. Whatcha got?
We chatted with guitarist Robert Wegner in advance of the 7" release:
We at the Hussy dig vinyl for a number of reasons, most notably the fact that it’s the perfect format for a simple band like the Hussy. We’re into short burst of punk energy, and what better format than the 7 inch? It’s the perfect length for us. A CD is way too long. We need the warmth and the crackles of the vinyl to fill in the missing bass frequencies, and we need the grit of a blasting stylus to fill out the sound even more.
But we also don’t bow down at the throne of a piece of vinyl or it’s perceived perfection of audio reproduction; we just think it’s a format that works for this band, much in the same way the CD is a perfect format for the countless pop-tart singers that clog the modern day radio waves. They sound clean and pristine on CD just like at their arena concerts - and we sound dirty and raw, just like at our hole-in-the-wall dive shows. Vinyl offers us that opportunity: to get the sound to the listener as if they’re in the middle of an overblown Hussy set.
Think you deserve to be front and center Thursday night? Olivia's given TVD a pair of tickets to offer the individual who pleads their case and hits the right note in the comments to this post. Give us something we can sing along with, ok?
You've got 'til Thursday morning so get at us with some contact info!
It's Day #2 of The Submarines' Vinyl District Takeover and Blake's rifling through her record collection with ya:
As I write, lines from our work-in-progress third album drift into the house through the open windows. John is messing around with some new software in the studio/garage, and something I sang the other day about lying and surprising each other is playing over and over.
We've been working on the album in bits and pieces through the Fall and now the Winter. I'm filling notebooks with lyrics, but haven't yet fit most of them to particular songs. John's been creating instrumental tracks, beats, anything he finds interesting and new for us, and we've sung melodies in "la's" over them. It sounds really exciting. (I suppose saying it sounds 'exciting,' is sort of like a menu which describes a sauce as 'delicious,' with no other distinguishing characteristics...but, you know what I mean.).
I just came inside from making this little mp3 with John from an old 78 of Billie Holiday's, "The Very Thought of You." John gave me a beautiful old phonograph, a Columbia Graphophone, for my birthday a couple of years ago. This is one of the nicest 78s we've collected.
Most of the others are cheapies from the flea markets—Tahitian recordings, Hawaiian guitar music, strange old jazz tunes with naughty lyrics. It's a little rough actually listening to them because they're quite harsh. The phrase 'put a sock in it,' comes from muffling the cone of the phonograph, which we usually do. But, it's fascinating to think you're hearing these recordings just as people did back when the records were pressed—there's a real connection to that time period, in the decades before the technology evolved to give the players a richer sound.
While we were mic'ing it up, Johnny got the idea to record us trying to play one of his old scratched-up 45's (The Beatles' "Rain") on the phonograph. Doing this is totally not recommended: it'll blow your eardrums and ruin your record - and possibly your phonograph - all at once. But it's kind of a funny experiment:
As it turns out, I've been wrecking vinyl for quite a long time. I grew up in an all-vinyl no-tv household, and dancing around to records was one of our favorite past-times—the needle skipped across the vinyl as we jumped, and there was no time to put the things back in the proper sleeves between song inspirations.
But, somehow my parent's collection survived this poor treatment, and I grew up listening to some amazing albums. Nearly all of the records were from the time before me and my brothers were born—great 60s and 70s classics. There was Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, Zeppelin, Bob Marley—and some great musicals, like West Side Story (lots of needle-hopping jumping-around to that one). Among those classics was a particular favorite of both mine and my mom's, "Les Eaux de Mars," by Georges Moustaki. It's a cover of a beautiful Jobim song, translated into French by the French-Greek Moustaki. I played it over and over in my mom's painting studio, singing along in Franglais. I find it slightly shmaltzy now, but it's still genius.
This version of "Aguas de Marco," with Elis Regina and Tom Jobim, is so sweet and awesomely 70's:
I just stumbled upon a clip of Moustaki playing for a rapt Edith Piaf (who did a version of his 'Milord'). It's fascinating to watch one musician listening to another. She's sort of squirming, but into it:
As an unabashed Francophile, this French music discovery easily led me down the internet rabbit-hole to some interviews with one of my absolute favorite bands, Phoenix. They are very French, indeed, and I find them endlessly charming. What this last fact has to do with vinyl, I'm not entirely sure. But, I think they're brilliant, and their latest album looks very pretty in it's proper dimensions: a vinyl sleeve! Over and out.
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