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
I saw The Reverend Horton Heat a few years back and they were that shit hot I think I'm still trying to get over it. No, really - simply amazing live.
And in the spirit of passing along the badass musical goodness, we're got a pair of tickets to see The Reverend—who are touring in support of their new release "Laughin' & Cryin'"—along with Cracker and Miss Derringer, this Saturday night at the 9:30.
You have to act fast however! We need to close this one out on Friday morning at 10am, so the person who get at us in the comments with their spectacular plea for the tickets (with contact info!) will win the pair. That's it - we're going easy on you this time around.
Authenticity. You either have it or you don’t. And being the recipient of tens upon tens of emails from PR firms and artists inquiring about coverage here each week, I can tell you it’s in short supply.
Which is why I’m delighted to keep banging the drum for The Mynabirds, DC expatriate Laura Burhenn’s latest incarnation with what is quickly becoming my favorite release so far this year.
It’d do the record a disservice to compare it to something contemporary and I mean that as the highest compliment. It’s so otherworldly as to become an immediate classic. It’s eerie how ‘right’ all of this feels—like when I heard Nilsson for the first time—I’ve known these songs forever it seems yet they’re just appearing and making themselves known to me. Transcending perhaps.
And yes, this is high praise but don’t take my word for it. OK – do take my word for it. We’ve got 'What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood' to give away in advance of The Mynabirds’ homecoming appearance at The Black Cat next Wednesday, 6/2.
How do you get your hands on the record you're asking? Give us something authentic in the comments to this post—either about the band, Laura, or its short supply these days. Or where you find it thriving.
We'll choose one winner for the LP on the day The Mynabirds play the Cat—next Wednesday, 6/2. Remember to leave us contact info too!
I did the Merv GriffinShow with my band The Beat. Our record had just come out and this was one of the first promotional spots we had gotten. I was very excited as I had seen Merv’s show a million times before and I was hoping it would be just the thing to catapult us to stardom.
When we got to the TV studio they told us that Merv was sick and that Steve Allen was standing in for Merv. A bit of a let down but I knew who Steve was too and thought that it would be just as good. We did our first number, Rock n Roll Girl and then Steve came onto the set and did a short interview with us.
Steve is a comedian and unfortunately someone had told him we were what you called a “New Wave” act, which was all he needed to have some fun at our expense. Well, I was young and determined and I had already been from hell and back trying to make it in Hollywood and now I had more or less arrived and my manger was the world famous Bill Graham and I was not going to let anyone make fun of me on national television.
So I proceeded to make a real stink, yelling and screaming back stage to the point were everyone in the whole place knew that I was upset, including Mr. Allen. We came back out for a second appearance to do “Don’t Wait up for Me” and afterward Steve came on stage and said, “Well Mr. Collins what did you do before you became a Rock n Roll star?” That seemed much better to me and I told him I was a parking lot attendant. He smiled and said, “Who gave you your worst tip?” I said, “I can’t say but it wasn’t you!”
All the old ladies in the audience laughed and I felt that I had won the day. But the point of this story is that the whole time this was going on Roy Rodgers was standing in the wings waiting to go on stage, as I walked by him he held out his hand and gave me his million dollar smile and said, “Don’t Wait Up, alright!” Now that’s class!
These are things that have stayed with me over the years and I try to remember them so as to keep a perspective on what I am doing. I want to be remembered like I remember those guys, cool, helpful, and secure in what they are doing. You can learn a lot from people if just give them a chance.
New York City 1973, I was just a kid living on my own and all I wanted to do was play in a rock n roll band. I had left my home in New Jersey at age 17 and moved into the big city in search of stardom and a rock band.
I was living up on 103rd Street & Broadway, working at Tech HiFi a retail stereo outlet chain and I was selling stereos. A great job for an aspiring musician as all we did was listen to rock n roll music all day long. The big records at the time where Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.” Those two records where the ones we loved to use to try and sell some young college girl her first stereo.
One day this guy comes in and he looks a helluva a lot like a Pimp, with a big hat on and flashy clothes and a cute looking girl on his arm. He says, “I want to buy a stereo, and I want a good one!” The manger just so happened to be in the store so he says, “I’ll handle this.”
Well, they proceed to get down and boogie with all the fine speakers and receivers we have in the A room and all the while the guy is saying, “Yeah man, that sounds bad!” Then after about an hour he turns to my manager and says, “Hey Man, don’t you have anything good!” We all laughed our asses off but my manager did manage to sell him a stereo for $2000 which he paid for with 1 dollar bills and then returned it the next day!
Those where the days, and we were playing all vinyl! Unfortunately I had no luck whatsoever in trying to find a rock n roll band. I went to one audition after another but all I could find was hippy type jam bands or jazz fusion groups, the most memorable of which was Cornel Dak. The all wore silver space suits and played music from outer space!
One of the great things about playing music is you get to meet all kinds of great people. I was lucky in the fact that I had come to seek my fortune in Hollywood, California, home to all the stars. I met my fair share of them and it was really neat.
When we were making our first album we were recording at United Western Studios where the Beach Boys had done some of their records. One day while were tracking someone told us that Benny Goodman was rehearsing with his band for a show he was doing at The Hollywood Bowl. We were delighted and some one took us over to meet him. I knew who he was but at the same time I was pretty well caught up in what I was doing, but when we walked into the room where he was rehearsing, he stopped what he was doing and came over to talk with us.
I was impressed with his openness and how he really wanted to speak with us and that he listened to what we had to say. He was genuinely interested in us and he looked us right in the eye when he spoke to us. He was a big star and he didn’t know us from Adam but he treated us like we were all brothers in arms…playing music for the folks…that was our bond and he respected it.
I will never forget that moment with Benny Goodman and I refer to a lot nowadays, especially if I am talking to some young musician who is just starting out in his or her career. It is a great opportunity we all have being entertainers and it’s nice to share that with other entertainers, it is after all a kind of brotherhood.
Courtesy of Paul Collins himself and our friends over at Alive Records, we've pulled two gems from the vaults to offer you guys this week while we have Paul blogging with us.
We'll have two winners for this giveaway who will win both of the following:
The Nerves - Live At The Pirate's Cove, Cleveland OH, May 26th 1977
Remastered from an analog tape recently discovered by Jack Lee in an unmarked box, this 1977 previously unreleased performance showcases the trio live in Cleveland during their infamous Magic Blistering Tour.
Comes with inner sleeve featuring a collage with Nerves memorabilia, rare photos, notes by Jack Lee, and Paul Collins original tour diary entry related to the show.
All the classics are here, "Hanging On The Telephone," "Walking Out On Love," "When You Find Out," "Stand Up And Take A Good Look," etc, all delivered with blistering energy in front of a small audience of enlightened scensters that included Dave Thomas of Pere Ubu, and with Devo as the opening band.
This is a VINYL ONLY release on YELLOW VINYL, LIMITED to 500 copies.
Breakaways - Walking Out On Love/The Lost Sessions
After spending nearly 30 years gathering dust in a closet The Breakaways makes its worldwide debut!
Born in 1978 after the demise of The Nerves, this short lived combo was formed by Paul Collins and Peter Case, just prior to the formation of The Plimsouls and The Beat. "Walking Out On Love - The Lost Sessions" compiles all the band's known material, including studio recordings, demos, and acoustic rehearsals.
"This is the sound of pop on the streets of Los Angeles circa 1978." —Paul Collins
"I'd forgotten these tapes even existed. We were definitely homing in on something." —Peter Case
Enter to win the pair of unearthed vinyl gems by simply leaving a comment to this post and let us know why you deserve to win these classics. The two most convincing pleas who leave us some contact info (which for some reason is typically the hurdle) will be awarded the vinyl.
You've got until next Tuesday (6/1) so make 'em good!
Washington, DC’s creative community is uniting in force over the innovative arts initiative, the ‘Twelve Days Project.’The ‘Twelve Days Project’ is a unique twelve month long campaign which focuses on artistic collaborations, charitable partnerships and media exclusives surrounding the monthly release of tracks from DC folk-rockers The Dreamscapes Project.
This month the band will be releasing their new single “Hymn” via The Vinyl District for twelve days. Artistic “re-imaginations” will be provided by visual artist Kayti Welsh, producer and remixer Blake9 and creative writer Janice Kephart. A single release show will take place on June 3rd at the Light Horse Tavern, with all proceeds going to local charity Dance4Peace.
Since its launch in January 2010, The Dreamscapes Project have raised nearly $3,000 for local charities including N Street Village, Food and Friends, Pink Jams and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each month the band have released a new track via local DC media sources such as metromusicscene.com, TGRIonline, K Street Kate and revolution magazine. Artistic interpretations of the tracks have been converted into short films, creative writing pieces, re-mixes and visual artwork created by a variety of local DC artists, including school children from H-B Woodlawn school in Arlington.
This month’s single ‘Hymn’ will be exclusively available for twelve days on The Vinyl District from May 24th 2010. Artistic interpretations of this track, provided by local DC artists, will be showcased via the Twelve Days Project as one collective virtual installation piece.
A single release show will be taking place on June 3rd at the Light Horse Tavern, in partnership with Socialize Better. Socialize Better is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness and inspires service by providing social opportunities for young adults in Washington, D.C. The organization specifically aims to support the efforts of philanthropic causes that have limited resources to fundraise for themselves. The ‘Socialize Better’ chosen charity of the month is Dance4Peace, an organization which implements programs in Washington, DC public schools and community centers, encouraging social responsibility and understanding through dance.
Hello Folks, Paul Collinshere! I am happy to have been asked to do a 5 part blog series for The Vinyl District. I want to start with a bit of a recap of my career in music for those of you who may not know me.
I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a musician, even before I knew how to play an instrument. When I heard "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Frankie Valli and "Lightning Strikes" by Lou Christie when I was just a tike in Saigon, Vietnam of all places I was hooked! Later on I fine-tuned my musical tastes by listening to WABC Radio in Long Island, NY every night as I went to sleep.
When I was 17 I left home and went to California to seek my fortune and that is where I met Jack Lee and Peter Case and we formed The Nerves and I was on my way! I never looked back and I have been making music ever since. It has been a blast and I have had the good fortune to be apart of some fantastic bands, The Nerves, one of the founders of the DIY movement in America and then the short lived transitional band with Pete Case, The Breakaways and then onto The Beat one of power pop's most enduring groups!
I love playing music and as I started as a fan I never thought I would have the opportunity to tour and make records so for me it has really been a dream come true. Nowadays I am very busy recording, writing and touring after a long absence from America (I lived in Madrid, Spain for almost 8 years.)
I have a new record I just recorded with Jim Diamond at his studio Ghetto Recorders in Detroit, which will come out on Bomp/Alive Records in August. All in all it has been a fantastic trip, from rehearsing in burnt out basements to performing on world famous stages with world famous bands like The Jam, Eddie Money, Joe Jackson, The Cure, Devo, The Police, South Side Johnny all the way up to new bands like Gentlemen Jesse and Reigning Sound!
The one thing that has remained a constant for me is that I love music and I am a fan! I hope to see some of you out there when I tour the US this summer...if I do please come up and introduce yourself as that is why we do this...for the fans!
Typically this is where I do my Record Fair sales pitch, but for this go-around I thought I'd let the Washington City Paper handle the duties seeing as the Fair took a 'Best of DC Award'last March.
(And is it me or did they just make up a category for us?)
(Click to enlarge!)
The Washington, DC Record Fair| Sunday, May 23rd | The Black Cat (1811 14th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009) | Mainfloor & Mainstage area (Upstairs) | 12pm-6pm | $2 entry fee per person | 32+ Record Dealers (coming to you from FL, NC, PA, VA, MD, NY as well as DC) | Full Bar upstairs and downstairs! | Food (available in the downstairs cafe)
Confirmed DJ Set Times: Noon to 1: Alec MacKaye 1-2: Cobruhhh (Windian) 2-3: Emily/Susan from Exit Clov 3-4: DJ Dredd 4-5: Fort Knox Five 5-6: John Foster (BYT)
“Who’s Afraid of the Dark?” | The death of Ronnie James Dio feels like a dark and strange muse for this week’s Idelic Hour playlist but upon hearing the sad Dio news, a few things came to mind.
First was that both my parents have outlived the singer of Rainbow. I guess we all will eventually make the journey up “the silver mountain” but “Dio dead at 67” was a reminder of just how temporal we all are. Well at least in a mystical, magic, 70’s heavy metal kinda' way.
Funny, I have more of sentimental connection to Rainbow than many albums in my collection. It’s ironic that Blackmore decided to name his band Rainbow too. I don’t recall seeing any color other than black at a Blackmore show. Save of course his white boots and Strat, everyone wore black (crowd and band!) Maybe Ronnie and Richie never realized their audience was comprised of petty thieves, drugstore cowboys, and juvenile delinquents.
What’s so scary about the “dark?” When I was young “darkness” seemed so cool. Now older, the colors of the Rainbow brighten up my day and warm the soul. With this in mind I set out to create a spirited playlist inspired by thoughts of life and death, darkness, and the color black.
Songs of note: new Black Keys and The Hundred In The Hands on Warp Records as well as revisiting a couple of cool releases from 2009—Telekinesis and Magic Wands.
A last batch of mystery DC Record Fair tracks is posted below, this time from this past February's post-blizzard event which saw close to 1,500 snow-weary vinyl fanatics leaving their frosty confines and thawing out together at The Black Cat.(That's the poster art up there rendered by our pal ElJefe.)
We're back at The Black Cat on Sunday and while we were thrilled with the turn-out and the enthusiasm shown the event last time, we did receive a few complaints:
The lighting: Right, it was dark. But leave your spelunking helmets home this time, we're doing our best Sunday morning to remedy the lighting issue and bringing in additional light sources.
The crowd size: While we can't control the number of folks who show up, last time the downstairs Red Room was closed and not an option for decompressing with or without a pint. This time we're opening it up and making it available throughout the afternoon to hang and enjoy a frosty beverage.
All the vinyl vendors will still be upstairs in the main stage area but we're hoping by providing an option downstairs, we can lessen the crowd size a bit to make it easier to move around and get where you need to go.
There's been a little tinkering with the DJ's set times, but this is the final schedule:
Noon to 1: Alec MacKaye | 1-2: Cobruhhh (Windian) | 2-3: Emily/Susan from Exit Clov | 3-4: DJ Dredd | 4-5: Fort Knox Five | 5-6: John Foster (BYT)
Lastly, have fun and happy hunting. Let us know how we're doing and what you scored on Monday. If you've taken photos, we'd love to see 'em and share them right here.
Our experience with the Ardent Sessions was just awful. (Completely joking!)
We had an amazing time. The tour through Stax was incredible. The history behind the place is magical and I felt like some of the good vibes wore off on us for the performance. I know that I personally felt like there was a positive energy to the place.
However, I will say that Tom was sick as a dog that day. Sick with a flu that we all caught just before our next tour. Thanks Tom. The people couldn't have been more hospitable and professional toward us. They gave the run down of how the session was to go down and we felt comfortable with what they were asking of us. I had the privilege of playing on their grand piano, something that rarely happens for me when playing live. I think I can actually count on my hands how many times it's happened.
When we got the recordings back from the show and sent them to some friends we heard a lot of the same comments: you should release this as a live album. We're not really at that stage in the game and have a lot of other material to release, but the quality of the recordings is that good and I would be proud to put that out on the market. I am thankful to their great staff, the wonderful coffee and the wizard store across the street. Thank you for an experience that I will never forget. —Josh Foster, Parachute Musical
You can purchase Parachute Musical's latest album Everything is Working Out Fine in Some Town for just $8.99.
Enter to win a Parachute Musical T-shirt by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but who's counting?)
To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.
It's another double (mystery) dip into the grab-bag of vinyl purchases from previous Washington, DC Record Fairs in advance of Sunday's Spring 2010 edition, and here's a serving from last Fall's soiree at Comet Ping Pong.
That's a Mingering Mike original up there too in case you were curious...
Forty years from now when people look back on our generation’s music consumption (providing we haven’t all drowned in oil by then) I wonder what musical artifacts will be remembered fondly… I certainly can’t imagine anyone lining their shelves with old iPhones, iPods and external hard drives and proudly saying “I stored a good 2,000 songs on this bad boy and another 10,000 on this one here! If it still turned on I’d play you Lisztomania, I used to love that song and the cover looks great at 600x600 pixels!”
On the flip side, anytime a friend comes over to my place they always gravitate towards the shelves lined with vinyl records in my living room. They enjoy taking the time to look through them, admire the cover art, peruse the liner notes and make a conscious decision (keep that thought in mind, I’ll come back to it in a bit) of what music they’d like to listen to.
The White Album, a favorite of mine and my guests, is certainly more striking at 12”x12” with it’s yellowing corners, pullout headshots of the Fab Four and my mom’s maiden name inscribed on the cover in blue ballpoint pen (yes, I did appropriate it from her) than it is on my iPhone. Sound quality aside–as we all know how delicious vinyl sounds–when I take The White Album off the shelf and hold it in my hands I get it. The juxtaposition between the minimalist art offsetting the fact that The Beatles had caught Ryan Adams syndrome some 35 or so years early in India circa 1968. That kind of immediacy certainly isn’t there in digital form, no matter how quickly it can be acquired. Hipgnosis’ darkroom tricks on Houses of the Holy and Ummagumma are drastically more impressive when they don’t look like photoshopped thumbnails. Ralph Steadman’s art for Oasis’ latest Dig Out Your Soul comes to life in the vinyl size and Emma Richardson’s paintings not only adorn Band of Skulls’ album cover, but also now hang on my wall in the form of a poster kindly included in the vinyl release… and all of that, well it makes me love music even more.
Okay, so I’m talking a lot about “art” and not “music”, but I think it’s quite unfortunate that the two get separated. As “zenned out” as I’d like to imagine I am, I like physical things. I like sitting down with a record to digest it and I like the concept of an album as unified work, a complete thought from start to finish; sonically, lyrically and the same goes for its visual accompaniments. I like to see the whole package, the whole picture presented in the way the band intended rather than fragmented pieces floating around in some high-tech little enclosure. Sure, I’m guilty of downloading some stuff illegally (thanks Vuze!), but the albums that I love I need to have on vinyl.
To continue a thought that I started earlier, something else that I truly appreciate is people making conscious decisions. For example the conscious decision to put on a record and listen to it from start to finish as an entire piece rather than to hit shuffle in iTunes or bounce from track to track as the chorus ends at a minute and nineteen seconds to another tune for the outro at two minutes - thirty eight. As we all know, we’re the ADD Generation: between the tools at our fingertips and all that we’re constantly bombarded with via these tools, it’s increasingly easy for our experiences to be fragmented.
At this point music is essentially available a la carte, take a piece of this and have a piece of that. Even individual songs have been marginalized to 30-second clips with their value determined by whether or not they can be used in a promo spot. *Note to anyone who would like to license our songs, yes they are available as we need to pay off our van, but please be trying to sell something chill. Yet at the same time as the musical landscape becomes more and more fragmented, it’s both fascinating and encouraging as a music lover and musician to see how many people still do appreciate “the record” as a complete piece of work.
Every morning when I wake up I check my email on my phone while I listen to music. When I get to my computer I’ll have one tab open for gmail, one for YouTube and another for Facebook. I’d like to think of it as multi-tasking, but in reality it’s all part of the constant stimulation that I think we’ve all grown accustomed to, where one thing at a time is never enough and the realms of music, art, commerce and socializing have all blended into one. Every once in a while it’s nice to step away from this and enjoy music for being music as a complete all-encompassing experience and for me vinyl certainly helps do this. No offense dear iPhone, because I do love you, you make my life very convenient, but when I want to get serious about some music there’s nothing like putting on a vinyl record.
With love to everyone, especially those who love vinyl. —Ben Rice | Blackbells, Guitar/Vocals
Blackbells play DC9 on Tuesday (5/25) with Crash Kings and we've got a pair of tickets just for the asking. Get at us in the comments to this post, tell us why we should pick you, and the most convincing get in on us. Remember to leave us some contact info! We're closing this one by noon on Monday (5/24.)
Is it me or is Bluebrain—brothers Ryan and Hays Holladay—continuously raising the creative bar around DC?
We heard from Ryan earlier in the week about their latest endeavor:
"Bluebrain have created an audio companion to the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. It's a twenty minute piece of music that we've written to be played while exploring this section of the museum.
It's not an event, per se, as it isn't happening on a specific time or date...rather we will be putting the Mp3 on our website starting Thursday morning (5/20) so that people can download it and tour the exhibit at their leisure, by themselves or with others using a set of headphones and an mp3 player. It's a free download and will remain on our site for the entire summer."
Grab the Mp3 here, info on Smithsonian's Natural History Museum is here, and more Bluebrain music is here.
(...and between you and me, Bluebrain's audio companion sounds just as fine coming out of your home speakers. —Ed.)
I’ve received quite a few emails and notes in regard to yesterday’s City Paper blog post on the future of TVD in its present incarnation. And actually the answer is – we’re not going anywhere.
Well, wait—that’s only half true. We are moving where the threat of the plug being pulled is removed and where we can offer far more than our present confines will allow. We’ll reestablish ourselves elsewhere with the trappings you’ve come to expect each day...y’know mindless rambling with doses of free shit. That’s the patented formula.
And I’m retaining a tiny bit of optimism that TVD here at Blogger won’t meet a miserable fate and the archives can stay live and subsequently linkable for future postings. I’m proud of some of the stuff we achieved thus far and of some of the writing that may have been a little less mindless than this bit right here.
But this week there are more important fish to fry which is the incessant flogging of the return of the Washington, DC Record Fair this Sunday (5/23) by way of airing out some of the purchases yours truly made at earlier Fairs.
So, in keeping with yesterday’s bit of mystery meat, here’s a sausage made from vinyl scored at last May’s event at Warehouse. Click on through to the other side...
I was fortunate to be introduced to The Fab Faux, the brilliant Beatles tribute band, in the most perfect manner—on the radio. On the Howard Stern Show to be exact where they performed tracks from Sgt. Pepper ...flawlesssly.
And it's not just a performance of the classic Beatles music alone, it's a performance of the recordings, the musicianship and the personal nuances of the players, the vocal harmonies and the sound effects such as the menagerie of barnyard animal noises tagged onto the end of 'Good Morning, Good Morning" for example. It's all there. Performed live.
Tell you what - don't rely on my word. Check out the band doing the classic, side 2 medley on Abbey Road in its entirety and we'll meet you below when you're done.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
The Fab Faux will return to Washington, D.C. for the fourth year in a row, with a May 22nd concert at Lisner Auditorium. The May 22nd event will feature a ‘Glorious Hodgepodge’ of Beatles music, as The Fab Faux are joined by Creme Tangerine Strings and Hogshead Horns.
TVD's got a pair of tickets to offer one person in exchange for your cheeky note in the comments to this post. Keep it Beatles-centric and the one that moves us most will be attending Saturday night's show on us. Contest ends Friday (5/21) at noon and remember to leave us your contact email address!
There was a point during the very first Record Fair in February ‘09 that I realized we were onto something.
It was when I was waiting in line to wait in line to browse through the crates of records. I mean, I knew there’d be enthusiasm for the event – just not that much.
That’s also the first flier up there too rendered by yours truly before we really had a sense of the vibe these would ultimately take on. I wouldn’t risk that DC-shaped LP on your needle by the way.
I guess with all the hassles Google and Blogger have thrown my way recently with the take down notices and the disappearing posts, I’ve gotten a bit down on this endeavor and the irony hasn’t eluded me—this blog exists to promote the purchase of physical product—records!—and to enlist the masses in supporting the brick and mortar record stores.
The last thing we want to do is obscure that mission so I/we go out of our way to make sure any current act with new music authorizes the downloads. We honestly do want you to buy the thing.
That said, between setting up and breaking down the fairs, I actually found time to buy some records along the way and we’ll be sharing the fruits of those crate dives this week as we count down to the fifth Washington, DC Record Fair on Sunday.
You’ll note the mystery tracks too ...lest the bastards win.
