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After a brief hiatus last week, we’re back with our record label spotlight series in anticipation of the day that celebrates the purveyors of their product—Record Store Day—arriving on April 17, 2010 this year.
First up in our series was Seattle’s indie upstarts, Sarathan Records, and we’re delighted to spend this week with the venerable Vanguard Records.
Founded in 1950 in New York City by brothers Maynard and Seymour Soloman, Vanguard Records has long held a reputation for eclectic, distinctive, and groundbreaking recordings, a tradition that holds strong today. The Vanguard Records catalog reads like a chronicle of American popular culture since the 1950s. The blues of Chicago, the folk of Greenwich Village, the earliest electronic experiments, the dance music that inspired a generation of DJs, and the most renowned singer-songwriters of today all trace their roots to Vanguard.
The number of historic and influential Vanguard releases is far too great to be discussed, or even listed, individually, but several landmark projects do demand special mention. In the mid-sixties, "Chicago/the Blues/Today" exposed the fiery urban blues of Chicago's clubs to a national audience for the first time, introducing prodigious talents such as Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and influencing a generation of blues players including Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix. Likewise, John Hammond's landmark "Jazz Showcase Series" spotlighted some of the most gifted practitioners of this quintessentially American genre.
Vanguard artists Joan Baez, Ian & Sylvia, Buffy Saint Marie, and Mimi & Richard Farina spearheaded the folk music revival in the 1960s, with Baez becoming the genre’s first true superstar. Baez, alongside Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Bob Dylan, and many others, gave some of the most famous and lasting performances of the era at the Newport Folk Festival all of which were captured by Vanguard Records (to include Dylan's infamous "plugging in," a moment which ushered in a new era of pop music). Finally, dance and proto electronic records from Vanguard artists like,Jean-Jacque Perrey, Twilight 22, Camille Yarborough, and Alisha would later provide the indelible hooks for artists such as the Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim, and DJ Shadow, helping to usher in the sampling revolution in hip-hop.
In recent years, Vanguard has continued its tradition of developing talented songwriters and performers within the music marketplace. Artists such as Matt Nathanson, Mindy Smith, Greg Laswell, and The Watson Twins, amongst others, have risen to national prominence on the strength of their respective Vanguard debuts. That tradition of artist development, alongside the continued viability of iconic Vanguard artists such as Levon Helm, Merle Haggard, and Robert Cray, form the basis for what Vanguard Records is in 2010.
We’ve been Fanfarlo fans since their First Date with us last summer and now you have your opportunity to catch them on the road at the moment with Robert Francis in tow.
As an homage of sorts to the teamed tour, our second Record Store Day Vinyl 2010 Giveaway this week is the pairing of Fanfarlo’s debut LP, ‘Reservoir’ and an autographed 7” of Robert Francis’ ‘Junebug’ single off his ‘Before Nightfall’ album.
The rules can't be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week's giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week's LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can't track ya' down, you're out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/22) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
Feel that? It's the shifting sands of the music industry bending and bowing under your feet.
For further evidence that indie is mainstream and transparently so, Pitchfork - Pitchfork! - has not just offered a review of the new Sade LP, 'Soldier of Love' but they've lauded it with a strong 7.0.Wha?
"...Soldier of Love is unsurprisingly of a piece with the five previous Sade albums. Songwriting-wise, it could have been released at any point in the band's career. The production only occasionally draws attention to itself—the dub-esque snare crashes on "Babyfather" are a bit of a surprise—and you can forget any gauche stabs at currently hip sonic tricks. The idea of singer Sade Adu robo-warbling through Auto-Tune would be laughable if it weren't impossible even to conceive. Even the album's curveball first single, title track "Soldier of Love", with its strident marching band snare rolls, doesn't so much deviate from Sade's core sound as cast it in a new light: What better to emphasize Adu's sense of control than a rhythm with the stiffly regimented forward momentum of a parade ground drill? And if "Soldier of Love" seems "hard," it's only because the surrounding tunes are once again delicate to the point where nuance is all..."
For me, you could even slide Sade right between The Blue Nile and The Bathers seamlessly.
You needn't take my (or Pitchfork's) word for it, find out yourself as 'Soldier of Love' is our first LP giveaway this week in ourRecord Store Day 2010 Vinyl Giveaways.
The rules can't be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week's giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week's LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can't track ya' down, you're out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/22) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
Our pal John Sidel returns with a one hour slice of his radio show for your rainy Friday eve's download and rev-up:
The warmth and comfort of classic rock...
As nature has it, Californian winters are extremely pleasant. This past month, we had some of the worst cold and rain in recent memory. My neighborhood, Laurel Canyon is like a fair lady, she doesn’t necessarily agree with foul elements. The result is a distinct sound, a mixture of gusty winds and running water. For me it’s a trigger to thinking about winters past and reaching for that, dare I say, “classic rock”. Starting with the basics, I made a mental list of ten artists who came to mind and started listening from there.
The challenge for me is “dropping” a new artist or song into a mix of material that contains so much sentimental value. Listening back to the playlist I’m most happy and surprised to hear how these four contemporary artists, Edward Sharpe,Favorite Sons,Sarabeth Tucek, andSean Rowe, hold their own.
Some revelations: I put Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in the mix because they recorded much of their album in a house across the street from the Zappa’s down the street. I’ve always thought Sharpe & Co reminded me of pre glam Bowie.
I had no intention of using “Great Gig In The Sky” in this program. Playing “Dark Side” felt too obvious for my style. I was looking to grab 45 seconds of Floyd's “spacey” side for my radio bed. It was late at night and I was overcome by the epic beauty of this recording. It made me reflect on the music bizz and what it really takes to sell millions of albums?
It also dawned on me that both the Floyd and Sharpe songs were mixed on the same EMI recording console. The “board”, now resides at Fairfax Recording Studios, down the hill in North Hollywood. That legendary console moved from Abby Road that gave birth to many Beatles recordings but I don’t think was used to make, “I got a Feeling” my Beatles selection for this mix. I’m going to have to check that.
It also meant a lot to drop a Jethro Tull song from the “Benefit” album at the top of the set. A first encounter with a piece of vinyl is often memorable and this was one of the very first purchases. It’s also one of my earliest memories of the magic of shopping in a record store.
I believe it was the winter of 1974. I was 12 and looking to have my own collection. I believe this little shop sold mostly opera and classical. I was playing on a basketball team with older kids who turned me onto Zeppelin. I think my mission was to buy another Zeppelin release and I believe it was Zeppelin 'II' I bought. I remember searching the bins to find a 2nd purchase but knowing very little, I inspected the record covers very closely. I believe I choose Tull because the name simply felt like a band that would sound or be like Led Zeppelin. I’ve loved and owned those two releases from that very day so it’s only fitting both are in this mix.
So enjoy the warmth and comfort of classic rock... xo, —sidealer
Amon Duul – Wolf City Jethro Tull – With You There to Help Me
"...That was Jethro Tull with the appropriately titled “With You There To Help Me” indeed from the ‘Benefit’ album. It’s actually one of the first record I bought way back when. A very underrated treat.
Before that Amon Duul – little Krautrock Classic there with “Wolf City.” Saw online that thise guys are getting back together. WVUNDERBAR!
It’s cold and rainy in Laurel Canyon making me want to reach for the warmth of Classic Rock. Here’s a new band from the Canyon carrying on the tradition of classic rock..." Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Blackwater Cream – Those Were The Days Bob Dylan – It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry Favorite Sons – Things That We Do To Each Other The Beatles – I’ve Got a Feeling David Bowie – She Shook Me Cold Sarabeth Tucek – Ambulance
"...You’re listening to the Idelic Hour. Your host Jon Sidel reaching for the warmth and comfort of The Classics. Greetings to our friends at The Vinyl District.com!
That was a new artist, Sarabeth Tucek..."
Pink Floyd – The Great Gig In The Sky Alice Cooper – Generation Landslide Rolling Stones – Ventilator Blues Sean Rowe – Surprise Jeff Beck Group – I Ain’t Superstitious Neil Young – I Believe In You
That was ol’ Neil Young with I believe in you…….this is Jon Sidel your host. We’re approaching the end of this Idylic Hour. I want to thanks our friends at The Vinyl District and you for listening. Dial us in next week. We’ll be headed south for SXSW in Austin bringing you sounds from the big, bad Lone Star State.
Formed from the ashes of two acclaimed New Zealand bands, The D4 and Boxcar Guitars, the raw, primal, and heated True Lovers have arrived with a record that drips with stories of attraction, tension, desire and lust. Y'know - the soundtrack to your weekend bender.
Not only do we have the Lovers' LP up for grabs today, but we're tossing in a True Lovers black tee, a screen printed redtote bag that looks like the cover up there (perfect for record fairs and the like - we tested it) and various and sundry TL stickers with which to deface public property. Seems these lovers are truly giving indeed.
The rules can't be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week's giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week's LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can't track ya' down, you're out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/15) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
Right - I've got it—none of you have intern suggestions for us. Undaunted however, we've got another Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaway.
Midlake: We've got the brand new 'Courage of Others' and the 12" from last year, 'Acts of Man'for your outstretched arms today.
"Coming after the hauntingly archaic The Trials Of Van Occupanther, the more personal The Courage Of Others is bracing—stunning, even. Last time out, Midlake invited listeners to flip through photos of the distant past. This time, they transport us there, and leave us with no easy exit," the AV Club wrote in February.
The rules can't be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week's giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week's LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can't track ya' down, you're out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/15) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
"I’ve had sort of an odd obsession with vinyl since I was a little kid. My dad is a musician and we had some of his singles on 45’s. My sister and I used to play his records all of the time and we thought he was the shit. He had his own record with his name on it and he was our dad. His vinyl collection was insane! And the best part was that he let us listen to everything, and even encouraged it.
We had crates and crates of 45’s…Motown, Doo-wop, Swing, Folk, Rock…everything. When I was alone, I would put blankets all over the floor of our room arrange all of the records, side by side, according to label color. We had so many that I’d back my self into a corner and just stare at all the records, a rainbow vinyl terrazzo before me. One day my mom caught me with all of the records out and she took them away from me. I was heartbroken at the time, but I look back now and I’m glad she did or probably would have ruined all of it and hated myself.
My family has a vacation house in the Poconos, near East Stroudsburg, PA. I go up there to hang out every now and then to relax or write. There’s a great record shop called Main Street Jukebox and they’ve always had an excellent selection. I’ve been going there for years and I’ve found things there that I could never find anywhere else. There was a fire there years back and I was so bummed for them. But they bounced back like nothing happened and, thankfully, they’re still around and doing incredibly well. There’s real cool little music scene there and I think Main Street Jukebox is a big part of that scene, like a little heartbeat keeping it all going.
I wouldn’t say my own collection is respectable in size or quality by most standards. And my turntable isn’t anything magnificent either. But I’ll take any of my records on my garage-sale turntable over the highest quality digital recording any day. There’s just something magical in those 180 grams of crackle and pop."
Suitably swooning with an odd obsession with vinyl ala April's? Spill it in the comments to this post and we'll award one of you a pair of tickets to seeApril Smith and the Great Picture Show this Saturday night (3/13) at The Rock and Roll Hotel with Here We Go Magic.
You have til noon on Friday (3/12) to inspire us with your tale. Remember to leave us contact info too! Now, go!
I go on these tears when I hear a new track that I’m totally into – I play it over and over and over and over again as if to brainwash myself so I can walk around singing the thing. Or inhabiting it.
So far I’ve played this Kitten track 16 times. And I first heard it about 3PM yesterday.
Oh – and Kitten’s lead singer, Chloe Chaidez is, uh – 15.
Paul Weller releases his tenth studio solo album "Wake Up The Nation" on April 19th on Island Records and 2 new tracks from the forthcoming album have been remixed. The album's title track "Wake Up The Nation" has been remixed by Zinc, and single "No Tears To Cry" has had a reworking by Leo Zero.
Lean, mean and as uncompromisingly focused as it's maker, "Wake Up The Nation" also brings Paul Weller full circle: twenty-eight years on from The Jam's split, two tracks feature the former bassist Bruce Foxton. The album also sees contributions from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, The Move's Bev Bevan and legendary session drummer Clem Cattini.
I’ll let you guys in on a little secret...we’re actually on vacation this week.
Couldn’t tell could you? Because, well...we’re here.
Wait a sec – let me bring this back around into the first person. I’m here this week – and it’s a mental break to not have had some overarching thing or concept to bloggabout. Whoo man, does my brain need a rest.
See, there’s an underlying effort at work here at TVD HQ which involves all of the coordination it takes to align everyone’s ducks and get their content submitted and their Mp3s converted from whichever random file type. And of course there’s the conjuring up of the pretty graphics too.
Plus there’s the scheduling a-plenty. For example, did you know the blog’s booked clear til Record Store Day – 4/17? Well, right – you do now. We’re quite happily very busy.
So, what do we do when we need a mental break of sorts? We give away vinyl, just like your friendly neighborhood, schoolyard drug dealer. “The first taste is freeee...”
Today’s we’ve got Jonathan Richmans’ superb latest effort, “Beacause Her Beauty is Raw and Wild” out on Neil Young’s Vapor Records. This is his fifth release on Vapor and his first new album in three+ years. “Because...” features eleven new tracks, plus a new version of "Old World" and a Leonard Cohen cover, "Here It Is". This vinyl version also includes a 7" single with a bonus track.
We’ve got an interesting take on how to win JR’s LP: we want your recommendations for an intern to help us with our various and sundry coordination efforts that go on behind the scenes each day. For college credit or just the experience alone, send us your hungry music-addled, post-adolescents to put to work.
And if you don’t have a suggestion for an intern, how about a recommendation for a vacation spot? Because after 4/17 we're gonna need a bender. And a nap.
You have til Monday, 3/15 to submit your entry in the comments to this post to win JR's LP. Send us your intern recommendations—with contact info!—and no.
We're on the record as saying, "To be clear, we think DC's Casper Bangs is f'n great"and not one bit of our enthusiasm has waned, thank you. But don't take our word for it - find out for yourself.
We've got a pair of tickets to the see the band this Saturday night (3/13) with Midnight Kids at The Black Cat—and the recent "Whitespace" 7" for one of you guys to claim in the comments to this post.
From Dischord where you can purchase the 7": Latest release from former Hard Tomorrows member. This 7" is a preview of Casper Bangs’full-length record, I Woke Up. It was written and performed by Rob Pierangeli at his desktop computer in the midst of relational bliss - it's a document of a good thing that ultimately goes bad. The songs contain strong unaffected vocals balanced with harmony, layers of noisy guitars, and reverb.
This great looking 7" is on white vinyl, has a single level embossed cover and is a split release between Planaria and North Sea Records.
Limited Edition: 500 copies, hand numbered. Comes with a free 5 song download of the 'Casper Bangs' EP.
There you have it - a pair of tickets for Saturday night's show and the 7" as a way of arm-twisting you into becoming a Casper Bangs convert.You're welcome.
Plead your case for both in the comments to this post—with contact info!—and the one that's suitably convincing will take home the tickets and the vinyl. You have til noon on Friday (3/12) to get as us!
I’ve been the happy recipient of a few "Aw, thanks...” emails recently in response to alerting someone that they’ve won a record in our Ten Weeks of Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaways. More to the point, a handful have mentioned that they don’t even own a turntable (yet!) and/or this win will enable them to rekindle the relationship with their own turntables that went unattended for this or that reason.
And to this I say – fantastic.
I often wonder if we’re just preaching to the choir or making new converts along the way and I’m starting to think that when the first taste is free, you’ll be coming around for more.
So, this week while we take a short break from our label showcases (and we have some really cool ones coming up) we’re giving away more vinyl. All week.
Aquarium Drunkard’s quote alone sold me: "A four piece, the bands live show kills, reminiscent of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Psychocandy era JAMC."
What’s not to love?
The rules can't be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week's giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week's LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can't track ya' down, you're out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/15) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
It's been another long while, but we've re-established contact with our correspondent from the '70s.
"Listen, man," he said when he checked in the other day. "You really have no idea just how hard it is to make that trip from the '70s."
"So what did he bring us from the sweet blue haze of time?"
"Ah, I think you'll like this, man. It's another one from 1972."
Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose emerged from the Miami area as the '70s dawned. Carter and Eddie Cornelius were indeed brothers, Rose was indeed their sister and another sister, Billie Jo, rounded out the group.
They're best known for two smash pop-soul singles,"Treat Her Like a Lady" from 1971 and "Too Late To Turn Back Now" from 1972. Both are on this LP, the self-titled "Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose" from 1972.
This was the high point of their career. The group broke up in 1976. Both brothers turned to careers that mixed music with the ministry. Eddie, who wrote most of the group's material, is still at it. Carter died in 1991. Rose, a gospel singer in the late '60s before the group was formed, also remains active.
So here's a sampling. One of the hits, one of the fine deep tracks and a rarely-heard cover.
All from "Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose," 1972. The LP out of print. The first two cuts are available onthis CD and digitally. The latter isn't found on any compilation.
