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 almost don't know what to write in this spot sometimes. I worry that I've lost focus every now and again. I never really fancied myself as a writer but that's implicit with a blog, now isn't it? I tend to toil on the graphics much more then I do the writing portion of this thing and I have to remind myself - "Oh yea, gotta add some CONTENT to this this or that image..."
Back in June of 1981 my parents purchased for my birthday my first honest-to-goodness stereo after I churned baby's first phonograph into the ground. Finally—stereo! Vinyl that breathed, glorious FM radio, and uh - 8 track!
I recall it was a weeknight and being overly enamored with the local shopping mall, we had dinner in the food court where I got Chinese takeout and soon after came home to a brand-cranking-new stereo system set up in the spot of the earlier record player which was never to be even gazed upon again.
My hands were eager to learn every nuance of the new system STAT, and the knobs and doohickeys soon took on the scent of the Chinese food I had eaten earlier—specifically the fried rice. It's an odd memory, but there you have it.
Mom and Dad also surprised me with the LP at the top of my request list then and it's the one up top here: Soft Cell's "Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret" which seems like a risque purchase for a newly 14 year old, but there you go—they were open minded like that.
For some time, the fried rice stereo system stayed scented as such and tales of sex dwarfs and adult frustration, pornography, and bedsitters saying hello and waving goodbye never sounded so sweet.
And never have since.
I'm reminded then and again after the bouts of 'what the fuck am I doing with this blog' as blurted out in paragraph number one in this post, that often this isn't even a music blog. Or a vinyl blog.
If anything it's a bookmark of our collective lives and times—mine in particular and yours specifically if you were alive when I was, where I was, or listening to what I was listening to. Then or now by default, it's about the memory markers each one of us possess.
Some bloggers photograph their meals, their new purchases, or their friends making kissy faces. And well, me? Perhaps I'm working at recapturing what's come and gone and come again each time I play 'Sex Dwarf' or something.
The memory of the new stereo for my birthday is almost 28 years old to the day as I write this. Dad's gone, Mom's here (but 'gone'), the stereo's LONG gone. But I'm still here.
Some things just sound more ‘right’ to me than others. For example, 9 times out of 10 I’ll take the act from the UK over any of their American counterparts. I can’t help it—I’m just wired that way and prefer the intangibles that UK acts possess. I can’t see it, I can’t touch it—but somehow I can HEAR it which makes all the difference to me.
So, is it wrong to dig a band if they remind you of another band you like? (Yea, I didn’t think so either.) Dark Mean for a moment there was recalling the very best of New Order to which I said, “We should go on a First Date!” Sandy Johnston from the band showed up—flowers in hand:
"Man, Those Darlins said it perfectly. There's something warm and pure and cozy about the sound from vinyl records that you can't get from CDs or mp3s... and the album art actually feels like art because you can see it (and "feel" it) in detail. I have a few precious old records that I have only ever listened to at my parents' cottage. One of those albums is Neil Young - After the Gold Rush. It is probably one of my all time favourite albums and I think a big reason for that is the fact that I have only ever listened to it on vinyl at my cottage. Sometimes I get together with a good friend and we just listen to records. We'll put the cover art up on the "Now Playing" stand (when we're not studying it or reading along with the lyrics) and we just listen. It's not like listening to CDs or mp3s. It's an experience that takes you right into the album and it's amazing.
At the moment we barely have any physical copies of our Frankencottage EP as we've been giving it out for free to promote ourselves. That being said, we definitely plan to make vinyl copies of our full length album. In a perfect world we would send out a record player and a vinyl copy of our album to anyone willing to listen because that would be the best way to experience our music."
Despite being held captive of the CBS Corporate Suits waving a contract, Don Geronimo is sorely missed on the airwaves perhaps more than he himself realizes. Don would often rail on the piss-poor state of contemporary radio and the industry that promotes a new format as literally “the same old box of records” or something similar to that phrase.
I point this out not to underscore the urgency with which we need Donnie G. back on the airwaves, but that I’m mindful that most likely all of these ‘20 Perfect Tracks’ this week have made their way onto TVD in the past.
I guess that’d be the “the same old box of perfect records?”
Much like the house specials or the house wine you’ve become accustomed to when visiting your favorite restaurant, we here at TVD think it might be wise to serve up some of our own ‘house specialties’ in the form of what we’re calling this week, ‘20 Perfect Tracks.’
I mean, we do a boat-load of complaining around these parts, why not underscore 20 tracks this week that we feel are: damn fine. Now, these aren’t the only perfect 20 out there by ANY means, but these are a set we feel form a basis for what we need to hear to get the TVD Stamp o’ Approval.
From time to time perhaps we’ll revisit the theme, but for now, sit back, fire up the hookah, and snuggle up with two perfect 10’s.
It’s no exaggeration whatsoever when I say that Retro Music Snob is responsible for this blog you’re reading. His daily updates that scour the universe of music blogs ultimately forced me to think that I needed to purchase an I-pod for myself (yea, finally...) and when I thought that I may want to wade into the blog waters myself, he was the first person I reached out to, and as I’ve mentioned here in the past, The Snob provided invaluable insight and support.
That was close to two years ago and I’m still visiting him each morning. Rock God Cred is The Snob’s newest on-line foray which has also become a morning must-read. So, without further adieu:
"Retro Music Snob rose from the ashes of the piss poor conditions of the radio stations of today. Where was the music of my youth? Where were the days when the same 50 songs weren’t played over and over again on the radio?? This does not exist on terrestrial radio. So alas…I got off my ass a few years ago, and did something about it…
“RMS” is a product of: 1) Being a son of a record collector 2) Exploring the internet for the great “lost songs” of years gone by.
We try to expose songs/bands of the past, and we try to direct our readers to some of the coolest of the cool music blogs. Great writers with great tunes that others should discover or re-visit. RMS tries to strengthen the network of music blogs. Introduce, and invite others to enjoy what we have discovered.
Lots of cool tunes from the 50’s-90’s, cover songs, demos, outtakes, novelty songs, and such…a little heavy on the New Wave of the 80’s, and the Old School Alt bands as well. I am a man of few words…as I let the music do the talking."
"Rock God Cred is the pot smoking, poke a hole in the bottom of a beer super-charging sister blog. We follow the same format of “Retro Music Snob”, but focus on the classic rock bands of the past. We dig out the lost classics, and covers (some done by your alternative favorites), and other assorted oddities.
Classic Rock is a guilty pleasure…some people feel guilty, and have to shower after they play their old classic rock lp’s, tapes, and cd’s. Not I! If it brought me joy in the early years of my life than I am cool with the same tunes now. Remember…I am a collector so I listen to everything (except radio). Not all will like these bands now, but some will. That’s ok with me…come enjoy. Tell a friend…I think you will be pleasantly surprised."
Our good pal and fellow vinyl hoarder's office is featured in this weekend's Washington Post Magazine in their Second Glance feature. JC's office has been captured on film by Dave Kennedy, yet another pal of this here blog.
Can you spot the twelve differences in the two photos above and below? To see larger images and uncover the differences, click right hea'.
(Hey, c'mon...I nicked the cover from their promo art...)
From the news release:Radio CPR is having its second annual Record Sale! Our selection is bigger and even more AWESOME than last year. We hope you can make it out, and guarantee you'll find some gems for your collection.
Lovely local crafters Bookish Lady, Kristina Bilonick, and KikaPika Designs will also be present, featuring: Bookish Lady posters, journals, and paper ephemera, Screen printed shirts, Posters, Jewelry, Tons of hotness, Cooookies!
Date: Saturday, May 30th Time: 3pm-7pm Location: La Casa - 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, between Kenyon and Kilbourne. Accessible via: H2, H4, H8, 42, S2, S4, 52, 54, DC Circulator (runs every 10 mins!), and Columbia Heights Metro.
Radio CPR was founded by a group of residents of Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights to provide an outlet for the voices, stories, music and opinions that so often get excluded from mainstream forums of communication. CPR opens a space that resists corporate control of the airwaves providing the opportunity for more residents to participate in discussions about the issues that impact their city and their neighborhoods.
Are you guys following TVD on Twitter yet? If so, you'd know it was a busy couple of days here in the TVD back office. But we're mindful of the store-front, of course. To wit: the continued plundering of the archives with a kiss and a snuggle in keeping with the GFE theme.
(You can also be in touch via Facebook. We're not picky AND the Twitter updates come standard.)
A Camp, the (semi) new project from Nina Persson of the Cardigans, Nathan Larson from DC's own Shudder to Think, and Niclas Frisk of Atomic Swing bring their dreamy pop sensibilities to the 9:30 Club this Thursday night and TVD's got a pair of tickets to put in your dreamy, sensible hands.
Now, recite along with me: grab our attention in the comments below (with your contact info!) singing the praises of the woodsy, melancholic, tunesmiths in A Camp, and the pair of tickets for the evening's bonfire just may be yours. We'll choose one winner on Thursday morning so make 'em fast and make 'em ...smashing. A Camp - Love Has Left the Room (Mp3)
You might remember Those Darlins from our Ticket Giveaway contest a few weeks back. We've been enjoying the hell out of their music ever since, so a First Date seemed to be in order.
We also offered them the Parting Shots feature that closes out each week here at TVD—but, wouldn't you know it—the Darlins simply don't listen to, nor do they have any Mp3's to share for the feature.
And we love 'em even more for it.
"Between all the members of the band (we all live together), we have four record players in our house. One in each bedroom and one in the living room, for community listening. Our house is littered with vinyl, from one end to the other.
To us, there is no other equivalent form of media. The most obvious reason would be the sound quality... You just can't get digital to sound like that. It's like the difference between tube amps and solid state. But even further than that, I love the act of pulling the vinyl from the sleeve, setting it on the turntable, lifting the needle, and placing it down on the grooves. It's the most interactive form of music listening, almost ritualistic... as if you have the power to control the sounds that come from that spinning masterpiece. The grooves in the disc are like a secret map of music from the past. And you just can't get the same thing out of a cd cover as you can vinyl covers. The images are profoundly unforgettable at that size, and the details pop out. I would've never been able to see Pete's scabbed up fingers on the cover of Who Sell Out if I hadn't have seen the vinyl cover. Although they do take up more room than cd's and mp3's... They mean much more to me. You wont find me leaving my records on the floor to step on and crack, or putting more than one record in each sleeve, scratching them all to hell (like most of my cd's ended up). There is something so special about collecting records... because you can't just get your friends to burn it for you. You can't just go find any record at any record store, or download it instantly. No, it's boxes and dusty boxes at a yard sale, looking for that gem you know is in there. And for 50 cents too! It's an endless treasure hunt, and the rewards are sonic bliss.
We are releasing our album two weeks earlier on vinyl than on CD. In part, so folks will hopefully be compelled to buy vinyl but also to show love to indie retail who are the folks who will be carrying our vinyl. Also, our vinyl packaging includes a CD inside so that folks can listen to it as soon as they leave the record store and get in their car."
While I was doing a bit of background research on 'GFE' (yea, yea...) I came across (Ok, OK...) this little exchange from Dan Savage's 'Savage Love' column from 2006:
Hello, Mr. Savage. Could you please tell me what GFE stands for. Thank you. —Obtuse And Flummoxed
GFE stands for "Google Fucking Exists," OAF—or it should. Because if you had taken the time to type GFE into Google—which takes about 1/1000th of a second—you wouldn't have to ask me what GFE stands for: The very first result is "What GFE (Girlfriend Experience) Means to Me in Sexwork." GFE = girlfriend experience, which means the sex worker will, for money, treat you nicely, kiss, cuddle, etc. (Perhaps the acronym should be BNGFE, for "brand-new girlfriend experience.")
Vinyl Saturday will take place the third Saturday of each month and will offer music fans special vinyl releases that are limited and exclusive, along with highlighting non-exclusive but new vinyl releases and reissues.
The first Record Store Day Presents Vinyl Saturday will be on Saturday, June 20th and will feature a special Green Day 7" single that is limited to 4000 total being made. Each single is numbered. The 7" single will feature two tracks. Side A is "Know Your Enemy" and Side B is "Hearts Collide" (a previously unreleased track.)
Vinyl Saturday will also see the release of a new limited edition Pete Yorn 7" single and it will feature a duet with Scarlett Johansson and an unreleased demo track.
The next Record Store Day Presents Vinyl Saturday will take place on Saturday, July 18th. Keep checking back to TVD as we’ll highlight forthcoming Vinyl Saturday releases as they’re made known.
Last Saturday I stood smack in the center of what was Orpheus Records in Arlington, Virginia. I say ‘WAS’ because Orpheus is no more. Despite the continual delays on the landlord’s part and the many reprieves the store was granted and the life-extensions, push came to shove, the bins were sold, and that was that.
Honestly, you wouldn’t have recognized the interior at all. As I mentioned, the bins were gone from the center and outer isles, replaced with cardboard boxes on the floor along the walled perimeter which held what was left of the many thousands of LPs Orpheus once housed. The outlines of the relocated bins hung heavy on the outer walls, absences having shapes of course.
Even then I found something of merit in the dusty boxes—a sealed, albeit corner-cut copy of The Replacements’ ‘Stink’ which is selling for mad money these days on ebay.
One thing remained housed inside the shell of Orpheus on Saturday however—the spirit of community. The well-wishers staggered in alongside folks STILL just dropping off records for Rick to resell, never mind he was closing for good in three hours. I even scored a free Orpheus tee shirt in the waning hours of the store’s life. (And it most certainly wasn’t a black tee either. Blue. Dark blue.)
If I could be granted the largesse, I’d like to think some of that spirit resides here at TVD in some tangible fashion. Whether you check in once a week or once a day, I hope on some tiny level we can touch the essence of community that existed not just at Orpheus, not just among DC’s brick and mortar shops, but worldwide. Where you can pony up to the register and ask the cashier what’s new and good or what’s old and warrants a fresh ear.
In its infancy, this blog’s meat and potatoes consisted of plundering the old new wave and post punk vinyl and posting the rare and not so rare—the rare eventually becoming a tiny calling card. This week we’ll get back to some of that along with the spirit of community that brings us together for the one minute and twenty seconds (on average) we spend together each day.
We’re off to catch up on some sleep after this week’s marathon Telethon, so we’ll see you back here on Tuesday. Until then, an extended round of Shots for your extended weekend—all breezy and summery-like.
“When you blog through a storm hold your head up hiiigh...”
It’s about that time, right? Exhausted and leaden with fatigue, Jerry would slump over the podium and croak this standard out and confetti would fly.
And then just like that—The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon would usher out Summer and thrust us right back into the school year. (At least, that’s how it happened in New Jersey.)
Now let’s welcome to the TVD Writers Telethon Stage an up-and-coming band out of Canada, The Rest, whose new release ‘All At Once’ is now out on Auteur Recordings. We chatted with front man Adam Bentley earlier in the week, so how about we roll that tape first...
(Yea, I’m literally channeling Jerry Lewis at this point.)
"My first clear memory of being enthralled with vinyl records revolves around an early obsession with The Beatles when I was 6 years old. My obsession began with a radio program called the “Beatles Brunch”, which was hosted by a famous Canadian DJ by the name Don Daynard. I would religiously wake up every Sunday to listen to the show. I began my ritual by putting on my Dad’s old, coiled, huge muffed headphones (that I still use) and then would spend the next hour in a state of pure joy.
Shortly after, I found that we had The Beatles on vinyl, and that I could play them as much I liked without waiting for the show. Now, I don’t want you to get the idea that the concept of recorded music was something new to me; it wasn’t, as cassettes had been quite prevalent in our house, and the record player was in constant use, but for me their wasn’t much of a reason to use these mediums, that is until I couldn’t get enough of The Beatles.
Shortly after finding these records I began to take them up to my room where I scrawled my grade-one insignia, “Adam B” across every sleeve. This was done to establish that these albums belonged to “Adam B” and not “Adam K” who was in the same grade. I then played them on my fisher price record player until I knew every word. Now I could sing along to every track, how awesome! I then recorded (what I guess could be considered my first album) on my fisher price tape recorder. This recording consisted of me singing along to my favourite Beatles songs with John, Paul, George, and sometimes-even Ringo giving me back up.
Now here comes the part that I still find a little strange; instead of showing my friends The Beatles version of the songs I would show my own. I desperately wanted everyone to love The Beatles as much as I did, but I wanted them to experience them the same way I had. I guess that this is still a desire of most people have, as we want to have our favourite artist heard or viewed in a way similar to how we became familiar with them, to make sure people come away with the same feelings we initially had.
I tried to transfer my moments by having my friends hear my recordings of myself singing The Beatles---I guess this was my favourite way that I experience them, and had no idea that the events leading up to that experience would be needed by the other individuals to feel my same joy. This was why all of my friends didn’t like The Beatles the same way I did, my six-year-old voice confused many a child about how they felt about The Beatles. I kept recording though, even with the disinterest of my peers, until I finished off the tape with an original song called “Going To Atlanta Georgia”, written because I was going there. Even one of my friends, Paul Koehler (look him up), got involved. The tape was sent off to Paul McCartney for evaluation, but I never heard back from him.
I almost don't know what to write in this spot sometimes. I worry that I've lost focus every now and again. I never really fancied myself as a writer but that's implicit with a blog, now isn't it? I tend to toil on the graphics much more then I do the writing portion of this thing and I have to remind myself - "Oh yea, gotta add some CONTENT to this this or that image..."
