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
#3. Reinvigorate COMMERCIAL Radio | Truth is, I subscribe to satellite radio, largely for Howard Stern. But I have indeed found myself tooling about on the various and sundry 'genre channels' from time to time and I was hit by an odd notion—I miss the commercials.
Howard has commercials which surprised me for a bit at the outset—some he'll read and the regular prerecorded type. It's refreshing frankly, whereas the 'Deep Cut Bullshit Channel' might not have any. It's like a secret handshake club for the ad averse.
But it's not the advertising I want to underscore but the content—the meat on said bone—that is lacking on the traditional, terrestrial airwaves.
Old guard, want your way back in with us? Take your grip off of radio programmer's necks. Free up the playlists for DJs to wing it. Remarry the legitimacy of the medium with inventiveness. Offer immediacy and a rapport not based phony radio-ims. Allow for a station's identity to be no identity at all, other than music driven. Become a community partner again, not a global enterprise.
"For me, vinyl is a lot like watching a movie in 3-D. It’s the next best thing to actually being there. If I can’t see the band in person then I want to hear them on vinyl. Seriously, the fact that the music is physically being played and that needle is dancing along those tiny, little grooves… there’s just something really honest and authentic about that. I mean you don’t even need electronics to play it!
And of course there’s something really iconic about a vinyl record. Artists want to win platinum records and not platinum mp3’s for a reason. From a visual perspective alone it can’t be beat and the sleeves on vinyl are to be missed. Having that much space to look at and display makes them pieces of art in their own rite. It’s something you’d be proud to listen to and hang on your wall. Physically, it’s really nice to be able to hold some music in your hand that big. I truly believe that music has lost a lot of its prestige and value since it has become so small and convenient.
It’s a lot like getting hand-written letters in the mail. I get emails all the time but rarely ever receive a written letter from any of my friends anymore. Occasionally though, when you do, it really makes you smile. You can almost feel the writer when you read it and the message feels just a little bit closer to you. Vinyl is a lot like that. And I dig it."
Methinks if John Lennon were still kicking around, we'd have this bit of canny song craft perfection on the regular—if he were in top form, that is.
A former member of bands like The Ruby Suns (Sub Pop), The Brunettes and The Reduction Agents as well as a touring member of Okkervil River, Lawrence Arabia—the savant-like songwriting alter ego of James Milne—is shedding his sideman status and stepping alone into the bright light of the U.S. music scene with Chant Darling.
The album is his first full-length on Bella Union, the UK-based label credited with discovering hallmark influencers Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Beach House and Explosions in the Sky among others.
Already receiving four-star reviews from UK tastemakers like Mojo and Uncut, Chant Darling melds irreverent lyrics with West Coast melodies and lush harmonies, playing like a modern take on the work of classic popsmiths like Jonathan Richman, John Lennon and Brian Wilson.
The first single from Chant Darling ‘Apple Pie Bed,’ received New Zealand’s highest songwriting honor the Silver Scroll award this past September.
The last time I saw Sesshin No-Fiwas during Art-O-Matic last year. It was their first gig together and the band consisted of a drummer, a guy with some turn tables, and a bassist. Many months have passed since that first gig on the first floor of a vacant building down near the waterfront and with those months some changes have been made—mainly in the form of a new drummer and the addition of a guy whose skills are translated through a drum machine and some synth programming.
This week is a pretty big week for Sesshin No-Fi. Last night they opened for Phantogram, who have sold out a few shows on their tour, at DC9. If you missed it you have a few more extremely groovy opportunities to see them this week in our nation's capital.
I guess the best way to describe the group's sound is in its own words: "Sesshin is a Japanese terms that translates to "one mind" and is used by Zen Buddhists to describe periods of intense meditation. Experienced practitioners have reported feelings of inner calm and a heightening of the senses. No-Fi is a combination of the genres No Wave and Lo-Fi and is a term used to describe media created outside of conventional standards. No-Fi is an extraordinarily diverse aesthetic, covering many mediums other than just music, such as video manipulation."
I've been told by one of its members that their sound has really come together since the addition of the new members and that at their last show at Iota some really awesome music was made. Perhaps the coolest thing about Sesshin No-Fi is that their sets are often improvised with new independent sounds being created by four individuals that come together to form hypnotic engaging music that seems to be all too rare in DC. For some reason the sound goes well with these cold snowy nights we continue to be hit with.
Their next two shows sound like a pretty fantastic ride. Tonight they'll be playing at The Fridge, a gallery and performance arts space located in Eastern Market, for its Dinner Party event which showcases "experimental dance, music and performance art." For its gig at the Fridge Sesshin No-Fi will be doing an audio/visual installation with a 30 minute ambient set. Local artist Monica Stroikwill be accompanying them with live video projection as well. As for Wednesday, the group will be opening up for Demivolt at Chief Ike's Mambo Room and will again be accompanied by Monica Stork and I am told it will be an all-out "funk throwdown."
#4. Just like the MLB and the NFL, any artist caught using Autotune should be fined and suspended by the RIAA. | Performance enhancing drugs or performance enhancing (or correcting) software, like dog fighting, should be outlawed.
"Britney, meet Lil Wayne - Wayne meet Britney..."
I mean, why give someone an unfair advantage, riiiight?
Thao and the ever-versatile Get Down Stay Down (Adam Thompson on bass, keys and additional guitar, and Willis Thompson on drums and percussion) return with the follow up to their critically lauded and riotously applauded previous album, "We Brave Bee Stings and All", the breakout success and best-selling record of 2008 for Kill Rock Stars.
With super-producer and friend Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell, Spoon) again at the helm, Know Better Learn Faster perfectly captures the band as their more mature, tastefully raucous, tastefully subdued and musically adventurous selves.
...and we have the first track from Know Better Learn Faster:
The machinations of the recording industry amaze me. Once upon a time there was a set of well honored rules—but the old game's been beset with a myriad of game changers in the name of modernity in all its forms and fashions.
So, fine. Adjust or perish, I say.
Some hints for the music industry at large this week (and one that personally strikes a chord here:)
#5. Get the hell out of the way of the blogs. | They're the last bastion of promotion for you at this point—unless you secure an iPod commercial or a track on 'The Hills." (And if you do, you arrive neutered.)
Our pal whiteray has had his blog shut down twice over copyright violations for posting vinyl rips of old and widely unavailable LPs and 45's—stuff dating from the 60's and 70's. Forget that he was honoring the bands or the recordings long dormant. If you're the copyright holder, wouldn't a little dust kicked up in your name be a good thing...perhaps people seek out and buy one of these old tracks from the new delivery systems?
Google unceremoniously shut down a host of music bloggers last week with blogs just like this one. Some posting obscure new genres of music and others semi-mainstream like TVD.
The rub is that those who were shut down were granted permission to host and post Mp3s from the labels, the promotions people, or the bands themselves, but internal communication was spotty between the players resulting in complaints filed and the subsequent deletion of their blogs—often without cogent warnings or explanations.
Scary, hm?
Labels and PR firms now have teams of coordinators reaching out to the blogs and we hear from them everyday. The Vinyl District which once posted Mp3 rips of obscure and not so obscure stuff has evolved (devolved?) into a roughly 90% sanctioned enterprise by posting music OK'd by whichever arm of the business is supporting and promoting an act.
Seemingly however, this is no longer enough to not warrant a bomb dropping via the old guard screaming copyright infringement. Should we be threatened with extinction when playing ball altogether?
Old guard, bloggers are the last ones disseminating your output. Remember that when everything goes silent around you—including the cash registers.
(Typically we'd add some tracks here...but silence seems to feel appropriate today.)
Touring behind their most recent release 'Communion' and in advance of a brand new 3-track digital EP, Swedes The Soundtrack of Our Lives storm The Black Cat this Thursday night (2/18) along with Nico Vega and we've got a pair of tickets to attend the show ( ...because, every now and then you need to pull yourselves away from the turntable and interact with other people, right?)
Pen your homage to the band and inspire us with your soundtrack (or social interaction in general) in the comments to this post and we'll choose a winner who suitably inspires us by COB Wednesday for the tickets to the show. (Simple, yes?)
At last count, 1,460 people came through the doors of The Black Cat today for the 4th DC Record Fair. We thank you all, The Black Cat, and the DJ's for an amazing day. The first shots are in courtesy Kyle Gustafson.
We'll see you in the morning when we're back at it...more vinyl giveaways, we've got some tickets, and a thought or five on the music industry as it stands or falls around us. Right now, there's a pint with my name onnit.
What better way to show someone that their taste in music has you swooning than you and he or she joining us on Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14 from noon to 6PM for a little rummage through the crates. Thirty dealers from up and down the East Coast worth of crates at the DC Record Fair!
And yes, yes...we heard your gripes in the past...TOO crowded...had to wait in lines, too cramped...etc., etc. But fret not! Our first Record Fair of 2010 lands at The Black Cat so you have plenty of room to rummage and roam and refresh. We heard you, ok?
All of this on a President's Day Weekend so if you, y'know, over indulge (wallet and gullet) you'll have Monday to dream it all away.
Click here to download the Record Fair Poster designed by our friend El Jefe to plaster all over your bedroom or blog. We're printing a ridiculously short run of these which will be available at the show. If we get a wildly enthusiastic comment to this post, we'll award one to one person who shows up in person to claim it.
So, we'll see you Sunday, February 14th from noon to 6 at The Black Cat, right? Brought to you by your pals at Som Records,DC Soul Recordings, and us!
We’d like to thank The Watson Twins for spending the snowy week with us here at TVD. They've got some parting thoughts and some parting tracks streaming via lala for a change this week. (...for reasons we’ll get into next week. Oh, yes we will.)
So we have reached the end of the week for “The Watson Twins Vinyl District Takeover.” It has been a pleasure to post on some of the things that make our little world go round. We’ve shared inspirations and favorite locations, songs that tickle our eardrums and emerging new sounds. There’s a lot going on at the moment, with the release of “Talking To You, Talking To Me”… but by hosting The Vinyl District for the week, we have been able to reflect on why we continue to write and record songs.
Lots and lots of beautiful music being made in this world and blogs like this one help to keep people informed about underground stuff on the level. It’s always amazing to discover new songs or artists that perhaps we would have never found if not for folks on the web scouring every vault, nook and cranny and posting it for all to hear.
Lots and lots of beautiful music being made in this world and blogs like this one help to keep people informed about underground stuff on the level. It’s always amazing to discover new songs or artists that perhaps we would have never found if not for folks on the web scouring every vault, nook and cranny and posting it for all to hear.
That being said we’d like to end our last day here at The Vinyl District with a little play list we put together. Being twins we also share a lot of the same taste in music and that taste is very diverse… as I’m sure you can see from the songs we’ve picked. We hope that through our posts, maybe y’all have discovered some music that is gonna be in constant rotation on your turntable. Signing off… xo-TWT
One of the happy coincidences to being The Official Blog forRecord Store Day 2010 is that we're afforded the opportunity to underscore one of our main themes—namely that vinyl is a contemporary medium, one that's never really gone away, and is perhaps thriving and more vital than it has been in some time (DJ's, purists, and collectors notwithstanding.)
So, to that end, we're spending the next ten weeksstraight putting records into the hands of TVD readers as we count down to April 19, 2010—Record Store Day.
The rules can't be any simpler: each Monday for the next ten weeks we'll be launching a new RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway and 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. Winners will be notified upon the launch of the next giveaway.
And with that, we're launching the the very first of our LP giveaways with Charlotte Gainsbourg's Beck-produced, 'IRM.' (Check back with us later today because we have another for you too...)
What started as a brief recording session between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck ended up to be the body of work that is IRM. Over the course of a year and a half of writing and recording together, Beck's role grew to encompass all aspects of the creative process. He worked seamlessly with Charlotte co writing the lyrics and produced and mixed the recording. (This is the first time he has ever been so involved in another artist's work.)
The official first single off the album is "Heaven Can Wait" featuring Beck. Sonically, the album is a new direction for Charlotte Gainsbourg and her first in nearly four years. Beck's iconic and spacey production blends flawlessly with Charlotte's unique vocals and delivery.
The Watson Twins'Vinyl District blog takeover simply wouldn't be complete without a chance to win the brand new 'Talking To You, Talking To Me' on vinyl—the LP sliding out of the sleeve over there to the right. And being the completists that we are, Leigh and Chandra have given us a copy to award one reader of this blog.
As we mentioned yesterday, the rules for our vinyl giveaways can't be any simpler: all you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section of the giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win the 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. Winners will be notified on Friday!
