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While 2010 was filled with quite a number of guests here at TVD putting pen to pixel and offering first hand accounts of life on the road or in the studio, Title Tracks' John Davis might just take home the prize for musical scholarship.
And for probably one of our most favorite 'Takeover Weeks' of all time.
From the week of 9/1/2010:
Back with Day #3 of our Story/Stereo event in advance of Friday night's unique confluence of words and music at Bethesda's Writer's Center and it's Day #3 with Story/Stereo's musical guest for the evening, John Davis, who returns with the first five random tracks off his ipod—and musings upon each:
Pixies – Dead The Pixies were one of those bands that helped me bide time until I found punk. I heard “Doolittle” shortly after it came out in the late 80s and then I played it to death when I was away at camp that summer. There were five tapes that made the trip with me – that two of them were cassingles demonstrated a tremendous lack of foresight on my part. In my bag I had R.E.M.’s “Chronic Town,” The Pixies’ “Doolittle,” The Who’s “Who’s Next” and the aforementioned cassingles – R.E.M.’s “The One I Love/Maps and Legends (Acoustic)” and The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man/Into The White.” A bit of overkill on that second cassingle since “Here Comes Your Man” was already on “Dootlittle,” though I really did love that b-side, “Into The White.” I had only recently started to really get into “real” music, abandoning top 40 radio and my collection of hair metal tapes. I don’t know what sparked it but I picked up “13” by The Doors and my musical tastes changed dramatically. A few months later, inspired by raves in Rolling Stone magazine, I got into “alternative” music – The Replacements, The Clash, Elvis Costello and The Pixies. I was about 12 at this point. It was a steady diet of college rock/alternative and classic rock until one magnificent summer where I got into Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Minor Threat, Minutemen/firehose, Dinosaur Jr., etc. I still enjoy The Pixies and they have my eternal gratitude for keeping me busy those few years. For the record, “Trompe Le Monde” is my favorite record of theirs.
Eric Idle – Gibberish When I was a kid, my uncle passed along to me a mix tape that he had in his possession (someone he knew had given it to him). I’m not sure why he wound up giving it to me and I remember very little about what was on it other than a Last Poets track and this, Eric Idle’s “Gibberish,” which opened the mix tape. It’s originally from the “Rutland Weekend Songbook” record and has always made me laugh every time I hear it (as does Idle’s “Fuck Christmas,” which should be a holiday anthem). Idle does a news broadcast in a steady stream of nonsense that is so effortlessly and smoothly administered that it actually starts to make a strange kind of sense. “Machine-wrapped with butter? Machine-wrapped with butter.” That “meanwhile on Rutland Weekend Television, it’s time for music” line at the end totally makes this perfect fodder for opening up a mix tape, for those who still make them. When we were making the Georgie James record, we briefly thought we were going to include something like this gibberish bit on the record, believe it or not. We were struggling to come up with an intro for a song that badly needed one and we thought we might do a pseudo interview back and forth where the question was literal and the response was Idle-style gibberish. I’m pretty sure we got as far as starting to write out a script, as I recall fitting in references to Jim Vance and Arch Campbell in there, for some reason. It’s probably for the best that we didn’t do this, though the song that we intended to append it to wound up being my least favorite on the record so it maybe could’ve used something after all.
Bill Fox – Over And Away She Goes Bill Fox is great. I’ve been hoping that the recent reissue of his first solo record, “Shelter From The Smoke,” will get him at least part of his due. After making some fantastically spiky power pop records with his band The Mice in the mid-80s, Fox went solo and went almost entirely acoustic on both “Shelter” and its follow-up “Transit Byzantium.” An image is easily created in my mind when listening to those two solo records of Fox sitting in a cold Ohio kitchen banging out classic songs into his 4-track tape machine. “Over And Away She Goes” is nearly anthemic with its chiming acoustics and insistent maracas that hiss like sprinklers. Tight harmonies and hooks and a slight glaze of analog hiss combine to make a nearly perfect record. While I’d love it if Fox made another album (it’s been more than a decade since his last one now), I’m happy to even have these two solo ones (and The Mice records, too). Elizabeth Cotten – Run…Run/Mama Your Son Done Gone I first heard of guitarist Elizabeth Cotten via a mix CD that my Q And Not U bandmate, Harris Klahr, made me several years ago. Cotten’s story is fascinating. After decades of anonymity, working as a housekeeper and only playing her guitar in church, she was discovered in her 60s and soon became a darling of the folk set in the late 1950s/early 60s. A southpaw guitarist who, like Jimi Hendrix, played a right-handed guitar upside down, Cotten’s style is singular. Maybe a bit like John Fahey and his ilk in parts but with a Spartan elegance and deceptive dexterity which give her a clear signature. “Freight Train” and “Ain’t Got No Honey Baby Now” are two of her best. This track, “Run… Run/Mama Your Son Done Gone” is not one of her best but it still boasts her fluid fretwork and also features her weathered, papery singing voice -- a charming instrument on its own. A clip exists of Cotten doing a few songs on Pete Seeger’s short-lived, mid-60s TV show, “Rainbow Quest.” Seeger is comically earnest and Cotten’s laconicism makes the scene even more awkward. Still, the thrill of watching Cotten play guitar transcends all of that. It can be found on DVD, if you’re interested.
The Beach Boys – Time To Get Alone This one is from one of my favorite Beach Boys records, if not my favorite, “20/20.” Brian Wilson was already getting deep into his infamous mental funk by the time the Boys’ put this album together in 1969. Still, the record features some quality contributions from Brian and “Time To Get Alone” is one of them. I think that’s Carl singing lead on this, though. My true favorite song on this record, though, is Bruce Johnston’s rapturous “Pet Sounds” ripoff, “The Nearest Faraway Place.” Eric Idle - Gibberish (Mp3) Bill Fox - Over And Away She Goes (Mp3) Elizabeth Cotten - Run…Run/Mama Your Son Done Gone (Mp3)
Far and away, our favorite feature for 2010 has become Friday afternoon's "The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel"—TVD's weekly podcast from Jon's studio in Laurel Canyon, CA. I was waxing nostalgic last April about the lack of freeform radio on the radio dial in general, and like a karmic affirmation, Jon walked into the picture to deliver just that, each week here at TVD.
Jon has this unique ability to pair new music with older, classic tracks putting both in fresh perspective. I can't tell you how often I've re-appreciated something or finally 'got' some band beyond the hype in the press. As has been said to me which I'll reiterate, Jon's taste is impeccable.
While our 2010 retrospective is TVD's last full week for the year, Jon will have a podcast this coming Thursday and next Thursday to kick you in gear for New Year's Eve.
This morning I'd thought we'd repost a recent Idelic Hour along with a few of Jon's previous "Hits of the Week" which come tagged onto each Friday's post.
Had you asked me way back in 2007 at this blog's inception who I'd hope to have on TVD in any capacity, The Posies would have been one of the first few names cited. I've been that type of fan since 'Dear 23.'
So it was quite special indeed to have Jon and Ken blogging away last last summer at the release week for the new(ish) and spectacularly hook-laden, 'BLOOD/CANDY.'
Cut to a few months later and The Posies kick off our brand new...oh - ...wait.
That'd be getting ahead of myself.
The Posies' | The week of September 27, 2010
Right. That's not the actual Gary & the Hornets 45 that Ken gets into below. But pretty sweet looking, hm? (Courtesy of So Many Records, So Little Time.) It's day #2 of The Posies Vinyl District Takeover...
Fuck iTunes. I paid the most I have ever paid, via an ad in Goldmine, for one single. TWO SONGS. $40. I didn’t use the internet, I mailed a fucking check and got the thing. Why? Because I’d played a cover of a song called ‘Patty Girl’ by an Ohio group called Gary & the Hornets with Alex Chilton, who had heard about the song from Teenage Fanclub, who had heard about the song from Calvin Johnson. And I had to hear the original.
The story was too good: Gary & the Hornets were three kids—age 9, 11, & 12—who had a record deal and did these amazing, beat group-era songs, maybe just a little too sweet for the consciousness-bending preamble to the Summer of Love, so they didn’t have too long to enjoy the spotlight before looking quaint. ‘Patty Girl’ is not on iTunes. The band never released any album that I can find, so there’s no CD reissue. Basically, except for this 45 and some youtube videos, this music is extinct. And what a crime! Two and half minutes of chimey, glorious 60's pop, with a chorus that defies the laws of gravity in terms of melody—it was shocking to hear Alex pick off the high notes with such ease—we played it the last time that Alex and I played together, in Brooklyn last year.
So, now, iTunes saving grace: As a kid, I dutifully picked up Robert Plant’s solo music after the demise of Led Zeppelin, and was somewhat nonplussed by the mellow, unfocused and puzzling ‘Big Log’ 45 that I surely got at a drugstore or something. But, as one did, I flipped it over and found another enigmatic title—'Far Post', a non-album B side and a far more interesting piece of music. The recording sounded so deluxe back in the day and now I can hear it’s possibly a really well recorded live take; just one guitar, bass, drums, piano and voice.
The song is fast, but dreamy too—it seems to be about the tug between regret and letting go over a lost love—or something. It’s pretty haunting, and was a good soundtrack for the intangibles of fog and mist and early sunsets that were part of life in Bellingham c. 1982. Blazing piano solo, stereo chorus/modulating slapback delay on everything, awesome. And you know what? It’s on iTunes. A B-side. I bought it recently, and was happy not to have to dig thru my storage space 9,000 miles from my home to look for it.
Just a thought here: we were all told when we signed our record deals in the late 80's that due to the excessive packaging costs of the CD vs. the LP, that our royalty rate for CD's would be significantly lower than for LPs. And guess what? The LP's were a fraction of sales shortly thereafter. Duped. I think an LP is roughly twice as expensive to make and package as a CD now.
Along comes iTunes and offers even LOWER rates for selling something that DOESN’T EVEN EXIST. It’s not like there’s a factory banging out all those files. You upload your master, and you’re allowed to make a copy and store that somewhere. It’s like charging more for a bunch of photo copies than for a book. So, now, that I reach the end of this paragraph, I’m mad again and can say fuck you, iTunes.
There - I said it. Yours, your favorite blog's, Pitchfork's, Stereogum's, Rolling Stone's, your local City Paper - whatever. Who cares how you've numbered and ordered things according to your collective taste from the past year? (Especially if you've given Kanye's latest a 10.0 or 5 stars—your taste is bullshit.)
Man, that feels good to say, hm?
If you're to navel gaze then, why not spotlight the folks who actually affected you over the previous year, who dropped a little ear candy and some good wishes along the way. A dose of insight perhaps? We're going to have a bit of a go at that this week as the year winds down.
Looking back, TVD had quite a number of 'Takeover Weeks" by some lovely ladies this year. So, we thought we'd kick off our lil' 2010 retrospective this morning with the women who made us look forward to turning on the lights each morning at TVD HQ and come to work:
The Submarines | The week of January 11, 2010
"...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..."
"...This unilateral intervention is warranted by a momentous occasion for the band—namely the release of our brand new record, Memento Mori. Latin for "remember your mortality," Memento Mori is a departure from our previous material. It's a little on the heavy and melancholy side, but it's not without its moments of hope, brilliance and happiness...".
"...We spent our childhood listening to records, staring at the sleeve for hours while listening to each track intently... there is a ritual that comes with flipping each side and so seeing this resurgence brings what I call the nostalgic tidal wave. A large beautiful sonic wave that we hope people will explore..."
"...I'll never forget listening to Joni Mitchell's 'Song for a Seagull' on vinyl one a misty morning while sitting on the covered porch in a rocking chair amidst the redwood trees.
The songs, the mist, the tea, the trees all became the same thing a total environment. We listened to the record like it was a movie. And again and again. That record (and on vinyl) signifies those days of a gorgeous simplicity... of unfettered youth... of freedom..."
"...The long drive between Toronto and Montreal included a long conversation about great lyricists. I realized three of my all-time favorites are Canadian: Joni Mitchell, for knowing how to set a scene; Leonard Cohen, for his Zen way saying the most with the least; and Neil Young, for his jazz standard strength in simplicity. Then we all wondered aloud about the great lyricists of today. Who's our Dylan? Who can turn a phrase and get the zeitgeist of our whole generation? Do we have a zeitgeist? Or are we just the dregs of a non-movement, content with our bougie coffees and fancy phones while the world turns to shit?
I'd like to think not, to hope that the good voices will rise above the top 40 radio crap and redeem us. Sorry for the rant. Probably just preaching to the choir anyway. (Good that we've got a choir on the good side.) But seriously, who moves you these days, lyrically? How do you feel about politically - and socially-minded music? I, for one, eat it up. Reminds me of being a kid with pink hair and combat boots, my friends in bands with high ideals and punk patches, all of us excited about the world we were about to make our own. I say let's do it. There's still time. We'll tear it down and build it back up one lyric at a time..."
"...Sometimes you're on and sometimes you're off. We were off. The nicest way to say it is that I just never hit my groove but to be honest it just felt like it was our first time playing these songs. We didn't do what we do. Usually if the world's shit, I can get on stage, rock it out and forget about it but we must have brought the B.S. with us 'cause it wasn't happening up there..."
It's our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices and PR agencies want you to be hearing. We post you decide.
I'm writing to you tired and jet lagged as I just returned from a week's holiday in my home town of New York City. It was a week of time spent with family and freezing cold east coast weather. My big plan was to do the "family thing" before the holiday rush and so I can nestle into the canyon for Christmas week.
I guess in some roundabout way this Idelic holiday playlist came together much as families do for occasions. Although the cast of family characters may vary in age and style, there remains a strong connection that makes complete sense.
The intention is fairly simple—a New York holiday card in the form of a Christmas playlist. With a mix of old classics like Guaraldi, Lennon, and Waits that we can snuggle up to the yule time log with. I've added new favorites like Sean Rowe, Ivan & Alyosha, Beach House, Suffjan and even new PJ Harvey!
Have a warm, safe and "Idelic" holiday season. Hold your family, friends, and songs close.
So here's your Holiday Card, Merry Xmas!
THE IDELIC HIT OF THE WEEK: Ivan & Alyosha - "Glorify"
True Womanhood concludes our very last (and we mean it) TVD Takeover Week ever:
Being in a band means spending a lot of time in a car. When we drive around we usually have the radio on and in this area that means we are tuning into our favorite stations, usually 95.5 (WPGC) and 93.9 (WKYS). These are the best two stations by far and here are 5 of our favorites from their play lists:
trey songz - bottoms up (feat. Nicki Minaj)
We like this song because it sends a good message to young people and promotes drinking responsibly.
gucci mane - beat it up (feat. trey songz)
epic.
iyaz - replay
dude wrote a catchy song
kanye west - monster (feat. everybody)
yes yes that’s my fuckin song!
usher - there goes my baby
1 4 tha l8dyz
THAT’S ALL FROM TRUE WOMANHOOD HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR FEATURES SPECIAL THANKS TO JON @ VINYL DISTRICT HAPPY HOLIDAYS SEE U IN 2@!!
Did you know you can walk to four of Washington, DC’s finest record stores in a span of maybe 15-20 minutes? It’s no joke. I do it often.
The folks who wake up each morning, head downtown, and turn on the lights at Crooked Beat Records,Red Onion Records,Smash! Records, and Som Records would like to remind you this holiday season that vinyl makes THE perfect gift for yourself or some other crate digger on your shopping list.
As a reminder, all four shops are dangling a carrot in the form of $25.00 in store credit for ONE winner to extend the season of giving—right to your turntable. That’s $100.00 to wander from store to store in TVD’s DC Record Store Holiday Shopping Spree.
Here’s how it’ll work: we invite you to sing the praises of your local scene in the comments to this post with contact info (very important!) and the one that warms our collective spirits will be awarded the shopping spree. You don’t have to be a DC resident to enter and win, but you have to redeem your store credit in person at each of the four shops.
We’re choosing the winner for TVD's DC Record Store Holiday Shopping Spree on Monday, 12/20 to give you the last few days before the Christmas holiday to make the 20 minute trek from store to store.
(...best after a Bloody Mary or 5. Trust me on this.)
True Womanhood continues our very last TVD Takeover Week ever:
This past weekend, J Robbins, still exhausted from the Government Issue reunion the previous night, was nice enough to talk to us about his studio and recording philosophy.
J’s accomplishments as a musician in bands like Government Issue, Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels and now The Office of Future Plans are well documented but what interested us on this occasion was his “day job.” It’d be inaccurate to call it a 9 to 5 considering his work often carries on late into the night.
We are, of course, referring to the work J does at the Magpie Cage, the Baltimore studio where he has recorded the likes of Clutch, Colosseum, Ponytail, Yeasayer, and of course, True Womanhood. J recently made the bold move of re-embracing analog recording after several years of being a digital studio. As novice reel to reel recording engineers ourselves, we were excited at the chance to hear J’s thoughts and to share them with you for our next feature.
Recording to tape is a lot like listening to vinyl. In both cases you are taking extra effort and expense to use an outdated technology. MP3s and Protools have revolutionized both the recording and consumption of music, yet, there still remains a devoted “analog” following. J puts it very simply, “There’s more music in the music.”
The experience of recording in Protools is a lot like using Photoshop. Your sounds appear on the screen and all edits effect an instantaneous visual change. As J puts it, “the Protools user interface dictates the musical aesthetics of popular music to an absurd degree, instead of the other way around.” The recording process is now a combination of both listening and watching music.
But there’s more to the tape versus digital debate than just the recording process. Recording to tape colors the sound in away that digital interfaces cannot simulate. Often the words “warm” and “magical” are thrown around but what’s really happening, as J explained to us, is the tape is compressing the sound, subtly distorting it and bringing out a richer harmonic content. Also, since tape machines are mechanical there are slight variations in playback speed that while nearly imperceptible, lend the music a more natural sound. Such flaws, inherent to analog recordings, do not exist in the digital realm and this digital transparency can sometimes lead musicians on a futile hunt for perfection.
“There is a lot of fear involved in digital recording... fear of imperfection when a lot of what we love about certain classic records are the imperfections” J explained his theory that “records made before you could make everything perfect are more enduring because your brain has to participate more to manage the imperfections and that process is more rewarding.”
Of course, all this relatively rare, vintage recording equipment doesn’t come cheap. Sixteen track 2” tape machines such as J’s go for between $2000 and $4000 when you can find them in decent condition. Also, at around $200 dollars for a reel of 2” inch tape you’ll have about 30 minutes of recording time... very different from the digital world where cheap memory has made such concerns obsolete. But maintaining an up to date Protools studio is expensive as well. Upgrading to the latest version of Protools including hardware costs around $5000 and that’s not including the necessary purchase of a new computer.
J explains, “I could spend the money to stay on the Protools upgrade path, investing more and more every year into a sound that will essentially always sound the same... or I could invest in a tape machine and be slayed every time I record. Why wouldn’t I want to be slayed?”
Because this week's Takeover guest, True Womanhood is doing a fine job of bringing other band's music to you, we thought it smart to put one piece together with TW tracks for the uninitiated. So, without further adieu...
Nite Prowlers | We wrote this song when we were listening to a lot of Lil Wayne. The song is almost entirely made up of samples we made by clanging pieces of metal around in a mile-long sewer tunnel + bass guitar, 808 drumz, and vocals—all run through a severely malfunctioning tape delay.
The Grey Man | Reworking of an old song that appeared on our first demo CD. This time we ran our vocals through the malfunctioning tape delay and replaced the guitars with mellotron strings and samples from an old tack piano.
Last Rites | We wrote this song around a week before recording it and it ended up being one of our favourite tracks from the session, then we immediately forgot how to play it and it has never been played live. There’s a secret hidden in the lyrics that nobody has figured out yet, if anyone can figure it out, we will send you a copy of the upcoming release!
Dream Cargoes | This is a cool song. We would be stoked to hear this on a record. To record it, we simply put a Shure SM57 up against the grill and compressed the shit out of it.
True Womanhood continues our very last TVD Takeover Week ever:
This past summer we had the pleasure of meeting one of indie rock’s hottest new buzz groups— Dom, of Hadley, Massachussets. Fresh after recording their debut EP, Sun Bronzed Greek Gods they signed to Astralworks and have been making waves, recording songs with GUCCI MANE and generally impressing fans with songs like "Burn Bridges" and this summer’s feel good classic “Living In America”
We caught them at their sold out show at 9:30 Club, where they opened for Ratatat. They stayed with us after their show, and had the chance to see the Pleasure Line in action (see below for details)...Dom is well known for pulling all sorts of crazy hijinks and we expect no different this time around. There’s really no-one we’d rather feature here and we hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed making it. —TW
You guys had an exciting year, it seems like you only just formed your band, and you’ve experienced a “meteoric rise to success.” What have been some of the highlights? major highlight my ex tryin 2 crawl back into da picture and turning her ass DOWN
Massachusetts is kind of like DC in that its has produced a few “hometown heroes” but many upcoming bands in both areas still seem to head to New York in search of success. What’s the scene actually like in Massachusetts? there are a lot of fun collectives / diy spaces. mostly crust punx + alt folk types out this way
Tell us about the pleasure line. Spare no details. plzr line is a toll free number ne1 can call / txt / sxt whatever. we give out free tix / dating advice / chat ya up np
We have seen you talk shit on Pitchfork about the bands Girls and Passion Pit and we thought it was funny. Would you care to elaborate, or are there any other bands you would like to denigrate in this interview? PS our band is off limits. uh homeboy dont talk shit he talk da truth. lemme tell u bout this band called kelly clarkson and this other shitty band wavves that piss everyone the fuck off. kelly clarkson is a white trash no talent BITCH and wavves=the nu blink 182 only a lot less fun since im not in 6th grade no more
What’s next for Dom? Any upcoming releases/tours/videos we should know about? rerelease Sun Bronzed Greek Gods remastered in feb 2k11 / bowl cut single + gucci mane collab due out jan / new album due out in spring
You just finished your first ever tour, with Ratatat, and got to play at a sold out 9:30 club. Was that your first time in Washington, DC? How’d you like it down in these parts? wasnt first time at 9:30. we luv dc the ppl there are a lot of fun and da babes r way hawt
In line with True Womanhood's very last Takeover Week here at TVD comes over very last 'First Date.' And it's a sad, sad tale, indeed.
"Around a year and a half ago came a very very sad moment…. It was my housemate's birthday. We were all out and I decided to stay out longer with some other friends. The others went back to our house… I went home and found my kitchen in a trashed state and red wine poured all over my bed. Seriously pissed off, I went to sleep to deal with it the next morning. I had to go to work early so thought I'd sort it when I got home.
I had to work till really late again so then it was only 2 days later that I saw a Bad Boys Inc vinyl cover (a joke present given to me by my old uni housemate Lucinda) out of the bathroom window lying in the rain, in our back garden. Assuming it had blown out the window, I went into the garden to investigate to find my entire 45 collection smashed against the back garden wall, sodden sleeves strewn around the garden, covered in mud. I climbed into the tree to retrieve a Morrissey single, only to see a load more of my vinyl in pieces in the next door neighbor's garden.
I was angry. Real angry. My housemate had gone to Paris for a week, so I couldn't get hold of her. The bouncers at work ran a screwdrivers through kneecap service and offered it to me for free but as a pacifist, it took all my might to decline because I knew it was my housemate's friends who were responsible. I had friends queuing up to punch the living daylight outta these guys. They were students and co-hosts on my housemates radio show. They admitted to trashing our kitchen but did not mention my records.
I quiz my housemate on her return. She says they don't remember doing it but i know it would have been them. No one else had been in our house.
It dragged on and on and then two months later I had to move to Bristol because I had quit my job. The bastards got away with it. But in the words of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill - revenge is best served cold…. and I certainly haven't forgotten….
It took me until recently to start buying vinyl again. It had hurt me so much. All those memories. All those records given to me by the artists. It was really shit." —Anika
If you've ever wondered what Nicole's (and my) Neptune, NJ really looks like—specifically where she and I grew up in the very tiny Shark River Hills, NJ...
"Vultures" is the first single from Nicole Atkins' forthcoming album Mondo Amore, available January 25th from Razor & Tie.
True Womanhood continues our very last TVD Takeover Week ever:
Since this is a vinyl themed blog, we wanted to highlight people involved in many aspects of creating a record. Over the week you’ll see features focusing on not only bands but also engineers, producers, and today, a record label.
Lio Kanine is the founder of Kanine Records, of Brooklyn, NYC. When we were thinking of who we’d like to highlight in our takeover feature, Lio was one of the first people we thought of -- he’s put out records with a lot of our friends’ bands and we consistently hear great things about him and his work. His label, only begun in 2002, is responsible for putting out Grizzly Bear’s first album as well as the likes of Chairlift,Oxford Collapse, and the Depreciation Guild. In 2010, they released the Surfer BloodLP, "Astro Coast" which has quickly become a best seller. Be sure to check out the Kanine Records store here for all your vinyl (and other) needs. heart, TW
Growing up in DC, we were privileged enough to see firsthand one of the great American independent record labels in action. What are some of your favorite independent labels past and present and do you think any one in particular has helped shape the way you run Kanine? We are big fans of indie labels like: Creation Records, Rough Trade, Sarah Records, Slumberland, 4AD, Beggars, Domino, Wax Trax, Dischord, SST, and Polyvinyl. Really labels that went for it and did their own thing. Didn't care what others were doing. Just went out there to put records that they loved and worked them their own way.
I am heavily influenced by Creation Records the most out of any label. I have always been a huge fan of what Alan McGee did with his label. I've read all his autobiographies, bought all of his records, and looked into what he was doing. He is one crazy dude that just loves music and does what he wants. I love that. He often had to work multiple jobs just to get more enough money to keep the label going. That is pure dedication. In the beginning I was often working like 5 jobs to raise enough money for Kanine, to keep it going and continue to build our little dream. That often lead to only a couple hours a day of sleep for weeks at a time, but well worth all of the hard work.
Much has been made of the death of CD and the resurgence of vinyl. In our experience as a band, we still see a lot of people buying CDs at shows. You are in a pretty unique position to offer insight on this so we were wondering, how do vinyl sales compare with CDs or downloads at Kanine? Which is your favorite medium? Vinyl sales are still only about 10% of our business. CDs still out sell vinyl for normal touring bands. It’s the bands that don't tour much that don't sell CDs. Digital out sells everything. Its becoming about 60% of our business, so that would leave CDs at 30% of our business.
CDs are just an old format but still are valuable in the sense as people like things that are easy and its super easy to just pop it into your car stereo or home stereo to listen to. A lot of people dont see the value of paying $9.99 for album download when you can buy the cd for $10 at a show.
Vinyl is my favorite medium and the only one that I personally buy. I am a vinyl junkie and collect a ton of vinyl.
You seem to have a really eclectic lineup. Whereas certain labels (including DC labels like Slumberland, Dischord and Paw Tracks) seem to be aiming for a very specific sound, Kanine is a little harder to define. What do you see as the common thread between the bands on your roster? When I first started the label, we signed bands mainly from the NY area. A certain sound wasn't the main factor. Just a good indie and DIY attitude is what we were looking for. As long as they were playing something prevalent that we loved and they wanted to work hard.
In the past 3 years, I've more been into signing bands that have a past 90's indie sound. As that was and still is my favorite era of music. My favorite styles of music are: Shoegaze, Twee, and Indie pop.
I'm way open to multiple styles of music though, but now want to stay in this main area of sound for a bit.
Fellow NYC label, True Panther, recently was bought by Matador Records, another very large independent label. What are your thoughts on this and could you ever see Kanine in a similar situation? Never say never, but for now we are happy with being completely independent. We've had offers, but felt that having someone else buy us and control us, would ruin the aesthetic of the label.
What are Kanine’s plans for 2011 - any new releases coming up soon? Who are the bands we should be looking out for? Yep lots of rad stuff coming up on Kanine Records:
Have you had any good musical experiences in DC? Any favorite record stores or hangouts? I met Ian from Fugazi/Dischord in Crooked Beat. That totally blew my mind. He was showing me some German Minor Threat imports and we rapped about the industry for awhile. That totally blew my mind and I was super stoked. He was a super rad dude.
Bill Fox – Over And Away She Goes
