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
This may be the best time of the year. This is the winter/spring transition, when you can walk around in early morning sunshine, still wear your coolest jacket and call in sick because the pollen in the air is fucking up your sinuses (True or not, still very believable.)
True story. Last week I went to see the Weakends, a wonderfully trashy, reverbed-out garage band from Broudeux, France. Think in the vein of Demons Claws (another great French-Canadian garage band) with less of the country western influence, and add more a post-apoc blues touch.)
Unfortunately, the man with the drumkit never showed up. So, being the resourceful foreigners that they were (I mean, only one of them could drive, it was their first time in America, no GPS, no cellphone, just drove from Atlanta to New Orleans to Austin to here with no complaints) a junk drum kit was McGuyvered using a snare drum, paint bucket, tambourine, and maybe a plastic case or something. It took only a little coaxing and a few swigs of bourbon to convince them to play to a room of... one really drunk dude cussing everyone out in Spanish, two bleary professionals (fading fast), the sound guy, and yours truly.
And I'm not full of hyperbole when I declare that it sounded completely raw, it was loud and it was beautiful. In the spirit of DC, and street drummers everywhere, this was truely one of the finer moments I've had at a show recently.
So, this is what you should know. Their self-titled LP is out on Rob's House Records. Mailorder that! (Note: also Digitally available on iTunes, but that's not why we're here..)
"By day and night, fancy electronic dishes are trained on the heavens. They are listening for smudged echoes of the moment of creation. They are listening for the ghost of a chance. They may help us make sense of who we are and where we came from; and, as a compassionate side effect, teach us that nothing is ever lost.
So... I rake the sky. I listen hard. I trawl the megahertz. But the net isn't fine enough, and I miss you - a swan sailing between two continents, a ghost immune to radar.
Still, my eyes are fixed upon the place I last saw you, your signal urgent but breaking, before you became cotton in a blizzard, a plane coming down behind enemy lines."
Would it surprise anyone to hear how much I’m enjoying JUST DJing the blog and having free reign to program TVD Radio without the encumbrances of a playlist?
Unlike corporate radio beholden to a genre or theme, it’s really quite liberating go beyond the tired box of records that fit any (often my) self-imposed restrictions for the TVD week or theme at hand. And I think it’s a lesson the corporate suits might want to heed if they’re to ever draw back the listenership that’s abandoned the dial long ago.
What to do with all of those email alerts we get that we simply can't do justice throughout the week? Why, it's condense them right here in our now monthly bulletin board, 'plugs.'
This wonderwall of events info is yours to scrawl upon no matter where you're reading TVD. Have something we should be hearing, reading, or attending? Let us know each week, right here in the comments box to this post. And keep checking back to see who's clued you into what. Or where. And when.
Aussies The Drones sweep into town Saturday night, hot on the heels of their new ATP release 'Havilah,' as openers for DC's very own hot ticket, Deleted Scenes—and at the last minute your pals here at TVD have come up with an extra pair of tickets to give away for what's certain to be One. Hot. Show.
But there's no time to waste on this one. The show's Saturday night and you have 24 hours to jump up and down and get our attention in the comments to win the tickets. Shiny beads, interesting bits of stone, cookies, and attractive headgear may be considered—but we're really looking for you to drone on and state your case.
We'll choose a winner by 5PM on Friday and remember to leave us your email address so we can hook you up. Now, ...go!
“Serious, give these fuckers time and they'll rip out your eardrums, perhaps even your heart.” —Pitchfork
“There’s no shortage of rough-edged rock music out there, but most of it stops short of the next-level sort of workmanship found with The Drones.” —Tiny Mix Tapes
During my freshman year of college, perusing the CDs at a local bookstore, I discovered Robert Johnson. The beautiful way his fingers made a guitar sound like it had hundreds of strings, all weeping and hollering at the same time. At the time I discovered Johnson, I was busy going to punk shows and dreaming of marrying Mike Ness, long forgetting the folk sounds I was raised on. But Johnson's sound was enough to help me wade back into the deep waters of blues and folk music. The list of artists Robert Johnson has influenced is quite large and no doubt includes Langhorne Slim. The first time I heard his voice I think I may have swooned a bit. His songs bring out a range of emotions in me. Langhorne Slim is often classified as folk but I think it's so much more than that. One blog I recently read describes his sound as this:
"Langhorne Slim expertly walks the line between the sublime and the subterranean. At once raucous and reverent, his old-timey country blues is tempered with the occasional outburst of punk rock insolence indicating that there may just be an anarchy sign on the back of his guitar and a little more than constant sorrow on the brain of this charismatic troubadour."
And it really is true. The songs I've picked out are my personal favorites. And while his songs vary in their tempo, intensity, note composition, etc, the majority of the ones I've picked out are quicker paced. Maybe it's because it's Friday. Maybe because that's just my mood. But, there you have it. First up is "Restless" which makes me feel like I need to get the hell out of my chair, leave this city and drive across the country to some place where I live in a small house on a lot of land and spend my days planting seeds and my nights playing banjo in a folkpunk band.
"I Will" is one of those songs where you picture yourself in a bar and there's people dancing on tables and swinging each other around in circles and at the end of the evening collapse exhausted into each other's arms, with almost empty pints of beer in one hand. "In the Midnight" is just pure craziness of the kind that has me imagining adults in some depressing cafeteria getting into a giant food fight leaving their boring grey and black business suits torn to shreds and exploded condiment packets littering the floors. "Honey Pie" has some raunchiness to it that makes me want play it while I get ready before a long night out. Finally, "Loretta Lee Jones" is special to me for reasons that are personal. But it's a damn great song and will always hold a special place in my heart.
Langhorne Slim is playing at Iota on April 2 at 9pm. Which I'm almost reluctant to tell anyone, because Iota doesn't do tickets beforehand and I'm in class until 8pm and should I not get into the show I may just bang on the front windows like a crazy person until they let me in, or, in the likely alternative, call the police.
One thing lost with TVD blog radio is the classic DJ “talk up.”
You’ve all heard it a million times...the tune’s percolating in the background and over the top the DJ’s saying, “It’s a sunny and WARM Friday morning Washington, going up to a high of 66 in the city. Ditch those coats, and ladies—wear something skimpy—har”!
Then boom—the vocals of the track kick in at the ‘y’ in skimpy. Seamless and sinuous.
Then there’s the smoooth transition from track to track. Not in the club DJ sense where you’re counting BPM’s—unless it’s an urban contemporary format—but more in the segue from track to track given tone and tempo.
The Breeders have announced that they are pushing up the release date of a new four-song EP to celebrate Record Store Day.
'Fate To Fatal' is due out in the US on April 18 as part of the day that celebrates the unique culture surrounding the more than 700 independently owned record stores across the US and hundreds of similar stores internationally.
The EP will be released as a digital download and as a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl EP, with artwork hand-screened by Kim and Kelley Deal. The track 'The Last Time' features guest vocals by Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees fame. (Via NME)
...an open plea this morning for some needed assistance on converting cassettes into Mp3 files, because I’ve got some of my old radio shows from the ‘80’s that are most likely: hilarious.
Meanwhile, it’s 11:13 on a rainy Thursday morning here in the District. You’re listening to TVD On The Radio. Here’s the first single off the new—yes, new—Blow Monkeys record, ‘Devil’s Tavern,’ —‘The Bullet Train...’
...and it's classic FM radio rock this week with the 180-gram vinyl re-release of ZZ Top's Classic 'Fandango'---equal Texas-sized helpings of live tracks and studio cuts featuring the AOR staple, 'Tush." And if you're looking to deck out your deck, we've got two limited-edition, promotional Led Zeppelin Record Mats to send you as well!
You know the drill by now, right? Grab our attention in the comments (WITH your email address--important!) gushing over TVD's Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaway Week #9 to set yourself up to win both of these classic rock gems. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We're not picky.) And remember - each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!
Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/30) when we'll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #10 of 11--where does the time go...?)
Last week we had not one but two First Dates for your Wednesday, and this week we’ve got our first Double Date as we sit down with both LA’s Eulogies and DC’s very own Middle Distance Runner. (We did mention last week just how irresistible we are, right?)
Even more irresistible is their combined tour this Spring which stops in our area this Saturday night (3/28) over the bridge at Iota. TVD had a chance to catch up with both bands last week and not at all surprisingly found that they too ...are digging on the vinyl.
"i'm not a vinyl junkie, but if i didn't have my vinyl collection i might start using heroin. vinyl for me represents the deepness and grit, the heartache and triumphs of music and the music industry. put on a hendrix or dylan or clash record and you're experiencing it the same way the artist did when it was first recorded and released, the way it's meant to be heard. the old mono recordings are brilliant, too in the way they build a soundscape with one channel. listening to new music on new vinyl is just as great, because it adds a bit of physical reality to digital music. even if it was recorded in a computer, the fact that the music is actually sitting there in those grooves means something energetically and spiritually. also the simple act of putting the needle to the resin (wow that sounds illegal) is a time-honored, ritualistic phenomenon. -Peter Walker, Eulogies
"Vinyl is something we've wanted to have since we started making music. Since I first heard my mom's vinyl collection, I was amazed at how different the experience of listening to music is on vinyl, rather than digital formats. I couldn't believe that the oldies I knew from the radio actually sounded like that to people for years and years before tape and digital. The idea of our music being given that same treatment was always alluring. When we decided that "The Unbeliever" and "The Wrong Hole" would be the two songs on the 7" vinyl, we knew they'd come across great, as one is a 60s-garage sounding song, and the other is borderline soul. When we got the vinyls in the mail, we were thrilled to find that they had that extra factor that made our parents' records sound mysterious and far-away. These songs that we'd heard a million times in the studio sounded brand new. I can't encourage young musicians enough to get at least one release on vinyl." -Stephen Kilroy, Middle Distance Runner
".....So, in Denver, a parrot whose cries of alarm alerted his owner when a little girl choked on her breakfast has been honored as a hero. Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the local Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award.
In November, Willie's owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast. Willie repeatedly yelled "Mama, baby" and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.
Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie "is the real hero."
The Record Store Day 2009 news is coming fast and furious at this point and we're going to do away with witty blog formalities and get right to the info you need:
Nickle Eye – Dying Star 7” Single (Rykodisc) – Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes is Nickle Eye – Single features Wale (Interscope Records) and a Mark Ronson remix
ROIR Records LP Only Label Sampler – The first cassette only label brings you vinyl at the low low price of $7.98! – Features Bad Brains, Dub Trio w/ Mike Patton, Flipper, The Dickies, Johnny Thunders, James Chance, Bush Tetras, MC5, The Dictators, etc
Chicha Libre / Dengue Fever Split 7” Single (Barbes Records) – Modern Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru Vs A Cambodian Pop Rock Psychedelic Dance Party!
If there’s one RSD09 vinyl exclusive that’s been met with wide applause here at TVD HQ, it’s this little gem that came in today:
“2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of Berry Gordy’s legendary Motown records. Motown made its mark not just on the music industry, but society at large, with a sound that became one of the most significant global musical accomplishments and stunning success stories of the 20th century. The independent record store has played a significant role in Motown’s success, and we are proud to make nine landmark LPs available to all the independent stores for an exclusive three week window! These premium audiophile vinyl reissues are pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl in all the original packaging.”
The list of nine Motown premium audiophile reissues are: Stevie Wonder “Songs in The Key Of Life” | Jackson 5 “ABC” | The Supremes “I Hear A Symphony” | Rick James “Street Songs” | The Temptations “Cloud Nine” | Smokey Robinson “A Quiet Storm” | Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “United” | Four Tops “Reach Out” | Diana Ross “Diana Ross”
Need any extra incentive to hit your local mom and pop record store on Record Store Day 2009? Didn't think so--but we've got one.
Purchase vinyl from any of the artists shown above (and others) on RSD09 and you'll be handed the iron-on transfer (above) for personalizing your very own tee. The images come rather large actually, just like it should be.
RSD09: Not only do they got your back, they've got your front too. (While supplies last!)
The White Stripes and Raconteurs’ main man, Jack White has a new thing going on. It’s called The Dead Weather, and it makes its debut in the marketplace on April 18th, 2009, Record Store Day.
The Dead Weather’s first two songs, “Hang You Up From The Heavens” and a brilliant cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” will be back-to-back on 7” vinyl to be exclusively released for the event.
The band, that sees White actually opting for the drum kit over the guitar this time, is fronted by the Kills’ Alison Mosshart along with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Dean Fertita on guitar and the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence on bass, had their first gig a few weeks back at a small club in Nashville, where White also unveiled his new label, Third Man Records.
This may be the best time of the year. This is the winter/spring transition, when you can walk around in early morning sunshine, still wear your coolest jacket and call in sick because the pollen in the air is fucking up your sinuses (True or not, still very believable.)
Unfortunately, the man with the drumkit never showed up. So, being the resourceful foreigners that they were (I mean, only one of them could drive, it was their first time in America, no GPS, no cellphone, just drove from Atlanta to New Orleans to Austin to here with no complaints) a junk drum kit was McGuyvered using a snare drum, paint bucket, tambourine, and maybe a plastic case or something. It took only a little coaxing and a few swigs of bourbon to convince them to play to a room of... one really drunk dude cussing everyone out in Spanish, two bleary professionals (fading fast), the sound guy, and yours truly.
