Wednesday, December 16, 2009

TVD First Date with | Caverns


They're heavy, ...dense, ...crushing, ...then melodic. In addition, DC's Caverns also have a huge fan of vinyl in drummer Ross Hurt:

"The idea of going to a record store in general is very exciting to me... Whether it is a local shop I stop at when playing a show out of town, winning a bidding war on a tough to find record on ebay, or making a day of it in Adams Morgan and the U Street area shops.

When I was in Jr. High, I really began taking my music seriously... I really started studying the theory side of music, and particularly fell in love with the blues. My dad has an massive catalogue of some incredible blues LP's, and I would spend hours flipping through them and listening to Jon Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and of course some early Zep records. I fell in love with the music, but more over the tone and emotions captured on the guitar... That sound and tone can only be captured on wax!

I collected a couple 7"s and records in high school, mainly ska, punk, and some hard rock stuff... but cd's were all I cared about. Going to places like Tower and Sam Goody were adventures... Going through the shelves and finding music that I NEEDED to hear; and this was all done not having the ability to preview it or listen to it in the car on the way home. This forced me to rush home, sit down and truly listen to the album start to finish.




That really made me appreciate the idea of "an album" a lot more. I missed out on that in more recent years with ipods and in-car cd players, making it easier to hear music at anytime. But it all came back to me when the band The Bronzed Chorus came touring through needed a place to play and a place to crash; my basement provided both, and they were kind enough to give me their latest record on vinyl as a sign of thanks.

Hearing them talk about it with such pride and excitement made me remember those times when I really appreciated actively listening to a record, listening to the work put into an album as a whole... after that I was on musicstack.com for hours, hitting up Crooked Beat, Smash and so on... but for me, Joe's Record Paradise in Rockville is the store that really brings me back to those days in middle school and high school where I would go through shelf after shelf of whatever the store has, buy a shitload of stuff and then sit in front of the stereo going through box after box of my cds or dad's LPs for hours.

That tone is still there on all those records, just listening to any Terry Reid record on vinyl gives me chills... And odds are Joe's is going to have all that and more buried somewhere in their shelves. Plus EVERY member of Solar Powered Sun Destroyer is obsessed with finding good records on vinyl, so I am comfortably surrounded by it all the time."


Caverns - Dance You Son Of A Bitch (Mp3)
Caverns - Brodown High Noon (Mp3)

TVD | Holiday Bullshit


Methinks Dinah never sat in traffic for hours on 95 North...




The Joy Formidable - My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees (Mp3)
The Clientele - Harvest Time (Mp3)
Thin Lizzy - Saga of the Ageing Orphan (Mp3)
Queen - Dear Friends (Mp3)
Phil Spector - Christmas Baby Please Come Home (Mp3)

TVD for the Holidays | It's a Washington, DC Record Store Shopping Spree!


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 very first DC Record Store 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 the DC Record Store Shopping Spree on Wednesday, 12/16, to give you the last weekend 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.)