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
One thing's for certain, around these parts if there's a 'blog takeover' we've got some stuff to give away—and the Darlins have indeed hooked us up. I'm going to quote a bit here from the press release first:
Those Darlins return from the wilds of Middle Tennessee with the brand new “Night Jogger/Funstix Party” 7” which offers just a taste of the gritty, rock 'n' roll direction these three mouthy ladies—plus one smirking drummer—are taking. Fans are hungry for more music after the band’s critically acclaimed debut, and Those Darlins will be supporting this 7” with an extensive headlining tour w/The Strange Boys, Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Turbo Fruits, The Soft Pack and Black Lips, including a performance at ACL Fest.
This southern garage rock band set out in 2006 to get folks off with their rowdy, cheerfully sarcastic, booze-fueled show. Where classic pop meets garage rock, with a telltale country drawl, Those Darlins' curious mix makes them one of a kind, eliciting queer comparisons like, "The Carter Family meets The Black Lips."
In 2009, the girls toured feverishly around their critically acclaimed debut, playing 140 shows and sharing the stage with the likes of King Khan & BBQ Show, Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys), Deer Tick, Wanda Jackson, and MAN MAN. They made huge waves not sucking at SXSW, Bonnaroo, and Garage Fest. 2010 has already been full, with a Eastern headlining tour selling out many cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, St. Louis, Louisville, Birmingham, Nashville, and more.
We've got a pair of tickets for Wednesday night's Darlins show at the Black Cat (with Strange Boys and Gentleman Jesse & His Men) and the “Night Jogger/Funstix Party” 7” for one winner who suitably convinces us in the comments to this post that he or she should be the rightful owner of both the tickets and the 7." We'll choose one winner at 3 PM this Wednesday, the afternoon before the show. Get a move on and remember to leave us a contact email address!
Yes, we know you like to say that, but where did you grow up?
Question: Ok, sure we get it, you spend a lot of time on youtube, but are there other relevant websites you troll? What do they teach you about your life, career choices, financial future? Answer.
Question: "Jump Back Jake" is both your name as a person on Earth but also refers to the 4-piece band that records together and plays "gigs." Are you the leader? How does the band make decisions? When you make "final calls" that will make/break the future of the band, how do you find solutions to the "tough problems?" Answer.
Question: A lot of your recent material like "King of Romance" and "Call Me Your Man" deals with love and relationships. Do you find that people hear these bleak songs about your life and feel they need to "give you advice" about how to be happy in your life and find a suitable mate that will make you feel complete for your whole life? Who's advice do you take? Answer.
Question: We noticed that all of the answers to the previous questions were links to Amazon.com order forms. Why did you (if inadvertently) endorse them as the #1 retailer of digital music when itunes is clearly lapping them? Answer.
Question: This whole "only answering questions with links thing is a little cute and maybe a little antagonistic/condescending considering we are buying you lunch (do you always order a double scotch with your vegan burrito at 1pm?) and that you are sitting at the same table with us. But we understand that speaking only through an Apple designed interface is "forward thinking" and equally as effective as a conversation. That said is there anything you can tell us about your new EP, "Call Me Your Man" before we pick up the tab and exchange awkward goodbyes? Answer.
It's a wish list to the Big Man from Those Darlin's Linwood Regensburg... —Ed.
Dear Santa, Please bring me these 45's whenever you find the time. Luv, Linwood
The Caravelles - "Hey Momma You've Been On My Mind" | Girl group magic from Britain. 'New York' is the B-side.
Television - "Little Johnny Jewel" | Out on Ork Records, TV's first release. Best guitar tone ever on this one.
Houston - "Solar Light" | Sounds like it coulda been on "I hear a new world."
Ronny Kae - "Swinging Drums" | Kae did some time with Sinatra and Tony Bennett before knocking out a few amazing instrumental sides.
The Stratfords - "Never Leave Me" | This song is one of those "shoulda been a super hit" songs. It did though make Baltimore's top 40 charts in 1964. James Kelly, who wrote it, runs powerful karaoke empire in the greater Baltimore area these days.
Shadow Casters - "Going to the Moon" | The B side for "It'll Be Too Late" single. These guys broke up before they got out of high school.
Ervin Litkei - "Music to Play E-S-P BY" | Perfect to put on if you're interested in staring and thinking of absolutely nothing. Litkei who died in 2000, also wrote presidential marches for every president since FDR.
The Ultra Mates - "Pitter Patter" | This disc is pretty impossible to find. Help.
Today is #musicmonday, but there are two music-related trending topics right now besting that time-honored hashtag. One is #letshaveatoast, which, according to What the Trend, “originates from the song Kanye West sang at the VMAs 2010.” The other is #bornthisway, which is the newly announced name of Lady Gaga’s forthcoming album. I swear on my cat that I will not write about Kanye. This leaves Gaga.
(Bad argument alert! I just made it sound like the only alternative to writing about Kanye was to write about the Ga, but that’s mistaking a set for a universe. There are loads of other things to write about. I considered trying my hand at insight and analysis to say something about how #musicmonday is a pretty measly hashtag compared to the trending topics buzzing around superstars like Justin Bieber and superstar-studded events like the VMAs. I thought I might look into whether those bigger events had any bearing on what does trend in #musicmonday. But I’d just end up wondering, again, why there’s so much awful ‘90s nu-metal on Twitter, plus I was sort of hired to write snark, if you define “hired” looser than the jitterbug and also dig very deep into the conversations surrounding the birth of this column to find out what “hired to” might mean.)
So! Gaga! I have a heady sarcasm-n-worship cocktail to send her way. It’s like a martini and includes a plastic cup full of olives on the side. I’ll try to go heavy on the former, because worship, or at least respectful bewilderment, are cheap and sweet and I prefer my cocktails expensive and dry.
Worship first, because otherwise I’ll wind up doing a Seinfield imitation. “The meat dress! What is the deal with the meat dress?” (Full disclosure and revealing my age, if you hadn’t guessed from the fact that I’m writing a column about effing Twitter: I was a bit young for Seinfeld and base the previous sentence on other comedians’ imitations of Seinfeld.) While I agree with Gaga’s detractors that her provocative style borrows generously from Grace Jones and Madonna and the like, I think she’s filling an important AND AWESOME cultural function by bringing avant-garde art and fashion to a population that doesn’t live in a high-concept-saturated environment. Like, the burbs. Not that the burbs are devoid of art or fashion, because I would not touch that conversation on the internet with a pole, but as someone who grew up in the exurbs and now lives within a 5 block radius of no-kidding half a dozen galleries, there’s a level of effort required to see certain perspectives in certain places when those perspectives are impossible to avoid in other places. Um duh, hedging, let’s sum up: Dance Music + Crazy + Smart = Happy Allyson. Ok so really though: What is the deal with the meat?
First of all, we didn’t really need it twice. She already appeared on the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan dripping in raw red meat. And it’s not like no one saw that cover, even though it’s two adjectives removed from being Vogue Vogue—the Internet ate it up, so to steak. I mean speak. Besides, it had already been done ages ago on America’s Next Top Model. Specifically, Cycle 10, Episode 4, titled “Where’s the Beef?” Please do not ask me how long it took me to a) remember that photo shoot, or b) find the pertinent nitty gritty on it. The point is: ANTM has some awesome photo shoot concepts, but Gaga revels in making obscure references and Tyra Banks is whatever the opposite of obscure is. Second, the messaging is almost…obvious? Like, duh, meat is just a step removed from fur, or leather, I get it G, can you get drunk at a Yankees game again now ‘cuz that was fun.
Third: Baiting the PETA people is practically cheating. These are the same people who want you to drink beer instead of milk. Sort of. It’s complicated. But really, someone as completely bonkers as Lady Gaga should be able to find a more challenging target. Like, let’s try to outrage the people who choose the typeface for subtitles in foreign films or something next time. (“Slab serif? What is she trying to suggest???”)
Fourth: Wouldn’t prosciutto have been a bit more supple? Or any other thin-sliced deli meat, really.
Fifth: Did you know if you Google Image Search “Lady Gaga Meat Dress” it auto-corrects “meat” to “metal”? Now you know.
Sixth (sixth sixth): I worry that Lady Gaga is veering uncomfortably away from Madonna and toward Marilyn Manson. (666? Get it? Huh huh?) Even when Madonna was at her shockingest best, she was always fun to watch. (I know, I know, I already outed myself as being too young to have seen Seinfeld. A friend had a VHS tape of classic Madonna videos and I watched it obsessively in middle school.) Manson (who was hitting his stride when I was rewinding “Express Yourself” a million times) wasn’t trying to do much more than make people vomit, from what I remember. Gaga has proved that she can provoke without resorting to gross-out tactics, so a gory awards-show dress is a potentially Mansony new direction. And nothing says “meteoric rise followed by obscurity and irrelevance” like Marilyn Manson.
Finally, and about time: Where can she possibly go from here? Translucent deli meat might be a good next step, because it keeps the gore but adds some nudity. Maybe she’ll start dressing like a monk and riding a skateboard, although I have a friend who did that for a large chunk of college so that’d be weirdly derivative but also psychic. My educated guess is heavier body modification, but that gets us back to point the sixth: Shock for shock’s sake and the plummet to obscurity. Mainstream America isn’t ready for horn implants, I’m, like, 99.9% sure.
My #musicmonday pick: The opposite of shocking—I’m really digging indie/hip-hop/funk/soul darling Janelle Monae right now. Cold War and Tightrope are my oh-so-obvious picks.
