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
There is nothing quite like the feeling of thumbing through LP after LP in a dusty old record shop, only to stumble upon some hidden treasure, new obsession or forgotten love. Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is a homage to the holy places of music collecting, complete with their particular anecdotes, peculiar characters, and unique environments.
Emma Pettit, formerly of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, has travelled across the UK and America into these eclectic spaces of musical exchange, interviewing record shop owners, collectors and musicians to provide a rich account of the increasingly rare independent record shop. Featured shops include Rough Trade East (London), Sister Ray (London), Vinyl Exchange (Manchester), Other Music (New York), Aquarius Records (San Francisco), Amoeba Records (California) and Jazz Record Mart (Chicago). The first comprehensive look at these important institutions, Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is an essential read for the musically inclined.
Featuring contributions by James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers), Simon Reynolds, Devendra Banhart, Billy Childish, Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne), Sean Bidder (Vinyl Factory), Byron Coley (Ecstatic Yod), Rob Da Bank (Bestival) and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy.
If I was a little surprised as to the number of requests for yesterday's reposting of the Fossil release, I'm not so taken aback by the frequent emails received requesting a reappearance of the The Bathers' 'Pandemonia'. The Scottish band led by former Friends Again front man Chris Thomson invites comparisons to David Bowie, Tom Waits, The Blue Nile, or Tindersticks.
While we're going about the business of accepting requests for reposts, I began to think that the time might be right for some TVD reader feedback. As I contemplate the final months of this year and begin making plans for TVD for the next, I'd be interested in hearing from the many of you who visit us each day, week, or month. What would you like to see more or less of? More news? More ticket or vinyl giveaways? Live gig reviews? Vinyl reviews? Or LESS of some of the aforementioned?
It should also bear repeating that we're always looking for contributors who can be involved with some regularity here. Unique perspectives encouraged...
On to the business at hand for the day--oddly, one of THE most requested for reposting is this release from New Jersey's Fossil. And to a degree I understand. "Moon," the first track below, is really a quite the power pop gem, isn't it?
Join some of the nation's leading Community Powered Radio Project activists for a screening of: Pirate Radio USA, "a post-objective documentary" this Monday, November 24th at 8:00pm at the Black Cat Backstage. Admission is $5.
Following the screening, join a panel discussion with some of DC and the nation's premier LP-FM advocates: Andy Gunn, Technical and Training Organizer, Prometheus Radio Project | Casey Rae-Hunter, Communications Director, Future of Music Coalition | Jared Ball, Assistant Professor of Communications Studies at Morgan State University and Creator of "FreeMix Radio: The People's Mixtape" | Ryme Katkhouda, Founder, People's MEDIA Cafe and Co-founder, DC Radio Coop
Pirate Radio USA is a feature length digital documentary about the underground world of illegal radio in America, where people play what they want and say what they want–unless the FCC catches them…
DJ’s Him and Her, from their live Pirate Radio USA Studio, take you on a rock -n-roll journey inside rogue radio stations across the country to see why Americans defy Federal Law to free the radio airwaves. On the way see the rise of Big Media, the growth of Citizen Media to encounter it, and witness their showdown over the truth during the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.
Pirate Radio USA was broadcast–or really microcast–with a 4 watt transmitter live, as an uninterrupted radio program. The effect will be to ’see’ a live pirate radio microcast about pirate radio: a first.See the battle to free the airwaves live–and find out the real price of freedom. It’s not about Left vs. Right, it’s about Big vs. Small.
I was tooling around some of the other blogs over the weekend that I consider to be in TVD's extended family of blogs and was surprised at the number of comments each post tends to receive. TVD gets its fair share of feedback from the readership, so I'm not griping. But we also get our fair share of direct correspondence from all corners of the globe and they tend to read, "Hey, can you repost such-and-such?" or sometimes just flat out, "Hey, please send me the Mp3 of such-and-such". Really--people write to request I just send them things no questions asked. Weird, huh?
So--new TVD Policy: we WILL from time to time repost things...just leave a comment at the pertinent post with the expired links and we'll designate a theme week where we'll get to all of 'em at once. Like THIS week where we'll get to the backlog of requests and spend some time revisiting the records most often requested for reposting...
...like this one from last Fall--Del Amitri's winning debut before they went all obvious on us and where their wordiness was indeed a charm:
Deceive Yourself (In Ignorant Heaven) The world And the surrounding stars Might change completely in the space of an hour But not an eclipse of the sky nor a colliding car Will turn me back now that I've come this far. Not a shotgun blast nor a shooting star Will bring her down from her stubborn tower.
Its a kind of madness, its a kind of sin To live in the state of mind I've been living in Her face imprinted on my sight Her voice resounding in my skull at night. If there is a living goddess on earth It must be her from the heaven highlife It takes this girl to realise what you're worth And I'm worth nothing if she's worth more than my life.
But there's more to me than simple devotion I wont just crawl at her feet and utter a plea And if she refused I wouldn't walk into the ocean Just because my world was left all out at sea.
So it was in this cafe when we eventually met And I wished I had sunglasses and smoked cigarettes
The world And the surrounding stars They change completely in the space of an hour When over the table and two cups of tea She told me she felt the same way about me. And not an eclipse of the sky nor a colliding car Could have shaken our attention from each others face As we both stepped down from our stubborn towers We jump into the ignorant heaven that is the lovers place.
As you may already know (thanks to our flucuating residency situation) Orpheus Records is the REAL AGENT OF CHANGE in D.C. (we've been changing our final opening date for 11 months now :).
To celebrate the final days, Orpheus continues to present live local music on Saturday nights. This Saturday is no exception - Performing this Saturday (11/15) at 9:00PM will be Dizzy Dizzy (named after the "CAN" song) featuring Sean Epstein. And on 11/29, legendary DC noise makers, New Carrollton grace our space for their first live performance since 1991, along with their special guest Blue Sausage Infant (aka Chester Hawkins) fresh off recent gigs at the Velvet Lounge and at this year's Sonic Circuits fest! That set starts at 7PM on the the 29th. So come on down and watch great live music and cash in some great LP bargains!
Our $1 sale has been a resounding success, but customer demand has forced us to put out our full price stock again. Thus, MOST of the LPs are still $1, with the exception of sealed/recent reissues and new releases kept up front, as well as selected used legacy stock from the legendary Vinyl Ink store that we have neatly isolated into one section of the store. All Compact Discs remain at $5 each (excluding a few select titles).
Our Current Schedule is now: This Week: Friday/Saturday-11/14-15 Open 12-10PM (or later). Sunday 11/16 Open 12PM-8PM Next Week: Friday/Saturday-11/21-22 Open 12-10PM (or later). Sunday 11/23 Open 12PM-8PM Turkey Week: Friday/Saturday-11/28-29 Open 12-10PM (or later). Sunday 11/30 Open 12PM-8PM
Beyond that...the new tenant (the Irish Pub) has offered us a chance to stay a bit longer, but we will need much of that time to pack and close up shop. As soon as we know what our extended retail schedule will be (if any), we will post it here and at our web site: www.oprheusrecords.com
After the final closing for retail sales, we will still accept appointments for large volume LP and CD sales and sales of store fixtures right up until the bitter end.For more information visit: www.orpheusrecords.com. OR, call us at 703-294-6774. We are located at 3173 Wilson Blvd in Arlington, VA. One-and-a-half blocks west of the Clarendon Metro station. See You There!!
Strange...I'd thought I'd hear plenty hue and cry due to not including Phil Spector among TVD's list of Best Producers. Ever. But nary a hue nor a cry.To avert any uneasyness however, ladies and gents, The Wall of Sound:
Bono recently introduced Paul McCartney as the man "who invented his job" and I think it could be readily agreed upon that George Martin invented the job of the previous four producers who made TVD's list this week--and the ones who didn't. Certifiably the "Fifth Beatle," Sir George's work with the lads has been interwoven into the fabric of all our lives and stands right next to--and is imbedded within--the Fab Four's achievements and output.
If Jimmy Page elevated his productions straight off the ground, Trevor Horn found a sonic home for them in space in which you could pull up a chair and feel quite at home, thank you. Crickets chirp, clouds swell, dishes break, dice get rolled--which quite uniquely marry to a perfect groove enmeshed in the sound of a ROOM, perfectly miked and augmented with colour.
Trevor Horn reinvigorated the idea of music making for me LONG after having been spoiled by the sensibilities of some of his forbearers. He is as clever as he is musical, and that's saying a million. But really, if you're reading this blog, you know that (right?)--and if you don't--Wiki it yourself!
You guys with production depth on the bench will enjoy the hell out of these interviews right hea'.
Tonight we get a bit of an update. As Rick told us earlier and updated on the Orpheus website, "I floated the question as to whether we should remain open thru November and maybe December. While the response was not overwhelming, those that did respond were overwhelmingly positive... so... WE WILL BE OPEN ALL WEEKENDS IN NOVEMBER."
The month of December we understand, will be totally reliant on the customer response for November. Dizzy Dizzy with Sean Epstein will play in-store this Saturday at 9PM - and it's totally free.
Blues is a tricky genre despite its prevalence. It can either run its routine on ya' or TRANSCEND and lift right off the ground. Led Zeppelin spent very little time on terra firma alongside their peers and lifted off into misty, ethereal heights. And it's not because they perhaps had the best triumvirate of musicians and the finest drummer of all time (apologies to those Moon and Starr worshippers) it's because their studio performances were engineered, recorded, and produced so magnificently.
Via Wiki: "Page is credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio during the years he was a member of Led Zeppelin. During the late 1960s, most British music producers placed microphones directly in front of amplifiers and drums, resulting in the sometimes "tinny" sound of the recordings of the era. Page commented to Guitar World magazine that he felt the drum sounds of the day in particular "sounded like cardboard boxes." Instead, Page was a fan of 1950s recording techniques; Sun Studios being a particular favourite. In the same Guitar World interview, Page remarked, "Recording used to be a science", and "[engineers] used to have a maxim: distance equals depth." Taking this maxim to heart, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first British producers to record a band's "ambient sound" - the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other.
For the recording of several Led Zeppelin tracks, such as "Whole Lotta Love" and "You Shook Me", Page additionally utilized "reverse echo" - a technique which he claims to have invented himself while with The Yardbirds (he had originally developed the method when recording the 1967 single "Ten Little Indians"). This production technique involved hearing the echo before the main sound instead of after it, achieved by turning the tape over and employing the echo on a spare track, then turning the tape back over again to get the echo preceding the signal.
Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the audio engineers on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for Led Zeppelin II, to Andy Johns for Led Zeppelin III and later albums. He explained that "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."
In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page remarked on his work as a producer: “Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms... [A]s a producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent, and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape -- the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin."
U.K. Post Punk legends The Homosexuals are back at it again and raising hell for the next month in support of their new 10” VINYL EP, 'Love Guns'. The band on a 17-date U.S. tour stomps into DC on this Thursday, November 13th with a show at The Velvet Lounge and TVD's got a pair of tickets to give away.
The Homosexuals – who have been a major influence on many young bands such as The Black Lips and Deerhunter – have been throwing down mayhem and have marched to a beat all their own since being formed by eccentric frontman Bruno Wizard in the mid-70’s. No matter how you talk about The Homosexuals' live show, it's almost always going to lessen the value of the real experience. They throw together "well-constructed Brit-punk — early-Buzzcocks-meets-Vibrators — with more intelligence and sense than blind aggression," as Trouser Press proclaimed.
Plead your case in the comments and we'll choose a winner for the Post Punk mayhem Thursday morning. Don't forget to leave us some contact info too!
"Simply put, one of the most flawlessly great British punk/post-punk bands." —WFMU
"The Homosexuals were, by all accounts, one of those late-1970s UK garage-punk bands that deserved to reach a wider audience alongside icons like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and all the rest." —Marc Hogan, Pitchfork
"I just had the closest thing to a religious experience since my bar mitzvah... "The Homosexuals played the most dynamic, explosive set I've seen in a couple years." —The Washington Post
So, I said, "Hey, Feral Children, what's your take on vinyl these days?"
"Vinyl commands respect. It sounds better than any other format, has stood the test of time, and requires a commitment in the way of spatial concerns--both for the vinyl itself, and from a lack of portability standpoint. The idea of vinyl with digital downloads is a great thing that solves the problem my wife has of wanting to take the new Pleasureboaters on her elipticals at the gym, while I just want to sit in my favorite chair with a glass of scotch and listen to the record spin."
The thing about TVD's fourth favorite producer, Tony Visconti, that I appreciate in a very different vein from yesterday's producer extraordinaire, Roy Thomas Baker, is that Tony doesn't come with a particular 'sound' per se. Where RTB seems to impart his stamp on a recording, Visconti allows the artist to breathe in the studio. "My policy is to interfere as little as possible, but to draw out the best in the artists I work with, especially the singers. The best part is towards the end, when I sit at a mixing console and put it all together. It’s actually a very nice occupation."
Whether he's functioning as coach, mentor, or conspirator, his crystalline recordings capture just that - the singularity of an artist's unique confection. And I should add, he's worked with some very fine songwriters, indeed:
Time was when the announcement of a particular producer for an artist's next recording project was indeed heralded as NEWS. Labels and artists would jockey for position to marry a producer, and most importantly a producer's SOUND, to an upcoming release. As such, yours truly followed the hiring of a producer with 'inside baseball'-like interest.
And that interest hasn't abated, despite the role of producer all but being ruled out of the current hype-equation. So, this week, we'll go about remedying the current brand of under-appreciation a bit as we count down TVD's Top Five Producers. Ever.
Coming in at number five is: Roy Thomas Baker. As Mix magazine noted, "Baker's name...will forever be associated with Queen albums such as Queen II and Night at the Opera, which contained the track “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the band's ode to rock 'n' roll bombast, and was filled to the brim with overdubs. It was the highpoint of what Baker calls his “kitchen sink production time: Any idea that we had, we just threw it on.”"
Indeed, the hallmark of his production style is the multilayered, operatic vocal approach which shines on not only Queen records but on such diverse releases by Nazareth, Guns N' Roses, The Who, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Cars, Foreigner, Journey, Pilot, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, T. Rex, Devo, The Stranglers, Dusty Springfield, Starcastle, T'Pau, Yes, Cheap Trick, Gasolin' and The Darkness. Most recently he has worked with The Smashing Pumpkins on their 2007 album, Zeitgeist.
This week we catch up with TVD's very first 'First Date', Los Angeles singer/songwriter/siren Leerone, who clues us into what's spinning on her turntable these days:
Strange Brew Some things are hard to define. You know that moment, when something you see or hear for example, stops you in your tracks and you’re just taken? Transfixed? And you can’t really explain why but you know that you’ve been touched by something outside of yourself? I love those moments. The following songs had that very affect on me. Well, that’s not entirely true. Some of the tracks merely tickled my musical taste buds. Regardless, they all have a special place in my sonic library and have been among my recent listens.
Glasser - Apply (Mp3) She performs with an interpretive dance troupe, need I say more?
Leerone - Empty Houses (Mp3) Yes, a shout out to myself. This song doesn’t get as much love as I think it deserves. It’s like the well known archetype: the pretty girl in high school who wears glasses and is a book worm and no one notices her but when they do...
There is nothing quite like the feeling of thumbing through LP after LP in a dusty old record shop, only to stumble upon some hidden treasure, new obsession or forgotten love. Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is a homage to the holy places of music collecting, complete with their particular anecdotes, peculiar characters, and unique environments.
