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.
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A music label renowned for its elaborate reissues of vintage albums has annoyed British rock group New Order and its fans with a flawed package of the group's classics discs.
Rhino Records reissued "collector's editions" of New Order's first five albums, which all originally came out in the 1980s. Each one features a bonus disc, with 7- and 12-inch versions, instrumentals and remixes.
But alert fans quickly complained of about 300 errors, mostly relating to poor sound quality on the bonus discs. The pops and crackles on many of the tracks suggest they were transferred directly from commercially available vinyl recordings rather than from the original master tapes.
The discs were released in Britain last month, and music magazines there, such as Q and Mojo, did not mention any of the technical shortcomings in their rave reviews.
But Peter Hook, the bass player with the defunct group, said in his MySpace page that the reissue project was a "mess." He blamed the label for not sending out advance copies so that he and his former bandmates could do some quality control.
Despite the discontent, Rhino released the discs in the United States last Tuesday, and U.S. fans noticed the same problems. Rhino, an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records, plans to reissue the reissues, and will allow fans to exchange their dud CDs.
There are many ways record stores find records. In this space, in monthly installments, I will try and go into all of the ways my store, Som Records, in particular finds new (mostly used) stock. This month I want to talk about the "house call."
Once a used record store has been open for a little while and is findable in the phone book and on-line the calls will start coming in. "Do you buy records?" "Yes, of course, we need records to sell, what do you have?" From here the store will ask further questions to try and figure out what the seller is sitting on.
"What style of music are the records? "What format are they?" (singles, LP's or 78's?) "What kind of shape are they in?" "Whose records are/were they?" "Why are you selling them?" (not always asked) "Do you want bring them by the shop or should I come to you?" If the answer is yes to the last question you get an address and set up a time to go see the collection.
As you drive to the scheduled appointment your mind races as you think about what records await. You replay the conversation you had with the seller on the phone to try and find clues. Are the "jazz records" she mentioned actually lame easy listening LP's with some horns on them? Or are they all big band LP's? Or are they in fact rows of mint Blue Note, Impulse and Prestige LP's carefully stored over the years and rarely played? You hope for the last option but most times the records you find are nowhere near as good as the ones you envisioned beforehand.
Over the years I've made house calls in the projects, mansions, garages, townhouses, places of work, the side of the road, barns, storage units, you name it. Everyone has a different reason for selling "their" records. The common ones include moving, a deceased relative who left a collection, house downsizing, or just a general need for cash.
As a buyer you try to feel out the seller. Do they have a personal attachment (or an investment) in the collection? What are they expecting to get for these LP's? Have other stores/dealers been through the collection already? Sometimes everything clicks and there are great records at cheap sales prices or even for free. Most of the time however the records are bad and the seller expects to retire from his little pile of beat up Herb Alpert albums and is upset when you offer what he thinks is an insulting amount. This is where your negotiating skills come in. "Yes it is an Elvis record but this one sold five million copies and this particular copy looks like someone put out cigarettes on it for the last 50 years so it is not worth $100."
One thing you want to is to make sure the seller doesn't feel slighted. If you're a one time buyer it wouldn't matter so much but as a brick and mortar store you like to have a good reputation. There's also a chance they might have friends with even more records to sell you. The buyer is usually at an advantage knowledge-wise but too often record stores have a bad rep (fairly or unfairly) about abusing this. Be fair yes, but don't overpay or overbuy. If you can't sell what you bought in a reasonable amount of time then your store won't be around too long.
There's no set rule as far as to what to pay for records. It all depends on your overhead, your need for new stock, your fairness, the condition of the albums, the genres in the collection (some genres sell quickly, some sit for a while), etc. Explaining this to a seller can be tough. "Yes that record sold on e-bay for thirty dollars last month but your copy is not as good as that one and that's not the price I'm going to give you for it." (More on eBay's affects on the record selling business in coming posts.)
When the records are good its easy to come up with a strong offer. It gets tricky when it's a personal collection (as opposed to a found or inherited one) where ALL of the records are terrible. What do you say? "You have no taste?" "I can't believe you bought this crap?" I try and be diplomatic - "these are all great records but they're not quite right for my shop" or something along those lines. Never buy out of guilt though.
One thing that's fairly common is that everyone thinks their records are all in "great shape." Not true unfortunately. Definitely try and find good light for inspecting the records before you buy. There's nothing worse than getting back to your shop and finding out that all those records you just bought are unsellable because you looked at them in a basement.
Here's a typical house call and one of the last ones I made: About two weeks ago I got a call at the shop from a woman in Bethesda named Selma who had some records she wanted to sell. Some were her personal folk and classical records and the others were rock records her grown up children had left behind over the years. We set up a weekday morning time for me to come out. I Mapquested her address and arrived in her suburban ranch house at 10AM on the appointed morning.
Selma is about 80 years old but is very spry and she appeared to be living alone. From the stickers on her fridge I could tell she was a passionate Democrat and an active supporter of Israel. These we're all good signs as far as I was concerned (well-travelled and liberal usually means more interesting records).
After offering me something to drink I was led into her living room where there was a cabinet with approximately 250 records. About half were classical which I don't really mess with (I like classical, it just doesn't sell in my shop). The other half were US folk and Israeli LP's from the 60's. The folk stuff was pretty standard but still good: Pete Seeger, Buffy Saint-Marie, Odetta, a few Folkways LP's, Josh White, etc. I was hoping for more blues LP's but you can't have everything.
The Israeli stuff had a few good titles and a few I'd never seen before. Out of this group I pulled out about twenty five LP's which I was interested in. Selma then showed me upstairs where there was another 100 records from her kids. These were the 60's rock records and they were pretty decent - Neil Young, Moby Grape, Gram Parsons, The Youngbloods, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and some Beatles and Stones. Nothing really rare but all good solid store stock. Most importantly they were all in great shape (rare for 60's LP's). From this box I grabbed another twenty to bring my total up to forty five. I thought I was done when I spotted two 7"s at the bottom of the box. They were both picture sleeve 60's pop EP's from Mexico in beautiful shape (one still in shrink wrap!).
The first was a four song EP by Alberto Vazquez on the Musart label. Vazquez is a well known Mexican corrido and ranchera singer with a deep resonant voice. On this 1966 release he does a great cover of "16 Tons" which is sung in English although the title has been translated to Spanish on the sleeve jacket. Two of the other tracks are pretty swinging mid-60's pop groovers. One ballad closes out the release.
The other find was a four song EP from "Los Rockin Devils" on Orfeon. Los Rockin Devils were a popular Mexican garage/pop/rock band who had/still have a long career. On this four track EP the highlight by far is the slightly fuzzed out cover of "Hanky Panky." Really groovy stuff. The only other time I've ever found a record by these guys was at the San Diego swap meet five years ago. I'm really not sure how these records ended up in Bethesda and I neglected to ask my hostess. My guess is that they were picked up on a trip to Mexico as souvenirs and from the looks of things never played afterwards. Neither is super valuable (about $20-25 each) but they're definitely not records you see much of around DC.
Some times when I'm looking at people's collections they'll hover behind me and tell me stories. I love hearing about how people got (and played) their records. Selma told me how she got Pete Seeger to sign one of her albums after a show in DC back in the 70's. At one house call in Middleburg the seller laid on his bed while I looked at his records on the floor. Pretty creepy if you ask me.
After inspecting my pile for condition, I gathered up all my finds. After two minutes of friendly negotiating I wrote Selma a check for an amount which made both of us happy. We then talked about her kids (all three are academics in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) and the election. Finally I headed back to the shop so I could open up and price the records I'd just bought. Two of the Dylan LP's sold within an hour of being put out.
My next house call is this Saturday. "60's rock" the guy said. Who knows... _____________
Thanks go out to Stefan Glerum for use of his illustration at the top of this post which will adorn Neal's monthly crate dispatches. Check out the rest of Stefan's amazing work here - and he's even got prints for sale!
To be fair, this first Blue Nile release isn't a repost at all, but we still receive plenty of requests for its posting - so consider your voices heard.
"A Walk Across The Rooftops is one of the most exquisitely orchestrated pop albums ever made, a timeless, finely detailed arrangement of funky bass, delicate strings and synth flourishes, not least on the title track. "Tinseltown In The Rain's dark-hued musical watercolours and flashes of light and shade paint a vivid picture of the city at night--coupled with Paul Buchanan's wistfully romantic lyrics, this album captures with almost cinematic resonance late evening walks along deserted, neon-lit puddled streets turning over thoughts in your mind of a loved one. Broody, bittersweet and wonderful."
TVD sat down with Drew Marks, drummer for DC's The Moderate, to get his take on all things vinyl:
"I was reintroduced to vinyl records by my friend Dan, a roommate at the time. It had been years since I had listened to my parent's albums growing up. I had almost forgotten how crisp the sound of a record is and that crackle when the needle is finding the groove. I immediately fell for that sound and started to build my own collection.
There are so many things to love about records. The thrill of finding a great record shop and taking your time flipping through albums to find your personal needle in a haystack. Every collector has a few albums in their collection that they treasure. My beloved album was a birthday present from a loved one, Luna's classic 'Penthouse'. I also love listening to albums the way they were intended to be heard; hearing the notes and subtleties that highly compressed digital formats miss. Records are now pressed for music lovers and audiophiles that are willing to spend as much time as it takes to find the music they love the way they want to hear it; clean and clear and as pure you can get it. Collecting and listening to records is something I will always enjoy doing. There's nothing like coming home to a couple great records to spend your evening with."
The Moderate is a DC three-piece that has found its niche as a self-styled alt-country power trio. They will headline Velvet Lounge on Thursday, November 20. The show starts at 9:15pm with John Bustine opening.
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."
A music label renowned for its elaborate reissues of vintage albums has annoyed British rock group New Order and its fans with a flawed package of the group's classics discs.
