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
It’s a crowded morning at TVD HQ, let me tell you...
As mentioned earlier today, Autumn isn’t merely for falling leaves, but dropping LPs—and one we and our friends at Ardent Music would like to put on your radar is the new EP from Jump Back Jake, ‘Call Me Your Man’ which hits your local record store shelves tomorrow, 9/14.
Jump Back Jake, aka Jake Rabinbach (who also plays lead guitar in Francis and the Lights) formed JBJ back in 2006 after jumping from Brooklyn to Memphis. The new EP is in fond memory of James Luther Dickinson, Willie Mitchell, Jay Lindsay, and Alex Chilton who all in some manner inform the recording.
As such, we’ve brought in guest reviewer Benjamin Popper for a proper review of ‘Call Me Your Man’ in advance of spending the week with Mr. Rabinbach (in addition to Those Darlins!)
TVD: we’re all sorts of taken over this week... —Ed.
The hard driving drums that open Jump Back Jake’s new EP, Call Me Your Man, don’t try to do too much. When the rest of the band jumps in a few bars later, the contours of a small recording studio emerge from the sound. It’s tight, focused, full of momentum. Jump Back starts singing, but the cadence is more relaxed then his older material. I think immediately of Kris Kristofferson when he gets to that line, “I’m sleeping in the next room doll / And all my shirts smell like you”. It’s understatement with an undercurrent, simmering on top of some rock and roll.
Where have all the horns gone? I remember Jake proudly rounding up aging Memphis brass, dragging them out of their retirement kicking and screaming, charming them with grand marnier and an unabashed love for the obscure records they played on decades ago. But the well curated soul sound that powered his first record, Brooklyn Hustle / Memphis Muscle, is over. And frankly I don’t miss it.
That Jake can still be found. The murderous metal riffs on Rose Colored Coffin (track 4) fall right into “I got a Loooovveee,” sung with the tone and melisma of a juke joint regular. But instead of trying to produce a modern soul record, Jump Back is putting those tools to work on compositions that defy easy categorization. There is something of Tom Waits in this track, a spooky gypsy, collecting the odds and ends of American music and stitching them up into an ill fitting suit that scares the women as much as it turns them on.
Records inform one another, and Jake’s new single, King of Romance, makes this new album make a lot of sense. “I remember when we first met,” he sings on that track, over a beat that could have been borrowed from Clipse. “And I took you down to Mississippi/ To see the cotton and the old cities/ Where it still looks like th 50s.” The cadence here is so startling, delivered half speaking with a rhyme scheme reminiscent of Craig Finn. And because of that, that distance from Memphis, from Stax, from soul arrangements and the rest, Jump Back’s love for the south comes across even stronger.
This music has excised the ghosts of influence. What makes the new record so exciting is not how good the musicians are, or Jake’s voice, those have always been good. It’s that he’s doing something novel, something that points forward more than back. It must be all that touring, the constant motion, the distance that makes the heart grow fonder, the pen sharper and the guitar sing.
Benjamin Popper is a journalist living in Brooklyn, NY. He has written for Rolling Stone, Vice, Men's Vogue, the Daily Beast, New York Observer, and the Memphis Flyer.
It’s often said that Spring is the time of renewal, yet Autumn brings with it its own share of rejuvenations, not the least of which are vinyl releases and tour schedules.
For Those Darlins, a band we’ve championed since way back when, Autumn – and specifically this pre-Fall week – brings both the release of their new 7” ‘Night Jogger’ to store shelves and the band to town on Wednesday night at the Black Cat.
With such an auspicious convergence of events, we thought we’d invite the Darlins over to ol’ TVD HQ and rummage through what the band listens to at home and on the road, courtesy of freshly minted and full-fledged new Darlin, Linwood Regensburg. (He’s the one easily identified in the photo up there.)
Later on today we’ll give you an opportunity to win the 7” and some tickets to Wednesday night’s show with Strange Boys and Gentleman Jessie & His Men, but for now we’re turning over the reigns to Linwood—all week it’s Those Darlins Vinyl District. —Ed.
When was the last time you called your friend and said, "Hey bring your laptop over and lets have beers and listen to some MP3's?"
Believe me, I'm not the kind who's totally denying the now, but I can't help but continually steep in the old. I don't have an ipod, and my computer rarely works, making vinyl the main means for turning on. Unless of course, you're interested in making me a mixtape?
LUVS From the Modern World.......list of new shit I like.
Sonny and the Sunsets - Tomorrow Is Alright | I got this record for my birthday, and thank god for birthdays. "Too Young too Burn" knocked me out the first time I put that on.
Strange Boys - Be Brave | We're on tour with these guys as we speak. I hope it never ends.
Magic Kids - Hey Boy b/w Good To Be (7") | The Kids just released their full length "Memphis" a few weeks ago. If you can get your hands on their debut single put out by Goner, dooo it. The primera versions of "Hey Boy" and "Good to Be" blow me away. Total wall of lo fi magic recorded by the Magic Kids themselves.
The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack | Some people still can't get over the fact that they changed their name from the Muslims to the Soft Pack. Who cares. Their drummer, Brian, is one of my favorites. Now he plays standing up.
It's our weekly Music Monday recap of the tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices and PR firms want you to be hearing. We post—you decide.
I’ve always thought of myself as a punk rocker with a hippie’s heart. I’m not sure why? Did someone else say that? It sounds so “right on!” The fact is the word hippie probably means something slightly different to each of us. For me, I guess it means to be old and still a “hipster” of sorts?
I’ve always turned to 60’s music as summer turns to fall, particularly songs from the California bands. I totally love The Doors. I remember getting their live at The Matrix on cassette from a “bootlegger,” something about that version of “Summer’s Almost Gone” has always stuck with me.
In some ways summer never ends for a hippie. Our “flowers” are always in bloom.
In this week’s playlist we salute those old hippie friends we dig. Zappa, Morison, Beefheart, Jerry, and Jorma. In the mix, the new breed, Anton Newcombe, Alex Ebert, Black Angeles and Tame Impala keep the freak flags flying in 2010
Last week I was introduced to Brad San Martin who runs the tiny record label, Casa Nueva. Our introduction was in advance of next Wednesday's in-store appearance by Kevin Dunn at Crooked Beat Records. Casa Nueva's just released "No Great Lost: Songs, 1979-1985" a retrospective of Kevin's underappreciated (if you ask me) studio recordings.
Brad and I got to talking: "I grew up in Atlanta, and have always been fascinated by the Athens/Atlanta new wave renaissance. One of the unsung pioneers of that scene was Kevin Dunn. Kevin co-founded the first art-rock/new-wave band in the southeast, The Fans, who paved the way for much of what was to come. While the Fans were famously unlucky and broke up with little to show for their efforts , Kevin went on to play in important role in nurturing the scene: he co-produced the B-52s legendary "Rock Lobster" 45 and the first 45 and LP by the incredibly influential Pylon (the album was recently reissued by DFA to widespread acclaim). He also released a series of singles, EPs, and albums of his own brilliantly skewed art-pop that was widely heralded at the time...
When I started my little Casa Nueva label, one of the first things I wanted to do was reissue Kevin's classic one-man solo debut "The Judgement of Paris," which had never been on CD. I tracked Kevin down, and we spent the past year getting to know and trust each other, and carefully restoring "Judgement" from the original 16-track tapes, as the stereo master tapes had been destroyed in a fire. The result is "No Great Lost: Songs, 1979-1985," an anthology of Kevin's solo work containing all of "The Judgement of Paris" (including one UK-only track), both sides of his legendary "Nadine" 45, choice cuts from the EP and LP that followed "Judgement," and the a-side of the Fans' "Cars and Explosions" 45."
Fitting, it seems, that Kevin's appearance in DC is at Crooked Beat, as he has quite the affinity for vinyl indeed.
My Plastic Madeleine: Vinyl Considered by Kevin McFoy Dunn
A declaration contrary (certainly in the instant milieu): many are the reasons for me to covet and to collect vinyl, but — as does witness, empirically and to my entire satisfaction, what I deem the robust testimony of my own œuvre's vicissitudes — sound does not number among them, in my considered and representably subjective opinion. We can leave it at that.
Much crowds in on me when I set to the recollection of vinyl’s role in my life, the greater part of it pretty random, a congeries of idiosyncratic personal associations and miscellaneous rosters of objects. My copy of Cream’s Goodbye, into which I stapled my ticket stub from their farewell-tour performance at the amphitheatre in Atlanta’s Chastain Park on 27 October 1968. The Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request and its terminally kool lo-tech 3-D thingie on the cover’s exterior recto. And, indeed, any cover sheathing music that I liked (and, in a few cases, I confess, that I didn’t, exactly) that also served to herald through obliquity of iconography or recondity of design or both what I was, or wished to be perceived as, as a consumer of the thornily æsthetic (one in this category towards which I feel especial warmth for sound and look marvelously allied: Fred Frith’s Guitar Solos). It at length dawned on me as I was raking through the mental midden that, were I to do this something like right, I would be obliged to aim the instruments of recall back a half-century and more to Merivale Road in Jacksonville, Florida. So here goes.
The recorded music in my childhood house was always my music. Early adopters of the big-time teevee lifestyle of the first third of the Fifties, my parents (father sentimental and unmusical; mother repressedly gifted at certain aspects of jazz pianism but without access to a piano) got their tune exposure mostly from Your Hit Parade (I remember Snooky fucking Lanson, for God’s sake) and its ilk, to an appreciably lesser degree from radio, and not really at all from records — unsurprising, as the only platter-spinning device or devices ever gracing our happy home (it was happy, until I was 9 or 10, anyway) would always be, basically, mine.
And it seems as if I was always in possession of a record player. The first — could I have been as young as three years old? — I eideticize as a flattish brownish box, a piece of necessarily mono junk with a three-inch paper-cone speaker blatting in magnetic sympathy with the jittering graven japa of fond memory (arguably too fond), the memorious furrow tracked by an Iron Age stylus the size of a sewing-machine needle (I have this faint, nagging sense that my father may once have actually tried using one whose blunt end he’d modified with a file) inserted occultly into the business end of a blocky tone arm of dark-beige metal, its weird, child-brain-flummoxing finish halfway between hammered and flaking, its dimensions those of a fat three-month-old’s forearm.
My Ur-records themselves (a cache of which I stumbled across while finally steeling myself to clear out the storage space that housed for a decade and change the pitiful, fraught complement of my deceased mother’s worldly goods) were primitive affairs that may have spun at 78 rpm, punched as they were with small holes. (I say “may have” because no indication of playback speed appears on their labels, and I have no turntable with which to check them out.) To judge from the surviving trove, the collection would have consisted chiefly of, of course, rugrat fare, the oldest exemplars (included software for the unit, I suspect, as their aspect is quite generic) bearing a copyright date of 1953. Christmas material was prominent, as was Disney product (one disc sports tunes from Lady and the Tramp, “Bella Notte” the presumptive A-side) and Terrytoons stuff, those two latter on the Golden Records marque; all of that component of the excavated stash was pressed on avant-le-lettre-’80s-hip colored vinyl (red grapefruit and lemon yellow). I may have had some Melanesian-backcountry-guy sort of intimation about the principle behind the zoetrope, I having drawn in pencil on a Heckle-and-Jeckle-themed production (groove-destroyingly vigorously, natch) stick figures of the chatty magpies menaced at a remove of about 90º by what I take to be a bulbous and, I think, peeved Cartoon Dog of Willendorf. Did I perhaps imagine that spinning them would activate latent animation?
All of these epiphenomena of hearing music don’t sum to hearing music itself; of that ineffability my impressions barely attain to the diaphanous. Some tableaux are retrievable, with lacunæ and shadows. For instance, I remember sitting with Mom and Dad in a cheerily spartan, neon-washed burger joint (not a chain) in Orlando. It would have been 1959, because as I could not then and cannot now resist in-booth jukeboxes, I was burning through some nickels with my selection for the evening, Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans,” the which I wheedled my father into playing (doubtless to the consternation of the other patrons) maybe four times in a row, as I found the bit about the gator so goddamned hilarious. (Dad was something of a military history buff, and took the opportunity to fill me in a little on Jackson and Lafitte.) And I remember also — again, it chances, an episode from ’59 — compulsively spinning in my bedroom, as I also spun myself in a Mevlevi-like approximation of grand nineteenth-century ballroom dancing, a 45 of the waltz from Tchiakovsky’s Sleeping Beauty that had been authorizedly or otherwise (that disc didn’t survive time’s wrack, so I can’t say) released in exploitation of the Mouse Empire’s animated feature; transported, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I think that’s when I learned not to stop listening until the beauty is departed.
And that, as a matter of, if nothing else, sheer causal contiguity, is what I owe vinyl: the first intimations of what the intersection of my autonomy and the neural blandishments of moving air governed by that self-moved me could mean. Quondam et futurus, I am suitably grateful. — Atlanta, 8.ix.2010 Kevin Dunn - Saturn (Mp3) Approved for download!
"This past February, my friend Raina Rose and I did a tour together from Memphis to Boston, then from Boston to Austin. The first stop on the tour was an in-studio performance / webcast at Ardent Studios in Memphis. Like most people I suppose, the first thing that struck me about Ardent was the number of records by legendary artists hanging on the wall throughout the whole building. At the time, a bartender friend of mine here in Greenpoint, Brooklyn had just turned me on to a fabulous record by an Artist named Chris Bell called 'I Am The Cosmos'. Along with Alex Chilton, Chris Bell was an original member of the band Big Star, but I had never heard any of his solo work. That record sort of blew me away the first time I heard it, so you can imagine how surreal it was for me to find it hanging on the wall of Ardent Studio a short two weeks after first having heard it.
The studio space itself at Ardent is beautifully designed. There is a large kitchen / lounge area in the back and a long hallway leading to a control room which -- through a large glass window -- looks out onto a large, open hardwood-clad studio room. This room is where we recorded the session / webcast.
The session consisted of Raina, myself and another friend of ours, Hunter Paye, each playing a few songs. I was lucky enough to have Raina and some other in-studio friends sing with me on a few of my own songs. My favorite part of performing as a part of the session / webcast at Ardent was the fact that they allow you to bring friends with you and they can sit on the couches in the studio with you while you perform. Robby Hecht, Rebecca Loebe and Betty Soowere all there at the same time as us because they were recording a session just before us, so we got to sit in the studio room and watch them perform and they got to come into the studio and hear us. It really helps foster a sense of community among the artists, and since we had all just come from the annual folk alliance convention held each February in Memphis, it was a natural extension of that community.
Another great thing about doing the session / webcast at Ardent is that afterward, you have a professionally done high quality audio and video recording of your performance. Such high quality production would usually run you hundreds of dollars if not more!
All told it was a great experience and one I'd happily repeat anytime I'm in southwestern Tennessee. Thanks Ardent!" —A.J. Roach
I've said it many times over but I'll repeat it once more—the beauty of this endeavor is being the recipient of solicitations from across the globe pointing me to new music and/or new record labels. Or, shall I say, new to me.
Case in point was an email from Berlin introducing me to that city's Haywain Recordings and the music of Château Laut andJeanie Bueller. And I've asked them to introduce themselves to you:
"Haywain Recordings documents the creative surrounding of photographer and musician Stephan Laackman. With its do-it-yourself philosophy it has distinguished itself in the past 11 years as an independent platform for offstream acts. From electro to noise, from indie rock to acoustic folk, releases of all kinds can be found on the label, whether as limited vinyl, tapes, CDs or CD-Rs.
Bands, such as Château Laut(bluNoise) or composer and producer Stanley Anscorm (Diamonds and Pearls/EXR) choose Haywain to release music apart from their regular output. 2010 sees the release of the album "Elegiac Stanzas" by Johnny3000, a split 12“ vinyl with Château Laut and Laackman‘s own band Jeanie Bueller, the cover of it featuring art by painter Klaus Lomnitzer. An album with live bootlegs of Château Laut and a new EP with selected and unreleased archivmaterial by The K.o.N. is in the works for a late 2010 release.
It has been Laackman‘s work as a photographer for several years to capture internationally known independent rock bands in Berlin, bringing him in contact with a lot of artists, such as Lambchop, Sonic Youth, Deerhunter, Tortoise or Times New Viking. The resulting book "Citybirches Photography Works" will be accompanied by a compilation of tracks by many of the collaborating bands, released through Haywain.
More exclusive recordings with some of these bands are to follow in form of "Citystreet Hihat", an audio series of spontaneous field recording sessions of artists and bands on tour, captured in hotel rooms, on the street, before the soundcheck, or after their show. Topped off with individual art work, photos and tour diaries, the episodes are released for free as virtual 7" on the labels website. The first of those features Tiny Vipers (Jesy Fortino) out October 6, 2010. All releases are available exclusively at the label‘s webshop."
We have two copies of the Château Laut andJeanie Bueller split 12" by way of further introduction to Haywain to award to two of you who request one in the comments to this post. Download the Mp3s offered below and share your thoughts—with a contact email address—and a package directly from Berlin will land upon the doorstep of two deserving commenters. We'll give you a week and select our winners on Thursday, 9/16.
Any music with any vague connection or reference to The Beatles—I need to turn over that rock. So, it was with some interest when I first caught word of Fistful of Mercy, a project that includes Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison, son of Beatle George.
If anything, the collaboration veers toward Turin Breaks territory with its strummed acoustic guitars and harmonic interplay—and it's quite pleasing indeed with Dhani's high parts in the harmonies touching on something very familiar and 'Harrison-esque.'
Fistful of Mercy will release their debut album 'As I Call You Down' on October 5th on Harrison’s own Hot Records. Pre-orders for the album are currently available at the band's online store. The first 300 pre-orders will come with a signed poster from the band. Limited edition vinyl will be available in stores a week early starting September 28th.
Fistful of Mercy plays the Sixth & I Synagogue on November 16.
"Some may say it's a dying breed, or a dying business, but I still love the ritual of going to record stores or junk sales and buying vinyl. I love the warmth of the analog, the size, the artwork, and I love the experience of having to get out of the house and shop spontaneously.
The first records I got as a kid were records that my babysitters were playing. I would read the lyrics, stare at the artwork, and dream of a better life and other places than my tiny apartment in Queens, New York. Music gave me the confidence to not feel alone and like a total freak in a suburban middle class mainstream world. It is my favorite format to hear music.
Just when I get tired of schlepping my record collection around in apartments in New York or storage spaces, I have that night when I hook up the turn table, plug in, and once again clearly see the sonic difference.
I dig the idea of having an iPod when I'm in the gym or sitting in the van or airplane. My favorite program on there is "shuffle" because it feels like one of my friends or somebody came into my house at a drunken party and started playing my records, picking their own choices, and making me hear my collection in a different way. Nonetheless, looking at an album cover on a tiny MP3 player really does not turn me on, even though for my own records the little image makes my nose look smaller.
I always release all of my records on vinyl and sell them at the live shows. Me and the band love playing in stores & as many mom and pop shops as we can in this country. Traditionally, on release day, I play one of my favorite shops, Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey. There are many of these cats still out there. They are the real lovers, passionistas, and outlaws.
The idea of going into a store looking for one thing, and maybe something else catches your eye—a person to fall in love with, become friends, start a band, or buy a record you weren't planning to. As a kid we went to record shops and some of the cool folks behind the counters would suggest things to buy. Sometimes these were life changing records. We would travel hours on trains and busses to find a certain shop or record. When we found what we needed it made all the difference.
I'm an advocate of showing up and being in person. I'm not religious, but I believe in people and life. Going to live shows, bookstores, movies, and record stores are all part of the experience. To sit at home on one's couch and be told by shopping networks, "if you like this, you'll like that, etc. etc. etc." seems very big brother.
Favorite things to listen to include: Bad Brains "Pay to Cum" 7 inch, anything by The Kills, The Hold Steady "Boys and Girls in America," Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," Elton John "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (double album with gatefold and lyrics), Chuck Berry "The Great 28," Suicide's debut album, Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" on 180 gram vinyl, Sam Cooke "Nightbeat," The Dickies "Dawn of the Dickies," and Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde." —Jesse Malin
Jesse Malin & The St. Marks Social play DC9, this Sunday (9/12) with Moneybrother.
Although one anonymous commenter all but pleaded for the Music Monday Kanye Obsession to end, there are more tweets and more responses left to trudge through. C'mon, you know you want to read a very obvious reference to a played-out joke from the first season of Saturday Night Live. Here, then, is Music Monday's tweet-by-tweet response to Kanye's Twitter meltdown, part the second.
K: It feels like the movie Heat when you wanted Deniro to make it... You want the bad guy to make it. A: I thought you were the misunderstood good guy? K: These tweets have no manager, no publicist , no grammar checking... this is raw A: And yet, you broke out the serial comma (sort of) for this one. K: Humanity and Empathy are 2 of the 4 principles at facebook. Those were the 2 principles I was missing on that evening A: Did Justin Timberlake tell you that? Just because he’s in the Facebook movie doesn’t mean you should listen to him. K: Why are there so many tweets? Well this isn't a simple subject. There are layers to this beyond me running on stage. A: THERE ARE SO MANY. K: You've got the top layer... Kanye's rude! A: Yup. K: If I speak in 3rd person it's because I'm quoting people sometimes I forget to put the quotations you know my grammar.. #ITSAPROCESS A: How did you get your hair SO blonde? #ITSAPROCESS K: You've got a layer of order... this is how things are spose to go this is how it's always been etc. A: Ugh I don’t even know. K: You've got a layer of... What is reality? You really want this guy to die over an award show???!! wooooooow ..... A: No, no one sane really wants that. Geez. K: You've got the Media play... Who benefitted off of the moment? A: YES KANYE, WHO DID BENEFIT? K: MTV? JAY LENO? BEYONCE? ALL FORMS OF MEDIA? TAYLOR? KANYE WEST? Who gained? Who lost? A: I’m pretty sure the print newspaper industry is still dying, but other than that, yeah, you’ve hit on most of the major profiteers, including yourself. K: Walk with me people... let's break this down for real now. I might get in trouble again lol? A: lol indeed. Funny that you’re doing this just as you’re releasing all kinds of new music that is for sale. K: WHO BENEFITED FOR REAL PEOPLE???!!!!!!!! A: Ooh ooh I know pick me! YOU DID! K: A year later where do we stand? A: Um…you’re still talking about it, and everyone else has moved on. K: There's a layer of... hey Kanye said what I was thinking A: You’re a regular Id, Kanye. K: There's a layer of... Entertainment... we are entertainers and this is only TV... not the War A: Correct. K: Why was it made into such a race issue. Taylor loves rap music... I love country music. A: Those are genres, love, not races. K: TAYLOR LOVES RAP MUSIC... I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC A: AND NOW THE NEWS FOR THE HARD OF HEARING… K: When I right songs like Heartless I always say "is this melody good enough to be a country song or a broadway song?" A: “The answer is usually ‘heck no’ but I have to put out a song a week, so I go ahead and record it anyway…” K: I've hurt, I've bled, I've learned. I only want to do good. I am passionate I am human I am real. I wish I could meet every hater A: Come visit me! Seriously, I’ll set it up. Have your people talk to my people. Not even joking. K: I wish I could talk to every hater face to face and change there a opinion of me one conversation at a time. A: You’re more than welcome to try, but know that some people are actually entitled to dislike people, even after speaking to them. K: I wish they all knew how much I really cared about music and pop culture and art and peoples feelings. A: And making money. K: I wish they could accept that I've grown and only want to do good for the world. I want to help as many people as I can. A: Good. Quit talking and go go gadget do-gooder. K: I want to help starting with the music and ending with the smile. A: Man, musicians always say that their music is going to do good for the world. Has that ever happened? That is some mystical stuff, right there. K: I want to win there hearts back so I can continue to bring my take on culture to the masses with a clean opinion. A: Your take on culture is too expensive for the masses, boo, nothing to do with hearts. K: It starts with this... A: I’m on the edge of my seat. K: I'm sorry Taylor. A: Wait, really? You just apologized again? I thought for sure you were going to announce the foundation of some philanthropic organization devoted to teaching etiquette or something. Get over yourself. We all have. Except for me, obviously, because I’m rising to your bait, but SERIOUSLY this whole diatribe is too tacky to ignore.
Cellist (and friend of this blog) Gordon Withers takes to the stage tomorrow evening at Velvet Lounge as opener for All Tiny Creatures. As such, we thought it an opportune time for a chat. About vinyl. —Ed.
The recent vinyl renaissance has coincided nicely with my desire to finally record solo rock cello albums. Since my first album (Jawbox On Cello) was a benefit, it didn't really make financial sense to put it out on vinyl. However, it was something I really wanted to do for my second (s/t) album.
Ever since I was a kid, I loved vinyl. I had a Fisher Price turntable on which I would play (or ruin) my mom's old Beatles albums. I also loved my dad's collection of classical vinyl. Apparently he had belonged to whatever the 60's classical version of Columbia House was at that point, and had amassed an enormous collection from always having forgotten to send the little postcards back in time. At any rate, I grew up loving the sound of both old classical and rock albums - so rich, full, textured, crackly... so much character.
Fast forward (reset the needle?) to today. Much has been made recently about the resurgence of vinyl vis-a-vis the decline of other tangible musical products. At this point pretty much everyone agrees (finally!) that vinyl sounds better than CD's. But in the past couple of years, vinyl has come to fill emotional needs too. Playing a record is far more of a conscious act than listening to music on CD's or iTunes. LPs can be miniature works of art - or conversation starters. As the founder of BandCamp pointed out when launching their vinyl-only BCWax label, books and records are a physical manifestation of a person's taste - a visitor can easily peruse someone's physical collections of music and literature, but that is not so easily done on a computer or Kindle.
In producing a vinyl version of my new s/t album, I wanted a product somewhere in-between the expensive, collector packages that many artists are doing these days, and a low-end "vinyl version of the album". My research took me to Gotta Groove Records, the only new vinyl press to open in the US in years (and in Cleveland no less!). I fell in love with their backstory, but ultimately chose to hire them based on their commitment to quality. They don't skimp on the gram-weight for their basic records, and they'll also handle all of the printing, packaging, labels, etc. in-house. I had my good friend Dave Gonzalez design an amazing cover that looked best on the 12x12 vinyl package. I set up a BandCamp site to handle the distribution and download codes. Finally, I was lucky enough to get an early invite code to Kickstarter at this time last year, and set about financing the pressing of the vinyl via pledges and pre-orders.
An aside: BandCamp and Kickstarter have come to represent the gold-standard of independent music financing and distribution in the new decade. Their sites are so intuitive, well-designed, and infused with so much genuine love for art and music. If you are not familiar with them, it's worth spending the time to check them out. You'll discover so many amazing projects and artists within the first few minutes.
But back to the vinyl release. I tried to make the vinyl version "special", without being ridiculous. Many of the collectors' editions coming out these days I consider little more than price-gouging of hardcore fans. I priced my vinyl release at $10 (in retrospect, $12 would have been better), and included 2 download codes, handled through BandCamp: one for the album itself, and one for 2 bonus tracks (only available with the vinyl purchase). I went with standard black vinyl, standard labels, and regular sleeves to keep costs low. But I took a lot of care with the music itself. Anytime you record in J Robbins's Magpie Cage studio, you know you'll get an incredible-sounding end product. But we made sure to mix the album with an eye toward the vinyl version. Additionally, I had two masters made - one for the digital/CD release, and another for the vinyl. The latter had less compression, and was EQ'd to take advantage of the vinyl medium's strengths. To me, listening to the album on vinyl, it sounds like a whole different record. The first time I heard it, it was like a revelation.
I am definitely planning on doing all future releases on vinyl, whenever possible. I recommend it to others, too - if you have enough fans to support a Kickstarter project, you can pretty much do anything you want. And it may just be the Project Manager in me, but I really enjoyed the whole process. It's definitely a lot more intense and time-consuming than sending off a master to DiscMakers, but it's a lot more fun. I loved getting test pressings in the mail, approving label designs, and building the finished product when it finally arrived. Having a vinyl release, even one done totally independently, feels like a culmination of some kind - my music has finally arrived.
I'll have a few copies for sale at Wednesday's show, opening for All Tiny Creatures. I may not do a re-press, so get it while you can!
Ahead of tonight's Mercury Music Prize announcement, we've got a new version of Paul Weller's current single 'Fast Car / Slow Traffic' featuring Devlin, a grime lyricist hailing from Dagenham, Essex.
Due to the over abundance of Twitter material with which we have to work this week, we’re splitting our Music Monday recap into two parts.
Kanye. The gift that keeps on giving. —Ed.
So, I hate to do this, because I was in the kind of good mood that only happens when you’ve spent an hour in a Sirius-equipped Zipcar listening toLittle Steven’s Underground Garage, but I’m going to write about Kanye again this week. Consider it a “back by popular demand” thing, except that “popular demand” in this case means that two people asked me if I was going to write about Kanye again this week. So: I’m going to write about Kanye again this week. (Maybe if I repeat that exact phrase three times Kanye himself will appear in my living room and turn into a sandsnake…)
If you follow His Kanye-sty on Twitter, you know that he had something of a meltdown on Saturday morning. Between 8:55 am and 10:38 am, 72 tweets, all addressing the infamous “Imma let you finish, but…” incident, streamed onto Kanye’s Twitter feed. Here, I will respond to them, tweet by tweet, like Liz did with the Stones, except that I never entirely understood how “Guyville” was a song-by-song response to “Main St.” even after listening to them track by track so if someone can explain it to me that’d be great. AT ANY RATE, here goes. Kanye first, then me.
K: Man I love Twitter... I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more... The media tried to demonize me A: I love Twitter too! We have so much in common!!! K: They wanted yall to believe I was a monster in real life so you guys wouldn't listen or buy my music anymore A: ME TOO…wait. No. I thought we were talking about how much we love Twitter? K: I feel like they were waiting for the opportunity to go in all the way on me and when it came they beat me to a pulp A: That phrase “beat me to a pulp”—we use it so often, but when you think about it, it’s incredibly gory. Hmmm. K: Even now a lot of articles start there first 2 paragraphs about how much of an asshole I am A: Oh hey! I wrote one of those! K: Happy B day to sister B ... I gotta dope ass gift for you. A: Huh? K: I accept the idea (ideal) that perception is reality A: So…when you stick a spoon in a glass of clear water, and the spoon appears to be broken and disjointed, because you perceive it as such, the spoon is really broken and disjointed? I was a philosophy major, punk, do you really want to get me started on metaphysics? Because I will Descartes the everliving poop out of you. K: When I say perception is reality I mean whatever you think is the truth... is your truth A: Oh yeah, and I concentrated on contemporary moral and ethical theory. I’m not even going to touch this one. K: Some people's truth is Kanye is racist... It's not my truth but I do believe it's my Karma.... walk with me... A: How great would it be if “walk with me” were a Twin Peaks reference here? K: Even though the NBC telethon was widely praised yall didn't think they was just gone let me get away with that did yall???!!! A: Generally, I use “get away with that” in sentences where “that” refers to something negative. And no, I generally prefer when people exhibit a pattern of consistently good behavior, rather than vacillate unpredictably between good and bad. That unpredictable thing? That’s kind of a classic abuser tactic. Also popular with dictators. Not that you’re an abuser or a dictator, Kanye, just that the pattern is really what counts, rather than the actions taken singularly. K: With the help of strong will, a lack of impathy, a lil alcohol and extremely distasteful & bad timing ... I became George Bush over night A: Is that, like, a Teen Wolf kind of transformation thing? Or is it more like Animorphs? K: How deep is the scar... I bled hard.. cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world ... closed the doors of my clothing office A: Wow. Your life must be awfully hard. Your clothing office? This is some serious place-of-privilege complaining, here. K: Had to let employees go... for the first time I felt the impact of my brash actions ... I felt the recession from an ownership side A: I thought you had to close things because everyone magically started thinking you were an asshole. It was the recession? Bummer, dude. K: People booed when I would go to concerts and the performer mentioned my name. A: That’s because of the recession, too, right? K: Remember in Anchor Man when Ron Burgandy cursed on air and the entire city turned on him? But this wasn't a joke. This was & is my real life A: Never saw it, never will, sorry. But if something from a Will Ferrell movie was and is my real life, I’d be pretty bummed. K: There are people who don't dislike me... they absolutely hate me! A: I once read a book (I wish I could remember the name) where the mom character told the son character that he shouldn’t say “hate” because it was a very strong word, and he said “well, I dislike so-and-so so much that I wish they would get run over by a truck.” Just thought that phrasing might be useful for you here. K: I was chilling with this white girl having a conversation and she cut me off and said... Hold up... I thought you didn't like us?! A: The snark machine is out of order, now you have to pay a quarter. K: That's when you realize perception is reality. I've been straying from this subject on twitter but I have to give it to you guys raw now. A: Please do. Sarcasm is not a perpetual motion machine. K: If you google Asshole my face may very well pop up 2 pages into the search. A: I mostly get card games. Unless you’re talking about Google image search? In which case: Safe Search On, friends. And even then, no Kanye. I can’t believe I just actually did that, by the way. K: Some people say... Why worry about "the haters?" This is bigger that just the concept of haters. A: Like, the Platonic Idealof haters? K: I have a mission in life to bring truth and beauty through my music and the visuals that anchor around it A: Yes. Like all those visuals on your two blogs of expensive things to buy. K: The media has successfully diminished the "receptive" audience of (3rd person)... KANYE WEST A: Now you’re just talking like a grad student. K: …taking a 15 second blip the mdeia have successfully painted the image of the "ANGRY BLACK MAN' The King Kong theory. A: Ok, all joking aside—it is important to consider the role the Angry Black Man trope has played in media reaction to Kanye’s outburst. I’d like to see more work on this. K: I'm the guy who at one point could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there A: Well, maybe not everyone. K: People tweeted that they wish I was dead... No listen. They wanted me to die people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that A: And thank goodness you power through these hard times. Whatever would I do without your smiling face showing up in my photo vendors’ emails every morning? K: I wear my scars... It's almost like I have to where a suit to juxtapose my image and I won't lie... IT WORKS! A: I … don’t think I know what this means. K: I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that's so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won't take it then I'll perform it for her A: Hey, last person I wronged: I knitted you this sweater that’s so beautiful and I want you to have it. If you won’t take it then I’ll wear it for you. But only out of the goodness of my heart. I’d never wear it, otherwise. It’s for you. K: She had nothing to do with my issues with award shows. She had no idea what hit her. She's justa lil girl with dreams like the rest of us. A: She also has some teardrops on her guitar and killer extensions. K: She deserves the apology more than anyone. Thank you Biz Stone and Evan Williams for creating a platform where we can communicate directly A: Twitter really, truly is the best way to communicate directly with anyone. And I’m sure you and Taylor Swift were exactly what its creators had in mind when they made it. I’m just glad you’ve finally wised up and realized that, so that you can help Twitter fulfill its true and good purpose. It’s like you’ve pulled Excalibur from the stone. K: We're both artist and the media and managers are trying to get between us. Everyone wants to capitalize off this is some way A: NO. People want to make money off of some drama between pop stars? Kanye…you couldn’t possibly want to be making money off of this…could you??? K: I'm ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone... it's like hoodies A: Well this one just makes fun of itself, now doesn’t it? K: I know there are family members friends and fans that have literally fought for me. A: I really wish this were a case of misusing the word “literally,” but I’m sure that there really are people who have gotten into literal fights about Kanye and this makes me sad. K: There are people who have named there kids after me... can you imagine that next day in school. Even though I don't have kids... A: NameVoyager, which we’ve previously established is one of my favorite internet toys, actually backs up this claim. In 2004 and 2005, there were a few hundred instances of the name “Kanye,” and there really weren’t in any other year. But something tells me 4-year-olds aren’t paying rapt attention to the Grammys… K: I am responsible for those who love and represent me and what they have to deal with on a day to day defending "The American Psycho" A: I defend that movie all the time! It’s one of my favori…oh, we’re still talking about you, I guess. K: I watched Justin Timberlake at the Grammies loose every televised award including album of the year which the Dixie Chicks won A: I’m sure that’s entirely your fault. Also, do you really want to have to start apologizing to the Dixie Chicks now? Those ladies are effin’ hard, man…they took on George W. and they will definitely take on you. And now I have A-Ha stuck in my head. THANKS KANYE. K: I would have ran on stage for Justin that night because Sexy Back (in my mind) was that important... that impactful to our culture A: Wait, so what you’re saying is…that running on stage thing…you’d do it…again? K: It's not about race America. No one in our position ever stands up and says anything anymore. A: Some of my best friends are white, too, Kanye! K: I have given my awards to other groups multiple times on national TV... They never showed that this past year during the massacre of Kanye A: I don’t think you can massacre just one person, although if that person’s ego is as big as Kanye’s, I suppose it’s possible to make an exception. K: Who's seen the play Wicked? I've seen it 4 times! Other than loving the music acting and costumes... it's my story!!! A: Oooh, ooh, I have! I don’t remember there being any hip hop artists in it though. Or maybe I’m just thinking of the book? K: The Wicked witch of the west basically is so convicted to tell her' truth when she does it she is outcasted by society and turned WICKED A: Yes, I’m pretty sure you’ve hit upon the moral of that story. It has nothing to do with friendship and humility and sacrifice. K: With new found humility ... who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down. A: I thought you just said you’d do it for Justin? And why not acting like a gigantic asshat let anyone down? K: It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What's the point of dressing tastefully if I'm going to act the complete opposite? A: Just…wow. Also, is it not distasteful to clog up innocent people’s Twitter feeds with your deepest thoughts on Saturday morning? I have some very important fake PR tweets coming in right now… K: Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child. A: Oh man, like Geoffrey the Giraffe? I LOVE that guy! K: When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE ... I take the responsibility for my actions A: How much time, on average, would you say you spend looking in mirrors, sir? K: I am not a bad person. Even in that moment I was only trying to do good but people don't always need my help. A: I’m sure you’re not a bad person, but I don’t think the problem here was that Beyonce didn’t need your help. I think the problem is that you were not even a little bit helping. K: Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that. A: Nope, they didn’t. But all of them have dealt with it and moved on. You haven’t. K: These aren't regular tweets... this is stream of consciousness ... I want you guys to know and feel where my head is at... A: Funny…they’re coming into my Twitter feed just like regular tweets do. EXCEPT THAT THEY’RE NOT STOPPING AND I HAVE NO INTEREST IN READING THEM. (Actually, I stopped following Kanye on Twitter a long time ago for this very reason. There’s some dramatic license at work here.)
(We'll pick up with the rest of the Twitter tirade tomorrow.)
My #musicmonday pick: For my brother Mark, who’s starting his first day of work after a few months of luxurious funemployment today, “Welcome to the Working Week,” by Elvis Costello.
