Ode to Vinyl
In honor of Vinyl Record Day on Sunday (the 130th anniversary of Thomas Edison‘s invention of the phonograph), JB over at The Hits Just Keep on Comin’ has organized a “blog swarm” of posts dedicated to the once dominant medium of vinyl records. I’m proud to be part of this swarm, so after you check out this post, be sure to click around to JB’s site for the main post, as well as the other great blogs involved (links down below).
Vinyl. LP’s. Records. Time marches on, and the music listening public at large distances themselves from the LP era, which covered the majority of the 20th century. For those of us older than, oh – let’s say 35? – a special little pocket of our music lovin’ hearts will always be reserved for vinyl records. Here are some random ramblings regarding my reverence toward the record.
ZZ Top’s El Loco First LP: As a bona fide music nerd, I can remember the very first album I ever bought. It was ZZ Top’s El Loco, which was released in November 1981. So it must have been about Christmas time when I walked into a Mankato, Minnesota mall and plopped down my
hard earnedallowance money for the record. The song that captured my fascination at the time, and inspired me to buy the record, was “Tube Snake Boogie.” I was 11 years old at the time, and while I didn’t know firsthand of what they were singing about, I had a pretty good idea. Having two older brothers didn’t hurt either. “I got a girl who lives on the hill, she won’t do it but her sister will.” Straight to the point.Albums that soon followed were REO Speedwagon’s Hi Infidelity, Foreigner 4, and the Scorpions’ Blackout.
Prince’s “Paisley Park” 12″ single Prince LP Mania: My vinyl collection grew significantly after September 1984, when I morphed into a Prince-loving animal. Many bus rides were taken to downtown Racine’s Mainstream Records to snatch up the latest Prince or Prince-related albums, 12″ singles, and 45’s. They’re still with me today. All of ’em. In protective plastic wrap. I’m just waiting for the day that my daughters get old enough to start thumbing through my Prince records, and they’ll see the Lovesexy album, and turn to me with a quizzical and confused look on their faces (Lovesexy, by the way, is probably the last LP I ever bought new).
Proud Papa: I gotta say though, my daughters will be well versed in all formats of music. My three year old already knows what LP’s, cassettes and CD’s are. And she can fire up a song in iTunes like nobody’s business. I can also play her any Beatles, Springsteen, or Prince song, and 90% of the time she nails it. Strummer or the Clash? She has about a 48% success rate. But we’re working on it. My poor daughters… They have no choice, do they? But I guess there are worse childhoods than spending it immersed in your dad’s music! As long as they’re not singing “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” or “Revolution no. 9” on their first day of kindergarten.
Hardware: My Yamaha turntable, which had served me since 1989, quit on me about a year ago. So by making good use of the Amazon Wish List feature, one of my birthday gifts last weekend was a new USB turntable. I’m back, baby! What’s more, my work buddy Jim up and quit his job and moved back to the east coast. But not before he handed over a couple of crates of vinyl to me.
So here are a handful of tunes ripped straight from vinyl, both from Jim’s collection, and mine. Though I’ve moved on to the digital age, and most of my music is in the form of mp3’s and CD’s (less and less), I’ll always be an album guy.
Vinylove:
- The feel.
- The artwork.
- The inserts.
- Placing the record on the turntable.
- Working for and appreciating your music.
- Flipping to side two.
- The art of putting the record back into the sleeve.
- Carefully handling the vinyl.
- Thumb on the edge, index and middle finger on the label.
- Appreciating your collection.
- Showing off your collection.
- Something to have and to hold…
A smattering of vinyl rips:
Sun City Artists United Against Apartheid – Sun City (mp3) – Little Steven’s 1985 anti-apartheid project.
Dead or Alive – Brand New Lover (mp3) – The Dust Monkey’s Love Bubble Mix – thanks Jim for the crate of albums!
John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band – Tender Years (mp3) – From the Eddie & The Cruisers – Soundtrack. One of he quality tracks from Boss sound-alike Cafferty.
John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band – On the Dark Side (mp3) – oh hell, I have to include this too…
Now on to the SWARM!
The contributors:
AM, Then FM
Bloggerhythms
The “B” Side
Davewillieradio
Echoes in the Wind
Flea Market Funk
Fufu Stew
Funky16Corners
Good Rockin’ Tonight
Got the Fever
In Dangerous Rhythm
It’s Great Shakes
Jefitoblog
Lost in the 80’s
Py Korry
Retro Remixes
The Snack Bar
The Stepfather of Soul
Three-Sixty-Five 45sLarry King’s Awkard Paul & Ringo Interview
To watch Larry King make an arse out of himself interviewing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, go over to Krup’s I’m Just Sayin’ for full video coverage. Priceless…
Example: After asking Paul the question: “Where were you when John passed?”, Larry looks over to Ringo and asks: “George, where were you?”
Austin, Here I Come
I’m happy to report that Ickmusic’s entire staff (okay, me) will descend upon Austin this September for the Austin City Limits Festival.
Who am I looking forward to seeing? Oh let’s see… Wilco, Steve Earle, Arcade Fire, Bob Dylan, My Morning Jacket, the White Stripes, Amy Winehouse, Damien Rice, Arctic Monkeys, Lucinda Williams, Yo La Tengo, The National, Beausoleil, STS9, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Reverend Horton Heat, Raul Malo, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and 112 other bands.
The full schedule was released this morning (download PDF). As Ace from Hidden Track mentions, there will be some pretty difficult decisions to make, since a few acts are hitting different stages at the same time. The biggest conflict for me is Wilco vs. My Morning Jacket. I’ve seen both before, and both were amazing live experiences. Do I dare do half and half? Hmm.
More conflicts: Arcade Fire vs. the White Stripes. Arcade Fire wins for me. I cannot wait to see them live. And others: Beausoleil vs. Amy Winehouse (Amy fo’ sho’), and Preservation Hall vs. Amos Lee (half & half).
So I know Ace is going. Who else is in?
It is Hot
It’s Saturday night, it’s Arizona, it’s June, and it’s going to be over 100 degrees here for the next four months! Let’s fire it up with a Saturday night hot mix! Can you feel the sizzle people….
Little Village – She Runs Hot For Me – from Little Village
Arcade Fire – Old Flame – from Arcade Fire
Buena Vista Social Club – De Camino a la Vereda – from Buena Vista Social Club
Link Wray – Fire and Brimstone – from Link Wray
Stevie Wonder – I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer – from Where I’m Coming From
Prince – Hot Thing – from Sign ‘O’ the Times
The Time – My Summertime Thang – from Pandemonium
And do check out this amazing video of what happens when you take a pride of lions, a herd of water buffalo, and a couple of crocs, and throw ’em together near a watering hole in a South Africa preserve. You won’t believe how it ends.
Ick’s Odds and Ends
My name is Prince, and I can wear a towel on my head and still be cool.- Music like Dirt has amazingly impressive coverage of Prince’s last minute gig at London’s Koko on May 10th.
- There’s a cool exhibit by artist Sean Duffy coming up at Arizona State University. It’s called “The Grove’. What is it? 18 turntables. Each turntable connected to 20 different speakers suspended above. And the really cool part? It’s completely interactive, meaning 18 bozos like me can choose the LP’s playing on each turntable. Come check it out between June 2 and September 9. I will be.
- Stereogum has new Beastie Boy video action: “Off the Grid” and “The Rat Cage”.
Sunday Mini-Ick-Mix-Ness
A trip through a variety of tunes today…
To commemorate Paris Hilton’s first trip to the slammer, we start off with …Steve Earle and the V-Roys – InThe Jailhouse Now – from Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute
One of those songs that is perpetually in my head. “Sunday night and it’s half past nine…”
Bruce Cockburn – Northern Lights – from Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws
Heard this on the radio a few days ago for the first time in years. Excellent tune, great lyrics… it’s Cracker…
Cracker – Euro-Trash Girl- from Greatest Hits Redux
Upon hearing this song for the first time, my three year old daughter proclaimed: “This song scares me daddy”. Daddy turned it off. Another Italian film soundtrack that I heard on David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun.
Franco Ferrara & Goffredo Petrassi – Per Cercare Consolazione – from Cronaca Familiare (Score)
An old school joint from Masta Ace…
Masta Ace – Born to Roll- from Sittin’ on Chrome
Citizen Cope – Sideways (mp3) – from The Clarence Greenwood Recordings
Beasties News and a Cool New Site
Couple of cool items…
The Mix Up: The new Beastie Boys album, The Mix Up, should be available to the masses in June, according to a recent interview between Mike D. and NME.com. The album is said to harken back to the sound of Paul’s Boutique (1989) and Check Your Head (1992), which I find to be great news (“B-Boy Bouillabaisse”, anyone?). Could be that I’m just nostalgic for that era in hip-hop, being an increasingly alienated older fart, who knows…
I love cool song names, and this track listing has ’em…
Be For My Name
14th St. Break
Suco De Tangerina
The Gala Event
Electric Worm
Freaky Hijiki
Off The Grid
The Rat Cage
The Melee
Dramastically Different
The Cousin Of Death
The Kangaroo RatUpdate: and then Stereogum comes out with this, completely contradicting the article above…
“This time out the trio are sticking solely to their instruments”
“Mike D told P4K that it’ll be nothing like The In Sounds From Way Out!, instead drawing on the likes of PiL, the Killing Joke, the Slits, and Gang Of Four for inspiration.”
Critical Metrics: A reader buddy of mine sent along a cool article from the Wall Street Journal profiling Critical Metrics, a brand new music aggregator site that ranks songs based on recent reviews in magazines, web sites, and yes, blogs. It’s sort of similar to Elbo and the Hype Machine, but a different look and feel. Quite cool. Go take a look. We’ll see how long it takes for Ickmusic to be added to their “Recommendation Sources” section.
Odds and Ends
- I feel obligated to steer you to iTunes for the new White Stripes tune “Icky Thump.” Jack and Meg, representin’ da Ick! This is true Ickmusic. Preview it here.
- Zack has a sweet post on his blog, Gonzo’s Music-o-Rama. It’s Prince’s ‘Camille’ album, a collection of songs he sings as that helium-voiced horn-dog (you know, like “Housequake” Prince).
- Go check out Aikin’s cool music blog, Licorice Pizza, where he discusses the new Wilburys reissues and Robert Johnson, among a lot more.
- Stereogum recently posted a cool tune by ex-Mott the Hoople man Ian Hunter, with guest vocals from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Go grab it before it goes away.
- Lablogotheque has a video of the Shins busking in the streets of Paris, singing my favorite tune of theirs, “Gone for Good”, among others.
An AZ Music Festival and some Keller Williams
The Phoenix area has its own cool little happening called the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. It’s coming up on April 27th and 28th at WestWorld in Scottsdale. I’m excited about the opening night, which features the Neville Brothers and Bob Weir’s band, Ratdog (among a lot of others, shown here). If you’re in the southwest, come on down.
I’ve seen both bands a few times each, but not since the mid 90’s (the best was seeing both at Laguna Seca Daze in Monterey, Calif.). So this is a must see for me, with both bands together in my own back yard. You gotta think there will be some sort of collaboration too. We’ll see. I’ll be there listening in, snapping photos, and maybe even chatting with some of the talent.
Regarding Bob Weir, he makes an appearance on the latest release by guitar and loop whiz Keller Williams. Dream was released back on February 6th. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about Keller Williams until this album, so I have some catching up to do. But this CD has been on steady rotation since I got it. It’s his 11th release dating all the way back to 1994. Maybe a KW fan here can recommend their favorite, and steer me in the right direction for my next purchase (the boys at Hidden Track, maybe?).
Keller is known as a one-man jam band. At live shows, he jams by himself on mostly acoustic guitars (many of them 12 string) while looping the guitars and vocals with a Gibson Echoplex Delay. On Dream though, the concept was collaboration. Some of the folks helping out on this album are Bela Fleck, Charlie Hunter, John Scofield, Steve Kimock, Michael Franti, the String Cheese Incident, and Victor Wooten. The album is downright pleasing to the ears, folksy and relaxed. Highlights for me are the Kimock/Williams tune “Twinkle”- an instrumental with some tasty and wholly unique guitar licks and effects ; “Lil’ Sexy Blues”, which incorporates Indian instruments like tablas and the hansa veena (with special guests Samir Chatterjee and Sanjay Mishra) ; and a cool reggae tinged tune with Franti called “Ninja of Love”. Unique sounds are a theme throughout the album.
And that brings us back to Bobby Weir, who teams up with Keller on “Cadillac”. I never thought of Bob Weir as the kind of guy to sing lyrics like: “and Jesus be riding bitch seat / cuz he’s good like that”. But here he is, doing just that. Oh, and Bob’s dog, Jackson Hamlet Weir, contributes with some quality barking. Keller, by the way, will be on the road with Ratdog this summer.
Keller Williams – Cadillac
- Keller’s Official Site.
- Keller’s Hoooka.
- Keller taking on Zep’s “Ramble On” in 2000. You get to see the loops put to good use. Try your best to ignore the static. It’s worth it.
Intro to Blue Man Group
My friend Jim just posted an “Intro to the Blue Man Group”, complete with some interesting mp3’s. Let’s scare him with traffic. Ready? Set? Go…..
Intro to the Blueman Group (melchman.net)
