Monthly Archives: September 2010

Headed For Cinema Wasteland

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Turntabling doesn’t have a booth at Cinema Wasteland (we’re on the very long waiting list) but I will be there sending reports from the floor on my Facebook page, and I am hoping to file a Vinyl Road Rage-type report on the show, provided there is somebody selling vinyl there…

Cinema Wasteland is one of the biggest shows of its type–or at least one of the best-run from what I’m told. This is my first time there so it should be interesting to see. I’m looking forward to the weekend with high hopes for vinyl finds I can report on here.

Wasteland is one of the few shows I’m headed to where I don’t have a table. My appearance at Chicago’s Music Box Massacre includes both a booth for Turntabling AND a performance as Paisley Babylon. Ditto for the Chicago Horror Society Film Festival on Saturday October 23 and Sunday October 24. Turntabling also has a booth at HorrorHound Weekend November 12-14.

If you’re in the Strongville, Ohio area this weekend, consider dropping by Cinema Wasteland. I’m helping to run the Kitley’s Krypt booth and would love to chat with any Turntabling friends in the area. I am personally looking forward to the screenings of Hell Up In Harlem, The Green Slime, and Abby…the movie lineup is MASSIVE though, so it’s well worth popping in to check out.

–Joe Wallace Continue reading Headed For Cinema Wasteland →

Elephant Stone The Glass Box EP

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When this seven-track vinyl EP by Elephant Stone arrived in the post, I knew I was in for something good. For starters, the band makes sure to point out in the press materials that it’s an analog recording. 2-inch tape to 1/4 inch before it got onto vinyl.  My kind of recording aesthetics, those are.

Then there’s the record itself. If Shindig! magazine doesn’t get wind of this to further spread it to the masses, I’ll be very disappointed. The Elephant Stone Glass Box EP is chock full of psychadelic jangly pop that does indeed call back to the swirly, radio-friendly pop psychedelia, without being at all annoying about it.

Some of these genre-influenced bands get weighted down by their own musical obsessions, but in Elephant Stone’s case, it’s more about taking an influence and making it your own rather than aping it by rote down to the waistcoats and matching hairdos.

There’s some top-notch songwriting and playing on tracks like the moody Lies, Lies, Lies and the perky Strangers. On the B-side, Yesterday’s Gurl is an excellent slice of yearning with a great hooky Smithereens-style guitar riff tying the song together. Has to be said, 360 Degree Music has done well in adding Elephant Stone to the roster; this band provides a completely enjoyable listening experience–not a single bummer song on the vinly–and that’s no easy feat.

That said, the final cut Dhun (available for free on the Elephant Stone official site)  is a total departure from the rest of the EP. It’s probably not the first track you should hear if you’re trying to decide whether to buy.

Instead, go to Pardon My Hindi and stream the Strangers and Savage Soul cuts–great stuff and totally representative of the band. Then you’ll know why you should buy this record now.
Continue reading Elephant Stone The Glass Box EP →

How To Clean A Vinyl Record?

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I must confess–this looks completely crazy to me. Call me old-fashioned, but I just don’t think vinyl LPs are meant to be heated under any circumstances. The OTHER cleaning techniques shown here look perfectly sound–the record should get clean just fine using everything here BUT the steam.

This clip does show the record warping under the steam, and the presenter mentions that some do warp but that–in his words–the warping isn’t permanent. That’s not comforting, really…seems to me that a warped record would have a much more limited lifespan–how often could you get away with warping and re-warping a record after multiple cleaning? Not for me, thanks, but I welcome your opinions. Is this method crazy or not?

–Joe Wallace



WTF Album Covers: Fun Da Mental Erotic Terrorism

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For the record, I have not heard this album, I know nothing of Fun Da Mental or anything they do. I am simply responding to an album cover by Fun Da Mental that I discovered for sale on Amazon. That said…I think I am IN LOVE with this album cover. Seriously. I want a framed copy to hang in the studio above my mixing board to remind me of what might have been.

I have no idea what was going through the mind of the special someone who designed this cover, but it’s a work of frickin GENIUS. I believe this is supposed to represent South Asian people in some sort of political commentary that I am clueless about, but what it says to me is some kind of Mexican direct-to-video action movie poster repurposed for an album cover. And the NAME of this record–hot DAMN, that’s inspired. I laughed out loud, very nearly spraying Earl Grey all over my screen.

EROTIC TERRORISM? The very idea…it’s so out there I couldn’t help looking for a secret Beastie Boys imprint on the cover somewhere. It sounds like something they’d pull for laughs. But the customer reviews of this record indicate these lads are SERIOUS…they aren’t kidding around even with a title like EROTIC…..TERRORISM.

All I can say here is…wow.

—Joe Wallace

Continue reading WTF Album Covers: Fun Da Mental Erotic Terrorism →