Monthly Archives: September 2010

Vinyl Blog to Watch: Get On Down with the Stepfather of Soul

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Imagine my surprise to run across this first thing in the AM on a Friday. Get On Down with the Stepfather of Soul is home to not one, but TWO podcasts featuring awesome, off-the-beaten-track soul sounds originally pressed on vinyl, glorious vinyl. Get on Down and Stepfather of Soul are both very worthy podcasts that WILL act as your gateway drug to an obsession with collecting these sounds–possibly even an addiction to 45s. You have been warned.

This blog appeals to someone like me who, while enjoying the idea of the film Cleopatra Jones, was extremely annoyed with it because the soundtrack had the feel of some decidedly non-funky composer trying to mimic (unsuccessfully) the genuine article as you’ll hear in these two podcasts. I know that’s about as nitpicky as it gets, but I was immediately put off by the psuedo-funky sounds in that movie, especially when the real thing is so damn good in similar genre movies including Truck Turner. Hell, even Blacula had a more kickass score than Cleopatra Jones.

But I only babble about that because these podcasts are so inspired…the tracks are top notch. I particularly enjoyed Stepfather of Soul #37, the Soulful Allsorts show. Check it and see what I mean…this is superior podcasting, folks.

–Joe Wallace

Turntabling Events and Appearances

Events, Record Shops, vinyl road rage

It’s a busy, busy calendar for Turntabling in the next eight to ten weeks, and I’m hoping you’ll join me for some of these. Mark your calendars as these events are all very cool in their own right. Turntabling will have a booth at these events with the exception of Cinema Wasteland, which I’ll be attending to promote the site and helping to run the Kitley’s Krypt booth.

Here’s a list of places and events you’ll find Turntabling at in the next few months:

Cinema Wasteland, October 1-3 15471 Royalton Road, Strongsville OH

Music Box Massacre October 9, 3373 N. Southport Chicago Illinois. Turntabling will have a booth filled with vinyl including Goblin, Morricone, the Dogs in Space soundtrack and much more. Got a nice supply of compact discs as well featuring many Goblin titles, Morricone, the out-of-print Creepshow soundtrack, Pino Donnagio, Piero Umiliani, too many to name.

Friday Night Live at Transistor: October 15 at 8PM. I’ll be performing as Paisley Babylon doing the Beautiful Chaos show which features five turntables, five echo boxes and two crates of vinyl. Don’t miss this one, vinyl junkies. It’s full of rare vinyl live mash-ups and a video barrage from hell.

Horror Society Film Festival October 23 and 24 4050 N. Milwaukee Chicago Illinois. This two-day film festival is going to be massive–a great selection of new horror and 80s favorites. Turntabling will have a booth there both days featuring the usual collection of awesome vinyl from Goblin, Morricone, Riz Ortolani, etc plus massive rare and imported CDs. I’ll also be performing the Paisley Babylon vinyl mashup show Beautiful Chaos on Sunday at 2PM.

HorrorHound Weekend November 12-14 11320 Chester Road Cincinnati Ohio. Turntabling is back at Horrorhound again this year with another booth crammed full of vinyl deliciousness. All the obscure, rare and hard-to-find stuff you’ve come to expect from Turntabling.

and finally, plans are in the works for Vinyl Road Rage 3, yet another mad cross-country trip blogging the best indie record stores in the country. Stops this time include Nashville and Memphis but I am definitely open to route suggestions–please feel free to drop yours in the comments section or email me at jwallace (at) turntabling (dotnet). I’d love to hear from you.

–Joe Wallace

WTF Bad Album Covers Henry and Hazel Slaughter

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I discovered this atrocity on Cheezeball.net and I think I’m sending them my doctor’s bill. The nightmares I’ll have after seeing this truly bad album cover–once more in the name of Jesus–will be in 3D, technicolor and Smell-O-Rama. Never mind the rictus grin on Hazel Slaughter’s face–the one that says “I’d rather be standing trail for war crimes in the Hague right now.” Look at Henry Slaughter’s TIE.

That’s right, it’s an effing chain link FENCE necktie. Tell me this guy doesn’t look as though he has a 14-year old stashed in a secret black light basement someplace being fattened up to be served up in a pie, Hansel and Gretel-style. I’m sure in real life, he’s a real sweetie pie, but this photograph makes Henry and Hazel look like the Honeymoon Killers.

Boy Eats Drum Machine Interview w/Jon Ragel

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Boy Eats Drum Machine is Jon Ragel, who is a turntablist, analog synth lover and musical innovator from Portland. A while back he teamed up with Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen for some live mashup action, mutilating Michael Jackson, Talking heads and other luminaries in the best of all possible ways with live bass and guitars plus the ever-present turntables.

But that’s the past–the here and now has Boy Eats Drum Machine funkier than ever with a new collection of excellent, danceable tracks–20 in all.

20 Beats is hot off the presses as it were, on Bandcamp, iTunes and elsewhere. Turntabling wanted to know how the vinyl fits in with Boy Eats Drum Machine’s latest and get the skinny on this excellent new BEDM album.

Turntabling: Give us the lowdown on 20 Beats. What’s going on here?

Jon Ragel: This is a collection of 20 brand new instrumentals, all of which started out as breaks grabbed from Bridgetown Breaks 1 and 2. I worked pretty fast, so there’s a raw edge to the parts, as well as more bite in the guitars and synths than anything else I’ve done. Each track has it’s own album cover too.

Turntabling: You list ‘turntablist’ as one of your specialties–how does turntabling factor in on the new record?

I only pull breaks and sounds from vinyl. It’s an aesthetic thing. Also, I like the limitation of working with vinyl. You have to use your hands to make it fit. It always ends up being a tad imperfect. I like that. Most electronic music sounds way too perfect to my ears.

Is 20 Beats coming on vinyl? BEDM has released material on vinyl previously–what are the challenges of recording/mastering/getting an album ready for a vinyl release is like compared to doing it for digital distribution?

It’s just a digital release for now. I’m still trying to recoup on Booomboxxx and Hoop and Wire, both of which came out on vinyl. My desire to make art currently outweighs the money it brings in, so I’m thankful for this whole digital angle on releasing music. It’s cheaper, for sure. This album has been free, basically.

Rainbow Records made the vinyl for both Booomboxxx and Hoop and Wire. They send 5 copies to inspect. In both instances I felt good about the way they sounded. No hassle, really.

I think vinyl naturally sweetens the deficiencies of 16 bit, 44.1k recording, as well as it’s lack of depth. I can’t wait to get something more robust, but I still think the motu 828 is a nice piece of gear, especially considering how inexpensive it is.

What advice do you have for someone contemplating putting music on vinyl who has only done digital releases prior to vinyl?

Oddly enough, I’m not much of an audiophile, so my knowledge on this topic could use a little spit-shine. I tend to listen to music at the day job or during long drives. I love my vinyl LPs more as a historian.

That said, I really appreciate sweet lows and dynamic range, so my gut instinct is that recordings with those two qualities are going to sound best on vinyl. Basically, with an mp3 you’re trying to make it really damn loud.

You don’t have to do that with vinyl because audiophiles like dynamic range and have systems designed to sound musical, rather than simply “bassy” or “loud”. So I’d say leave more dynamic range in a vinyl master than you would a digital master.

20 Beats—available on CD? What’s the future of the shiny disc? Some say it’s dead already and doesn’t know when to lie down, but some bands I know insist that you still need a disc to be taken seriously at shows and by reviewers. What’s your take from a musician standpoint?

I’ll do a boutique run of cd’s. I’ve never loved CDs mind you, but if you tour CDs are a no-brainer. People give you money for them. Money is good. Also, it seems to me a lot of radio/press peeps still have stacks of cd’s on their desks. We want them to hear our music, so we should give them music the way they like it. I’m talking mailing out 550 CDs.

That’s expensive. That’s inefficient. That’s…sounding like the music industry. Of course, I won’t be doing that with 20 Beats. 20 Beats is an experiment. Also, I’m too broke to do that again this year.

I really like digital. I wish more people would catch onto buying lossless files. The technology is there. The technology is exciting. The technology is simply way ahead of people’s ability to take in information.

You can send someone an email but you can’t give them the time to read it, along with the other 99 emails they get that day. It’s impossible. So technology isn’t the issue, but rather a simple industry-wide changing of the guards over the next 10-20 years. Watch a teenager text their friends while eating a sandwich and following So You Think You Can Dance and you’ll know what I mean.

Also, I think the internet is misunderstood as a tool. People need actual human contact. People want to feel cultural. People want to feel…well…human. There’s only so much nibbling around on the internet someone can do before they need to go out, hear some music, bump asses with a few people, and get a good buzz.

So long as we musicians are out there being a part of that we’ll be culturally relevant. We might even make a few bucks in the process.

You can find 20 Beats by Boy Eats Drum Machine at Bandcamp. Check out the two free tracks Silverskate Gateway and the current Turntabling favorite, Josh Skins, which is funky as all hell.