Monthly Archives: June 2011

YouTube Vinyl Junkies

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by Joe Wallace
I was contacted earlier this week by a fellow vinyl junkie and YouTube poster about a growing community of vinyl collectors who post video clips about vinyl collecting, their latest finds and other topics. I had no idea this sort of thing was happening on YouTube–I usually go there for exploitation movie trailers and related ephemera.

So it was with great delight that I found a massive trove of posts about vinyl, collecting, finds, etc. These aren’t produced or slickly done with titles and effects, etc. Just people who LOVE the format, the discoveries, and the excitement of being involved in a community like this.

Here’s a sampling of some of those videos, but there are MANY more online waiting to be discovered. One of the very best vids I’ve seen so far (by poster MrHoffame) who shares some really important information about insurance specifically for your vinyl record collection. Amazing, and VERY good to know. Did you know some vinyl insurance policies are SUPER cheap and have NO DEDUCTIBLES? See MrHoffame’s clip “Vinyl Collectors Should Know” below–it’s the third and final one on the page. Viva Vinyl!


WTF Album Covers: The Oak Ridge Boys Murder Christmas

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This album cover tells a story. It’s the story of how the Oak Ridge Boys broke into your apartment, made love to your pets, ate all the barbecue, and then sat patiently waiting for you to come home from work so they could re-enact scenes from Bergman’s The Virgin Spring.

This is how they sat while they waited for you to come home from a long holiday shift you didn’t want to take, but had to at the last minute. Cue the scary music, because now, you’re putting the key into the lock of your apartment door and you’ll soon be face to face with The Men With The Sentient Facial Hair.

–Joe Wallace

Chris and Cosey, John Lacey: Elemental 7 Soundtrack

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This is a rare vinyl record released on Cabaret Voltaire’s Doublevision label back in the 80s. The soundtrack to a Doublevision video of the same name, Elemental 7 features Chris and Cosey and John Lacey performing as CTI, Creative Technology Institute.

Lots of analog synth action going on here, with dialog and other vocal sampling going on with tracks like Meeting Mr. Evans. The music won’t shock fans of Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and the likes, but for me, the real draw for this record is in both its cross-pollenation with Cabaret Voltaire and the fact that it’s for intents and purposes an archive of material that no longer exists.

The masters for this release have since been destroyed due to poor storage. The sounds were saved from oblivion at the last moment for a CD reissue of a set of projects on Conspiracy International, but this album is the OG release–an artifact of original multi-track tapes that have given up the ghost.

Check out this sample from the album. “Meeting Mr. Evans” is definitely something I would have been attracted to then, and still am now. I’ve always had a soft spot for this sort of thing, which is why anything released on Doublevision has my full attention–even when it’s not that great overall, there’s still a certain quality about the material that keeps me coming back for more.

(and yes, I do have a copy of Elemental 7: The Original Soundtrack for sale on Etsy.com, for FAR CHEAPER than it is selling from other people on places like Discogs.com where this record is listed for upwards of $70 or more. Yowza.)

–Joe Wallace



Sun Ra Plays the Batman Theme?

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Of all the vinyl finds I’ve had lately, one of the most surreal has to be this French repressing of this Batman and Robin album, complete with the Batman theme.

Re-issued by Klimt Records years ago in France, this record brought in some serious firepower as session musicians, namely members of the Al Kooper Blues Project and the Sun Ra Arkestra including Sun Ra himself on the Hammond B3. The original album gives no clue to the super-session nature of the album, but Klimt sets the record straight with a complete roster of players on the back cover.

That roster included Sun Ra, Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allan, Danny Kalb and others.

According to blogger Ryan Masteller at Critical Masses, at least one of those players truly hated doing the sessions. Maybe they were underpaid, or had an angry martinet type running the show, or perhaps they were forced to do the music wearing tights and cowls? We may never know.

I’d never heard of this until I spotted it in the bins a few weeks ago. I was so amazed that I had to grab one. The album is a cash-in, made during the Adam West Batman period.

What’s really funny about that to me, at least where the actual Batman theme song is concerned, is that when you watch the end credits of any Batman episode, when they get to the music portion, there is a LYRICS credit.

Yes, somebody actually got paid to come up with “Batmaaaan. Da-da da-da- da-da-da….(repeat until your face falls off)…BAT MAAAAAAANNNNNNN”

But back to the record. The musicians are credited on the cover as “Dan and Dale”. On the flip side, the French pressing reveals that it’s actually Sun Ra and various other names (something not found on the original, heh).

All things considered, this is one super-oddball find and while some uber-collectors are no doubt tapping their foot and clucking at me finding this only years after the fact, collectors be damned. You take the weirdness where you can find it. I was quite pleased to score this and nominate it for “most mind-bending vinyl find of the month”. Sun Ra and Batman. It doesn’t come any further out of left field than that.

(Side note–I do have a copy of the Sun Ra Plays Batman & Robin on auction at eBay. When it’s gone, it’s gone!)

–Joe Wallace