Monthly Archives: January 2012

Not Metal Album Covers…Yet

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While searching for actual bad album covers, I ran into a site that promised to reveal some awful metal album covers–but the majority of the images seemed more like band publicity photos and/or black metal fans posing for the cameras.

None of these seem to be actual covers for vinyl LPs, but it seemed only right and good to post them here because, damn, look how much time they spent putting those faces on. Vinyl or not, that much effort deserves some kind of recognition.

One could say that certain persons who write for Turntabling don’t really “get” black metal–and that would be 100% accurate.

 

Turntabling Appearances Spring 2012

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Spring of 2012 is going to be quite busy–if you’ve never come out to a horror or science fiction convention and visited the Turntabling booth, 2012 is a year full of opportunities for you to see The Turntabling Collection, say hello, and get your hands on rare and cool vinyl and CDs from around the world.

Our first show of the new year is Capricon 32, February 9-12. This science fiction convention is held at the Westin Chicago North Shore, Wheeling, IL. There are two items of note–the guest of honor for this year’s show is Cory Doctorow, who you might know from BoingBoing.

The other is that Turntabling is hosting a party suite during the show on Saturday night, February 11. Stop by the Turntabling booth for details–this is a blowout with free drinks and music by DJ Paisley Babylon.

Our next appearance is scheduled for Days of the Dead in Atlanta, March 9 – 11. The Turntabling Collection will be there with plenty of new arrivals, strange and rare vinyl, plus a LOT of horror soundtracks on CD. We’ve never traveled so far to do a convention, so this is an experiment for Turntabling. Come out and say hello, Atlanta area vinyl lovers!

Following Days of the Dead, Turntabling will be at back-t0-back horror festivals starting with Horrorhound Weekend, March 23-25 in Columbus Ohio. This promises to be a slam-bang con–this one features Pam Grier as one of the guest celebs– and Turntabling will have loads of great finds for you, as usual including some Jackie Brown soundtrack LPs suitable for signing.

While you’re in Columbus, might I also recommend a visit to the really awesome Columbus record stores like Spoonful Records and Lost Weekend? They are most excellent…

The very next weekend finds Turntabling at Cinema Wasteland March 30th, 31st and April 1st, 2012 in Strongsville, Ohio. There are sixteen new-to-Wasteland guests and this show is always a 100% blast. One of the best shows we do, hands down. The Turntabling Collection will be available for sale as usual and there is a lot of hard-to-find vinyl goodness waiting for you.

After that, the travel season winds down for us until August when things start getting crazy again–Flashback Weekend in Chicago, another round of Horrorhound Weekend and Cinema Wasteland appearances, plus we’re looking forward to doing another Flint Horror Con and possible another appearance at Dark Carnival Film Festival. Stay tuned….

More Mastering For Vinyl

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Yes, at Turntabling there is a fascination for ALL aspects of vinyl–and that includes home studio recording, mastering for vinyl, pressing vinyl records and much more. Collecting is definitely a massive part of what we do here (and by “we” I mean “ME”, your humble owner/operator here and the occasional help from friends, family, etc) but vinyl is a whole world unto itself in a lot of ways.

So that’s why I keep posting the technically oriented and gear-related items–there are plenty of others out there who relate to this sort of thing every bit as much as the collecting and I am very happy about that. This is a clip on vinyl mastering that was shot at SXSW in 2011 and I’m definitely on the prowl for more of these…

–Joe Wallace



Nashville Record Stores: The Groove

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For our newest readers–Vinyl Road Rage is our annual cross-country road trip to find great indie record shops, strange & rare vinyl, and all the odd experiences you have on a prolonged drive. In December 2011 Vinyl Road Rage went from Chicago to San Antonio Texas, and these posts are the record store reviews of all the places found along the way.

Nashville, Tennessee record stores are not scarce by any means, and the city should be considered a vinyl collector destination city. One of the highlights of our Nashville visit was the smaller, scrappy independent record store, The Groove.

Situated in a converted house in/near what an outsider might rightly call the bohemian district of Nashville, The Groove was fun to shop, friendly, and apparently getting ready to expand with a new stage planned. There’s nothing like a good in-store, and it’s easy to see how this record store would be even more fun to shop by bringing the bands in.

There’s a sizable jazz collection and plenty of oddities and obscurities. One of the best finds of the trip came courtesy of The Groove; the Black Mass album by Lucifer. It was a real thrill to score that one, so The Groove definitely took a big step higher in the Turntabling book for supplying such an exciting find.

During the visit to The Groove, something became apparent–a seemingly unifying thread between several really amazing record stores found in various places all over America.

At present it seems that some of the best record shops, the most friendly and fun stores are those found in converted houses. You couldn’t say that the ONLY great record stores are in former homes, but most of the shops IN houses seem to have more care lavished on them, more attention given to the atmosphere and the organization; this would be apparent again and again during the trip.

The Groove is obviously one of these and the homey environment you find yourself crate digging in is great. And of course, the unusual vinyl finds (lumped in with all the other great records by groups you already know and love) are a huge part of that.

 

The Groove is definitely on the Turntabling must-revisit list for next time, it’s fairly easy to find and chances are good it will be your first stop on the way into town if you’re also looking for Third Man Records or the Lawrence Record Shop on Broadway. Out-of-towners, be sure to check their website for info as The Groove frequently does listening parties, giveaways and other in-store events. You might just find something awesome happening around the same time as your visit.

–Joe Wallace

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