...and I have a nice pile of vinyl to review. What a trip! RamaLama Records rocked, Culture Clash was fun (writeup coming) and I have nice retro fun to post about including Lipps, Inc. and a NYC underground comp double vinyl album that is quite all that and a bag of cables. I've debated the merits of posting MP3s here as many of my reviews already have links to the music online in one form or another, but I am toying with the idea of posting an album side a week that you'd listen to like you would enjoy if you were putting it on the turntable. It's an intriguing notion, and one I think might amuse as much as it would annoy the downloader who wants those individual songs. Hmmmm....leave me feedback in the comments section if you are for or against this one...

I've been on the road these last few days and later I'll have some reports on some excellent places to score vinyl and other sundries, including Culture Clash, Freon Beats (are these guys for real? No website I could find and the MySpace page is...inconclusive), AA Records Are Us (check out the article that link takes you to--a unique record collector's heaven?) and Allied Record Exchange, just to name a few. Toledo has a surprising number of indie shops for a town of this size, but then again, this town has a decent sized garage band scene and it's the home of Cavity Records. Check out the links and look for a report or two coming on some of Toledo's finest vinyl sources...

Granted, this article was written back in 1997, but I see no reason why this should be dismissed simply because it's more than ten years old. Kevin Gray's technical vinyl album primer for noobs on what needs to be done to make your vinyl album shine is very educational. I'm toying with a vinyl release myself, so I am taking notes and bracing myself for much learning ahead. This is good stuff.

Stumbled across an interesting piece written for SoundOnSound about the process of mastering your recordings for vinyl. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but one thing that rings loud and clear in this article--pay strict attention to distortion due to overmodulation in the mix. Never a good thing, anytime you start exceeding the tolerances you are begging for trouble, especially with digital. I am eagerly collecting a small archive of these kinds of articles so expect more links to relevant writing on mastering for vinyl in the future. Most of the vinyl junkies I know are also musicians of varying degrees of experience, so there's plenty of relevance there. If you aren't a musician but have a massive collection of vinyl records, my guess is you are either a frustrated musician or a DJ. I'm BOTH.

Imagine this: You're in Tokyo, eagerly awaiting the new iPhone 3G release. Standing in line in the heat, waiting, waiting, waiting...sweating, getting irritable, hungry...the lot. Then, from out of NOWHERE comes THIS GUY. (Special thanks to Pampelmoose.com for turning me on to this madness.)

I am ashamed to admit this. I was scouring the net this evening looking for online vinyl shops for a new feature I'd like to start on Turntabling.net...basically a regular spotlight on vendors selling albums online and in local shops where I find them in my travels. Here in Chicago, there are more stores than I can count, all selling albums of every description, and I know plenty of other shops across the country also in the business of catering to obsessives like me. Hell--I even looked on Amazon.com to find vinyl--admittedly just for laughs--but turned up a 180 gram repressing of a couple of Velvet Underground records and some new pressings of Beatles albums. Not that I'd buy THAT stuff--the Velvets sound just as low-fi as ever on CD and while I'd love to hear em on wax, I would be more intrigued by an original pressing. Tonight I found an online record store claiming a massive collection of albums...but they failed to pass my acid test. It's not elaborate, it's NOT that snotty "Oh, you don't have the infamous Beatles "butcher cover" Yesterday and Today in stock? How sad for you" attitude. Quite the opposite really...but I just couldn't take ...

Oh, damn! What a great concept. This book is a labor of love put together by Joachim Gaertner, who is responsible for the late, great Germany-based Get Happy!! Records. This label released a CD by Crevice, a Texas-based psych/experimental group I performed and recorded with from on and off from 1997 to 2002. I have many fond memories of Crevice and will always have a fondness for Get Happy!! Records...but that's not the reason I'm posting now. In its second edition, They Could Have Been Bigger Than EMI is a collection of discography info on defunct indie labels that released vinyl. This massive, 567-page book has information on more than four thousand labels, with thousands of images. Want to know all about Stiffwick? Unicorn? Crass Records? Green Fez? Small Wonder Records? It's all here. For the record--I have NOT read this book yet, but I am totally excited by the idea of it. What an amazing accomplishment! These days Joachim Gaertner runs Pure Pop For Now People, his small vinyl label and mailorder. I've not heard any of the groups on his roster except for the great-sounding S/T, but I am sure the others sound equally delicious. I am very happy to ...

It's not OFFICIALLY the world's most expensive record needle, but at 10K, the Clearaudio Goldfinger is squarely in Donald Trump territory. Sold by NeedleDoctor.com, the Goldfinger is 16 grams of pure gold, with a boron cantilever. Are you going on one knee for some sweet, sweet DJ? Don't waste your cash on one of those useless finger trinkets sold in shopping mall diamond shops, get this bit of precious metal instead. It's functional, it's beautiful, and it probably sounds like nothing on earth. Too bad it costs nearly as much as you'd get selling a kidney. What's the first thing you'd play after scoring one of these? For my money, it would have to be the More Beer album by FEAR. Just kidding.

Turntabling.net is in its infancy, but over time a vast collection of vinyl-related posts will appear here, including MP3s in promotion of the bands immortalized on wax, cover art, and resources to help others find vinyl. There are also plenty of resources out there for bands to press new recordings on vinyl and I want to start a nice big clearninghouse of links to those as well. Merchandise? Yes-I plan on listing that, too. Why not? I personally am not selling anything, but it would be nice to see where you can pick up turntables, needles, DJ gear, even t-shirts and other accessories to make the turntabling experience a good one. At some point, I plan on opening up Turntabling.net to guest blog posts from DJs, collectors and anyone else involved in the vinyl life. This site isn't a "vinyl purist" page, but records are wonderful, collecting them is fun. Playing them is even more fun. This site is aimed at the entire experience, from buying, DJing, even decorating with the bloody things. Stay tuned.