Category Archives: Featured

Numark TTUSB Turntable

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numark-ion-ttusb-turntable

The Numark TTUSB turntable is a nice tool for converting your vinyl to MP3s.  I like the plug-n-play ease of using this USB turntable. It’s inexpensive, simple to use and will give you plenty of fun rediscovering the old vinyl you haven’t heard in ages. No, this isn’t really designed to be used as DJ gear, but you can certainly pad out your MP3 collection with the Numark TTSUB. Call it a DJ tool for home use only. I own one…and if I wanted to play DJ gigs with my vinyl collection, I’d break out a Technics. Sorry, DJ hopefuls—don’t take this out of the house. Why bother? Just convert your tastiest vinyl tracks to MP3, drop em to a nice big external hard drive or MP3 CD-R and be on your way. And yes, you can always burn a redbook format CD to gig with, too.

Repulsion by Dinosaur Jr.

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I mentioned this one as part of the Wailing Ultimate compilation vinyl put out in the late 80s by Homestead Records…here’s a YouTube vid I dug up with J. Mascis and co. doing that very track live on the reunion tour. Sure, the sound quality is absolute crapola, but you get an idea of what the vinyl sounds like more or less….but I thought the soloing on The Wailing Ultimate version of this was much crunchier.

Early Dinosaur and Dino Jr. are pretty much the same bag, if you ask me, but it’s consistently good and the Homestead compilation mentioned previously shows J. Mascis had pretty well figured out what he wanted to do all along even at that early stage. I refuse to go to Dinosaur Jr. shows though based on reports of pain-threshold volume levels. I’ve got plenty of hearing damage without adding to the misery, thanks. I’ll settle for youtubity goodness like this.

Enjoy.


Cannibal Holocaust Soundtrack

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cannibal-holocaust-soundtrack

Believe it or not, Amazon.com is a good place to pick up bizarre and obscure works–if you know where to look. The soundtrack to the infamous Cannibal Holocaust is a prime example. Unfortunately this is NOT a vinyl copy, but the CD edition for between $11 and $17 depending on which indie Amazon vendor is hawking it.

Sadly, the vinyl version of this is damn near impossible to find. I am still on the hunt for a copy–call it a holy grail of sorts. The movie itself will repulse you, but it’s also fascinating and hard not to watch. It succeeds as an actual work of grotesque art–Cannibal Holocaust manages to transcend its low-budget grindhouse intentions and make you forget that you’re watching a moive. Agree or disagree, for those who love the soundtrack music of Italian genre films, the music works as well as the film itself.

Naked Raygun Vanilla Blue

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Chicago’s mighty Naked Raygun performing at Q101 makes me yearn for the good old days when the Rayguns were putting out vinyl, Jeff Haggerty was playing guitar for the group pre-Pegboy, and striped pants were still considered kooky stagewear. Check out this great YouTube clip. Even in this tiny little room, immobilized and hardly breaking a sweat, Naked Raygun manages to create quite a stir. Vanilla Blue is one of their best tracks, hands down.