Category Archives: editorial

Vinyl Blogs to Watch: Egg City Radio

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A blog that features posts on albums by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sonic Youth, AND Jim “Gilligan’s Island” Backus, Bobcat Goldthwait, plus Dee Dee Ramone in his rappin’ phase?  That’s a blog I personally think could be the greatest thing of all time. Egg City Radio has been at it since 2007 and I sincerely hope it never ever EVER stops. The image for the Jim Backus album alone made it worth the search–having searched through Egg City Radio’s archives I can say this is a work of demented genius.

I’m fully aware that there are other highly eclectic vinyl collector blogs out there, but I’ll be damned to Satan’s personal, private hell and have cocktail wieners jammed into my eyeballs for all eternity if Egg City Radio isn’t THE most delightfully insane collection of musical contradictions ever under one roof. Who else has the balls to run a review of PiL’s Commercial Zone LP back to back with a music library LP for The Price Is Right? This is someone I seriously need to read on a daily basis.

This is quite possibly my favorite blog of all that I’ve seen this year. Seriously.

Zombie Disco 2 With DJ Paisley Babylon

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Tonight, Saturday July 24 at 9PM I’ll be spinning as DJ Paisley Babylon at Chicago’s excellent Lucky Number Grill. It’s Zombie Disco Night, an event put on by the Chicago Horror Society. Last year’s Zombie Disco was something to behold and this one should be even more fantastic. There will be zombie makeup artists on site to bring out the corpse in you, plus some fun events, contests and all the retro disco insanity you can stand. Bring a bag of disco biscuits and get your groove on!

If you can’t make it to this for some sick reason, I’ll be posting a set list mix later in the week. Stay tuned. DJ Paisley Babylon rides again, terrorizing Chi-town from behind the decks.

–Joe Wallace

Vogue Picture Records 1946-1947

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I discovered a fascinating blog post at COLOURlovers (a craft blog, not a vinyl blog) called Unusually Colored Vinyl Records. It featured a variety of impressive colored vinyl productions including the Man Or Astroman release, “Your Weight On The Moon” on  glow-in-the-dark vinyl pictured above. But the REAL treasure in this blog post was the mention of some seriously vintage post-war vinyl produced in Detroit by a company called Sav-Way Industries.

The Vogue Picture Discs are amazing for their detail and the instant visual reference to the  post war era when they were made (1946-1947) but the real stunner for me was the visual theme of the Marion Mann track, “You Took Advantage of Me”.

Decades before The Tubes put out Mondo Bondage, here’s a very racy post-war vinyl record implying all sorts of naughty things with this picture. There are some 74 Vogue Picture Record titles in this collection, which you can view more of at the University of California Santa Barbara, but none of them are quite as provocative as this one.

Sure, it COULD be argued that this was an innocent depiction of the song’s theme, but lest we forget, post-war culture in the 40s was filled with double entendres created to titillate and amuse while maintaining “plausible deniability” in a so-called respectable society. Mondo bondage indeed!

–Joe Wallace

Bad Album Covers: Cattle Decapitation Humanure

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by Joe Wallace

Maybe it’s not fair to kick a band when its down. After all, Cattle Decapitation is cookie monster metal and at first glance there’s absolutely NO deep thought going on with songs like “Bukkake Tsunami“.  First impression? This is a band not reaaaallly putting a lot of time pondering artistry here from the get-go, so why pick on the poor schmucks for a tastelessy ridiculous album cover?

It’s sort of like yelling at the dog for wanting a bone. He’s just acting like a dog, the poor beast, he can’t help it, and neither can Cattle Decapitation. “Hey guys, let’s call this record Humanure! And on the record we can debate issues of moral relativism, industrial decay and its effects on the human spirit, and perhaps sing a few lines on the merits of boycotting Chilean sea bass. Awww, what the hell, let’s just do another record about poop-eating like we always do.”

Even as a doody joke, the album cover for this just…isn’t…cutting it. Maybe that’s because I keep trying to apply common sense rules about marketing music, album cover aesthetics and using the cover to sell the CONTENTS OF THE RECORD. That’s pretty pointless when dealing with a band writing songs like Cloacula: The Anthropophagic Copromantik. COPROMANTIK?

Who am I kidding with this one? It’s a locker room joke on a 12.5 inch piece of cardboard, nothing more, nothing less. Maybe it’s the cow ass that bugs me. Yeah, that’s it–a totally unnecessary bovine anus depiction right in your spotty little face. Yuck.

***UPDATE*** So on closer inspection, I have to admit that I was a bit unfair in the “No deep thoughts going on here” department–Cattle Decapitation actually do transcend the usual cookie monster rock metal nonsense to make a few social statements…these guys could be considered the cookie monster metal version of Tool  (without the heaping helping of Crowley). But that album cover is still grotty. Cow ass indeed! I modified this post slightly now that I see this band a bit more clearly. Continue reading Bad Album Covers: Cattle Decapitation Humanure →