Behold the very first entry courtesy of a YouTube account by VinylElvis.I’d love some feedback on the OPV series. If you like it, hate it, or feel left out because your vid isn’t featured here yet, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I’d love to know more if you’ve got vinyl related videos on YouTube, Vimeo or elsewhere.

Yes, technically speaking, The eXchange (or however you spell the bloody thing) is NOT an indie record store. But I must say that the selection for blues lovers was pretty damn fine–size notwithstanding. Yes, the selection is limited, but the blues/jazz titles IN that limited selection were pretty decent.

The rest of you will have to sit and spin with a few exceptions–this Cleveland Heights branch DID have a copy of REM’s Chronic Town that is NOT a resissue, but aside from that it’s pretty standard fare here–unless you like blues and jazz. This one is very close to the Cleveland Heights indie record store Record Revolution, so it’s not such a bad diversion if you need to fill in some holes in your collection (see below).

You could do worse, I suppose. I’m not a huge fan of this chain but they DO sell used vinyl so I had to stick my head in there for a second. Not the most shining moment of the trip to be sure, but I do love me some Miles.

–Joe Wallace

Record Breakers is a great place for new collectors–you can fill a lot of gaps in your collection if you’re looking for punk, post-punk, and soul. It’s not so great for soundtrack fiends like me, as the selection is pretty grim. I was happy to see a decent assortment of Chicago Wax Trax! era titles but really bummed about the soundtracks. The lack of a weird/unclassifiable section was a disappointment, but definitely not a deal breaker for the newcomer to vinyl.

I’d recommend Reggie’s for the full experience–don’t go and just record shop, take the whole scene in. A nice change from the standalone store, to be sure. If you go early on a Saturday, (after 12 but before 5) chances are you’ll have the run of the place–it was pretty quiet when I got there and got excellent service from the bar. Nice one.

–Joe Wallace

The Turntabling table features some vintage Goblin, Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Tarantino soundtracks, a bit of the old Rob Zombie on vinyl, even some Doctor Who-related vinyl for the sci-fi set. We’ve also got a line of tees for sale this time out including the infamous “Sweet Innocent Teenagers” tee.

Cyphan is an experiment for Turntabling…sci-fi shows aren’t what we’re used to doing, but this one features a Friday The 13th reunion and a few other tasty treats, so we’ve decided to give it a go and see what happens. Come out join Turntabling for a weekend of fandom, vinyl, and something called the Browncoat Bash which features Firefly star Jewell Staite as the guest of honor. These maniacs have made the Browncoat Bash an OPEN BAR affair–a dangerous thing to do with a bunch of vinyl junkies in the room.

I can’t tell you how pleased I was to successfully research Morricone’s output as a composer. I feel compelled to present lists of his work for my rabid fellow devotees of Ennio Morricone soundtrack music—especially the obscure, the unusual, the highly experimental work he did in the 60s and 70s. I make no pretense about this being a complete or definitive list–this is only the START of my digging…but I bring what I’ve found so far to you–a list of the maestro’s work as a composer from one of the golden eras of cinema–the 1960s. Enjoy:

1969 – Krasnaya palatka
1969 – Queimada
1969 – Zenabel
1969 – The Sicilian Clan
1969 – Una Breve stagione,
1969 – La Stagione dei sensi,
1969 – Un Esercito di cinque uomini
1969 – Sai cosa faceva Stalin alle donne?
1969 – Un Tranquillo posto di campagna
1969 – Ruba al prossimo tuo
1969 – Un Bellissimo novembre
1969 – Metti una sera a cena
1969 – Gli Intoccabili (The Untouchables)
1969 – La Monaca di Monza
1969 – Galileo
1969 – L’ Alibi
1969 – Cuore di mamma
1969 – Fräulein Doktor
1969 – La Donna invisibile
1969 – Vergogna schifosi
1969 – Dio è con noi
1969 – L’ Assoluto naturale
1969 – Giotto
1969 – Senza sapere niente di lei
1968 – C’era una volta il West
1968 – Roma come Chicago
1968 – The Great Silence
1968 – Partner
1968 – Teorema
1968 – The Mercenary
1968 – Appunti per un film sull’India
1968 – Comandamenti per un gangster
1968 – La Bataille de San Sebastian
1968 – Escalation
1968 – Diabolik
1968 – Corri uomo corri
1968 – Tepepa
1968 – Italia vista dal cielo
1968 – Ecce Homo
1968 -El Magnífico Tony Carrera
1968 – Mangiala
1968 – Grazie, zia
1967 – Arabella
1967 – Faccia a faccia
1967 – La Ragazza e il generale
1967 – The Harem
1967 – Ad ogni costo
1967 – La Cina è vicina
1967 – Matchless
1967 – I Crudeli
1967 – OK Connery
1967 – Sette donne per i MacGregor
1967 – I Lunghi giorni della vendetta
1967 – Le Streghe
1967 – Dalle Ardenne all’inferno
1967 – Il Giardino delle delizie
1967 – L’Avventuriero
1967 – Da uomo a uomo
1967 – Scusi, facciamo l’amore?
1966 – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
1966 – El Chuncho, quien sabe?
1966 – La Resa dei conti
1966 – Navajo Joe
1966 – Das Gewisse Etwas der Frauen
1966 – The Bible: In the Beginning…
1966 – Un Uomo a metà
1966 – La Battaglia di Algeri
1966 – El Greco
1966 – Uccellacci e uccellini
1966 – Agent 505 – Todesfalle Beirut
1966 – Sette pistole per i MacGregor
1966 – Per Firenze
1966 – Mi vedrai tornare
1966 -La Ragazza del bersagliere
1966 – Lo Squarciagola
1966 – Un Fiume di dollari
1966 – Svegliati e uccidi
1966 – Sugar Colt
1965 – Per qualche dollaro in più
1965 – Il Ritorno di Ringo
1965 – Idoli controluce
1965 – I Pugni in tasca
1965 – Altissima pressione
1965 – Gli Amanti d’oltretomba
1965 – A Pistol For Ringo
1965 – Se non avessi più te
1965 – Slalom
1965 – Menage all’italiana
1965 – Thrilling
1965 – Non son degno di te
1964 – Le Pistole non discutono
1964 – Per un pugno di dollari
1964 – I Due evasi di Sing Sing


1964 – I Malamondo
1964 -I Marziani hanno dodici mani
1964 – Prima della rivoluzione
1964 – I Maniaci
1964 – I Motorizzati
1964 – La Scoperta dell’America
1964 – In ginocchio da te
1963 – Duello nel Texas
1963 – Basilischi, I
1963 – Le Monachine
1963 – Tutto è musica
1963 – Il Successo
1962 – La Cuccagna
1962 – Diciottenni al sole
1962 – Le Voglia matta
1961 – Il Federale

Ted Nugent’s cover for the 2007 greatest hits collection, Love Grenade, isn’t just a wretched exercise in horny teenager-style cartooning, it’s also wildly offensive! Just look at how she’s depicted abusing that innocent hand grenade.

Seriously though, rampaging sexism aside, Love Grenade wins top marks–it’s a true accomplishment to  bewilder AND register as blindingly stupid at the same time. A naked woman bound on a food tray with…a grenade in her mouth? That IS a grenade, right? It’s not an under-ripe avocado? Or maybe it’s Ted Nugent’s wallet, fat with all that cash he’s making off another collection of reheated twaddle.

I’m trying hard to figure out what The Nuge is trying to say here–aside from “Hey Kids, here’s a REALLY DUMB record by MEEEEEEE!” And the track listing does nothing to dispel that notion. When you’ve got songs like “Bridge Over Troubled Daughters” and “Broadside” (get it? Huh huh, heh heh, BROAD side…heh heh huh huh) you know you’re not dealing with a Rhodes scholar here.

Whatever happened to the good old days when long haired dorks with guitars sang about SATAN?

Now we get these aging backwoods types gumming their way through songs that weren’t that great over 30 years ago with the added “advantage” of the Internet to deliver their genius to pockets of weasel-faced, tobaccy-spitting devotees probably still squirming over the fact that we have a president who don’t live in that Texas nohow. Wow. I am impressed by the musician who could stand before his art director on this project, look at that woman all bound up on a glorified TV tray surrounded by carrots and say, “Yep. That represents my work, all right. Yessiree. There’s the essence of my record. Lookit, you kin see her BOOBIES!”

I do NOT for a SECOND believe that cassettes are coming back the way vinyl already has. But tapes do keep appearing on my radar lately, quite a lot actually. Example, right down the street from my house at Laurie’s Planet of Sound there is a cassette tape which actually tempted me–a Chris Connelly release I’d not heard of before due to being either out of touch or the tape itself being…gasp…new?

Then there’s the Ohio-based Everybody’s Records, which proudly displays the mighty cassette tape rack shown above. I don’t know why anyone would shell out four dollars for one, but they advertise .99 cent tapes, too and that wouldn’t be a hard sell if the cover art were intact and you are a completist. Everybody’s Records–from the photos–looks like an amazingly cool place to shop. What is it with Ohio and their excellent record stores? I am always impressed when I go there…it seems to be an endless supply of great indies.

I don’t get the appeal of the cassettes these days, but I suppose nostalgia must be part of it…do the sellers of cassette tapes also sell cassette players, too? If not, they should. Ditto for anyone selling 8-tracks. Otherwise how in the world do you sweeten the deal for someone who has old gear that’s about to die, but still wants to revel in the old-old-OLD school playback experience? Me personally, I do miss that goofy “click/clunk” of the 8 track tape machines as they switched to the next track. I don’t miss having the track change in the middle of a song, however.

His previous albums have sonic tributes to cinematic touchstones including Lalo Schifrin, Isaac Hayes, and John Barry. But Sticks sounds more influenced by phases in analog music history rather than specifc albums–the Maharishi-era Beatles, Get Carter-period Roy Budd, that specific year when women dancing in go-go cages really caught on, you get the picture.

All Music Guide’s Rick Anderson tries to take Chris Joss to task for evoking these atmospheres, saying they’re for people who like “around watching cheesy movies from the ’60s and cheerfully doing the swim while bell-bottomed boys with bowl haircuts play cheerfully wanky psychedelic music.” But in declaring Joss to be “not terribly original” Anderson reveals that he completely misses the point. You might as well dismiss Daft Punk for being repetitive and too reliant on synthesizers.

Standout tracks on Sticks include Danger Buds, the “Have some opium, then” Little Nature, and my current favorite, Night Scare. All I can say is for anyone who watches Get Carter for the soundtrack as much as Michael Caine’s “ten feet tall and bulletproof” antics, the purchase of new Chris Joss record is a foregone conclusion. Sticks is a lovely, swirling and smoky collection of grooves.

PS–Chris Joss is best experienced for the first time via his jukebox sampler at the official website. There is a LOT to discover there…