Better An Old Demon Than A New God

by Joe Wallace

I like strange experiences. Weirdness. So the title of this vinyl record promised me a great deal and it DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. Jim Carroll’s  “A Peculiar-Looking Girl” is worth the price of the record alone, and I’ll buy just about anything with William Burroughs reading on it.

Better An Old Demon Than A New God has fascinating backstory–it’s the one result of John Giorno’s Dial-A-Poem, which started in 1968 after a great deal of audio experimentation and recording with Beats and other artists.

Giorno recorded a lot of these sessions over the years and this album is only one result. You can also check out the Dial-A-Poem 15 Year Anniversary Album You’re A Hook for more of this sort of thing–You’re A Hook features Burroughs, Ginsberg, Phillip Glass, and Frank Zappa among other luminaries.

But what was REALLY creepy and fun to do was to put this record on along with a simultaneously-spinning Coil disc, Unreleased Themes From Hellraiser.

Hearing Jim Carroll doing “An Unusual Looking Girl” while the Coil tracks for the main titles and the Hellraiser Box theme played was absolutely priceless. Mash-ups are great fun, and it was an experience to be had–I strongly recommend it.

While flailing around to find an audio excerpt from Better An Old Demon Than A New God, I found the most excellent Chromaphobia blog, which has the Jim Carroll cut in its entirety. So check out that, but also, I thought, why not try to share my Coil/Carroll mashup experience?

Here’s what you can do–open one browser window with the Chromaphobia blog page for Better An Old Demon Than a New God, then open this page on Discogs.com for the Coil Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser 10″ disc. Start playing the Jim Carroll track first, then start the Hellraiser Box Theme clip so helpfully provided and you’ll get about the same experience I did when I did my version of this…I enjoyed it so much, I did it again using the method just decribed–great spooky fun.

(Transparency alert: I also have a copy of Better An Old Demon Than A New God available for sale on Discogs.com. Just sayin’.)

Vintage Vinyl Show and Sale

With a little over a month before the Vintage Vinyl Show and Sale held at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake, Illinois, I wanted to remind vinyl junkies about the show. There’s still time to get a dealer, table too–tell them you spotted the info here at Turntabling!

The show is August 13 and 14 and has the added bonus of a 60s and 70s retro car show, so there is plenty to photograph as well as purchase at the show. (I’m a shutterbug on the side, so this would appeal to both my photographic obsessions and my retro ones).

The Saturday hours are 10AM to 4PM, with Sunday hours running from 8AM to 3PM, and yes, there’s an ad for the show to the right of this post. Print that ad and bring it with you to the show to get two-for-one admission to the show.

Vinyl junkies like me can’t resist a good local show, but I was already committed to running the Turntabling booth at Flashback Weekend during the same time, so I am going to miss all the good buys on this one. Which means more good stuff for YOU since you won’t have ME prowling around looking for the rare vinyl.

And while I’m on the subject, if you’d like to advertise your next record show on Turntabling, by all means get in touch and I’ll give you a rate quote, tech specs, etc. Contact me via e-mail at jwallace (at) turntabling (dot net).

Support your local record shows! Dealers work hard to find the good vinyl, and there’s nothing better than a well-attended record show to give a little love for the hard work.

Turntabling Tees: Skull Star Crate Digger Shirt

by Joe Wallace

Yes, I’m in fundraising mode for Turntabling as of late, offering a line of things I’ve hand silkscreened including this Turntabling limited edition tee.

The Skull Star shirt is one of the designs I created a year or so ago, it also appears on the Turntabling crate digger bags I’ve mentioned in other blog posts…now you can wear this design, too! Great for record store hopping, DJ gigs and on-stage lunacy.

And yes, I wear my own designs, so chances are if you’re in the Chicago area and you’ve been record store scoring the same time as me, you’ve spotted this shirt. Shameless? Maybe, but I do genuinely like the look. What can I say, I’ve got a thing for skulls.

The Turntabling Skull Star tee is available for $11 plus shipping in sizes SM through XL.

Shopping Bags For Crate Diggers and Vinyl Junkies

Lately I’ve been hard at work designing and silkscreening cotton/canvas bags for crate diggers and vinyl junkies. I’ve got several designs now, two of which are currently for sale on Etsy. These bags hold any standard size vinyl records from 12-inch double LPs to seven inch singles. These are GREAT for vinyl shopping and convention-going.

One of my biggest complaints about doing record shows is that carrying around your vinyl finds is a major pain unless you’re toting a backpack. These cotton/canvas vinyl record shopping bags are great for shows whether you’re at a horror movie convention or your local record swap.

The images are linked directly to their respective sales pages on Etsy or you can check out the Skull Star Crate Digger’s Vinyl Record Shopping Bag or my personal favorite, the Aleister Crowley Beast 666 Crate Digger Bag pictured below.

If you find these bags are sold out when you click, please get in touch with me directly (jwallace at turntabling dot net) to make arrangements as I  usually have plenty in stock to sell at conventions and shows. Naturally, the vinyl seen here is NOT INCLUDED, heh. Did I mention these are only $9.50 each with free shipping in the USA?

Chris and Cosey, John Lacey: Elemental 7 Soundtrack

This is a rare vinyl record released on Cabaret Voltaire’s Doublevision label back in the 80s. The soundtrack to a Doublevision video of the same name, Elemental 7 features Chris and Cosey and John Lacey performing as CTI, Creative Technology Institute.

Lots of analog synth action going on here, with dialog and other vocal sampling going on with tracks like Meeting Mr. Evans. The music won’t shock fans of Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and the likes, but for me, the real draw for this record is in both its cross-pollenation with Cabaret Voltaire and the fact that it’s for intents and purposes an archive of material that no longer exists.

The masters for this release have since been destroyed due to poor storage. The sounds were saved from oblivion at the last moment for a CD reissue of a set of projects on Conspiracy International, but this album is the OG release–an artifact of original multi-track tapes that have given up the ghost.

Check out this sample from the album. “Meeting Mr. Evans” is definitely something I would have been attracted to then, and still am now. I’ve always had a soft spot for this sort of thing, which is why anything released on Doublevision has my full attention–even when it’s not that great overall, there’s still a certain quality about the material that keeps me coming back for more.

(and yes, I do have a copy of Elemental 7: The Original Soundtrack for sale on Etsy.com, for FAR CHEAPER than it is selling from other people on places like Discogs.com where this record is listed for upwards of $70 or more. Yowza.)

–Joe Wallace

Sun Ra Plays the Batman Theme?

Of all the vinyl finds I’ve had lately, one of the most surreal has to be this French repressing of this Batman and Robin album, complete with the Batman theme.

Re-issued by Klimt Records years ago in France, this record brought in some serious firepower as session musicians, namely members of the Al Kooper Blues Project and the Sun Ra Arkestra including Sun Ra himself on the Hammond B3. The original album gives no clue to the super-session nature of the album, but Klimt sets the record straight with a complete roster of players on the back cover.

That roster included Sun Ra, Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allan, Danny Kalb and others.

According to blogger Ryan Masteller at Critical Masses, at least one of those players truly hated doing the sessions. Maybe they were underpaid, or had an angry martinet type running the show, or perhaps they were forced to do the music wearing tights and cowls? We may never know.

I’d never heard of this until I spotted it in the bins a few weeks ago. I was so amazed that I had to grab one. The album is a cash-in, made during the Adam West Batman period.

What’s really funny about that to me, at least where the actual Batman theme song is concerned, is that when you watch the end credits of any Batman episode, when they get to the music portion, there is a LYRICS credit.

Yes, somebody actually got paid to come up with “Batmaaaan. Da-da da-da- da-da-da….(repeat until your face falls off)…BAT MAAAAAAANNNNNNN”

But back to the record. The musicians are credited on the cover as “Dan and Dale”. On the flip side, the French pressing reveals that it’s actually Sun Ra and various other names (something not found on the original, heh).

All things considered, this is one super-oddball find and while some uber-collectors are no doubt tapping their foot and clucking at me finding this only years after the fact, collectors be damned. You take the weirdness where you can find it. I was quite pleased to score this and nominate it for “most mind-bending vinyl find of the month”. Sun Ra and Batman. It doesn’t come any further out of left field than that.

(Side note–I do have a copy of the Sun Ra Plays Batman & Robin on auction at eBay. When it’s gone, it’s gone!)

–Joe Wallace

Electronic Sadism: A Chicago Compilation

Turntabling Records is at it again–this time with a brain-shreddingly unusual compilation of Chicago electronic music projects by Paisley Babylon, Savior Noise, Thelema USA, Satan’s Tea Boy and other acts featured on Electronic Sadism: A Chicago Compilation.

That link takes you to the 20-track iTunes download version of the album, but there is also a limited edition 12-song sampler available for sale on compact disc. The CD version is limited to a run of 500 and is completely hand-assembled. No more than 500 will be made and sold.

The 12 tracks available on the CD sampler are a strange mixture of Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and Skinny Puppy textures. There are vintage-era industrial and ambient sounds combined with soundtrack-esque interludes, mellow meanderings, and nearly hallucinatory side-trips. But the ghost of the Marquis de Sade is always lurking nearby to bring you back to attention with a sonic blast of fury and chaos.

The packaging for this CD special edition is deceptively LP-sized, right down to a poly outer sleeve.  But make no mistake, this is a compact disc full of electronics, evil and doubt (as Brian Eno would say). Going from wildly chaotic to strangely danceable, Electronic Sadism is a great birthday gift for the old-school industrial music fan in your life. Anybody who wishes for the good old days of Throbbing Gristle and Test Department should have a listen to this.

Have a free listen to the download-only track “Speaker Damage Guaranteed” from the digital version of Electronic Sadism or listen to the final track on the limited-edition Electronic Sadism CD by Thelema USA, “Robes Off”

More Rare Vinyl Finds On Sale

Here is another selection of rare vinyl just in for sale at Turntabling. Hurry before these are gone for good! At some point they will go up for sale in the Turntabling shop at Bonanza-they’re on sale here at a discount before they go up there…all titles here are in Very Good condition at a minimum.

The Hunger soundtrack on Varese Sarabande is pretty sweet, I must say. I don’t find these too often and when I do they usually disappear–plenty of Bowie vampire fans out there. The Hunger still holds up after all this time–probably because in addition to Bowie and the unique-for-a-vampire-film plot, the special effects are still pretty awesome. Buy the vinyl LP soundtrack to The Hunger from Turntabling for $20 plus shipping.

A rarity indeed–a radio version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The Restaurant At The End of the Universe on vinyl. Can you believe the luck? This was a stunning find–I had no idea it would ever be available as I’m sure 99% of the people who own this would never part with it. But here it is…any fan of Douglas Adams should LOVE this. Can you say, “birthday present”? I knew you could. Buy the vinyl LP Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The Restaurant At The End of the Universe for $25.00 plus shipping.

Based on what he wrote on the liner notes at the time, Henry Rollins didn’t seem overly thrilled about the material on this spoken word album THEN, he is no doubt embarrassed by this spoken-word album by now, having released A Short Walk On A Long Pier in 1989, featuring the collected recordings of his spoken word material since 1986.

There is no music on this Rollins album–it’s all spoken word stuff that Hank fans know and love. I have never seen this floating around til earlier this year…and have seen nothing like it since. Henry Rollins spoken word completists will love this–the vinyl features a photo of Henry Rollins with long, metal-head hair. Pricelesss. Buy A Short Walk On A Long Pier on vinyl from Turntabling for $25.oo plus shipping.

These titles will hit eBay and Bonanza soon at higher prices–get these while they last at the current rate.