2008 goes away this week, and with 2009 comes a brand new Turntbling.net. What is in store for this space? Coming soon…a glorious vinyl podcast and more. Thanks for reading, see you in the new year!
J. Wallace
Turntabling.net
Category Archives: vinyl road rage
Long Live the Record Shop
Got an e-mail forward today with a massive list of retailers that are scaling back, closing stores or filing bankruptcy. Not a SINGLE musical instruments vendor, record shop or downloadable media enterprise was on the list.
That’s not entirely scientific, I know, especially since Virgin and Tower got their collective asses kicked already. But I predict that in an age of massive economic trouble, people will still cling to the music–maybe more than ever.
In short, VIVA LA VINYL!
I just dropped some nice coin on German disco cheese, and a glorious Brazilian post-punk album. More on that stuff later. Looks like Turntabling.net is back up, eh?
Toledo Record Stores: Culture Clash
On my recent trip to Toledo, Ohio, I checked out Culture Clash. I’d seen this great record store in its previous location in another part of town and was impressed then by its neat, fun presentation and good selection of old and new indie stuff.
They’ve since moved locations, and the new place is bigger, more cluttery, but also chock full of great vinyl finds. It looks a bit like an indie shop set up in someone’s attic. It’s got that fun, disorganized feel that begs you to spend a long time searching…you’ll find something odd and cool sooner or later.
It’s a bit tricky to navigate the first time in, but this shop is well worth a look. I had a great time pawing through stacks of old new wave favorites, and there’s the requisite bad heavy metal, 80s cheese and punk records old and new. There is also a nice collection of DVDs, many of which are gray market titles. Nice stuff for a collector.
The Culture Clash website is ambitious–they run an online magazine, too! There’s a lot to explore both at the site and the store itself. For my money, this is Toledo’s number two record shop after RamaLama, but Culture Clash should not be missed. I love the organized chaos of the place, and the staff is cool and friendly. My favorite find there–a copy of Wire Train’s “In A Chamber” LP. A good score indeed! Cheers, Culture Clash.
SoundtrackCollector.com
I have NOT ordered anything as a result of visiting this website…yet. Willpower is the key to staying out of the poorhouse, right? But how long can you hold out? I discovered SoundtrackCollector.com by accident while browsing the excellent cult movie trailers blog Bloody Blood. That site itself will devour hours of valuable office time, and the SoundTrack Collectors site includes references to tasty, tasty vinyl, especially for the Italian soundtacks I love. The graphics on these record sleeves are hard to resist and I got sucked into searching the site for quite some time before wrenching myself away to write this.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know I’m a fan of Morricone and others…and I plan on dropping some MP3s on some of the tastier offbeat sounds in my collection. In the meantime, check out both Bloody Blood and Soundtrack Collectors to find those out-there sounds. If you like Morricone, Riz Ortolani and other Italian composers, these two sites are right up your alley.
The influence of these composers is widespread…you hear it all over modern indie/experimental groups and even more mainstream stuff–I double-dare the Radiohead boys to deny the Morricone factor starting with OK Computer and onward. I personally believe–without any proof whatsoever–that Air’s Sexy Boy single was directly influenced by Riz Ortolani’s score for Cannibal Holocaust, but again, I’ve got no way of knowing for certain. Call it wishful thinking? But I digress…