Back From HorrorHound

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HorrorHound Weekend was an amazing time…many thanks to all the great people who dropped by the Turntabling booth there to talk about music, bad album covers and movies in general. Lots of new friends were made, lots of craziness happened, but far and away my favorite moment of the show was chatting with Malcom McDowell, who signed the VERY NOT FOR SALE copy of the Get Crazy soundtrack you see pictured above.

I quizzed McDowell on the film, in which he plays a has-been codpiece wearing rocker named Reggie Wanker. The story goes, McDowell was offered the part in this Alan Arkush comedy, which he turned down by asking an outrageous fee. McDowell told me he thought the script was awful and figured asking for an outrageous fee would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t–the professional singer hired to take his place didn’t work out, McDowell got his fee, and a bit of 80s b-movie history was made including McDowell appearing on the Get Crazy soundtrack as a singer.

When he agreed to do the part, Malcom McDowell was totally unaware of the place in the Get Crazy script where, when his character is dosed with LSD, he begins having a conversation with his own penis–who takes over Reggie Wanker’s career and becomes his manager. “Hello, cock…I didn’t know YOU could talk!”

The look on his face as he related the discovery of this scene in the script? Effing priceless.

McDowell’s signature on the Get Crazy album definitely made my weekend–I’m not normally an autograph hound, but Get Crazy is such a great 80s artifact, it had to be done. And no, sorry all–it’s not for sale. That one’s a keepsake from a VERY good show which also included appearances by Julian Sands, Caroline Williams and Linda Blair.

Turntabling at HorrorHound Weekend

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Turntabling is at HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati. I’ve got the usual table full of vinyl rarities and oddities. This time out the table includes the vinyl Game of Death soundtrack on Dagored Records, Motorhead on vinyl, Goblin titles including the now out-of-print Tenebre, Dawn of the Dead and Suspiria on vinyl…plus some Morricone naturally, the vinyl El Topo soundtrack and too many others to name.

Come out and see us at HorrorHound Weekend! I’ll be posting pics and updates from the HorrorHound floor at my Facebook page so hop over and have a look if you can’t make it out to the show.

Turntable Anatomy 101

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There are plenty of excellent guides to the turntable online, so I don’t need to rehash anything here, but I will just say for the record that one of THE most extensive and comprehensive guides to record players is the Turntable Basics post at AudioJunkies.com.Wow, that is extensive! A great start for newcomers to turntables, indeed.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run into at conventions and shows (not record collector shows, mind you) who are completely surprised that not only is vinyl in vogue once more but that thousands of new vinyl albums are coming out, both reissues and new material.

Not sure where these people have been hiding since even Best Buy carries vinyl these days, but at EVERY show there is at least on surprised punter.

So let’s answer a few basic questions: Is there new vinyl coming out? Yes. Do companies still manufacture turntables? Yes. Do these companies still make replacement record needles? Oh yes indeed!

If there’s one thing I would strongly urge people reading this to do who haven’t done so already, it’s to purchase a turntable and get back into record collecting. Simple fact–at almost every record store there is a bin of cheapies, some for a dollar apiece.

That makes getting into vinyl and collecting new-to-you music FAR CHEAPER than downloading single MP3s. I love MP3s for their portability and ease of use as a DJ, but vinyl is still my hands-down favorite for the whole music listening experience including the artwork, which is far more enjoyable in those 12×12 formats.

–Joe Wallace
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WTF Album Covers: Raven The Pack Is Back

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Brace yourself; what follows is one of the most brain-twistingly wrongheaded album covers in heavy metal history. What WERE these lunks thinking when they approved THIS image to sell their album for Atlantic Records?

WOW! This is a staggering achievement. It manages to be cheesy, stupid, AND sports related at the same time! According to the legend of this pile of flaming crap, a corporate label hack got a hold of this band, pressured them to make the record as commercial as possible and these poor metal schmucks wound up having HORNS and KEYTARS overdubbed on their record.

I’m no fan of metal, but I can sympathize with a band that has its musical vision turned into the sonic equivalent of Sesame Street but a guy in a necktie. Poor, misguided Raven. They should have told the photographer AND the corporate hack to get stuffed…but what can you do? Except brace yourself for inclusion in the Hall of Shame.