The Vinyl District

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I’ve been searching for blogs like this with little success til now, but I am chuffed to see The Vinyl District, another music blog that is focused on the big blackfrisbee as much as Turntabling. Music blogs abound, but very few of us are interested in needles, cover art, and the anachronistic fun of spinning platters when we could be downloading MP3s.

The Vinyl District is a fellow traveler–here’s a blog that recognizes that some of this stuff is either never coming to the shiny disc or download format in any official way. Or what’s worse, if it does, it’s coming tweezed, tweaked, and otherwise interfered with. Bowie’s Diamond Dogs is a beautiful example. There are TONS of things on that vinyl album that just…don’t…sound…the…same on disc. The vinyl really does the job where the CD falls flat.

Besides, any blog that features Big Audio Dynamite tasty vinyl tracks gets my vote. TVD also shares my enthusiasm for the Mick Jones and Tony James project Carbon/Silicon, looks like we have much common ground here sonically. Great stuff. I am loving TVD, and you should too. RECOMMENDED.

Fun Used Vinyl Finds

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While out shopping for vinyl tonight I ran across these two delicious finds.I have a huge weakness for anything so wonderfully perverse as Switched-On Rock/The Moog Machine’s old hippie classics re-worked into Moog-synthesized mini-masterpieces. You thought your stereo was broken when you listened to Nine Inch Nails The Fragile, try the super-freaked out synth patches on “You Just Keep Me Hangin’ On”. I actually checked the monitors to make sure I hadn’t lost the tweeters. Hah!

With stuff like this, first you listen cuz it’s cheesy fun. After a few go rounds with it, you actually start hearing how it…could…be…good somehow. This stuff is brilliant. Like eating a brick of jalapeno Velveeta. You know you shouldn’t, but you can’t stop yourself. My favorite part of this two-dollar purchase is actually the liner notes, by “Album conceiver and macrobopper” Russ Barnard. Check out this hilariously dated bit:

“One thing must be stressed: This album is virtually 100% Moog–only two instruments are live. One is the drum set; Moog drums are possible, but in this stage of the art, sound kind of mechanical and ricky-tick.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That’s 1967 thinking for you…

The Isaac Hayes Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) is just as great in its own way. This is a long way from Shaft, folks–a disco-infected album (hence the name) that starts off with Isaac Hayes singing about picking up hotties at his favorite disco-teria, and wrapping up the album lamenting about a woman who must “love me…or lose me” My man Isaac is either picking up strict Catholic girls who also love to boogie down but not GET down, or Hayes was just at the end of his lyrical rope by the end of this 1976 coke-n-amyl nitrate soaked leisure suit fest.

I love this cheesy shit. Hayes ain’t phoning this in–he’s going for it on every single track, so there’s this great vibe running through the record. While it’s spinning, you can just see the ABC Records exec snorting coke off the mixing desk, nodding to the beat thinking it was going to be HUGE. “We can shift a million units and get Isaac down to 54 to say hi to Steve Rubell and give Andy Warhol his Polaroids. Then we’ll hit the big time…AMERICAN BANDSTAND.”

Favorite part of this album–the “Solid Gold Dancers” chorus on Thank You Love where the ladies are sing/shrieking “Makin Loooooove” and “Girl, I thank you”.

I ain’t NEVER head Isaac Hayes THANKING a woman for having sex, but it sure sounds like that’s what’s going on here…great stuff. It’s just too wrong NOT to enjoy. “We’ll make love every day…and weeeeeeeellll buh-loowww each other’s MINNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS”

Chicago Vinyl Haunts: Laurie’s Planet of Sound

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Laurie’s Planet of Sound is literally half a block away from Turntabling.net HQ, and is a favorite of mine for many reasons. The vinyl section is a combination of scratchy-but-great bargain bin albums (all the bad hair, 70s clothes and obscure weirdness you could hope for) and new releases. The new stuff is of particular interest as it is also a great hodgepodge of sounds from Nigerian disco to classic French new wave. If you are in the area or planning a visit, I quote directly from the Laurie’s site: “4639 N Lincoln Ave. We’re right off the Western Brown Line Stop. Call (773) 271-3569 if you have questions, or just want to chat.”

Go ahead, get chatty. Ask them about stocking some more vinyl by Mystic Moods Orchestra, Ornette Coleman and anything at all on the ESL label while you’re at it. If you come to Chi-town, pay them a visit.

Side One Track One

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John Laird runs Side One Track One from my favorite city, Austin, Texas. It’s my old stomping grounds having lived in San Antonio for seven years…I played shows there, dropped a small fortune in music and media there, and shot part of my as-of-yet-unfinished documentary on America and the Iraq war there. So I gotta give John Laird props if for no other reason than he’s music blogging in one of the greatest places in the world to run a music blog from. In case you have been living under a rock, Austin is the live music capital of the world and it’s fertile territory to be a creative type in.

Side One Track One doesn’t seem to be exclusively about vinyl, but I was sucked in by the cool turntable graphic and the content of the posts themselves. I’ve been kicking about off and on at this great music blog, and I’m happy to recommend this one.

Too bad John didn’t start this one back when I was playing gigs with Pink Filth, Crevice and with my solo project Paisley Babylon in Austin…but alas SOTO was started in 2006, a few years too late for me to hobnob with SOTO at the late, great 33 Degrees, Hole in the Wall, Sound Exchange or any of the other fun Austin places that have slipped into history. Check out this great Austin-based blog, if for no other reason than the fact that he rails against Pitchfork. I was an instant fan after reading that…