Not Just Another Record Store Day 2012 Report: TheRockFather.Com

I ran across this amazing blog post from a new-to-me blog called The Rock Father. This post covers Records Store Day 2012, but also gets into the highs and lows of being a music-loving maverick working in the corporate hells of Wal-Mart, Super K-Mart, and Sam Goody. And when I say “maverick”, I mean it. Here’s a quote found on the blog post–a caption from one of the photographs:

“Nearly 100 feet of releases from Victory Records, Fearless, Hopeless, Epitaph, and local bands? How many Sam Goody mall stores had that? Mine did.”

The idea that a local Sam Goody had a local scene evangelist working to promote the bands is pretty amazing, and just goes to show you that one person CAN make a difference. It’s a pretty inspirational piece that does eventually get round to discussing Record Store Day 2012 (the image to the left is part of that story) and unfortunately has to end on a bit of a downbeat note–apparently there aren’t any true indie record shops near TheRockFather.com central.

RockFather.com founder James Zahn works in a variety of creative disciplines, and is available to bands for hire for music video projects, album trailers and much more. I haven’t had a chance to get acquainted with the rest of his site, but the Record Store Day post was great fun to read and I hope there’s more musing about vinyl, record stores, and indie culture there…

–Joe Wallace

Vinyl Vlog

This YouTube series is just now showing up on the Turntabling radar…interesting material, especially that these gents have interviewed a record label owner who was grousing about vinyl as a “Beanie Baby-like” phenomenon. Fascinating stuff, especially when discussing green manufacturing and vinyl production. A really interesting clip from the folks at Vinyl Vlog:

Blogwatch

I’ve been searching high and low for vinyl blogs to review here, but I’ve been coming up dry so I thought I’d pass along a few blogs that do cater to vinyl lovers but not exclusively so.

There is a LOT of vinyl on the always-fun Manchester Morgue, but my all time favorite find there has got to be the post on the German disco act Hot Blood, with an album called Disco Dracula. Now there is a movie crying to be made.

Xtabay’s World hadn’t been updated in a while but the most recent post makes up for that, at least for fans of the music on Dig It! The Sounds of Phase 4 Stereo.

The Midnight Monster Show is all about retro horror and related topics…I’m a fan, what can I say? No vinyl here but a fun read, regardless.

Funkabolic prices are far too insane for me to contemplate but I do enjoy windowshopping there. I’m not criticizing, just saying…50 euros for a vinyl record is a tough call when you’re USA based and looking at shipping on top of that…

I’ve only just this moment discovered two blogs; the first is DiscoWorkout and it promises much…it looks retro and futuristic at the same time and the magic word–disco–is right there in the name. How can you go wrong? I am hoping there is much disco cheeze to explore here.

Blog discovery two is called 20 Jazz Funk Greats and is also unique in the design department with an intentionally clunky, retro-future feel and the writing in many places feels like a nice departure from typical blog post style and tone…20 JFG is something I plan on spending more time on in the future.

–Joe Wallace

… Continue Reading

The Turntabling Posterous Site

Vinyl Blogs to Watch: Egg City Radio

A blog that features posts on albums by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sonic Youth, AND Jim “Gilligan’s Island” Backus, Bobcat Goldthwait, plus Dee Dee Ramone in his rappin’ phase?  That’s a blog I personally think could be the greatest thing of all time. Egg City Radio has been at it since 2007 and I sincerely hope it never ever EVER stops. The image for the Jim Backus album alone made it worth the search–having searched through Egg City Radio’s archives I can say this is a work of demented genius.

I’m fully aware that there are other highly eclectic vinyl collector blogs out there, but I’ll be damned to Satan’s personal, private hell and have cocktail wieners jammed into my eyeballs for all eternity if Egg City Radio isn’t THE most delightfully insane collection of musical contradictions ever under one roof. Who else has the balls to run a review of PiL’s Commercial Zone LP back to back with a music library LP for The Price Is Right? This is someone I seriously need to read on a daily basis.

This is quite possibly my favorite blog of all that I’ve seen this year. Seriously.

Blogs to Watch: Dust And Grooves

by Joe Wallace

I love both the concept and execution of Dust and Grooves. Just look at that amazing photo of The Ohio Players greatest hits collection–just one of the many crate digger’s delights you’ll discover at DustandGrooves.com. There is a decent sized archive of excellent posts to crawl through here but it’s sad that the site hasn’t updated since late April–but Dust and Grooves’s Eilon Paz has been traveling so it’s entirely possible it’s just a temporary hiatus. (Please say it’s temporary!)

One of the great entries on the blog is the feature on European record collector Viktor Kiswell who had this little gem in his collection:

Dust and Grooves is one of my current obsessions–-here’s hoping this blog starts the updates again soon! GREAT work. Recommended.

A Handy Guide to Digitizing Vinyl Records from Soul-Sides.com

Soul-Sides.com is an awesome vinyl/MP3 blog featuring rare soul finds including 45s, 12-inch singles and much more. The music selection is fantastic and highly recommended, but the added bonus of a well-informed and non-snobby guide to high-quality vinyl-to-mp3 digitizing makes this blog even more valuable.

Oliver Wang, AKA DJ O-Dub, has been running this since 2000 (as a blog since 2003), so he’s got more than enough to obsess over in the archives. I’ve only just discovered this blog but am already impressed by the scope and quality. Bravo! … Continue Reading

Unrezt and Recordings of Thin Consolation

I stumbled across Thin Consolation by accident today after checking out a new Twitter.com/turntabling follower who is part of this Belgium-based record label.

I spent AGES on this site listening to glitchy, electronic wonderfulness including a FABULOUS electronic 12 inch by Odaka called Warm Geometry. I’ve played this six times in a row now. Part of what Unrezt calls the “Pastorale Electronics series”, Warm Geometry is an analog synth dreamy-fest that kicks into some nice percussion-n-bass analog synth action.

I am dying to hear Warm Geometry on vinyl as the gods of stereo intended but the track at Unrezt is a nice experience regardless.

There are other wonderful discoveries to be made at Unrezt including the glitch-happy Cupp Cave (which features a nice sample about zombies on the intro to the track linked here). And I love the description of Cupp Cave’s world, which is inhabited by “improbable vegetarian Texan zombies on Mexican mushrooms, all thumbs and two left feet.”

Unrezt is my new favorite record label (at least for this week)–great stuff from Belgium and more to come.

P.S. The label is Thin Consolation, the website is Unrezt. I am new so I don’t get the distinction between one end and the other…so Unrezt folks, forgive a dumb Yank.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

–Joe Wallace … Continue Reading