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

Vinyl Lounge Hut–A Retro LP Paradise

Vinyl Lounge Hut may not have been updated since May 09 at the time of this writing, but that shouldn’t stop you from drinking in the heady cocktail of great lounge LPs and commentary by the very retro-minded Rich. Please, Rich, come back and update again!

The archives for this completely awesome site go back as far as 2007 so there is a lot to pore over. I love that Rich includes images of his audio setup and retro-outfitted living space. Simply awesome.

And let’s not overlook a good collection of links so lounge lovers can further fill up their hard drives with all those torrent, rapidshare and other files of ripped-from-vinyl goodness. The music itself is fun, but the VISUALS are a real treat. I’m a sucker for the great covers, colors and textures from this era–especially the image above created by BlueHipster, which is very reminiscent of Shag but with its own distinctive look and feel.

If you haven’t seen Vinyl Lounge Hut, stop wasting time and get over there…you just haven’t lived.

Attic Beats

I am really digging this collection of podcasts on Odeo.com called Attic Beats. Sadly, all these are three years old and there don’t seem to be any updates, but if you’re looking to get a headstart on exotica, Italian horror, and other fun, dusty genres, Attic Beats is a nice way to go.

There are one or two episodes that didn’t work for me, but the Turntablism ‘cast was pretty tasty and the one called The Worst Music I Own is a painful listen. Remember, kids, he actually OWNS this crap. A shame there aren’t new shows coming, but the archive is a lot of fun to wade through.

The Rising Storm

My new favorite music blog is The Rising Storm, which has some interesting trivia on the so-called “Live” 13the Floor Elevators album pictured above. I haven’t heard this one, but The Rising Storm recommends this for several reasons including a few covers–one of Buddy Holly’s “I’m Gonna Love You Too” and Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love”.

“Live” had fake crowd sound dubbed over to mask the fact that it was a poorly recorded studio effort, which puts some (me included) off completely, but then again it would be worth one listen at least to hear Roky Erickson’s best Buddy Holly impression.

The Rising Storm also earns points with me for writeups of outside-FM-radioland bands like Death, J.K & CO. and Brave Belt. There’s an entire undiscovered universe out there in psych/rock vinyl…The Rising Storm unearths plenty to obsess over. This is a great, ambitious vinyl blog that should not be missed.

Battle of the Bands: Facebook Vs. Twitter

AdWeek’s March 4 article on the March 11 rollout of sweeping changes to Facebook makes me–and many others–wonder if Facebook is about to start another user revolt. On March 11, Facebook trots out changes that will force companies and advertisers to start behaving much more like regular Facebook users. That means more frequent updates to company pages rather than creating unchanging sites used as a basic ad for the company or service.

What does that mean for bands using Facebook? Unsure at this point, but there seems to be a growing number of bands who are migrating to Twitter because of the ease of use. I think the simpler the medium, the more valuable it is–especially for busy indie bands who don’t have time to maintain a Twitter, MySpace and Facebook site all at once. Twitter is simple, it’s fun, and it’s a growing outlet for bands. Hell, even Turntabling has a Twitter account. I have to admit, it’s easier and more fun than Facebook. I don’t like the idea that I might have to do even more work to maintain a Facebook account for Turntabling or the bands on Turntabling Records.

If you ask me, Twitter is the future. Facebook’s previous flap over its terms of service has left people like me unwilling to put up with much more crap from FB. It’s unsure how the March 11 changes will actually affect users like me and indie bands, labels and promoters. Maybe AdWeek’s article has me whipped into a frenzy of bed-wetting fear over nothing. Then again, sweeping changes mean a learning curve, and who has the time to deal with that nonsense? It was goofy enough trying to figure out how to add GOOP to the ReverbNation Facebook widget.

The Lost Turntable

Face it, blogs about vinyl are very few and far between when compared to their “anything goes” counterparts, so I was very pleased to find The Lost Turntable. It bears mentioning that I am a new fan of this blog not because of the MP3s from 12-inch singles and remixes, but because the writing is wonderfully caustic and fearless. In a review of Lollapalooza–which you couldn’t get me to at gunpoint because of those insane crowds–there is plenty of angst directed against Radiohead for a bewilderingly fan-unfriendly stage show, and some spleen venting at Rage Against The Machine. I quote now, only half-recovered from this. It made me laugh, depressing as it is…truer words were never written in a music blog about any one group…ever:

“Hey Rage, you do know that 90% of your fans don’t even give a shit about ‘the revolution,’ social injustice, political reform or the vanishing working class right? They just want to hear ‘Killing In The Name Of’ and start some shit. Nice message you got, too bad it’s falling on deaf ears. Time to call it a day.”

This sentiment is one I’ve had for a 13 years now and I am glad I’m not alone in the universe. Sometimes you don’t go to a show–in spite of how much you want to hear the band tear it up live–because you hate the FANS OF THE GROUP. I’d never go to a Nine Inch Nails show or a Ministry set for this reason. (Never mind that Ministry’s best days were when Al Jourgensen was in the inbetween period from pretending to be a gay disco maven to being the brain-dead industrial metal steelworker he became.)

But I digress. The Lost Turntable is all about bringing much-needed exposure to 12-inch vinyl and related sundries. I am a new convert…glad I found you, TLT.– RECOMMENDED

Fugazi Seven Songs EP

Don’t ask me how I discovered this…let’s simply say that I was surprised to learn that Hot Topic is not only still selling vinyl records–I thought they’d give this up ages ago– to kids with daddy’s credit card and a penchant for S&M imagery/mass-marketed faux rebellion, but here they are selling Fugazi records. I was certain this goth-for-trust-fund-kids chain would be knee-deep in the Cookie Monster Metal and Death Cab For Cutie stuff and nothing more. Imagine my shock to find the 7 Songs EP 12-inch vinyl listed on the website for just under eight bucks.

That discovery led to a much better one. I hit paydirt with this excellent blog, Hardcore For Nerds, which features this entry on the aforementioned Fugazi vinyl. I thought I was alone among people who liked Fugazi but felt the earliest stuff was the most interesting. I have not guzzled the kool-aid on all hardcore, but I do love much of the stuff from the first and second waves. Minor Threat, The Descendants, Fear, Black Flag, early NoFX, there’s too much to name. I could never be one of those people who always seemed to populate any zip code I happened to live in–the types who listened to hardcore and little else. How boring indeed. But I digress.

Hardcore For Nerds is a very worthy read and I’m pleased to have found it. Nice work, youze.

Pink Filth Sugar Shock LP

Many moons ago I posted about my old band mates, Pink Filth and the vinyl-only 17 Bubblegum Smashes. I’d forgotten that before I came into the fold, the Pink Filth crew put out this vinyl album, Sugar Shock. You can hear the title track in all its glory, but this one really is a lot more fun in its original format on the turntable. This album is sadly out of print. Another one that is out of print is one I have been dying to hear ever since the days I played with the group on stage, The Minnesota Fats Domino Theory Of Relativity 7-inch on pink vinyl.

Oh, and you just have NOT lived unless you’ve seen Pink Filth doing Dancing Queen live…those days are gone forever, but the memories live on. You can see what some of the old Filthers are up to these days at Socket Sounds, home of Hyperbubble. I also stumbled across this review of the old 17 Bubblegum Smashes LP, at a blog called Crud Crud and while the review itself is older than dirt, this blog is still in existence, I am happy to say. Its aesthetics mirror my own in many ways. I just became an instant fan of Crud Crud. Bravo!

The Vinyl District

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.

The Yellow Stereo

While The Yellow Stereo isn’t completely vinyl-centric, I really enjoy it and thought it would be fun to share. Anybody who has the patience and endurance to cover Pitchfork deserves their props, and besides all that, TYS is pretty sweet. The Yellow Stereo does give mentions to new bands releasing stuff on vinyl and that’s more than enough for me, especially when there is plenty of free music on offer to help you decide which indie bands to support this week with your MP3 purchases.

The thing I like most about this blog is that the About section reveals TYS to be a fellow traveler: “(The Yellow Stereo is) A place for friends to keep up with a lot of the music I was listening to. Usually it would fall upon deaf ears, but I figured someone out there liked the same music as me.”

This sums up the purpose to Turntabling.net quite well, and a lot more succinctly than my own About section! Please drop by The Yellow Stereo and have a look, it’s well worth the time. If I could remember how I stumbled across this one, I’d give props…