Tag Archives: indie vinyl

Hyperbubble Drastic Cinematic Vinyl LP

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Drastic Cinematic is an ultra-indie vinyl LP from the label Pure Pop For Now People and will be quite rare and extremely hard to find soon–it’s a limited edition of 100 copies with a fabulous hand-designed/hand assembled cover.

The album itself? Utterly fantastic, especially if you’re a fan of soundtrack sounds by Tangerine Dream.

Hyperbubble is better known for bright, up-tempo robot pop with plenty of genre influences from bubblegum to electronica, but Drastic Cinematic is a departure from that–the soundtrack-y vibe is all through this vinyl record and Hyperbubble lays it on THICK with fat, heavy analog synth rhythms and pulsing beats that call to mind some of the most exciting electronic soundtracks of the 70s and early 80s.

Standout moments on this album include the great-for-driving Night Cruiser, and Blame It On The Bot. And don’t overlook the opening track Vox Noir which has an excellent “Beach Boys gone goth” sound.

If you were a fan of the soundtrack for The Park Is Mine or Thief, you owe it to yourself to own this. Sure, Drastic Cinematic by Hyperbubble is available via MP3 in the usual places, but the vinyl version of this is, in my mind, definitive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, though I must say for transparency’s sake that the band used some of my photography for the album cover–maybe I’m not so impartial? Either way, if you are a fan of synth soundtrack music, have a listen and you will not regret it.

–Joe Wallace

Philadelphia Record Stores: Repo Records

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During my visit to Philadelphia, I was very pleased to shop at Repo Records at 538 South Street. From the moment you spot the store, you know you’re in for a crate-digging safari you should set aside plenty of time for. I realize that most of the reviews from this particular Vinyl Road Rage trip are glowing (I had very good luck most of the way) but Repo Records truly deserves the praise.

South Street is full of touristy places to lure you in, but I get the vibe in Repo Records that locals shop here. Like all the good shops on my trip, the staff were friendly and chatty. No sullen-faced wankers who have seen High Fidelity too many times here.

I was pleased to find a good combination of new material and re-issues. There’s so much good stuff coming back on the market these days that a new record collector will have trouble picking their battles. Behold:

Yes, that’s Here Comes Shuggie Otis on 180-gram vinyl, brand new and ready to be discovered by a whole new generation. But I was happier with this discovery which, in spite of its ruined cover was a very pleasant find indeed as I’m a bit of a nut for anything on vinyl related to the Justified Ancients of Mu.

You couldn’t have made me happier if you had given me a white label pressing of a late night drunken collaboration between William Shatner and Mark E. Smith (with Brian Eno playing a MicroKorg through seven echo boxes).

For some reason, the farther east you drive, the more prevalent record stores with basements become. I don’t know why this is, but I’m very pleased that the phrase “bargain basement” is still more than just a cliche.

The Repo Records bargain basement was fab–not just for the usual crate digging, but as a connoisseur of tasteless, poorly thought out or just plain goofy album covers, I was in heaven.

Look at that HAIR. Now THAT’S a SIN.

You people quit your day jobs, decided make a career in music and the best name you could come up with after pondering it for AGES and AGES was….

But I digress. Basically, Repo Records was fun to shop and I crawled around the old, new, and very used bins for quite some time. If you’re in Philly and are tired of all the other South Street stuff, drop into Repo Records and stay a while. Just make sure you’ve got a nice, cool place to stash all that vinyl when you’re done shopping…the trunk of your car might work in November, but in the dog days of summer you need a better plan.


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Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Record Stores: Jerry’s Records

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I have been looking forward to this particular post ever since I walked in the door of Jerry’s Records–the Pennsylvania record store that wins hands down for size, selection and overall coolness. And I mean that literally as well as figuratively–Jerry says his air conditioning bills are $1300 a month for this staggering collection of vinyl.

As you can see, when you get to Jerry’s, at 2136 Murray Avenue
in Pittsburgh PA, you’re in for quite a treat. The 78s section advertised on the door is sure to draw out the obsessives in that part of the vinyl junkie kingdom, but I thought the main store was more than plenty to keep me going–no need for me to obsess over a whole new undiscovered country yet.

A newcomer to the store really cannot prepare themselves for the volume of vinyl here. If you’re into post-punk, 80s new wave and related sounds you will spend all of your money and all the money you’re GOING to make in the next year at Jerry’s. No contest.

And the prices are extremely reasonable, I might add.

Soundtracks were a bit frustrating to wade through as there was a filing system at work there that completely escaped me. I was looking for the horror stuff, naturally, but found so much broadway mixed in with the other titles that it made things quite difficult. The soundtracks section was full of the old standbys and in the short time I was able to spend back there (in a labyrinth all its own) I couldn’t locate anything I didn’t already have–the curse of the collector rather than an indictment of Jerry’s, really.

Don’t go into Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh for the first time if you aren’t able to spend at least 90 minutes. Seriously. You WILL be late for whatever appointment, rendezvous, tryst or meeting you’ve set up for the day. There is too much, too too much here to skim over or simply glance at.

What I loved best about Jerry’s, aside from an excessively fussy classification system that lists MANY bands by name (even obscure ones that might be better in the general alphabet sections) is the attention to one of my favorite genres—weirdness on wax.

Jerry’s breaks down the weirdness into subdivisions I’ve never found in any other record store–I was soooo grateful to find the strange vinyl handled as lovingly as all the other genres—no short shrift given to THESE records just cuz nobody but me wants to buy them. I mean, really–they listed all the weird records with ANIMAL COVERS.

Jerry’s Records was one of my absolute favorite record stores on the entire Vinyl Road Rage 2 trip. I say you’ll be hard-pressed to find another shop that is as large, exhaustively stocked, and fussed over. Jerry himself is on duty at the store, which tells you something about how he likes to run things…and he told us he’s got a whole warehouse of vinyl that hasn’t even made it into the shop yet, so you know this place isn’t running out of the good stuff anytime soon.

I highly recommend Jerry’s, in case you couldn’t tell from all the breathless hype. I will be back there and soon, I hope.

–Joe Wallace



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Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Record Stores: Eide’s Entertainment

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The Pittsburgh Pennsylvania record store Eide’s Entertainment is an institution. The shop, at 1121 Penn Avenue in the downtown part of Pittsburgh, got its start in 1972 as a comic book shop. Today it’s a massive storehouse of albums, memorabilia, DVDs, books, and the comics that gave the store its start back in the day.

Newcomers might overlook the stairs which lead up to the vinyl paradise…but once you know you have to go to the second floor to find the good stuff, don’t make the mistake of bypassing the first floor where the CDs are located–there is a nice collection of music-related books and mags that is definitely worth a look. Yes, there are more books on the second floor, but make sure you see that collection of titles on the first level–very cool indeed.

Yes, those are Re/Search titles you spotted in that not-so sharp photo above. Nice selection! But once you get upstairs, the real challenge begins.

Eides does have an emphasis on the collectibles, it’s true. In fact, it’s totally obvious that the people who make buying decisions for the store know their stuff and love the music. It’s unfortunate that some of the staff isn’t as well-rounded.

Queries about Robyn Hitchcock titles were met with a blank stare…I don’t expect everyone in the whole world to love or even pay attention to Hitchcock, the Soft Boys or the Egyptians, but anybody who works in a record store might be tempted to learn a LITTLE something about recent music history…or is that my inner curmudgeon manifesting itself? No matter–don’t go into the shop with questions, just do your crate digging and brace yourself for the total. There’s a LOT here to help you part ways with your hard earned cash, especially serious collectors.

Regardless, Eide’s is a worthy stop on any vinyl hunt, and cinema buffs will have plenty to distract them from the stacks as there’s a massive collection of DVDs for sale across a variety of genres.


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