How To Clean a Vinyl Record

How to clean a vinyl album? It’s a question that plagues crate diggers from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station. (Heh.) Do you want to know how SOME people clean their vinyl records? One rocket scientist on a message board somewhere suggests you IMMERSE your vinyl records in STEAMING HOT WATER.

Run right out and try that if you’re crazy enough, and by all means, be sure to let us know how that worked out for you.

Other people claim a dab of Lysol does wonders–but I’m not into giving that a try, are you? Ditto for the dude who suggests Methylated spirits. No way–not unless it’s a copy of a Paul Williams record that’s been used as a sun visor on a 68 Volkswagon. I’d love to hear the damage done that way…could be the next house disco treat if you throw some beats under it.

The vinyl record cleaning method described at Rebuilt Tranny’s Rat Rod Record Exchange makes the most sense of all the methods mentioned online that I could dig up. Use a bit of soap on a synthetic fiber brush, scrub gently in the direction of the grooves, then rinse with water. Purists, avoid getting the center label wet or you’ll weep great oceans of tears. Dry with a microfiber cloth and you’re done.

Bravo, Rebuilt Tranny, for offering the most common sense vinyl LP cleaning method on the web. Oh, did I mention that he runs the vinyl through Audacity’s click and pop filter afterwards and makes nice, clean Mp3s out of his nice clean records? NOW you’ve got some clean sounding tracks.

Our First NSFW WTF Bad Album Cover

This edition of WTF Bad Album Covers is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Now that we have that formality out of the way… … Continue Reading

Weekend of Holiday Horror Fun

It was a very busy time last week prepping for the Holiday of Horror show at the Portage Theater here in Chicago–the last Horror Society blowout for 2009. Thanks to all who came out, it was a fantastic time! Turntabling debuted scary tees from StrangerTees.com, and sold plenty of Goblin albums and other fun stuff.

The updates start rolling around here as per usual now that we’re no longer scrambling to get things prepped for the show. There’s a whole new year of craziness coming, and Turntabling is ready. Brace yourself! We’ve got new titles rolling onto the site this week, and we’ll have a few other fun announcements too.

CATALOG UPDATE–Sold Outs

We’re updating the catalog now, but there are a few titles that have flown off the shelves lately. Joe Meek’s I Hear A New World, The Corpse Bride OST, and the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack by Goblin are all currently sold out. We’ll update again when these come back in stock.

Antone’s Records Austin Texas

The mighty Antone’s Records in Austin, Texas does NOT disappoint. Don’t be fooled by the modest exterior in this Austin strip mall, or the (comparatively) smallish space this shop takes up. Much like Doctor Who’s Tardis, this store seems to expand from within as the stock gets larger. And what a collection of fantastic records Antone’s has! This unassuming (and friendly) shop has an excellent assortment of rarities and more common titles. Behold:

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Vinyl Road Rage–Austin and Beyond

by Joe Wallace

Brain fried from far too much driving. Here’s a gallery of images I’ve collected along the way, with some snarky commentary free of charge. I have gathered these images between Springfield, Illinois and San Antonio, Texas–and I’ve paid the price, let me tell you–my retinas are seared for life in some cases.

The name of this John Denver Album, in case you can’t read the type, is “I Want To Live”. Sorry matey, but you should have taken the bus.

I love this album cover. He looks like one of those plastinated dead bodies currently causing all the fuss on the museums. The bananas don’t look plastinated, though. Just very ripe.

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Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis Missouri

by Joe Wallace

Where the mighty St. Louis-based Record Exchange wins hands-down for sheer staggering size and collector-friendly deep stacks, Vintage Vinyl gets top marks for diversity of styles and a selection that’s more squarely in the present and recent past (though the classic vinyl doesn’t get neglected, no siree.)

In short, it’s the sort of place an OCD vinyl junkie can bring a less-interested significant other and have a reasonable chance of both walking away with new tunes. I am particularly impressed with the soul/R&B vinyl, and there’s plenty of new, shink-wrapped releases to look at, too.

Once again, the “rock” category proves to be a real bummer since most of the stuff I look for there is more along the Athens jangle-pop sound or obscure new wave titles…but you’ll be forced to sift through those godawful Krokus albums and 15 million copies of Journey and Manfred Mann. The prerequisite Aimee Mann/Til Tuesday records (ever present!) are there, but there’s an awful lot of good 80s/90s indie vinyl represented. And if you’re a jazz freak, you won’t ever leave, since that section is equally well-stocked. … Continue Reading

Vinyl Road Trip Day One: St. Louis LP Frenzy

by Joe Wallace

This is the view outside the famous St. Louis vinyl paradise, Vintage Vinyl–one of three stops on Day One of the first-ever Turntabling vinyl road trip from hell. It’s tough to choose name for this–Vinyl Road Rage 09 sounds like some dumbass MTV show, and Vinyl Road Trip sounds so bloody generic…whatever. The finds are the important thing.

And what finds there were! I’m on a bug hunt for the strange, the unusual, the unmistakably freakish and wrong…and a few dub and soundtrack LPs, too. One the freaky front, there was no shortage of material–who on EARTH thought THIS was a good idea?

I mean, sweet JESUS, this clown looks like he’s about ready to take some hostages and start screaming “DOG DAY AFTERNOON!”

And then there’s this little beauty, discovered in the “educational/how-to” LP section at Vintage Vinyl amid the typing instructional LPs and the “My Life In My Own Words” album by Douglas MacArthur. No commentary needed here, but I do want to meet the family that’s putting this idea into practice. And buy a half ounce off them:

I have plenty to write about both Vintage Vinyl and Record Exchange, both located in St. Louis, but I’ll save those for another post.  I just wanted to get something up here and say to all the new followers on Twitter and such THANK YOU FOR THE RE-TWEETS! I really appreciate it. To recap…I am now in full road trip mode, on a vinyl hunt that started out in Chicago and will go round trip via St. Louis (today’s leg), Springfield and Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City and Norman OK, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, Texas…whew!

If you know of any good indie record shops or places to buy vinyl along this route (I-55, I44, I 35), please drop me a comment and let me know, I’d love to take a side journey along the way!

You Read That Correctly: Vinyl Records For Sale Here

Turntabling is on the verge of getting much more active (and cool) with the addition of vinyl LPs for sale and related sundries. We introduced books and a random CD or two back a few months ago to test the response and the results were quite pleasing.

The majority of the music for sale here will be vinyl LPs, but some CDs will also make an appearance. Expect an interesting collection of sounds including Italian horror soundtracks, lounge and bossa nova, new wave/electronic, experimental, any quirky or offbeat stuff we can dig up.

If you have a band with vinyl releases, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your wholesale prices and a web addy where we can listen to digita samples. Turntabling’s areas of interest are diverse, but we need to hear it before we agree to stock it.

Stay tuned, the first LP titles go up for sale this week before the Labor Day weekend.

Zabriskie Point Soundtrack LP

The film Zabriskie Point, directed by Michaelangelo Antonioni, starts off with a bang–a classroom full of radicals discussing whether or not violence is necessary as a form of political protest. The opposing views are montaged over Pink Floyd’s “Heart Beat, Pig Meat” and things only get more interesting from there.

If you haven’t seen the film, the real impact of the Zabriskie Point soundtrack is probably lost–some of this on its own sounds like hippie noodlings and acid-heads-only material, but in context the album is an excellent journey. The standout tracks on this are all by Pink Floyd, but don’t let that stop you from exploring the rest of this lovely piece of wax. On the whole, Antonioni’s Blow Up is far more listenable as a soundtrack record divorced from its’ film context, but that’s not to say Zabriskie Point isn’t good–but if you’ve seen the movie you’re in a better position to dig it.

Check out this totally misleading trailer–this is NOT an action movie or a euro-style sex romp…yet everything you see below is IN the movie, it’s just not quite in context. Great film, see it soonest.