Vinyl Vision is an original weekly series at TVD produced by AmusicChannel.tv.
What started out as a small collection of Bob Dylan albums eventually became the 3rd largest record store in the United States. Forever Young Records, located in Grand Prairie, Texas, is family owned and operated by David Eckstrom, his wife Mary, and son Taylor.
David became a big fan of Bob Dylan at a young age and slowly began collecting his albums. Over the years he’s acquired thousands of Dylan records from all over the world. So much so that he has his own published book of Bob Dylan albums.
Forever Young Records not only has a large selection of records, but their cassette wall spans halfway around the store and their CD collection is unreal. But in the end, vinyl is always the original form of music.
Paul Adelstein has been making music for over a decade, but you probably know him best from his role as Dr. Cooper Freedman on TV’s Private Practice, or from one of his many other big- and small-screen appearances alongside some pretty big Hollywood names. The Chicago native also dabbles in directing, scoring films, writing, and music production. But with the release of his second LP, All the Details (out today!), and a spring/summer tour in the works, Paul Adelstein might become better known as the frontman of his band, Doris.
It’s easy to see how All the Details—which is full of Adelstein’s smart, wry, and sometimes satirical songs—has already been compared to the work of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. Songwriting takes center stage on this “come for the music, stay for the lyrics” record. It is a collection of musical short stories played out in folk rock, powerpop, piano-based, early-‘70s ballads, and a smorgasbord of other influences that even Adelstien is at a loss to name. He jokingly describes his music as “sad songs with a snappy beat.” However anyone chooses to describe it, All the Details just may be the one of the most surprising albums of the spring.
You’re obviously a man of many talents. What was your first love: acting, film, writing, or music?
I think music was probably my first love because I just always, always remember it [in my life]. My mother and my sister played piano, and I remember falling asleep and hearing them practice and stuff. I was always hanging around the piano, but I started acting pretty young, too. But there’s something kind of essential about music that’s always been with me. I mean, I think I’ve always been a bit of a performer, I suppose; there’s no denying that.
On La Grande, Portland, Oregon’s Laura Gibson expands upon the fragile alt-folk of her previous releases while retaining the qualities that make her such an appealing example of contemporary Americana.
My introduction to Gibson came in the live setting, where she opened for and accompanied a solo show by Decemberist Colin Meloy to fabulous effect. His tour CD Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke also happened to be enriched by Gibson’s strong backing vocals, their presence prompting me to seek out Six White Horses: Blues and Traditionals Vol. 1, an exceptional all covers EP featuring versions of a half-dozen tunes drawn from such acoustic legends as Elizabeth Cotten, Mance Lipscomb and Furry Lewis.
While released by Hush, the Portland-based label that served as the early home of the Decemberists, Six White Horses still felt very much like a homemade document, the kind of recording passed around amongst friends/fans that slowly gains a small, devoted following. From there I tracked down 2006’s If You Come to Greet Me and 2009’s Beasts of Seasons, two full length records that showed Gibson’s talent extending beyond the realms of imaginative interpretation. Both records detailed an ability to sound out-of-time without seeming contrived and combined this with a talent to express vulnerability and loss without registering as maudlin.
Spirit Animal plays the Black Cat backstage next Monday, February, 27th.
“After moving away from DC in 2003, the act of returning to visit became a guaranteed great time. Re-frequenting the Black Cat, Saint Ex, The Big Hunt, and the other bars where my friends still worked was something I looked forward to every single time.”
“One of these kind souls who I loved to go see shows with was Ana Marin, now a chef at Bibiana (w00t!) and a long-time area bartender. She told me we HAD to go see this band, The Points, ’cause they were doing some legit punk rock at a time when the genre had pretty much disappeared, even in a city as steeped in hardcore and punk as DC. So, naturally, I agreed excitedly.
But then I missed the show.
I don’t know if they went on exactly on time and I didn’t expect them to, or if I was just slacking that night for some odd reason. But when I arrived, Ana handed me a copy of their 7″, “RNR No Rules” —which she had bought me. She said their set was awesome and I apologized for missing them. Then we had beers.
It’s our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the brand new tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices want you to be hearing. We post, you download.
Well, of course Tuesday was Valentines Day, and of course I could not resist putting some kind of twist to a playlist of love songs.
For some reason when I started digging through crates I starting thinking about “trouble.” However, on this Valentine’s Day I find myself without much trouble in mind or drama to brag about. I’m a geek and was day dreaming about the kind of love that Marvin Gaye seems to sing of—a bum in love, trouble man, feelin’ tainted and dank.
Funny, in many ways I approached the muse of heartbreak with a smooth and carefree approach. The result is simple—just a solid “Idelic Hour” of music—one chapter in a series of playlists dedicated to the assorted colors of love.
Feels warm and cozy to listen to these love gems after Valentine’s dates and the chocolates having been consumed…
The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Cry Baby – I Cherish The Heartbreak More Than The Love Lost
I caught up with Austin Lucas at a new basement bar and music venue in Knoxville called The Well (where, coincidentally, the talented-in-his-own-right Matt Woods has his day job). When I heard this was his last stop on a U.S. tour filled mostly with house shows and intimate venues, I knew I had to see him.
I have seen Lucas perform twice before: once with his back-up band The Bold Party in Shepherdstown, WV, and once while he was touring with Glossary as his back-up band when they opened for Lucero in Nashville. This time was different, though, because I got to see him by himself, and there is nothing I love more than seeing a musician perform with nothing but his guitar and his voice (and oh, what a truly incredible voice it is).
Son of Bazerk suffered the double whammy of arriving too late and also too early. Instead of the success they deserved for their enduringly brilliant debut Bazerk Bazerk Bazerk, they had to settle for cult status.
Production by Hank Schocklee and The Bomb Squad insured that the group was in no way behind the times on a musical level, but in terms of presentation and content, they unfortunately fell outside the zeitgeist; savvy in conception while also possessing the requisite intensity, this still underappreciated classic fits rather snuggly into the niche of rap as extroverted, highly social party music.
Problem was, by 1991 the hip-hop tide had changed toward socially relevant, politically conscious, often angry tracts as exemplified by Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet and Ice Cube’s Amerikka’s Most Wanted, both released the previous year and both notably produced by The Bomb Squad. Instead of righteous platforms of truth-telling and uncensored depictions of ghetto existence, Son of Bazerk was a crew dedicated to elevating and extending the time honored tradition of rocking the block and the club with finely tuned precision.
In a bit of karmic congruity, Record Store Day reaches a 5 year milestone this year as does TVD—this lil site you’re presently perusing. Without the raw data in front of me to confirm any suspicions, I have to think both endeavors are somewhat responsible for the renewed interest in vinyl and the uptick in interest as to all things record store.
To celebrate these stars aligning, we’re going full out over the next 10 weeks with the vinyl giveaways (as we’ve done every year to be fair) in anticipation of Record Store Day 2012 which arrives on April 21st this year.
To kick off our vinyl giveaways, we’ve got one of our absolute favorites from last year, The Joy Formidable’s The Big Roar, of which NME swooned, “Led by rock’s new heroine Ritzy Bryan, and swathed in swirling guitarscapes and momentous walls of sound, The Big Roar is the kind of epic-yet-intimate debut that does exactly what its title makes out in the most tactful of styles; an LP that ultimately delivers on every count on the four years of promise leading up to it – primarily in its gutsy, chest-swelling brilliance and partly because, well, you’ll probably be sufficiently acquainted with a fair few of the tracks already…”
Of Montreal’sParalytic Stalks clocks in at just under an hour and it ultimately registers every minute of its running time. However, that shouldn’t be read as a bad thing.
Ten albums deep into a career that falls into two distinct halves (with a little bit of expected overlap) beginning with the Elephant 6 twee-pop era and followed by the more stylistically robust glam and R&B inflected portion to which Paralytic Stalks is the latest unfurling, leader Kevin Barnes hasn’t exactly been identified with the idea of restraint in creativity at any point across that span. And this certainly has its appeal; part of the fun in Of Montreal’s younger toy-town psyche incarnation was the boldness of execution.
1997’s debut Cherry Peel made it immediately clear the band’s (as a band they indeed were in those days) music was a love it or leave it alone proposition. With the shift essentially begun with 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic and solidified on the big indie splash of 2007’s Hissing Fauna,Are You the Destroyer?, Barnes’ confessional, heart-on-sleeve album-as-therapeutic cleansing has probably turned off as many listeners as it has won over with its conceptual boldness, judicious stylistic pilfering, and strident agenda of newness.
Vinyl Vision is an original weekly series at TVD produced by AmusicChannel.tv.
