I’d been reading Bob Lefsetz the other day when he pontificated, “Can we bring Todd Rundgren back for a victory lap?”
Fine by me, I thought at the time–the guy really needs to be given his due. (Ever see the (overly long) flash intro to his site displaying the records upon records he’s produced? One word: amazing.)
But at the same time I thought, “Well, there are quite a few others who are due a victory lap…” and just like that I was off on a theme and a graphic. Yes, sometimes these things just write themselves.
XTC! Oh, how long did it take me to embrace your full charms? How long did I wander alone out in the cold purposefully eschewing the warmth of your poppy/hooky/catchy hearth? F’n long I tell you.
Why, I may have even had a disparaging word or seven…’navel-gazing’, ‘too clever by half’, ‘fussy and tiresome’. Wrong I was however–and now in possession of the entire catalog (Thanks Rick!) those years out in the ether have ended.
Yet, MY XTC-switch aside, the band clearly has not garnered the acclaim they’re due. Oh sure, Trouser Press editors and be-specticle’d fan boys have swooned for ages, but today we’re righting a wrong SO wrong that we’re kicking off this week’s series of shout-outs and underscores with the best of the lot.
Neil Strauss, rock journalist for Rolling Stone and The New York Times, will be in DC this Thursday, March 12th, at Borders 1801K St NW from 6:30 to 8pm to sign and present his forthcoming book “Emergency”, about surviving social meltdowns. TVD readers are invited to meet the author, see the book, and join the conversation.
Neil is the co-author of New York Times bestsellers “The Dirt”, with Mötley Crüe, “The Long Hard Road Out of Hell”, with Marilyn Manson, and LA Times bestseller “Don’t Try This At Home” with Dave Navarro. He has written cover stories for RS on Kurt Cobain, the Wu-Tang Clan, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and other musicians.
Emergency traces Neil’s observations of ordinary and out of the ordinary Americans prepared to stay alive & afloat by all means in the face of impending social, political & economic collapse. Part of the book takes place in DC and deals with recent media events.
Once more, straight from the source: “ORPHEUS RECORDS WILL BE OPEN ALL FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS IN MARCH EXCEPT FRIDAY THE 27th…Noon til 9pm…March 6 & 7…13 & 14…20 & 21…and Saturday the 28th…Stay tuned……..Orpheus Records as we’ve known it is gone, over, kaput. If you shopped here in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s or up through 2007 you knew a store that had more records than any sane retailer would stock. Then, our lease ended. Our landlord informed us that our lease would not be renewed and that we had until April 1, 2008 to vacate the premises. SO, January 1, 2008 we commenced our “Going Out of Business” sale. The first week was modest, probably because the only notice was a small sign on our door. THEN, we put up a huge banner. A banner so large that people saw it a block a way. A banner so large that the county inspectors saw it. It turns out you need a permit for said banner, who knew? We paid our bux, but it was WELL worth it because the response was immediate and overwhelming. People I hadn’t seen in the store in years came in to tell me how much they would miss the place. While here, most would buy a stack of lps. I’ll never know how many were buying because they wanted the albums and how many were simply nostalgic, but it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that the lps were disappearing much more quickly than I ever imagined. The only thing more amazing than how many records we were selling was how many more we still had. Then as luck would have it , the Washington Post ran a story about the closing of the store. A big piece, with a Bigger picture. Again the response was immediate and, you guessed it, overwhelming. I spent the better part of this past year overwhelmed. As April approached, I enquired of the landlord whether the new tenant was ready, and let him know I was interested in staying, for as long as possible. As many of you know that was LAST April. Now, as a new April approaches, I’m still asking the same question every month. And SO FAR every month the same answer comes back. “You can stay another month”. If I try to push for more, I’m gently reminded that I have no lease and am free to go. Most of you reading this, are, probably, the same people, that are still coming in the store, and have lived the entire experience with me. So here we are. We will be here to enjoy out tenth anniversary in Clarendon. An anniversary that I have joked about, but never really expected to see. I told the landlord I didn’t want to be one of those retailers who got tossed out, only to drive by the space a year or more later and see it sitting empty. To his credit, and my perseverance, we’re still here. Merely a shadow of our former selves, but, still here. The liquidation sale was a resounding success. I was interviewed by City Papers’ Jason Cherkis the other day, and we agreed, “going out of business” is a great business plan. I just want to reassure every one, this wasn’t a contrived plan. It’s just the way it happened…and I’ve got the letters from the landlord to prove it. I’m now paying my rent to the new tenants, that, similarly to the buildings owner, are allowing me to stay ONE MONTH AT A TIME. Astonishingly, I still have enough merchandise to remain in business, albeit in a truncated fashion. so, for now, I’ll open the store a couple of days a week and persevere until it just doesn’t make any sense to do it…anymore. Thank you for your support, thank you for your patience and most importantly, thank you for getting all those damn records out of here!!! (Read the rest here.)
Grundy: Well keep going chief, keep going. Go on. You’ve got another five seconds. Say something outrageous.
Jones: You dirty bastard.
Grundy: Go on, again.
Jones: You dirty fucker.
Grundy: What a clever boy.
Jones: What a fucking rotter.
(…Classic discourse, eh?)
And a classic disc, of course, for Week 6 of TVD’s Eleven Weeks of Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaways–it’s “Never Mind the Bollocks” in 180-gram glory! And if that isn’t enough we’re tossing in a bit of what that classic LP hath wrought generations on with Foxboro Hottub’s “Stop Drop And Roll.” (And it’s no secret that the ‘Tubs are actually…well wait, we’ll let you guess in the comments.)
Think you just might need these LPs to kick some life into your vinyl collection? Grab our attention in the comments WITH your email address (important!) so we can contact you about your triumphant win. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We’re not picky.) And remember – each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!
Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/9) when we’ll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #7…)
First Party At Ken Kesey’s With Hell’s Angels Cool black night thru redwoods cars parked outside in shade behind the gate, stars dim above the ravine, a fire burning by the side porch and a few tired souls hunched over in black leather jackets. In the huge wooden house, a yellow chandelier at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths dancing to the vibration thru the floor, a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlet tights, one muscular smooth skinned man sweating dancing for hours, beer cans bent littering the yard, a hanged man sculpture dangling from a high creek branch, children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks. And 4 police cars parked outside the painted gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.
It could be that These United States’ singular mission is to dispel the notion that Washington, DC has no character, nor soul, or grit amidst the starched white underbelly of its marbled column malaise. And if you’ve been paying attention, they’re making waves all over the place with their much-hyphenated psych-folk-lit-pop-rock.
After releasing 2 albums and playing 200 shows in 2008 (!), These United States have a new release in the queue and head south to SXSW (selected via ye olde EPK at Sonicbids) for four days of showcases.
TVD dialed up (the sleep-deprived) Jesse Elliott (vocals, guitar) for a few bits, not on bitrates, but on that analog medium just before the boys hit the road for a tour that begins in Kentucky on 3/3 and ends in Kentucky on 4/11–with 29 dates in between…
“The past is not the past – it’s never dead, you never forget it, you never can afford to, never should want to, not too badly, critical as it is to the present, and the present to the future. Vinyl has nothing to do with Sound for me – I’m a deaf shit, have been ever since I was a tiny kid with way too many ear infections in the first 2 years of his life. And my family always had bad speakers anyway. But my dad also had Disraeli Gears and Aqualung and a whole bunch of other works I’d never really fully understand til years later. Mom had Bookends, The Natch’l Blues, the other half of who I’d become. I didn’t know anything about blues. I didn’t know what young people were supposed to like, and weren’t, who white people were supposed to be, and weren’t, what I was supposed to think of Jethro Tull, and wasn’t. Vinyls, early on, were the least mediated of all media experiences I’d had. There was no context, and that was magical, and that itself would become the context. They didn’t come automatically attached to a website, and with them there was no feeling of keeping up, let alone getting ahead of the curve. Just getting lost. Just the infinite maze of the past, which, you know, who can do anything but just surrender to it? Some tracks I loved (still love), some bored me to tears, all of them I played, all the way through, because they were all connected. Not artistically, figuratively, conceptually – but literally, physically, temporally connected. Side one. Side two. Only two choices there – no skipping ahead or back – I couldn’t stand the sound of a bad needle drop, so I rarely even tried. Don’t like this song? Another one will be on in 4 minutes – relax, see the present through to its logical, if not necessarily yr own personal favorite, conclusion. By then, you prolly came back around to the sound you were cringing at originally anyway. The context became yr own life, and gradually, maybe months or years later, you saw how that connected to the larger musical community, the people you’d eventually discover who’d dropped the same needles on the same sides. Yr patience was rewarded, very viscerally, often in/with the face of another human being. This is the same old nostalgia everyone has about this listening experience, yeah? But that nostalgia has served a function now – artistically, commercially, communally. That collective vinyl-doting has brought something back, it seems – at least in a quiet way. That big collective silly sloppy dreamy-eyed siiiiigh has now served as not just a yearning, but as a very real Decision about who we were, who we still are, how we want the world. We just dragged the past right back into the present, where it should be, looking forward. I’m gonna give my kids a stack of vinyl – the good, the bad, the confusing – prolly not a huge stack, and with few essentials – I’m as broke as my parents were, and already half as deaf. But you don’t need a lot with vinyl – there’s so much in every Side. The future’ll be theirs to get lost in.” These United States – Honor Amongst Thieves (Mp3)
Rhino readies Jane’s Addiction RSD09 Reissues Rhino has announced that it will release 180-gram vinyl versions of Jane’s Addiction’s landmark albums 1988’s ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ and 1990’s ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ to celebrate Record Store Day on April 18. (Read more here.)
Jesus Lizard Mark Record Store Day with Boxed Set The band, which recently announced plans to reunite for British shows, will drop a Record Store Day exclusive through Touch and Go Records, collecting out of print 7-inch releases for a boxed set. The tracks, all remastered by Bob Weston, are collected in fancy clear packaging.
The boxed set will be available at independent music retailers as part of this year’s Record Store Day April 18. (Read more here.) Taking Back Sunday ready RSD09 7″ Taking Back Sunday will announce a US/Canada tour and the release date for their upcoming New Again soon. You want webisodes? A fresh new batch of them will debut with the band’s new website, which you will see soon. A new 7″ will be released for National Record Store day in April. Follow up their conversation in the replies with your own snarky comments. (Read more here.)
Wilco plans album, tours on Ashes of American Flags DVD As promised, Wilco will be hitting the road this March for an international tour in support of the band’s forthcoming concert DVD Ashes of American Flags. The excursion will see Jeff Tweedy and his band of merrymakers getting folked up across the Midwest and points South before hopping across the Atlantic for a string of shows in Spain.
Ashes of American Flags is out April 18 (Record Store Day!) at select independent record stores, and April 20 everywhere else. (Read more here.)
Domino signs up for Record Store Day exclusive Organisers of Record Store Day in the UK have announced a fresh load of exclusive releases, which will be offered for sale by participating retailers at the event.
Following the news last week of two exclusive seven-inch releases from the Beggars stable to mark the day, which intended to celebrate independently-owned music retailers across the globe, Rough Trade East store manager Spencer Hickman has revealed details of five new exclusives. (Read more here.)
Def Jam Launches 25th Anniversary Celebration With Record Store Day Release Of Double Vinyl Set The greatest names in the history of hip-hop, rap and R&B – from LL Cool J and Slick Rick to Rihanna and Kanye West, from Public Enemy and 3rd Bass to Ludacris, Redman and Rick Ross, from Jay-Z to Young Jeezy and dozens more – have made Def Jam Recordings the destination for Urban artists over the past quarter century. Now Island Def Jam Music Group is set to turn up the heat in honor of Def Jam’s 25th anniversary in 2009, starting with the launch of DEF JAM 25.
To help with the celebration of Record Store Day, Def Jam will release a limited edition 4 LP deluxe set. (Read more here.)
“Critics constantly complain that writers are lacking in standards, yet they themselves seem to have no standards other than personal prejudice for literary criticism. (…) such standards do exist. Matthew Arnold set up three criteria for criticism: 1. What is the writer trying to do? 2. How well does he succeed in doing it? (…) 3. Does the work exhibit “high seriousness”? That is, does it touch on basic issues of good and evil, life and death and the human condition. I would also apply a fourth criterion (…) Write about what you know. More writers fail because they try to write about things they don’t know than for any other reason. –William S. Burroughs, ‘A Review of the Reviewers’
I often find myself standing in crowded, dark, feverish clubs–pint in one hand, smudged stamp on the other–looking around. Perhaps just like you. Talking, listening to tongues wagging, wagging, and the current bullshit on the beatbox. I’ve made a career of it for years. You might have as well.
Yet, through the din, when was the last time someone said something to ya…y’know…somewhat enlightened? I know it wasn’t me. I mean, I’ve got a pint to finish.
But how sweet that’d be. A few words strung together with insight and eloquence. Infused with heady danger and tangible truths. I look for this in music all the time. Better when you can sing along to the truths, right?
Yet, I’m in that dark room and for the ten millionth time tapping my toe to the oldies. “I’m in love with the rock and roll world/”I’m in love with the rock and roll world…”
The Beats had it I think. I imagine their conversations were these inspired, wordy, twisty bass lines of hep-dum. Hip-hop dumb. Centered and forceful and mesmerizing. Slick backed hair and rolled up sleeves. Cigs. Tons of cigs. And bourbon.
But as the song goes, born too late. I sorta don’t know REALLY. What WAS I missing? What do I need to know now? Are the truths then the truths now? Is mercurial insight timeless and if so gotta get me some.
Hence, TVD’s Libertine Circle (Allen Ginsberg’s name for the brand of original Beat poets) and a few more days of talky vinyl, man.
After this week, in crowded, dark, feverish clubs–pint in one hand, smudged stamp on the other–you better come at me and bring it.
Inspired, you’ll be.
(Pictured: Peter Orlovsky, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs in a photo by Allen Ginsberg)
I’d been reading Bob Lefsetz the other day when he pontificated, “Can we bring Todd Rundgren back for a victory lap?”
