Monthly Archives: January 2010

TVD Two Word Review: Absolutely fantastic.

Official site right here.

The Mynabirds – Numbers Don’t Lie (Mp3)

Oh, we love press releases. And that’s all you’re gonna get with these ‘Fresh Picks’ to speed these along and to …uh, to keep ’em fresh.

“Following Guillemots 2008 album Red, mercurial singer-songwriter Fyfe Dangerfield used the window of time created to spread his wings and lovingly record his beautiful debut solo album ‘Fly Yellow Moon.’

Fyfe recorded the album in five days in what he describes as ‘the best ever little studio’, which ended up being the happiest days he has ever spent in studio land. The songs were written over a 12-month period in snatched moments after soundchecks, before nights out, and after moments of unmitigated lovestruck bliss.

He met up with Bernard Butler to mix a couple of songs (“She Needs Me,” “Faster Than The Setting Sun”) on a 1960s-mixing desk to color the record in a different shade. The rest of the tracks remained just as they were from their first recording session. “It often sounded best this way, says Fyfe. “Capturing the moment they were recorded and not being painted over too much.” “

Fyfe Dangerfield – When You Walk In The Room (Mp3)

We post – you decide! (Although we think this is great.)

I know this blog’s read from Athens to Zurich (really, I check the stats) but do we have any readers in, uh…Baltimore? Well, we’re about to find out because we have a pair of tickets to check out Langhorne Slim along with April Smith, this Friday night at Ottobar in our sister city to the north.

Raise your hand in the comments to this post, jump up and down, do what you need to grab our attention if you’re in Baltimore (or willing to hit the road) for what’s certain to be a fine night of music. Leave us some contact info too. We’ll choose a winner Friday morning. Now, get going, hon.

Langhorne Slim – Say Yes (Mp3)
April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Colors (Mp3)

Sockets Records only came onto my radar about 2 years ago as they quietly—or at least as it seemed to me—amassed a local roster of diverse and eclectic talent. But hell, they’re five years old and in celebration of this auspicious birth date, the label is hosting a showcase this Friday that label founder Sean Peoples elaborates upon below. Afterward, we’re talking to all five bands this week about one of my favorite topics—album covers.

Sockets Records is marking its 5 year anniversary with a huge showcase blowout at the Black Cat this Friday (January 22, 2010) and The Vinyl District graciously asked us to take over the blog for the week and feature the 5 bands playing the showcase. Needless to say, we couldn’t be more excited to oblige.

Sockets started off of as a small label at the end of 2004/beginning of 2005, issuing limited quantities of sound experiments by friends. Over the years, the label grew to accommodate an increase in output and creativity of said friends. Now the label maintains 10 active bands and aims to highlight a music scene once again thriving in our nation’s capital.

The bands playing Friday’s Black Cat showcase are an eclectic bunch – a reflection of the myriad sounds emanating from Washington, DC. From the conscious hip-hop of The Cornel West Theory to the experimental post-punk of Imperial China, you can get a good sense of the unique styles one can find on Sockets Records this Friday night.

Whether I’m traveling through the mystical unworldly environments of Roger Dean (yes!) or getting caught deep within the simple surrealistic concepts of Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin) album covers have always held a magnetic force for my album gripping.

Not only are they usually my initial introduction to the musical world I’m about to dive into, they also create there own realities where the music can take me. Ultimately though nothing speaks louder then the stoic portrait of a single artist on the cover of an album. It’s almost as if your looking into a morphed mirror of who will embody you as the record spins.

Though usually this approach is mostly associated with the jazz world – i.e. Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, etc – it was also wildly popular within the folk world as well – i.e. Blonde on Blonde or First Songs by Mike Hurley. For me, there’s no bolder introduction then the silence of a single face staring unknowingly towards oblivion.
—Britton Powell (HUME)

HUME – Grip (Mp3)

Our pal Jess and her BFF Alex Gruenburg take the stage over at DC9 tonight as openers for Young Buffalo…and, uh… is it just me or are they looking forward to it?

Ladies,
Where have all our rock & roll idols gone? Have they gone the way of tape cassettes, record players, and beta tapes? I think not. Like any good man, the best of them are always hardest to find. You see girls, cute boys are one thing, but cute boys who write and sing rock & roll songs that you can’t stop dancing to to…? *swoon* Um, have I introduced you to Alex Gruenburg? Little did you know Washington, DC has it’s very own personal rock star and after you see him play, you’re probably going to want his poster on your wall. Apparently, The Beatles’ songwriting had a baby with Elvis Presley’s swagger and someone left it on James Brown’s doorstep and named it Alex Gruenburg. Girls, I encourage all you to put on your shortest skirt and your sexiest pair of dancing shoes and come out to see DC’s finest at DC9 on Monday, January 18th because Alex and I are having a good ol’ fashioned Boy/Girl Party. *wink, wink* Come out early and get ready to bat some lashes because I’m pretty sure that a few introductions are in order…)
Love,
Jess

Gentlemen,
Do you remember your first crush? You know, that girl that kept you up at night because you just couldn’t stop thinking about the way she had looked at you that day. She tosses her hair back, smiles at you and all of the sudden you’re butter on toast. Yea.. we’ve all been through those times and honestly I thought I was over it. I thought that. And then I met Jessica Louise Dye. Not just any girl, she’s the singer and sexy frontman for Lightfoot. And let me tell you, Zooey Deschanel ain’t got nothing on this. Lightfoot sounds like your first date played back through a 45’ as you wake up on Sunday morning to breakfast in bed. Is it going to rock your face off? No. Is Jessica going to have to get a restraining order against you after you see her in concert? Probably. Washington DC must have asked for a indie boy’s wet dream for Christmas because that’s what it got. I’d advise you to put on your skinniest pair of jeans and skinniest tie you can find and head out to DC9 on Monday, January 18th. Lightfoot and me are putting on a sexy, sexy Boy/Girl party and she’ll be opening up the night. So make sure you get there early! How are you supposed to hit on her if you didn’t even see her set?
Love,
Alex

Ladies & Gentlemen,
Pen your love letter to our cute couple in the comments to this post by 5PM today and the one that has us swooning the most will win a pair of tickets for tonight’s Boy/Girl party. Remember to leave us some contact info!
Love,
The Vinyl District

Photo: Joel Didriksen for kingpinphoto.com

In addition to The Subs swag left behind by Blake and John for you guys, they’ve aslo assembled your Parting Shots for the week. Because they’re givers.

John’s five:
Johnny Osbourne – Love Makes the World Go Round (Mp3)
The Clash – Safe European Home (Mp3)
Aphex Twin – Girl/Boy (Mp3)
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever [Take 25, Instrumental] (Mp3)
Love – Everybody’s Gotta Live (Mp3)

Blake’s five:
Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies (Mp3)
Feist and Grizzly Bear – Service Bell (Mp3)
Nico – These Days (Mp3)
El Perro del Mar – Somebody’s Baby (Mp3)
Elvis Perkins – Hey (Mp3)

I admit I was a little late getting into TVD HQ this morning. We were up late last night hammering together details for the DC Record Fair and reviewing the final poster art, so I was unable to see The Submarines, Blake and John, off as we wind down their big blog takeover week.

They had tidied up the office quite nicely and tossed out all the pizza boxes and empty bottles which is always appreciated. And they’ve left a little something behind for TVD readers and Subs fans.

We’ve got a great litho, a portion of which is shown below, and a rare, unreleased remix CD of their second record ‘Honeysuckle Weeks’ for three of you who pipe up to claim the set in the comments to this post. We’ll give ya a week and leave us some contact info too, ok?

Track listing for the remix CD: 1940 (AmpLive Remix), You, Me & The Bourgeoisie (Tonetiger Remix), Brightest Hour (Morgan Page Remix), Submarines Symphonika (Ra Ra Riot Remix), You, Me & the Bourgeoisie (Alaska In Winter Remix), Submarine Symphonika (Wallpaper Remix), Brightest Hour (Free the Robots Remix), Xavia (Stryofoam Remix), 1940 (Sub’s Section Quartet Mix)

Ryan from Bluebrain kicks it off:

“In the run-up to our free show at The Fridge this Saturday (1/16) and to our first album release, ‘Soft Power’ next month, The Vinyl District has asked us to do something a little different.

Some of you may have taken part in our boombox performance in October…in short, we wrote a piece of music called ‘Cakeblood’ and bounced each track onto a different cassette tape, over 30 in all. Each of those were placed in one of the provided boomboxes.

We did a countdown, pressed play at the same time, and walked around the city as the piece played in (relative) synchronicity. The Vinyl District has requested that we do something similar that readers could try at home or in their office. So we’ve put together a short piece called ‘The Last Place You Look’.

It’s a little over 4 minutes long and only contains 4 distinct parts. All you need is a few computers with internet connection and the ability to download and play sound from each of them. So when your boss is out to lunch, you and three coworkers in neighboring cubicles can fill the office with an unexpected musical interlude.

It’s very easy. Each person should download one of the 4 links below, load in iTunes, and press pause when it’s at the beginning. Designate a member of your group to do a countdown and, on ‘Go’, everyone clicks play. Remember, if your computer is not playing music right away, fret not. Not every track starts right out of the gate.

Thank you and enjoy!”

Bluebrain – The Last Place You Look [Track 1] (Mp3)
Bluebrain – The Last Place You Look [Track 2] (Mp3)
Bluebrain – The Last Place You Look [Track 3] (Mp3)
Bluebrain – The Last Place You Look [Track 4] (Mp3)

Oh, riiight. The contest.

Any one of you who can prove you pulled this off—at work, or at home, or at Tryst, even – YouTube video or what have you—will get an autographed copy of the debut CD and a shit ton of bragging rights. (The show is free, after all.)

You have ’til Friday and we needn’t say it but, …’em—make it great.

…and we have a winner!

Press Release!

The Brian Jonestown Massacre is back and set to release their tenth studio album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? on February 23rd. The 13-track album was recorded throughout 2009 in Iceland and Berlin and features Spaceman 3 legend Will Carruthers on bass, vocalist Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir and a variety of international musicians contributing textures not previously heard on a BJM album. It is to be released on bandleader Anton Newcombe’s own label, “a recordings LTD”, distributed though Red Eye.

The album marks the return of guitarist/vocalist Matt Hollywood, an original member/co-founder of the band who helped write some of the BJM’s classic material from their early albums (Strung Out In Heaven, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man, Spacegirl & Other Oddities, Give It Back) as well as penning the infamous dig at the Dandy Warhols, “Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth”.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Let’s Go Fucking Mental (Mp3)

If you want to go to a rock show and be home in time to watch Leno (wait… what time is Leno on?!) Julian Casablancas is your man.

The Strokes frontman, 31 year-old Julian Casablancas, dropped by the 9:30 club last night (Tues) to play his entire first first solo LP, ‘Phrazes for the Young’ to a sold-out show consisting mainly of mid-twenties Baltimorians. The entire LP (including the bonus track) is a only 43 minutes long and even by throwing in a new song and a Strokes cover (I’ll Try Anything Once) the show was over by 10:30pm.

Despite the brevity, however, Casablancas was able to bring his cigarette-raspy, super-sexy and unmistakable Strokes voice to the legendary club along with his new-found 70’s analog synth sound. When writing for The Strokes, Casablancas has mentioned that he’s always written songs first on the keyboard then translated these into guitar tunes whereas with ‘Phrazes’, it seems he never made it to the guitar (which, by no means, is a bad thing).

Julian was quite the funny-man, cracking jokes and singing improvised DC jingles while his drummers kick-drum was fixed. Mr. C even jumped into the crowd several times to the delight of many a young professional who got to touch the legendary icon. The show, although super short, was fantastic indeed.

As you probably know, the Strokes album “Is This It” was named the number one album of the entire decade by NME magazine! Quite the achievement. Although the band has not officially broken up they have been ‘on-hiatus’ since their third album, ‘First Impressions of Earth’ in 2006. Based on several interviews it seems the possibility of a fourth album remains…

Apparently Julian was rockin a way-cool 80’s-esque leather jacket too… but unfortunately I was too fricken short to see!

Julian Casablancas – Out of the Blue (Mp3)
Julian Casablancas – 30 Minute Boyfriend (Bonus Track) (Mp3)
Dangermouse and Sparklehorse (feat. J. Casablancas) – Little Girl (Mp3)
Courtney Love – But Julian, I’m a Little Older Than You (Mp3)

The Vinyl District is excited to announce that for the second year running, we’ve been named the Official Blog for Record Store Day 2010. We’ll be the first to break news as the bands and labels line up unique releases for RSD2010 and we’ll have the inside line on the day’s events happening around the country (and around the globe) which we’ll bring to you.

“Record Store Day is happy to be working with The Vinyl District again this year. Last year we released almost 100 unique vinyl releases just for Record Store Day and look forward to making some exciting announcements with The Vinyl District in the coming weeks and months. Look for the debut vinyl release from Broken Bells (featuring Brian Burton – aka Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer) in your local record store in the next couple of weeks,” Michael Kurtz, the co-founder of Record Store Day wrote to us last week.

In addition to being the breaking RSD2010 news source as we were last year, The Vinyl District will once more be counting down to the event on April 17, 2010 with TEN straight weeks of vinyl giveaways, so keep checking back each week for a chance to take some vinyl home.

In the planning stage at the moment is something pretty huge for the evening of Record Store Day here in DC that we’re not at liberty discuss at the moment. (Big benefit concert. *cough* Big venue. *cough* DC’s best bands. *cough*) But you heard nuthin’.

All of us here TVD HQ are thrilled to be working with the Record Store Day team for another year. Be certain to check out the official site and to pop back our way for all of the the up to the minute RSD2010 info as we march toward the event on April 17, 2010—the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music.

So, it’s our first ‘First Date’ for 2010 and appropriately enough, with …The Hussy. (Here’s to poetic justice.)

The Madison, WI band will see their split 7″ (with The Zygoteens) released tomorrow, January 14th, on Big Action Records and will be doing four release shows in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Appleton.

…and they’ll send you one if you impress us sufficiently in the comments to this post. No foolin’. Whatcha got?

We chatted with guitarist Robert Wegner in advance of the 7″ release:

We at the Hussy dig vinyl for a number of reasons, most notably the fact that it’s the perfect format for a simple band like the Hussy. We’re into short burst of punk energy, and what better format than the 7 inch? It’s the perfect length for us. A CD is way too long. We need the warmth and the crackles of the vinyl to fill in the missing bass frequencies, and we need the grit of a blasting stylus to fill out the sound even more.

But we also don’t bow down at the throne of a piece of vinyl or it’s perceived perfection of audio reproduction; we just think it’s a format that works for this band, much in the same way the CD is a perfect format for the countless pop-tart singers that clog the modern day radio waves. They sound clean and pristine on CD just like at their arena concerts – and we sound dirty and raw, just like at our hole-in-the-wall dive shows. Vinyl offers us that opportunity: to get the sound to the listener as if they’re in the middle of an overblown Hussy set.

Plus…they make great frisbees.

The Hussy – Social Critique of Madison (Mp3)
The Hussy – Head Set (Mp3)

Our new pal Olivia Mancini brings her Mates and her thoroughly tuneful live show to DC9 this Thursday evening (1/14) along with Fredericksburg’s Vermillions and Philly’s The Extraordinaires.

Think you deserve to be front and center Thursday night? Olivia’s given TVD a pair of tickets to offer the individual who pleads their case and hits the right note in the comments to this post. Give us something we can sing along with, ok?

You’ve got ’til Thursday morning so get at us with some contact info!

Olivia Mancini & the Mates – Easy Way (Mp3)
Olivia Mancini & the Mates – Cranberry & Navy Blue (Mp3)

The Submarines’ ‘Honeysuckle Weeks’ pulled off one of those rare feats here at TVD HQ back in ‘08. A CD copy (egad!) was mailed to us by the label and quietly found its way wending though our collective psyche with its sunny, bubbly tunesmithery…and stayed there for quite a while as we basked in its glow.

While we await its follow-up, Blake Hazard and John Dragonetti, the duo that is The Subs, will be hanging around our office all week delving into their back pages and cuddling up with our turntable as we turn TVD over to them.

It’s The Submarines’ Vinyl District this week. We just work here.

John’s up first today:

I know this blog is about vinyl, but…. As a kid growing up in Dubai in the 70’s and 80’s, there weren’t many options for buying records in the early days. Some of the older kids would bring back vinyl from the States, but I hadn’t quite reached the age where it really mattered to me.

However, there was no shortage of cassettes, mostly pirated in places like the Phillipines or Lebanon. You could walk in to a “tape shop”, spend 100 dirhams (about 30 bucks) and leave with twenty-five albums. And it didn’t matter if ten of them sucked. The tapes were stacked floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall and the selection was mostly tacky British and American chart pop. But, there was a surprising assortment of punk, new wave, reggae and—funny enough—Southern rock from the States. Tons of Bollywood soundtracks, too. It really was a candy store. Of plastic.

One band that was huge in Dubai—and superstars in almost every part of the world except the America—was Boney M. I think I must have been in fourth or fifth grade. Suffice it to say, I fucking LOVED the song, “Daddy Cool.”

This video is awesome, too. Pretty saucey stuff for a kid….but a radical disco track.

Then… everything changed when I saw this:

It was all about the blood. Which then led to this:

Bon Scott’s voice freaked me out, but, with a cover like that it didn’t matter. They were my no. 2 for at least a year.

My obsession with KISS led to my first purchase of vinyl. I had no idea who they were. Didn’t know how many records they had released, or if they were even still together. (We usually got our pop culture several years after the fact, and Kojak re-runs dubbed in Arabic were a personal favorite.) In any case, my dad had to go to Hong Kong for business at that time, and I made him promise that he would buy me a KISS record.

I didn’t even own a turntable.

Boney M – Daddy Cool (Mp3)
Boney M – Ma Baker (Mp3)
KISS – Hotter Than Hell (Mp3)
Space – Sweet Home Alabama (Mp3)

Matt Morris sent TVD a video he filmed for us while dropping off his debut release ‘When Everything Breaks Open’ at the local record shop he likes to call home. Matt’s signed to Justin Timberlake’s label Tennman Records and Justin produced the album with Charlie Sexton, the legendary Austin, TX native and Bob Dylan axe man.

“This is a short video I made for my favorite independent record store, Twist n’ Shout (based in Denver, CO). They carry a ton of hard to find albums and truly support local artists. So support your local indie record store everyone!”

Matt Morris – Just Before The Morning (Mp3)