Monthly Archives: February 2010

Not only is DC’s The Kora Records hosting something of a label showcase at The Black Cat this coming Monday night (2/22) for which we have a pair of tickets, the label’s got an official showcase at SXSW this year which happens at Valhalla on March 2oth.

In what turns out to be a showcase for us, we’ve hit up the label’s acts trekking down to Austin this year for some insight into one of our favorite topics around these parts—record stores. Their favorites, to be exact.

“I used to work at Go! Compact Discs while I was in high school in Arlington. Each employee had a shelf with their name on it where they could stash records they wanted to buy. Most of the time I would sit in a small converted closet and process any new or recently traded stock. This meant that I effectively got first dibs on everything that came in the store… and at a discount no less. I’m sure I wound up spending more money at that place than I ever made, but it remains one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.”

Meredith Bragg – Work and Winter (Mp3)

“My favorite record store would probably have to be Wax ‘n Facts in Atlanta. It was in a fringy part of town I wasn’t allowed to go to in high school, so of course it became my favorite place to hang out. The clerks never gave me the time of day, especially with my stylistic wardrobe choices (overalls, purple Skechers, glitter makeup, etc etc) and highly refined taste in music (not giving this one away.)

Fortunately, even dorks are allowed in record stores, and is because of this that high school remains marginally bearable, at least for some. I doubt that my friends and I are any cooler now than we were then, but at least our record collections are.”

—May Tabol, Pree

Pree – Heaven is a Drag (Mp3)

“I don’t have a favourite record shop any more. They’ve moved or I’ve moved or they’ve closed. I don’t feel attached to one in particular any more. Spinadisc was the first one I knew, it was the only independent record store in Northampton where I grew up. There were always goths and skater kids outside, I was never in those groups.

I used to order in Twisted Nerve Records, I religiously brought everything that came out on that label, A bit like TKR, good record sleeves, once I sent my Mum in to get me the first release by Alfie, the guy in the shop was impressed, thought she knew her stuff – its still one of my favorite ever records. They had a second hand department upstairs which was awful but I used to sell my old CDs by Britpop bands that I’d bought a few years earlier (Cast, Reef(!), Ocean Colour Scene) and buy new 7’s back downstairs. That shops closed now, but I moved first.

Me and Rebekah first lived together in Kensal Green which was about a 20 minute walk from Notting Hill which has Honest Johns, Intoxica, and best of all Rough Trade. Spoilt for choice. Rough Trade West is the best record shop in the world, it just is. I haven’t been there for about 5 years but I know it’s still the best – look at the walls!I brought a bootleg cassette of a live Buzzcocks gig from the punk who had a stall out the front – that was a good tape, I only have the case though now.

We moved to the Holloway Road after a year and were just down the road from Puregroove, that was the first shop that I knew someone that worked in it, which meant I could go in and just hang out when I had days off – good days. Sometimes I filmed instores for them which is the closest I’ve ever come to imagining my dream job of working in a record shop, although I’ve never applied to work in one.

That shops moved now, I still go but its a longer walk, plus its more a bar than a record shop – you need crates or it doesn’t really count.

—Iain Pettifer, Stricken City, Guitarist

Stricken City – Pull The House Down (Skellington Remix) (Mp3)

DC-based acoustic rocker, Adrian “Hardkor” Krygowski celebrates the digital release of his much anticipated new album, Road on the Left, with a full-band release party at the highly acclaimed venue Iota Club & Cafe, in Arlington, VA on February 21st. Opening the evening will be DC’s Molly Hagen and Spelling for Bees Collective’s “Twins of a Gazelle.”

“Road on the Left” was recorded in December/January 2010 at Blue House Studios in Kensington, MD by DC Musicians, Michael Smirnoff on Percussion (No Second Troy, The Blackjacks), Jean Finstad on Bass (Justin Trawick Group), Mark Williams on Guitar (Jonesay), Jon Ozment, Tommy Lepson & Adrian Krygowski.

Five years ago Adrian left a small Minnesota and Wisconsin regional circuit and heartfelt songcraft in the snowy tundra for bigger things. Now, Adrian’s constant pummeling of the Boston, NYC, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Chapel Hill markets have built an extensive catalog and regional following from his five short years based on the East Coast.

Adrian Krygowski – I Found You (Mp3)

Remember Marvel Team Up, the Marvel comic from the 1970’s that brought together Spider Man and another hero of the same ilk to battle injustice? Well, this morning we’ve got our pal Jumbo Slice from DC Rock Club sharing the stage with us, and if there’ any justice, he’ll get you over to Velvet Lounge on Saturday night:

“Greetings from Austin. I heard you’ve had a bit of snow up there in DC. Well, Texas is sending help in the form of La Snacks. Admittedly, they can’t do a damn thing about the Snowmageddon, Snonami, or whatever it’s being called. What they can do is put on a rollicking rock show to help you forgot you’re in the midst of an arctic winter.

I moved from DC to Austin in April of 2008. It wasn’t long after that I discovered La Snacks, stalwarts on the Austin music scene. My first La Snacks show was at Club DeVille in Austin’s Red River District. For me, the band’s appeal was immediate. They put on a boozy live show that had people dancing and singing as the band cracked wise on each other. Normally, I’m not a fan of stage banter but lead singer Robert Segovia was so engaging and hilarious that I didn’t mind one bit. It was amusing to hear him explain his lyrics which span everything from the trade deficit with China to Jesse Jackson’s run for the presidency in 1988.

Another reason I’m such a fan is their loose sound resembles the best groups from my college years. La Snacks’ smart ass slacker vibe draws frequent comparisons to Archers of Loaf, Pavement, Superchunk, and other college radio darlings of the late ’90s. Segovia’s yowling vocal delivery wouldn’t get him far on American Idol but it’s a perfect fit for his wry and cynical lyrics.

La Snacks represents much of what I love about Austin. They both laid-back, smart, and fun-loving. If that sounds good to you, check out the band when they play Velvet Lounge this Saturday.”

La Snacks – The Circle Argument (Mp3)
La Snacks – Meteorologist (Mp3)
La Snacks – Jackson 88 (Mp3)

As if you didn’t load up on the vinyl enough yesterday, we’re back this morning with Week 2 of our Record Store Day 2010 Vinyl Giveaways and this week it’s the new one from Magnetic Fields, Realism.

Magnetic Fields’ third Nonesuch disc, Realism, is the flipside to the industrial pop of Distortion, the quartet’s brilliant 2008 homage to, of all things, the clangorous sound of the Jesus and Mary Chain. While Distortion was recorded quickly and noisily in the stairwells and rooms of the New York City apartment building to which singer-songwriter-bandleader Stephen Merritt was about to bid adieu for California, Realism was cut in the distortion-free environs of a Los Angeles studio, and its sound is as pristine as a plein-air painting.

There are no drum kits to be heard, and the fascinatingly varied instrumentation – guitars, accordions, violins, cellos, tablas, banjos, tuba, even a smattering of mellifluous falling leaves – did not need to be plugged in. And, as with Distortion, the album credits emphasize: No Synths.

The rules can’t be any simpler: each Monday for the next nine weeks we’ll be launching a new RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway and all you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week’s giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week’s LP.

Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can’t track ya’ down, you’re out of the running. Winners will be notified upon the launch of the next giveaway next Monday!

Now, have at it…

There’s a classic trope that says songs are only songs if you can play them on acoustic guitar, and that if you rely on production tricks, feedback, electronics, and other such affrontery, that the song isn’t *real.* (In fact, I remember Jawbox contemporaries Edsel specifically trying to write songs that you couldn’t play on acoustic guitar.)

Can you play a Jawbox song on acoustic guitar? I’m a big enough fan that I can assure you yes, you can, but we’ll find out for sure this coming Friday at our next Story/Stereo event, when J. Robbins himself, joined by cellist Gordon Withers, will play songs spanning his catalog.

We’re thrilled and honored to have J. for the fourth Story/Stereo—it almost feels like a culminating event—and urge you to join us, because this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often.

In point of fact, J. has never done this before.

Get to The Writer’s Center early (before the 8:00 start time if you can swing it), not only to hear readings from authors Marianne Villanueva (*Mayor of Roses*) and Steve Fellner (*All Screwed Up*), but because there are only so many chairs in the place.

—Matthew Byars, The Caribbean, co-curator, Story/Stereo

Per our previous Story/Stereo features, we’ve asked one of the evening’s musicians, cellist Gordon Withers, to reflect upon an epiphany. Of the vinyl variety. —Ed.

Swervedriver – Ejector Seat Reservation (1995, Creation)

“For me, vinyl is a lot like watching a movie in 3-D. It’s the next best thing to actually being there. If I can’t see the band in person then I want to hear them on vinyl. Seriously, the fact that the music is physically being played and that needle is dancing along those tiny, little grooves… there’s just something really honest and authentic about that. I mean you don’t even need electronics to play it!

And of course there’s something really iconic about a vinyl record. Artists want to win platinum records and not platinum mp3’s for a reason. From a visual perspective alone it can’t be beat and the sleeves on vinyl are to be missed. Having that much space to look at and display makes them pieces of art in their own rite. It’s something you’d be proud to listen to and hang on your wall. Physically, it’s really nice to be able to hold some music in your hand that big. I truly believe that music has lost a lot of its prestige and value since it has become so small and convenient.

It’s a lot like getting hand-written letters in the mail. I get emails all the time but rarely ever receive a written letter from any of my friends anymore. Occasionally though, when you do, it really makes you smile. You can almost feel the writer when you read it and the message feels just a little bit closer to you. Vinyl is a lot like that. And I dig it.”

Alex Gruenburg – Put On Your Shades (Mp3)

Grab Alex’s full EP here!

Methinks if John Lennon were still kicking around, we’d have this bit of canny song craft perfection on the regular—if he were in top form, that is.

A former member of bands like The Ruby Suns (Sub Pop), The Brunettes and The Reduction Agents as well as a touring member of Okkervil River, Lawrence Arabia—the savant-like songwriting alter ego of James Milne—is shedding his sideman status and stepping alone into the bright light of the U.S. music scene with Chant Darling.

The album is his first full-length on Bella Union, the UK-based label credited with discovering hallmark influencers Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Beach House and Explosions in the Sky among others.

Already receiving four-star reviews from UK tastemakers like Mojo and Uncut, Chant Darling melds irreverent lyrics with West Coast melodies and lush harmonies, playing like a modern take on the work of classic popsmiths like Jonathan Richman, John Lennon and Brian Wilson.

The first single from Chant Darling ‘Apple Pie Bed,’ received New Zealand’s highest songwriting honor the Silver Scroll award this past September.

Lawrence Arabia – Apple Pie Bed (Mp3)

The last time I saw Sesshin No-Fi was during Art-O-Matic last year. It was their first gig together and the band consisted of a drummer, a guy with some turn tables, and a bassist. Many months have passed since that first gig on the first floor of a vacant building down near the waterfront and with those months some changes have been made—mainly in the form of a new drummer and the addition of a guy whose skills are translated through a drum machine and some synth programming.

This week is a pretty big week for Sesshin No-Fi. Last night they opened for Phantogram, who have sold out a few shows on their tour, at DC9. If you missed it you have a few more extremely groovy opportunities to see them this week in our nation’s capital.

I guess the best way to describe the group’s sound is in its own words: “Sesshin is a Japanese terms that translates to “one mind” and is used by Zen Buddhists to describe periods of intense meditation. Experienced practitioners have reported feelings of inner calm and a heightening of the senses. No-Fi is a combination of the genres No Wave and Lo-Fi and is a term used to describe media created outside of conventional standards. No-Fi is an extraordinarily diverse aesthetic, covering many mediums other than just music, such as video manipulation.”

I’ve been told by one of its members that their sound has really come together since the addition of the new members and that at their last show at Iota some really awesome music was made. Perhaps the coolest thing about Sesshin No-Fi is that their sets are often improvised with new independent sounds being created by four individuals that come together to form hypnotic engaging music that seems to be all too rare in DC. For some reason the sound goes well with these cold snowy nights we continue to be hit with.

Their next two shows sound like a pretty fantastic ride. Tonight they’ll be playing at The Fridge, a gallery and performance arts space located in Eastern Market, for its Dinner Party event which showcases “experimental dance, music and performance art.” For its gig at the Fridge Sesshin No-Fi will be doing an audio/visual installation with a 30 minute ambient set. Local artist Monica Stroik will be accompanying them with live video projection as well. As for Wednesday, the group will be opening up for Demivolt at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room and will again be accompanied by Monica Stork and I am told it will be an all-out “funk throwdown.”

Sesshin No-Fi – Movement 1 (Mp3)
Sesshin No-Fi – Movement 2 (Mp3)
Sesshin No-Fi – Ft. Ted Zook (Mp3)

Thao and the ever-versatile Get Down Stay Down (Adam Thompson on bass, keys and additional guitar, and Willis Thompson on drums and percussion) return with the follow up to their critically lauded and riotously applauded previous album, “We Brave Bee Stings and All”, the breakout success and best-selling record of 2008 for Kill Rock Stars.

With super-producer and friend Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell, Spoon) again at the helm, Know Better Learn Faster perfectly captures the band as their more mature, tastefully raucous, tastefully subdued and musically adventurous selves.

…and we have the first track from Know Better Learn Faster:

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down – When We Swam (Mp3)

The machinations of the recording industry amaze me. Once upon a time there was a set of well honored rules—but the old game’s been beset with a myriad of game changers in the name of modernity in all its forms and fashions.

So, fine. Adjust or perish, I say.

Some hints for the music industry at large this week (and one that personally strikes a chord here:)

#5. Get the hell out of the way of the blogs. | They’re the last bastion of promotion for you at this point—unless you secure an iPod commercial or a track on ‘The Hills.” (And if you do, you arrive neutered.)

Our pal whiteray has had his blog shut down twice over copyright violations for posting vinyl rips of old and widely unavailable LPs and 45’s—stuff dating from the 60’s and 70’s. Forget that he was honoring the bands or the recordings long dormant. If you’re the copyright holder, wouldn’t a little dust kicked up in your name be a good thing…perhaps people seek out and buy one of these old tracks from the new delivery systems?

Google unceremoniously shut down a host of music bloggers last week with blogs just like this one. Some posting obscure new genres of music and others semi-mainstream like TVD.

The rub is that those who were shut down were granted permission to host and post Mp3s from the labels, the promotions people, or the bands themselves, but internal communication was spotty between the players resulting in complaints filed and the subsequent deletion of their blogs—often without cogent warnings or explanations.

Scary, hm?

Labels and PR firms now have teams of coordinators reaching out to the blogs and we hear from them everyday. The Vinyl District which once posted Mp3 rips of obscure and not so obscure stuff has evolved (devolved?) into a roughly 90% sanctioned enterprise by posting music OK’d by whichever arm of the business is supporting and promoting an act.

Seemingly however, this is no longer enough to not warrant a bomb dropping via the old guard screaming copyright infringement. Should we be threatened with extinction when playing ball altogether?

Old guard, bloggers are the last ones disseminating your output. Remember that when everything goes silent around you—including the cash registers.

(Typically we’d add some tracks here…but silence seems to feel appropriate today.)

…courtesy of photographer Matt Dunn.

Additional coverage via ReadySetDC right here.
Additional coverage via DCist right here.
The Washington City Paper debates the turnout here.

Touring behind their most recent release ‘Communion’ and in advance of a brand new 3-track digital EP, Swedes The Soundtrack of Our Lives storm The Black Cat this Thursday night (2/18) along with Nico Vega and we’ve got a pair of tickets to attend the show ( …because, every now and then you need to pull yourselves away from the turntable and interact with other people, right?)

Pen your homage to the band and inspire us with your soundtrack (or social interaction in general) in the comments to this post and we’ll choose a winner who suitably inspires us by COB Wednesday for the tickets to the show. (Simple, yes?)

Leave us contact info too!

At last count, 1,460 people came through the doors of The Black Cat today for the 4th DC Record Fair. We thank you all, The Black Cat, and the DJ’s for an amazing day. The first shots are in courtesy Kyle Gustafson.

We’ll see you in the morning when we’re back at it…more vinyl giveaways, we’ve got some tickets, and a thought or five on the music industry as it stands or falls around us. Right now, there’s a pint with my name onnit.

DJ Schedule: Bluebrain 12:00 – 1:00 | Geologist 1:00 – 2:00 | Kid Congo Powers 2:00 – 3:00 | Eric Hilton 3:00 – 4:00 | Ian MacKaye 4:00 – 5:00 | Casper Bangs 5:00 – 6:00

What better way to show someone that their taste in music has you swooning than you and he or she joining us on Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14 from noon to 6PM for a little rummage through the crates. Thirty dealers from up and down the East Coast worth of crates at the DC Record Fair!

And yes, yes…we heard your gripes in the past…TOO crowded…had to wait in lines, too cramped…etc., etc. But fret not! Our first Record Fair of 2010 lands at The Black Cat so you have plenty of room to rummage and roam and refresh. We heard you, ok?

All of this on a President’s Day Weekend so if you, y’know, over indulge (wallet and gullet) you’ll have Monday to dream it all away.

Click here to download the Record Fair Poster designed by our friend El Jefe to plaster all over your bedroom or blog. We’re printing a ridiculously short run of these which will be available at the show. If we get a wildly enthusiastic comment to this post, we’ll award one to one person who shows up in person to claim it.

So, we’ll see you Sunday, February 14th from noon to 6 at The Black Cat, right? Brought to you by your pals at Som Records, DC Soul Recordings, and us!

If you’re on Facebook, you can RSVP right here.

We’d like to thank The Watson Twins for spending the snowy week with us here at TVD. They’ve got some parting thoughts and some parting tracks streaming via lala for a change this week. (…for reasons we’ll get into next week. Oh, yes we will.)

So we have reached the end of the week for “The Watson Twins Vinyl District Takeover.” It has been a pleasure to post on some of the things that make our little world go round. We’ve shared inspirations and favorite locations, songs that tickle our eardrums and emerging new sounds. There’s a lot going on at the moment, with the release of “Talking To You, Talking To Me”… but by hosting The Vinyl District for the week, we have been able to reflect on why we continue to write and record songs.

Lots and lots of beautiful music being made in this world and blogs like this one help to keep people informed about underground stuff on the level. It’s always amazing to discover new songs or artists that perhaps we would have never found if not for folks on the web scouring every vault, nook and cranny and posting it for all to hear.

Lots and lots of beautiful music being made in this world and blogs like this one help to keep people informed about underground stuff on the level. It’s always amazing to discover new songs or artists that perhaps we would have never found if not for folks on the web scouring every vault, nook and cranny and posting it for all to hear.

That being said we’d like to end our last day here at The Vinyl District with a little play list we put together. Being twins we also share a lot of the same taste in music and that taste is very diverse… as I’m sure you can see from the songs we’ve picked. We hope that through our posts, maybe y’all have discovered some music that is gonna be in constant rotation on your turntable. Signing off…
xo-TWT