Monthly Archives: October 2010

By day, John Stirratt and Pat Sansone are members of rock standard-bearers Wilco, but for over a decade the pair have fronted passion project The Autumn Defense, whose Yep Roc release ‘Once Around’ hits stores on November 2nd.

John joins us today with a few thoughts on—you guessed it—vinyl.

Cool older sisters. The unsung muses that launched a thousand bands. I can still see the Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy poster, feel the shag pile underfoot as I asked for the umpteenth time what the significance of this POW bracelet was. “Well, it’s a remembrance of a soldier who is captured over there, and if he’s returned home, you break it in half.” Over where? Breaking the bracelet was fine, but don’t touch the record player, and I’m sorry, but you’re a little too young to handle the… records.

These records Elizabeth had were not groundbreaking – at the very least MOR: Beatles, Queen, Stones, James Taylor, Elton… but the time spent in that room staring a hole into the jacket, spending large amounts of time listening to what was the real golden age of analogue recording – that was a shared, communal experience that so many people of my and earlier generations had in common, and for different reasons, what later generations didn’t.

The experience wasn’t only about ‘simpler times’ – it seemed long gone even during the pre-internet /gaming mid to late 80’s when it seemed that stereos got crappier, listening went inside the car. It had something to do with the large artifact of vinyl, the visual.

My first record: Band on the Run – 1973, and I remember growing up in the New Orleans area and hearing the single alongside other regional hits on the radio – ‘They All Asked for You’ by the Meters was all the rage that Carnival season in February-March 1975, but I guess local NO radio was still playing ‘Jet’ a year later. Anyway, I asked my parents for it – and they got it for me. I still have it, and I feel like I’m in a time machine looking at the 3-peice Wings, with the coffee-stained passports and pre-mullet do’s.

It’s hard for someone who grew up with vinyl LPs to not be nostalgic about the medium, but the fact that the technology remains superior – even with higher sample rates – is some weird comfort to me, that things weren’t improved upon. And like the streetcar, it remains an example of perhaps a slower paced, but richer point in time.

The Autumn Defense – Back of My Mind (Mp3)
Approved for download!

If you thought for a moment you wouldn’t get an opportunity to grab Jukebox the Ghost’s brand new Everything Under The Sun on vinyl—well, you’d be mistaken. We indeed have a copy to give away to one of you. First up however, the official background-y stuff via Yep Roc:

“Jukebox the Ghost have passionate fans. Fans who’ve gone so far as to tattoo the band’s name on their body or drive for days to see their shows, or post lovesick monologues dedicated to their glory on YouTube. Through a dogged work ethic and near-obsessive touring — headlining and alongside heavyweights like Ben Folds and Adam Green (The Moldy Peaches) — the band managed to sell over 10,000 copies of their debut album and cultivated the aforementioned rabid fan base.

Now, with a fully developed sound and a songwriting and live performance approach seasoned by hundreds upon hundreds of gigs, the band are set to turn heads with sophomore effort Everything Under the Sun, produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National). The trio is looking to spread their gospel of hook-stuffed, melody rich pop to the world at large. Beatles and Brit pop influences abound on Everything and the band provides a nod to those influences with their attention to filling the album with great songs beginning to end, not building an album around just a few great tracks. In the words of Yep Roc Records co-founder Glenn Dicker, “Most records have three great songs, this one has 11.”

Now it’s time for your schpiel. Sell us on sending you Everything Under the Sun, in the comments to this post, and the most convincing one of the bunch will find the LP on his or her doorstep. You’ve got a week to conjure your missive to us—we’ll close this one next Thursday, 10/21 and don’t forget to leave us a contact email address!

Jukebox the Ghost – Empire (Mp3)
Approved for download!

We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the fantastic Elizabeth and the Catapult open for Jukebox the Ghost this coming Saturday night (10/16) at the Black Cat. So, if you were to enter and win our ticket contest for the show, you’d find yourself with a pretty sweet two-fer.

We’ve got the new single from their brand new release ‘The Other Side of Zero’ below and check out our First Date with the band here.

Elizabeth and the Catapult – You & Me (Mp3)
Approved for download!

In a bit of synchronicity with Yep Roc Week here on the blog, Jukebox the Ghost have a bit of a homecoming show this coming Saturday night (10/16) at the Black Cat, and wouldn’t you know, Yep Roc’s given us a pair of tickets to give to one of you.

Let us know why you should be chosen for the pair of tickets in the comments to this post and the most convincing of the bunch will take home the pair.

You need to act fast though—we need to close this one out on Friday (10/15) at noon—and remember to leave us a contact email address with your entry.

Remember, we’ve teamed up with ReadysetDC for all of our ticket giveaways so you can enter to win either here at TVD or at ReadysetDC.

Polyvinyl Heart
I have been wondering for well over ten years now why my father hasn’t invested in a more structurally sound, or at least a more youthful bookshelf to house his precious record collection that is nearly double my age (I am currently 24 years old) and easily seven times my size.

I’m not boasting – I’m sure your dad was hip too in his day. My point here is really just that the shelves of this bookcase are sinking at the middle. Think about the material value, not to mention the perfectly-aged nostalgia that could be shattered from such faulty shelving in the event of a sudden polyvinyl avalanche! You know, this unassuming piece of furniture has continually made me more nervous, more frightened, than the Fung Wah bus I am writing this from ever has (except for that time one flipped over while my dad was aboard, but that’s a story for a different shelf.)

Perhaps there is hidden meaning in these saggy old shelves. They have lost their youth but still remain standing, rather, shelving, to fulfill their duty: To protect the music of decades past and it’s cathartic, turbulent, funny, erotic, and revolutionary message and to ‘carry that weight a long time’…

Now to bring things up to speed (45 or 33 rpm? I can never remember)… if we want a record today we have a serious decision to make: CD, LP, or Mp3s (the last being the most environmentally friendly and hence preferred method of music listening for ecoterrorists, despite the fact that digital avalanches are the leading annual cause of music loss and pose a far greater threat to music collectors than does the much rarer occurrence of a Polyvinyl Catastrophe (see above.)

Well before I was wearing opaque the once reflective back of Rancid’s “…And Out Come The Wolves” or pondering over the context of the word “beaver” in Adam Sandler’s “They’re All Gonna Laugh At You”, there was my dad’s red-convertible-mixtape. During a period of my childhood it seemed the only suitable soundtrack for a journey in my father’s red Pontiac convertible was his favorite (and my favorite) mixtape – and the stereo blasted and the rooftop remained down despite the drizzle that any traditional parent would take as a clear sign that the interior was going to get soaked or someone was going to catch a cold- but not mine. Was the music our soundtrack and the road our path or was the road our soundtrack and the music our path? Regardless, this mixtape showed me the power of music and if that power alone could sing, it would likely sing the word “freedom” as off-key and as off-time as it felt. And so daddy’s random selections sang to me: I’m not a girl but I just want to have fun! I don’t know what “sedated” means but I want to be sedated! I can’t whistle to save my life but damnit, I want to walk like an Egyptian!

Continuing, I grew up on the Compact Disc. At age nine I bought my first one – Green Day’s “Dookie.” Offspring’s “Smash” and Silverchair’s “Frogstomp” followed soon after, though I have no chronology after my first three since my collection boomed skyward thereafter as a result of my brother and myself developing the naughty habit of subscribing to Columbia House (12 records for a buck! What a steal!) and then ignoring the notice that came requiring the purchase of ten records at full price. If my mother hadn’t canceled the account within the following year, she probably would have been ten copies of “Tragic Kingdom” richer. Of course, the high school and college years came and with them the technology to copy, burn, and yes, even steal music- the Napster Years. Gradually it became harder and harder to find an original CD among the ocean of sharpied up CD-R’s in my and my friends’ CD binders. Then came the portable mp3 player, which of course, ushered in the infamous iPod Era (which still exists today, kids.) You bet I have mine. The iPod – it’s portable, quick, and won’t cause you to run anyone over while changing records in the car (unless you are really indecisive). But what about today’s obsession with vinyl?

Well, an explanation for the resurgent popularity in vinyl might vary depending on who you ask but I personally feel like the explanation is quite simple. Music lovers miss the physical experience of music: walking into a record store and not being able to leave without at least three records in your hands, unwrapping, sitting in your room and listening. Maybe doing a few other small tasks, bust mostly just listening. Really listening. Specifically, with listening to vinyl LPs: participating in that generations-old ritual of letting the needle drop, watching, waiting, listening for it to catch. Maybe putting your ear up to the phonograph before even turning up the volume to hear the natural vibrations perform the recorded song for you. No need to mention the inexplicably charming crackles and pops – they speak for themselves.

I have a nice vinyl collection of my own which I started casually accumulating about five years ago. It’s nothing like my dad’s but it’s slowly growing depending on when its humble protector has some money kicking around or discovers an album that’s just simply too good for good old digital listening. I probably have about 80-100 LPs, ranging from Salvation Army budget finds (Simon & Garfunkel, Willie Nelson) to to store-bought must-haves (Harry Nilsson, The Smiths), to current and reissue indie classics (Built to Spill, Wilco). My records are here to keep me company and serve me when I need them, and I admit, it feels quite good to have something substantial to look at and flip through after my dubious involvement in the Napster Years and the more innocent iPod Era. There’s a real emotional, nostalgic presence to these records that sit upon my recently-bought, youthful-looking bookcase- and although they only occupy one modest shelf, I can’t help but smile warmly at the fact that this shelf has already begun to sink at the middle.
—Jesse Kristin, Drums, Jukebox the Ghost

Jukebox the Ghost Official Site | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

Jukebox the Ghost – Empire (Mp3)
Approved for download!

“The Irish Times placed Bell X1 at number nine in a list of “The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now” published in April 2009. Aside from U2, they are the Irish band with the most airplay in their native country and, according to Billboard, also the second biggest live performers.”

I cite the above Wikifact to point out how fortunate then that the boys of Bell X1 play a special acoustic show this coming Sunday night (10/17) at Jammin Java—a show for which, doubly lucky, we’ve got a pair of tickets to put in your hands courtesy of our friends at Yep Roc Records.

You know the drill: let us know why you should be chosen for the pair of tickets to Sunday’s show in the comments to this post and the most convincing of the bunch will take home the tickets.

Submit your plea for the two tickets by Friday (10/15) at noon—and remember to leave us a contact email address with your entry!

Remember, we’ve teamed up with ReadysetDC for all of our ticket giveaways so you can enter to win either here at TVD or at ReadysetDC.

Bell X1 – How Your Heart is Wired (Mp3)
Approved for download!

On paper it shouldn’t work—the unlikely pairing of Scottish indie-pop darling Isobel Campbell and the gruff and gritty former Screaming Trees frontman, Mark Lanegan—but it does. So well, in fact that last summer’s Vanguard Records release ‘Hawk’ is the second pairing of the two.

Ms. Campbell and Mr. Lanegan play the Rock and Roll Hotel this coming Friday (10/15) and not only do we have the LP to put in your hands, we’ve got a pair of tickets to the show—both for one winner.

Let us know why you should be chosen for the pair of tickets and the vinyl copy of ‘Hawk’ in the comments to this post and the most convincing of the bunch will take home the tickets.

You need to act fast though—we need to close this one out on Thursday (10/14) by 5PM—and remember to leave us a contact email address with your entry. I can’t tell you how many “winning” entries we get with no way of letting that person know. So—now you know—go!

Remember, we’ve teamed up with ReadysetDC for all of our ticket giveaways so you can enter to win either here at TVD or at ReadysetDC.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Come Undone (Mp3)
Approved for download!

Day #2 of our Yep Roc Records Spotlight Week kicks off with one of our favorites—Peter Case, he of both The Nerves and The Plimsouls. Peter’s new LP, Wig! is out now on—right, Yep Roc.

In the summer of 1976 a UPS truck pulled up in front of a tenement on the 400 block of Folsom street in SF, and the driver loaded boxes containing 5000 Nerves 45’s into our basement. They made a small mountain down there, and at the time there were maybe… 25 people in the world who would even possibly be interested in the music on the record.

‘How the fuck are we gonna get rid of things?’ was the question of the day. There was no indie records scene, commercial radio wasn’t interested at all, the advent of college radio was still several years off, punk rock had just been named in the UK, but hadn’t spread beyond a handful of fans stateside… The Nerves ‘EP’ containing ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ and three other ‘hits’ was an albatross, a white elephant, a figment of the imagination. A pile in a basement.

They say the copies are worth 100 dollars a piece now… if you can find one. I have one left. It was sitting on a shelf for a long time, in the living room of my pad.

I’d tried playing The Nerves music for my kids, putting on a CD version someone in Europe had put out, a bootleg. My kids were in 4th and 6th grade at the time, and they could give. Everybody smiled, yawned, started talking about something else, and I took it off.

A few years ago: I’d fired up the record player again, driving out 40 miles to the end of the San Fernando Valley, the only place I could find that still carried the cartridges it needed to work. That night my girlfriend Denise put on the Nerves EP 45, and everyone was up and dancing, totally into it. It was like they’d never heard it before.

Records are fun. I remembered that day. People get together and listen to them and enjoy it. Listening to a new record used to actually be an activity, people would get together and listen when the new Beatles, Dylan, or Stones came out. Or the new Clash, Costello, and Jam. It meant something different that what CDs mean now. And by CDs, I mean, digital downloads, even more of a devaluation, and a decline in sound. They don’t even exist.

Now, digging music like that seems about as outmoded as listening to old ‘The Shadow’ serial dramas on the radio.

It’s almost like music doesn’t even exist unless it makes it to analogue at some point in its life. I don’t know why this is, but I know it’s true. The fall in the stature of music is directly attributable to it’s digitalization.

Does it sound like I’m a Luddite? A technophobe? Well I’m not… but I’m trying to see things for what they are, through the ‘Fog Of The Present.’

I call it the ‘Pac Man Prophecy:’ remember the first video games, Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man, the hungry heads that came out and gobbled up the world, eating everything in sight? Well everything that is contained by computers and the internet is eventually gobbled up and digested, basically destroyed as we know it, by digitalization. The destruction of the music business is just another step along the way in a road that includes the end of TV, the end of major newspapers and their reporting, and the advent of virulent stateless world terrorist groups. Oh well, don’t want to get too negative on ‘ya. But I’m digging vinyl as the antidote to the poison de jour, and BTW, its not because it’s ‘retro.’ Vinyl and analogue technology is still the state of the heart, high water mark of recorded sound. And that’s why its still on the scene, and coming back around, turntables being sold at Target, etc…

Anyhow, I’m coming to somewhere near DC, that is, Easton, Maryland, The Avalon Theater on October 29 at 8 pm. I know that’s about a 90 minute drive for you in the city. We tried to get a booking at Jammin’ Java but something hung it up, so… its Easton, or Ashland, Virginia the night before, Oct 28. Ashland is a bit North of Richmond, not so bad a drive, either. And its a great place to hear music.
—Peter Case, 10/10

Peter Case – Look Out! (Mp3)
Approved for download!

Peter Case’s Official Website | Myspace

Stereolab return with their twelfth album and it’s released during the band’s self-imposed hiatus from recording and touring. The album will be released via Stereolab’s own imprint Duophonic UHF Disks.

Over the summer of 2007 Stereolab reconvened at Instant Zero, their studio in Bordeaux to record 32 luminous new songs which would become two distinct albums – 2008’s Chemical Chords and their new release, Not Music.

Stereolab – Sun Demon (Mp3)
Approved for download!

It’s one thing to have exceptionally fine taste in assembling a roster of recording acts and to consistently make sure releases see the light of day on vinyl, but it’s another thing entirely—an undertaking—to delve into an artist’s back catalog and conjure up vinyl versions of recordings previously available only on CD or some other dodgy digital format.

And it’s just what Yep Roc has done with a trio of Nick Lowe releases that until last month were never available on vinyl. And it’s this trio of brand new 180 gram vinyl releases that comprise our first Yep Roc Giveaway of the week. They are:

1994’s The Impossible Bird…

1998’s Dig My Mood…

…and 2001’s ‘The Convincer.’

One winner will receive all three LPs in exchange for your comment to this post.

We’ve been suitably inspired by Yep Roc’s commitment to vinyl and damn fine music over the years and we trust you have as well. Let us hear it in the comments to this post and we’ll choose our winner on 10/19—the day after Nick Lowe plays The Birchmere here in our own backyard.

Make ’em good and remember to leave us a contact email address!

Nick Lowe – So It Goes (Mp3)
Approved for download!

If you had asked me a few years back, perhaps at the beginnings of this blog, if I anticipated vinyl to have the resurgence its had over the past few years, that answer would have been a rather unequivocal, “Yes!”

But …cassettes?

Cassettes have indeed made a DIY return to form, and our friends Black Telephone have a brand new one to put in your hands TONIGHT as they open for Women and DD/MM/YYYY at DC9. It’s also a bit of a cassette release show for the band.

Gear up for tonight’s show with two tracks from the four-song cassette below—which are all new mixes from the previous versions we had on the blog last summer.

Check out our First Date with Black Telephone from this past summer here, and later we’ll expect to see you along with us here.

Bring your Walkman.

Black Telephone – Crooked Eyes (Mp3)
Black Telephone – Drawers in the Store (Mp3)
Approved for download!

I’ve long respected North Carolina’s Yep Roc Records not just for their exceptional taste, having such names as The Go-Betweens, The Fleshtones, The Reverend Horton Heat, Robyn Hitchcock, Bob Mould, Paul Weller, Kristin Hersh, Nick Lowe, Ken Stringfellow and John Doe (among many more) on their roster, but for their unwavering commitment to what brings the vast majority of you here each day—vinyl. Even when not in vogue per se, you could count on Yep Roc to consistently load store shelves—and my shelves—with records.

Similar to our Record Label Spotlight series we ran as a lead up to Record Store Day this past April, we’re spending the entire week with the good folks and the bands of Yep Roc and we’re kicking off the week with a little Q & A with label co-founder, Glenn Dicker.

First, tell us about your love of music. Where did it come from? What are some of the first bands you remember hearing and, possibly collecting?
I was very into watching the Partridge Family and Monkees re-runs on TV as a kid. I remember digging that as an afters chool thing. I remember being inspired by that in a real way because ever since I was in 1st grade I wanted to be in a band. My parents always went to flea markets and garage sales every weekend and I quickly started getting into vinyl singles. I’d pick one to buy for like $.05 or something and they’d say oh, just take them all. So I really got into collecting.

My cousin had a couple Beatles picture sleeve 45’s- Rain/Paperback Writer and Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus and I ended up with those early on. I picked up a book by Hunter Davies at a garage sale about the Beatles published in 1968 and it blew me away. So I really became a big Beatles fan and still am to this day, really. Eventually got into other Brit rock stuff from Stones to Kinks to Who and Bowie. Then got into punk rock and really was buying records like crazy. Had a friend who would drive me to Philly and Princeton before I could drive to shop at great indie record stores. Soon found the Jam via a girl that moved to town from the UK and I found my new Beatles. Mind was really expanded when I started to work for Rounder Distribuition which had incredible indie labels with every possible kind of amazing music.

Where did the decision to start Yep Roc come from?
It grew from having the distribution company, Redeye, starting out as a regional music distributor. My partner Tor Hansen and I both had the passion to want to work more directly with artists and do projects from start to finish. It started with regional acts and grew from there.

Yep Roc has long issued vinyl—even when it was out of vogue for a while. Why? What is it about vinyl that adds to the experience of listening to music?
I think that hardcore music fans have never really stopped collecting vinyl. So it was really about serving the fans of the acts that we worked with. If they had a fanbase that desired it, we gave it to them. We of course love it ourselves because we grew up with it. The aesthetic is great, no question. And the sound is warm and killer.

What do you like to listen to now? If you were on a deserted island and had to choose only five records, which would they be?
Wow, that’s so impossible. Today, it would be these: Rubber Soul, Sound Affects, #1 Record/Radio City (I have a CD with both records on here), Stax Box Set (since I’m cheating anyway), and Being There.

Check back all the week for Yep Roc-sponsored vinyl and ticket giveaways!

DC’s True Womanhood are coming off one hell of a busy summer and we’re happy to have some fruits of their labors for your right-clicking below.

Upcoming are the release of tracks recorded in Baltimore with J Robbins (Jawbox/Burning Airlines—but you knew that, right?) First of the batch will be a 7-inch single out on Environmental Aesthetics Recordings and Sockets Records. That release will include the all new tracks ‘Last Rites’ and ‘Chatter.’

The band’s also playing multiple shows at this year’s CMJ Festival in New York (NYC Taper, PopTartsSuckToasted and AAM Showcases respectively) as lead up to a Fall Northeast tour.

True Womanhood – Dream Cargoes (Mp3)
Approved for download!

The split 7” can be a polarizing format. Some adore the fast variety and relative obscurity, some loathe those same qualities. And what of a split with covers of the other band’s songs? It seems such an intimate exchange. There has to be a high level of mutual respect necessary to agree to such a venture, right? You’ll need more than just friendly trust in the other band to not fuck up your song, right?

Well, Thee Lexington Arrows and The Safes can rest assured that their songs have not been fucked up by the other. Thee Lexington Arrows are punk rock and roll to a hipshaking beat, led by female vocals with a tumbler full of grit and soul. You might remember the Safes from Chicago as a melodic pop punk trio, with catchy hooks and on-point harmonies. Both bands are in the same vein, but the new release takes them a few heavy strides away from their usual sound. It gives us listeners something special. And that is essentially what a split single should do.

“It’s something that bands used to do a whole lot, and I don’t see that much anymore. I always liked splits like that. It makes it more of a coherent EP instead of a couple singles form a couple bands.” Thee Arrows’ Curt Schmelz says. “Also, as a big fan of the Safes music personally, it’s a good excuse to get to play one of their songs that I love.”

To celebrate this union, Thee Lexington Arrows join the Safes for six dates on a month long tour. They play the DC area this coming Monday, October 11th, at Galaxy Hut in Arlington, VA. You can pick up the new EP from Merrifield Records…. or you could comment below and win a free copy directly from the bands!

Support splits! Support covers! Support unions!

The Safes – She’s So Sad (Mp3)

Sure, sure – Junip gave it away free online last May. We know.

But as you know, we’re all about something you can hold in your hands and clutch to your chest. And we’re really into vinyl!

We’ve got the second physical release by Junip—the ‘Rope and Summit EP’—as our second Fall Giveaway of the year!


Plead your case for a real, live, physical copy of the EP in the comments to this post and the most compelling of the bunch will find a copy in his or her real, live mailbox.

You’ve got a week! We’ll close this one out next Thursday, 10/14. And remember to leave us a contact email address with your response!

Junip – Rope and Summit (Mp3)
Junip – Always (Run Roc Remix) (Mp3)
Approved for download!