Monthly Archives: May 2012

The Original Soundtrack for the excellent Bob Marley doc, Marley has been on my desk at TVD HQ for close to two weeks now, staring at me, in anticipation of this vinyl giveaway. But I held off on purpose so I could catch the film first, for which I was able to set aside some time away from the turntable last weekend.

And how could I not? Bob’s music has been omnipresent for what seems like eons now. But in an odd twist, Marley’s strength as a portrait of the man lies not with music, but with the life lived.

Sure, the music informs the background, but it’s the man as a human being and a natural force—some might say, mystic—which propels the doc’s narrative. Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald is far more concerned with flesh and bone, rather than rattling off LP releases or meandering through the Marley discography, year by year, event by event—and it’s refreshing to say the very least.

But however refreshing a portrait the doc paints, it’s unfathomable to separate the man from his music—so we’re going to put the gorgeous 3 LP soundtrack into the hands of one of you.

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“Growing up, my parents had and an old Victrola. I remember being so fascinated by it. It was like this giant mythical beast in our house.”

“Even the records were huge and heavy to me. I was always getting busted for trying to slow down the record (by hand) and hear what the record sounded like backwards. Then I would hear “ELIZABETH!” (you knew shit got real when you heard your full name) and then scamper to my room.

To be honest, the whole process sort of freaked me out. I had a pretty wild imagination when I was little and I was convinced that there was an entire family of tiny musicians inside the Victrola being controlled by the record. I also thought that unicorns traveled at night while we were all sleeping…

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Over the decades there have been many bands in the post-Velvets guitar-rock sweepstakes, but none better than The Clean, New Zealand’s on-again off-again kings of post-punk/DIY string splendor and one of the cornerstones of the whole Flying Nun sound. In 1988, the generically titled Compilation LP helped introduce to world to their brilliance.

In the world of heavy-duty record collecting, single artist compilations are often viewed like a small army of redheaded stepchildren. The words Best Of and Greatest Hits are the tip off to a certain type of casual abbreviation, a CliffsNotes or Condensed Classics treatment for careers that obviously encompass much more than can be adequately summarized through the cherry-picking of chart-toppers or the most noteworthy tunes of an artist or act.

But sometimes these comps provide a valuable service in the procurement of music that was originally released on 78 RPM discs or vinyl 45s, records that would be tremendously difficult to obtain in their original form. Indeed, there is a big difference in perception between a lowly Best Of cash-in and a well-ordered anthology presenting often scarce and forbiddingly pricey material.

You want the easiest route to The Falcons, a ‘50’s-‘60s R&B group with members that included Eddie Floyd, Sir Mack Rice, Joe Stubbs, and Wilson Pickett? Well, that would be You’re So Fine and I’ve Found a Love, a pair of far from perfect yet basically indispensible LPs chronicling this historically titanic acts’ progress for the Lupine and Flick labels. You want to taste the root of jazz via New Orleans in the ‘20s? Any physical format other than shellac that holds Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens is a comp, some obviously better than others. You want the full picture on the early belladonna-whacked work of Siouxsie and the Banshees? Then please don’t neglect Once Upon a Time: The Singles.

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“My first taste of vinyl came from my brother.”

“Over the years he has amassed a giant collection ranging from classical to ’70s rock to house music. The collection has gotten so enormous that my Dad is storing hundreds at his studio in Brooklyn. I remember being six years old and flipping through the beautifully colored packaging of his 12 inch records and slowly slipping the thin black disks out of their sleeves.

My brother gave me my first record. It was by France Gall, the popular French singer of the Sixties. I remember how beautiful I thought she was on the cover of the record with her blonde bobbed hair and red turtleneck. I used to sit and sing along to the songs in French trying to make sense of the lyrics in a language foreign to me.

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J Mascis plugs in and freaks out on Heavy Blanket. A blissfully heavy slab of instrumental scorch, it’s an expansive yet tidy expression of one aspect of his musical personality. It’ll likely appeal to only a portion of Dinosaur Jr.’s fanbase, but it’s no less interesting for that.

In case you didn’t already know, J Mascis is quite the adept guitarist. In fact, along with Thurston Moore, he served the role of guitar hero to a late-‘80s u-ground rock scene that was still close enough to its punk roots to consciously disdain the concept of string heroics as antithetical to what made the period’s hip crux of bands bubbling under the radar such a supreme kick.

That is, if Moore was Jimi Hendrix then Mascis was Jimmy Page and most of the wigs getting flipped by their abilities, if presented with such an analogy, would’ve likely sneered in disgust and berated the person making such an uncouth comparison as a total, um, dinosaur.

Yes, some folks comprehended the significance of the moniker Dinosaur (the Jr. being added after some real dinosaurs from the San Fran psyche scene demanded they change it), but for most listeners back then the name was simply a name, and indeed most of those same listeners didn’t know or particularly care that Dinosaur Jr. soaked up influence from such relics as Crazy Horse, Sabbath, and the general blunt sludginess of power-trio rock.

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Right on the heels of the Scarlet EP last fall and the new album’s first single “You’re Early” last month, the ladies of 2:54 release their eponymous debut LP today via Fat Possum, and we would love to send a copy to one lucky reader.

“Creeping” was debuted earlier this month by Zane Lowe on BBC’s Radio 1, and next week, London-based sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow kick off their thirteen date North American headlining tour with support from Widowspeak after a festival stint, a few UK dates, and lending support to The xx. Busy, busy!

Stereogum has described 2:54 as is “a pair of British blood sisters with shoegazer and eyeliner smeared all over their music,” and mentions how they named themselves after a specific moment in “A History of Bad Men,” at their favorite (and totally fierce) part of their favorite Melvins song.

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