Monthly Archives: May 2014

“When I think about vinyl records, the first thing that comes to mind is the ritualistic work that is involved in playing a record.”

“First, searching through your collection by hand and deciding what you want to listen to (no shuffle or quick mix button as on an electronic device). Then pulling the record out of its sleeve, looking at the insert or some liner notes or the credits. This is all part of an intentional experience by the artist; whether I consciously recognize it or not I’d like to think this information, artwork and all, directly affects the way in which I gauge the music contained in those tiny grooves. The connection to this music goes even further if you take the time to clean and wipe your vinyl before playing each side.

I never felt anything when I bought a CD. In high school I remember buying CDs, putting them in the CD player in my car and throwing the jewel case on the passenger seat or even on the floor. Not taking the time to look inside really.

Looking back, CDs felt more like a convenient medium for music rather, to me, something I felt proud to own; I feel proud to own the records I do now. Some are cheap and can be found in almost every record store I walk into. Others are rare, hard to find, first pressings, etc. These make me feel like I own a piece of history, as if transported in time to the day the record came out.

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The music of ‘90s post-rock survivors Trans Am has been known to follow a pendulum-like qualitative swing. Their new record captures them closer to the positive side of that spectrum, though it’s also not without certain problems. As Volume X represents a landmark for the band in terms of longevity, the LP’s breadth of style and range of value is rather fitting.

Trans Am, a unit comprised for the entirety of their quarter century existence of guitarist Phil Manley, bassist/ occasional vocalist Nathan Means, and drummer Sebastian Thomson, are defined to varying degrees by their restlessness of genre. Countless bands somehow manage to survive beyond a few albums to soon enough champ at the bit of stylistic constraint, but Trans Am has displayed a resistance to getting fenced-in formally from near the start of their lifespan.

To elaborate, while Krautrock, electro-funk, and heavy metal, to cite three Trans Am touchstones, are to this day rarely spoken of in the same context, before the group’s Bethesda, MD emergence and gradual placement as a member of the ‘90s post-rock brigade, any conversational relationship between those disparate forms occurred even less frequently.

And speaking of post-rock, some continue to evaluate the outfits residing under that admittedly broad descriptive banner, e.g. Tortoise, Mogwai, Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Don Caballero, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, as being too stylistically diverse for the nomenclature to actually mean much of anything.

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There’s a world of difference between feral and virile. Hardcore was feral—Civilization-ending little beasties with guitars making a nihilistic, machine gun din. Henry Rollins, on the other hand, was virile. His Hugeness looked like he hung out at a Gold’s Gym, probably because he hung out at a Gold’s Gym, and I don’t think I’m alone in believing it was his machismo that spelt ruin for Black Flag.

Instead of snotty bon mots on the besotted state of America’s youth, ala Keith Morris or Dez Cadena, Henry Rollins gave us his thick-skulled, drill-sergeant’s bark and steroidal posturing on the two things that mattered to Henry Rollins, namely his own suffering and his two cents on things he’d never tried and had no right to judge.

It’s hard to pin down exactly what transformed Black Flag from the best hardcore band in the world to a mediocre (at best) metal band—Greg Ginn certainly deserves his share of the blame, but even in the grim extremis of the later albums he lays some truly gnarly atonal guitar genius on ya. No, yours truly puts the onus on Rollins, who was not quite smart enough to know how exactly dumb he was. And the proof is in “Modern Man” off 1985’s desultory Loose Nut—a terrible song off a so-so album, a state of affairs that became the norm as Black Flag heaved itself like a dying dinosaur towards the epoch-ending tar pit of 1985’s In My Head.

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“I can remember listening to records with my father as young as 4 or 5 years old. I grew up down in Memphis, TN so soul music was a huge part of my life.”

“My dad had a collection filled with all the old Stax and Malaco Records. Artists like Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Booker T & the M.G.’s, and Otis Redding were in constant rotation on our old console record player that seemed, as a 4 year old, gigantic. Those times with my father were so special to me. I wanted to be like him—what he liked I liked.

That’s why I’m so drawn to vinyl. There’s just something about that comforting sound that you just don’t get anywhere else. There’s an imperfect innocence, a sense of truth, a raw, sexy realness that comes from a record.

When I was growing up, cassettes and CDs were in transition and then later Mp3s. Honestly, I think all of that just made people lazy. Listening to music changed drastically with the move from vinyl. People don’t listen to entire records anymore. And artists seldom make records that are meant to be listened to from beginning to end.

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X marks the spot where, in the early to mid-eighties, my own internal contradictions came home to roost. Thanks to Ronald Reagan and America’s complicity in the atrocities in Central America, the era signaled the dawning of my permanent disenchantment with the U.S.A. But at the same time, it also marked a period of incredible jingoism in my musical tastes. I owned an embarrassing few non-American albums, and listened almost solely to music coming out of a country I passionately detested. X, Black Flag, The Meat Puppets, The Minutemen—these were the bands I played virtually around the clock.

Black Flag and The Meat Puppets were apolitical; the Flag’s world was as narrow as the Hermosa Beach punk scene and the cops vs. punks mayhem in which it played its shows, while The Meat Puppets’ world, thanks to hallucinogens, was simultaneously as shallow as the local swimming ground and as vast as the universe. But The Minutemen and to a lesser extent X cared about what the United States was up to in the world, and their songs attacked Reagan, economic disparities both in the U.S. and the Third World, and U.S. covert involvement in the wars in Central America.

1983’s More Fun in the New World marked a departure for X— Exene Cervenka on vocals; John Doe on vocals and bass; Billy Zoom on guitar; and D.J. Bonebrake on drums and percussion—away from punk and towards rockabilly, and away from the rawer ethos of its first three LPs towards a more polished and (theoretically) more radio-friendly sound. The album also signaled the band’s increasing politicization. With rare exception (“The Have Nots” off 1982’s Under the Big Black Sun) X had previously ignored political realities in favor of anatomizing the dark side of El Lay (“We’re Desperate,” “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene,” “Los Angeles”). But More Fun in the New World included at least two folk-like songs (“The New World” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”) that addressed the political situation head on.

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Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. Click, preview, download.

Orenda Fink – Ace of Cups
Fat Goth – Class A
What Moon Things – The Astronaut
Walking Bicycles – Impending Doom
Armand Margjeka – Hummingbird
Trey Songz – Dive In (Dolphin Tears Remix)
Sam Densmore & Curtis Irie – Flea Circus Star
Madison County – You Can’t Drink All Day
Vinny Vegas – Patterns Weave
Fossil Collective – Under My Arrest (Oli Slack Remix)

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Sharkmuffin – Foul Play

bentcousin – Think I Like Your Girlfriend More Than You
Alexander Shofler & The Supertraxxe – Automatic (Original Mix)
Fur Cough – Bye My Myopia
Crash – High Wall
Rig 1 – Duality
Black Pus – Blood Will Run
Lewis Watson – Stay (We The Wild Remix)
Hugh Bob and The Hustle – This Bar Is a Prison
Steve Strong – Wide Open Spaces
The 1975 – Robbers (Fryars Remix)

7 more FREE TRACKS on side B!

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I have to say this is the hottest three days in May I can ever remember. Even in the Canyon it’s pushing 90 degrees at night. Warm and tired, I happily plug away on my rock ‘n’ roll journey and listened to a ton of music this week—old and new records just keep pouring in.

Doing a bit of the back ‘n forth, at night I dug through crates looking for classic “Idelic inspirationals.” Come morning I was surfing the web checking for new bands and releases.

The early season heatwave made my search for a playlist simple—I stuck to some of my favorite styles: blue eyed soul, obscure psych, and “60s crooner.” Old faithfuls, Scott and Dusty started the party and few of my most favorite current bands, Black Lips and Keys, Bo Ningen, and The Swans have new releases.

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“I remember reading a quote somewhere about taking vinyl home and having to live with it. What struck me about the quote was the concept of “living” with what was just basically a vehicle for recorded music. What a strong sentiment. You never hear anyone talk about living with their mp3’s, CDs, or whatever.”

“It’s a romantic notion for sure and it makes sense when you really start to break down what a vinyl record means. Vinyl could be your best friend or worst ex. It forces you to engage with it. To pay attention to it. And because you are forced to interact with it, I think people are more acute to the experiences created by it. The recordings hold a profound resonance. Sad songs seem sadder. Soul songs seems deeper. How could you not fall in love with that?

My first vinyl love was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. I still think it’s an epic album, which is pretty amazing considering I was two when that record came out. I remember my dad setting that record up for me on his turntable and placing those over sized brown headphones on my head. That record changed my life.

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