Press Play is our Monday recap of the new—and FREE—tracks received last week, provided here to inform your next trip to your local indie record store. Click, preview, download, purchase.
Rich Warren: Many factors explain retro-rage for vinyl: “While most true audiophiles never abandoned their prize record-playing gear, what explains the dreadful equipment that newcomers to vinyl and those re-embracing the format use to play their treasures? If, as so many claim, LPs sound better than CD, why play them with equipment that makes them sound inferior?“
Music Consumpion Grows in Old and New Forms: “Music fans continue to consume music through on-demand streaming services at record levels, helping to offset some of the weakness that we see in sales,” Bakula said. “The continued expansion of digital music consumption is encouraging, as is the continued record setting growth that we are seeing in vinyl LP sales.”
How to bag a vinyl bargain—a Manchester record collector gives his tips, With record sales on the rise and rare second-hand discs changing hands for a small fortune, Chris Corry has the vinyl word on what and where to buy: “Years later and I’ve made my hobby into my business.”
Brisbane’s queen of vinyl cultivates all-ages music-loving community: “Long before the current resurgence of vinyl, Shannon Logan was swapping records with people of all ages, creating a Pied-Piper type following as she went…Starting at the West End Markets each Saturday, Ms Logan now sells hand-picked records in her little nook Jet Black Cat Music.“
Before we launch into our Father’s Day edition of our record rummage series at Som Records in Washington, DC–a few words as to Hamell on Trial for the uninitiated, courtesy of TVD’s Michael H. Little from a piece that ran here on Wednesday.
“Hamell, in case you’re not acquainted with his work, is one of the most idiosyncratic figures on the indie scene. He’s an anti-folk folkie who can play his old Gibson at about 1,000 mph, a teller of filthy jokes who is dead serious when it comes to the state of the world and its myriad casualties, and a survivor of drug addiction who still loves whores and other down-and-outers and insists upon achieving career success on his own terms, which is why he was playing Big Andy’s living room instead of Madison Square Garden.
Oh, and did I happen to mention he takes his 13-year-old son Detroit on the road with him, and even brings Detroit to the front of the stage to tell a few jokes? Hamell is truly one of a kind; a compassionate man who loves to tell his audiences to go fuck themselves, and a cynic abounding with empathy. And it’s all in good not quite clean fun, as are many of his most noteworthy songs, such as the wonderfully bilious ‘I Hate Your Kid.'”
Prior to the DC house concert referenced above, we spirited Ed and son Detroit around the block for a father and son homage to records, record stores—and that bond between parent and kid. So, let’s get to it, shall we?
Today marks two weeks that I’ve been in Europe. First on holiday in Spain, now this week working in London and Paris. Although I would still say there is no place like home in the canyon, I could easily live in Spain for a month of any year. The atmosphere is laid back like California and the food and climate suit us Sidels just fine.
Yesterday I made the rounds in London and ended a gorgeous English summer afternoon at Hyde Park for a big Strokes/Beck show. I really enjoy working with The Strokes. Not only do I firmly believe they are one of the few great rock bands of this new century, I find them to have a family vibe. They are cool and nice people—artists as opposed to posers—and I feel most at home around artists.
In his black jeans, shirt, and beret, Richard Thompson takes the stage with an almost military look; his guitar strap could almost be mistaken for an ammunition belt. Though his age, 66, places him more in the category of grizzled veteran, few are as strong a sharpshooter as still he is on electric guitar where his distinctive style is beyond copying.
Hey, he’s even got an official title by now. Not colonel or sergeant or lieutenant, but Officer of the Order of the British Empire, one of those OBEs you’re supposed to put at the end of your name.
And though his career is pushing 50 years since his first days as a teenage guitarist in Fairport Convention, he continues to issue solid, largely ignored, solo work, such as the new Jeff Tweedy-produced Still just out this week. That’s what got him out on a tour that brought him to the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., for the first of two nights Tuesday.
With a nimble duo as rhythm section that enhances and furthers his seemingly effortless guitar attack, he’s able to escalate his artistry on the handful of new numbers as well as providing a sprinkling of what he self-mockingly called “the timeless classics you pay big money for.”
Thompson is one of those rare musicians who seem packed with too much talent—ace guitarist, fine songwriter, great vocalist. With a bemused manner between songs, he’s a darned pleasing entertainer as well.
Thomas Mapfumo is one of the greatest African musicians of our time. On the continent, and especially in Zimbabwe, he is comparable to Fela Kuti and Bob Marley. Yet he is mostly unknown in the United States except among a dedicated group of world music lovers. Banning Eyre, a long time correspondent for Afropop Worldwide, aims to change that with his new book and companion album.
Eyre tells the story of the Zimbabwean singer, composer, and bandleader with attention to historical detail, sophisticated understanding of his musical milieu, and unabashed reverence for the man tempered with clear-eyed reality. This is no hagiography as Eyre narrates Mapfumo’s life in the context of Zimbabwe’s pre and post revolutionary history and exposes the contradictions and personal foibles of the man.
I saw Mapfumo three times—twice in 1991 when he performed at the Jazz Fest in April and then again in mid May at Tipitina’s. I wrote a preview before his show at the House of Blues in 2000, which appeared in the Louisiana Weekly. Here’s an excerpt of that column: “Mapfumo is known in his native country as the Lion of Zimbabwe. His music, known as chimurenga, was a critical component of that country’s quest for independence and self-rule. Chimurenga literally means ‘liberation war.’
“When I was 12 years old my parents’ vinyl collection was everything. It spanned an entire wall, floor to ceiling, a collection of LPs and 45s that acted as the soundtrack to my existence. When you opened the front door to our home, the vinyl collection took center stage. In fact, their collection did more than solely affect me on a sonic level, it captivated as visual art.”
“This wall told a story of discipline and creatively because building it took time and determination. The diversity of the collection was a catalyst for me and is why I’m always seeking to harmonize seemingly disparate parts or opposing musical ideas.
That vinyl wall made our small row home in West Philadelphia feel grand. It represented timelessness and history to me. Sarah Vaughan sitting next to David Bowie, Frank Sinatra stacked right beside Nina Simone, The Ohio Players there with Led Zeppelin, Miles next to The Beatles, they were all in harmony on that wall. There were no categories. That vinyl wall was the great unify-er in my little world. So today, it’s no wonder I come up with albums like my debut Kaleidoscopic and my newly released Flight of The Donn T. It’s second nature.
Ozzy Osbourne almost bit my earlobe off during an interview once. One minute we were talking about Master of Reality and the next he was lunging across the table to take my left ear—an easy target seeing as how I suffer from Meniere’s Disease, which causes radical enlargement of the earlobes—and shaking it, while growling like an angry Rottweiler. It was like a scene straight out of Dostoevsky, to be precise the moment in The Devils when Nikolai Stavrogin bites the governor’s ear. Anyway, I cried “Mercy!” as he literally lifted me out of my chair and led me around the room, my earlobe clenched in his slavering mouth. He finally let go and apologized afterwards, but offered no explanations. Then again, what can you expect from the guy who once said, “Off all the things I lost I miss my mind the most.” I consider it an honor.
Okay, so the above never happened. (I feel obligated to say this because in another article I swore my adolescent skull secreted sperm, that’s how horny I was, and a few folks actually wrote to tell me this was impossible. Duh.) But the Ozzy earlobe biting could have occurred. He once ate the heads off two live doves, and famously bit the head off a dead bat on stage, an act that led him to quip, “I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat but that’s OK—the bat had to get Ozzy shots.” And then there’s the time he thought it would be a good idea to snort fire ants. In short, in Ozzy World, biting off a journalist’s earlobe would be child’s play.
I love Ozzy’s work with Black Sabbath, but have always avoided his solo stuff, although I love “Crazy Train.” Why? Because after being fired by Black Sabbath in 1979, one would have expected Ozzy to continue in the grand Sabbath tradition of releasing records filled with songs so monolithically slow and heavy they sounded like mammoth King Tiger tanks grinding up unlucky Poles. But Ozzy took a radically different path. His solo albums were lighter, in fact almost dainty; compared to the relentless eardrum-pummeling crunge of Black Sabbath they sounded spritely, bouncy even. In short, he gave up mastodon metal for regular old metal, which in that time and place was as much about hair spray as it was gargantuan guitar wank. If Sabbath’s albums are pig iron, Osbourne’s solo LPs are aluminum, and I for one wasn’t crazy about Ozzy’s transformation from Iron Man to Tin Man.
Revolution Vinyl has vintage feel: “Revolution Vinyl opened June 6 and has had a great first week, owner Amy Moser said…’People coming in just comment on how beautiful the space is. They feel like they’re in a cool vintage record store.’”
Joy Division to release classic albums on vinyl: “Unknown Pleasures, Closer and two compilations will all get the deluxe treatment to mark 35 years since the release of Love Will Tear Us Apart and the death of lead singer Ian Curtis…”
Cavetone Records preserves vinyl tradition: Cavetone Record’s founder Scott Walus’ analog approach to music keeps classic sound alive
“Placebo have announced the re-release of their seminal debut album on special edition vinyl, followed by the rest of their first five albums later in the year. This year sees the band mark their 20th anniversary – and will be kicking off the celebrations by re-releasing the Record Store Day edition of their self-titled debut on limited edition red vinyl on 31 July…”
Death From Above 1979 Live at Third Man Records: “Amidst their resurgence in which they claim their rightful place among Bands Who Are Worth A Damn And Will Prove It To You, DFA 1979 are swinging through Nashville prepared to record direct-to-acetate in the Third Man Records Blue Room with ten years of lost time to recover and a fresh perspective…
Independent bookshops: Will they follow the road to ruin of the record store? ““I think book shops will fare better than record shops, but there’s no getting around it independent shops cannot compete with places like Amazon or the supermarkets…”
It was a sweltering midwest summer back in 1984. I was ten years old and I had just heard Slide it In from Whitesnake for the first time. I remember the cassette tape was white with black print—which I ultimately played so many goddamn times that the cassette turned completely white—the print rubbed off from flipping it over so often in the player. But there was no need for song titles on this one as my friends as I had every song memorized. How many records can you do that with today?
Thankfully someone had created auto-reverse by the time I discovered the seminal masterpiece simply known as Whitesnake (1987). Again, here was an album that I would just listen to non-stop from start to finish. It was brilliant. Whitesnake stood out from the other bands at the time because they had substance. David Coverdale knew how to put together one hell of a band, and he still does to this day.
Fast forward twenty years to the biggest show I’ve ever seen happen inside the Regency Ballroom. David Coverdale and his reinvigorated Whitesnake are touring in support of The Purple Album. Comprised of songs from the three Deep Purple studio albums that David Coverdale appeared on, Burn, Stormbringer, and Come Taste The Band, the album is a brilliant tribute to Coverdale’s former colleagues.
“The first record I ever recall playing was Peter & The Wolf when I was around 3 years old. I was enamored by the album art, the orchestral sounds. It was the jewel of my childhood collection. Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” was another that sticks out in my mind, and of course I was a fan of my parents’ Harry Nilsson and Jim Croce records…”
“But truthfully, vinyl was not to be a lifelong love affair for me, but rather a playful flirtation that waxed and waned throughout my life, offering me opportunity after opportunity to discover new sounds, but never dominating or demanding much from me, as I saw happen with so many friends. For this reason, it always stayed fun. I never felt bogged down by a heavy collection or an obsession to own everything.
The most significant touchstone in my relationship with vinyl was the time that, at age 12, I unearthed a copy of the Misfits’ Walk Among Us while cleaning out my Grandmother’s garage in Lodi, NJ. It is the stuff that myths are made of, how pure to discover a band like that independent of any social influence, and no way to “research” who they were after the fact (or who had left it there for that matter). Perhaps because of this, Glenn Danzig would have a lifelong influence on me.
Among the throng of stoner rock bands to come out of Europe over the last ten years, one band that has set itself apart from the pack is undoubtedly Truckfighters. Continuing the desert rock sound that bands like Kyuss helped form years ago, the Swedish trio have crafted a sonic assault that is equally great on wax or on stage.
Tracing their lineage back to 2001, the band released a number of splits and EPs, leading up to the release of their debut album, the fan-favorite Gravity X. Touring primarily in Europe until 2011 when Truckfighters made their way to America, the band won over crowds time and again with their stunning live shows. Jump to 2014, Truckfighters released their latest album, Universe to critical acclaim, solidifying their place in the upper echelon of stoner rock bands—while doing things their own way and not following a traditional formula for the genre.
On the final day of the Psycho California Festival, I had a chance to sit with Ozo, Dango, and Enzo early on before things kicked into high gear. The subdued discussion in no way prepared me for their superb set that was to come later as their performance was one of fest’s most electrifying.
So you guys just got in. Did you come over straight from Sweden?
Ozo: Not really. We did two shows before this.
Yeah? how did those go for you?
Ozo: Really good. We did Oakland and San Francisco.
There’s been some amazing music here this weekend.
Niklas “Dango” Källgren: You’re not used to these kinds of things, either.
I know! Fests like this one don’t happen that often in America. There have been smaller stoner and doom fests here and there, and Maryland Deathfest will have some mixed in through the lineup, but nothing of this size that can compare to Roadburn and shows like that.
Oskar “Ozo” Cedermalm: You’re picking up on the European standards! [laughs]
The Cadbury Sisters have returned with a cool, new, alternative folk/pop sound and I for one am extremely excited about it. The trio’s latest EP, “Sarah” is a musical treat for the ears from start to finish; overflowing with gorgeous harmonies, emotive lyrics, and bold, anthemic sounds.
Title track “Sarah” is named after the girls’ mother, as an homage to how important she is to all three sisters. If I was Sarah right now, I’d be beaming with uncontrollable pride and probably shedding a little tear—but that’s just me. “Sarah” feels like it could easily be a Haim song; filled dark, ominous tones, and a deep, driving drum beat playing throughout creating the perfect radio friendly song.
Other tracks such as “Drifting” and “Doing The Same” give off more of an alternative/pop vibe that feels similar to the likes of Zero 7’s dark, edgy, electronic sound. Both tracks—actually all tracks on the EP to be honest—are beautifully finished off with clear-cut vocals and effortlessly tight harmonies.
It’s Thursday. It’s NXNE. It’s a Canada special on Episode 10 of the A Badge Of Friendship Podcast!
The gang is going nuts for all things Canadian this week when they’re joined by very special guests Jay Baruchel (Robocop. How To Train Your Dragon, This Is The End) and Evan Dubinsky, one of the organisers behind NXNE festival. Like all Brits, they just couldn’t resist trying oot the distincitive Canadian accent, but all 3 of them are blown out of the water by Evan’s more than passable foray into the dulcet dialect that is “Weedjie” (that’s Glaswegian, to you and me).
Then, there are the features., Ed may have gone too far on this week’s “World Of Weird” and, thankfully for your ears we just can’t nail down a decent stream of AIDS Wolf‘s noisecrore magnum opus, “London’s Not Like Back Home.” Claire showcases the stellar Debt Offensive for her “Label Love” feature, and Paul does his very best to avoid Canada’s least favourite delinquent, Justin Bieber by giving Carly Rae Jepsen a spin. It was Bieber or Jepsen, guys—who would YOU choose?
Tracks heard on the show can be heard in full here:
In the winter of 1980, in the midst of punk’s fallout and the momentary ascendance of the new wave, five guys gathered in a German studio to casually make some recordings. The music didn’t fit the prevailing sonic norms in the slightest, and while a small quantity of vinyl was pressed, there was never any concerted effort to release it…until now. The reissue label Notes On A Journey commences operations with the intriguing folk-prog-pop-jazz blend of Spinning Motion’sConfidence in the Future. It’s out on LP June 26 in a very attractive package.
Spinning Motion’s story could serve as the basis for one hell of a movie, and I formulate the observation because the circumstances lack the hazards of an obnoxiously uplifting ending. However, the emergence of Confidence in the Future does provide the tale with a sense of closure; it seems the band, perhaps more properly described as a project, didn’t devote much energy toward making the big time. Instead, the objective was simply to shape and document the eight songs comprising these January 1980 sessions.
Spinning Motion’s driving personalities are Achim Hirsch and Manfred Tappert, childhood friends and classmates who shared a love of the Pretty Things and formed a student group named Busstop 4. Later, Hirsch’s trip to Denmark inspired him to attempt working his raised consciousness into an album; when asked, multi-instrumentalist Tappert was chuffed to oblige.
Filling out Spinning Motion is a profusion of diversity; there’s Stefan Thimm, a drummer reportedly in the founding lineup of German heavy metal behemoths Accept (though he was long gone by the recording of their debut, much less “Balls to the Wall”), Joe Kucera, a saxophone blowing branch of Czech unit Framus 5’s family tree prior to fleeing Vienna for West Berlin after the Prague Spring, and Eddie Hayes, a Boston, MA-based trumpet/flugelhorn player who honed his chops in the jazz scene.
