If there’s one thing I’ve learned in many years spent listening to music, it’s this: If you’re going to honor your idols by means of rank cannibalism, you are best advised to bury the skeletons afterwards, and deep. Which brings us to the strange case of Parquet Courts’ 2016 release Human Performance, which has sent the critics of our planet into unseemly paroxysms of rapturous praise. And I get it—Human Performance is an excellent LP in its way.
But I have my reservations. Because—and here’s where the cannibalism comes in—while I respect Human Performance for what it is, I can’t help but hear echoes, and more echoes, of other bands, better bands, and these echoes come damn close to ruining my listening pleasure altogether. The Velvet Underground, the Talking Heads, Devo, Beck, Pavement, Pere Ubu, even Jimi Hendrix, for Christ’s sake—I can hear them all in what is less an album than a flawed attempt at musical transubstantiation. Parquet Courts wears its influences on its sleeve, instead of picking up spade and shovel and making sure its mass grave is deep enough.
The first step towards killing one’s idols is by aping them; to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, imitation is the sincerest form of homicide. But after the dirty deed has been performed, one must be careful to wash the blood off one’s hands and then move on. And I thought Parquet Courts had done just that on the noisy and experimental 2015 “Monastic Living” EP. True, the critics universally panned it, but the EP had a metal machine heart and the guys in Parquet Courts should have taken all that critical carping as a signpost that they were on the right path.
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Upminster store enjoying ‘fad’ as vinyl hits record 25-year high: To understand what is causing the peak in vinyl sales, the Recorder took a trip to Upminster’s own Crazy Beat Records, a shop which stocks at any one time in excess of 100,000 items on vinyl and CD. The store, in Corbets Tey Road, started out as a predominantly black music store with people coming from all across London for rare records. It now specialises in anything from classical to reggae music and has been owned by Gary Dennis for the past 27 years. Gary believes the current boom is a “fad” as consumers become fascinated and hooked on the physical format of music. “Vinyl records have 
Radio Wasteland Records opens Friday in Midland: Break out your turntables and get ready for a blast from the past because a record store is opening in Midland on Friday. Radio Wasteland Records, located at 718 George St., will offer an extensive assortment of vintage vinyl and new releases for young and old music lovers alike. “What we have, as far as an offering goes, 
Re-covered in Vinyl: Fully half the modern world seemed to be covered in vinyl back in the ’50s and ’60s, and of course these days everyone is collecting vinyl records again. They might indeed sound better than their digital descendants, but there’s no denying the vintage appeal of 
