Monthly Archives: November 2018

Mad Crush lead guitarist Mark Whelan worked at New World Records, a small independent shop in Charlotte, NC, in the late ’80s and early ’90s. He reflects on his time behind the counter. —Ed.

“Being surrounded by vinyl, listening to records all day expanded my taste, which is what I wanted.”

“Opportunities to explore music were scarce then, when you could only hear what was on the radio or what friends owned, or what you could afford to buy. Maybe it was a bit more exciting to listen to something the first time because of the ceremony it required—taking a record home, pulling off the shrink-wrap, and laying around on the floor or couch listening while studying the album cover. Record stores are part of that treasure hunt, the feeling that something fascinating was probably lurking in a bin somewhere.

I’m still processing all the music I heard from back then, its impact has lasted, and I still keep trying to understand its basic elements. Music all seemed so complicated at first, as if no two genres had anything in common. Now I see things much more in terms of colors and rhythms and phrasing and sonic atmospheres, across genres—and the basic ingredients are shared across the different types.

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PHOTO: JIM NEWBERRY | “’Saturday’s Child’ is a track I cut with the full intention of including it on Medium Cool. In fact, it struck me as super-catchy, but just didn’t end up ultimately fitting into the sequence. It’s nice to give the 45 something special that the full-length doesn’t have…I always try and do that. Regarding the song, it struck me that a young, confident woman is like the “star” of the local bar or club on any given night, in any given town—and there’s a power in that. This song is a rumination on that, and the rites of passage we all go through when we first get out into the world in our various social scenes. These rituals are innocent, fun, yet important. And it’s all part of Rock & Roll.” —Luther Russell

A fresh single often signals the direction of a new album. That may be the case with Luther Russell’s “The Sound of Rock & Roll” 7″ out today on the Portland imprint Fluff and Gravy—providing a stately, engaging, heartfelt introduction to his upcoming LP Medium Cool, due out in February.

But how good can an album be if it tosses off to a B-side something as splendid as “Saturday’s Child,” the track we’re proud to be premiering here today at The Vinyl District. To be available only as the 45’s B-side, “Saturday’s Child” is an upbeat, ringing reverie to a girl in tight jeans, who like her clothing, doesn’t want to fade away.

The delectable cut has some agreeable echoes with Russell’s other current project, teaming with Big Star’s Jody Stephens in the duo Those Pretty Wrongs. Russell, a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, singer and writer, has also been working with Robyn Hitchcock and wrote a couple of songs for Weezer’s 2016 “white album.” Inspired by the Replacements, Russell once fronted The Freewheelers, which had a couple major label albums out and before that, was once in a pre-Wallflowers trio with their Jakob Dylan and Tobi Miller.

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I’ve often wondered why I turned my fickle back on the Talking Heads and now I have the answer: Naked. Listening to this 1988 studio LP (their last) for the first time in decades reminds me of what a bad taste it left in my ears, convincing me that David Byrne and Company, who’d brought me so much pleasure over the years, had nothing more to offer.

Naked is not a total waste of perfectly good vinyl by any means, but it has huge problems, the biggest of which is that it’s–how to best say this?–boring. Only one song–the cosmic ecological disaster comedy “(Nothing But) Flowers”–holds its own against the best of the Talking Heads’ earlier work, and it’s a sunny outlier on this anything but perky LP.

Say what you will about such semi-dirges as “The Democratic Circus,” “The Facts of Life,” and “Mommy Daddy You and I,” they don’t exactly boast enraptured melodies that suck me in. In fact they push me away, and the same goes for “Sax and Violins” (a bad pun, David? Really?) and “Cool Water,” which is anything but a long tall glass of. As for the very moribund “Bill,” it makes me want to shoot my eye out with a bb gun. Anything to remind myself I’m alive, you know?

No, no matter how you spin it, Naked’s a bummer. Sure you get a lot of nice textures and what not, but what I always liked most about our David was his demented energy. Whether he was playing the hilarious paranoid of the early albums (Fear of Music may be the greatest comedy record ever) or the wild-eyed mystic of Remain in Light, Byrne was always spastic electric, an articulate twitch with his nerves on the wrong side of his skin.

But Byrne gave up on the funk and went into a funk on Naked, and it tells. Why, the man sounds like he’s in the middle of a communication breakdown, and simply can’t be bothered to make people dance. Or smile even.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In honor of its 70th anniversary in 2018, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings introduced its Smithsonian Folkways Vinyl Reissue Series, offering fans and collectors a change to own some of the record label’s most influential and sought after recordings on vinyl. The birthday celebration continues with four classic albums added to the series, meticulously redesigned from original prints and materials, photos, and audio remastered from the original LP masters by GRAMMY-award winning sound engineer Pete Reiniger. Each limited reissue also features the iconic black textured Folkways tip-on style album jacket and liner notes booklet that was included in the original release.

The upcoming releases in the Smithsonian Folkways Vinyl Reissue Series will be available November 30th and features four Americana favorites. Joining the series is Pete Seeger’s Goofing-Off Suite (originally released in 1955), Dock Boggs’ Legendary Singer & Banjo Player (originally released in 1964), as well as American Banjo: Tunes and Songs in Scruggs Style, (originally released in 1957). Additionally, in honor of its 50th anniversary, Del McCoury’s exceptional debut as a bandleader, Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass, originally released on Arhoolie Records (now part of the Smithsonian Folkways family) will return to print on vinyl.

Folkways’ unique nonprofit mission, to document “people’s music,” spoken word, instruction, and sounds from all around the world, has sustained the label for seven decades and built the most iconic and diverse collection of music of the 20th century. Some of the best-loved, all-time greats, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Elizabeth Cotten were Folkways artists, as are thousands of creators and preservers of cultural heritage.

“When I was a child I used to flip through my parents record collection and stare at the covers. I don’t think I could even read, let alone understand that they somehow played music, but I do remember always getting to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and flipping it over to stare at Stevie Nicks, whom I believed to be Lindsay Buckingham, the most beautiful woman in the world! You can imagine how confused I was many years later when I found out that Stevie and Lindsay were the other way round! But alas, this piece isn’t about Fleetwood Mac, it’s about vinyl and my strange little journey with it!”

“I was fascinated with my parents record collection when I was little, I’m not sure if it was the colours on these giant squares, or the smell, but both still satisfy me greatly. There was a lot of David Bowie, The Police, Kraftwerk, Bob Dylan, Prince, and Bob Marley in my parents’ record collection and every now and again new records would pop into the pile and others would go, sometimes they came back, but I eventually learnt how they worked and it was definitely some kind of witchcraft!

I vividly remember one LP turning up in the pile and thinking, “This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, I bet the music is just as ugly,” so I never gave it a chance. It had the scariest picture of a man screaming and it frightened the crap outta me! The inside of the gatefold was just as disturbing with vivid colours that were kinda freaky, so I never played that LP, I never knew the name of the band or the record. I claimed a bunch of my Dad’s records when he and my Mum broke up, one being an extremely old Disney LP, which was actually my Dad’s first record! I was given some Beatles records as a teenager and lots of gifts from people twice my age to listen to, but the first LPs I bought with my own money were actually a couple of 13th Floor Elevators picture discs.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Taking Back Sunday have unveiled the track listing and format details, for their 20-year anniversary compilation, Twenty. The 21-song collection will be released on January 11th and spans all seven of their full-length albums; 2002’s Tell All Your Friends, 2004’s Where You Want To Be, 2006’s Louder Now, 2009’s New Again, 2011’s Taking Back Sunday, 2014’s Happiness Is, and 2016’s Tidal Wave.

The set also features two new studio recordings, “All Ready To Go” and “A Song For Dan,” tracks which hint at the direction that Taking Back Sunday are heading in the coming years. Available via Craft Recordings, Twenty will be released on CD, digital, and a 2-LP gatefold vinyl package. “All Ready To Go” will be released as an instant grat. single with all D2C and digital album pre-orders, on November 19th. In addition to the aforementioned formats, Taking Back Sunday are offering an exclusive 2-LP “panther’s eye” vinyl edition of the compilation, plus new merchandise via the band’s official store. Also available is a “koi pond” vinyl variant, offered exclusively from the Craft Recordings web store (in a limited quantity) or via your local independent record store.

Throughout 2019, Taking Back Sunday will be embarking on an extensive worldwide tour, paying tribute to their catalog – and their fans – with full album performances. Visit TakingBackSunday.com for the latest confirmed dates (new show announcements coming soon) and more information.

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Mellow NYC-based quartet Little Person specialize in a whimsical blend of sedated indie rock that falls somewhere between Courtney Barnett and The Shins.

Today, we have the pleasure of premiering the twin brother fronted band’s newest single “I’m Happy to Be With You.” It’s a deceptively simple number that is brimming with melodic sophistication and evocative imagery. “We dance through the living room,” sings Nicky Weinbach while brother Max joins in harmony, “Dreaming like stars who have conquered the moon.” Before long the simple arrangement has been caked in tape echo and wind sound effects, demanding a second listen to fully absorb the loveliness that proceeds the decay.

Both Weinbach brothers started their careers in musical theater, still putting on a throwback-style variety show from time to time, but it was their mutual love of classic 1960s pop records that led them down their current path. “I’m Happy to Be With You” is the follow-up single to their acclaimed EP “I Feel Fine.”

The band’s Nicky Weinbach details, “At the time of the song’s inception, Max had left to teach English in Paris for a year while I stayed at home in Los Angeles, having forfeited the opportunity to attend acting school, also in Paris, due to financial constraints. When I dropped Max off at the airport and said goodbye for the year, the idea for ‘I’m Happy to Be With You’ was born. It’s perfect for the pre-Thanksgiving season and might speak especially to those who are away from their families for the holidays.”

The discography of the late and very great Eric Allan Dolphy remains one of the gleaming jewels of ’60s jazz, but he’s still too often summarized as an outstanding, highly distinctive collaborator who produced one true masterpiece as a leader. Resonance Records’ Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions is poised to help eradicate this misnomer, reissuing two superb but frequently underrated LPs in mono with 85 minutes of additional material and contextualizing it all with a 100-page book offering a range of perspectives and a wealth of photographs. Featuring the outstanding bassist Richard Davis and the recording debt of trumpeter Woody Shaw, it’s out on 3LP for RSD Black Friday.

Eric Dolphy died tragically young in Berlin on July 29, 1964. A quarter century later, he was still routinely described, casually in conversation but also in newspaper/ magazine articles and even reference books, as a free jazz musician. The fact that he contributed to Ornette Coleman’s epochal and still radical Free Jazz session aside, in the copious notes to this set, flautist and release coproducer James Newton mentions (which is to say, it’s not a major statement) that during the time-period covered by this set, Dolphy wasn’t playing “free.”

The observation comes in the midst of an extended reflection on the multiple facets and influences that constitute Dolphy’s artistry, and it’s right on the money. No doubt many are thinking the clarification need only be made that the man belonged to the era’s jazz avant-garde, and that’s true, but the distinction should be made that, even as he’d been derided by moldy figs (prominently in the pages of Down Beat) as playing “anti-jazz,” Dolphy wasn’t a particularly strident contributor to the movement.

Well okay, but then what was he? A little further into the liner booklet, saxophonist Sonny Rollins nails it with pith: “He was an experimental musician.” To this it can be added: a master of three horns, and an individualist on each. There are of course many examples of instrumental doubling, and less frequently, tripling in jazz, but Dolphy’s excellence on alto sax, the demanding bass clarinet and flute goes beyond the status of rarity. On all three, his playing is amongst the most instantly recognizable in jazz.

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