Author Archives: Special to TVD

“I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to say in this article.”

“I’m embarrassed to say that my introduction to vinyl was less than romantic. If I remember correctly, the first vinyl I listened to was a compilation of Ella Fitzgerald songs. I know for certain that the record player was from Urban Outfitters. In other words, it was a piece of shit. The sound quality was terrible. I must have been 15 or 16. Now, I’ve always been a big fan of Ella. I attribute much of my vocal quality to listening to hers for so long. But when I put that record on for the first time, I wasn’t transported back in time, I wasn’t mystified by the turning of the black disc, I wasn’t thrilled. I didn’t understand the hype.”

Over the years, I fiddled around with buying records for my small collection. But I rarely chose to listen to them over my iPod. I’ve always always always been obsessed with and deeply devoted to music. My mother used to make fun of me for falling asleep with my headphones on every night. Every morning I’d ride my bike to school listening to my yellow hand radio in elementary school. I’ve gotten in trouble for listening to music at every single one of my day jobs.

Music has always been my life. Even now, I usually end every night by blasting music in my headphones while I dance. For me, I need the good mix, the high volume, and the cleanness that digital offers. I want to hear everything. I just couldn’t understand why someone would want to listen to the old and therefore lesser quality when it came to vinyl. It wasn’t until this last Christmas that my relationship with vinyl completely changed. And it’s all because of Linda Martell.

My boyfriend had introduced me to Linda about a year ago. I’ve been very into ’60s folk for the past 2 years and when my he showed me Linda, I was instantly in love. Let me explain her sound first. Her musicality, so effortless and delicate. The tone of her voice is incredibly impressive. She has a lovely little twang in the bass of her voice that gives us the country, but the ability she has in every section of her range cradles the listener when she sings her rich little tunes. It just feels oh so nice to play her music at night once the day has settled down and you’ve tucked in. But above all, her story is what brings tears to my eyes.

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“My obsession with records dates back to when I was 5. Living in San Carlos, a suburb of San Francisco, which at that time had not left the Leave It To Beaver-era of 1950s Americana. With an older brother already in school and a younger brother still in diapers, much of my day was spent with my mother. I have vivid memories of her doing chores while listening to records, singing along to them and occasionally taking a moment to dance with me.”

“I became enthralled with these round discs that spewed out sound. I would spend hours on end flipping through my parents collection, which was mainly filled with singer-songwriters like Neil Diamond, Carole King and the like alongside Broadway soundtracks, big band and bebop jazz. There were a few anomalies, the soundtrack to Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix and The Band Of Gypsies and Jefferson Airplane’s Bark. The later was the one my pea brain was most enthralled with.

Bark was housed in a mysterious brown paper bag. Upon pulling the cover out I found myself staring at a fish with human teeth. It was so strange and foreign to me. Listening to the album only made things more confusing. From the obtuse acapella song “Thunk” to the nightmarish waltz “Never Argue With A German If You’re Tired Or European Song” to the overly stoned “Pretty As You Feel,” I was completely taken by these unfamiliar sounds and couldn’t get enough.

Flash forward some 5 years, relocated to a different suburb of SF, I would save up my allowance for the sole purpose of purchasing records. My parents had a friend who owned a local record store called Town & Country. Around this time I befriended a kid who had two much older brothers—one a senior in high school, the other a freshman at the University of Berkeley. It was through my friend’s older brothers that I was exposed to punk and new wave- artists like Patti Smith, Motorhead, Television, Sex Pistols and so much more.

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“I was raised on cassette tapes, secretly borrowing my stepdad’s Toys In the Attic (Aerosmith), Hotel California (The Eagles), and any other ‘adult’ album I could sneak into my ears. And then my babysitter bought me U2’s Achtung Baby for my 10th birthday—still one of my all time prized possessions.”

“I got a dual-cassette boombox when I turned 13 and started spending most evenings glued to the radio to record my favorite songs when they’d come on (I have epic ’90s radio mixtapes courtesy of Seattle’s 107.7 The End). Eventually, my friends and I upgraded to CDs, and then my best friend Danny got a turntable.

We were 16 years old, and very appropriately, the first record he bought was So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes (NOFX). We were super into punk and pop-punk records, but the turntable also became a gateway to classics like IV, Highway 61 Revisited, and Dark Side of the Moon.

(Fun side-note, I studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade in LA, and El Hefe (guitarist of NOFX) was in one of my classes; we became pals and I confessed to him that So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes is one of 5 albums that I always keep downloaded on my phone.)

Back to vinyl.

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“One of my first musical memories was listening to my Dad’s copy of Led Zeppelin II on vinyl.”

“As a little kid, that album was fascinating to me. The weird picture on the front cover where they look like old time fighter pilots. The inside of the gatefold with the giant blimp with spotlights shining on it. I would sit and stare at those mysterious images while I listened to the album. I distinctly remember hearing that psychedelic breakdown in “Whole Lotta Love” and being mesmerized and even a little frightened by it.

Listening to that record at such an impressionable age probably shaped my concept of what music could do. It showed me that these sounds on a piece of plastic can actually create a different world for people to spend time in.

When I was about 8 years old, our next door neighbors had a garage sale. There was a cardboard box full of L’s for sale. As I rummaged through it, one of the album covers grabbed my attention. It was a crazy cartoon picture of some kind of futuristic robot head hovering over a TV screen showing 4 action hero type guys running away from a large explosion.

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“I grew up in a home with records—LPs. I didn’t own any; I was far too young, but my oldest sister did, and both my parents did. They had one of those huge stereo systems that took up half our living room.”

“I remember that room not only because that’s where the records were played, but also because it was the same room where I made a fort out of a refrigerator box which I lived in for weeks. And then there was my pet gerbil who ran between the books on the bookshelf—and when I grabbed him by the tail it broke off in my little hand—I had never been so horrified. But I digress… The RECORDS. I remember the first I ever heard, one played by my mother, the others by my father, both playing them over and over, seemingly on endless loop.

My mother’s record? Dionne Warwick’s Greatest Hits! Boy did I love that music! Her voice, her delivery, and of course her beautiful photo on the cover. My mother could never play it too often for me! And just yesterday I had to get in the car to run an errand, where the radio must be on at all times, and I have a policy of constantly switching between stations so as to never have to listen to a commercial. And what song came on when I switched to the oldies station? Dionne Warwick, “Walk on By!” And was that the perfect song for me to hear at that moment! But I’ll keep that aspect of it private. What’s important is that her music is just as great today as it was then. No matter the format.

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“I got into vinyl only a few years ago. I don’t necessarily collect a lot of records but I have a few really cool ones. “

“My favorite one is Runway Brothers “April Fools Day” release which is a song all about my favorite restaurant that serves gas, SHEETZ. I also am very excited about finding my newest addition 61 Penn by Crucial Dudes. They’re a huge influence on my band Stage Moms and I was incredibly excited to find it at my friend’s record shop (White Rabbit Records in Corbin Kentucky). I grew up listening to bands like Crucial Dudes and The Wonder Years and always wanted to play in a band like that but more aggressive.

Another cool record I have is the Twenty One Pilots Record Store Day release that’s shaped like the state of Ohio. Twenty One Pilots mean a lot to me because when they got huge I was playing baritone ukulele in a band and for years people told me a band that uses a ukulele will never work and I’m from Ohio and so are they so it was super validating to me.

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“my first experience with vinyl was when i was about 7 years old. a group of little league friends and i had just discovered the beatles and it had struck an obsession that had us all sprouting bowl cuts and dressing up as the fab 4 for halloween and singing from door to door.”

“the only problem was that a couple of the moms weren’t too keen on letting us listen to the later drug influenced records quite yet, and one track in particular, “maxwell’s silver hammer,” which had a violent undertone, rendered the entire abbey road strictly forbidden. naturally, it only made us want it more. since we had been only listening to what had been allotted to us on CD, the only access we had to the forbidden tracks was to raid one of the parent’s vinyl collection and listen in secret. i remember the first time we figured out how to fire it up, hook up the old stripped RCA cables and drop that needle. the smooth sweet spectrum of sound from the forbidden albums filled that old carpeted basement with glory and wonder.

smash cut to age 13. i had picked up the electric guitar pretty good and had an old crate solid state amplifier and a hand me down marshall combo from my cousin. of course in the age of MTV spring break, the romance was turning to vinyl DJs and it fascinated me. i convinced my dad to buy me a set of entry level turntables and a little mixer at guitar center. i hooked the left channel into the crate and the right channel into the marshall and it was on. then he let me raid his old record collection. the only problem was that it was mostly ’60s folk and not enough of that thumping bass i had seen on tv.

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“My uncle had a huge vinyl collection full of good soul, funk, and R&B music and my grandmother also had lots of records in the house.”

“There was lots to listen to and choose from. We had Bill Cosby on vinyl, Bing Crosby, and even The Chipmunks Christmas. There was a lot going on! The record I gravitated to and will always love, must have come from my Uncle’s collection. It was Evelyn Champagne King’s record Get Loose. I repurchased this vinyl as an adult too. Boy oh boy was this a treat. “Love Come Down” of course was a smash that I loved to sing and dance to. I did not know about the other amazing funky records on the album like “Get Loose” and “I Can’t Stand It.”

I grew up with cassettes, CDs, and digital. Records like this allowed me to imagine myself being the life of the party in a time I didn’t live in. This record made me imagine myself being a bombshell in the late ’70s with my afro, bell bottoms, and a halter top. I stumbled into more black funk and disco artists because of this vinyl.

It’s actually hard for me to listen to disco or funk if it’s not on vinyl. That’s the medium I was most familiar hearing oldies, disco, and funk on. It just feels different.

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“My earliest vinyl memory is pulling the three volume Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two Original Golden Hits set from the back of my Grandparent’s wooden console. One cover was white, one black and one blue, each with a different picture of Cash. Too young to read, I asked my Grandpa who it was, and he said, “That’s the man in black.” A year or so later, he passed and the records went into a box in my Grandmother’s basement.”

“I’m not a purist when it comes to formats or a collector by nature, but I do appreciate vinyl as an aesthetic, sonic and literary medium. At different times in life, each element made a profound impact on me. In the beginning, it was that picture of Johnny Cash.

A half dozen years later, punk records turned my early aesthetic intrigue into a sonic pursuit. The Midwest post-punk scene was in full tilt with all of its sub-genres and I started catching rides up to Atomic Records on E Locust St. They had it all, including copies of Milk, a music zine that along with the Shepherd Express largely sparked my early interest in music journalism. I bought a lot of records in those days, but I specifically remember grabbing a copy of the Hot Water Music “Alachua” 7” with the die-cut logo sleeve and Fugazi’s Red Medicine at Atomic.

After high school, I ended up in Montana on a hiatus from college. I spent the better part of a year waist deep in the river trying to fly fish and elbow deep in the bargain bins at Rockin Rudy’s on Higgins St. I was looking for Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Willie McTell, Earl Scruggs, Mance Lipscomb—the stuff that either hadn’t made a direct jump to CD or you could find for way less in a used record bin.

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“When I think of vinyl I think about being a young kid, and going through my parents’ record collection. I’d look through them for hours, taking in the artwork and images. I’d take the records out the sleeves and would love dropping the needle.”

“The sound of vinyl is still so raw and nostalgic to me. My dad’s collection was a lot of classic stuff; The Who, Queen, The Beatles. I have such a love of The Who because of those records. My mum’s collection was stuff like Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Diamond. I love Joni Mitchell and adore Paul Simon’s Graceland so a lot of that music has totally rubbed off on me.

Records feel like more than just a way to share music. They feel much more special than a tape or CD, so I keep my current collection in tip top condition. Between my partner and I we have really vintage original records handed down from our parents, plus classic albums like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Carole King’s Tapestry, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Dark Side of The Moon, Queen’s Night at The Opera and a bunch of Paul Simon singles (I need to add Graceland to the collection ASAP!)

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“’I’ll show you which Beatles songs you need to know!’ my Uncle Phil declared, as he started thumbing through his extensive collection of vinyl to make me a cassette mixtape.”

“At thirteen years old, I was just starting to be able to discern John’s voice from Paul’s and George’s, I was just becoming acquainted with how electric and acoustic guitars sounded different, with how the low plunk of that Höfner bass and Ringo’s backbeat rounded out the sound of a rock band. And as my middle school ears listened to The Beatles’ tracks coming from my uncle’s turntable, I started to learn how music worked.

My uncle, my aunt, and my dad had been playing in bands together since before I was born. They all had instruments lying around, they wrote songs, they had vinyl collections with their names written onto the cardboard so they could share records back and forth with confidence that each favorite would eventually make it home. And they all loved The Beatles. But it was my uncle, with his old school hi-fi vinyl setup, who truly initiated me into their musical world.

Phil got all the wires set up, and began dubbing one song at a time directly from the turntable to the cassette deck. You could hear the tell-tale needle drop, the crackle, and those incredible musical colors that lifted themselves up from the grooves. “Dear Prudence” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” were on there. So were “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and a few others (many of which Ryanhood has covered over the years).

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“As a wee youngin’ of around seven, I was obsessed with a particular vinyl record that happened to be lying around my aunt’s place.”

“This album evoked all manner of mystery and excitement in me: four demonic figures straight out of a twisted game of Dungeons and Dragons perched upon a dais while an assemblage of similarly bedecked succubi wrothe in rapt anticipation below. Who the fuck were these guys? What was the story behind this hellish scene? As it turns out, those guys were Kiss, and the album was 1978’s Love Gun. As for the story—that’s a bit more complicated. And though I couldn’t fully comprehend it at the time, there was quite a lot wrong with the picture I’d ended up painting for myself (and that Kiss had helped paint for me). Let’s have a little look.

First, I could never have predicted what I’d ultimately experience once finally listening to the record. Yep, that’s right. I hadn’t even heard the album. My parents deemed the music inappropriate for one of such a tender young age. Consequently, I conjured up auditory images which I perceived to match the album’s visuals. I figured Love Gun would sound something like Metallica’s “The Thing That Should Not Be” or perhaps Meshuggah’s “Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion.” How could it be anything other than the fiercest, heaviest, most relentless assault the album cover visually suggested?

A couple years later (evidently nine is the magical Kiss-listening age), with suspense thoroughly built, the needle finally made contact with Love Gun. My jaw dropped, but not in the way I’d hoped. What was this? Where was the vicious onslaught I’d been waiting for all these years? This wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard on the radio (and very likely had, without realizing what it was). Staring back and forth from album cover to turntable, I just couldn’t get to grips with this stark juxtaposition. Thoroughly dejected, I headed out to the local comic book shop. Man, I should’ve seen this all coming.

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“Like a lot of people who go on to make music of their own, I’ve always been obsessed with recorded music in physical form.”

“I am lucky enough to have a father who was really into music—mostly country, but he also loved opera like Mario Lanza and Pavarotti. As far back as I can remember, he would take my brother and me to a record store called Peaches in Richmond, Virginia a few times a year. He would never really restrict us on how much we could get, so it felt like an absolute free-for-all since I was young and would come away with three or four records in whatever the format du jour was—records then tapes and then CDs.

I have vivid memories of my dad coming to the register with big stacks of things he was going to buy. Later in life, my brother and I realized that he was often buying the same things he already had because he forgot he owned them. I swear he has 30 copies of Willie Nelson Stardust.

I still have a lot of the things I bought on these sprees at Peaches. I know I have some Peaches branded tape and CD crates somewhere. Run DMC King of a Rock and Duran Duran Rio vinyl for sure. Ratt Out of the Cellar. R.E.M. Chronic Town and Del Fuegos Boston Mass on tape.

I don’t know if I still have it but I definitely remember buying Kool & the Gang Emergency on CD right after CDs came out because it was one of the only things I could find in the store on CD. I guess we had a CD player at the time but I am not so sure. I think I liked the colorful light refractions off the disc more than I liked Kool & the Gang. It was like holding the future in your hand. Or so I thought.

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“Vinyl, for me, has always been a forced pause in the moment. The non-skipping, non-skimming, full embrace of an artist’s musical vision; each song intentionally placed to create a full-course audio meal.”

“My dad had a massive collection of vinyl when I was growing up. They were stored in these dingy old orange crates, stacked tightly together in our living room.

The first record I remember grabbing was this Marmaduke book set, like an audiobook for vinyl. It wasn’t the vinyl content (I’m not a huge fan of Marmaduke), but the packaging that I loved.

Instead of the standard cardboard record holder, Marmaduke was stored in this thick, turquoise and white, tie-dye, translucent, plastic record holder. It was this thick jewel of a record among plain cardboard, and I loved grabbing it and just looking at it.

I can still hear the creaking of the plastic as I tried to open it when I was a kid. I can’t even remember what was on the record to tell you the truth, but I still remember that thick plastic holder.

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Celebrating Creed Bratton on his 78th birthday with this look back to a 2013 chat with the actor and musician. —Ed.

“I recall the anticipation and excitement when the stylus dropped on my old Silvertone record changer. I could tell by the tone of the hiss which one of my favorite 45s were going to play, and knew all the lyrics and guitar lines that were coming up.

http://youtu.be/HUm485UXxVQ

Vinyl is a visceral thing, not like digital in the head, but down lower…vibrating in the navel chakra.

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