Saturday July 17th, 2021 is the second drop of vinyl goodies at independent shops.
From watching store owners and people who are passionate about Vinyl on YouTube there is a vast spectrum of opinions.
The consistency of this special day are the expectations people have for certain titles to appear on the release list.
As many people are disappointed as thrilled by the discovery each time out.
This is exactly the reason why going to record stores had always been a source of pure joy for me.
The record store is where I found my first Queen album! It’s where many now classic artists are found when they were new.
This Saturday I have the deep pleasure of going to one of the largest independent stores in the USA—Princeton Record Exchange in New Jersey with my best friend from high school.
Picture Vinyl, First time on Vinyl live albums from legendary artists, special singles, special color vinyl, box sets, and records being pressed for the first time since their original release sometimes decades ago.
This year Box sets feature a studio album set from Randy Newman; War has a 5 album set of color vinyl of their core catalog not seen on vinyl since the mid seventies!
Two E.P. titles are Queen+Adam Lambert Live Around The World including 2 tracks not found on the #1 album plus a 7″ Freddie Mercury song, Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow on pink vinyl packaged with the e.p.
A late addition to the release list, Foo Fighters Dee Gees features their covers of iconic Bee Gees hits and a side of their own.
Soundtracks are always big. This time out Aliens The Matrix, and Harold & Maude are being featured.
There are three volumes of rarities from The Monkees. Each title comes on color vinyl. You won’t know the color until you open it!
Live albums from Ramones, Suzi Quatro, Aretha Franklin and John Prine are limited editions.
Streaming services are now 75% of the revenue of the music business.
Former grooves turned into code.
During my childhood the long-playing record or L.P. played back on machines called Victrolas or Phonographs. These platters were the format for pre-recorded music.
You could own records for $5.99 a piece back in those days. The culture was different too. Our parents for the most part grew up in the big band era. Rock n Roll was not music for their generation. Music is directly woven into the fabric of the times in which it is recorded.
When I was a kid rock n roll was in its 3rd decade. The be-bop-a-lula of the 50s gave way to the psychedelic haze of the 60s which gave way to the glam of the 70s. Then the 80s smashed all the genres into niches. Heavy metal, New Wave, Dance, Pop, Jazz, Country, Rap, and many other musical forms energized different groups of listeners.
In the 1970s records were sold in department stores like Sears and Korvettes. Where I lived in The Bronx you could walk down to your local record shop. Broadway Records existed for many years as a provider of LP’s and a provider of concert tickets.
My first record was the soundtrack to the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back. On the RSO label, a double album with a gatefold sleeve that meant it opened up like a book to reveal an inner sleeve that contained a full color souvenir booklet of the movie! This record was $12.99. There were very few double albums for this reason during this era. I will never forget that recording.
Then I discovered Tower Records in Greenwich Village on W.4th Street. There were thousands of records. I only cared about Rock. The radio was the transmitter of music. Every kid had one. In New York City WPLJ 95.5 (which just signed off forever) was our station.
My favorite record store ever.
Our new cloud culture.
Not realizing at the time that we were not drowning in entertainment choices yet or franchises. Rock n Roll disappeared; Rock Music arrived. Rock radio promoted concerts by giving away tickets with contests. Bands appeared on radio to give interviews with local DJ’s.
I heard The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zep, and Queen for the first time this way. The Disc Jockey (DJ) decided what to play. Every new artist had their respective record labels issue a promotional only single to radio across the country. If the song was received well by listeners it became a hit.
The singles issued on miniature vinyl platters with a giant hole in the center were played at 45 r.p.m. (rotations per minute) and required an adapter to play. They cost $1 per unit. The A side was the potential hit; the B side was another track from the album being promoted.
In the record stores The Billboard Chart Hot 100 songs were displayed in order. This was how music listeners bought songs they liked. If they were really into an artist the album would be bought too.
Much pleasure came from physically going out to purchase music from a variety of chains that developed to meet the demand. Record World, Sam Goody, Disc-O-Mat, Tower, and others were fun stores to experience. The internet killed most of it. Independent record shops are still around. You can search for your local shops online.
The music we collect changes throughout our lives. I loved a multitude of artists all my life. I built a strong foundation as a kid. Although Rock was my focus I was exposed to Classical, Jazz, Opera, Folk, and Broadway show tunes thanks to my parents who had records from the 50s and 60s.
Today streaming services have become popular. At the click of a button and a reasonable monthly price the entire ocean of recordings is available to our ears. More listeners today have headphones than at any other time in history!
I have access to every record published over the last 50 years. My mistakes have led me to a musical epiphany. At first I added hundreds of titles all at once. The novelty overwhelmed me. I could have any album.
Now I only keep about 20 titles at a time. Live with them. Then decide if they are worth having on vinyl. Following 3 listens I decide if the selection will be returned to the ether or placed on a wish list for vinyl.
A subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited is $12.99 a month. A vinyl record now costs $19.95 on the low end to upwards of $35 on the high end. The new records are pressed on heavier 180 gram vinyl.
In the USA after the compact disc became the dominant format the recording industry closed many record pressing plants. Only a few exist today. Many of the vinyl records in American stores today are pressed in Europe.
To Stream or not to stream? I have adapted to every change that has developed during my life. I missed having records. The packaging is part of the experience of having music. Like my first record purchase being so memorable because of its physical contents. Digital cannot provide this satisfaction.
A stream cannot include a poster, liner notes (despite some inclusion of digital notes), images made by professional photographers, and gatefolds, pop-up or die-cut covers. There are inserts in physical copies of records.
However, because of the digital revolution I was able to learn directly from other vinyl collectors how to appreciate the contents of records. I never realized in my youth that vinyl should be kept in poly-lined sleeves. This protects them from dust. Outer jackets should be placed in protective plastic too.
Without album cover art music is dropped sometimes by surprise so artists can make an impression. Nowadays, recording artists spend years developing a new record. The streaming option makes it harder to stand out from the constant availability online.
Every rock group now considered classic has at least 3 or 4 memorable album covers. Some commissioned painters or photographers to create a defining image for their recorded works.
Roger Dean’s Yes album covers, Hipgnosis’ Pink Floyd covers, Mick Rock’s photographic covers for Queen, Blondie, and David Bowie are part of the complete package. Digital obscures these contributions.
Fragile by YES. Art by Roger Dean.
Pink Floyd’s Box Set, Shine On. Art by Hipgnosis.
Queen II. Photography by Mick Rock.
The comments people leave online are sometimes really long. Everyone has an opinion. I write here for this reason. I feel that this format is good for expressing opinions.
I used iTunes first when it started. Artwork was not always available for each album. The liner notes were absent. After years of usage I was depressed. Music was no longer the fun it had been when the culture existed for record stores. People would share with each other their love for music.
Streaming allows for constant listening. You do not get up to flip a side or pull a record out of its sleeve. You never learn how to take care of your music except creating back up files.
The cloud is the new data storage system. Thousands upon thousands of files can be filed away in this virtual closet. In my opinion, I do not need this much capacity. Streaming has made me question just how much I can ever listen to in my lifetime.
Physical records last a lifetime. If you clean them before each use or after a hundred plays the quality will not diminish. You are forced to decide on a finite range of ownership. Then perhaps you may enjoy what you have more without constant adding.
Flea markets, record shows, and independent shops sell records cheaply. I found 2 Broadway musical film scores at a flea market for a total of $10. Both recordings were from the 50s and 60s. They still played beautifully.
Princeton Record Exchange is one of the largest on the East Coast. They have thousands of records for $1—$3. I spent $30 for 7 records this past Memorial Day. They also buy used records and collections.
Thousands of records for $1. Largest Jazz selection. New Arrivals every day!
Vinyl record sales have increased making it second only to streaming.
The files in your computer’s cloud take up space too. I do not have the same joy from them. They are not tangible things. Who knows where these files will be in the years to come. My physical records have a place on their shelf beneath my stereo.
Discovery is streaming’s strength as a format. Each Friday new music gets released. Scroll through the selections. There is an option to sample the album or any specific song. You don’t have to download anything.
I have developed a taste for alternative artists because of streaming. Record shops have listening stations too. I think it’s much more convenient to find new music on a streaming platform.
Spotify, Pandora, Apple, and Amazon are popular today. This does not mean records are extinct. The LP is now back in vogue with young people. Their parents grew up on rock. They know classic rock. Sales of vinyl albums are way up now. Streaming is dominant but people are collecting records too.
Go on YouTube and search Vinyl Community (VC). You will find many people posting videos about records they own and those discovered at thrift shops and record stores all over the US.
I learned you do not have to choose streaming over records. I use the streaming to find records of new artists. This process leads to more ideas for my blog. I thought a lot about the pleasures of streaming and its drawbacks too.
The music business learned difficult lessons during our cultural upheavals. As a result there is less of an industry today. People seem to want things fast and cheap now. The loss in experience is hard to measure. Streaming is on the go with you everywhere. Records demand your care, attention, and effort.
I think back to 1984 when I saw those orange foam headphones of the Walkman for the first time. It was on the subway. The beginning of people using music on the go to shut out everything and everyone around them.
Sci-fi becomes reality.
The first on the go device for music.
Today those wireless ear buds are it. Those using them look like aliens to me. I mostly listen to music at home. Sometimes I will listen on the go. Time management is much harder now.
Advanced technology is great but I feel we must strive for some type of balance. Streaming is here to stay. I feel the rise of physical fitness from the 1980s onward made it possible to sell people on portable devices for music. People use music for workouts. Runners love wireless ear buds too.
Alternative or independently made music is great on vinyl. Finding artists has never been easier to do. One of the best things about streaming is access has expanded around the world.
Because of this global reach more artists new and classic are making music using a wider variety of styles. The new Santana record, Africa Speaks, adds African rhythms to his salsa/jazz/rock combo.
Funny how new inventions make us wonder how we ever lived without them. As a person who remembers life without the internet I can attest to the fact you cannot miss what does not yet exist.
Most of us cannot live without our devices. It’s a creature comfort to know we can still rely on our past methods of playback.
Whatever new technology may lay on the horizon we should keep our love of music alive.
For the love of music keep listening whether you stream, collect vinyl or do both. I recognize it’s just a matter of preference for some. May music always be in the air for everyone. I will do a little bit of both.
I love music. My parent’s had records and a victrola when I was a kid. There was a piano in our house. It’s still there. I should have been more vocal about wanting lessons on piano and guitar. I was the youngest of three boys. I wanted to be a rock musician.
In my childhood anything expressed in an artful way or generally non-conformist method was simply called weird. Unfortunately this allowed truly visionary artists like Lou Reed, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Pattie Smith to slip past me. Then there was Devo.
A group who dressed alike to make a point about conformity, consumerism, and politics. I saw them on Saturday Night Live. I was not buying records yet. In matching jumpsuits with the name of the group in bold block letters they seemed so….weird. There is that blanket word of dismissal again!
Following decades where I listened to every major rock group on the planet I re-discovered the aforementioned artists like they were new. I found out why their look and sound seemed so outside the norms.
After decades of dominance by the guitar then electric guitar Devo’s music placed the guitar outside the groove. Replacing it with the new technology of the synthesizer. The synth would be at the core of this music. The recording industry labeled this sound New Wave or Post-Punk. I do not think Devo were ever really pigeonholed by their fans.
Thanks to David Bowie and Iggy Pop, the group from Akron, Ohio who met at Kent State University where they were students got signed by Warner Brothers records.
They believed that succumbing to a group think mentality the culture was de-evolving. Hence the name Devo.
Devo consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with drummer Alan Myers.”
I began listening to the 6 records the band made with Warners because of Record Store Day 2019. Each year the music industry’s record labels put out a list of titles to feature as exclusives to celebrate independent record stores around the world.
Warner Bros decided to issue a box set of all 6 Devo albums on color vinyl. I have been listening to the digital versions of each release. These are new records to me. I must admit after being such a static listener of guitar oriented music the sounds made by this group were fresh. I literally fell back in love with the pure joy of finding something that excitited my ears, my mind, and my heart.
The first 2 records have been my focus for now. I think it stood out with their approach to their art. Appearing like aliens from The Twilight Zone sent to observe life on earth, the music of Devo satirized our conception of gender, power, and work. I argue they were presenting a sneak peak of the future.
If you missed it like I did you were doomed to just go along with the crowd. Arguably most of us did just that in the 1980s. Punk or Metalhead? Freedom of Choice or conformity of a new tradition? Each record raised these questions of what direction society might take.
The title of their debut had the audacity to be a Q & A. Seen below are the first 4 albums on the Warner Bros label. A fem but masculine male framed in the whiteness of golf, a straight laced image. The answer was a defiant No, We Are DEVO.
Challenging our norms right from the start with songs like “Mongoloid” and “Jocko Homo”. The first of these two songs was about a man with Downs Syndrome who fit into society because he “wore a hat, had a job, and brought home the bacon”. A theoretical critique describing how those who might be perceived as different must find a way to fit into the proscribed norms of the day.
The latter song title refers to de-evolution. Humans are ape men. The call and response track is anthemic. The band’s artful delivery back in the 1970s were often seen as a new form of fascism or clowning or both. But I think Devo was being clever in presenting their satire and opinions as a new form of music that a listener could find on their own terms. The questions are interesting. We may never have all the answers. But we have in our hands this unique artform.
On “Freedom Of Choice”, seen below the third record from left to right included “Whip It” which became their biggest hit, peaking at #14 in America. The song is a sincere cynical laugh at the cockeyed optimism of Americans. All our problems can be solved if we just simply whip them. The whip is a loaded symbol of repression and brutality used here as the over simplification of universal problem solver.
Making fun of all the self-help tropes of the day (still in use today) are the lyrics:
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
Listening to their music for the first time (except “Whip It”) I could understand what they were trying to say. In a lot of ways we were getting the future in preview. A world where a selected group would make the majority feel like the world is beautiful and we just need to conform to be happy.
Confronting the ideals of gender on its debut.
What is tradition?
Freedom. No. Freedom of Choice.
Duty Now.
The hats were called Energy Domes. It became a trademark of sorts. This was their Freedom Of Choice attire.
Devo made videos at a time before the launch of MTV. Their clip for “Mongoloid” made use of stock footage to create the first video that used the art technique of collage. I would argue that this is part of what makes Devo a worthy candidate for the Museum Of Modern Art as well as the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. The latter institution failed to induct them again this past year.
Devo in my opinion were a kind of prologue to our new century. Their theory of Devolution is seen in the ‘smart’ screens that have us in their grip daily. Societal behaviors are changing. We have regressed into a culture of looking down, sticking to the tribe, and thinking we just have to be optimistic all the time.
On Saturday April 13 the annual event Record Store Day (RSD) that promotes indie record shops will take place. Pearl Jam are the ambassadors of the event this year.
If you still doubt the resurgence of this once dominant format look at this week’s Billboard music chart. Motley Crue have released “The Dirt”, the soundtrack to their biopic, which has landed them a top ten seller with 30,000 units sold, half of them were vinyl records!
Each year in the weeks before RSD a list is posted on the web at http://www.recordstoreday.com containing every title that will be issued.
There are regional specific items that may not be available in your local shop. Some titles are limited to a specific number of pressings. If you love records there is always something of interest.
Last year I attended my first RSD. I found a re-issue of the Rolling Stones’ “On Their Satanic Majesties Request” pressed on vinyl with a cool psychedelic splatter pattern. Every detail of the original was recreated down to the holographic cover. David Bowie’s self-titled debut was issued on colored vinyl as a double album. You got the mono version and the stereo version on red and blue vinyl. The gatefold featured historic liner notes. These were two treasures I got at my local shop.
This year’s bounty has a lot to offer listeners. Over 400 titles appear on this year’s list. First-time RSD issues, 7 inch and 10 inch records, picture discs, and historic live recordings plus some alternative takes on all-time classics. And limited pressings galore.
Here are some of my picks for RSD 2019. If you love records visit the website. Whether it’s unreleased concerts from an artist’s heyday or new versions of classic releases; picture discs or indie artists you will probably find a title or two you want in your collection.
Collection of tracks from Cheap Trick’s output on the Epic label.
New Year’s Eve Concert on 12/31/1979 of Ramones. A first time release!
Picture Disc of Queen biopic soundtrack on 2 LPs. Features their Live Aid set .
The 4th LP from The Mac to have an alternate version. Limited to 12500 copies worldwide.
Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks Demos for the first time!
The Devo Box is limited to 10,000 copies worldwide! All 6 studio albums from Warners on color vinyl.
Precision 12 Inch Picture Disc
I have found many record lovers dislike picture discs. The grooves are not as deep as a traditional black vinyl surface. I have not experienced the inferior playback that many others claim. This offering from Ace Frehley was his recent solo Lp, “Spaceman”. This is a first time issue too!
Those are some of the highlights for this year’s RSD. Explore to find record shops in your region. Many of the albums that will come out remain available unless they are numbered editions like some of the concert recordings and box sets. The point in the end is to remind people that listening is fun. Holding a record is far more enjoyable than a digital copy any day. As long as you keep them clean the format lasts forever.
Evan's Gate 