Vinyl holds special meaning

Found this article interesting~check it out:


Browsing through Von's Records rack of vinyl records in Lafayette, Kokomo resident Mae Kingery looks for a good deal. Beside her, two other college students wander and browse through the section, eagerly hoping to find something new.

"I like to sit and read the lyrics while listening to the album," she said, flipping past Magnolia Electric Co. and Mogwai vinyls. "Plus, you usually get an MP3 code [to download the album online] too, so why not?"

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis at Indy CD & Vinyl, Purdue University student Austin Fleming seeks out something by Why?, a band from Los Angeles.

"Having this huge physical copy, it's rewarding," he said, pulling up the album he was looking for. "There's just this satisfaction to adding a record to your collection - it's different from owning a CD. You hardly need the original CD since you can just burn it onto a blank one. But with vinyl, you have a hard copy, and a lot of bands don't release things on vinyl. So it's unique. It's like your own."


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Vinyl holds special meaning - FEATURES

Queen of the Blues – Koko Taylor Passes Away

Written by Robert Benson


“Blues is my life,” proclaimed Grammy Award-winning blues icon Koko Taylor. Sadly on Wednesday June 3, 2009, the undisputed “Queen of the Blues,” passed away from complications from an operation to correct gastrointestinal bleeding.

As recently as May 7, 2009, this quintessential blues singer won her 29th Blues Music Award (for Traditional Female Blues Artist Of The Year) which made her the recipient of more Blues Music Awards than any other artist.

Koko Taylor was born on September 28, 1928 on a sharecropper’s farm (as Cora Walton) that was located just outside Memphis, Tennessee. She earned her nickname ‘Koko” because of her love for chocolate and she fell in love with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and the love of WDIA blues DJ’s, B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor began singing the blues with her siblings (who listened to Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Sonny Boy Williamson, among others). The children accompanied themselves with homemade instruments and although Taylor loved to sing, she never envisioned herself of joining her idols popularity and prestige.

In 1953, at the age of eighteen, Taylor and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, traveled to Chicago with, as Taylor said, “Thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.” The pair settled on the South Side of Chicago where Pops was employed for a packing company while Koko found work cleaning the houses for the wealthy families in the rich northern suburbs. Together they would frequent the Chicago blues clubs and encouraged by her husband, she would sit in with Chicago’s top blues bands; including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Little Walter and Junior Wells.

Taylor’s big break came in 1963 when she was approached by songwriter/arranger Willie Dixon who told her: “My God, I never heard a woman sing the blues like you sing the blues. There are lots of men singing the blues today, but not enough women. That’s what the world needs today, a woman with a voice like yours to sing the blues.”

Taylor’s first recording was with USA Records (her first recording was “Honky Tonk “) and then she secured a recording contract with Chess. Dixon produced her million-selling hit “Wang Dang Doodle” in 1966 which firmly established Taylor as the world’s number one female blues artist and became her signature song. The record went to #4 on the R&B and #58 on the Pop charts.

However, it was her live performances that set her apart from her contemporaries. Her passion, raw vocal prowess and blustery swagger are legendary. For decades, Taylor recorded iconic blues albums and was a mainstay in the Chicago blues scene and eventually was a staple at the national blues clubs and festivals.

In 1983, Taylor was awarded a Grammy Award (Best Traditional Blues Album) for her guest appearance on an album called “Blues Explosion.” In 1997, Taylor was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and received the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. In 2004 she received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors given to an American artist. Her most recent CD, 2007’s “Old School,” was nominated for a Grammy (eight of her nine Alligator albums were Grammy-nominated).

Over the course of her almost fifty-year career, Koko Taylor has received almost every award that can be bestowed to a singer and that the blues world had to offer. She was one of the few female artists to find success in the male-dominated genre. Her music is far reaching and will continue to inspire and influence countless blues singers for years to come.

“There are many kings of the blues,” said The Boston Globe, “but only one queen. Koko’s voice is still capable of pinning a listener to the back wall.” Without a doubt, Koko Taylor was the preeminent blues woman in the world today. She is—and will always remain—the undisputed “Queen of the Blues.”

Classic Rock Videos

I Just Want to Make Love To You - Foghat-LIVE

Woodstock 40th

Ahh, Woodstock, music, drugs, sex and rock and roll (did I say drugs?) Did you know that the 40th anniversary of this blessed event in coming up in August? I will be writing more about it in the upcoming weeks, but to get you started, Sony Music Entertainment and Woodstock ventures have paired together to offer music lovers five key perfomers and five classic albums (CD's)

The albums are by Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and Johnny Winter and will be housed in eco-friendly mini-CD sleeves with inner paper sleeves and housed in a slipcase jacket. Also included is a 16x20 inch fold-out poster with a picture of the artist performing on one side and a crowd shot on the other.


Here are the offers:



•Jefferson Airplane: The Woodstock Experience
•Volunteers
•Woodstock Performance










•The Other Side of This Life (previously unissued)

•Somebody To Love

•3/15 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds (previously unissued)

•Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon

•Eskimo Blue Day

•Plastic Fantastic Lover

•Wooden Ships (previously unissued)

•Uncle Sam Blues

•Volunteers

•The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil (previously unissued)

•Come Back Baby (previously unissued)

•White Rabbit

•The House At Pooneil Corners (previously unissued)







•Janis Joplin: The Woodstock Experience
•I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
•Woodstock Performance










•Raise Your Hand (previously unissued)

•As Good As You've Been To This World (previously unissued)

•To Love Somebody

•Summertime

•Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)

•Kozmic Blues

•Can't Turn You Loose (previously unissued)

•Work Me, Lord

•Piece Of My Heart

•Ball & Chain






Santana: The Woodstock Experience
•Santana
•Woodstock Performance










•Waiting

•Evil Ways (previously unissued)

•You Just Don't Care

•Savor

•Jingo

•Persuasion

•Soul Sacrifice

•Fried Neckbones






Sly & the Family Stone: The Woodstock Experience
•Stand!
•Woodstock Performance










•M'Lady (previously unissued)

•Sing A Simple Song (previously unissued)

•You Can Make It If You Try (previously unissued)

•Everyday People (previously unissued)

•Dance To The Music

•Medley: Music Lover / Higher

•I Want To Take You Higher (previously unreleased)

•Love City

•Stand! (previously unissued)





Johnny Winter: The Woodstock Experience
•Johnny Winter
Woodstock Performance










•Mama, Talk To Your Daughter (previously unissued)

•Leland Mississippi Blues

•Mean Town Blues

•You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now (previously unissued)

•I Can't Stand It (with Edgar Winter) (previously unissued)

•Tobacco Road (with Edgar Winter) (previously unissued)

•Tell The Truth (with Edgar Winter) (previously unissued)

•Johnny B. Goode (previously unissued).

Vinyl Collective Top Sellers - May

This from my friend Virgil over at www.VinylCollective.com Stop by and pick up some cool and collectible vinyl!


VinylCollective Top 20 Sales for May 2009

1 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7? brown vinyl VC exclusive color 400 copies

2 AUSTIN LUCAS/ THE TAKERS split 7? frosty blue vinyl 109 copies

3 WAYWORD SONS(William Elliott Whitmore) / SAM LOWRY ìJulianneî split 7? 99 copies

4 KEVIN SECONDS/ MIKE HALE split 7? clear blue vinyl VC exclusive color 92 copies

5 JON SNODGRASS/ CORY BRANAN split LP moon colored vinyl 88 copies

6 THE MENZINGERS “Hold On, Dodge” 7? olive green vinyl 87 copies

7 CHUCK RAGAN/ BRIAN FALLON “Gospel Songs” 7? black vinyl 72 copies

8 STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO “Everything Goes Numb” LP white vinyl VC exclusive color 65 copies

9 THURSDAY “Full Collapse” LP solid brown vinyl 58 copies

9 BROADWAY CALLS “Be All You Can’t Be” 7? Color 1 58 copies

11 PELICAN “Ephemeral” LP 57 copies

12 THE TAKERS ìTaker Easyî LP beer colored vinyl 52 copies

13 JON SNODGRASS/ CORY BRANAN split LP sun colored vinyl 47 copies

14 AUSTIN LUCAS/FRANK TURNER “Under the Influence Vol 8? 7? White/Bllack half and h 35 copies

15 SPRING CLEANING 20 LPs for $50 + more SALE 33 copies

15 Suburban Home SHOTGUNATOR black 33 copies

17 Insurance (Insure your Vinyl Collective order for $3.00) 30 copies

18 PORTUGAL THE MAN “My Mind” 7? import 29 copies

19 12” Record Jacket Sleeve. Fits over album jacket. 27 copies

20 STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO “Everything Goes Numb” LP clear red vinyl 24 copies

20 BAYSIDE “Shudder” LP solid red vinyl 24 copies

Music News & Notes

Bruce Adding More Shows

After selling out three stadium shows in several hours, Monday (June 1), Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have added fourth and fifth shows to the series of concerts that will be the final ever held at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s Giants Stadium. Tickets will go on sale June 9 at 10:00 am…

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Pearl Jam LP

Pearl Jam will release their next album, "Backspacer," exclusively through Target in the United States. The band will also sell the album directly from its Ten Club Web site…

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Flaming Lips, Frank Black, A Place to Bury Strangers Pay Tribute to Love and Rockets


In the mid-80s, Love and Rockets rose from the ashes of goth overlords Bauhaus and put a stamp on their own brand of scuzzy alt rock that would go on to influence everyone from the Pixies to Stone Temple Pilots. And now some of those in debt are paying it back with a tribute album dedicated to their cult heroes, due July 28 digitally and August 18 physically via Arsenal Rock N Roll/Justice.

New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets features covers from Black Francis, the Flaming Lips, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Dandy Warhols, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer, and others. Sometime agent of change Shepherd Fairey designed the cover.

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Sir Paul & Citi Field

Sir Paul McCartney has confirmed that he will be the first artist to play Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets. There will be two shows on July 17 and 18.

McCartney talked about the shows.

"The Beatles were the first to play at Shea Stadium and along with Billy Joel, I was the last to sing at the old Shea, so to be the first to play this stadium is incredible. I am really looking forward to a buzzing show."

Insound Announces the “Summer of Vinyl II”

I am happy to be a part of this vinyl event, stop by the site and pick up some great collectible records! Visit INSOUND HERE





Returning June 2nd!

Insound, the premier online indie music store, is announcing the inevitable sequel to last summer’s blockbuster “Summer of Vinyl.” Destined to cultivate new vinyl enthusiasts and reward current loyalists and obsessives, this year’s 9-week campaign will feature a familiar cast of promotions, including fan favorites: “Wait – That’s on Wax?!”, “Best of 2009 (so far)” and “Vinyl Rarities,” along with some new faces like, “The Art of Vinyl” and “Vinyl Gear.” The full Insound “Summer of Vinyl II” cast includes:

• June 2th: Vinyl Gear: Turntables and Accessories

• June 9th: Best of 2009 (so far): 10% off 2009’s best albums to date

• June 16rd: Deluxe Vinyl Special: 15% off select box sets and deluxe titles

• June 23th: “Wait – That’s on Wax?!”: 10% off surprising titles still in print

• June 30th: Insound Staff All-Time Favorite Records: 10% off the all-time greats

• July 7th: Favorites from Insound’s 7” Collection: 10% off hand-picked titles

• July 14th: The Art of Vinyl: 10% off staff pick for best album artwork

• July 21th: Vinyl Rarities: 10% off hard to find titles

• July 28th: Vinyl Essentials: 10% off classic titles

Visit INSOUND


Insound Exclusive LPs:

For over a decade, Insound has been working with emerging indie bands to provide an international sales platform, often-times serving as the exclusive retail partner for bands without a label or traditional distribution partner. Recently, Insound announced that it would be serving as the exclusive retailer for the LP from three amazing new bands – Japandroids (Post-nothing), Cymbals Eat Guitars (Why Are There Mountains) and The Boy Least Likely To (The Law Of The Playground).

Exclusive 7” Re-Issues

Additionally, Insound has been working with labels to reissue classic out-of-print titles. Starting the series, Insound is reissuing two classic 7” records, one from The Ramones (California Sun EP) and one from The Replacements (I’ll Be You). More info on that project can be found here.

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About Insound
Celebrating a decade as the definitive online source for indie and essential vinyl, silk-screened posters, t-shirts, digital music (and, of course, CDs) Insound.com has consistently remained ahead of the dotcom curve. Insound was proud to be the first place online to sell Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tapes ‘n Tapes and more. Additionally, Insound has steadfastly served as the best source for well designed indie band merch, silk-screened posters and classic album re-issues.

Go To InSound