I want to thank Jeffrey B. Palmer, Director of Marketing & Communications at the The Vinyl Institute for allowing me the exclusive right to reprint his wonderful article about the love for vinyl records.
ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 23, 2008 – In 1948, Dr. Peter Goldmark developed the first long-playing record made of PVC. Vinyl records were quieter than the earlier shellac disks, could play at 33 1/3 rotations per minute which allowed up to 30 minutes per side of playing time, and were more affordable and less sensitive than shellac.
Today, to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the death of vinyl records have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, their popularity has received a louder buzz throughout the country in just the past couple of months.
The Aug. 5 "Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer" noted The Flip Side music store was saved from extinction by adding used and new vinyl records and refurbished turntables to its inventory.
The Aug. 6 "Charlotte (N.C.) Observer" reported vinyl LP's at Lunchbox Records accounts for 45 percent of its sales.
In the Aug. 17 "Buffalo (N.Y.) News" Kelly Mordaunt, Record Theatre's University Plaza manager and buyer, claimed much of his vinyl-buying customers are "college age and under."
The Aug. 20 "Boston (Mass.) Herald" reported a Newbury Comics music superstore opening in Norwood will carry an extensive inventory of new vinyl records.
In just the last four weeks, independent news features on the growing demand for vinyl records have run in newspapers in Pueblo, Colo.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Bellingham, Wash.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Spokane, Wash.: Superior, Wis., and "The New York Times."
And the Sept. 23 "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" reported A + R Record & Tape Manufacturing in Dallas has seen a 25 percent upturn in vinyl record production in the last three years, prompted by interest in hip hop, dance, and punk rock records.
To meet the widespread demand, more musicians are releasing their latest recordings on both vinyl and CD - Madonna, U2, Buddy Guy, R.E.M., the Drive By Truckers, Elvis Costello, and Wilco among them. Neil Young typically releases both LP's and CD's of his music.
Sundazed Records has developed a large catalog of "high definition" vinyl reissues of 1960's rock mainstays like The Byrds, Love, Spirit, The Remains, Jefferson Airplane, The Stooges, Aretha Franklin, and Bob Dylan.
Also answering the demand for new/old vinyl recordings, Capitol/EMI Records launched its Capitol Vaults reissues Sept. 2, including classic rock chestnuts like Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974-1978 and the Beach Boys' 1966 Pet Sounds, as well as the music catalogs of newer rock bands like Radiohead and Coldplay. Capitol Records' Jane Ventom indicated the releases are aimed at "audiophiles who continued to collect vinyl through its leanest years, baby boomers who are dusting off turntables, and the iPod generation that's discovering classics on vinyl." Some record companies are offering digital downloads or CD versions of albums with the purchase of a vinyl copy.
However, many simply prefer the sound of an analog recording on vinyl instead of its digital alternative. Words they use to describe their vinyl treasures are "richer," "warmer," "more natural," "more durable," "better bass," and simply "cooler."
Vinyl-philes also revel in the indescribable joy of taking a vinyl record out of its sleeve, gazing at the album cover art, reading liner notes without the aid of a microscope, playing the record through one side and flipping it over, and even the occasional pop and skip of a scratched record. One long-time vinyl enthusiast remarked, "With vinyl, music listening is an experience, not just knocking off a couple of songs on your iPod while commuting to work."
Other vinyl releases recent and planned include re-issues of Paul McCartney & Wings' Band on the Run, John Lennon's Imagine, Jimi Hendrix' Band of Gypsys, The Eagles' Hotel California, The Allman Brothers' Live at Fillmore East, Def Leppard's Pyromania, The Who's Who's Next, and a deluxe box set of the late jazz trumpeter Miles Davis' legendary Kind of Blue sessions.
While sales of CD's have continued to drop over the last few years, 17 percent in 2007 from the previous year, sales of new vinyl LP's continue to surge, a 37 percent increase from 2006 to 2007. The Recording Industry Association of America states 1.3 million new vinyl recordings were sold in the United States in 2007, and analysts project annual sales to range from 1.6 million to 2 million by the end of 2008. Also, sales of new turntables nearly doubled in a year, from 275,000 in 2006 almost half a million in 2007.
Another plus for vinyl recordings -- no "laser rot." An article in the Aug 22 "Detroit (Mich.) News," stated laser rot is when the aluminum coating on the surface of old CD's and DVD's oxidizes and degrades, becoming irretrievably corroded. Old school vinyl recordings are immune to such digital deterioration.
The imminent demise for CD's may also be exaggerated. But while they have been around for only 27 years, vinyl LP's are 60 years old, and still spinning.
The Vinyl Institute represents the leading manufacturers involved in the production of PVC vinyl in the United States, and promotes the value of PVC and vinyl products to society.
For more information, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
(703) 741-5669
jeff_palmer@plastics.org
Also go to: www.vinylindesign.com and www.vinylinfo.org.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Collecting Vinyl Records
Unless you were born with no historical sense of music's roots, then you are familiar with vinyl records. If unfamiliar, vinyl records are an analog sound storage medium that in essence forms its effects from a flat disc with inscribed modulated spiral grooves. So what is the big deal? Surely that is what you are asking in the digital age of I-pods, Cds, MP3s and phone audio tools. Truth be told vinyl records were revolutionary for their time, and even to this very minute, monumental in shaping the future of digital music and sound. Vinyl records are obviously much more difficult to find these days due to massive advances in audio, however just like seeking a black and white TV, they still exist and are very real.
When young individuals hear about vinyl records they immediately assume they are obsolete and thus not worth their time. The irony is these records are part of the mainstream youth movement behind Hip Hop and Techno, and that's just to name a few. When you go to the club and hear the DJ, chances are he is using vinyl, and some of the most recognizable beats are due to spinning the modulated grooves on these discs. That is not to say that vinyl is all of a sudden mainstream again, but its effects are monumental and heard every single day spanning the 7 continents.
True albums on vinyl, to the biggest music enthusiasts, are like gold in record form. One of the biggest reasons vinyl records are still actively discussed today is for its nostalgic persona. But it goes beyond just remembering buying your favorite Beatles or Rolling Stones album in the 1960's. Vinyl records have had a rap for as long as they have been around about their ability to create a more authentic, real sound unmatched by digital reproductions of the same songs. Because of vinyl's linking to the positive influences of gramophone records, listeners are left with a more visceral experience.
Vinyl records are also a benchmark in the evolution of music, and serve as a bookmarked chapter in the bridge to the digital age. Collectors all over the world constantly discuss, trade and still seek out their favorite albums, almost a reminder to how much audio has changed for the better. Besides just being a warm blanket that covers music's die hard fans, vinyl records serve as an important lesson to the compression and presentation of audio beats for amazing audio output.
Mike Campbell has been a vinyl record enthusiast for 35 plus years. For more information on collecting vinyl records, and also to pick up on a few rare finds visit us at http://www.vinylrecordbin.com
When young individuals hear about vinyl records they immediately assume they are obsolete and thus not worth their time. The irony is these records are part of the mainstream youth movement behind Hip Hop and Techno, and that's just to name a few. When you go to the club and hear the DJ, chances are he is using vinyl, and some of the most recognizable beats are due to spinning the modulated grooves on these discs. That is not to say that vinyl is all of a sudden mainstream again, but its effects are monumental and heard every single day spanning the 7 continents.
True albums on vinyl, to the biggest music enthusiasts, are like gold in record form. One of the biggest reasons vinyl records are still actively discussed today is for its nostalgic persona. But it goes beyond just remembering buying your favorite Beatles or Rolling Stones album in the 1960's. Vinyl records have had a rap for as long as they have been around about their ability to create a more authentic, real sound unmatched by digital reproductions of the same songs. Because of vinyl's linking to the positive influences of gramophone records, listeners are left with a more visceral experience.
Vinyl records are also a benchmark in the evolution of music, and serve as a bookmarked chapter in the bridge to the digital age. Collectors all over the world constantly discuss, trade and still seek out their favorite albums, almost a reminder to how much audio has changed for the better. Besides just being a warm blanket that covers music's die hard fans, vinyl records serve as an important lesson to the compression and presentation of audio beats for amazing audio output.
Mike Campbell has been a vinyl record enthusiast for 35 plus years. For more information on collecting vinyl records, and also to pick up on a few rare finds visit us at http://www.vinylrecordbin.com
Album Cover Art
Here we are at #12 on the Gigwise.com's list of the sexiext and dirtiest album cover art (Gigwise comments in quotes)
12. Ice-T: ‘Gangsta Rap’- "The rapper’s latest album, released in 2006, features Ice-T and his Playboy model wife Nicole Coco Austin complete naked sprawled across a bed presumably after the act of love-making. Unsurprisingly, some sales companies and stores objected to the artwork and refused to stock the record."
Though "Gangster Rap" seems destined to be more or less ignored the way all of Ice-T's albums in the last ten-plus years have been (in it's first week of release the album is ranked 6,000 in Amazon CDs and Best Buy isn't even stocking it at any of their stores in my area), Ice and his fans can take some solace in the fact that the album is Ice's most invigorated sounding disc- and his most professional, tightly produced disc - since 1993's "Home Invasion" - and if you didn't care for that one (I know a few fans who didn't) we might as well give this one the ultimate praise of his best since the landmark "O.G. Original Gangster" album from 1991.
While nothing here scales the heights of almost anything on "O.G.", it is important to remember it is a different time than Ice's heyday and that the rap game and sound is far different. Ice is smart enough to know that even his greatest albums would not be looked at as revolutionary today the way they were back in the mid to late 80's; so he has crafted an album that caters to much of the rap sound and production techniques of today, but lyrically Ice is still bringing us the kind of gangster rhymes that put him on the map. This isn't always a positive since, judging by the evidence submitted by his recent albums, it means almost every album includes a host of predictable tracks: the boastful tracks about how hardcore he is, the explicit sex jam, the umpteenth telling of his upbringing; how he used to hustle, pimp and rob jewelry stores; and his most obnoxious habit of beginning almost every other song by shouting his name, the year and the title of the album we are listening to and punctuating all three with an expletive ("Yeah! Ice-T. 2006. Gangster Rap, bi_ch!"). But most of the time Ice is so good at writing these kinds of rhymes, repetitive or not, the songs usually work. Rappers write about what they know and have seen, experiences that most of us should pray we never have to endure. This writing has become something of theatre in the rap world these days (you never know if today's rappers have lived through what they rap about or if they are just mimicking their idols or telling outlandish, exciting stories to sound hardcore, top the competition and sell more records), but Ice-T and all the rappers that broke out around the same time back in the day were the real deal, and the reason they - and rap - caught on was because no one had ever so bluntly told these stories before in music. So if we've heard all of Ice's gangster tales before, I suppose all he can do is try to dress them up in new ways and move them around in different directions to keep them fresh. On this album, for the most part, he accomplishes that.
Like his last outing, 1999's "Seventh Deadly Sin," this album is a tad uneven. There will be a great song, then two or three that don't really do anything for you, but then a pair that are good enough to stand along side Ice's best stuff. Unlike "Seventh Deadly Sin" though, there are far more high points here (I'd say ten or so of the albums 16 songs will get some heavy rotation in my CD player for a while) than low, this album is not as ugly and underground; even though the lyrics are often as hard as we have come to expect, Ice and his producers have turned their attention to the music; a lot of the tracks have a bounce to them that Ice has maybe never displayed before - surely not since his heyday.
But there are a few route outings. The first track is fun for a few minutes, with Ice name dropping all the old school rappers he came up with, but it grows tiresome and track two, like a few others here and many on past Ice albums, is a perfect example of what I'm talking about when I refer to some of Ice's lazy, boastful and unconvincing attempts to keep reinstating that he is the greatest and you better not step to him (isn't this the guy who, on his "Power" album, said braiging about yourself on your records is "weak s--t from a weak mind... why don't you talk about somethin'/you're just talkin' loud and sayin' nothin'."?). In my humble opinion the album should have kicked off with the third track, "New Life." Here, Ice settles down a bit, let's some of the music do the talking - or at least help him out, and declares he's back, he never went anywhere, and is never going anywhere; well written with good rhymes. He follows that with another high point "Dear God Can You Here Me." Again, good use of music and beats; Ice raps it louder the usual, if there were rock guitars on the track it might feel like a Body Count tune. This song is also the first of three to feature KRYST. All of the songs with his hand in them are among the better ones on the album. With track six, "Pimp or Die," more of that standard issue rap that Ice is better than, and seven, "Pray," a song featuring Mrs. Ice-T (and the album's cover girl), Coco, that is well intentioned but unfortunately grows obnoxious, we are starting to realize the pattern this album will take; giving us a few good songs followed by a few that you can simply move past. Track nine, "Real Talk" has some funky musical chops on it. Ice raps in a low, relaxed Snoop-ish tone. This track is this album's comin' up/what-I`ve-accomplished-in-the-game-thus-far opus, and not bad. It's also got Kryst on it again. "Walkin' in the Rain" is this album's best shot at a single. If Ja Rule and Ashanti can have a hit with that stupid ballad they had out a few years ago, Ice certainly deserves one for this. Thug love has rarely sounded so genuine. Set it to a sample of Barry White's old tune of the same name and you've got something. Similarly, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" sounds like an old Curtis Mayfield tune. It's one of the smoothest beats Ice has ever laid vocals over. He has a hand here from Smoothe Da Hustler, who sounds like a slightly less gravel-voiced version of DMX. If "Walkin' in the Rain" wouldn't make it as a single, this one just might be Ice's other shot. Also good are two gangster anthems that recall the good old days of "O.G." and the like, "Code of the Streets" and "It's All Love" (there's Kryst again). "My Baby" is this album's sex jam. It's decent as these things go. The album ends with "Twice the Game." This isn't as tiresome as "Ridin' Low," "Pimp or Die" and the like, but it is more of the same. However, when Ice ends an album this solid by declaring he is twice the game, you really can't argue.
Ice-T fans don't need to be told to check this one out, but one-time fans who have lost track of Mr. O.G. over the last decade and are curious about how Ice sounds now, or those who have taken to VH1's "Rap School" and have seen the promos for this new disc and wonder what Ice's legacy is all about will not be disappointed if they give this one a try. It won't set the world - or Ice-T's career - on fire the way it may have at one time, but that is mainly due the sorry state of rap at this point and the fact there doesn't seem to be much of a push to get this album - or most new Ice - material out there these days. A shame considering that some of these tracks could stand up to 50 Cent and the like. (Amazon review by "By Boss Fan")
Double O.G. indeed, Ice. Keep it up.
12. Ice-T: ‘Gangsta Rap’- "The rapper’s latest album, released in 2006, features Ice-T and his Playboy model wife Nicole Coco Austin complete naked sprawled across a bed presumably after the act of love-making. Unsurprisingly, some sales companies and stores objected to the artwork and refused to stock the record."
Though "Gangster Rap" seems destined to be more or less ignored the way all of Ice-T's albums in the last ten-plus years have been (in it's first week of release the album is ranked 6,000 in Amazon CDs and Best Buy isn't even stocking it at any of their stores in my area), Ice and his fans can take some solace in the fact that the album is Ice's most invigorated sounding disc- and his most professional, tightly produced disc - since 1993's "Home Invasion" - and if you didn't care for that one (I know a few fans who didn't) we might as well give this one the ultimate praise of his best since the landmark "O.G. Original Gangster" album from 1991.
While nothing here scales the heights of almost anything on "O.G.", it is important to remember it is a different time than Ice's heyday and that the rap game and sound is far different. Ice is smart enough to know that even his greatest albums would not be looked at as revolutionary today the way they were back in the mid to late 80's; so he has crafted an album that caters to much of the rap sound and production techniques of today, but lyrically Ice is still bringing us the kind of gangster rhymes that put him on the map. This isn't always a positive since, judging by the evidence submitted by his recent albums, it means almost every album includes a host of predictable tracks: the boastful tracks about how hardcore he is, the explicit sex jam, the umpteenth telling of his upbringing; how he used to hustle, pimp and rob jewelry stores; and his most obnoxious habit of beginning almost every other song by shouting his name, the year and the title of the album we are listening to and punctuating all three with an expletive ("Yeah! Ice-T. 2006. Gangster Rap, bi_ch!"). But most of the time Ice is so good at writing these kinds of rhymes, repetitive or not, the songs usually work. Rappers write about what they know and have seen, experiences that most of us should pray we never have to endure. This writing has become something of theatre in the rap world these days (you never know if today's rappers have lived through what they rap about or if they are just mimicking their idols or telling outlandish, exciting stories to sound hardcore, top the competition and sell more records), but Ice-T and all the rappers that broke out around the same time back in the day were the real deal, and the reason they - and rap - caught on was because no one had ever so bluntly told these stories before in music. So if we've heard all of Ice's gangster tales before, I suppose all he can do is try to dress them up in new ways and move them around in different directions to keep them fresh. On this album, for the most part, he accomplishes that.
Like his last outing, 1999's "Seventh Deadly Sin," this album is a tad uneven. There will be a great song, then two or three that don't really do anything for you, but then a pair that are good enough to stand along side Ice's best stuff. Unlike "Seventh Deadly Sin" though, there are far more high points here (I'd say ten or so of the albums 16 songs will get some heavy rotation in my CD player for a while) than low, this album is not as ugly and underground; even though the lyrics are often as hard as we have come to expect, Ice and his producers have turned their attention to the music; a lot of the tracks have a bounce to them that Ice has maybe never displayed before - surely not since his heyday.
But there are a few route outings. The first track is fun for a few minutes, with Ice name dropping all the old school rappers he came up with, but it grows tiresome and track two, like a few others here and many on past Ice albums, is a perfect example of what I'm talking about when I refer to some of Ice's lazy, boastful and unconvincing attempts to keep reinstating that he is the greatest and you better not step to him (isn't this the guy who, on his "Power" album, said braiging about yourself on your records is "weak s--t from a weak mind... why don't you talk about somethin'/you're just talkin' loud and sayin' nothin'."?). In my humble opinion the album should have kicked off with the third track, "New Life." Here, Ice settles down a bit, let's some of the music do the talking - or at least help him out, and declares he's back, he never went anywhere, and is never going anywhere; well written with good rhymes. He follows that with another high point "Dear God Can You Here Me." Again, good use of music and beats; Ice raps it louder the usual, if there were rock guitars on the track it might feel like a Body Count tune. This song is also the first of three to feature KRYST. All of the songs with his hand in them are among the better ones on the album. With track six, "Pimp or Die," more of that standard issue rap that Ice is better than, and seven, "Pray," a song featuring Mrs. Ice-T (and the album's cover girl), Coco, that is well intentioned but unfortunately grows obnoxious, we are starting to realize the pattern this album will take; giving us a few good songs followed by a few that you can simply move past. Track nine, "Real Talk" has some funky musical chops on it. Ice raps in a low, relaxed Snoop-ish tone. This track is this album's comin' up/what-I`ve-accomplished-in-the-game-thus-far opus, and not bad. It's also got Kryst on it again. "Walkin' in the Rain" is this album's best shot at a single. If Ja Rule and Ashanti can have a hit with that stupid ballad they had out a few years ago, Ice certainly deserves one for this. Thug love has rarely sounded so genuine. Set it to a sample of Barry White's old tune of the same name and you've got something. Similarly, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" sounds like an old Curtis Mayfield tune. It's one of the smoothest beats Ice has ever laid vocals over. He has a hand here from Smoothe Da Hustler, who sounds like a slightly less gravel-voiced version of DMX. If "Walkin' in the Rain" wouldn't make it as a single, this one just might be Ice's other shot. Also good are two gangster anthems that recall the good old days of "O.G." and the like, "Code of the Streets" and "It's All Love" (there's Kryst again). "My Baby" is this album's sex jam. It's decent as these things go. The album ends with "Twice the Game." This isn't as tiresome as "Ridin' Low," "Pimp or Die" and the like, but it is more of the same. However, when Ice ends an album this solid by declaring he is twice the game, you really can't argue.
Ice-T fans don't need to be told to check this one out, but one-time fans who have lost track of Mr. O.G. over the last decade and are curious about how Ice sounds now, or those who have taken to VH1's "Rap School" and have seen the promos for this new disc and wonder what Ice's legacy is all about will not be disappointed if they give this one a try. It won't set the world - or Ice-T's career - on fire the way it may have at one time, but that is mainly due the sorry state of rap at this point and the fact there doesn't seem to be much of a push to get this album - or most new Ice - material out there these days. A shame considering that some of these tracks could stand up to 50 Cent and the like. (Amazon review by "By Boss Fan")
Double O.G. indeed, Ice. Keep it up.
This Date In Music History-December 11
Birthdays:
Bread songwriter David Gates (1940)
Happy birthday to Brenda Lee (1944)
Jermaine Jackson (1954)
Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx (1958)
Birthday wishes to Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MG's-1944)
Born on this day in 1961, Darryl Jones, American bassist who has played with the Rolling Stones since Bill Wyman's departure in 1993.
Curtis Williams, Kool & The Gang (1962)
They Are Missed:
Big Mama Thornton was born in 1926. Janis Joplin covered her song “Ball And Chain.” Thornton had a 1953 version of “Hound Dog” before Elvis Presley. She died in 1984.
J. Frank Wilson was born in Lufkin, Texas in 1941 (died 1991). With his band the Cavaliers, he enjoyed a huge hit with 1964's melodramatic "Last Kiss." Pearl Jam later successfully covered the song.
Sam Cooke was shot and killed in a Los Angeles motel in 1964.
History:
The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" was released in 1964. It became their first Billboard Top 40 hit and reach #1 the following February.
In 1972, Genesis made their American live debut with a show at Massachusetts' Brandeis University.
In 2003, the RIAA certified AC/DC's "Back In Black" as the world's second-best-selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
In 1968, the Rolling Stones began taping their Rock 'n' Roll Circus TV special in England, as their album Beggar's Banquet debuted on the British album charts at #3. Guests included the Who, Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull and John Lennon appearing as the Dirty Mac Band, performing "Yer Blues." The Rolling Stones withhold the special from broadcast, a decision which many believe was due to the Who's superior performance on the night.
James Brown released his 32nd album in 1971, "Revolution of the Mind: Live at the Apollo, Volume 3," boasting the half-hour epic "It's a New Day So Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn."
The Coasters recorded "Charlie Brown" in 1958.
Aretha Franklin made her New York stage debut in 1960, singing Blues and Pop standards at the Village Vanguard.
Bob Seger released his album "Night Moves" in 1976.
In 1961, Motown achieved their first #1 record when The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" reached the top. The session musicians on the track included 22 year-old Marvin Gaye on drums.
Elvis Presley started a 20 week run at the top of the Billboard album chart in 1961 with "Blue Hawaii", his seventh US #1 album.
In 1989, The RIAA certified four Led Zeppelin albums as multi-platinum: "Presence" (2 million), "Led Zeppelin" (4 million), "Physical Graffiti" (4 million) and "In Through The Out Door" (5 million).
In 2002, musicologist and author Rob Durkee compiled a list of The Top Ten Christmas Songs Of All Time (according to sales and radio air play)
1. White Christmas - Bing Crosby - 1942
2. Silent Night - Bing Crosby - 1936
3. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry - 1949
4. The Little Drummer Boy - Harry Simeone Chorale - 1958
5. Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms - 1957
6. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole - 1946
7. The Chipmunk Song - David Seville and the Chipmunks - 1958
8. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee - 1958
9. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley - 1957
10. Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby / The Andrews Sisters - 1943
No word on where the ‘barking dogs’ were listed…..
Bread songwriter David Gates (1940)
Happy birthday to Brenda Lee (1944)
Jermaine Jackson (1954)
Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx (1958)
Birthday wishes to Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MG's-1944)
Born on this day in 1961, Darryl Jones, American bassist who has played with the Rolling Stones since Bill Wyman's departure in 1993.
Curtis Williams, Kool & The Gang (1962)
They Are Missed:
Big Mama Thornton was born in 1926. Janis Joplin covered her song “Ball And Chain.” Thornton had a 1953 version of “Hound Dog” before Elvis Presley. She died in 1984.
J. Frank Wilson was born in Lufkin, Texas in 1941 (died 1991). With his band the Cavaliers, he enjoyed a huge hit with 1964's melodramatic "Last Kiss." Pearl Jam later successfully covered the song.
Sam Cooke was shot and killed in a Los Angeles motel in 1964.
History:
The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" was released in 1964. It became their first Billboard Top 40 hit and reach #1 the following February.
In 1972, Genesis made their American live debut with a show at Massachusetts' Brandeis University.
In 2003, the RIAA certified AC/DC's "Back In Black" as the world's second-best-selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
In 1968, the Rolling Stones began taping their Rock 'n' Roll Circus TV special in England, as their album Beggar's Banquet debuted on the British album charts at #3. Guests included the Who, Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull and John Lennon appearing as the Dirty Mac Band, performing "Yer Blues." The Rolling Stones withhold the special from broadcast, a decision which many believe was due to the Who's superior performance on the night.
James Brown released his 32nd album in 1971, "Revolution of the Mind: Live at the Apollo, Volume 3," boasting the half-hour epic "It's a New Day So Let a Man Come In and Do the Popcorn."
The Coasters recorded "Charlie Brown" in 1958.
Aretha Franklin made her New York stage debut in 1960, singing Blues and Pop standards at the Village Vanguard.
Bob Seger released his album "Night Moves" in 1976.
In 1961, Motown achieved their first #1 record when The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" reached the top. The session musicians on the track included 22 year-old Marvin Gaye on drums.
Elvis Presley started a 20 week run at the top of the Billboard album chart in 1961 with "Blue Hawaii", his seventh US #1 album.
In 1989, The RIAA certified four Led Zeppelin albums as multi-platinum: "Presence" (2 million), "Led Zeppelin" (4 million), "Physical Graffiti" (4 million) and "In Through The Out Door" (5 million).
In 2002, musicologist and author Rob Durkee compiled a list of The Top Ten Christmas Songs Of All Time (according to sales and radio air play)
1. White Christmas - Bing Crosby - 1942
2. Silent Night - Bing Crosby - 1936
3. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry - 1949
4. The Little Drummer Boy - Harry Simeone Chorale - 1958
5. Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms - 1957
6. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole - 1946
7. The Chipmunk Song - David Seville and the Chipmunks - 1958
8. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee - 1958
9. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley - 1957
10. Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby / The Andrews Sisters - 1943
No word on where the ‘barking dogs’ were listed…..
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Lennon License Plates Being Used to Fight Hunger
On what would have been John Lennon's 68th birthday, Yoko Ono and Michael Towner of Florida's Foundation Consultants have announced that the Imagine license plate campaign will be expanded from Florida to the other 21 states where money can be raised through specialty license campaigns.
Ono had originally agreed to the campaign, which uses the famous self-portrait of Lennon along with the word Imagine, in the state of Florida as a way to raise money for the Florida Association of Food Banks. As of October, the campaign had raised $786,125 for Feeding America through the issuing of 31,445 specialty plates.
Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America, said “As the economic crisis worsens, more and more people are coming to food pantries and soup kitchens served by our network of food banks, desperately seeking help to feed themselves and their families.” Feeding America is the United States' largest hunger-relief charity, providing food to over 25 million Americans each year.
Michael Towner explains the new strategy. "We are following on from our efforts in Florida to take the plate to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Illinois and then move into the remaining 17 states that provide a revenue generating specialty license plate program. This will have a tremendous impact and provide critical funding to alleviate hunger in those states where they are now facing increased demand and decreased funding. I am sure John would smile as he sees his image on cars throughout the U.S.A.”
Ono had originally agreed to the campaign, which uses the famous self-portrait of Lennon along with the word Imagine, in the state of Florida as a way to raise money for the Florida Association of Food Banks. As of October, the campaign had raised $786,125 for Feeding America through the issuing of 31,445 specialty plates.
Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America, said “As the economic crisis worsens, more and more people are coming to food pantries and soup kitchens served by our network of food banks, desperately seeking help to feed themselves and their families.” Feeding America is the United States' largest hunger-relief charity, providing food to over 25 million Americans each year.
Michael Towner explains the new strategy. "We are following on from our efforts in Florida to take the plate to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Illinois and then move into the remaining 17 states that provide a revenue generating specialty license plate program. This will have a tremendous impact and provide critical funding to alleviate hunger in those states where they are now facing increased demand and decreased funding. I am sure John would smile as he sees his image on cars throughout the U.S.A.”
Music News & Notes
EMPEROR To Release 'Live Inferno' In April
Norwegian black metal legends EMPEROR will release "Live Inferno", a special live series features various releases recorded/filmed during the band's sold-out 2005-2007 reunion performances, on April 16 (in Europe) via Candlelight Records. Several formats will be available, including a two-CD/slipcase with a 16-page booklet, a limited-edition box featuring two CDs and DVD with an enhanced 24-page booklet, a single DVD, and two limited-edition double-vinyl gatefold sets. The audio portion of the "Live Inferno" series features exclusive recordings from the band's headlining performances at Norway's Inferno festival and Germany's Wacken Open Air festival. Each recording will be pressed as individual double-vinyl sets; the first pressing limited to 1,000 copies on black vinyl with any additional pressings in varied colors selected by the band. A special gold-vinyl seven-inch limited to 2,000 copies titled "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" (featuring a live rendition of the band's famed song from the album "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" with a live recording of "Inno A Satana" from the band's popular "In the Nightside Eclipse" album on the b-side) will be pressed and released via the label's official webstore beginning February 16. The video portion, titled "Live at Wacken Open Air 2006 - A Night Of Emperial Wrath", has a running time of 70 minutes and includes footage professionally filmed at the Wacken Open Air festival with additional on-stage and exclusive backstage footage filmed and compiled by the band.
"It looks like these releases will be the final nail in the coffin for EMPEROR," says guitarist Samoth. "They are a testimony of the live reunion that took EMPEROR to even new heights; unique events like Wacken where EMPEROR headlined in front of 60,000 people. We had a great run of shows and feel lucky that we were able to come back even bigger and perform songs from our complete catalogue for a lot of dedicated fans old and new. There will be several cool formats and limited editions coming that should be a nice treat for the fans and a worthy representation of the EMPEROR legacy. EMPEROR is dead, long live the EMPEROR!"
SOURCE: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
==========================================
Jeffrey Wright on Cadillac Records
By Fred Topel | Images property of TriStar
In the latest musical biography, Cadillac Records, Jeffrey Wright plays Muddy Waters, the first blues artist discovered by Leonard Chess for his Chess Records label. To play the famous bluesman, Wright had plenty of research materials.
"There's a couple biographies, several documentaries based on those biographies but mainly, there's this library of music," Wright said. "For me, the intriguing way into the character was through the music. There is a specific cultural and historical place that the music comes from and it's also specific to personality. Not a lot of affectation. Folks aren't out there in the middle of the fields in Mississippi under that midday sun putting on airs. It's an expression of their experience and it's coming through relative to community but as I said, also relative to the personality so there really is a lot of information encoded in the music."
You don't need video or film footage when the man himself put his own voice down on vinyl. "He's a musician so just finding the music and finding his voice and listening and not only the way he expresses himself musically through the music, but also through his language and the way he speaks because the music as well, one of the things I really adore about the blues is it's a celebration of the language of the black American south, a language that I grew up with. My grandparents were from southern Virginia and North Carolina so I've always had a deep, deep love for the language and the sounds and the music as expressed through that."
Compared to other historical characters Wright has played, Waters actually offered a tad more flexibility. "I've done a fair amount of nonfictional characters, biographical characters. I think it's because I lack imagination. I'm too literal or something. They each have their individual challenges. There is a standard that you're trying to achieve obviously with a character that's known. There are different pressures. For example, with Basquiat, Basquiat was known in a much smaller circle than he is known now. The Powell piece in W recently was a different impetus. That was an opportunity to use the work to add my two cents' worth to the political discourse at the time. It was an opportunity to be relevant to these extraordinary days that we're just beginning. Each role, whether it's fictional or biographical has its own challenges, its own reasons for doing."
Cadillac Records is out in theaters now.
Cadillac Records chronicles the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists. In this tale of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in Chicago of the 1950s and 60s, the film follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's greatest musical legends.
The story of how the blues became popular and gave birth to rock and roll begins at a dingy bar on the rough South Side of Chicago in 1947, where an ambitious young Polish émigré, bar owner Leonard Chess (Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody), hires a talented but undisciplined blues combo that includes quiet and thoughtful guitar prodigy Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) and impulsive and colorful harmonica player Little Walter (Columbus Short). Fascinated by the sound of the music – and eager to cash in on the record burgeoning record business – Chess arranges a recording session for Waters. Waters' early recordings start moving up the R+B charts and receiving heavy play.
Chess treats his musicians like family – he buys them a Cadillac when they record their first hit record – although the line between business and personal sometimes causes conflict with his increasingly talented and successful stable of artists. After backing up Muddy on his early recordings, Little Walter becomes a star in his own right, but his quick temper and loud manner often run him afoul of friends and the law. He also finds that the only woman he can talk to is Muddy's girl, Geneva (Gabrielle Union), who struggles to remain loyal despite Muddy's poorly concealed affairs. Big Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), a songwriter and bandleader, also is a key member of the Chess Records family, as is Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker), an intense and proud blues singer who develops a musical rivalry with Muddy.
But it's not until 1955 when a Chess artist finally "crosses over" into the realm of mainstream ("white") America – a skinny guy from St. Louis named Chuck Berry (Mos Def), whose dynamic "duck walk" and catchy, country-tinged tunes mark the birth of rock-and-roll. When Berry is arrested and jailed at the height of his career, Chess finds another talented performer to cross over – singer Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles), an emotionally scarred young woman whose vulnerability tempts Chess' loyalty and concern in unexpected ways.
As rock-and-roll grows more popular, the Chess artists find themselves revered by a new generation of musicians, but they have also each earned and lost a small fortune on booze, women and the high life, and their addictions begin to take their toll. Even as tragedy befalls, their music and their spirit remain strong: as the sixties wind down and Leonard Chess gets out of the record business, the blues live on.
http://www.cadillacrecordsmovie.com/
Norwegian black metal legends EMPEROR will release "Live Inferno", a special live series features various releases recorded/filmed during the band's sold-out 2005-2007 reunion performances, on April 16 (in Europe) via Candlelight Records. Several formats will be available, including a two-CD/slipcase with a 16-page booklet, a limited-edition box featuring two CDs and DVD with an enhanced 24-page booklet, a single DVD, and two limited-edition double-vinyl gatefold sets. The audio portion of the "Live Inferno" series features exclusive recordings from the band's headlining performances at Norway's Inferno festival and Germany's Wacken Open Air festival. Each recording will be pressed as individual double-vinyl sets; the first pressing limited to 1,000 copies on black vinyl with any additional pressings in varied colors selected by the band. A special gold-vinyl seven-inch limited to 2,000 copies titled "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" (featuring a live rendition of the band's famed song from the album "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" with a live recording of "Inno A Satana" from the band's popular "In the Nightside Eclipse" album on the b-side) will be pressed and released via the label's official webstore beginning February 16. The video portion, titled "Live at Wacken Open Air 2006 - A Night Of Emperial Wrath", has a running time of 70 minutes and includes footage professionally filmed at the Wacken Open Air festival with additional on-stage and exclusive backstage footage filmed and compiled by the band.
"It looks like these releases will be the final nail in the coffin for EMPEROR," says guitarist Samoth. "They are a testimony of the live reunion that took EMPEROR to even new heights; unique events like Wacken where EMPEROR headlined in front of 60,000 people. We had a great run of shows and feel lucky that we were able to come back even bigger and perform songs from our complete catalogue for a lot of dedicated fans old and new. There will be several cool formats and limited editions coming that should be a nice treat for the fans and a worthy representation of the EMPEROR legacy. EMPEROR is dead, long live the EMPEROR!"
SOURCE: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
==========================================
Jeffrey Wright on Cadillac Records
By Fred Topel | Images property of TriStar
In the latest musical biography, Cadillac Records, Jeffrey Wright plays Muddy Waters, the first blues artist discovered by Leonard Chess for his Chess Records label. To play the famous bluesman, Wright had plenty of research materials.
"There's a couple biographies, several documentaries based on those biographies but mainly, there's this library of music," Wright said. "For me, the intriguing way into the character was through the music. There is a specific cultural and historical place that the music comes from and it's also specific to personality. Not a lot of affectation. Folks aren't out there in the middle of the fields in Mississippi under that midday sun putting on airs. It's an expression of their experience and it's coming through relative to community but as I said, also relative to the personality so there really is a lot of information encoded in the music."
You don't need video or film footage when the man himself put his own voice down on vinyl. "He's a musician so just finding the music and finding his voice and listening and not only the way he expresses himself musically through the music, but also through his language and the way he speaks because the music as well, one of the things I really adore about the blues is it's a celebration of the language of the black American south, a language that I grew up with. My grandparents were from southern Virginia and North Carolina so I've always had a deep, deep love for the language and the sounds and the music as expressed through that."
Compared to other historical characters Wright has played, Waters actually offered a tad more flexibility. "I've done a fair amount of nonfictional characters, biographical characters. I think it's because I lack imagination. I'm too literal or something. They each have their individual challenges. There is a standard that you're trying to achieve obviously with a character that's known. There are different pressures. For example, with Basquiat, Basquiat was known in a much smaller circle than he is known now. The Powell piece in W recently was a different impetus. That was an opportunity to use the work to add my two cents' worth to the political discourse at the time. It was an opportunity to be relevant to these extraordinary days that we're just beginning. Each role, whether it's fictional or biographical has its own challenges, its own reasons for doing."
Cadillac Records is out in theaters now.
Cadillac Records chronicles the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists. In this tale of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in Chicago of the 1950s and 60s, the film follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's greatest musical legends.
The story of how the blues became popular and gave birth to rock and roll begins at a dingy bar on the rough South Side of Chicago in 1947, where an ambitious young Polish émigré, bar owner Leonard Chess (Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody), hires a talented but undisciplined blues combo that includes quiet and thoughtful guitar prodigy Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) and impulsive and colorful harmonica player Little Walter (Columbus Short). Fascinated by the sound of the music – and eager to cash in on the record burgeoning record business – Chess arranges a recording session for Waters. Waters' early recordings start moving up the R+B charts and receiving heavy play.
Chess treats his musicians like family – he buys them a Cadillac when they record their first hit record – although the line between business and personal sometimes causes conflict with his increasingly talented and successful stable of artists. After backing up Muddy on his early recordings, Little Walter becomes a star in his own right, but his quick temper and loud manner often run him afoul of friends and the law. He also finds that the only woman he can talk to is Muddy's girl, Geneva (Gabrielle Union), who struggles to remain loyal despite Muddy's poorly concealed affairs. Big Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), a songwriter and bandleader, also is a key member of the Chess Records family, as is Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker), an intense and proud blues singer who develops a musical rivalry with Muddy.
But it's not until 1955 when a Chess artist finally "crosses over" into the realm of mainstream ("white") America – a skinny guy from St. Louis named Chuck Berry (Mos Def), whose dynamic "duck walk" and catchy, country-tinged tunes mark the birth of rock-and-roll. When Berry is arrested and jailed at the height of his career, Chess finds another talented performer to cross over – singer Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles), an emotionally scarred young woman whose vulnerability tempts Chess' loyalty and concern in unexpected ways.
As rock-and-roll grows more popular, the Chess artists find themselves revered by a new generation of musicians, but they have also each earned and lost a small fortune on booze, women and the high life, and their addictions begin to take their toll. Even as tragedy befalls, their music and their spirit remain strong: as the sixties wind down and Leonard Chess gets out of the record business, the blues live on.
http://www.cadillacrecordsmovie.com/
Vinyl Collective Sales For November
This from my vinyl friend Virgil over at www.vinylcollective.com. Stop by and get some vinyl for your Christmas list!
Each month, we get a report from the company that manages our online store with the sales for the month. I put together the list of the top 40 sold for the previous month and share that with you. It looks like the Under the Influence 7? series dominated the charts which is pretty exciting to see. Lots of other great records made the list, too. It will be interesting to see what tops the charts for December.
1 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? green w/ black
2 JEALOUS SOUND “Kill Them With Kindness” dbl LP white vinyl PRE-ORDER
3 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? red vinyl
4 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
5 RUSSIAN CIRCLES / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES split tour 12? PRE-ORDER
6 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
7 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? gold vinyl
8 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
8 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? set of all 3
8 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? cloudy sky blue
11 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? BOTH COLORS
12 FAKE PROBLEMS / LOOK MEXICO “Under the Influence Vol 1? 7? yellow vinyl
13 JAWBREAKER ì24 hour revenge therapyî LP
14 MIKE PARK / O PIONEERS!!! split 7? pink/blue swirl vinyl PRE-ORDER
15 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? sky blue party cloudy
16 JOEY CAPE “Bridge” LP army green vinyl
17 NORMA JEAN “The Anti-Mother” LP black/white half and half vinyl PRE-ORDER
18 THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES “Easter” LP Orange w/ White/Blue/Black Splatter vinyl
19 V/A “All Aboard: A Tribute To Johnny Cash” LP brown vinyl
20 JOEY CAPE “Bridge” CD
21 FALCON “God Don’t Make No Trash” 10? royal blue vinyl
22 MATT SKIBA / KEVIN SECONDS LP white w/ charcoal swirl
22 KID DYNAMITE “Cheap Shots, Youth Anthems” LP black vinyl
24 TIM BARRY “Manchester” LP brown vinyl
25 ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD “Only God Can Judge Me” 10? white vinyl
25 KID DYNAMITE “Cheap Shots, Youth Anthems” LP gold vinyl
27 MATT SKIBA / KEVIN SECONDS split LP set of all 4 colors PRE-ORDER
27 TIM BARRY “Rivanna Junction” LP grey/black half & half
27 JEALOUS SOUND “Kill Them With Kindness” dbl LP baby blue vinyl PRE-ORDER
30 THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “Sink Or Swim Demos” 7? yellow vinyl
31 TWO COW GARAGE “Speaking In Cursive” LP gold vinyl
32 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE “Narrow Stairs” LP
33 V/A “Delicious Vinyl: Fest 08? LP
33 LET ME RUN “S/T” 7? white vinyl
35 NIGHT MARCHERS “See You In Magic” dbl LP colored vinyl
36 FAKE PROBLEMS “How Do You Spell Hero?” LP picture disc
37 PORTUGAL THE MAN “Censored Colors” LP purple w/ white and green splatter
38 AVAIL “Over The James” LP beer colored amber vinyl
39 NORMA JEAN 4 x LP Vinyl Box Set colored vinyl A (400)
39 TIM BARRY “Manchester” CD
41 SAY ANYTHING “Is A Real Boy” dbl LP white vinyl
41 TIM BARRY “Live at Munford Elementary” 7? brown vinyl
Each month, we get a report from the company that manages our online store with the sales for the month. I put together the list of the top 40 sold for the previous month and share that with you. It looks like the Under the Influence 7? series dominated the charts which is pretty exciting to see. Lots of other great records made the list, too. It will be interesting to see what tops the charts for December.
1 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? green w/ black
2 JEALOUS SOUND “Kill Them With Kindness” dbl LP white vinyl PRE-ORDER
3 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? red vinyl
4 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
5 RUSSIAN CIRCLES / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES split tour 12? PRE-ORDER
6 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
7 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? gold vinyl
8 MUSTARD PLUG / BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY “Under the Influence Vol 3? 7? vinyl
8 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? set of all 3
8 TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET/ THE ERGS! “Under the Influence Vol 4? 7? cloudy sky blue
11 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? BOTH COLORS
12 FAKE PROBLEMS / LOOK MEXICO “Under the Influence Vol 1? 7? yellow vinyl
13 JAWBREAKER ì24 hour revenge therapyî LP
14 MIKE PARK / O PIONEERS!!! split 7? pink/blue swirl vinyl PRE-ORDER
15 WHISKEY & CO/NINJA GUN “Under the Influence Vol 2? 7? sky blue party cloudy
16 JOEY CAPE “Bridge” LP army green vinyl
17 NORMA JEAN “The Anti-Mother” LP black/white half and half vinyl PRE-ORDER
18 THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES “Easter” LP Orange w/ White/Blue/Black Splatter vinyl
19 V/A “All Aboard: A Tribute To Johnny Cash” LP brown vinyl
20 JOEY CAPE “Bridge” CD
21 FALCON “God Don’t Make No Trash” 10? royal blue vinyl
22 MATT SKIBA / KEVIN SECONDS LP white w/ charcoal swirl
22 KID DYNAMITE “Cheap Shots, Youth Anthems” LP black vinyl
24 TIM BARRY “Manchester” LP brown vinyl
25 ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD “Only God Can Judge Me” 10? white vinyl
25 KID DYNAMITE “Cheap Shots, Youth Anthems” LP gold vinyl
27 MATT SKIBA / KEVIN SECONDS split LP set of all 4 colors PRE-ORDER
27 TIM BARRY “Rivanna Junction” LP grey/black half & half
27 JEALOUS SOUND “Kill Them With Kindness” dbl LP baby blue vinyl PRE-ORDER
30 THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “Sink Or Swim Demos” 7? yellow vinyl
31 TWO COW GARAGE “Speaking In Cursive” LP gold vinyl
32 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE “Narrow Stairs” LP
33 V/A “Delicious Vinyl: Fest 08? LP
33 LET ME RUN “S/T” 7? white vinyl
35 NIGHT MARCHERS “See You In Magic” dbl LP colored vinyl
36 FAKE PROBLEMS “How Do You Spell Hero?” LP picture disc
37 PORTUGAL THE MAN “Censored Colors” LP purple w/ white and green splatter
38 AVAIL “Over The James” LP beer colored amber vinyl
39 NORMA JEAN 4 x LP Vinyl Box Set colored vinyl A (400)
39 TIM BARRY “Manchester” CD
41 SAY ANYTHING “Is A Real Boy” dbl LP white vinyl
41 TIM BARRY “Live at Munford Elementary” 7? brown vinyl
Virgin Killer Album Cover Art Sensored
Access to editing a Wikipedia article in the U.K. has been effectively blocked after the U.K.’s Internet Watch Foundation added a Wikipedia article on Virgin Killer, an album from German heavy metal group Scorpions, to its blacklist.
The album is from 1976, and the cover art image, depicting what appears to be a nude underage girl, is what caused the blacklisting.
Reports are that in an attempt to block access to the Wikipedia article, the ISPs Virgin Media, Be Unlimited/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon, and Opal began routing traffic through transparent proxies. However, this caused more problems, as the use of proxies means that to Wikipedia editors appear to be coming from a narrow IP address range.
Thus, as Wikipedia says in their administrators’ discussion over this issue:
As Wikipedia tracks anonymous users by their IP addresses, a flood of valid edits and vandalism are coming from indistinguishable sources, and blocking vandals from editing can affect hundreds of thousands of users as collateral damage.
British Telecom does not appear to be filtering, according to Wikipedia.
While the image was up for deletion, according to that same admin page, at least for now, that request has been tabled, based on “Wikipedia does not censor,” but also later with the following discussion over the article itself:
Secondly, for those wanting to remove the image because they believe it to be unnecessary, the article is an academic discussion of the controversy surrounding the album image. Since it is a discussion about the controversy surrounding a still-legal image (as noted above, no one has ever been charged or prosecuted for making, selling, or purchasing that album), there is no reason why the image shouldn’t be on the page.
One workaround if one needs to really see this article: use the secure Wikipedia server. According to that same post, the Virgin Killer article is now tops in popularity (small wonder).
According to Wikipedia’s lawyer, Mike Godwin, (his comment is in that admin discussion as well), the image does not violate any U.S. law. Interestingly, one of the admins compared the issue to the U.K. having its own “Great Firewall,” much like China:
“This is the first I’ve come across UK wide internet censorship, and I’m shocked. I had no idea until now that like China, we too have built a great firewall - only we keep quiet about ours. I can still access the pages from Wikipedia’s https login. This is an absolute farce …”
And no, at the time of this writing, this issue has not been resolved.
SOURCE: http://www.studenttechnews.ne
I suppose in some countries (ours included) this could be considered as 'kiddie porn' and the excuse that it is "art" doesn't fly with me. Children who are naked do not belong on album covers, it is that simple.
The album is from 1976, and the cover art image, depicting what appears to be a nude underage girl, is what caused the blacklisting.
Reports are that in an attempt to block access to the Wikipedia article, the ISPs Virgin Media, Be Unlimited/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon, and Opal began routing traffic through transparent proxies. However, this caused more problems, as the use of proxies means that to Wikipedia editors appear to be coming from a narrow IP address range.
Thus, as Wikipedia says in their administrators’ discussion over this issue:
As Wikipedia tracks anonymous users by their IP addresses, a flood of valid edits and vandalism are coming from indistinguishable sources, and blocking vandals from editing can affect hundreds of thousands of users as collateral damage.
British Telecom does not appear to be filtering, according to Wikipedia.
While the image was up for deletion, according to that same admin page, at least for now, that request has been tabled, based on “Wikipedia does not censor,” but also later with the following discussion over the article itself:
Secondly, for those wanting to remove the image because they believe it to be unnecessary, the article is an academic discussion of the controversy surrounding the album image. Since it is a discussion about the controversy surrounding a still-legal image (as noted above, no one has ever been charged or prosecuted for making, selling, or purchasing that album), there is no reason why the image shouldn’t be on the page.
One workaround if one needs to really see this article: use the secure Wikipedia server. According to that same post, the Virgin Killer article is now tops in popularity (small wonder).
According to Wikipedia’s lawyer, Mike Godwin, (his comment is in that admin discussion as well), the image does not violate any U.S. law. Interestingly, one of the admins compared the issue to the U.K. having its own “Great Firewall,” much like China:
“This is the first I’ve come across UK wide internet censorship, and I’m shocked. I had no idea until now that like China, we too have built a great firewall - only we keep quiet about ours. I can still access the pages from Wikipedia’s https login. This is an absolute farce …”
And no, at the time of this writing, this issue has not been resolved.
SOURCE: http://www.studenttechnews.ne
I suppose in some countries (ours included) this could be considered as 'kiddie porn' and the excuse that it is "art" doesn't fly with me. Children who are naked do not belong on album covers, it is that simple.
Album Cover Art
Let's continue our look at Gigwise.com's list of the top 50 dirtiest and sexiest album cover art, this time #13 (Gigwise comments in quotes):
13. Prince: ‘Lovesexy’ – "The site of Prince unclothed is enough to send many-a-woman or gay man weak at the knees, and that’s exactly what we got back in 1989: the pint sized music icon completely bollocks naked. As with many albums on this list, a number of stores refused to stock it, while others covered it in a black sleeve."
Lovesexy is an album by Prince, released in 1988. Lovesexy was issued as a substitute record after the release of the infamous Black Album had been suddenly canceled. The Black Album and Lovesexy almost act as companion pieces, sharing the song "When 2 R In Love," but nearly opposite in theme. The album was recorded in just seven weeks, from mid-December 1987 to late January 1988, at Prince's new Paisley Park Studios, and most of the album is a solo effort from Prince, with a few exceptions. The opening track, "Eye No," was recorded with the full band (Miko Weaver on guitar, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, Doctor Fink and Boni Boyer on keyboards, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet and Sheila E. on drums). Sheila E., in fact, plays drums on several tracks and sings backup, along with Boyer. Leeds and Bliss provide horns on most tracks, and Ingrid Chavez provides the intro to "Eye No". As opposed to the LP release, early CD copies of Lovesexy have the entire album in sequence as a single track, so the album is heard in the context of a continuous sequence, though later editions have it as 9 separate tracks.
I have one word for the cover- ewwwww!
13. Prince: ‘Lovesexy’ – "The site of Prince unclothed is enough to send many-a-woman or gay man weak at the knees, and that’s exactly what we got back in 1989: the pint sized music icon completely bollocks naked. As with many albums on this list, a number of stores refused to stock it, while others covered it in a black sleeve."
Lovesexy is an album by Prince, released in 1988. Lovesexy was issued as a substitute record after the release of the infamous Black Album had been suddenly canceled. The Black Album and Lovesexy almost act as companion pieces, sharing the song "When 2 R In Love," but nearly opposite in theme. The album was recorded in just seven weeks, from mid-December 1987 to late January 1988, at Prince's new Paisley Park Studios, and most of the album is a solo effort from Prince, with a few exceptions. The opening track, "Eye No," was recorded with the full band (Miko Weaver on guitar, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, Doctor Fink and Boni Boyer on keyboards, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet and Sheila E. on drums). Sheila E., in fact, plays drums on several tracks and sings backup, along with Boyer. Leeds and Bliss provide horns on most tracks, and Ingrid Chavez provides the intro to "Eye No". As opposed to the LP release, early CD copies of Lovesexy have the entire album in sequence as a single track, so the album is heard in the context of a continuous sequence, though later editions have it as 9 separate tracks.
I have one word for the cover- ewwwww!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Beatles fan collects every little thing
By MARY SANCHEZ
The Kansas City Star
You’re not putting the porno in the paper are you?”
The comment, by the collector’s wife, pipes into the basement from upstairs. She’s joking, kind of.
Her husband has amassed one of the most comprehensive privately owned collections of Beatles paraphernalia. He keeps it in the basement of their Kansas City-area home. The ever-expanding bounty is an ongoing source of jovial consternation.
“The porno” is a reference to a prized item among his thousands — a framed line drawing by John Lennon.
Lennon, who was murdered 28 years ago today, produced a collection of intimate portraits of himself and wife, Yoko Ono, in the 1960s. They were confiscated by Scotland Yard (because of the sexual content).
The piece the collector owns is tucked into a corner of the basement, an attempt to hide it from their two children (though neither husband nor wife thinks they’ve been successful).
Because the memorabilia is valuable — priceless to Beatles fans — the location of this stash and the collector’s identity must remain secret. And you would never guess by driving by their split-level suburban home.
Along one basement wall are shelves with hundreds of albums, including the recalled “Yesterday and Today” album. The original cover depicted the Beatles in butcher smocks with raw meat and headless baby dolls. There is a complete set of the U.S.-issued sleeves for all the albums, the ones with pictures.
There is a framed tin template from which the highly recognizable Apple Records labels were stamped. Uncut Apple labels, unstamped Apple labels. Pictures, jigsaw puzzles, books, toys and lots of Beatles dolls — solid plastic, hollow and of cloth.
One-inch-square swatches of bed sheets, each slept on by a Beatle. Colgate-Palmolive soap dispensers of Ringo and Paul. George and John didn’t get one.
The artist’s original line drawings from the “Yellow Submarine” movie, bought from a London-based art dealer.
“Here’s something you haven’t seen.” Now he is rummaging through one of the many plastic tubs in the room.
This time, he’s digging out something not from a Beatle, but from the man who made the Beatles a household name in the U.S., Ed Sullivan. It’s a first-class menu from a 1964 Pan Am flight. A note inside, to the stewardess, was written and autographed by Sullivan.
The collection began with a gift from his mother, a 45 record of “Hey Jude.” He was 4. His mother had lived in London and liked the Beatles’ music.
“I was the easiest person to shop for after that,” he says.
Layered into the many scrapbooks are 1970s newspaper ads. On each, he checked off which albums he already had, which ones he desired as gifts.
By the time he was about 10, he had amassed quite a collection. Then one fateful day, he entered Caper’s Corner record store and spotted the imports section, releases from overseas with completely different covers and labels. A new world of Beatles items had just been marked.
“Now it makes me crazy when I see something in a book or a magazine that I don’t have,” he says.
“Crazy, that’s a good word, like obsessive,” his wife says with a smile.
But asking why someone would like the Beatles this much is throwing a red flag to your inability to comprehend such loyalty.
“It’s almost irritating to be asked,” he says.
My bad.
Ditto for asking “why?” to his favorite Beatle and song — “George Harrison” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Some items he dislikes. Like the plastic, 2-foot-tall doll of Lennon looking a little too groovy.
Same for the Lennon baby clothes and the Converse sneakers with Lennon’s drawings stamped on them. “All of that commercialism doesn’t set well with me,” he says.
This is a clue, beyond simply loving the music, to what draws him to the Beatles.
He retells the story of Paul McCartney being arrested in Japan on pot possession charges and of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s attempt to deport the anti-war Lennon.
“The Republicans hated them,” he says. “They had all the right enemies.”
Occasionally, he attends Beatles conventions.
“It’s kind of nice to be around a bunch of adults who enjoy collecting,” he said. “But then you see the 50- and 60-year-olds trying to dress like the Beatles and use affected British accents and you know they are really from a Des Moines suburb. It’s kind of alarming, even for me.”
His wife is laughing, grateful that he draws the line somewhere.
SOURCE: http://www.kansascity.com
The Kansas City Star
You’re not putting the porno in the paper are you?”
The comment, by the collector’s wife, pipes into the basement from upstairs. She’s joking, kind of.
Her husband has amassed one of the most comprehensive privately owned collections of Beatles paraphernalia. He keeps it in the basement of their Kansas City-area home. The ever-expanding bounty is an ongoing source of jovial consternation.
“The porno” is a reference to a prized item among his thousands — a framed line drawing by John Lennon.
Lennon, who was murdered 28 years ago today, produced a collection of intimate portraits of himself and wife, Yoko Ono, in the 1960s. They were confiscated by Scotland Yard (because of the sexual content).
The piece the collector owns is tucked into a corner of the basement, an attempt to hide it from their two children (though neither husband nor wife thinks they’ve been successful).
Because the memorabilia is valuable — priceless to Beatles fans — the location of this stash and the collector’s identity must remain secret. And you would never guess by driving by their split-level suburban home.
Along one basement wall are shelves with hundreds of albums, including the recalled “Yesterday and Today” album. The original cover depicted the Beatles in butcher smocks with raw meat and headless baby dolls. There is a complete set of the U.S.-issued sleeves for all the albums, the ones with pictures.
There is a framed tin template from which the highly recognizable Apple Records labels were stamped. Uncut Apple labels, unstamped Apple labels. Pictures, jigsaw puzzles, books, toys and lots of Beatles dolls — solid plastic, hollow and of cloth.
One-inch-square swatches of bed sheets, each slept on by a Beatle. Colgate-Palmolive soap dispensers of Ringo and Paul. George and John didn’t get one.
The artist’s original line drawings from the “Yellow Submarine” movie, bought from a London-based art dealer.
“Here’s something you haven’t seen.” Now he is rummaging through one of the many plastic tubs in the room.
This time, he’s digging out something not from a Beatle, but from the man who made the Beatles a household name in the U.S., Ed Sullivan. It’s a first-class menu from a 1964 Pan Am flight. A note inside, to the stewardess, was written and autographed by Sullivan.
The collection began with a gift from his mother, a 45 record of “Hey Jude.” He was 4. His mother had lived in London and liked the Beatles’ music.
“I was the easiest person to shop for after that,” he says.
Layered into the many scrapbooks are 1970s newspaper ads. On each, he checked off which albums he already had, which ones he desired as gifts.
By the time he was about 10, he had amassed quite a collection. Then one fateful day, he entered Caper’s Corner record store and spotted the imports section, releases from overseas with completely different covers and labels. A new world of Beatles items had just been marked.
“Now it makes me crazy when I see something in a book or a magazine that I don’t have,” he says.
“Crazy, that’s a good word, like obsessive,” his wife says with a smile.
But asking why someone would like the Beatles this much is throwing a red flag to your inability to comprehend such loyalty.
“It’s almost irritating to be asked,” he says.
My bad.
Ditto for asking “why?” to his favorite Beatle and song — “George Harrison” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Some items he dislikes. Like the plastic, 2-foot-tall doll of Lennon looking a little too groovy.
Same for the Lennon baby clothes and the Converse sneakers with Lennon’s drawings stamped on them. “All of that commercialism doesn’t set well with me,” he says.
This is a clue, beyond simply loving the music, to what draws him to the Beatles.
He retells the story of Paul McCartney being arrested in Japan on pot possession charges and of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s attempt to deport the anti-war Lennon.
“The Republicans hated them,” he says. “They had all the right enemies.”
Occasionally, he attends Beatles conventions.
“It’s kind of nice to be around a bunch of adults who enjoy collecting,” he said. “But then you see the 50- and 60-year-olds trying to dress like the Beatles and use affected British accents and you know they are really from a Des Moines suburb. It’s kind of alarming, even for me.”
His wife is laughing, grateful that he draws the line somewhere.
SOURCE: http://www.kansascity.com
Elder Artists are Receiving a Fresh Coat of Wax
By theimmovableforce
Capitol/EMI part of major record companies reissuing classics on vinyl and to major retailers
Nostalgia and discovery. That’s the simple answer for Capitol/EMI Record’s “From the Capitol Vaults” series that began just a few months ago.
A&R and Creative Vice President Jane Ventom says it’s an answer to a resurgence brought on by two separate generations.
“There are the Baby Boomers who are revisiting for nostalgia purposes,” she says, “And it’s the iPod generation discovering it.”
“From the Capitol Vault” is a series of repressed vinyl records. There are older re-issues by bands like The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix, and contemporary pressings by bands like Radiohead and Coldplay.
In a market that is fleeting in CD sales, and consistently rising in digital sales, vinyl would seem like the least likely medium for a a major label to invest in.
Ventom says it’s not just the consumers’ demand, but the major distributors that are wanting to stock the units, not to mention an increase in record player sales.
When walking into Barnes and Noble and Best Buy locations, there’s a greater possibility now of a consumer finding a twelve-inch piece of wax along side a silver disc, less than half its older brother’s size.
NUMBERS AND PRICING
In the past ten years, one would think the old medium of twelve-inch grooved wax would become obsolete to an electronic box that holds up to a 100,000 songs, and can be taken anywhere - but the numbers don’t lie.
In 2006, the Year to Date (YTD) sales of vinyl, according to Neilsen Soundscan, was 640,000 and in 2007, as of November, peaked to 782,000.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2007 Year End Shipment Statistics, vinyl sales increased by 36.6 percent from the previous year, as opposed to a 11.7 percent drop in CD sales.
Virgil Dickerson is also seeing a good year with his company Vinyl Collective, an online store that distributes vinyl and presses original prints through Dickerson’s label Suburban Home Records.
Vinyl Collective is also carrying older reissues with their contemporary pressings.
“With the resurgence of vinyl, there is going to be a demand for other classic records that have been out of print for awhile,” he says.
He says carrying some of the reissues have been great, and many of the Web site’s customers have been pleased with the new pressings.
Dickerson cites price and the number of reissues a significant crack in nostalgia’s road though. While some records are harder to find then others, some reissues are cheaper out of a used bin.
“Take for example a Dire Straights album,” he says. “The reissue may be priced around $20 to $25 dollars. You have fans saying, ‘I saw that in the used bin for $2, why would I pay $25 for it?’”
Dickerson says he doesn’t think it’s collectors looking for used copies, but the retail price being much higher than a record’s worth.
He also says some reissues are getting extreme in number to collect. He cites the many different colored repressings of Alkaline Trio’s back catalog his site has carried this year. “It’s harder for collectors to keep up with it based on the price [of collecting all of them.]“
THE WAY THINGS USED TO BE
Flea markets are a copious, outside shopping center containing novelty items for low prices and plenty of bargains. Some flea markets attract consumers looking for deals on collectable items such as comic books, baseball cards and general vintage items.
John Hill has been selling used movies and CDs for five years from a flea market in Prairieville, Louisiana. But in the past five years, a younger generation has been stopping at his table to sift through the six milk crates of old vinyl as well.
Though most of the records Hill has are original pressings, there is one hidden in one of the crates, new, wrapped in cellophane. It is a repressing of Jimi Hendrix’s live record Band of Gypsys, put out by the “From the Capitol Vault” series.
Six crates sit in a flea market in Prairieville, La. every weekend. Hill says his customers have been younger over the past five years.
Hill says he used to be a part of vinyl record conventions, much like baseball card conventions, but those slowly fizzled in the 90’s. For the past five years, he’s been doing fine with selling and trading from the flea market every weekend.
Finding the original copy, opposed to the newer pressings is something, Hill says, is adamant to many of his shoppers who ask for mostly the same bands: Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Pink Floyd, and of course, The Beatles.
Ventom says this is just a small niche market compared to the newer pressing sales.
“These repressings are appealing to those buying for the first time,” Ventom says. “There’s also those consumers buying because their originals aren’t in great condition anymore.”
A COMBINATION OF MEDIUMS
Reasoning for the medium’s new demand may be both a backlash and brotherly bond with the rise of music’s new contender - digital.
“I think a lot of people who have gravitated back to the vinyl format, have gravitated to the aspects that vinyl have to offer,” Dickerson says. “If you get an iPod and fill it up with 1,000 song, it makes music almost feel valueless.”
Dickerson also says vinyl has brought back the intention of an album as a whole, as opposed to picking and choosing songs through digital singles. “When you buy a record, you sit through it the way the artist intended you to listen to it.”
While there’s an embrace of the old medium being more tangible than the contemporary compact disc (bigger artwork and more liner notes), Dickerson says the record companies that are packaging vinyl with digital download cards are satisfying two wants: the physical, intimate enjoyment of music when listening to a record, and the ability to take the music and listen to it anywhere.
“If you see a CD for $15 and a vinyl with a digital coupon for the same price, to me, it’s no contest,” he says.
While Vinyl Collective has seen great business in the past year, Ventom says Capitol/EMI has gotten a very positive response from both consumers and distributors. “All around people are happy with the quality of the record and the quality of the artwork.”
SOURCE: http://theimmovableforce.wordpress.com
Capitol/EMI part of major record companies reissuing classics on vinyl and to major retailers
Nostalgia and discovery. That’s the simple answer for Capitol/EMI Record’s “From the Capitol Vaults” series that began just a few months ago.
A&R and Creative Vice President Jane Ventom says it’s an answer to a resurgence brought on by two separate generations.
“There are the Baby Boomers who are revisiting for nostalgia purposes,” she says, “And it’s the iPod generation discovering it.”
“From the Capitol Vault” is a series of repressed vinyl records. There are older re-issues by bands like The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix, and contemporary pressings by bands like Radiohead and Coldplay.
In a market that is fleeting in CD sales, and consistently rising in digital sales, vinyl would seem like the least likely medium for a a major label to invest in.
Ventom says it’s not just the consumers’ demand, but the major distributors that are wanting to stock the units, not to mention an increase in record player sales.
When walking into Barnes and Noble and Best Buy locations, there’s a greater possibility now of a consumer finding a twelve-inch piece of wax along side a silver disc, less than half its older brother’s size.
NUMBERS AND PRICING
In the past ten years, one would think the old medium of twelve-inch grooved wax would become obsolete to an electronic box that holds up to a 100,000 songs, and can be taken anywhere - but the numbers don’t lie.
In 2006, the Year to Date (YTD) sales of vinyl, according to Neilsen Soundscan, was 640,000 and in 2007, as of November, peaked to 782,000.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2007 Year End Shipment Statistics, vinyl sales increased by 36.6 percent from the previous year, as opposed to a 11.7 percent drop in CD sales.
Virgil Dickerson is also seeing a good year with his company Vinyl Collective, an online store that distributes vinyl and presses original prints through Dickerson’s label Suburban Home Records.
Vinyl Collective is also carrying older reissues with their contemporary pressings.
“With the resurgence of vinyl, there is going to be a demand for other classic records that have been out of print for awhile,” he says.
He says carrying some of the reissues have been great, and many of the Web site’s customers have been pleased with the new pressings.
Dickerson cites price and the number of reissues a significant crack in nostalgia’s road though. While some records are harder to find then others, some reissues are cheaper out of a used bin.
“Take for example a Dire Straights album,” he says. “The reissue may be priced around $20 to $25 dollars. You have fans saying, ‘I saw that in the used bin for $2, why would I pay $25 for it?’”
Dickerson says he doesn’t think it’s collectors looking for used copies, but the retail price being much higher than a record’s worth.
He also says some reissues are getting extreme in number to collect. He cites the many different colored repressings of Alkaline Trio’s back catalog his site has carried this year. “It’s harder for collectors to keep up with it based on the price [of collecting all of them.]“
THE WAY THINGS USED TO BE
Flea markets are a copious, outside shopping center containing novelty items for low prices and plenty of bargains. Some flea markets attract consumers looking for deals on collectable items such as comic books, baseball cards and general vintage items.
John Hill has been selling used movies and CDs for five years from a flea market in Prairieville, Louisiana. But in the past five years, a younger generation has been stopping at his table to sift through the six milk crates of old vinyl as well.
Though most of the records Hill has are original pressings, there is one hidden in one of the crates, new, wrapped in cellophane. It is a repressing of Jimi Hendrix’s live record Band of Gypsys, put out by the “From the Capitol Vault” series.
Six crates sit in a flea market in Prairieville, La. every weekend. Hill says his customers have been younger over the past five years.
Hill says he used to be a part of vinyl record conventions, much like baseball card conventions, but those slowly fizzled in the 90’s. For the past five years, he’s been doing fine with selling and trading from the flea market every weekend.
Finding the original copy, opposed to the newer pressings is something, Hill says, is adamant to many of his shoppers who ask for mostly the same bands: Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Pink Floyd, and of course, The Beatles.
Ventom says this is just a small niche market compared to the newer pressing sales.
“These repressings are appealing to those buying for the first time,” Ventom says. “There’s also those consumers buying because their originals aren’t in great condition anymore.”
A COMBINATION OF MEDIUMS
Reasoning for the medium’s new demand may be both a backlash and brotherly bond with the rise of music’s new contender - digital.
“I think a lot of people who have gravitated back to the vinyl format, have gravitated to the aspects that vinyl have to offer,” Dickerson says. “If you get an iPod and fill it up with 1,000 song, it makes music almost feel valueless.”
Dickerson also says vinyl has brought back the intention of an album as a whole, as opposed to picking and choosing songs through digital singles. “When you buy a record, you sit through it the way the artist intended you to listen to it.”
While there’s an embrace of the old medium being more tangible than the contemporary compact disc (bigger artwork and more liner notes), Dickerson says the record companies that are packaging vinyl with digital download cards are satisfying two wants: the physical, intimate enjoyment of music when listening to a record, and the ability to take the music and listen to it anywhere.
“If you see a CD for $15 and a vinyl with a digital coupon for the same price, to me, it’s no contest,” he says.
While Vinyl Collective has seen great business in the past year, Ventom says Capitol/EMI has gotten a very positive response from both consumers and distributors. “All around people are happy with the quality of the record and the quality of the artwork.”
SOURCE: http://theimmovableforce.wordpress.com
Dennis Yost of the Classics IV Passes Away at 65
Dennis Yost, the lead singer of the 60's hit makers the Classics IV, passed away Sunday at Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio from respiratory failure. He had been hospitalized for over two year after suffering a brain injury in a fall. Yost was 65.
The Classics IV grew out of a Jacksonville, Florida cover band called Leroy and the Moments who were able to mimic most of the top forty hits of the day. They originally signed with Capitol in 1966 where they released a Four Seasons sound alike record call Pollyanna (written by Joe South) which did no better than number 103.
After a couple of more flops, they left Capitol and signed with Imperial. Group members James Cobb and Buddy Buie heard an instrumental called Spooky, wrote words and a new arrangement and the hit period for the group was born. Yost, who had been both vocalist and drummer, found that they needed a fulltime frontman and left the drumming to others.
The group ran into some problems early on because their sound was extremely diverse. While Spooky reached number three, the follow up, Soul Train, barely charted. It wasn't until almost a year later that Imperial released the song Stormy off of the group's second album that they once again reached the top ten, peaking at number five. The follow-up, Traces, did even better, topping out at number two.
In early-1970, the name of the group was changed to Dennis Yost and the Classics IV and they continued to have success; however, it was more on the easy listening charts than rock. Everyday with You Girl went to 19 (12 on easy listening) while What Am I Crying For? went only to 39 on the pop chart but 7 on adult contemporary.
By the time the group broke up in 1975, there were few of the original members left. Many had left to start the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Yost began touring on the oldies circuit, continued to write and did some producing. He continued to tour under the group name up until the time of his accident.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman of Sha Na Na commented on Yost's passing. "He was a tremendous talent who did an enormous amount of the work for that group. Paradoxically, I came to know Dennis better in the later years, in which he was involved in a massive struggle to retain his own musical identity, which was one of the saddest and most difficult cases of someone losing the name of their own group, when he had pretty much been the group."
SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com
Traces Classics IV Dennis Yost
The Classics IV grew out of a Jacksonville, Florida cover band called Leroy and the Moments who were able to mimic most of the top forty hits of the day. They originally signed with Capitol in 1966 where they released a Four Seasons sound alike record call Pollyanna (written by Joe South) which did no better than number 103.
After a couple of more flops, they left Capitol and signed with Imperial. Group members James Cobb and Buddy Buie heard an instrumental called Spooky, wrote words and a new arrangement and the hit period for the group was born. Yost, who had been both vocalist and drummer, found that they needed a fulltime frontman and left the drumming to others.
The group ran into some problems early on because their sound was extremely diverse. While Spooky reached number three, the follow up, Soul Train, barely charted. It wasn't until almost a year later that Imperial released the song Stormy off of the group's second album that they once again reached the top ten, peaking at number five. The follow-up, Traces, did even better, topping out at number two.
In early-1970, the name of the group was changed to Dennis Yost and the Classics IV and they continued to have success; however, it was more on the easy listening charts than rock. Everyday with You Girl went to 19 (12 on easy listening) while What Am I Crying For? went only to 39 on the pop chart but 7 on adult contemporary.
By the time the group broke up in 1975, there were few of the original members left. Many had left to start the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Yost began touring on the oldies circuit, continued to write and did some producing. He continued to tour under the group name up until the time of his accident.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman of Sha Na Na commented on Yost's passing. "He was a tremendous talent who did an enormous amount of the work for that group. Paradoxically, I came to know Dennis better in the later years, in which he was involved in a massive struggle to retain his own musical identity, which was one of the saddest and most difficult cases of someone losing the name of their own group, when he had pretty much been the group."
SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com
Traces Classics IV Dennis Yost
Music News & Notes
Black Lips Make New Album
All kazillion thousand gazillion of The Black Lips' fans should be happy to hear it: The band has a new album on the way.
The band taps the world of imaginary numbers for 200 Million Thousand, which is slated to arrive in stores Feb. 24 from Vice. It follows up Good Bad Not Evil, and will be supported by a lot of tour dates, though probably not 200 million thousand of them.
=============================================
Blur Reuniting, Unveils London Show Plans
Andre Paine, London
U.K. rock act Blur will reform for an open-air show in London's Hyde Park next summer. The band has been on hiatus following the campaign for its album "Think Tank" (Parlophone).
The Hyde Park show takes place on July 3 and is promoted by Live Nation and Metropolis Music, in association with CMO management and booking agent X-Ray Touring.
Guitarist Graham Coxon, who quit the band for a solo career in 2002, has signed up to the reunion, which features the full original lineup of frontman Damon Albarn, drummer Dave Rowntree and bassist Alex James.
There has also been speculation in U.K tabloid the Sun that Blur will headline the Glastonbury festival in June, but there has been no official confirmation.
Coxon last performed with Blur in 2000 at London's Royal Festival Hall. While he has focused on solo albums, Albarn has worked on several projects outside Blur, including the animated group Gorillaz and the Mandarin language opera, "Monkey: Journey To The West."
The band, which formed 20 years ago, released seven studio albums, five of them reaching No. 1 in the U.K.
SOURCE: http://www.billboard.com
All kazillion thousand gazillion of The Black Lips' fans should be happy to hear it: The band has a new album on the way.
The band taps the world of imaginary numbers for 200 Million Thousand, which is slated to arrive in stores Feb. 24 from Vice. It follows up Good Bad Not Evil, and will be supported by a lot of tour dates, though probably not 200 million thousand of them.
=============================================
Blur Reuniting, Unveils London Show Plans
Andre Paine, London
U.K. rock act Blur will reform for an open-air show in London's Hyde Park next summer. The band has been on hiatus following the campaign for its album "Think Tank" (Parlophone).
The Hyde Park show takes place on July 3 and is promoted by Live Nation and Metropolis Music, in association with CMO management and booking agent X-Ray Touring.
Guitarist Graham Coxon, who quit the band for a solo career in 2002, has signed up to the reunion, which features the full original lineup of frontman Damon Albarn, drummer Dave Rowntree and bassist Alex James.
There has also been speculation in U.K tabloid the Sun that Blur will headline the Glastonbury festival in June, but there has been no official confirmation.
Coxon last performed with Blur in 2000 at London's Royal Festival Hall. While he has focused on solo albums, Albarn has worked on several projects outside Blur, including the animated group Gorillaz and the Mandarin language opera, "Monkey: Journey To The West."
The band, which formed 20 years ago, released seven studio albums, five of them reaching No. 1 in the U.K.
SOURCE: http://www.billboard.com
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