Occasional Vinyl

Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975

What I would have given…

Cactus Black
“Las Cruces”
“Midnight at the Crossroads”
“No Accomplice” EP
“The Marrow of Our Truth”

A Southern Gothic storytelling mixture of Folk, Americana, and Rock.

Bowery Electric - Bowery Electric

A short 5 years back in the mid-90’s saw three full lengths from NYC’s Bowery Electric.

For me, this is their perfect album. Tension filled nocturnal shoegaze.

El Michel’s Affair - Enter the 37th Chamber

#elmichelsaffair #vinylsky #nowspinning

10 year old me did a little fat kid dance when nearly 50 year old me picked up this Japanese press of Third Stage. Some of the best guitar tones ever.

Boston - Third Stage

Pulled out some 45s today in between meetings.

Wooden Shjips
phonograph b/w lights out remix

The Black Angels
Watch Out Boy b/w I’d Rather Be Lonely

Black Lips/Mark Sultan
I Wanna Dance With You b/w Oh Summertime

Ghost Funk Orchestra
Walk Like A Motherfucker b/w Isaac Hayes

So tonight, I stoke whatever embers of the Hot Animal Machine that remain inside me with a little Rollins Band.

Rollins Band
Life Time

#henryrollins #rollinsband #vinyl #vinylcollection #hotanimalmachine

I hadn’t seen that postcard in over 25 years until the other night when it fell out from between the pages of an old book I was flipping through. Pretty cool seeing it after all these years.

A couple years later, I’m home from college to do some laundry and steal boxes of cereal from the pantry, when my mom gave me a stack of mail and in it was a post card from Henry. I kept it around, but lost track of it during multiple moves over the years.

Around the time I was 15 I felt a sincere desire to send a note of thanks to him - for the music and for some of the things I’d learned from him along the way. I sent the letter and promptly forgot it.

I badly wanted to be a Hot Animal Machine just like Hank, not realizing at the time that I literally had none of the prerequisites to make that happen. I read the books, listened to the spoken word, and did my best to scream along always resulting in a coughing fit (seriously, how do they do that?)

I discovered Rollins around the age of 14. That’s got to be the best and worst age for a young man to connect with Henry. All that anger and testosterone pounding through my veins…

Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath

I don’t pretend to be an audiophile (I’m more into the ritual and tactile part of buying and listening to records), but I’ve heard nothing but good things about these Rhino pressings. First spin.

#nowspinning #vinylsky #vinylrecords #blacksabbath

#CatchThePhrase #MusicChallenge
(𝟏𝟕𝟎) 𝙈𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚 : 𝐅𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢 : 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟎
youtu.be/RQ8muwMQNbg?...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Live God

One of the best live shows I’ve ever seen in my nearly 50 years. It’s been months and I’m still thinking about it. Nice to re-live it with this release.

Also shown are a couple promo items I stumbled across at my favorite local shop.

#nowspinning #vinylsky

The Black Angels - Live at Levitation

Today’s psych is brought to you by the letter B.

The Black Angels -
Another Great Pair /
Passover / Phosphene Dream

#nowspinning #musicsky #theblackangels #vinylsky

Wrapped up The Besnard Lakes section as part of this alphabetical trip through my shelves.

Everything they do is huge in scope - layers of guitars soaked in Brian Wilsonesque harmonies, quirky electronics, and thematic concepts I pretend I’m smart enough to understand.

#vinylsky #nowspinning

I hated “In Rainbows” at first. Actively disliked it. It took me until seeing them on that tour for it to click. I literally stood there saying “Oooooh, ok. I get it.”

So yeah, I’m slow. lol

Compulsively listenable. Immediately comfortable.

Panchiko - Ginkgo

#vinyl #vinylsky #nowspinning #panchiko

After a few listens, I’m sold.

Trying to shut everything else out for an hour by listening to this for the first time.

Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film

#vinylsky #nowspinning #stereolab

The album cover is centered with a black horse taking up most of the real estate. It’s a regal looking horse and appears to be mid gallop. The horse is surrounded by, but not yet engulfed by flames. What I notice most about the approach is the dry brush work that, when combined with the visible texture of the canvas, creates a hazy dream-like quality to the image.

A close up of the label illustration created by Todd Stewart. It depicts a black horse as well, but is stylistically different than the cover. The horse is fully engulfed in flames, its mouth open with lips pulled back in a toothy grimace. This is not a hazy representation, but has a more graphic quality that makes it feel less horrific and more engaging somehow.

The back cover depicts the flames themselves without the horse. They are taller and more evolved than they were on the front cover but are rendered in the same hazy dry brush technique.

The front cover for the 12” Casino Nanaimo single which includes the exclusive title track and an alternate version of the song “Devastation“. A variation of the horse illustration from the “Are the Dark Horse” album is used as the cover here. The horse is engulfed in earthy turquoise flame, with its head turned to its left (instead of to the right as the label image). The horse is wearing black rain boots keeping the turquoise puddles of water at bay.

The Besnard Lakes -
The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
and
Casino Nanaimo 12” single

The first Besnard Lakes song I heard was “Devastation” off this record. I hated it. Actively hated it. It was on a Jagjaguar sampler CD that I liked, so I kept hearing it. A few weeks later, I was hooked.

The front cover of Volume 1 -The Besnard Lakes’ first album. It shows a night scene of an infamous funeral home that wasn’t exacting into how they conducted business. The cover is mostly dark with a couple distant streetlights vaguely visible. The funeral home itself pops off the page from the lower left of the album cover, being the only well-lit portion of the scene. It’s a boxy funeral home, sparse in appearance with either security bars or maybe glass blocks in the front window.

The inner image from the gatefold carries the stark contrasts in lighting forward. The image is warm,differentiating itself from the cover. It shows a small music venue main floor lit gently by three visible chandeliers. The small stage is forward of red curtains that obscure the backstage area. On the left, a dark haired woman, standing with a cocked hip, a cigarette between two fingers. Her right arm crosses across her midsection with the hand tucked under her left elbow, looking like a halfway type of self-hug. She looks down toward the tabletop before her, and seeming past what appears to be an art print of some kind. It’s curled at the edges from being rolled, though it’s mostly flat now. To the right, across the wood plank door, a man and woman sit at a separate table. Their backs are to us so it’s not possible to determine if they are gazing at the stage (which is empty of performers, but has a drum kit front and center with neatly arranged stacks of amplifiers on either side of it). While I can’t be certain, it looks to me they’re not looking at the staff at all. I think they’re staring into the darkness stage left. The image is another combination of contrast, light and shadow.

The back cover is a night time street scene with a sign reading “Motel” on the left with other undeterminable business across the street. While much better lit than the front cover, the lighting is still muted creating an overall soft vibe to the photo. Song titles are listed in the upper right corner, while the lower right corner includes information about the band using Breakglass in Montreal as well as mastering and other credits shown. In the bottom center, 3/600 is shown, denoting this is copy 3 of 600 records pressed. The writing is in silver marker

A plane white record sleeve is shown with a stamp that reads: February 21 2021 BL-001 A/B The record is a still-sealed test pressing.

The Besnard Lakes
Volume 1

I am evangelical about my love of The Bezzies. Inappropriately so.

This is a 2012 repress. It came with a signed inner sleeve and is limited to 600 hand-numbered copies.

I eventually got a test pressing from the original 2003 release as well.

#vinylsky #beanardlakes

Yoshimi is their perfect record, imo. Love it so much.

Late Nite records is a regular stop if I’m up in the Cleveland area.

Audiophiles, hardcore bourbon enthusiasts, and hot sauce guys all kind of occupy the same space in my mind.

That moment when the crowd finally realizes the band is playing “Like Spinning Plates” is my favorite.

People look past “I Might Be Wrong” a lot, but it’s so good.

I’m getting deeper into the “B” section of my shelves and hit this pocket of Beastie Boys. It’s been awhile since I’ve really sat down and listened to these records, so it was great to go through them all at once like this.

#beastieboys #nowspinning #vinylsky #nowplaying #vinylcollection