Vinyl I Would (blank) For

If any of these albums are in this piece of art, so help me... “Sound Swell” (2007) near Jean Climb @ ‘Second Lives’ at the Museum of Arts and Design

I’m not a collector of vinyl.  I’m a music lover.  And I don’t necessarily think that vinyl has a better sound than CDs.  It’s just the experience with vinyl is wholly different: the huge cover art, the steps that must be taken to play, the fact that it’s easier to put the needle down and let it play rather than skip from song to song to song.

Also…some albums are just vinyl albums, both sonically and literally.  They were meant to be heard on vinyl.  Or…they are only available on vinyl.

There are some albums I would (blank) to own.  I say blank because my first thought was ‘kill’ but…I’m not a very violent person, and I’d rather this blog not be used in a criminal case in the future.  So, you can fill in your own ‘horrible thing I’d do’ verb.  ’Eat bitter melon.’  ’Listen to an economist discuss his most recent theory.’  ’Sleep with a lady.’ (…not that there’s anything wrong with ladies…I just prefer dudes…)

VYTO B – TRICENTENNIAL 2076

Vyto is number one on my list because it’s rare, obscure, and least likely to happen.  There is one teasing webpage that comes up each time I search for this album on vinyl, a sale that happened awhile back, where a collector bought a copy for over $300 that also came with a note (written by Vyto, I believe to a radio station, and signed by Vyto as well).  I’ve seen one other online…$200…but the first song on each side skips.

This album caught my attention because of its simple complexity: one man, accompanied by guitar or piano, singing songs that take us through a future laid out by the first track.  Each song expands on a line from the title track.  The melodies are quirky and memorable.  The sound is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

This is as much a fanboy wish as anything else: I became an instant fan of this album.  Now I need it.  It’s something I want on my shelf before it’s too late, and all copies have drifted into obscurity.

ANY SPARKLEHORSE ALBUM

I want them.  Nay…NEED them.  Especially ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ and ‘Good Morning, Spider.’

Sparklehorse is my biggest influence…my Beatles, my Radiohead, my life experience, my independence.  From the moment I ‘actually’ discovered who I was (a road trip to Maryland to visit a friend I’d met on the internet) to the moment I genuinely set forth on a career in music (finishing school work one day, and finding out Mark Linkous, the sole member of Sparklehorse, had died), Sparklehorse has been there and still is.

I need that big artwork, the ritual of dropping the needle, the restriction of the experience that sits me down and stops what I’m doing and makes me listen…really listen…to the album as a whole.

BARNES AND BARNES – FISH HEADS 45

When I was a kid I think I broke my brother’s copy of this.  Or maybe I think I did because it was this musical memory of mine: a funny, quirky song that my brother would sing to me.  I remember him coming up to me with the 45, in two pieces, and singing ‘No-More-Fish-Heads.’

I wanna buy it and give it to him.

DR. JOHN – GRIS GRIS

This album hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday.  I used to listen to it when I was REALLY young thanks to my friend Jason Fraser.  Yes…as a child I used to listen to an obscure New Orleans voodoo jazz album.

This one is sonically something that NEEDS vinyl.  It’s how I heard it first, and then a cassette copy of the vinyl.  I’ve heard a clean version on Rdio and although it still has it’s gris gris power it lacks something that only a needle on vinyl can deliver.

I’ve been pretty lucky.  I’ve managed to get some copies of vinyl that I desperately needed.  Finding a copy of Renaldo and the Loaf was a victory.  I have Tiffany’s albums on vinyl…DON’T JUDGE!  For new music, I own Neon Indian’s album on a double vinyl though currently have no turntable to play it.

This is TOTALLY an album for the next time you invite your boss over for a dinner party...trust me...

Owning Peter Hammill’s ‘A Black Box’ ensured that I could hear the entirety of ‘Flight’ the way it should be heard.

They are just ‘things,’ but fleeting things that can be there one moment, and gone the next.  Although the internet has made it easier to rescue and distribute obscure albums that doesn’t mean  everything will survive.  You can only be sure you have your music if you have it in your possession…

…what if you replace your entire collection on Spotify and then Spotify goes out of business?

…or if your computer dies and you lose the entire collection.

Sure, a house fire would do the trick on a vinyl collection, but my computer has broken down more often then my house has caught fire.

And there’s something lost in the process when you throw a thousand songs in an MP3 player and skip through.  I’ve noticed some drastic changes: I don’t know the names of songs as well as I used to, I don’t remember lyrics of entire albums like I used to, and worse of all…I spend more time staring at text trying to figure out what I want to listen to than I ever have.

That’s why I’d (blank) for some of these albums on vinyl.  Some music is meant to be different, stand apart, and have a ritual.  But to hold the ritual you first need the music.

Are there any albums you would (blank) for?  What are they?  Have you ever been so close but so far??  Tell me!!

Find me on Twitter @Potoroo where I hang out most!  Chat me up, I’m happy to hear from you.  And if you have music you want me to hear, please send it my way!!

Best of 2011 – Vyto B

I’m going to go about the ‘Best of…’ list a little differently.  I’ll do a few posts on my favourite discoveries of 2011, and since I don’t want to do it normally I’m going to kick it off with something that was recorded in 1976…because, you know, I discovered it in 2011…so it’s a Best Of… for me!!

I stumbled across this album when I discovered ‘Egg City Radio,’ a music blog that rips and archives obscure or bizarro vinyl for the world to listen to!  I found some great John Carpenter music, wild italian movie soundtracks…and Vyto B.  How to describe Vyto B…

He’s like everything I love in music and more.  The music is catchy but not typical, the subject matter quirky and memorable, and execution raw but tight…I mean, this guy plays to his own rhythm but doesn’t skip a beat, LONG before we had computers to ensure beats were not skipped.

There’s a purity to Vyto B’s amazing piece Tricentennial 2076.  It sounds like it was recorded by a great talent in a room with only microphones and time.  He uses simple instrumentation – piano and voice, guitar and voice.  I only recall one song with production (the opening of “To Commemorate An Imaginary Life That Dies Prematurely” has some creepy…slowed down voice effects).

What are the songs about?  You know, the usual stuff…miracle devices, electronic enforcers, space love.

My appreciation for his vision (yup, I said vision) stems from the title track, Tricentennial 2076.  It encompasses the entire album like the opening of a well written essay.  It’s a thesis statement with proofs.  Each song thereafter expands on what we learn in the opening track.  It’s like one of those TV series or movies where the opening sequence is surreal and bizarre, but as you go along and are explained more about the world that’s been created it suddenly makes more and more sense.

It’s how I felt watching 12oz Mouse, a show which I probably shouldn’t be comparing to but is telling: you chuckle for the opening episodes because they’re so random, and piece by piece the story explains the most obscure elements to the point that a moving clock on the wall the squirts knockout gas becomes not only integral to the plot but essentially it’s own character!

We are taken through a world in 2076 when the US Tricentennial is about to take place, where a ‘big brother’ like existence is upon us, and where we can be saved by love.  Sounds corn…trust me, the album has a camp element, but there is no corn.

And the songs are infectious.  I used to play it in the office, and we would sing the chorus to Tricentennial at the top of our lungs when it came up.

Vyto B hooked me this year.  It’s odd to say, but I’d put it as my #1 discovery of the year…but also probably the best album I’ve heard since being introduced to obscure and clever favourites in my youth, like Jazz Butcher or Rupert Hine or Captain Beefheart. I’ve been missing the feeling of discovery, of ownership, of finding something I missed and didn’t know existed but is exactly…EXACTLY…what I needed.

I admit it’s not for everyone, but I would appreciate any fans of music and musicians to give it a download and a listen.  And if you like it…head over to Facebook and look him up…he’s there, 35 years after this album was recorded, and he’s still performing.

There will be more best of 2011 posts, probably into the New Year as well!  Let me know what you thought of this kickoff…I’m sorry it wasn’t about Adele or Frank Ocean, but I figure they’re getting enough coverage everywhere else!