Reducing the Clutter: CDs & Concert T's (WWJD...What Would Jerry Do?)

Recently I wrote a post, a Part II actually: The CD Conundrum: Coasters or Collector's Items (what to do with my 1,000+ CDs). Not only was it a savvy use of the word 'conundrum' in a post title, the resulting conversation proved to be a cathartic exercise well worth taking. 

The post was really about two things: my changing music consumption habits and my desire to jettison my physical CD collection. There were a number of comments from faithful 6149'ers on how their own consumption habits are changing (streaming versus buying music is a polarizing topic to say the least). There was also a lot of discussion on what role the physical CD plays now and, if there is a want to shed them, what the hell to do with them all?

The latter subject is the one I want to talk about. It fits in well with a subject I am thinking a lot about right now: "reducing the clutter". What the hell am I talking about here?  Reducing the clutter has been a central theme of my life as of late. My efforts to reduce the clutter has been a success from the big philosophical things to the little bullshit-y things.  I'm focusing on what what I am most passionate about and interested in, eliminating unnecessary variables from choice and decisions, changing patterns and getting stuck into the new work I am involved in. That is the big picture stuff. I am cutting a swath through the little bullshit, too...like my CD collection. 

The (pending) elimination of my CD collection is not the only physical clutter I am trying to reduce. I have a ridiculous collection of concert T-shirts, too. I haven't worn some of them in years. Between my moves from Boston to Florida to Sydney, Australia and to London...that is 8+ years of lugging  plastic and cloth all over this big ol' globe. Now that I have potentially solved my CD conundrum, I had to make a move on the T's. I didn't want to throw them away...I just couldn't. Instead, I found a way to, as they say, re-purpose them. 

I found this service called UBlanket. You send them 20 of your fave T's and they turn them into a blanket for you. I looked at a number of other similar services and this seemed to be the best. The cool thing is that you send them the shirts and they take pictures and post them online. You get to crop the design to your satisfaction and then you click and drag your "panel" into the frame and decide the layout of your T's / blanket. 

I was their first international order. Once we sorted out some logistics, my fave Ts were in the mail headed for the chop shop. Once they were posted online, I designed my masterpiece. It should be here within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, here is a pic of the design I came up with:

If you are like me and have an unhealthy emotional attachment to Rock & Roll schwag, like concert T's, that marked seminal moments in your life (and who doesn't, right?)...Ublanket may be a good option for you. 

Funny, as I type this I am wondering if I actually reduced clutter or if I just consolidated it. 

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Let's step into the way-back machine, circa 1987. I was in high school. I had a VHS copy of "Rolling Stone Magazine 20th Anniversary" special (yes, VHS...this was the 80's). The video was chock-full of interviews with people from the heyday of the mag back in the 60's, straight up to the video darlings of the mid 80's. One of the interviewees was Jerry Garcia. There was one thing Jerry said that struck sparks in my young mind (I am paraphrasing): "we all want to live a clutter free life". That had an impact on me back then as it does now.

I didn't know it at the time, but Jerry was revisiting a comment he made many moons ago when Haight Ashbury was alive and well with the Hippie ideal and the freewheeling fever of Fillmore gigs, free will and fucking. He and the rest of the Dead were being interviewed by Harry Reasoner, of CBS...the straight press. Funny...when you watch this, who looks like the real freak? The interviewer or the interviewee? Truly...one man's normal is another man's strange. 

Here is that video: Harry Reasoner's The Hippie Temptation. If you haven't seen it, it is worth the viewing. The Jerry/clutter comment I am referring to happens at 1:20. 

Reducing clutter...it makes me think of a song from one of my fave rave albums of the year, 'Brothers', by The Black Keys. The name of the song is, "Tighten Up". Reducing, tightening...yeah, that sounds right. It is a song so fixated in the now, but leans so heavily on influences of the past. It has a deep, sticky, dewey groove with a buzz & fuzz vibe layered on top. I love it. I love the whole damn album. Here is a double-whammy for you: the official video for the track and a live performance on Letterman. 

If you have this album and downloaded it...you fucked up. Bite the bullet and go buy it on vinyl. The difference is staggering. If you don't have it already...and don't own a record player...don't be a fuck-up. Bite the barrel and invest in a turntable. Get with it...this is 2010, for Keith's sake!
Tagged CDs clutter Concert T's Greatful Dead Jerry Garcia Keith Richards The Black Keys vids Vinyl

PART 2: The CD Conundrum: Coasters or Collectors Items (What to do with my 1,000+ CDs?!?)

Back in November of 2009 I wrote a post about what to do with all of the CDs I own. In that post I talked about why I needed a solution and what the possible ideas were. You can have a read of that post here: 

Part One of The CD Conundrum: Coasters or Collectors Items (What the hell should I do with my 1,000+ CDs?!?)

Since then, my physical CDs purchases have been next to nil. I am buying primarily downloads, save for my now growing vinyl collection (which is my fave format). I'm not sure I will ever buy another physical CD again (sorry my old friend, liner notes...I'll just have to rely on websites and PDFs when they are available). 

I just found this picture today. This is my music collection circa 2002. This is the first apartment my wife and I lived in together. I had to fight to steal this closet space (still paying for it today).

CDs are just dead. Shit, I don't even have a CD player anymore. I bought a killer Yamaha tuner a while back and when I did, I decided that the CD player was not needed. My thinking then (and now) was that I would just rip the CDs to my hard-drive and stream it via Air Tunes throughout the house. If I had a house that I owned today rather than all of this global transient apartment living, I would trick that casa out with the top of the line audio with all the super geeky tech stuff. I digress...

In a recent post, The Rise of the Streamers, I questioned the notion of streaming versus owning your music. There was some healthy debate on the topic. I did miss the mark on taking a deeper look at another angle: still owning your music (CDs) and transferring it al into the cloud. This tangent is more in line with my first post on this subject, what to do with the music...all those damn CDs...that I now own.

I have come to a decision on what I will do with all of my CDs. 

When I replaced all of my cassettes with CDs I threw the tapes away. We were talking about two different beasts then. There was no relationship between the two. CDs and digital files are another matter. I can turn water in to wine with these.

My music collection, Judd's Juke Joint, totals 1,515 albums. The collection is comprised of 1,065 CD (box sets included) and 450 downloads. Whew...that's a lot of plastic and paper. I also have 107 pieces of vinyl...but they aren't going anywhere. 

So this is the plan:
  • This winter I will rip the rest of my collection to external hard-drives. I have over 25,000 songs dumped into iTunes as of today. That is not my entire collection, but it is a larger portion of it.
  • Once I have my entire collection in bits & bytes, I will make a few back-ups of the hard-drives with one master that I can add to as I buy new stuff. Each month I will clone it over to my back-ups. 
  • I am going to find a cloud storage service to put the entire thing in. Dropbox, Google Docs...not sure what yet. If there was an option that had a player that I could use/stream with or take my own songs and embed playlists with or share to social sites, etc...I would prefer that. Not sure what the cloud solution is yet, but will research it heavily. 
  • @dopeburger and I were talking about uploading to the cloud in Part One of this post-series. We were envisioning a 'bandwidth-bar' or someplace you could go to rent screeching-fast upload speeds to upload mass file-age. Uploading 1,500+ albums to the cloud is going to be costly. I want to do it right once, make it as inexpensive as possible and simple. Very simple. I think that I brought up a retail chain, like Costco, that would sell a wide pipe and warp speeds on the cheap to make this happen. Cool idea.
  • I'm going to dismantle my entire CD collection...separate the CD & liner nots from the pastic.
  • I will buy some simple storage solution to catalog all of the CDs in. I think I can get that down to a couple/few boxes. If anything, this makes me feel better knowing that at least 70% of my collection is backed up by "hard copies". 
Once I get this done, I will invest in the latest and greatest technology to trick out my flat or house so that my music is always ready to play anytime and in any room. I also want to be able to play my stuff anywhere...the cloud service I end up using will be key here. 

For the past eight months I have only been buying downloads and vinyl. That is the way forward. With downloads, where possible, I will buy higher quality files (as I did with Arcade Fire's new album & offerings...they nailed that execution...and their interactive album is cool, too). 

I will continue to buy vinyl...old and new. I will carefully curate my collection so that I focus on top vinyl-album-experiences (Layla, Pet Sounds, etc.). the new vinyl will be in two forms...new albums on high quality vinyl (i.e. 180 grams) and special re-releases of killer classic albums.  The new albums refers to new shit such as The Black Keys, "Brothers" (love this album) and Tom Petty & The Ass-Kickers, "Mojo". If new release albums come with download codes...all the better.  

The Old-New releases come in flavors such as the limited edition Neil Young 4 album set and the re-release of the Stones, "Exile on Main St.".  The Neil set is fucking bow-down. He has plans to release more classic and lost album on the black beauties and I will buy them all. 

OK...sounds like a good plan. I have a few months still before I kick out the jams on this project. Am I missing something? Anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve my master plan? 

Tagged CDs Cloud Downloads Judd's Juke Joint Music Streaming Vinyl

The Rise of the Streamers; To Own or Rent Your Music. That...is the Question

I must have been about about thirteen at the time. My allowance wasn't cutting it. I was fast running out of dough and I needed to make some bread: there were records to buy. It was around this time that I discovered the holly grail of hoaxes...The Columbia Record House. 

I had pulled an advert for the club out of Rolling Stone mag. I read it a couple times over to be sure that I was getting this right: "You mean to tell me that one red cent was going to get me twelve free albums? Not only that, but with my subscription, I receive the "selection of the month"...without asking for it?. 

No shit.

Shit, yes, my young self. Shit, yes...

I remember thinking that it couldn't have been right. I was about to ask my old man about it, that is, until the devil in the detail reared it's timely head. The fine print said there was a monthly charge. Shit. So much for teenage logic...I also chose to ignore the fine print. What to do about that monthly charge for the monthly selection?  Hey...I was only looking for solutions to my then current cash crunch, not new problems. Plus, my old man was smarter than me then. He would have seen my wheels cranking a mile away and stopped me cold. I decided I'd keep this one to myself. 

I then started in on year long game of hide and seek with The Columbia Record House Club: I would hide from my parents all the cassettes that came in the mail and Columbia House would seek payment via repeated "pay now" letters. It was a viscous but virtuous cycle. The grind of racing home after school to get deliveries and collection letters was unrelenting, but I was doing it for a good cause...for the gain of musical knowledge. 

I was thinking about this yesterday when I was replying to post from a music-friend's blog, "IckMusic". IckMusic is run by Pete Icke. Pete's post touched on his brand spankin' new Rdio account and of how he is using it to stream music. I asked Pete, another voracious music consumer, if streaming music was resulting in an increase in music listening or replacing the means in which he was currently devouring his tunes. 

Pete said that he is spending more time listening to music and that Rdio is not only being used for music discovery, but it is eating into his iTunes usage. Pete also asked the question, "if all music is accessible from any device in your life, why waste the time downloading a MP3 or buying a CD?"

Good point, Pete. More so I think that the real question is: Buy or Rent?  

This is when I started to think about my Columbia House days. That was a subscription/buffet service, too...but I owned it all (well, eventually after I had to come clean to the old man and he had to pay all those past due charges).  The rise of the streamers is upon us and the bait is mighty tempting. Rdio, MOG, Pandora, GrooveShark, Spotify (and Google Music and Apple in the Cloud sorting their shit out)...they are here and they are offering up "millions of songs on demand", "a world of music" and "free internet radio". With lures like those, it is hard to resist having a look at what streaming has to offer. 

I'm over a barrel on this one, though. My music collection...my rider by my side, bow-down, 1,500+ album music collection....I own all that shit. The damn thing comes damn close to defining me. Owning it is what it is all about...or what is has been all about. I'm no where near a fulltime streamer yet, but what has changed for me is what I own...what format that is. This most certainly will have implications for how I consumer in the future.

Of my 1,500+ albums, about 65% are CDs and the rest downloads. The CDs are legacy items, relics. My shift to digital music has been rapid over the past few years, especially while I was living in Australia where it was hard to get obscure/off the charts CDs. Not only have I been buying more digital, I have been buying a lot more vinyl, too. I've gone from no vinyl prior to December 2008 to 100+ pieces of black gold to date. My buying habits, which are well above average, focus on digital and vinyl...I haven't bought a physical CD in over eight months. 

My buying habits are changing, but I am still buying. Do I stream music? Am I a premium member of any services? Yes and Yes. I am a premium Spotify and GrooveShark member and I use last.fm regularly. Because I live in London I can't access Pandora, MOG or Rdio (or HULU, for that matter). I have free accounts and use them when I am in the States. I like to use streaming for music discovery or checking out a new album. For the record, Spotify is a great service. The mobile access via the iPhone app is very handy. I can see why streaming is so damn attractive.

I do have a couple issues with not owning and streaming: 

Less is more: Just because you have access to the buffet doesn't mean you have to sample every morsel of food on it. Oh, you can (and you have), but all you get is nasty stomach ache. Buffets are misleading. Everything looks good and every bowl and platter is always full. Not only is food a plenty, its cheap, too....all you can eat for $X.99. Fill up your plate with lots of this and lots of that...you don't have to eat it all...take a bite and leave the rest.  There are too many buffets being gorged and not enough meals being eaten and enjoyed. 

Music is so disposable now that people don't have to get invested in the listening experience. The barriers are gone, scarcity is dead and, unless you are a serious music fan, why should you bother? I am a serious music fan....I am a fan of the front-to-back album listening experience. With the rise of the streamers...and singles...the album experience is an endangered species. 

Access: Streaming requires a good service and it requires a broadband/wi-fi (mobile) connection. Yes, the latest and greatest apps have an offline cache capabilities, but that isn't always to be effective (now)...unless you always plan out your offline tracks and albums. Don't even start on switching costs. What if Rdio changes policy or Spotify pisses off the labels or Pandora's good deals go bad? What happens to your rented collection? You can't take it with you when you go...can you?

Access can also mean the breadth and depth of catalog and features/services. Right now it is a dog's breakfast of streaming services all with varying degrees of goodies and features. Overtime that will correct itself. While competition is a good motivator for improvements, the end user is going to dictate how to and how much access there is. 

Much like any fad, trends or other influencers, it will all start at the edges and work its way in. By the time it becomes critical mass, all of the technology, rights management, inventory, online/offline crap will be sorted. It is safe to say that the physical format is dead to rights. Vinyl will live on, yes, but it is for collectors, sound hounds and album freaks only (like me).  Streaming and cloud collections will win out and that is not a bad thing. 

Until it is the only game in town, my jury is still out on the Buy or Own verdict. I do like streaming and the thought of having my music (that I own)  in the cloud for 24/7 anywhere, any place action is very cool. I love my music collection. It warms my heart, like a good whiskey does, when I look at it and I pick through it (however, I don't see the need for the CDs anymore). Like I said, I am a serious music fan. Serious music fans are a different beast with different habits and should not be used as the example. The massess, technology and speed-to-cool of the streaming/cloud services uptake will decide the way forward. I'm going to tow the owning line for awhile and keep on streaming on until I reach my breaking point. 

Oddly, some of the box sets...cds...that I still own today came from my Columbia House Years. In college and a few years after that, I used the old "hide and seek" model again.  This time around I paid, but I always bailed as soon as I got my introductory CD booty. Those precious gems were the germs of what my collection has turned out to be today. 

My collection started in New Hampshire, moved on to Rhode Island, got good in Boston, rode shotgun on down to Florida and then followed me to Australia and now to London. It's been with me every at every turn. My relationship with my collection is older than the one with my wife of nine + the courtin' years. Putting it in the cloud and streaming it anywhere, anyplace is the killer app, but...not owning and just renting streamed songs...it just doesn't feel right. Not now, not yet, anyway...

if you are still reading this ridiculously long post, let me ask you...are you an owner or a streamer and how are your habits changing? 
Tagged Cloud Collection Downloads Music Music Collection Own Stream Vinyl

Sharing a link about "Cher" & "Link (Wray)": new, old vinyl has arrived...

         
Click here to download:
Sharing_a_link_about_Cher_Link.zip (4840 KB)

One of my fave music sites is, When You Awake.  It is run by a gal named, Jody Orsborn. She loves her music and she love it with a little twang.  Jody's site is:  "...an ode to country life, celebrating everything from classic country and rock to the the current indie folk and roots scenes. The daily blog features music news, mixtapes, ticket giveaways, style finds and much more."

She certainly sticks to here guns, because that is exactly what you get when you stop by and sit a spell. 

Jody has a cool feature she has been running on the blog:  "Vinyl Picks".  Each week she unearths three pieces of classic album vinyl gold that "every When You Awake reader should own". I took her for her word. She posts links to ebay auctions and you can have a go if you like...I did. 
 
A few weeks ago her three picks included two albums that wanted to put in my milk crates:  Link Wray's, "Wray's Three Track Shack"  and Cher's, "3614 Jackson Highway".  Stop by Jody's site to find what she had to say about these two rare and raw vinyl finds. 
 
I won these two auctions and the trophies just arrived. I am going to give them a spin and let you know how they play. 

 

Tagged Blog Cher eBay Link Wray Music Riffs Vinyl When You Awake

"Now, the album is the thing": a look at the contents of the Super-Deluxe "Exile on Main St." Re-issue

That picture is a page from picture book, with photos by Ethan Russell, on the making of the "Exile on Main St.". It is included in the whiz-bang edition of the "Exile" release. The quote is from the Riff Sorcerer himself, Keith Richards. Oh, Keith...if you only knew then what would become of the album now.  Not only are we back to singles...most of them are shit. The album, pity the poor album. Only a few dedicated fans of it left...so they say. 

I don't believe them though, dearest Keef. I am on the album's side...a true Champion, in fact. I love the album...so much so that I have reverted back to the black circle, where the album was born. You would be proud, Keef...I have a rule now. When I buy a new album I have to listen to it straight through, first song to last, at least ten times before I start cherry picking songs. 

By dong this, I get the flavour of the set...the way the artist intended it. Plus, I get a better feel for each of the songs as they were sequenced...they were done so for a reason, right? Who's with me? Who will fight he good fight...?

Newcomers, now is your chance. Go out and buy one of Keef's children: The "Exile" re-issue. It doesn't have to be the super-deluxe package, it can just be the CD.  The important part is that you get it and listen to it front to back. If you have virgin "Exile" ears, believe me and millions of others, you will be floored at the diversity and dynamism of this collection of sounds, riffs, honks and yelps.

This is an album in the truest sense of the word. It demands to be listed from start to finish in its entirety. You will thank us, the Album Champions, later for it. 

                                   
Click here to download:
now-the-album-is-the-thing-a-look-at-the-contents-of-the-super-deluxe-exile-on-main-st-re-issue-luHllsovzwCsJszzhIue.zip (16316 KB)

Here are some snaps of the super-deluxe "Exile on Main St" re-issue package. It just showed up at my office. I am definitely sneaking out early to get home and devour this tonight...from start to finish. 

Tagged Album Champions Keith Richards Music pics riffs Rolling Stones Vinyl

Buddy Miles just figured out that the express way to my skull went through my office...

Well, I must have more Wild Turkey thank night than originally thought. This just showed up at my office. I absolutely do not remember buying or paying for it.  A welcome surprise indeed. I love this album. "Train" is a stone cold MONSTER.  

I can't wait to blast this song as the black circle spins round and round and round and round and...

This may be the greatest album title of all time: "Expressway to Your Skull".The third pic is a close up of the liner notes from Jimi.

         
Click here to download:
Buddy_Miles_just_figured_out_t.zip (645 KB)

Tagged Buddy Miles Drunk Record Buying Music Riffs Vinyl

Rock & Roll Booty Call: 'Dem ol' Pirates, Keith & Mick, dig up buried treasure from Exile on Main St.

Buried treasure usually stays buried for a reason. Someone, a pirate perhaps, buries the treasure so no one can get at it. A massive half-way to China hole is excavated in the Earth-crust.  This hole is most often dug deep in a deep woods, or in the middle of an expansive wide open field void of markers. Intricate maps are created on parchment or in glyphs or codes to confuse poachers and crooks and jackpot seekers.

 Treasures are usually buried for a reason. In a basement in the south of France, in a mystical castle called Villa Nellcote, a cache of treasure lay buried for nearly forty-years. This treasure is not the booty that you would expect.  Once opened one finds a chest not full of rubies, gems and gold bouillons; rather it is filled with relics covered in grime and sweat, funk and mould, a little bit of country and a whole lotta rock and roll.

 The treasure in question belongs to those old rock and roll pirates ("Ladies and Gentlemen…") The Rolling Stones. The graybeards of rock and roll are releasing their masterwork, Exile on Main St. and giving it the whiz-bang, full-assed, super-deluxe treatment. The question myself and many others punters with a keyboard across the interworld are asking is, “should we have dug up these old bones?”

Well of course the answer is yes. If you are a natural born Stones freak, you want access to this music (treasure). You want to hear the legendary, long-lost tracks (“Aladdin’s Story”) or hear the early versions of classic riff-monsters (“Good Time Women” cum “Tumblin’ Dice”).  You want to hear the nuances in a Keef lick; can you trace back his sound today to way back then; has it matured?; does it still have its youthful kick?; is it knowing or is it naïve?; does he still kick ass? (Fuck yes)

I want to eat these tunes alive…feel a little blood spurt out when I bite in. I can’t get enough.  But, there is a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. As reported and confirmed, some of these old ‘70’s tunes have been given the sonic twenty-ten brush-up. Despite Keef’s claims of “not screwing up the bible” and “not painting a smile on the goddamned Mona Lisa”…there is another mule kicking in this stall.

There are ten tracks that were unburied to celebrate this rerelease. The fun (or forced) part of listening to them is to play, Spot the New Mick Vocal Track. Fuck me. Why? Why did they have to do this?  The magic and the mystery of ‘Exile’ was represented in those dirty and desperate times. The debauched displacement that was their predicament was embedded in the grooves of this double-disc, dirge and surge, mishmash masterpiece.

Let it Breathe. You don’t uncork a 40 year old scotch whiskey and try to add fresh barley. Let it Breathe, Mick…no matter how foul the smell.

Oh, Mick. You ego-fucking-tistical bastard, you. You never did like the mix of your vox on the first go ‘round. The word was that you were lost in the sound, no one could understand the lyrics and you there you were standing in the shadows, baby.  No one had a problem with it…well, except for you. If you ever did have dirt underneath your fingernails, you cleaned your claws before anyone could see you’d been digging in the yard. They say that cleanliness is next to Godliness; mate, you shouldn’t aim so high.

Your very own soul brother, ol’ Mr. Rock & Roll himself, always had dirt under his nails…and made no attempt to clean up for the cameras. The Riff Sorcerer knew then and knows now not to mess with Mother Nature; Exile on Main St. is an organic thing of beauty, not an act of god.

Ok, there is still some soil on these songs. Not all of it has a glossy new coat of paint. All up, I haven’t heard each of them in their new release form (I have most all on bootlegs).  The ones I have heard still have me tapping toes and flapping a chicken-wing  even though they have some 2010 on them. For instance, take the single, “Plundered My Soul”.  

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New Mick vox on this. All of his phrasing, nuances and ticks sound like something off of  “The Biggest Voodoo Steel Bridge”.  Fine. As much as I would have liked the old vox track, I have to say, I think this is one of the best vocal performances Mick has delivered in the last twenty-years.  I do. Why?  If he didn’t…his past would have caught up with him.

The music track on “Plundered” still has the good grease on it.  The sloggy, soggy, riffy-rhythm churns and chugs along in the background. It pulls the cart loaded up with horns and drums and bass behind it at a steady pace. What really makes this track work and makes the New Mick vox work is the original Old Dirty Bastard: Keef Riffhard.

In that sweet spot Stones recording period, “Let It Bleed” through “Exile”, Keith was in his finest vocal form. Now, that may not say a lot considering his cracked croak, but when it comes to singing the harmonies, Keef has no peers. Actually, I like to call it the anti-harmony. It is so fucking wrong that it makes things right. 

He did it on the entire of side one of “Exile”.  Back then he shadowed Mick and challenged him for alpha-dog on the vocal track. Not on “Plundered”, though. With Mick and Don Was (please, enough with Was) at the buttons and knobs, Mick sits high on top of the Keith anit-harmony. Ugh.

That’s OK…we know better.  While the moms and dads and the know-nothings dote on Sir Mick, there is Keith: down by the boiler and shoveling coals into the engine...The Soot Master…Anti-…Dirty.

Keith is nitty, gritty and glorious and he is the owner of the soul and the guts of the legacy of rock and roll.  As addled as people think he is, he is lucid and he is chock full of authenticity and integrity (just what these “Exile” outtakes should have been).  He is The Man. Game over.

Something old, something new…it’s still the Stones. What all this tells me is that when Mick is spurred on by the good stuff, he delivers.  Keith is rusty (he said so himself).  Once Keith starts tinkering again, maybe he will reach back for some Nellcote magic and conjure some of that Exile sound. When the Glimmers are on, they deliver. I think the Stones have one more legend-work left in them. I hope all this digging around for their lost, buried treasures sets them on course for new worlds to conquer and crowds to please.

Good pirates always leave at least one last booty grab and land to plunder.

 

Tagged Dirty Exile on Main St. Keith Richards Mick Jagger Pirates Plundered My Soul riffs Rolling Stones Treasure vintage Vinyl

Poorman's Podcast: "Its the stories not the song, that makes the music move along..." (Jeff Beck & Johnny Marr spin tunes & yarns)

Listen!

via AudioBoo
Links from this Poorman's Podcast:

Here is a link to the Jeff Beck/Johnny Marr iTunes Celebrity Playlist Podcast.  You can listen to it there or download it via iTunes. While there, be sure to check out he Mick Fleetwood, Ringo Starr & Tom Jones versions. All of them are bow-down, R&R, story-teller goodness.

Wikipedia links for more info on: Earl Palmer & Cliff Gallup

The pics on the post are: Jeff Beck in a studio (in Japan on tour) recording the podcast, Earl Palmer, Cliff Gallup
Tagged Cher Cliff Gallup Dan Penn Earl Palmer iTunes Celebrity Playlist Podcast Jeff Beck Johnny Marr Leon Russel London Lunch Break Lacquer Music pics poorman's podcast riffs Traffic Vinyl

Lunch Break Lacquer: The Fatman and The Ragmag (I found my thrill with some Fats Domino vinyl and vintage Rolling Stone mags)

Scroll through the gallery to see pics of the mag with Gregg & the Boys

 

Another beautiful day in London meant getting out of the office on my lunch break to claw through record bins in the eternal search for bow-down vinyl. I stopped into "On The Beat" records to see if anything jumped out at me. Something did...but it wasn't a piece of vinyl. Actually, it was a pile of old papers that got my big toe to shoot up in my boot.

 
In "On the Beat", aside from the crates of vinyl and other memorabilia, there are handfuls of New Music Express, Melody Maker and old Rolling Stone magazines hanging from the walls. The Rolling Stone mags are the coolest; most of them are in their original tabloid style, paper format.
 
There two that jumped out at me. One had an article from Hunter S. Thomson (see the post below for details and pics). The other I recognised straight away due to the image (illustration) of Gregg Allman on the cover. HA! YES! I found it!
 
I always have a list of "finds" when I go out looking for nuggets of buried treasure in shops like this.  The list includes pictures, books, vinyl, DVDs and yes, particular copies of Rolling Stone magazine. One of the items on my "List of Finds" was Rolling Stone, issue 149 from 3rd December, 1973.
 
This issue is important to me because of the cover story on the Allmans. Why? This was Cameron Crowes first "cover" that he wrote for the magazine...at 16 years of age! This is his "Almost Famous" based on a true story experience. I am a massive fan of the movie and admirer of Crowe. He was the right kid, at the right place, at the right time...(envious).  This one is going to go up on the shelf right next to my CC signed copy of the Almost Famous script. 
 
I took some pics of the mag and the article. 
  • Check out that full page spread of Gregg and the band in the middle of the article (reminded me of the scene in Almost Famous where Stillwater got their first t-shirt: Jeff Bebe, "How can you tell? I'm just one of the out-of-focus guys.").
  • Gotta love that pic of Dickey getting a tattoo
  • On the inside cover of the mag, there was a blurb on how the illustration of Gregg that graces the front came to be
  • And then there is last pic in the set from the mag. This appears at the end of the article. Wow. 16!
If you can get your hands on any of these "old 'Stones", do so. It is a trip to read through and get a feel for the times and happenings. 

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot. I did pick up a new slab of vinyl. I found me a good fats Domino album to help round out the collection: "Getaway with Fats Domino".  This is not the Fats album that is on my "List of Finds", but I couldn't help myself. 
 
p.s. the very last picture in this set is from the actual "On the Beat" shop.
Tagged Allman Brothers Cameron Crowe Fats Domino Hunter S. Thompson London Lunch Break Lacquer Music pics Record Shop riffs Rolling Stone Magazine The List of Finds Vinyl

"If you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends..." 17th April - Support Record Store Day

In honor of Record Store Day, which occurs this Saturday the 17th April, I am reposting a blog entry that I wrote almost one year ago. 

 
This post was about one of my fave places in all the world..."my" record shop in Sydney Australia, Mojo Music. I wrote this a ffew days before Record Store Day '09. Mojo is a special place, full of special people, sounds and stories...as all good local record shops should be. 
 
I am also linking to a few other record store related posts that I have written in the past:
 
 
 
 
 
 

"If you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends..." (posted 12th April, 2009)

The first record I ever owned as 45 called, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens. I was a young kid of about seven or eight years old and I played that record until the needle wore through its grooves. It was the sweeping falsettos that hooked me.  But what I loved even more was the loping, rhythmic, tribal beat that drove the song. I feel strongly that my love of the blues was spawned from repeated listenings of this infamous song.  One of the other records of my formative-music fan years that used to get a lot of spins was the Best of the Monkees. "Last Train to Clarksville" and "Papa Gene's Blues" were faves.  

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In the movie, Almost Famous, Kate Hudson's "Penny Lane" character said, "If you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends".  So true...

This weekend 17 different countries will celebrate Record Store Day.  RSD was created by a handful of record store fans as a "...celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally". Have a look at the website to check out all the happenings.  

I agree with the idea around celebrating the "unique culture" that inhabits the independent record store.  I have a record shop.  It is called Mojo Records and it is located on York St. in downtown Sydney. Mojo, the self-proclaimed "Kings of the Back Catalogue", is more than just a record shop.  It is a place where people are "regulars" on Thursdays and Friday nights. It is a place where people come to share music and stories about music for hours on end. It is a place where a common bond found in music brings together disparate groups of strangers and friends and turns them into "family". And, it is a place where a blues lick can draw you off the street and into the shop and never let you go.

When I first found Mojo, I was walking down York and I heard the unmistakable tremble of Muddy Water's slide action boucing off the buildings on both side of the street. I looked around for the shop and saw that it sat below the street at basement level...subterranean...buried treasure. The front shop window stretched from the footpath up to my waist and ran close to fifteen feet in length. I hovered over it and paced back and forth, all the while staring down at the collection of records, people, cds and posters inside. I was locked in. 

Once inside, I saw a few people leaning on the counter, beers in hands, talking just loud enough so they could hear each other over Muddy's "Long Distance Call". There were a few more people flipping through the record and CD racks.  The owner, Nev, came over to introduce himself to me.  Within 15 minutes, he had me holding five albums, five "bow-down" albums, that were a money back guarantee promise of hidden gem goodness. Nev is a man of his word. 

Fast forward two years later, my wife organised a surprise birthday party in the shop.  I am a Friday regular.  I stop down after work with a couple six-packs of beer (always Cooper's Red) and stay until closing time...which is whenever we decide we want to close up. That particular Friday was my birthday. Little did I know my wife talked with Nev and his right-hand man Uncle Frank and set up the festivities. It was Mojo's first birthday party.  By 6:30pm, the place was packed with twenty odd people listening to music, swapping stories, having a few beers and eating a record shaped cake.  

We kept on until about midnight and when we were just about to leave, Nev called out "one more song"!  Nev put some Jimmy Dawkins on...a dozen songs, a bunch of stories and a few more beers later, we called it a night. Now that's Mojo; happy birthday indeed. 

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Just yesterday I was at Mojo.  I went to see Booker T and the Drive-By Truckers perform last night and needed to get the "feel" going before the gig. Nev and I talked about what we were doing for RSD.  There is going to be a two-piece band and a book signing by a local artist. People are going to start coming by around 3:00pm. Nev is going to have some vinyl specials going.  I already put three aside to get when I go in: Derek & the Dominoes, "Layla", The Allmans, "Live at the Fillmore" and Otis Redding's, "Otis Blue".  My wife gave me a turntable for Christmas and I need to get some vinly and give it a spin. My music collection is 1,300+ albums strong (98% fat free).  I can't replace it all, but I am going to pick out some choice sets worthy of the black stuff.  Have a look at the collection if you like: Judd's Juke Joint.

If you want to see Mojo in person, come on down next Saturday.  It is sure to be a bow-down event. Oh yeah, bring a rack of beer if youlike...Cooper's Red.

p.s. That 45 I was talking about?  I still have it.  My mom framed it for me and gave it to me as a gift a couple years ago. Records don't have to spun on a turn table to tell great stories. 

 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORE! BUY VINYL!
 
Tagged "Best Of" London Mojo Music Paris Record Shops Record Store Day Riffs Sydney Vinyl
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