Found treasure -- Saturday Night Fever

A post on mad (!) discoveries. A friend of mine was over for an early St. Patrick's day party, with a few others. Given the occasion, and the fact that he's leaving the D.C. area, I insisted he choose the next album. Good man that he is, Keith Hovis chose the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that I found in my parents' basement.

Now, I've put in this on before. I played it during a party with fellow interns in Indianapolis, but it was mostly for the first track, 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees, classic that it is. But, as it turns out, this soundtrack is a double LP of A-MAZING. I've never seen the movie, but song for song, I think this one of the greatest soundtracks I've ever heard. You've got 'Stayin' Alive' as the first track and it ends with The Trammps' 'Disco Inferno.' What's in between is essentially a time capsule of the Saturday Night Fever era. In this case, that's a good thing!

Then I got to thinking: I would have never found the greatness that is this soundtrack without the original suggestion from on Keith. But once it was spinning, we were loving it. Between the great music, random dance breakouts -- mostly from Keith -- and the surprise of finding I'd had this great album all along, it was a good time. And it's a testament to the social element of this whole vinyl deal. Had this been a laptop or MP3 player, we would've played 'Saturday Night Fever' and left it at that. Or certainly somewhere between track one and track 17 it would've been changed. But because records force you to appreciate the whole album, well, there we were. A group of recent college grads, in the year 2010, listening to the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack at a St. Pat's party.

That's what it's all about.

Pink Floyd vs. the album killers

Interesting post on the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog. The upshot here is that last week Pink Floyd successfully used a clause in their relatively ancient contract to prevent their label, EMI, from selling their music on a song-by-song basis. As author Steven Kurutz notes in the post, this is almost a no-brainer for anyone who's listened to Pink Floyd. Save for a few single-worthy, radio-friendly tracks -- 'Money' immediately comes to mind -- the band is best known for its album work. "You can’t just casually put on 'The Wall,' hear a song or two and cue up something else," Kurutz writes. "Perhaps more than any other band, Pink Floyd made albums, music meant to be listened to as a cohesive whole." (Emphasis mine.)

Still, as he later notes, this is the opposite of what's going on in today's music business. Between iTunes, MP3s, mobile listening, on-demand songs, Pandora, and on and on, the single has regained its primacy, if it ever lost it in the first place. Kurutz questions whether this is a good or bad thing for music in general, and he comes down on what seems to be a firm maybe. Surely there have been releases past and present with one, two or three good songs and the rest filler. Now, people can just buy those songs. On the other hand, artists like Taylor Swift, who's quoted in the post, are packaging the best songs they can muster into one CD and calling it an album, essentially creating a single-artist mix tape, for good or ill.

But Kurutz nails it at the end, and I'll let him take it from here:

That doesn’t mean, however, that successful pop artists like Swift are making albums these days, at least not in the Pink Floyd sense of the term. Swift and other modern hitmakers are instead packaging a dozen or so individual, singles-worthy songs together and releasing them. An album is a convenient and standardized mode of distribution, not a form of expression. It’s a crucial difference. A band like Pink Floyd used the 45 or 60 minutes of music that a full-length album contains to explore a musical or lyrical theme, the way an author does in a novel. You wouldn’t buy a few chapters of “War and Peace” for your Kindle, ignore the rest and expect to come away with any real understanding of the novel. Pink Floyd seems to be making the same argument. (Again, emphasis mine.)

That's right on. And somewhat goes back to my previous post where I compare the value of buying a vinyl over a CD, even if you just want the MP3. It's a way to ensure people at least walk away with an entire album, and it's better than a little piece of plastic. But of course, that won't change the artists making the music, and I certainly don't think Taylor Swift -- or anyone else like her -- is going to get a bunch of pre-teen or teenage girls to go out and buy vinyl. And I'm not arguing that there's anything necessarily wrong with the proliferation of single-focused artists.

But I hate to think we've seen the death of the classically crafted album's album. With that in mind then, what's left to do? Well, certainly waiting for the next Pink Floyd is a bit of a waste of time, but I think a good starting point is to appreciate those groups that are making full albums that are worthy of the name. Love it or hate it, a commenter on the Kurutz post mentioned The Decemberists' 2009 release 'Hazards of Love,' it's an album's album, and I found it grossly underrated. The Flaming Lips' 'Embryonic' is another. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'It's Blitz' has some masterfully designed ebb and flow to it. These are albums, more than a collection of songs. There is a difference. We need more of the former, and these may not be the 21st Century version of 'Dark Side of the Moon,' but they show a dedication to true album-making, and that's something all music-lovers should support.


(H/T Wax.fm's Twitter feed -- which I of course recommend following here: https://twitter.com/wax_fm -- for pointing out the original WSJ post.)

Rainy Daze

Well, it's kind of cold and rainy in Washington, has been since Thursday and looks to stay that way until Tuesday. And what better way to spend a day inside avoiding the rain than spinning some great music -- and perhaps even blogging about it.

I've already spent plenty of time extolling the Broken Bells release, and if you've seen any of the reviews you'll know that most have come down on the side of great, but not life-changing or earth shattering, record. Most discuss its subdued production, smooth mix of Shins and Danger Mouse tendencies. Well, one more thing: it's great for a relaxed day inside avoiding the rain.

Then it was Vampire Weekend's Contra, which sounds as good as the first day I brought it home. I switched it up a bit and put on my recently acquired Led Zeppelin IV, which is admittedly a different sound than I'd been going with, but what the hell? It's got Black Dog and Rock N' Roll, not necessarily relaxed music. But it's also got Stairway to Heaven and When the Levee Breaks, the latter of which is perfect for this rainy, flood-warning filled day in Washington.

In short, I can imagine worse scenarios to have to deal with on a Saturday afternoon.

On new vinyl... or down with the CD!

Going off my post in re: the Broken Bells release, I thought it was time for something about new vinyl. This whole adventure started with some old records in a basement, and then some used records from Cheapo in the Twin Cities. But eventually, I started buying all my new music on vinyl, assuming it's released in such a format.

It's been great discovering new albums, new music, new bands, and having the first listen be on wax rather than some downloaded MP3 or CD format. My latest purchase was Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion which, in my mind, was the album of the year in 2009 and one of my favorite records ever (criticize if you must). Naturally, I had been wanting to get this for almost a year, and last week I finally did. I've now bought this album TWICE: One on CD and one on vinyl. But I don't care about that.

Another nice feature is most of these records come with a free download, so really, you get this great physical/visual record, with the album art and everything, and the digital version for your MP3 player, which is essentially all you'd buy a CD for anyway, right? Not to mention, these are almost always high-quality, 180-gram-plus records, and they sound great.

Frankly, I don't think I'll ever buy another CD, if I can help it at least. For me, I'll buy it on vinyl if it's available, and then use the free download. It's what I did with Vampire Weekend's Contra, and it's what I did with Broken Bells, and what I'll do with the Black Keys due out next month, and on and on and on. Definitely recommend it.

This also reminds me of a post I read somewhere (I'd link to it, but I don't remember where it was) about someone was going to buy the new Beach House for a friend's birthday (which I haven't heard yet... worth a purchase?). Rather than buying the CD, they got the vinyl, even though said friend didn't have a record player. The record was visually appealing, and they got the MP3 download (legally), which is all they'd use the CD for anyway. Genius.

Really, this goes to the whole music industry. In a time when iTunes runs the show, and people are just buying songs instead of listening to whole albums (gross!) here's your chance. Vinyl has aesthetic value, it's nice to look at, it's part of a past that a lot of people like, but it also comes with this download card for your iPod. It's a win-win-win, and hopefully will get people back in the habit of experiencing albums as a whole, not just random songs in some kind of mix tape.

Smash! Records for President

As promised earlier, this will be a breathless endorsement of Smash! Records in D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood. It's just a small place above a hair salon and next door to another record shop, Crooked Beats, which I have yet to visit, but it has plenty to offer. Best shop I've visited in D.C. so far.

Perhaps the best place to start is what I passed on. Led Zeppelin I, II, III, IV all in good shape and each reasonably priced. But, I couldn't get all four (too pricey with everything else) and couldn't decide on just one or two. So I had to move on. They also had the Beastie Boys' License to Ill for $13 or so. Almost got that, but decided against it once I found the $20 Exile on Main Street. I did buy two Doors albums (one of my favorite bands), but they had at least one more I would've otherwise bought. Painful to pass these up.

Anyway, this place is stocked, and given my somewhat narrow focus today, don't get the impression it's all classic-ish rock. It bills itself as a punk/alt/indie-type shop, and it has some great buttons, shirts, posters and other stuff hanging around the shop that are also worth a look. I'm not sure if my particular music interests jived with the shop's main raison d'être, as it were, but I think that makes it all that much more impressive that I found what I did.

I went in not knowing what to expect, so I went straight for the recent arrivals. There were probably a row or two of these, and by the time I was done (not even at 'A' of the alphabetical used section) I had two or three records. Realizing that there was much potential for an expensive outing, I gazed down the rest of the row and saw thick sections for Beach Boys, Beatles, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and on and on.

What really struck me is I've never seen a shop with so many classic artists so fully stocked in the used section. Perhaps it's a product of its popularity, but I remember going to Minneapolis' Cheapo, and finding just one used Dylan record was a reason to celebrate. This place had 10-15+. And that's the handle here. I've been to a number of stores that have great records from artists I don't know much about, and pick up one and discover something new. Or a record I haven't heard by an artist, so I buy it. But today, I literally walked into Smash, looked around, and walked out with some of my favorite records, from that era, of all time. You can't beat that.That's a whole other kind of crate digging experience; not necessarily discovering, but rediscovering a favorite album and hearing it that very first time on vinyl. That's been the hook for me since I first got my record player and put "Blonde on Blonde" as the first album ever played on it.

Since I got home from Smash, it's been like that all over again. And that's priceless. And that's why I'll be back at Smash very, very soon.

Again, what I found at Smash after the jump.

On Salvage Shops

I wanted to follow up on something I referenced earlier: how worthwhile salvage shops can be. In this case? Pictured above is something obviously and simply called "VARIETY STORE" located in South Indianapolis. (I spent last summer there working for the Indianapolis Star newspaper.)

It doesn't look like much, what with its junk-yard/yard-sale look outside (you should see the back) and the "Playboys, $5 sign" that -- trust me -- is sitting in one of those front windows. Granted, it wasn't much on the inside either, and the casual crate digger might have just up and left. Frankly, it was dirty, dusty, about 90 degrees (in the front, toward the back was more of a warehouse) and a little creepy in a Dueling Banjos kind of way. But, to the persistent goes the spoils, or something like that.

In this particular case, I walked in the door and was immediately greeted by a few very South Indianapolis-looking men heckling over a moped or something. All around me were Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games, cheap bikes, hubcaps, car parts and whatever else that existed in that "we-sell-everything shop." Shortly after entering, I was (seriously) offered 10,000 records for $300. The catch? The guy running the shop had no idea what kinds of records comprised said collection that took up a warehouse wall's worth of space, and I had no idea either. I also, as an intern, had no place to store 10,000 records, let alone transport them, so I passed.

After that ridiculous, but strangely tempting offer, I took to working my way through shelf after shelf and palette after palette of records. Some were completely destroyed -- the kind of records you know wouldn't even play, and just might ruin your needle. I saw Jefferson Airplanes, The Beatles' Revolver, a White Album, the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers and a couple Led Zeppelin albums that were in terrible shape. As tempted as I was to buy them anyway (at $5 a pop) I passed and kept digging. To wildly understate it, that was difficult.

Contradictions.. or welcome to the blog.

Welcome to this experiment I've taken to calling Wax Fanatical.

Basically, this blog will comprise stories of crate digging, ecstatic posts when I find *the perfect* record, my take on the record stores in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area, thoughts on the records I already own and just general musings on the idea of collecting records in the time of the iPods, MP3s, illegal downloading and that sort of thing.

To the last point, the inherent contradiction in running a blog on a subject some see as utterly arcane and out of date is not lost on me. But since I've started collecting records about a year ago, I've seen each purchase as one step along some kind of journey toward some ideal record collection. Now, thanks to these things we call the Internets, there will be a record of my attempts to get there.

Finally, a caveat: While I love collecting records, to me it's more about the music than the endless search for some obscure, super-rare record. So, yes, some of my collection might be cliche, or ordinary or whatever. But I consider myself a regular person's record collector. I routinely look for some of my favorite records, and if I buy any new albums, it tends to be on vinyl. That means I've got quite the array, from Vampire Weekend, Brother Ali and Wu-Tang Clan to Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan and The Ramones. I hope that keeps it interesting, and I hope you'll agree.

Photo: Unfortunately, not my collection or my photo. It's the BBC's.