Fandom Fest (and Yes, Record Shopping)

Because of the experience we had this weekend, I'm going to stray a bit from my normal topic here, but because I love you, I'll get back to it a bit before I go.  Louisville, KY hosted Fandom Fest this weekend, for those of you who aren't familiar, Fandom Fest is like ComicCon but with more stuff.  It includes a lot of horror movies things (it used to only be horror movies) and anime and steam punk and lots of cool stuff.  Anyway, this year it turned into a colossal clusterfuck and our little corner of the internet is swirling with negativity about the event.  In light of all that, I just wanted to share our Fandom Fest experience this weekend. 

 

It all started with them moving the Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes event to Wednesday night because of a scheduling conflict.  This was not the fault of the organizers and I don't blame them for it.  That evening, while much too late for a work night (again, not their fault or problem) was fun and I'm honestly glad it was moved because if it had stayed on Saturday I'm sure the organizers would have figured out some way to screw it up.  We picked up our prepaid tickets on Thursday after work and that went fine.  We spotted a couple guests in the lobby and it seemed like a good start to the convention.  Friday we arrived around 4pm because that was our best guest as to when the vendor hall should be opening.  One program said noon, one said 4pm, one said 5pm...it was hard to tell.  There was a HUGE line forming to enter the vendor hall.  A security guard told us that only VIPs were allowed in currently, which seemed odd since it was already 20 minutes after it was supposed to open to everyone, but still we went over to the Convention Center to check out that hall.  Again, another line.  This time the people there were bragging about being in line for 2+ hrs and the vendors there weren't even finished setting up so we went BACK over to the hotel and went down the escalator into the back of the vendor hall.  After browsing there, we went back across the pedway (AKA the pizza oven) and finally made our way upstairs to the main vendor hall.  Here we found all the comic book artists and authors and some celebrities and other artists and various vendors...basically the stuff we wanted to look at and spend our money on. 

 

Now you have to understand that we only found this stuff because we have been to other conventions (namely the ones put on by Wizard World in Columbus, OH and New Orleans) and we KNEW there had to be more than what were finding.  There were NO signs anywhere.  The volunteers has absolutely no idea where anything was or even which building things were happening in.  I've seen a lot of people saying that the staff and volunteers were rude and, in all honesty, we didn't have that experience.  Everyone we encountered was friendly enough (of course, some more than others) but they just weren't any help at all.  I don't blame them for this.  They can't tell me what they don't know.  I felt sorry for them that they were thrown into this huge group of people and given absolutely nothing to work with.  That's not fair to the convention goers or to the volunteers and the organizers should be ashamed of themselves for doing that to them. 

 

We came back on Saturday and brought my Husband's cousin to see Stan Lee.  We had purchased a photo op ticket for him but he had to work in the morning so we came and had our picture taken with Mr. Lee.  We arrived about 10am for the 11am photo op and when I tell you that we were greeted with mass chaos, it really is an understatement.  The VIPs were lined up in the hallway, that much had been accomplished, but everyone else was just in a group milling around.  An hour before the photo op they hadn't even BEGUN to line up the general admission photo op people yet.  Myra Daniels (one of the "organizers") began telling a crew person that they needed a bullhorn to announce where people needed to line up, etc.  Seriously??  At 10am on SATURDAY?  DURING the convention...THAT'S when you figure out that you're going to need a bullhorn to announce when/where to line up?  What about some ropes and signage to get/keep people in line?  Holy crap.  Anyway, finally a lady with a "crew" t-shirt and a healthy set of lungs began yelling out for Stan Lee photo-ops and gathering people in a line.  We lined up quickly (but honestly only got in that line because I heard Myra talking about getting people lined up and followed her around until the line got formed) and got our picture.  But I've seen reports of people who waited 4+ hours to have their picture taken with Stan Lee and it never happened.  I have no idea where those poor people where, but I can easily see how they got told to stand somewhere in some line by some clueless crew person and just left there.  So sad.  We spent all of our time in line trying to help people who couldn't even figure out where to buy tickets or find the vendor halls and couldn't find a crew person who could help them.

 

Later when we finally found the Stan Lee Q&A (after being told it was in 3 different rooms) it was also not lined up yet, but that was okay because it got pushed back...another changed in the schedule which was not announced at all to anyone.  So we formed a line for that too and waited.  It was so frustrating that we, the attendees, had to form the lines and tell each other where to stand and what we were waiting for and where things where happening and at what time and the crew/volunteers/security just stood there and looked at us because they had no idea if what we were saying was even correct information.   There were panels that were moved, rescheduled and flat out cancelled for no apparent reason.  In the lowest move the weekend, the organizers had the absolute balls the tell a room full of people that Colin Baker's panel was cancelled through some fault of Mr. Baker's when he was in his room waiting to be called down!!  That is just disgraceful.  I understand that we will never come back to Fandom Fest, but I hope he doesn't let the experience color his opinion of all of Louisville/Kentuckiana.  As has always been our experience at conventions, the celebrities and vendors at this convention were gracious and friendly and it was awesome to see them.  I can't imagine what it's like to do what they do for their fans at these events all weekend (of course, hugging strangers and kissing babies is really not my thing, so it would be unbelievably exhausting for me to do that sort of thing for 3 days solid) and for the organizers to treat them like crap is nothing less despicable.

 

Afterwards, we even stopped at the store in Louisville of one of the vendors and the owner expressed some concerns about the event.  Turns out the vendors were told some things that were misleading (or altogether untrue) and they weren't satisfied with their interaction with the organizers either.  Sounds like to me that we need to keep having a convention in Louisville, we just need to have someone else run the thing.  Luckily for us we've been to other conventions so we knew what a fiasco this was right from the very beginning.  Had this been our first experience, I'm not sure we would have ever gone to another one.  As it is, I'm not sure we'll ever go back to this one because frankly, I don't want to give the organizers another penny of our money, which sucks because it is so close to home.  Anyway, in the end, we managed to have a good time but only because we have a knack for having fun in a face of adversity.  :)  We bought some cool stuff, for instance this wire angel made by a local artist:

 

and this zombie gnome that (even those he's solid concrete) will decorate our hearth...

 

 and of course I couldn't pass up this catbat print, because for some reason every time we go to one of these things, I get something cat related...

 

After all that craziness, we went record shopping to sooth our souls (or, you know, my soul at least) and we finally got to stop at Better Days Records in the Highlands.  Seems like there is never a place to park there, or we always pass the place up and traffic is too crazy to try to turn around and go back, or some other force of nature has always stopped us from going there.  But today we were determined and where there's a will there's a way and what do you know, we got in there and on the back wall in the rack I found THIS!!

 Matt Nathanson's newest release "Last of the Great Pretenders" on vinyl!!  I was so excited to find an actual physical copy of a Matt Nathanson record on vinyl right here in Louisville that I took like 4 pictures of it.  Yep, the store owner now thinks I'm nuts.  And probably more so because I didn't buy it, but I've already bought it twice so...  If you don't have it yet, buy it, it is some kind of wonderful.  As soon as I wrap my head around the whole thing I'll write it up.

 

I was also pretty amazed to find a copy of The Mountain Goats' "All Hail West Texas".  Not sure why, just didn't seem like the kind of thing I'd run across so close to home and I was proud of them for stocking it and displaying it prominently.  

 

Before we left I did buy Jack White's "Blunderbuss" and a Carpenters album (now surely you didn't read all the way down here to start judging me now, did you??) and then grabbed a few out of the $1.00 bin to make an art piece for my treadmill room.  Of course, I grabbed some good stuff like Foghat and Fleetwood Mack and if they play I won't use them, but if they're all scratched to piss at least I'll still be able to put them to good use.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  And by that I mean the holidays - because this is the time of year when I'm forced to shop, which I have a general distaste for.  What's wonderful about that, you ask?  Because to ease the sting of shopping in a mall, I see no other option than to sprinkle the day with visits to local record stores!  So I'm here to share with you my haul so far this holiday season.

 My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (vinyl)

I saw this record at Joe's some time ago and picked it up and carried it around and pondered over the price tag and put it back.  We danced around like that for a while.  Somehow I had managed to never really hear anything by MMJ and I couldn't decide if I wanted to spring for the vinyl or just get a $10 download from iTunes.  So I put my quandary out there on twitter and received instant feedback.  Mostly in the form of "seriously, you even have to ask?" and mostly from one Dylan over at MoreThanAFeeling (trust me, you can trust his opinion) and Mr. Aaron Tap.  At that point, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

 

If you haven't heard this record, you really should.  I can't say that it's my favorite record of all time or anything, but it is pretty amazing.  The vinyl version is 2 LPs and includes a CD.  I'm not sure I've ever heard an album that covers this much ground.  I spend the entire time totally fascinated with Jim James' mind. 

 



 Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits (vinyl)

 

I picked this one up on a whim.  I had heard good things about Divine Fits and they're opening for The Black Keys in Las Vegas December 30 & 31, so I was intrigued.  There is a bit more synth on this one than I'm used to, but I dig it.  I haven't listened to it enough to get too in depth, but so far so good.  I also absolutely adore the cover art.  It looks like a photograph but (upon reading the liner notes) I discovered it's actually a painting (you can tell once you know) and it's just stunning.  I plan to look up the artist and see what else he's done.

 



 AC/DC - Black Ice

The Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl

Cage the Elephant - Cage the Elephant

 

I found these in various used CD racks around town.  The new AC/DC album sounds pretty much like every other AC/DC album ever made which is just fine with me.  I love them, I've loved them forever.  "Shook Me All Night Long" was the first song I ever knew all the words to (which believe me, raised a few eyebrows on the school bus when I was a kid) so their music is pretty ingrained in me.  Some of my favorite memories from high school have this band playing in the background.  Good stuff.

 

As far as I'm concerned, The Goo Goo Dolls aren't a whole lot different than a lot of other bands that were around in the late 90's, but there are a couple songs on Dizzy Up the Girl that I happen to adore.  Namely "Slide" and "Black Balloon".  Still, I've never owned the album before, so when I saw it in the $1.99 box at a local head shop, I scooped it right up.  I haven't had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet; I hope I'm not disappointed when I do.

 

At some point somewhere I heard about this band Cage the Elephant.  I heard how unique their sound is and how everyone should be listening to them.  I added them to my "want" list and didn't give it much more thought.  Well I came across this CD for some absurdly low price so I grabbed it. On the way home I popped it in a lo and behold I already knew them!  Anyone who had listened to the radio in the last 5 years has surely heard "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked".  If not, do it.  Now.

 

 Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Dr. Dog - Takers and Leavers (EP)

The Black Keys - Chulahoma

 

These last four came to me during a trip to Grimey's in Nashville, TN.  Pretty much the best record store east of the Mississippi.  I ended up in Nashville for 3 days for a work thing and since it was the Monday - Wednesday after Thanksgiving, nobody I knew was over here playing so I spent the one free night I had at a record store (big shock, I know).  Grimey's is a crappy looking place in a questionable neighborhood that's hard to get into.  It's hard to park and a bit challenging to find the entrance (it's on the back of the building, upstairs - downstairs is a music venue called The Basement) but once you do, it's absolute heaven.  They have everything imaginable packed into a fairly tiny space.  There so much vinyl I almost OD'd on it.  I loved it.  I wish I was there right now. 

 

Anyway, I picked up Matt Nathanson's Some Mad Hope which is a truly beautiful album.  I already have it on iTunes but I wanted a physical copy too.  So now I have one.  I also got Wilco's Sky Blue Sky because, once again, I've heard good things about them.  I haven't listened to it yet, but when I do, I'll let you know.  I got a couple EP's, Dr. Dog's Takers and Leavers and The Black Keys' Chulahoma.  Both are really good and really good examples of the bands' work. 

 

Two girls I work with went to Grimey's with me and after we left there we stopped at Panera and got dinner.  We went back to the hotel and went our separate ways.  It was early, maybe 7:30pm or so and I happily snuggled into bed with my half turkey sandwich and half a greek salad and a diet coke and spent the evening talking to my husband on the phone and reading liner notes.  I got to unwrap the plastic from the cases (because even a lot of the used ones at Grimey's are wrapped) and inspect the album art and read lyrics and the names of producers and musicians and engineers.  I read every single "thank you" (and even found Aaron Tap and Paula Kelley lurking in there on Some Mad Hope) and date and city and it was wonderful.  They kept me company while I was away from home alone in a hotel room (for the first time ever, I might add) and just reinforced the importance of physical copies of music.  All that album art is put together for a reason - it's there to complete the experience of the album.  I think we owe it to the artists to go on the journey.

 



1st Quarter in Review

Because I'm a silly girl, I'm going to say that there is a vague possibility that I won't buy any more music before the end of this month.  Which, honestly is dumb because there are 10 days and another weekend before the end of March and I have every intention of buying The Afghan Whigs' Black Love in the very near future.  But hey, let's just go with it, shall we?  Under the pretense that I'm not buying anything else until April, here's a quick recap of the music I have acquired since the beginning of the year.  There have also been a few random songs and of course the singles for New Music Monday, but these are just the full albums.

In no particular order, as usual:
Plants and Animals - The End of That
Boy Wonder - Break the Spell, Etc. - EP
Betty Goo - Gooicide
Betty Goo - Superchthonic
The Black Keys - The Big Come Up
The Black Keys - Thickfreakness
The Black Keys - El Camino
Micah - Micah - EP
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues
Dr. Dog - Be the Void
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame (vinyl)
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (vinyl)
Paula Kelley - Nothing/Everything
Paula Kelley - The Trouble with Success or How You Fit Into the World
Ryan Schmidt - White Horse - EP
Ryan Schmidt - Burning Bitter Years - EP
Matt Nathanson - Still Waiting for Spring
Matt Nathanson - When Everything Meant Everything
Green River Ordinance - Out of My Hands
Jesse Macht - Love is Another Drug
Carbon Leaf - Indian Summer
Ingrid Michaelson - Human Again
The Commuters - Rescue
Madi Diaz - Far From Things That We Know - EP
Rachel Platten - Be Here
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Concrete Blonde - Recollection
George Michael - Faith
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports (vinyl)

So yeah, now that it's all typed out here, it seems like an awful lot.  But, to justify it, I did get a few of them used for just a couple bucks (and, admittedly, I did get one of them online for probably way too much but it's worth it to me) and several are EPs that don't cost much.  Eh, look, I've got a problem, okay? Don't judge me!

What Is Cool?

After work today, we went to Louisville and stopped at two of my favorite places to browse for music.  First was Half Price Books where I flipped through the records for a while before finding a little treasure trove of cassettes - can you believe that??  I don't actually own a cassette player anymore, but I'm searching for two things in particular that were only released on cassette, so I browsed their selection anyway.  (I guess if I ever get my hands on these two things, I'll have to find a cassette player somewhere!) My chances of actually finding either of them in a used book store in Kentucky are slim to none, but that doesn't stop me from checking.  Imagine how excited I'd be if I actually found one of them!!  Of course, I didn't.  In fact, I didn't find anything there which is highly unusual.

So then we went to my favorite part of Louisville and stopped at Electric Ladyland.  I love it there but I can only take it in small doses because it's a head shop at it's core and the incense is kind of overwhelming.  Anyway, after perusing their impressive but fruitless cassette selection, I browsed the records and found Huey Lewis and the News' Sports on vinyl for $5.99.  I was 5 years old when that record came out (no need to do the math...moving on...) so it's just part of my soundtrack.  And it's an awesome part. Just straight up 80's pop music goodness to it's core! 

I mean, even Patrick Bateman (in American Psycho) had this to say about it: "Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor."

Anyway, some total douchbag (who had just acted like a jerk while arguing with the girl working there about the price of a bong, incidentally) made a snide comment about the coolness of the record I was waiting to pay for.  What makes this funny is that I told my husband that I was going to lose all my cool points for buying that record but I love it and I was getting it anyway.  Clearly, I was correct in that assessment.

So what makes something cool?  Popularity?  Sadly, I think that is a lot of it in today's society.  If something is massively popular, it is somehow deemed cool even if it is fucking terrible and largely without merit.  Of course the hipsters would probably say the exact opposite - the less popular something is, the cooler it is.  But I think to them something being cool in the first place ultimately makes it uncool...or something like that.  Talent obviously has little to do with it because there are a lot of things that a lot of people apparently think are cool that involve no talent whatsoever...except perhaps a talent for packaging and bullshit.

Honestly though, the important thing to remember about coolness is that it doesn't matter.  Not one little bit.  If you find something you love, something that speaks to you, then that's all you need.  That's enough, perceived coolness be damned.

Supporting My Local Record Store

Today my husband and I ventured out into the world (even though we didn't really have to) and killed two birds with one stone.  By that I mean that we supported my record habit and our local record shop at the same time.  Our store is Joe's Records - they have 4 locations so if you ever find yourself in Corydon, Indiana; Evansville, Indiana; Mt. Vernon, Illinois; or Defiance, Ohio stop in and buy something so they can stay open!

Pickin's were kind of slim today (or I was was especially picky), but here's what I ended up with:



I was actually looking to add Bookends to my Simon & Garfunkel collection but I ended up finding Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme instead.  I haven't listened to it yet, but it's Paul Simon writing songs and Art Garfunkel singing them, so there's no possible way it will be bad.

I was digging through the "D"s looking for Bob Dylan's Oh, Mercy when what to my wondering eyes did appear?  Dr. Dog's 2010 release Shame, Shame, that's what!  This record has been on my shopping list for a little while and I didn't really expect to find it here, much less on vinyl.  It's another one I haven't heard (have you ever even heard of such living on the edge??) but I've heard that it's awesome, so now I have it - I'll let you know what I think.





The Thing About Vinyl

As you may or may not know, I've recently started collecting vinyl (you can see my collection here) and I finally got something to play them on for Christmas. The first album I wanted to hear on vinyl (and, honestly, the one that got me started on this in the first place) was Matt Nathanson's Modern Love.  After reading his blog post about hearing it on vinyl for the first time, I knew I had to hear it.  So when I got my turntable for Christmas I knew I wasn't going to go to sleep that night until it had been played.

That just so happened to take until about 3:00 the next morning, but it was totally worth the wait.  It was fucking amazing, to put it lightly.  You can read about it here.

Since then, I've been making my way through my collection.  I don't honestly remember what I played next, but I'm sure it was awesome.  I love the sound of a record on vinyl (especially the old ones, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Damn the Torpedoes was sweet this morning), it just sounds more real.  It is less processed than digital music - like the difference between fresh green beans and canned.  I just love it.

I also love the physicality of music on vinyl.  I like digging through a big pile of records to find the one I want - so much more satisfying than using the track wheel on my iPod to find the song.  And then there is the cover art, the sleeve, the record itself.  Being able to hold this tangible thing in my hand that contains so much magic.  It's just very cool.  I even like having to flip the record when side one is finished.  It makes the entire listening experience much less passive.

I think the advent of digital music has ruined us as listeners. We can just put on some tunes and they can literally play for days without us ever having to interact.  On the one hand, that is awesome and I love it.  On the other hand, it has made music seem almost disposable or something.  It has just become background noise for a lot of people and I hate that.  But, it's not just music, it's everything, we live in a very instant gratification, disposable society and I'm not a big fan of that.  We just take everything for granted.

But here's the thing about vinyl.  While it has increased my distaste for where the world is heading, it has also made me appreciate our new technology in a way I never did before.  Sure, I used to have a huge collection of cassettes and I remember how awesome it was when CD's became the big thing and I could listen to the ENTIRE album without flipping it over and I could skip from song to song without having to fast forward or rewind.  And never has a CD player eaten a CD - oh the pain of pulling my completely destroyed copy of The Razor's Edge out of the cassette player in the car!  But still, even cassette players were portable.  I could have it any room in my house, there was one in my car - not like a turntable.  A turntable is stationary, wherever you put it, that's where it is.

When the record needs to be flipped or a new one put on, you have to stop what you're doing, go to where it is and handle it.  No remotes, no super long play lists, no iPod on your hip with your entire music collection at your fingertips.  I finally have some perspective now on why the generation before mine was so thrilled to be rid of vinyl and why they think my generation is nuts for wanting to bring it back.  I guess for some of us, the better sound (and by "better" I mean more real, more rich, not more perfect - "perfection" is something computers inflict on music) and the more fulfilling overall experience is worth the inconvenience of it, especially since we can always turn our iPods back on when the mood strikes us.

Modern Love - ON VINYL

Right this very moment (yes, at 2:29AM the morning after Christmas) I'm listening to Matt Nathanson's Modern Love on vinyl for the very first time.  It is incredible.  I keep expecting to look up and see that a stage has been installed in my living room and that he's on it. 

The sound is so warm, so real, so alive. 

"Kiss Quick" is playing right now and I have to say, this is a close second to hearing it live.

So (even though I'm sure they won't ever see this), I'd like to take this late night/early morning moment to thank Matt Nathanson, Mark Weinberg, Aaron Tap and everyone else involved in the making of this record for creating this moment in time.  It is truly amazing.

Now I have to go flip the record...awesome.  :-)

Christmas Came Early

In an attempt to make this Christmas as not normal as possible (and because I got my husband a sweet-ass replica light saber that I could NOT keep secret any longer) we exchanged presents tonight.  And I got vinyl!!

Look:

That's Foo Fighters There is Nothing Left to Lose and The Colour and The Shape and Pearl Jam's Ten.

Merry Christmas to me!!

So Excited.

How has it been 2 1/2 hours and I haven't mentioned this yet??

I just bought tickets to go see Matt Nathanson at Headliner's Music Hall in Louisville, KY on February 24, 2012!!!!**  I got 4 tickets as my sister and her husband (of vinyl donation fame) will hopefully go with us. 

To say that I cannot wait would be a gross understatement. 

Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned, but my 2nd copy of Modern Love came in the mail the other day and it's red too!  There is a tiny flaw on the cover though, so this one will be my useable version.  Hopefully I can have him sign the other one at the show in Louisville - that would be pretty fucking sweet. 

**I was just re-reading this post and realized that what it was missing was exclamation points. (!!)

More "New" Music, A Gift for Me

After someone inquired about my red vinyl copy of "Modern Love" recently, I did some looking around and found that not everyone who bought one got a red see-thru copy like mine.  So, because I'm a nerd like that, I have ordered myself another copy.  If this one is red too, then sweet, I'll get to watch the beautiful red vinyl spin on the turntable.  If not, then I'll play the black one and hide the red one away for safe keeping!  I would love to someday have the red copy signed (the cover, not the vinyl), we'll see if I can ever make that happen.  Oddly enough, even though I already own a copy, I'm still excited to get this one in the mail.  I wish I could go to an actual record store and flip through the stacks until I found it and buy it (there is just something cool about that), but nobody around here is carrying "Modern Love" on vinyl, so I have to click-and-wait.

This morning, while doing my usual VH1 and cereal routine, they played "Run Away Train" by Soul Asylum!  It's not even my birthday or anything!  I can't even count the ways in which I loved that song when it was new (and for about, oh, 3 years after it was new), but somehow I had never seen the video.  I'm guessing that was because we didn't have any music channels (or weren't allowed to watch them, I'm not 100% certain which), so the only videos I ever saw were at friends' houses or on Night Tracks on TBS - which, sadly was no longer on the air by the time 'Run Away Train' came out.  So I got to see the video this morning and that was cool, and only 17 years late.

Speaking of Night Tracks - did you ever watch show?  (Are you old enough to know what I'm talking about?) My dad used to let me record it (yes, on VHS...can you believe it??) and I would wear those tapes out.  My favorite episode had 'Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi, 'One' by Metallica, and 'Fire Woman' by The Cult.  Man, that was awesome.

Vinyl District

If you aren't spending all of your free online time over at Vinyl District then what is your problem??  If you're like me, it is only because you didn't know it was there and now that I've enlightened you, you'll change your evil ways.

Earlier today I was followed by @Rachelanthecity over on twitter.  What possessed her to follow me?  I have no idea.  She (Rachel Hurley) has a very impressive resume both online and irl, so I'm glad to have her, no matter what level of insanity brought her.  Also, she is the editor of The Vinyl District - Memphis, so I was introduced to it through her profile.  I fucking love this website!!

There are interviews, articles, reviews, everything you could ask for.  And the best part is that it focuses on independent artists that aren't getting a lot of press elsewhere.  There is no way you could visit this site and not find at least one new artist to check out, every day.  Plus, there are several different cities represented, so no matter where you live, there is a Vinyl District for a city within driving distance of you.  Well, I guess that depends on what you consider driving distance for an awesome live show.  I focus on Nashville and Memphis, the former being about 2 1/2 hours from me and totally doable for an awesome night out.  But it's fun to check out what's going on other cities too and what artists are making noise there. 

Check it out, you'll thank me. 

Pressing Vinyl

We just got back from vacation and even though I'm back at work, my brain is still chillin' in New Orleans.  So until I can get a grip on reality again, please enjoy this video.  After watching this, you will appreciate more why vinyl costs $30 each.

Vinyl

After having gone to the "artsy" neighborhood in the city nearest us recently, we found out this weekend that the record store in our own little town has the best vinyl collection we're likely to find.  After much self restraint, we walked out with:

Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" - an album I have actually never heard (well, only a couple songs), but I know it is going to be awesome.  The album came with a free mp3 download which I got last night, so I'll be checking the rest of it out soon.

Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" - because no self-respecting vinyl collection would be without it.

Also, Matt Nathanson's "Modern Love" came in the mail last week.  Yay!!

This store also had plenty of classics and all the new stuff you could want.  I want to go back, but I better wait until I'm ready to buy some more...I've never been very good at window-shopping for music.  :-)

Vinyl Obession

I've begun collecting vinyl.  Only choice selections though because a) they tend to be expensive and 2) they are big!  :-)

This weekend we hit ear-x-tacy (overrated), The Great Escape, and Electric Ladyland (my new favorite store).  I picked up the following...

Queen - "Greatest Hits II"
Neon Trees - "Animal" [single] - this one I got because the song is super catchy and (mostly) because the record itself is blue and clear!!  Too cool.

Also, I ordered Matt Nathanson - "Modern Love" tonight.  I bought it already on iTunes but now it's on its way to me on vinyl.  Cannot.  Wait.