The Weekend Spin: #1 - We Built This City on Little Lion Men

May 7, 2015

It's been an odd but all too quick weekend, again. Any plans to listen to a record Friday night went out the window due to an impromptu Cinco de Mayo celebration, involving a pitcher of Margaritas. How I didn't wake up hungover Saturday morning, I have no clue. But, leaving behind the mixed sounds of Mexico Friday night, I proceeded into a dull Saturday morning of slightly chilly temperatures outside, and hours of cooking shows inside well I competed household tasks. This translated into a Saturday evening that seemed to arrive prematurely, and long lingering debates over dinner, and how to spend the evening. To say the least it was darn near 10 before the evening settled into the double feature of The Phantom of the Opera and the 1984 version of Dune.

The first chance to honestly sit and listen to a record was unceremoniously late Sunday afternoon. Time I carved out of what felt like a was a loophole in family time.

This Weekends Listening Session:

Sigh No More -Mumford & Sons 2009

This is Mumford & Sons, freshman entry and what would start the bands whirlwind success. Having received Babel a few years back, followed by Milder Mind I always wanted to take a step back to their first album since as a long time fan I had encountered various entries from it and wanted to hear the complete album.

I have to say after waiting nearly 4 years since receiving Babel, I definitely wasn’t disappointed in the bands first album. It's easy to see how Sign No More flowed seamlessly into Babel, and then Babel into Milder Mind since the band has a sound it stays true to without getting too experimental as many bands are inclined to do. According to some sources the albums genre is Country, but I can tell you it lies more between modern minstrel folk and alternative.

Although I can honestly say I liked every track on the album, my favorite is Little Lion Man, even if it's the one with a lot of airplay. The song has that right amount of Mumford & Sons sound, while also being a little edgy. The album as a whole though is only 12 tracks, and last around 48 minutes in its entirety meaning it's also somewhat short, but sweet.

Suggested Beverage:

Although only drinking a Coke Zero at the time of listening, the album could go well with a craft beer, like a Scotch Ale, or an Amber Bach since the album has a trendy yet unrefined feel like those beers. I could easily see myself listening to Sigh No More, well meeting friends at a River North bar some Friday evening and enjoying a Fat Tire as well..

This Weeks Adds:

Apparently giving myself permission to buy an album is too much for me. My initial buy was a Starship 45’ with We Built This City on the A-side. I had a flirtation with the song the weekend before after a flood of memories came over me regarding a family tradition in the 80’s of 4 o’clock mass followed by a trip for pizza at our favorite place. The original version of the restaurant had a loud jukebox, plenty of cigarette smoke, and some great pizza. Somehow between 1985 and 1992 We Built This City played at least once when we were in there. Looking to eventually get a jukebox of my own I decided long ago that this 45’ had to be on there.

Making a decision on a whole album though wasn't so easy. My choices came between John Mayer, Blake Shelton, Train, Bruno Mars, Norah Jones, Arcade Fire, Florence and the Machine, and Of Monsters and Men. As you can see mostly albums from more modern artists. Narrowing it down came between Mars Doo Wops & Hooligans, Sheltons If I'm Honest, and Mayers Continuum, with Trains A Girl, A Bottle, and A Boat pushing in from the outside since I just got tickets to thier concert in June. Eventually, I settled on Bruno Mars Doo Wops & Hooligans, since I’ve had the album on my wish list for a while and figured it had priority.

For The Next Time:

Next weekend may be a bit busy so time to chill in front of the record player may not happen. If it does though hopefully my new Starship, and Bruno Mars records are part of it. Until then have great week, or great next couple weeks

The Last Records of 2016, and 2017's Horizon

So here we are well over a month since Christmas, and I'm just now discussing the records I got for Christmas. If your household is anything like mine though, the house remains in relative holiday upheaval until somewhere near mid-January. It's by this time the decorations should be fully down and put away, and that you start to make some connection to where you left off on things before Thanksgiving arrived. To me this meant connecting back with some of my hobbies, including record collecting and the act of just listening to records. So what better place to start all that back up than with my vinyl Christmas presents.

This year I was lucky to get two vinyl items off my Amazon list. The first is Meghan Trainor's Thank You on special edition duel colored 180g. The other was the special edition of Mumford & Sons Babel: The Singles, which is a special collection of the iconic Babel album broken down onto 45's, in all honesty it's only something a fan would collect.

A Brief Review of Thank You

If you listened to Meghan Trainor's debut album Title, then you'll know she primarily went with a modernized doo-wop sound, much like her iconic It's all About That Bass. Intermixed though where elements of genre's such as a bit of modern pop and hip-hop like Bang Dem Sticks, a song destined to be one of the albums deep tracks. In Thank You Meghan Trainor not only choose to reinvent herself with her change to red hair from blond, but also decided to ditch the doo-wop sounds that made her so famous to begin with, and focus on pop and hip-hop elements. The first single to come out of her new sophomore album was NO which had a catchy modern beat and worked well at introducing Trainor's overall new style.  Two months later Me Too was released, again another catchy pop song that served as a summer anthem in 2016.

Although a third single has yet really hit the top of the charts I will say other songs on the album, like Woman Up, and Champagne Problems have potential. Now, I could say that Trainor's sophomore album is, like many sophomore attempts, proof that the sophomore slump exists with newer artist, but that's hard to say in this case since its not an apples to apples comparison between Title and Thank You. I will say that I was expecting to hear at least a little bit of Trainor's signature doo-wop sound, but with that also said I will say that this is a pretty good pop album even if it hasn't fully caught on. I can't wait to hear what Ms. Trainor will be giving us on future albums.


Babel: The Singles

I actually already reviewed Babel a few years back when I got the 33' for Christmas, you can find the review here. This as previously stated is definitely a fan based set. Here Babel is broken down into 45's giving you that much more involved with the music feeling that only 45's can give you as you flip each over and switch them out on a single song level. Honestly speaking though if there is one album that needs a closer listening to its this one, since it's such a well done and beautiful piece of musical artistry.









2017's Horizon

For me record collecting has has always been a fairly casual pursuit in the way of a hobby, but of course that's just me and I know that there are some folks out there who take all of this very seriously, and that's their prerogative. I guess I have more of a relaxed outlook on it though since I've been part of a generation that has the ability to carry it's favorite music everywhere. This especially includes those not so relaxed places like work, in the car during traffic jam, or even while working out. CD's, electronic formats, and even tape cassettes have in many ways made the past 30 years about hearing music, but not hearing the music. So the return to records has presented me with the ability to stop and listen to music in a setting that is more conducive to actually hearing and appreciating the music more. This is also one of the reasons I now purchase most of my new music (like the above) on vinyl, with the added bonus of the electronic download element.

The interesting part about the return to vinyl, is that as it's had some interesting repercussions on other music mediums recently. A few years ago I wrote and article on this blog called To Old Tech, or Not To Old Tech about how I have debated making a multiple CD player, and tape deck part of my listening room. At the time, now three and a half years ago, I wondered when this old tech would receive the attention that records were starting to receive at that time, as it turns out for cassettes that time is now. On my facebook page for this blog, I posted an article a few weeks back about the surprise increase in demand for cassettes in 2016, or as the article would state a 74% increase between 2015 and 16'. It sounds very impressive but demand for new recorded music cassettes in numbers actually went from 74,000 in 2015 to 129,000 in 2016. Not super impressive when you look at it that way, but this is also where vinyl started a few years back.

So what does all this have to do with 2017 for me? Well perhaps it's too late to make a New Years Resolution for collecting in 2017, but there are a few things I would like to attempt to do before this year ends;

• One is that I would of course like to expand my collection a bit more. 

• Also I would really like to have a choosen night every week when at least a few records get played, of course against the backdrop of a good dinner and a few glasses of wine would be perfect, but we'll see. 

• Lastly, I would like to expand into other mediums ever so slightly. I have some of my original tape cassettes on hand, and to be honest the concept of buying new music on a cassette is a bit thrilling even though outlets for new tapes are understandably sparse. 

My overall objective is to keep this a relaxed hobby that I enjoy, and love to share. 

  

A Very Vinyl Christmas

I was going to write a blog about Christmas memories with regards to getting records but what I got for Christmas this year really change my mind about doing that. I have to say that I had a very vinyl Christmas.

We will start off with the items in the picture above. This is $110 worth of gift certificates to a local record store which I have mentioned in this blog once before. The last time I spent $25 there alone I came home with a small stack of records so I would hate to imagine how many records I could pick up $110. Upon discussion of what to do with $110 with my wife seems to be eyeing up some rare Beatles albums with it. But we'll see how that all works out once we hit the record store this weekend I'm hoping to come home with a stack full of records including some real prime ones.

Of course the next gift that I need to mention is the brand-new record player, this is a Pyle belt driven record player that plays 45's, 33's, and 78's and is portable on top of that. It also has a AM/FM radio built into it, and of course speakers. This allows me to expand my collection a little bit since my current Sony record player only plays 45's and 33's. I hope to open it this weekend and maybe to take it somewhere else in the house where we can listen to it and have some fun. Overall I'm very excited just to have these two gifts alone and I will obviously be putting both of them to some very good use.

Okay, as you can see in the photo above I also got two records that I wanted to get for very long time. The first one is Babel by Mumford & Sons. This is a phenomenal album and I'd really suggest adding it to your vinyl collection if you don't have it already. This band is excellent to hear on the radio or on satellite radio or even on CD but on vinyl they are perfection. The album itself is a great one to have no matter what and I believe it won a couple of Grammies,  that just goes to show you how good music is to begin with. One of my favorite songs on the albums B-side and is called Lovers Eyes. 

The next album is another one I have been dying to get on vinyl for a very long time. Norah Jones Broken Little Hearts was an album I had originally bought on CD after it first came out in 2012. When I began my adventures in vinyl record collecting this was one the albums that went to the top of my list to get. The 12 songs of the album are broken up into two separate records each one containing three songs per side. Not only that but adding to this albums uniqueness, the records are made of white vinyl and the album also comes with a poster of the album cover which also makes the album unique by giving it the classical feel of an album from the 70s or 80s that also would feature a poster. Like the Mumford & Sons album this one also has some phenomenal sound especially in comparison to the CD which I also own. And let's be honest Norah Jones looks pretty goddamn good on the cover as well. 

I know some of you reading this blog are probably vinyl traditionalists and perhaps having Mumford & Sons and Norah Jones in your collection doesn't appeal to you. But I think having a nice mix of modern artists in with a collection of vinyl helps to keep one's collection relevant by readily embracing new music as well as that of old music. I also need to mention that these new albums are fantastically well built the 180 gram vinyl weight makes these records very strong and you really feel like you're holding something substantial when you touch one of these things.

Overall that's my very vinyl Christmas. I hope that you guys where able to expand your vinyl collections a little bit over Christmas as well and that you got some great gifts to help you expand your collection. If you want to comment to this blog and let us know about what you got for Christmas that you think is a phenomenal addition your collection go ahead and do so, we would be happy to hear from you. So with that said a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Pre-Recorded Memories

July 31st, 2013

I had the urge to build my record collection and had been giving it a lot of thought since I found the record player on Sunday. I can find new albums and remakes on Amazon, but those are $15 or $20 a piece, I'm ok with that for something new like Norah Jones Broken Little Hearts, or Babel by Munford & Sons, but I think I can get older albums a lot cheaper. I checked E-bay next, still prices a little high. That and between shipping and often vague comments on record conditions E-bay may not be a direction to go either. 

I wanted to check the record store in town and maybe hit some of the thrift stores too, but their hours and my work hours don't align. So I wasn't going to be looking that night. But I had this nagging feeling like there was something I was forgetting. Then it hit me, I had a set of 45's. 

In my bedroom closet inside a box of various old items, was what remained of my Grandmothers extensive record collection. It was a small box set of Glen Miller 45's, that I saved as a memory of my grandparents old house, their record collection, and as a lifelong fan of Glen Miller. 

The box is either made out of cardboard or possibly a wood bulsa like, whatever it is they don't use packaging like that anymore. Inside are five records and I took the first one out with Stardust, and Pennsylvania 6-5000 on it, and figured out the settings for 45's on the record player. I put the spacer on, then the record, keep in mind that I still don't have the RCA cable adaptors yet, so I can only hear it by putting my ear close. Stardust sounded great, and so did Pennsylvania 6-5000.

Now my resolve was even stronger to get the RCA adaptors, and more records. But I guess that would all have to wait till the weekend.