Vinyl isn't dead

I was overjoyed to read that sales of music printed on vinyl has grown so significantly that Best Buy is making moves toward creating a record section in stores across the country.

Maybe it's because of the success of grassroots campaigns like Record Store Day.



Where digital sales have hurt, and will soon kill, the CD, I think the tangibility of vinyl makes it more appealing to consumers and connoisseurs of music. If you are going to sit down and enjoy a record, it's nice to hold a large-print cover sleeve in your hand while you do. It comes down to experience.

The experience of pressing play on a CD player is no different than pressing play on an mp3 player. However, the experience of putting on a record, watching it spin, and dropping the needle represent an entirely more gratifying process. And teaming that with resulting analog audio creates an organic experience which is thoroughly endangered in the information age. Vinyl is does not just represent nostalgia, it represents a lifeline back to simpler times.

The format of vinyl also lends itself to more of a symbiotic relationship with digital music, and I've been pleased to see more records being released with download codes for digital versions. The best of both worlds.

Even 7"s, the most infamously indie of all formats, are making a comeback.

Fader magazine has partnered with Southern Comfort to release a series of limited edition 7"s featuring some of their favorite bands, and #10 in the series features a curious nautical theme: Wavves' surfy-freakout "Friends Were Gone" b/w Windsurf's electronic smooth-porn groove "Vapour Trails."





Vinyl has even become part of the business plan for smaller labels. Black Iris is an indie that would appear to make most of its money licensing songs to ad agencies, then rinse their souls clean by releasing limited edition 7" for fans. Their composers include members of The Walkmen, Earlimart and others, like Foreign Born, who will be dropping a 7" this spring. The a-side is "Vacationing People," which reminds me a lot of Peter, Bjorn and John (in a good way).

RJ Temple Live at the Listening Room

Here is the newest installment in the series of live performances from the Listening Room. This show is from February and features one of Savannah's most versatile musicians, RJ Temple.



I had the pleasure of interviewing RJ for the SMN, and he's got to be one of the most easy going, humble people I've ever spoken with. He does a little bit of everything, jazz, hip hop, electronic music, and even has a children's show...and he's good at all of them.

His performance at the Listening Room showed his chops too. He went from jazz to a crazy cover of Lupe's "Kick Push" then down into some serious funk.

Here's his closing number, "Ars Nova," the title track off his 2006 jazz album. He's got a new album in the works, and his promoting a mixtape called Trash Tracks Vol. 1. Check him out.



Download the track here.

Or get the whole show here.

Song of the Week - Maynard Parker "The World is a Ghetto"

This week's song of the week is something on smooth side. "The World is a Ghetto" by Maynard Parker is just such a slick groove. This is music to cruise with. Sonic storytelling at its finest. From his 1973 album, Midnight Rider.



Download the track here.

A Response to Harry Allen's Thoughts on Asher Roth

Harry Allen wrote a blog called "Fight the White Rap History Re-Write" about the success of Asher Roth, and while I largely agree with what he's saying about Roth being a gimmick, and the media jumping on his bandwagon as the voice of the suburbs (despite the fact that both P.E. and De La were from middle class neighborhoods), but I had to take issue with the following section, mostly the 3rd paragraph:

Almost all white hip-hop artists have made records I enjoyed, and sometimes even loved—Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” comes to mind, “Intergalactic,” by the Beastie Boys, as well as earlier cuts by them, and I dig Roth’s new “Lark on My Go-Kart.” Yet I’ve rarely found any white rapper’s work gripping enough on its own terms to merit more than a few listens. (An exception may be Muslim albino rapper Brother Ali’s The Undisputed Truth, which I thought uniquely compelling.)

This could have something to do with deficiencies I often perceive in these artists’ work, or styles—the varied shortcomings of “blue-eyed soul”—though probably not mostly. More, I’m guessing, it has to do with the framework hip-hop holds in my thinking; the reasons why I think it’s here—on Earth—and what I think it’s supposed to be doing. That is, what it should be doing for Black people—producing justice—and what I think it’s supposed to be doing for white people—creating an irresistable, utterly compelling set of reasons for them to produce justice on behalf of non-white people.

That is, from a certain angle, there’s just a shade of difference between white people rapping and white people telling nigger jokes. (I know that this framework, though immediately clear to a certain number of Black people, if only on a gut level, isn’t obvious to others, and is completely offensive to many white people.

While I agree that a large portion of the material produced by white rappers fails to be compelling in the scope of the art of hip hop at its essence - ie: as a voice of the voiceless, and an ongoing social commentary/oral history of neglected communities - I do have to disagree with the part where there is a kinship between white folks being a part of hip hop and white folks telling racially derisive jokes.

The hip hop tradition, while belonging predominantly to African American culture, is still an art form that blossoms from the empowerment of minority groups over that which oppresses them, and those minorities aren't strictly defined by race alone. Those lines can be drawn across economic, social or any number of other boundary lines. I would go so far as to argue that hip hop's origins as a strictly black art form are just as much a media construct as what Allen is arguing against from the other side.

Hip Hop has meant different things to different people, and to say that it is African American forever first and foremost denies the contributions of countless other groups responsible for its development and exploration - Hispanics (Cypress Hill, Kid Frost), Asians (Jeff Chang, DJ Muro) and even white folks (Rick Rubin, The Beastie Boys). And that's just looking at the racial component. While the majority of the most important artists making hip hop music have most certainly been black, the graffiti, breakdancing and DJing scenes are far more diverse racially, and represent just as significant a role in the development of hip hop culture as a whole, beyond just the scope of the music industry beast it has become.

There are poor folks of all shapes, sizes and colors searching for access to creative empowerment through hip hop. There have been, and hopefully always will be. And while I completely agree with Allen that Asher Roth is meaningless to the true power of hip hop's potential - that he is really just a token white boy in media-approved blackface, helping some white folks enjoy rap music without feeling like they're holding something that doesn't belong to them - I don't think that should serve as an indictment of all white people, or a discounting of hip hop both past and present as a truly multi-cultural art form.

Forbes Lists Savannah #57 on Best Places for Business and Careers

According to a report released by Forbes in March, Savannah is #57 on the list of best places for business and careers.

I'm questioning where they got their data though because some of the numbers look a little funny to me.

First of all, they list the total population of Savannah's metro area as 334,000, which seems inflated. Chatham County's population according to the census bureau is 248,469 as of 2007. As of 2006, the population for Savannah proper was only 127,889. Apparently though, our MSA includes Bryan and Effingham Counties, which probably flatters the area statistically by including the affluent areas of Richmond Hill and all the exurb communities in Pooler into the median income numbers and family demographics.

For example, the median household income in Savannah in '07 was $32,616, although Forbes lists it at $46,219, which is higher than even the ACS estimate for family income (which is always higher than household. ibid.) What it also fails to mention is that most of these stats are relative to race, because in 1999, the average non-Hispanic African American household earned slightly more than half the average non-Hispanic white household (scroll about halfway down the page if you follow the link).

And, although the study is focused mainly on business and career-oriented numbers, it doesn't include anything about the poverty level, which in Chatham County flutters right around 1 in 4 for children. However, the readers of Forbes are probably not concerned with poverty rates because they have enough money to ignore that sort of thing.

Further fault with the Forbes list, and one of the big reasons I question both their sources and their methodology, is their section for "Best Big Companies" neglected to mention Gulfstream Aerospace, International Paper or JCB, all of whom have a major presence in Savannah.

Don't get it twisted, I like Savannah. It's got problems, but it remains of the better places I've ever lived. However, one of the city's biggest problems is that it is so often misrepresented, locally and nationally in the media, and it's very serious social and economic issues are glossed over when lists like this come out and everyone above a certain economic stratus can pat themselves on the back for a job well-done. Yes, the city has made drastic improvements in certain areas over the past decade, but our schools still perform terribly, the gap between have and have-not is glaring, and a large portion of our tourism is founded on belligerent alcoholism. All I'm saying is that while this makes Savannah look good on a national level, and that is better for the city for long-term economic development than lots of bad publicity, it's not exactly time to break out the party hats.

SUAF Commercial

Check out this dope SUAF commercial. Big up to Paragon Design for putting this together.


SUAF TV spot from Andrew on Vimeo.

W.A.D.D.E. Live in the Listening Room

I recently discovered that New Moon of Savannah has been recording their monthly live event called The Listening Room, and Jake Hodesh from NM sent over some of the shows. Nice. The Listening Room happens the last friday of the month at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery, which I'm glad to see is being put to good use, because it's a pretty nice spot to catch an intimate performance.

The first show I checked out was the West African Drum and Dance Experience, who performed 3/09/09, and who would have probably played all night they were having so much fun.

Here is a snippet from the show:


You can download this here.

Or you can download the whole show here.

The Listening Room is going on this week, and will feature the sweet indie stylings of Neva Geoffrey along with Athens, GA-based jammers The Incredible Sandwich.

Song of the Week - Turkish Freakout

I recently acquired this compilation of Turkish psychedelia, and it is most excellent, which is why this gem has taken song of the week honors...Bunalimlar's "Tas Var Kopek Yok."



Download the song here.

Album Review: Pink Mountaintops "Outside Love"

You can't really look at Stephen McBean and think, 'nope, that guy doesn't spend his time crafting intense stoner rock.' In the last two or three years, McBean's alpine-oriented groups, Black Mountain and The Pink Mountaintops, have come into their own as purveyors of fuzzed-out stoner rock that achieves the rare quality of transcending genres and eras of rock n roll to drink straight from the aether of rock music's purest essence.

The Pink Mountaintops' new album Outside Love, (on Jagujaguwar, 5/5/09) is a perfect example of McBean's ability to achieve stylistic drunkeness by taking musical sips from everything behind the bar. The Pink Mountaintops evoke moments of blurry-eyed psychedelic brit-pop, syrupy sweet indie, and a hint of country ala Neil Young circa Harvest.



On the opening track, "Axis: Thrones of Love" (a nod to Hendrix's Bold as Love?), the Mountaintops jump in sounding like classic U2 played at half-speed. Poppy, fuzzed-out grinding rock n roll. And although the album touches on a variety of styles and tempos, the thread that ties everything together is actually a rope of fat, dirty guitar and bass tones topped with cool, collected lyrics.

Axis: Thrones Of Love - Pink Mountaintops

One of the nice things about Outside Love is that McBean leads the group into some serious rock, but they don't take themselves too seriously. There is a smug sense of humor behind it all, evident in song titles like "The Gayest of Sunbeams." Even with a title that evokes sensitive, smarmy acoustic guitars and crooning, the song is introduced by a fuzzy bass line that segues into some serious power-pop. "The Gayest of Sunbeams" is an essential addition to summer road trip mixtapes everywhere this year.

The Gayest Of Sunbeams - Pink Mountaintops

The New Extremism

The fear-mongering of media personalities like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh is getting dangerous for America.

Today there have been "Tea Parties" in cities around America. And while I'm down for some grassroots rallying to express one's dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, this has gone far beyond any arguments fundamentally rooted in fact, and has turned into an anti-government, anti-tax extremist faction fueled by paranoia and rage.

Found this via TVNewser


Here's Fox's take from Philly...get ready for weak 'It's not the city of Brotherly Love for taxes' lead-in...


A friend attending a tea party in Austin reported that the crowd was pretty riled up and the Ron Paul supporters were the wittiest attendees. He also said that even though people seem so angry about this, taxes are currently lower than they were under Reagan in the 80s. Our conversation made me realize that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk are no different than the extremist clerics in the middle east who they once claimed moral opposition too. Now these right-wing shock-media stars rally people around fear and paranoia, and then set them loose with a false interpretation of reality. It's dangerous. Like the guy in Pittsburgh who went on the shooting spree because he was so made about Obama taking away his guns.

The DHS just published a report warning of increasing right-wing extremism.

I don't have a problem with vigorous debate of issues affecting the country, but it just seems like the extremists have no factual backing for their feelings, and are too mad to listen to reason. What they're actually mad about runs so much deeper than these political battlelines, but folks end up channeling their own deep-seated dissatisfaction into this political stuff because Beck and Limbaugh play to their anxieties. This is why Obama is the polarizing President of the modern era.

The Future of the Album

With the advent of iTunes and other online music stores, where consumers have the option of buying a single song or a whole album, the way people think about music has completely changed.

As these online stores started to catch on, before the CD really started become outdated, I remember thinking that this would be the end of buying mediocre albums to get a couple great songs. In the pop music explosion of the turn of the century, it seemed like such technology might actually force artists who relied on singles to generate album sales to rethink their entire approach. Those were heady, idealistic days.

Obviously the technology hasn't forced any changes in the pop world, and if anything, it's only exacerbated it, by adding not only ringtones-as-revenue-stream, but also allowing major labels to generate enough money off of the sales of singles that they can pump out more singles surrounded by careless, mediocre albums, and still make money.

Maybe I'm just old enough to still think about music in an album format. Sure, I love a good mix CD, and that's my preferred means of consumption in most cases, but I still, for the most part, will only financially support artists who take the time to put together a complete project.

What got me thinking about this was this article from Hypebot about the end of the album as a tool for musical categorization.

Unfortunately, they are probably right. Future generations will move toward buying more and more single songs, and ever fewer albums. I find that reality a little sad.

Obviously our attention spans in the digital age are growing increasingly shorter, but the album represents something much deeper than just how music is packaged, at least in an ideal sense. An album should be a whole work, like a painting, while a song is a single subject in a crowded scene, and each instrument the brushstrokes. If artists only work to create lone songs, as catchy as possible, than the music looses a level of meaning.

Take Pink Floyd's The Wall for example. If they were to release that today, sure "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Mother" would probably sell like hot cakes online (if kids still actually listened to that style of music). And while those are great songs, they lose a level of meaning without the context of the album.

And that's what it really comes down to, at least for me, is the issue of context. Sure you can love a great line of poetry, but doesn't that line mean more within the context of the rest of the poem. It's like reading a book of selected quotations and then thinking you understand the philosophical tenants of Nietzsche.

The end of the album signifies a further subjugation of the artist at the hands of the record industry. It's not about what you create, or what you want to express, it's about selling catchy songs to people who only care about feeling like they are on TV while walking down the streets listening to an iPod playlist.

Your thoughts?

Papercuts - "Future Primitive"

The Papercuts are awesome. Crisply produced, psychedelic at times, heartbreaking at others. They hail from San Francisco, and are currently touring Europe before returning to America later this week.

This song blew my mind.



The album is out now.

Justice - "One Minute" Toy Selectah Raverton ReFix

Found this collection of remixes by Toy Selectah on the Mad Decent Blog the other day. Some crazy culture/genre bending remixes. The whole album is worth checking out, but this is one of my favorites after the initial listen.



Download the track.

Download the whole Mex-More album here.

Song of the Week - "Skylarking" Horace Andy

It's starting to get nice outside, which means it's time to put together a good reggae mix. This is track will be part of it.

Download.

New Mahjongg Video "Grooverider"

I stumbled across Mahjongg a few years ago when they were making epic indie rock. Now they seem to have re-emerged with more of a retro electronic sound, and the most obtuse band bio I think I've ever read.

Here's their new video for "Grooverider."



This is a portion of their band bio:

"Originally formed in the great bounteous Midwest region of the United States "Mahjongg" began as a simple experiment between The Grid and The Sphere. To attract the brood orientation of the young mind, Mahjongg knew the only way to spread Kontpab's message was by forming a musiK band. This ever-expanding Sect uses "irratainment" to teach the warnings and Revelations of the almighty god Kontpab. Kontpab basically warns the human race of the mass "funneling" of the populace minds into The Grid.

Once trapped in The Grid themselves, Kontpab instructed Mahjongg to make a pilgrimage to Chicago, IL., where they would form their first "warning orbs," at local art spaces and bars, and in turn be shown the light that is The Sphere. It was during this time that the Machinegong EP was recorded, and their first attempt to leave Kontpab's message sublimated in the patricians of the clubs was a success. Kontpab showed Mahjongg that The Grid's seemingly well-defined rules and laws could in fact be used against The Grid itself."

King Khan @ Home in Montreal

King Khan is creating absolutely essential rock music right now. Pushing back against the power-duo fad (White Stripes, Black Keys, Chester French, I'm looking at you), King Khan brings the whole band, horn section and all, to remind us that rock n roll was born from rhythm and blues that runs much deeper than just a wailing electric guitar and pounding backbeat (not that there's anything wrong with those two things).

Here's a nice video with King Khan at his parents' house in Montreal acting weird and talking about his introduction to music and playing in a raucous band.

null |MTV Music

And for your listening pleasure:

Welfare Bread - King Khan and The Shrines

Torture - King Khan and The Shrines

Hip Hop News and Notes

There's a lot of really good hip hop coming out right now. The major label model is to drop all the big stuff in the 4th quarter, but sitting here at the beginning of the second quarter, with spring and summer looming, it's time to start assembling songs to bump with the windows down.



Detroit's Black Milk is probably one of the hottest producers in the game right now. He's carrying Dilla's torch, but bringing his own flavor to it, not just walking in the footsteps of a legend, but breaking into some totally new styles and textures. He just leaked the second track in as many weeks from his upcoming album, which is the follow up to last year's Tronic.

"Mo Power" Download it. (click to listen, right click to save)



Yesterday, Ras G dropped his new album Brotha from Anotha Planet on Flying Lotus' BrainFeeder label. If you're looking for jittery, sci-fi soundtrack jazz, than this is it in full effect. Smooth, yet anxious, trance-like beats. This is late-night music at its finest: introspective and innovative.

"Shinelight" Download it. (click to listen, right click to save)



Finally, Finale, one of the newest MCs to emerge from the Detroit scene dropped his new album A Pipe Dream and a Promise yesterday, and it is a gem. Stylish, intelligent flows and top notch production from Black Milk. This track "Motor Music" is a banger, and the rest of the album is just as solid, although with much less of a club feel than the single.

"Motor Music" Download it. (click to listen, right click to save)

South of the Border Documentary

About two years ago, Carrie and I wrote a long travel piece for the South Magazine about South of the Border as a fading reminder of the glorious American car culture, and testimony to the acute business genius of founder Alan Schafer. While drinking Mad Dog in a honeymoon suite, we talked about making a documentary about Schafer, who not only built the tourist trap from the ground up, but was also indicted for tampering with local elections, and may or may not have become a Howard Hughes-esque recluse later in life while living at S.O.B.

Well, it seems two students at the College of Charleston beat us to the punch, and their documentary is set to debut April 25th at the Charleston Film Festival. Here's the trailer. It looks like they did a good job. I can't hate, I'm glad somebody did this because it is truly one of the great American stories.



Here is the blog of one of the directors.

DangerHorse? SparkleMouse?

Super-Producer Dangermouse is teaming up with Sparklehorse and a laundry list of top shelf musicians for something. This poster image showed up on onethirtybpm.com yesterday.