Category 40th Anniversary

Post RSD 2021 Drop 1 Thrills and Spills

Janet Canning Leave a comment

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Are you gearing up for this Saturday’s Record Store Day, Drop 2? While drop number 2 may not have as many records, there are a few that may make you get up in the wee hours on July 17th, 2021. Take a cue from last months epic experience, and plan ahead.

RSD 2021 Drop 1

It’s amazing, Portland record shops survived another socially distanced RSD Saturday June 12, 2021, just a week before stores were allowed to get back to business as usual here in Portland. If there will be a usual again that is. Many shops have started lifting their restrictions and the regular, and irrelevant bin flipping of vinyl can begin. 

However, not wishing to deal with the lottery for RSD in person that some shops resorted to, I decided to go online shopping for battle-of-the record-shops regulars versus speculators. Let me tell you, there is a special place where Sisyphus rolls that rock, and all speculative RSD buyers who jack up record prices by 300-400% will go there. Karma is coming for ya, baby. 

My day started, poised at the 10am bell with Jackpot Records here in Portland, online shopping basket with Echo and the Bunnymen Live at Liverpool and The Cure’s Faith, 40th Anniversary Picture Disc. While punching in my card info, the Bunnymen sold out, however I got Faith. (Ha, Ha) I tried to have some after that, and was determined to hunt down all my other choices. I would find out later, as with every RSD, The Cure put out a lot of copies compared to other bands, and there were still some in the bins on Sunday.418464862101_360

My crafty and realistic vinyl enthusiast fiend friend helped me acquire that one really elusive record that kept slipping through my fingers, Echo and The Bunnymen Live at Liverpool, that I woke up to Saturday morning already hitting eBay stores at bids starting at $80.00. Let me tell you it was well worth the battle. Absolute winner of a live album and a great way to keep that live venue spirit going until we get solid with performances in Portland again. Please Bunnymen, come back to PDX!

I noted that the UK had a drop of one record I had on cassette many years ago, Ultravox’s Vienna 40th Anniversary edition. Since I stretched that tape out years ago, it was time to get it on vinyl. This two record extended play vinyl edition had totally cleaned up original tracks and a second record that featured instrumental versions of the songs. If you are a fan of Brit Synth and The New Romantics, this record has it all.

418464861857_360I found a few more titles that were showing up slowly as the day progressed. One of them was Richard Hell and the Voidoids: Destiny Street Demos. Raw, very raw indeed. Great liner notes on their touring mishaps opening for The Clash on their first UK Tour and the fact that their record label never got their records in the UK market before the tour. Talk about a real tragedy. The mad, bad days of the big record labels. You may want to pick up Richard Hell’s memoirs (I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp), for some other juicy bits on touring.

Thanks to the people at these fine establishments, I was able to get my vinyl in good form, and shipped well overseas.

 

Thanks Red Yeti Records in San Diego

Assai Records in Scotland 33 Union Street, Dundee. DD1 4BS

Resident Records UK

Next up, RSD 2021 DROP 2 Shopping List

In case you were wondering how strange I am……

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National Album Day UK, 40th Anniversary Releases This Month

Janet Canning Leave a comment

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It’s back. The UK’s National Album day is celebrating the 80s, and with so many 1980 40th anniversary records being reissued this year, some great ones this month are being made available for Record Album day in the UK.

Tim’s Twitter Listening Party has a day long lineup of play along and Tweet fun you can enjoy anywhere in the World. Join us here. Hint: There’s a Cure album bash at the end they didn’t get in the article.

Tim’s Twitter Album Day Info

Some of the records we can get stateside, which is good because the rise of international shipping rates has made import record collecting that more expensive. Yup, it’s the price of the record itself to ship. But many are limited editions, so you color vinyl fiends got itchy fingers, I know.

Events for National Record Album Day UK

40th Anniversary Editions In October

 

Talking Heads classics are being reissued on colored vinyl again. I did pick up a colored vinyl on Remain in Light a couple of years back. If you missed out on that, Rhino Records has reissued Talking Heads 77(Green), Fear of Music (Silver), and More Songs About Buildings And Food(Red). So we know you have played and battered your original copies for years.

And not to forget the masters of techno kraft, Kraftwerk! Parlophone records are reissuing  Kraftwerk on colored vinyl with German sleeves on October 9th, 2020. These German Language versions are available for the first time stateside. However it’s a limited release, so if you haven’t preordered stateside, do so. If you can’t catch a copy stateside, try Resident Music, UK. Contact them and see what you can do about combining orders for shipping, as you have been warned, it is rather high.

RSD Drop 2,  2 TONE Records!

Sadly didn’t make it to the day, health issues. So I got to do the “buy it later if you can find it hunt”. My mission was to pick up two 2 Tone Records Ska compilations. Dance Craze is the soundtrack to a film I saw back in the day when the whole Ska craze came about. I luckily found one last copy at Jackpot Records here in Portland, and did the “you made my week dance” for the people at the counter. So glad to be able to shop local. This record brought back such great memories of a viewing of the concert film with Quadrophenia and another film my aging brain can’t remember.

The story of 2 Tone Records’ radical cover art

The hunt for the This Are 2 Tone with Various Artists (The Selecter, Madness, Rhoda Dakar & The Special A.K.A, The Swinging Cats, The Specials) was another matter. I thought I would call up Ziongate Records since they did me a solid at RSD drop 1, however they had sold out on the day. The scary thing is, the counter person said, “Are you the one who got Tones on Tail off us?” Damn, it’s scary when you are the only person they remember like that. He said,” Okay, I’ll do you a solid. I’m checking Discogs, there are a few shops on their that we have worked with that know how to ship”. I was saved. I’m still waiting for Bucket of Blood Records in Chicago to ship. But with a name like that, it’s gotta be Serendipity?

Rhino Records

Resident Music UK

Jackpot Records

Ziongate Records, Seattle

Bucket of Blood Records

Dance Craze 2 Tone Records Film

So This is Permanent: Ian Curtis 40 Years On Celebration

Janet Canning Leave a comment

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Photo copyright: Kevin Cummins

Monday, May 18th will mark 40 years since the passing of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division, one of the most influential post-punk alternative bands. Ian’s passing at the young age of 23 has created a cult following over 40 years in the making. This week the remaining members of Joy Division are marking the occasion with talks and streaming concerts. In the time of pandemic shut-in, many music and indie film outlets have been helping us all to survive in these trying times. Some are making the performance free with encouragement to donate to epilepsy charities.

Peter Hook

Bassist for Joy Division if promoting his concert is featuring his film So This Is Permanent, help at Christ Church in Macclesfield, UK, Ian’s hometown. It sold out in 20 seconds. Peter is asking that you donate to The Epilepsy Society at https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/

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Article Peter Hook is streaming a marathon Joy Division tribute gig next week

So This Is Permanent – Peter Hook & The Light 24 Hour Live Stream

Concert movie premiere from Monday 18th May 2020 – 12 Noon BST

Since the postponement of The Light’s May 2020 “Joy Division 40: A Celebration” gigs which were due to take place this week, Peter Hook & The Light & Surdevan Creative have been assembling the footage from the May 2015 Christ Church Macclesfield event for broadcast.

The three-hour plus video of the event will be available across Joy Division’s YouTube channel and Joy Division’s/The Light’s Facebook’s from noon this Monday until noon Tuesday.

The stream is entirely free but if you are able, donations are encouraged to Epilepsy Society here >> bit.ly/SoThisIsPermanentESDONATE

Join the Facebook event here >> bit.ly/SoThisIsPermanentFBEvent

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Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris Online Event Moving Through The Silence: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Ian Curtis.

Dave Haslam hosts this live event with the two 8PM and 10PM UK time on United We Stream and making the Mental Health Awareness Week. They are raising funding for Manchester Mind.
Check Out the information here:

 

 

 

Talking Heads Fear of Music Turns 40

Janet Canning Leave a comment

IMG_3104It’s the first solidifying album of Talking Heads, 70s and 80s New Wave Art House band. Their second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, was a step away from the debut record, in that they were starting to find their feet. The band, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, decided that the record should not just be a bunch of singles, or singles driven. The next one needed to have more of a theme going on, and actual direction. They also wanted to produce on their own and have more control over the project. This would prove to be an error as they bit off a bit more than they could chew.

After original demos were not going so well, they called back legendary Brian Eno to produce and help get the record on track. It appears that the teenage independence wasn’t working to their advantage. It’s a good thing they did. Fear of Music became Talking Heads transitional album, taking them from their beginnings into young adulthood and expanding audiences.

Fear of Music is still not a polished product, that’s exactly why it’s my favorite Talking Heads album. It still has that angst going on, that reality of life not being what the Great American Promise said it should be. It’s messy and strange. The first Single did not perform well on the charts, however it has been a cult classic, “Life During Wartime”. I always felt that this song was a great discussion of a dystopic future after the apocalypse. Themes of the late 70s and early eighties were surviving the years long cold war and living with Thatcherism and Reaganism on the horizon. George Orwell was being read again, and the fact that this time period should have been the best of times, it was only so for the privileged few. One of the reasons this song is still valid today. It contrasted with “Heaven”, the bands iconic slow favorite. It’s a story about a place you can go, a bar, a place where you know everyone, and can feel you can go.

There are many great songs that talk about the shock of life and reality after you grow up and the teen years fade away. I like to think of this album as an intro to adulthood record. It’s also one of the records my crazy art teacher in high school drummed into our heads while we threw paint at each other. I guess that left an impression.

RSD Black Friday Finds 2018