The Cure | Lapsed Vinyl Goddess

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

I remember the first time I heard the music of the new Cure record, Faith, on the college radio station. It was another night of me staying up late to catch the beginning of a student-run set and getting new TDK 90 and longer cassette tapes ready. It was damned difficult for a 16-year-old to find the great imports coming out of the UK. And if you did, it wasn’t the one you had been looking for. Or because it was so costly, as, in a Japanese Kimono sleeve, you wanted to make damn sure you liked as much on the album as possible before you lay down that kind of cash. So most of my early favs were of course taken off the radio. Lucky for me, some of the kids spinning would play the whole record and tell you the tracks off each side so you could edit. It was a way to survive until you could get a clean factory copy. When I heard “Primary” for the first time, it was all I could do to not start dancing on the bed. Frowned upon at 1 am in the morning. Still, it would take a few years before I got a good copy of Faith on CD.

So it was when Faith was released by The Cure on 14 April 1981. Many of us “alternative” kids had another step into the new genre of Gothic music that was evolving out of Post-Punk. It was a great follow up to their 1980 release 17 Seconds and tour. It was filled with more moody chords and lyrics in the same vein, but as discordant as the mood of the band. The recording took place at Morgan Studios in September of 1980, without Matthieu Hartley, who left under that creative differences mist. The recording started at the studios, but the remaining members of The Cure, Smith, Gallup, and Tolhurst, with Former Member Porl Thompson back for cover design, would try several studios after not getting the sound right, including Abbey Road. It was a turbulent time of transition for the band. Did you know that there was a soundtrack to a short film involved? “Carnage Visors” only made it to an extended cassette version and would finally turn up on a 2005 reissue with the single only “Charlotte Sometimes”.

So this record in its 39th year this week will probably get a 40th-anniversary reboot. But I’m happy to have the original track lineup on 180 vinyl. If you’re feeling a little dystopic in these trying times try a little Faith for some classic The Cure dirge. It will make you melt and dance at the same time. Perfect for your home COVID dance club.

Will COVID-19 kill the Independent Record Shops?

Not if we can help it. Americans get their stimulus checks rolled out this week. We know it’s hard, as many are laughing at how little it will cover to pay rent and bills. But if you can spare a few dollars, try to find a local record shop that is doing curbside. Here in Portland, it’s Music Millenium and a few other smaller shops. Others have had to close up. Call up with your list of wants, help keep someone employed in this insanity.

Record Store Day 2020 Update

You’ve probably heard by now that RSD has been moved to June 20, 2020, due to the COVID-19 shut-downs around the world. While it looks like this terrible virus and the country may be shut down through mid- June, keep an eye out on their website. Many artists have decided to go ahead and sell the RSD releases via their own sites. Here’s to a socially distanced line, that will go for blocks. As if anything else couldn’t get more muddled this year.

Record Store Day New Date

How Record Stores are Getting Vinyl To You During the Pandemic

‘A grinding halt’: Record stores struggle to stay afloat amid coronavirus crisis

Support your vinyl shops! Check and see if they are taking phone orders and either doing curbside or shipping. Keep small businesses alive!