vinyl » Absurd Intellectual

Vinyl, heck yes. Killing it.

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 20 May 2011 Modern Life

May 202011

I am thinking about buying this T-shirt, which makes me hahaha. But also feel righteous. Because I like vinyl, I really do, even if my last turntable got left behind in my last house and all my most favourite records are actually framed in record frames instead of being played.

But the shirt’s like $20, and that’s pretty awesome and if you do go out and buy it, you should also add this 7″ to your order which, I kid you not, features a Zach Galifinakis track on the A-side, and Ted Leo on the B-side. Oh, there was something about Jon Brion and Fiona Apple on there, too, but you won’t spend $5 on Ted Leo, then Jon Brion’s not going to make you crack your wallet.

(via Draplin)

Clean your vinyl records with wood glue

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 21 March 2010 Modern Life, Vintage/Retro

Mar 212010

Put this one down in the “so crazy, it just might work” category: If you’ve got old vinyl records that are covered in dust, which hiss and pop like mad when you try to play them, simply apply a thin layer of wood glue, let dry, and peel off.

Presto, the dried glue disc takes the dust with it, but leaves the vinyl pristine.

At least, according to unplggd.com, which cites a lengthy thread at audiokarma.org.

Strangely, although I have a bunch of old records that could probably use a good cleaning, the first thing that came to mind was a weird old craze from grade school, of smearing Elmer’s glue on your palm, and then peeling the “skin” off later, to the disgust and amusement of your classmates.

(via Coudal)

Celebrate “Record Store Day” — Saturday, April 18

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 17 April 2009 Music, Vintage/Retro

Apr 172009

I’m posting this a day early so that everyone can get out there and do something in honour of Record Store Day. It’s tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, 2009.

From a story in The Guardian:

The aim is to celebrate independent stores and highlight the role they play in finding, encouraging and distributing new music, says Spencer Hickman, from Rough Trade East, one of the day’s organisers. “We want to let people know that we are all still here, and still selling brilliant music. We want to put out a positive message – that independent record shops are not just places to buy records, but communities. They are places to share ideas, where you can discover new bands by talking to someone who is just as enthusiastic as you.”

Although it’s “Record Store Day,” it doesn’t have to be just records. Pick up a CD or a concert DVD. But actually go into a store, and don’t just download it from iTunes. Today’s a day that’s not just about music as a marketable good or service — it’s about music as a community. That means interacting with a staff member who might turn you on to something new, or bumping into someone else who’s browsing.

And maybe it means eschewing the plastic cases of a CD and taking a chance on an actual old record.

Before you ask, yes, I do have a record player (garage sale special, a vintage cabinet hi-fi that I absolutely love), Amy and I have loads of vinyl, and I even have some sleeves displayed on my walls as art.

There’s something so visceral, real and tangible about the grooves in a record that 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and mp3s just can’t recapture. The music was there — etched into the vinyl — and if you cared enough, and peered close enough, you could see it. Plus, they were big enough that they could come with fantastic booklets and artistic posters.

Records are great. Records stores are great. Tomorrow’s a great day to support them both. What’s it going to cost you? An hour and maybe $20? It’s freaking Saturday — you’re likely going to drop that cash and that time on something you do every other Saturday.

Tomorrow, why not invest in music.

A record that screams out to be digitized

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 18 March 2009 Music, Vintage/Retro

Mar 182009

Continuing what is apparently “Soviet Day” here on Absurd Intellectual, here’s a fantastic find from a bargain hunter:

The coolest record of the day: The History Of The Soviet Union in Ballad & Song. Put out by Folkway Records in 1964. I loved look: the bright red cover with the old hammer & sickle stamps, and the crazy song titles: “Boldly, Comrades, In Step,” “Tortured to Death in Captivity,” and “The Red Army is the Most Powerful of All.” The record seemed like a window into a different time and place. Such a random find, but one that sticks with me more than all of the others.

All that for a buck. Da.

Grooving with the new prez

Posted by Grant Hamilton on 28 January 2009 Modern Life, Music, Vintage/Retro

Jan 282009

Turn down your volume if you click this image at work or in a library. Otherwise, turn it the hell up!

Normally, if one thinks about the President of the United States spinning platters, perhaps one would think of a circus performer, frantically trying to keep plates spinning atop poles, dashing frantically from one to the other, spinning, spinning, spinning. One plate is labeled “Iraq” and another “Afghanistan,” while there are also plates with terms like “Illegal Immigration” and “Economic Crisis” wobbling around over there.

How does he do it?

Maybe, sometimes, he just needs to relax, and spin a different kind of platter. Why, I think the current President of the United States looks like kind of a cool cat, probably the kind of guy who can spin up a turntable and drop the needle ex-fucking-actly on the damn beat.

That’s a prez who would appreciate a top-secret record collection, all pristine vinyl in special President of the United States limited edition (of one) commemorative sleeve, hidden away in the basement of the White House, right?

Good thing such a secret record collection actually exists!

Stored in the basement of the executive mansion is the official White House Record Library: several hundred LPs that include landmark albums in rock (Led Zeppelin IV, the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed), punk (the Ramones’ Rocket to Russia, the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols), cult classics (Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, the Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace of Sin) and disco. Not to mention records by Santana, Neil Young, Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes, Elton John, the Cars and Barry Manilow.

No, it was not designed to ensure that the artform of DJing survives a nuclear apocalypse, or even put there to keep the First Family boogying away in the fallout shelter. But it’s still awesome, and it’s the kind of perk that I never really expected the president to have in real life. Maybe in comic books, but real life?

Wait a minute … black president, with a secret record collection hidden in the basement of the White House?

Is that it? Are we living in a comic book?!?!?

Yessssss. (fist pump)