International Record Store Day - 20th April 2013

Where's Vinylology? I'm in there somewhere....

So, yesterday was International Record Store Day; an initiative which sees independent record stores the world over running in-store appearances from live acts, DJ's and offering a plethora of special pressings, limited editions and all sorts of exciting merchandise opportunities for dorks like me.

Unfortunately, Record Store Day also fell right in the middle of me buying a new house so a major splurge was not a possibility.

It also happened to occur on a day when I was working at an industry conference, meaning that I didn't have a great deal of time to devote to it. Happily however,  attendance at the conference did put me less than ten minutes walk from Auckland's Real Groovy store.

Knowing that I wasn't going to have a great deal of time (or a great deal of money) to devote to buying vinyl on Saturday, I was able to go to their late night opening on Friday (Thurs and Fri nights - open til 8.30) and have a fairly reasonable dig in their 'sale-price' bins (happily reduced from $3.00 to $2.00).

Xena 'On The Upside' bw 'On The Upside (Dub)' Streetwave 12" Single
I noticed this because it's on the same label (just two releases apart in the catalogue) as the stone-cold classic 'Al Naayfish' by Hashim, which I picked up in mint condition a couple of months ago.

Hashim: reference point

It's a great electro backed soul track, with an amazing opening melody - strangely reminiscent of Orbital. If it's not been heavily sampled, it should have been. I'm in the throes of starting to produce again after an eight year break, so it immediately inspired me to begin work on a re-edit. A major find for $2.00. (I'm definitely in the market for a double for DJ'ing as well).



D.C. La Rue 'Do You Want The Real Thing' Single-Sided Casablanca 12" Promotional Single (Music From The Original Soundtrack Of "Thank God It's Friday" Collectors Gift Series)

Disco: you had me at "promotional copy - not for resale"

There's a few rules to crate digging (I'm actually in the middle of writing a beginners guide which will be coming to Vinylology soon) and this answers several of them. Random promo formats, OST's to films that you've never heard of, being on a favoured label (I've got heaps of tunes on Casablanca), buy anything more than ten minutes long; this has it all - plus it's got the BPM marked on it. (Oh, those heady days at the beginning of what they called 'New York style mixing'). I've never heard of the film; Wikipedia says that despite an Academy Award for Donna Summer on the soundtrack, it's dreadful. Having read an explanation of the plot  (several intertwining storylines revolving around a series of nightclub patrons) it seems perilously close to a treatment for a New York gangster/caper movie that I wrote called 'Saturday Mass', that was supposed to be set in the last days of the Paradise Garage. As it had clearly been done before, badly, I can only thank god that I didn't put more work into it. I used to take myself far too seriously as a younger man.

Chris Hillman 'Clear Sailin'' Asylum Records LP
The actual pop/rock sale section at Real Groovy was rather daunting considering my limited budget, (it's best not to know what's there if you can't buy it), so I stuck initially (before moving onto the 12" singles - as above) to the country and folk. There's some fairly smaltzy country material on here alongside some more appealing acoustic material. I'm a huge fan of Hillman's other work with The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Manassas, so I'm sure that my enjoyment of what's here will grow.

Judy Collins 'Living' Elektra LP
Two Leonard Cohen songs, one Joni Mitchell and one Bob Dylan (plus a Collins original and some others that I don't recognise). I bought her LP 'Wildflower' in the Sally Army shop a while back.

Judy Collins 'Nightingale' Elektra LP
Well, it's on Elektra, a label with a very strong sixties folk back-catalogue that I will ultimately buy most of. I guess that when I'm in a Judy Collins mood - I'll have a few to choose from. I do feel slightly guilty for this one; they had two copies in the sale bins - one with a knackered cover, one with a tatty disk. I made up a mongrel with the best bits of both and bought that. I hang my head in shame.

All in all though, not a bad nights work for $10.00.

So, onto Record Store Day itself.

Beastwars' Matt Hyde

I was delighted to learn that Wellington sludge/stoner metal favourites Beastwars (my favourite NZ band, of course) were playing an in-store to promote their new LP, 'Blood Becomes Fire', which came out the previous day.

(My girlfriend had actually confirmed that my pre-order had been hand delivered on Friday).

So, I managed to drag myself away from my trade stand to see Beastwars, who as always - rocked it.

They played a selection of tracks off the new record, including 'Caul Of Time' and recent single 'Tower Of Skulls' B-Side, the creepy 'The Sleeper'.

Beastwars' Nato: also the $2.00 bins that I scoured the night before

My only gripe is that it wasn't longer. (I did actually have to leave and get back to the conference, so it's not even as if I would have been able to watch it).

I feel almost ashamed of saying this, but it was actually also the first in-store performance that I've been to.

Call myself a muso? Pff.

Paul Simon & Rufus Wainwright

Paul Simon + Special Guest, Rufus Wainwright (solo)
Vector Arena, Auckland
Mon 8 Apr 2013

Here's another one with a dream line-up. Rufus Wainwright's a bit of an acquired taste (with the Broadway musical/Judy Garland obsession, wearing a toga etc.) but capable of breath-taking songwriting. (His sister Martha's first LP is also very dear to me)

I've not seen him live before, so the opportunity to see him solo, with just him and a piano (apart from two songs on guitar) was a huge treat.

Wainwright is an incredible piano player and his playing on 'Who Are You New York' (a song that I've been listening to a lot lately) was a definite highlight, along with 'Montauk' (which I'm not ashamed to say brought tears to my eyes).

He told a story about meeting Jeff Buckley (during which he was heckled) and then performed 'Memphis Skyline', which is his tribute to him, quickly moving into his version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' (which was also covered by Buckley).

Despite being a majestic pianist, Wainwright's guitar playing is somewhat primitive. Despite that, his bashing along to his latest LP 'Out of the Game's title track provided an up-tempo treat in more maudlin (in a good way) set.

Paul Simon is touring to commemorate 25 years since the release of his ground breaking (and controversial) solo LP 'Gracelands' and accordingly it provided the backbone of his set (opening with 'Gumboots', playing 'Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes' late in the main set, with 'Gracelands' coming in the encore). He represented his early eighties pre-Africa material with a very moving versions 'Still Crazy After All The Years' and 'Slip Sliding Away'.

As you'd imagine, whilst his solo songs were greeted with rapturous reception from the greying crowd (who clearly saw Rufus Wainwright as being a bit challenging), even greater reaction came from his airing of Simon & Garfunkel classics; 'Me & Julio, Down By The School Yard' came up as the second song, 'Only Living Boy In New York', Simon's solo rendition of 'Sound Of Silence' added a level of grown-up world-weariness, then at the end of the set, Wainwright returned to the stage to fill Art Garfunkel's vocal parts on an incredible rendition of 'The Boxer'.

Paul and Rufus - Boxing On...

Simon played for a good two hours, covered all bases and clearly demonstrated the strength of his entire back catalogue.

Wilco & Mavis Staples

Occasionally, as a fan of live music, you see a line-up that is top-to-bottom drool worthy. (A couple I remember some twenty years later - Sonic Youth toured the ‘Dirty’ LP in the UK with Pavement and Royal Trux. Rage Against The Machine toured their first LP with Tool and Wool (effectively Scream less Dave Grohl) – in both cases I was sadly too young to attend).

I think Wilco’s latest tour falls into this category, having the legendary Mavis Staples (ex-of The Staple Singers) as special guest.

Last year saw the release of Staples’ critically acclaimed ‘You Are Not Alone’ LP, which was produced (and largely written) by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

I bought the LP when it came out and was a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a good record – but it’s perhaps not as jaw-dropping as a Mojo review that I’d read of it. I’ve listened to it a couple of times since and it’s become a sort of background go-to.

That notwithstanding, I was very excited to see her live. I love the Staple Singers – both vocally and Pop’s guitar playing (famously on a 50’s Fender Jazzmaster – not unlike the one played by Nels Cline from Wilco).
Before Staples took to the stage, I realised how small her band is: one guitar, bass and drums with three backing singers. I’m actually taken aback that the LP (which sounds really full) is basically the same line up.

The smallest soul revue ever?

Staples took to the stage to rapturous applause - and then proceeded to absolutely blow the roof off.

Frankly, she was well worth the price of admission alone. Her set took in Staple Singers material (interestingly, as Mavis’ voice has deepened, she’s taken on her father, Pops Staples’ vocal parts), covers of popular tunes such as ‘The Weight’ by The Band and, towards the end – with the arrival of a familiar looking, slightly dishevelled man (Tweedy) playing a Gibson SJ-200, the title track from her last LP.

Moonlighting - Tweedy Style

Another late highlight was the Gospel call-and-response of The Staple Singers ‘I'll Take You There’.

As she finished, my girlfriend said that it had been one of her top ten gigs ever.

So, how do you follow that?

Well, Wilco are widely regarded as being one of the best live bands around today. (I will note that people do also say that about Muse, who are in my opinion simply abysmal, however).

In the late nineties, I largely listened to Alt-Country, before going on a ten year long dance music tip. Wilco’s classic ‘Being Here’ double LP was a record that I hammered at the time and am most familiar with.

It was however, rather reassuring that they opened with the LP’s opener ‘Misunderstood’. From there, they went into more experimental territory with ‘Art Of Almost’. A couple of tracks in and it became immediately evident – Wilco are as amazing live as people make out.

Other reviews tell me that ‘I Might’, ‘Via Chicago’, ‘Impossible Germany’, ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’, ‘Capitol City’ (which Tweedy said was included in the set in tribute to Wellington), ‘Born Alone’, ‘Walken’, ‘Handshake Drugs’, ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’, ‘A Shot in the Arm’, ‘Jesus, Etc’ all made an appearance, but for me (as a fair-weather Wilco fan) it was inclusion of my favourite ‘Being Here’ track, ‘Sunken Treasure’ that provided a highlight.

Wilco received two encores – the second of which was after the doors were opened and some of the crowd had left. They reappeared and launched into a blistering version of ‘Outtasite (Outta Mind)’, which had the remaining crowd in the balcony dancing in the aisles.

Top ten gigs ever? You betcha.