Sittin' On The Dock By The Bay

Nostalgia is the perfect excuse for procrastination. I know that every time I'm in front of my computer ready to type that really long paper due all too soon I still can't keep my mouse away from that internet browser icon. Looking up videos and listening to songs from when I was a youngster take up hours of my time and I love every second of it. Especial because sometimes these nostalgic trips down memory lane re-spark a love untouched for so long that it is almost forgotten.

When I was in first and second grade my dad gave me rides to school pretty consistently. Everyday I would get my lunch-- and various school products that a first/second grader would need--and get ready for the three or four block ride that our small town would afford me to school. On the way to school my dad always had music going; because of this I developed an early love in artists like Al Green, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke. I remember looking at the cassette case of the Al Green Greatest hits tape and thinking, "man...this guy is so cool." I would borrow my dad's tapes all the time and listen to them in my walkman laying on my bunkbed's imagining myself singing on stage with Al Green. I know, I know, this sounds pretty strange for a second grader, but it's true, I couldn't get enough of it.

However, as years went on I grew away from my buddy Al, and Otis and into anything and everything that a young kid loves. But, it was a few years ago in my freshman year of college when I was supposed to be doing a paper of some sort when I again rediscovered my good friends and fell back in love with these artists.

I know its not the most traditional young child vices, but hey, to me this is one of my original old school favorites.

Here is a video of Otis Redding at the Montery Pop Festival that anyone with a sense of hearing will hopefully enjoy.

Technology Moves Quick

It's December 17th, 2016.

It's been exactly eight years since my last post and about eight years and thirteen days since my last record store review.

Sorry to lag on posting, but time sure does fly, when you're busy....for these past eight years I have been involved in the highest ranks of the NASA Space Program working on a very top secret mission that will only be unveiled now via this blog; thanks in part to funding from the United States federal government and North Korea we at NASA were able to build a super rocket that propelled myself and two other astronauts out of our galaxy and into another inhabited galaxy of living, breathing space creatures. That's right everyone extraterrestrials.

Currently I am living on the planet Gorgonzoid which is ruled by the Queen Emperor Zygatah--the giant man, woman, serpent cow. Things are much different here, but rather than go on and on about the mundane day to day of flying cars, lazer sword duels, or soul sucking fire breathing dragondroids on planet Gorgonzoid, how 'bout I jump back into the old format and let you in on a little record store gold...shall we?


The Place: Xirete's Musical Download Port
Biased Rating:2/10

Ok. So I've been into some pretty weird places in my day, but nothing could have prepared me for Xirete's Musical Download Port located in the beautiful city of Yewik on the planet Gorgonzoid. At first sight the inside of the store looked like it could yield something positive. There were hundred and hundreds of rows of beautiful shining racks full of pure wax vinyl magic....heaven. Feeling oddly optimistic and a little confused as to why this place was so in tune with what I was looking for I went to the first worker droid I saw and asked where the punk section was.

After being pointed in the right direction and making it to the section I began hunting and to my surprise was flooded with great find after great find; minor threat first pressing, a bad brains test press!? This is unreal. After hours and hours of this I finally made my way up to the checkout counter to buy my priceless records. Once at the counter I gave my records to the droid clerk who put the records aside, picked up a USB zip drive gun and jammed it into the back of my head and uploaded into my brain the newest song by Droid singing sensation ZWZA. ZWZA sounds like what I imagine a wookie sounds like when giving birth. Not cool. After this I was kicked out of the store and charged 414,535,234,00 ENA to my credit card, which is roughly equivalent to thirty US dollars.
Xirete's Musical Download Port takes a scan of your brain when you walk into their store to find out what your ideal record store would be; then, they produce a hologram to dupe you into buying something you don't want. Pretty elaborate scheme for such a little profit...stupid droids.

So, If you're ever in Yewik Do NOT go to Xirete's Musical Download Port.

That is all.

For Emma, Forever Ago.

Beyond the obvious family, friends, and good health I am thankful for one bearded man from Wisconsin named Justin Vernon--the man responsible for the musical outfit known as Bon Iver. Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon) self released a record in 2007 called For Emma, Forever Ago and it is beyond incredible. I'll admit I was a little late in the game in appreciating this release, but nonetheless I am here and fully embracing it.
Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" is kind of tough to describe; the music is very layered and has a very serene yet solemn feel to it. As strange as it sounds,every time I listen to the record I feel a little more at peace with everything around me. Music like this makes me thankful to be alive.
Here is an awesome video of Bon Iver's "The Wolves (Act I &II)"

YES.

The place: Thrillhouse Records
Biased Rating: 10/10

Details:The other day my roommate and I went to the Mission district to get some awesome tapestries for our newish apartment. As we searched and searched it became clear that our goal for a "sick" tapestry was not going to be as easy as we had initially thought. We kept walking and walking until we eventually arrived at Mission St. at Cesar Chavez when it hit me; Thrillhouse Records is around here! With a quick consultation from my buddy goog we were in the shop in only a few more blocks.
Once we got inside I knew we hit the jackpot. This place had an incredible selection--i got a Criminal Damage LP for 9 bucks--of hardcore/punk LPS, 7",CDs, tapes etc. They also had a large variety of local zines along with a mixtape drop box which allowed you to take a mixtape as long as you dropped one off as well. The place was cash only, the owner kept the money in a fishing tackle box, they have awesome music playing, good vibes, great everything. Go to Thrillhouse Records and spend all your money, so awesome places like this stay open forever.

It blows my mind to think how disconnected people are from their actual physical music today. People are just so set on getting the music they want as quick as possible with little to no hassle. Right now if I wanted to I could go onto the Itunes store and download any record from the tons of records they have and be listening to it in the next ten minutes, but that just seems wrong to me. People are missing out on so much from not going out into record stores and buying music. There is the satisfaction of finding that one record, or even the personal interactions or friendships that occur from record shopping. Sure the Itunes store or last fm or Pandora can do some sort of mathematical calculation based on beats per minute or artists selected that can recommend you other music you might like, but if you only search and find your music online you are missing out on a lot. Also, online stores like the apple store are able to take all your information on what you like or dislike and sell them to companies where they can use that information to advertise to you. The right to privacy is completely gone when you enter into those kind of online arenas. To me nothing is better than going out and buying records, hence the reason I just did. I just got back from my weekly stomping ground Amoeba Records and came back with quite a few goodies. The one I’m most happy with is the Small Brown Bike/ Casket Lottery Split record. These two band rule and I suggest anyone who hasn’t heard them to go and pick up this record, it is flawless. Here’s a video of one of the songs from the split that the bands wrote and perform together.

Enjoy!

Record Store Neutrality

My life has been pretty hectic as of late: I just moved across the city, I have homework on top of homework, work all the time, and too many musical projects to name. So, when Sunday afternoon rolled around I couldn’t think of a better to relieve some stress than by buying tons of records. Ready to explore some of my new neighborhood I headed off on foot to see what I could find. Located on the cusp of lower Haight I stumbled upon Recycled Records, a store carrying tons of vinyl, old posters, and some of our digital friends, the compact disc. The place had a cool vibe and looked like there was a good selection of different kinds of music; boy was I wrong. Recycled Records had a pretty slim selection of anything but oldies and more oldies. Don’t get me wrong, I love the classics, but if a store is going to tout the name Recycled Records they shouldn’t be so specific in their choosing of what to recycle. It’s as if these snobby record nerds are the companies, and government officials who want to change the “neutrality” of the internet by allowing certain websites or companies quicker and faster access on the internet if they pay more to the service provider. This way the availability of the content on the internet can become skewed and information that was once as easily available as all other information is not so anymore. Net neutrality is very important, and so is record store neutrality! Down with elitist record store nerds!!!

Viva Leeway!

Cloak Dagger/Headline Records

This last weekend I trekked down to the ever-wonderful city of Los Angeles, California with some friends; good times were had and lots of money that I didn’t have was spent. Most of said spending was done at Headline Records in Hollywood on Melrose Ave. This place is awesome and I could—and did—spend many hours in this record nerd's oasis. Headline Records is mostly a punk/hardcore record store but has some other related genres to choose from.
I bought a lot of good records at Headline, but keeping true to this blog's format I will only talk about the cheap ones, which, in this case, happens to be the Cloak Dagger seven-inch entitled “Piñata” released on Grave Mistake Records. I found this bad boy for around three bucks on white vinyl and I was psyched. This band has ex members from many prominent bands in the hardcore scene such as Striking Distance, Barfight, and Count Me Out etc. but manages to sound nothing like any of those bands. Cloak Dagger brings to mind early punk like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks but with catchier riffs and awesome hooks; definitely a quality buy.
The first time I heard Cloak Dagger was when my roommate gave me the mp3s he had of the seven inch. The notion that someone was able to digitally receive music for free and then still go out and buy the actual record would probably make a major label record executive’s head explode in disbelief, but it happens. Many major record labels are so afraid of music being shared or copyrights infringed upon their product that they have implemented DRM—Digital Rights Management—software in order to disallow music from playing on different mediums as well . I think the mindset that these major labels and corporations are taking is completely skewed and unrealistic. Music has been shared for many years and implementing technologies that hinder rights that people should be granted under fair use—like being able to play a purchased mp3 on more than one source—seems crazy. Besides, there are always ways to circumvent these crazy technologies; within the first page of youtube there are video tutorials to crack DRM protected files. Here’s a funny video illustrating the progression of recorded music to today: DRM video


And here's a video of Count Me Out.