Cool “unboxing” video for the vinyl copy of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories which releases next Tuesday. The album is currently being streamed on iTunes for free and I must say that this record really does meet the incredible hype it has received over the last few months. I imagine that this will be very high on my favorite releases of year. Fantastic album, my favorite track from this one so far is “Touch” with Paul Williams (absolutely incredible song). Check out the free stream while you can if you aren’t sure about it for some reason, it’s definitely worth checking out. Ordered my copy on wax tonight from Amazon, looking forward to listening to it next week.
Turntables Drawing Art
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Saw this cool drawing apparatus at various blogs last week, pretty neat way to do some artwork. It seems like an inexpensive setup too, curious if others have tried this out before. Below is artwork made using what you see in the video above:
College Turntable Setup
I linked to this video in my last post and was surprised to see I haven’t shared it here yet. I’ve posted some photos of my turntable and record collection from college in the past but no video. This was made back about 4 years ago when I was showing off my copy of Peter Lipa’s English version of Moanin’. Mainly picked this up for My Album which was featured on Madlib’s Mind Fusion Volume 2, easily one of my favorites off those mixes.
My old setup used to consist of an Audio Technica AT-PLH50 and some cheap Logitech computer speakers. When I moved back home after college I stepped up to some better speakers but was still running my Audio Technica turntable until last Fall when I finally picked up a Pro-Ject Carbon Debut. While the Audio Technica was on the cheap side I still think it’s a pretty nice table for super entry level folks (like I was back when I purchased it!). While the $400 Pro-Ject table sounds great, it’s still disappointing about there not being automatic features like my old Audio Technica has.
Record Collection (May 2013 Update)
It’s been over a year since sharing my collection, figured it’s about time for an update here. As you can see from the photo above, a job can make a huge difference in the amount of records I buy… This was getting pretty crazy last year especially with a bunch of stops to record stores in Seattle. I’m living a lot closer to the city now and with some extra spending money it was hard to resist going over there and dropping a bit of cash. I’m still picking stuff up pretty regularly these days but not splurging as often as I had when first starting my job. Not only have I picked up a lot more records, but my turntable setup has seen a much needed improvement as well. What I have now is definitely a lot nicer than what I was rocking back in college.
I also really like my new way of storing records. The old plastic crates I was using back in the day were alright, but the Expedit shelve system from Ikea feels like it was designed specifically for record collections. After reorganizing some stuff a few nights ago I was surprised to notice I am starting to outgrow the 2×2 system I have right now. I will probably be getting another shelve (thinking 4×1 for next one) here pretty soon. The size of the shelve I have now is also perfect for handling my setup too as you can see in the photo.
Right now I have my records organized in a certain way. The top left is my Stones Throw vinyl and the bottom left are my newer records. The top right is a mix of older/used records and my newest records I’ve added to my collection. The bottom right is where I’m storing my box sets and larger gatefolds. I will probably sort these out alphabetically some day but for now the order of records on each shelve is pretty random (newer stuff or those I’m listening to more often are on the left basically).
Well that’s my collection right now! Since taking the photo I’ve already gotten a few more records in, so my collection is still continuing to grow. I might just make a yearly collection update to see just how much progress I’ve been making as time goes on. It’s interesting to me to look back at my post from last year and compare it to where I’m at now. Below is a nifty GIF with closer photos of each shelve I have.
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Avant-Garde – Pigeon
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Earlier this month I shared some tracks from my buddy Avant-Garde’s new album Pigeon. Happy to say that the full project is finally out today. I’ve listened to this a few times now since getting an advance last week and I have to say that it really turned out great. Avant-Garde is always nice on the mic and I’m digging all of the production choices too. Really hoping that this will get some exposure as it’s definitely worth a listen.
You can listen to the full album above. If you like what you hear, it’d be awesome to throw a few bucks the dude’s way too over on Bandcamp. The album can be downloaded here for any price (including free if you’re being cheap…)
Below is an interview with Avant-Garde from the folks over at EveryDeJaVu:
Record Store Day 2013
For this year’s Record Store Day I decided I would get an early start over at Easy Street Records. This is the first time that I’ve done this, as in the past I have just come in at some point during the afternoon to pick up some random records. This time around I actually had my eye on some of the exclusives that were put out for the day including the 4LP Liquid Swords boxset which includes a full chess set, the colored vinyl reissue of Elephant, and the red colored reissue of Tame Impala’s EP.
Easy Street is the first shop to open in Seattle at 7AM, so I decided to get there around 5AM to wait in line. I was actually a little surprised by the amount of those ahead of me at this point, I was maybe the 15th to 20th person in line. I brought along my tablet to watch Shaun of the Dead which helped during the wait, but I made the mistake of bringing my lighter jacket which left me a little cold while in line. As the store got closer to opening, employees began giving out free coffee and bacon which was pretty awesome.
Easy Street Records owner Matt giving out some delicious bacon. This pile was MUCH bigger when he came out, this was left for seconds.
The post over on the Easy Street Records blog describes what it was like as the doors opened at 7AM:
Right on time, at 7am sharp, we opened the café door and customers were let loose while the DJ appropriately played Jimi Hendrix wailing “The Star Spangled Banner” from Woodstock, as customers ran upstairs and around the corner to find their prized releases! We had the 7” singles downstairs, while all the 10” and 12” releases were spread out upstairs. Within minutes, the store was filled to the brim with close to 300 anxious audiophiles, all searching for releases…
The real pandemonium was upstairs as customers tried to maneuver through the tight aisles to get to the RSD section. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Easy Street’s vinyl section so packed – we had 2-3 people upstairs all day, helping customers locate specific titles. Downstairs was just as crazy, as the checkout line began to form. We had to snake customers up and down the aisles, all the way back to the stairs and eventually back up into the vinyl section.
It was quite the experience coming in. I’ve been to a few early morning Black Fridays, but this was probably the craziest shopping experience I’ve ever had I think. Fortunately I was one of the first people in line so I got enough time to grab everything I wanted, but the crowd in front and behind me at the 12″ selection upstairs was quite hectic. I made it to the checkout line in the perfect amount of time as I only had to wait about 10-15 minutes (if I had waited about 10 mins longer to head back downstairs I probably would have waited 30+ minutes). Below is a picture of what it was like upstairs:
You can see me picking up the awesome GZA set before heading downstairs to pay for everything (the trip was spendy but worth it!). Overall I had a good amount of fun heading over for the opening of Record Store Day. Next year I might try checking out another store as the layout at Easy Street Records didn’t make it too comfortable to shop given the at least 100-200 other people surrounding you while trying to grab your picks. With that said though, the employees were very nice and keeping everything running smoothly while I was there so props to them.
Below is what I ended up picking up for myself. I did get every record that I wanted for the day so I was pretty happy.
Previous Record Store Day Posts:
2012
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Happy Record Store Day 2013!
It’s that time of the year again, today is Record Store Day 2013! I had planned to stop at a few shops today but I ended up spending a little too much on exclusives over at Easy Street Records so I decided to head home after I was done there. This was the first year I’ve lined up early and I stayed up all night waiting to head over so I’m pretty tired right now. I will be sharing some of my thoughts about the day and photos of my pickups tomorrow.
Above is a pretty interesting video that Pitchfork put up for the day which discusses the current state of record stores and vinyl pressing. Many people go over the good things and to my surprise some of the negative aspects of there being an official Record Store Day (I personally think the good definitely outweighs any bad). It has some discussion that I hadn’t really thought about before so I’d recommend checking it out if you have any interest in the topic.
Upcoming Quasimoto ‘Yessir Whatever’ – Compilation Tracklist
Earlier today the Quasimoto Facebook page hinted at the following: “Now playing — Quasimoto “Yessir Whatever” LP test press”. Shortly after a post to Instagram showed a test pressing which you can see above.
Many around the internet have been incredibly excited about this, most thinking a new Quasimoto album is in the works. When I was at work I was getting excited about the idea myself. After coming home though I looked at the test pressing photo a little more closely and noticed that they already had a catalog number posted which is “STH 2326”. A quick search on Google has found that rather than a new album, Yessir Whatever will be a compilation of harder to find tracks from various sources and maybe some unreleased material (Here is the screenshot for evidence of this). The track list can be seen below and I’ve linked to where info can be found for each song (Stones Throw can be nazis about songs online so not all can be heard here):
1. Broad Factor
2. Seasons Change
3. The Front
4. Youngblood
5. Astronaut
6. Planned Attack
7. Brothers Can not See Me
8. Catchin ‘the Vibe
9. Am I Confused?
10. Sparkdala (Original Version)
11. Green Power (Original Version)
12. LAX to JFK
It’s too bad but I guess a new Quasimoto album was too good to be true. It will be nice to have a release with some of these tracks though since a lot of folks might not have heard this material before. The fact that this was said to be coming out in June 2013 makes a lot more sense given this new info. A thread over at STMB from back in November also mentioned the possible release of a Quasimoto compilation.
Screenshot with album info: 
Secondhand Sureshots
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Great little film that Dublab put out a few years back. Fantastic beat makers J Rocc, Ras G, Daedelus, and Nobody all get $5 each to buy dollar bin records to make a beat. Seeing the process of what they look for in the records they buy and then seeing them head back to their work spaces to make music is really interesting. All of the music put together is great, but I’d have to say that J Rocc’s beat stole the show in my opinion.
The release for this film was also neat. The limited edition package included a picture disc vinyl set with screen printed gatefold cover, slipmats, and more which was pretty sweet. I’m happy to say that I picked this version up when it released. You can check out a bunch of photos of the limited edition goodies and see more details and promos for the movie over here. Fortunately a physical release with DVD and CD is still available for purchase over here as well.
Edit: I was reading about the set over on Discogs and found out the first 500 copies also included a hand-numbered, stamped, and printed paper slip inside which I took a photo of here. What was funny though is that of all of the numbers I could have gotten, I received 420 of 500. I thought this was worth pointing out given their smoking habits!
Daft Punk – Get Lucky (Teaser)
Earlier last week someone posted the shaky cam video from the teaser shown at Coachella and everyone around the internet (including myself) has gotten even more excited about the new Daft Punk album that is releasing next month. Like the teaser for the song that was put out last month, the longer ad featuring Pharrell and Nile Rodgers was played on last night’s Saturday Night Live. It’s nice to finally see a high quality version of the video.
The song is really really good, it’s just too bad that we haven’t gotten anymore of it than this (it’s so short I have to keep playing it over and over again). I’m also digging the style of everything associated with this record so far like the album art, the stylized lettering of the album’s title, and just the way everything looks in the video above really. Right now I’d have to say that Random Access Memories and Danny Brown’s Old are two of my most anticipated releases of the year so far. Can’t wait for next month!