Turntable and Vinyl...What????

Yes, it's true, I still have all of my albums. Vinyl albums. I have a lot of them. I'm not the person with the most albums of all time....not even close, I imagine. But the 650-700 that I do have I treat like you all treat your kids: some I like a whole lot better than others; some are a whole lot better looking than other ones; some of them get way more attention from me than the others do; and some I'd just like to put up for sale on eBay. Yeah, I know what you're saying: "TFKoP, how could even say that about me and my kids?? I would NEVER think one was better looking than another one...." hahaha!

Well, for the past couple of years my turntable has been broken, so my albums have not gotten any playing time during its absence. I've dilly-dallied around about getting a new turntable, instead getting this or that, figuring I'd just pick one up "soon". Well, "soon" turned into two years, but thankfully, "soon" finally arrived this week. I finally got a new turntable.

My Panasonic PL-990 Stereo Turntable arrived this week. I found it on Amazon.com (I'll give them the plug) and it was through Amazon.com that the sale was facilitated between myself and the seller, J&R Music World, out of NYC.



Hooking the turntable up to my existing stereo was easy, but the hard part was to come: which 33rpm album to play first. Not such an easy decision when there are so many albums to pick from. Do I play the first album I ever owned (The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers)? Do I play something from the alternative rock era (REM's Murmer)? Do I just close my eyes and randomly pick an album from one of the 6 boxes that I have filled (Lords of the New Church's Lords of The New Church)? Yikes...this might not be so easy to do.

After careful consideration, I decided to play Wilco's Sky Blue Sky album first. Here's why: Wilco just released this album last year....that's 2007. Yes, hard to believe a band would release something on vinyl in this day and age, but they did. Of course it was available on CD also and via download, but I loved that they took the time to release it on the old format of vinyl. And being a Wilco fan, it was a no-brainer that I was going to get a vinly copy in addition to the CD version. Vinyl Sky Blue Sky has been patiently waiting for a needle to caress her grooves (wow...that sounded dirty...nice...) and this was the perfect opportunity to break in a new turntable. And it's such a great set of music, which always helps. For this album, Wilco's sound harkens back to those early/mid-70s sounds reminiscent of the Allman Brothers, or The Grateful Dead...that mellow, laid back rock. "Impossible Germany" and "Shake It Off" are slow building rockers, and you can just lay back to enjoy "Sky Blue Sky" or "Please Be Patient With Me". One of the 5 best albums, or CDs, or 2007.

Here are the other 4 albums that were next to make their way onto the turntable. Journey's 1982 release Departure. I imagine some of you are groaning about this choice. But I'm not lying when I say that I loved Journey when I was in high school. Hell, I still love Journey. Not the new lineup with the different singer though, as you may remember Neil Schon and Journey kicked Steve Perry out of the band in the 1998 because he had degenerative bone loss in his hips and it would've delayed their tour for him to have surgery. So the band booted him and replaced him with a guy who looked exactly Steve Perry, hit high notes like Steve Perry, and whose name was Steven Augeri (Oh-jerry), which even SOUNDS like 'Perry'. That lineup didn't last long and he has since been replaced by Jeff Scott Soto, and more recently he was replaced with Arnel Pineda. Despite all that recent crap, this album, Departure, for me is their best album. It has the best line-up of their several (Infinity and Evolution also had this line-up), and the tunes run from rock ("Anyway You Want It"), to bluesy ("Walks Like a Lady", "Line of Fire") to quiet and mellow ("Good Morning, Girl"). It's a great album. And it was great hearing it with the hisses and pops you can only get from a turntable needle.

The third album to play was Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School by Warren Zevon. This was the first album he released after Excitable Boy, which contained his one and only hit "Werewolves of London". Though this album did not reach the masses as easily as his previous one, it was an album that just rocked. The title track, the cover of "A Certain Girl", "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" and "Play It All Night Long". Great album by one of my all-time favorite musicians.

Hermitage by the Waxing Poetics came on fourth. Who the hell are the Waxing Poetics, you ask? A fair question. The Waxing Poetics are a band that I came to know during my stay in Virigina Beach while I was in the Navy. I was stationed in VA Beach from 1985 to 1987 and there was a decent alternative music scene that had taken hold in in this East Coast city. The Boneshakers, Kings Dominion and The Waxing Poetics were just three of the many local bands playing the alternative music circuit in Virginia Beach. I saw all of them play so many times at Cafe Loco, The Jewish Mother, Waves, Dominic's and Coogans. The Waxing Poetics were great live, and they have a jangly-pop-alternative sound that is both hummable and catchy. You can't help but get up and groove when this album is on. I miss the days of seeing them live. The went on to release two more albums that moved away from the jangly sound to one that was more thoughtful and a little dark, but they were great albums (Bedtime Stories and Manakin Moon). I'm so glad that I have this on vinyl as I don't even know if "Hermitage" can even be found anymore, let alone as a platter. "Mrs. Dance's Skeleton", "If You Knew Sushi", "Beauty and The Beatitudes" and "Walking on Thin Legs" are just 4 of the 11 great tracks on this album. And Mike Mills, bassist for REM, was one of the producers of this album along with producer-extraodinaire Mitch Easter.

Led Zeppelin had to make an appearance for the turntable to be properly broken-in, so Physical Graffiti was heard for a long time yesterday. And by "heard" I mean throughout the whole friggin' neighborhood cuz I had it CRANKED. You tell me a rock-album side better than side 2 of this two-album set: "Houses of the Holy" followed by "Trampled Underfoot" followed by "Kashmir". Pure. Rock. Bliss. Side note: what do you think of when you hear "Kashmir" playing on the radio? Me? I always think of the scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High when this song plays as Stacey and Mark are makikng out. Great great movie, by the way.



I couldn't wind down the turntable without making sure that it also worked on the 45rpm setting. So, since Zep had just completed I kept the theme alive and cranked my Japanese-import copy of "Immigrant Song", which has on its B-side the non-album-release song "Hey Hey What Can I Do". What a great fucking song!!!!!! I love that song. Interestingly, if you can see in the pic, there is a liner-notes paper that came with the 45 of this song. It has the lyrics to "Immigrant Song" both in English and in Japanese.

Ahhhh.....I'm so happy having a funtioning turntable once again. I can just see all of my vinyl getting some spins in the very near future, I'm telling you.

Maybe in another post I'll give you the list of albums and/or artists that will never find a home on my stereo. (Europe, I'm looking in your direction....)

The Lunatic is on the Grass.....

Last Saturday (9/16/2006) I went to see Roger Waters at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ. I went with a couple of friends of mine, and we went to the show right after an afternoon of disc golf at Sedgley Woods Disc Golf Course here in Philly. The word over the 'net about this tour was that the entire Dark Side of the Moon album would be played live, from first note to last note, and of course, we expected lots of Floyd songs. As we tailgated before the show, we altered our moods in preparation, and from the look of the other concert-goers in the parking lot, we weren't the only ones.

The show was awesome! We had managed to score a great spot on the lawn, looking down at the center of the stage, and though the band looked tiny from our perch, the humongous screens on the facade of the pavillion brought them to us in much better detail. More important than seeing the band was being able to hear the band, and the sound was great. There were many great moments, but the best was during the playing of "Sheep", and the well-known Pink Floyd inflatable pig made its appearance. (note: apologies for the less-than-stellar picture...it was taken with my cell phone....at night....but, it is an accurate visual description of how everything was looking to me that night!) The floating swine had many things written on it in black ink: Habeus corpus is still the right way was written on the right side; Kafka Rules okay on the left; and on the ass-end was written Impeach George Bush. Hey, the pig speaks the truth. The pig was floating and being pulled through the covered part of the pavillion by someone who had it on a tether. As the portly pink porcine was hovering its way over the crowd, it eventually was brought to those of us in the cheap seats. Once clear of the pavillion and out in the lawn area, it was let go. Yes, the pig was on the run. And as we looked up at it, floating away into the dark of night, spotlight on it, we saw what was written underneath: Free at Last! What we wondered was this: how could something so big be released so close to a major airport.? The Philadelphia Airport is only 5 miles from the concert venue, so we pondered: would there be a UFO (Unidentified Flying Oinker) sighting reported? Would planes flying by it have an announcement of "ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the right side of the plane you'll see a pig"? Would thousands of people lose money on bets they placed with the "when pigs fly" caveat in place? Would it reach a certain altitude and pop, sending bacon bits raining down on everything below it?

Early in the show they did a nice tribute of sorts to the recently deceased Syd Barrett. The four-song block of "Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun/Have a Cigar/Shine on You Crazy Diamond/Wish You Were Here" was accompanied by lots of film footage and pics of Syd and the early days of Pink Floyd.

The set list:

Set 1: In The Flesh / Mother / Set the Controls for The Heart of the Sun / Have a Cigar / Shine On You Crazy Diamond / Wish You Were Here / The Final Cut / Fletcher Memorial / Perfect Sense / Leaving Beriut (new song) / Sheep

(15 minute break)

Set 2: Entire Dark Side of the Moon (Speak To Me / Breathe / On The Run / Time / Breathe [reprise] / The Great Gig in the Sky / Money / Us and Them / Any Colour You Like / Brain Damage / Eclipse)

Encore: Vera Lynn / Bring the Boys Back Home / Comfortably Numb / Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2

Post concert, we tailgated for about another hour to give time for the traffic to ease up. It was a great time.

I've never seen Pink Floyd live (the real Pink Floyd band...not the one that currently tours but would be better off called the The David Gilmour Band), but I've seen Roger Waters twice (the other time being in 1987 in Worcester, MA during his Radio K.A.O.S. tour), and both times the shows have been great. Can't wait for him to come around again.

So, an afternoon of disc golf and an evening seeing Roger Waters in concert on a clear, starry night. That, my friends, is The Finest Kind of Pork.