TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 106 A deeper look into the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day-issued 10” ‘Painkiller’ single by Judas Priest. DATE: 11-27-15 WRITER: Bill Adams Hey – remember that period of time when the lights went out in Judas Priest? There have been a few reasons for the stall proposed over the years, but the truth is that it really needed to happen; the truth is that Painkiller (the band’s twelfth studio album) was a portrait of a...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 107 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Black Friday-released reissue of the ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ 7” single by Falco. DATE: 11-27-15 WRITER: Bill Adams It might sound like an unusual endorsement, but few singles are so historically impressive as Johann “Falco” Hölzel’s “Rock Me Amadeus.” Released in 1985, the song marked both Falco’s greatest hit as well as illustrating just how quickly rap had extended its musical reach around the world. Thirty years later...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 108 A deeper look into the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day-released ‘Everyday People’ split single by Jeff Buckley and Sly and the Family Stone DATE: 11-27-15 WRITER: Bill Adams The catch about really trying to review a split single is that the artists included don’t always fall on the same musical line for easy comparison. Likewise, somtimes the songs don’t really jive well together either – but then there are the really unusual cases which...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 105 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day pressing of the ‘Batman theme’ 7” single by Neal Hefti DATE: 11-26-15 WRITER: Bill Adams It might sound like earnest overreaching to contend at first, but the “Batman Theme” written by Neal Hefti and featured (in varying lengths) at the beginning of every episode of the original Batmantelevision series broadcast from 1966 to 1968 of ABC is a genuine classic. I don’t mean ‘classic’...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 103 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Criss Cross by Thelonious Monk. DATE: 11-26-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman There’s nothing I like better than trading favorite albums with friends. That friendly filter applied to the music we’re consuming goes a long way, and it’s still my highest recommendation when I’m asked what the best way is to find new music. It was in the Summer of 2005, right before I went to grad school, that a...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day-pressed reissue of Earthling by David Bowie. Leave it to David Bowie to wrap a perfectly tongue-in-cheek idea in populist medium and make a celebration of it. That is, of course, precisely what the singer has done in licensing Earthling for a fresh vinyl pressing now, almost twenty years after the album was originally released. Confused reader? Let me clarify it for you: when Earthling was first released in...

TITLE: Green Day To Release Limited Black Friday Edition of American Idiot DATE: 11-23-15 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Green Day today announced that they will release a limited Black Friday vinyl edition of their two-time Grammy® Award-winning album American Idiot on November 27, 2015. The special release will be available exclusively at independent record stores in the United States. Find the store closest to you at www.recordstoreday.com . The 5,000 limited edition run will...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 102 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Upright Citizen 7” by Harrington Saints DATE: 11-21-15 WRITER: Bill Adams Earlier this year, Harrington Saints really broke through and made an impression when they bucked their own traditions, crossed pop-punk and Oi and changed their fates forever on the Fish & Chips EP. The change from street-y Oi yo fare which could be instantly accessible to a much larger potential market almost seemed spontaneous; Harrington Saints...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 100 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2015 vinyl reissue of Souljacker by the Eels. DATE: 11-18-15 WRITER: Bill Adams …And then, for their fourth LP, Eels would offer their fans something completely different. Before this point in their catalogue, the band has remained fairly passive and artful in their compositions as well as in the presentations of them (it was all very alt-) but, on Souljacker, the band takes a much more forceful...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 101 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2015 vinyl reissue of Shootenanny! by the Eels. DATE: 11-18-15 WRITER: Bill Adams After Souljacker was released, nothing was ever quite the same again for the Eels. Part of it must have felt fantastic because the band really thrived; it was as though Souljacker blew open a floodgate which spontaneously made new sounds, experiments with different moods, vibes and ideas fair game to explore. Liberated, Mark Everett...