Vinyl Me, Please

Mike asked for the list of "52 must have" albums on vinyl as compiled from Vinyl Me, Please.

A grouping compiled from a lot of different sources that aggregated to the list below. So here they in alphabetic order, RED AND BOLD = NEED  while BLACK AND STRUCKTHROUGH = HAVE. So that is 15 of the 52 possessed, and for those of you not math inclined that leaves 37 left to procure. and that is part of the fun, trying to find some as you can't just get them all on Amazon.com.  And I will say it again, if anyone sees Beck's - Sea Change on vinyl and it isn't crazy expensive, pick it up and I will pay you back for it :)

52 - Must Haves (not my list, just taken and used from vinyl me, please) 

1  Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion  

2  Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique

3  The Beatles – Revolver

4  Beck – Sea Change

5  Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

6  The Black Keys – Thickfreakness

7  Blur-Think Tank

8  Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to the Children

9  Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde

10 Bon Iver – Bon Iver

11 Daft Punk – Random Access Memories

12 Darkside – Psychic

13 David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust

14 Dire Straits – Love Over Gold

15 DJ Shadow – …Entroducing

16 The Felice Brothers – The Felice Brothers

17 The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin

18 Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

19 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

20 Funkadelic – Maggot Brain

21 Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

22 John Coltrane – A Love Supreme

23 Joni Mitchell – Blue

24 Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

25 Kid Koala – 12 bit Blues

26 Led Zeppelin – II

27 Madvillain – Madvillainy

28 Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

29 Michael Jackson – Thriller

30 Miles Davis – Kind of Blue

31 My Bloody Valentine – Loveless

32 Neil Young – Harvest

33 Neutral Milk Hotel – In an Aeroplane Over the Sea

34 Panda Bear – Tomboy

35 Paul Simon – Graceland

36 Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted

37 Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of the Moon

38 Portishead – Third

39 R.L. Burnside – Too Bad Jim

40 Radiohead-KidA

41 Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come

42 The Rolling Stones – Exile On Main Street

43 Sigur Rós – Agaetis Byrjun

44 Slint – Spiderland

45 Steely Dan – Aja

46 The Strokes – Is This It?

47 Sufjan Stevens – Illinois

48 Van Morrison – Moondance

49 The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

50 The White Stripes – Elephant

51 Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

52 Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Hipster, Total Hipster pt. 4

The vinyl me, please web site has a listing of their 52 "must haves" and as I read through the list is it a pretty great one.  So I am on a quest to track them down.  New or original doesn't matter to me so much, but what I am finding is some aren't so easy (or cheap) to actually procure. but this is what I do, check amazon, eBay, the interwebs... I need to find a couple of good vinyl spots down here in Dallas, that is next on my list to do.  I do know the next time I am in Minneapolis my buddy Justin has offered to take me to the best record haunts up there, so that is exciting!  On a side note, if anyone happens to run into a copy of Beck's – Sea Change and it isn't hundreds of dollars and is in good shape, pick it up and I will buy it from you!

My latest purchase is Beirut - The Flying Club Cup It was not available on Amazon Prime, sold out, temporarily unavailable), there are a couple other options listed at $300.00 + shipping.  So I found this one on eBay from the pacific northwest.  I haven't opened it yet.  But I do love love love the sound, and I am a pretty disagreeable guy, but this makes me happy, oh so happy.

 The words, as taken from the album back:

Cliquot! Your name still haunts our conversations, we haven’t forgotten you our friend and constant companion, hunter of the elusive Spanish fox (his tail curls counter clockwise), holy fool, pickpocket, born in the blue shade of a Lebanese cedar, his mother wrapped his moist head in Turkish silks like a whirling dervish and christened him Cliquot, bastard son of Jean Luc, a retired legionnaire with black teeth. Cliquot! I have seen you beat a man in the dark alleys of Pigalle and then come weeping into my room to sink your soft blonde head into the depths of my lap, moaning “I have no home, no country, no mother”, and so I held your bruised fist in my palm and counted every crooked line and wrinkle and told you the story of Napoleon and how he fell to sleep every night by intoning (in his hoarse battle-weary voice) the name of every country he had yet to conquer.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

On cold nights Cliquot would wanter the Marais in a purple bishop’s robe and mandarin slippers with tiny bells ringing around both ankles. Little Napoleon, in Pere Lachaise, you told me how they once buried men with bells they might ring in case they woke because death is never real it is
The balloon is ready, I’ve tethered it to the balcony with a knot no sailor could invent. Ignore the gathering crowds below. Plebeians! Maybe if we look closely we will find our mothers waving handkerchiefs, and our fathers scowling. If we see any children we’ll throw them candy but don’t tell them why we are up here, floating above Belleville in a hot air balloon. If they knew, they’d never want to sleep in their own beds ever again.

Remember how we met? Barefoot on the beach (the hem of your dress starched white with salt). I was flying a beautiful kite. Yours was ragged and obviously self made. After a few failed attempts at flight you threw your kite on the sand and stomped on it. I wondered if it was your first kite. Kite making, you assured me, was not your specialty. But we are too old for kites. Let us toast the Flying Club Cup, our health, a quick painless death and helium.

I’m going to sleep so well tonight.

Breathe in, deeply now, okay do you feel it?

Don’t worry, we’re finally here.

Congratulations to Mike, Cathy and Dani for entering to win!, I will be contacting you in the not too distant future with details.

There is still time to ask questions in the post below as well!
Song of the day? enjoy the full album:

Vinyl Me, Please #1

Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation on  purple vinyl

This is my first offing from Vinyl Me, Please. I had not heard of Youth Lagoon or his album The Year of Hibernation prior to receiving it in the mail last week.  I have enjoyed it quite thoroughly.  Slow, melodic, ambient like a trip through a dream.  Not a bad one, but own where you don't quite know what is happening.

Jamie Lou was working last night and instead of watching TV, I played some music and put this on and she said "Am I going to like it?"
My reply was "Only you can know that."
As were were listening she said "That was not what I expected.  I actually didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't that.  That was really easy to work to."

So there you have it, from a workaholic music critic, if you want some super chill music to be able to enjoy yet still get some work done look for Trevor Powers as Youth Lagoon and his album The Year of Hibernation.

Which brings me to my next part, the player in the photo.  Broke down and got a new powered turntable, and went with the Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB.  Whilst I still have yet to utilized the USB to computer option with Audacity, I have enjoyed how easy it is to set up, balance, plug in and play with this unit.  While it may be more a low end DJ's table, the fact it has on board power and I do not have to mess with a pre-amp sold me on it.  This was picked up in large part thanks to a Christmas gift card to Amazon from Cas and Tad Chilly.  So thanks!

Now enjoy the melancholy that is: