MetaFilter posts tagged with records and vinyl

Vinyl makes a comeback this Saturday

mediareport — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:31:50 -0800

Is it "a momentary blip on the inevitable decline of a dying format" or "the onset of an extended revival that will see the record outlive its arch-nemesis the CD?" Last year more people bought vinyl LPs than in any year since Nielsen started keeping track in 1991, nearly doubling sales from the year before. Turntable sales rebounded sharply in 2006. This Saturday, coordinated with the 2nd international Record Store Day, dozens of artists and labels are releasing exclusive vinyl versions of unreleased tracks, rare 7" reissues, remasters and new songs, solely to participating stores. Here's the full list (most with cover art here). Previously.

A New Creation Resurrected from Obscurity

jonp72 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:46:46 -0800

The New Creation was born in 1970 when Chris Towers, an unknown guitarist from Vancouver, decided to form a Christian rock group with his mother Lorna as lead singer and their neighbor Janet Tiessen on drums. Scared by reports of the hippie excesses of the Manson/Altamont era, Lorna Towers wrote doom-laden, apocalyptic lyrics for the New Creation's aptly titled album, Troubled. The band was unpolished, yet somehow captured a unique lo-fi sound comparable to a hybrid of the Velvet Underground and the Shaggs. The group might be totally forgotten today, if an aging hippie record dealer named Ty Scammel hadn't rescued a copy from a $1 bargain bin, leading to the album's rediscovery by collectors of Christian rock and outsider music. Companion Records released a reissue CD that proved popular enough that the band not only re-formed, but released A Unique Disaster, a sequel CD inspired by the Book of Revelations and the Left Behind series. Now that an impossibly rare original copy of the New Creation's Troubled has appeared on EBay, rediscover the band once again with a great article from the Canadian blog, Alienated in Vancouver. Sound clips can be found here, and a fan video of the Status Quo Song can be found on YouTube.

(NSC) - RIP Ron Murphy, master vinyl cutter.

loquacious — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:55:52 -0800

Ron Murphy cut records, but not just any records. Responsible for cutting the actual vinyl master plates of much of the now revered Detroit Techno including Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance's seminal Knights of the Jaguar, and much more - he demonstrated impeccable craftsmanship and skill in both mastering records for sound and aesthetics at company known as Sound Enterprises source link AKA National Sound Corporation. Schooled in Motown, dubplates and jukeboxes, he is the bespoke-crafted, analog link between the digital future and analog past that is the roots of Techno music and modern techno DJ culture. One hour interview here, in mp3 format. (Coral Cache link. Original link here. Which includes gems such as "Richie Hawtin? Well, here's the Elvis of Techno!". He's a lovely curmudgeon, I promise. It's worth the download just for the tracks they play in the background and breaks in the interview, all NSC-cut tracks.) Are you a DJ? Own any older techno, club or pop-remix club vinyl? Look for the handwritten (NSC) tag on the run-out spiral on the inside of the record, nearest the label. Ron Murphy cut the plates for that record. Ron Murphy also pushed the the boundaries of plate cutting with his NSC-X2 technique, spiraling two separate tracks together in a paired helix on the platter. He also experimented with reverse spirals, locked ending grooves, and hybrid platters where the outside track spiraled in normally, and the inside track spiraled out and they met between mid-record in a locked groove. Thanks, Ron, for making it sound so good, and caring.

When Music Lived in Nice Houses

dhammond — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:59:28 -0800

Record Envelope is a blog devoted to the bygone era of creative sleeves for vinyl 45s.

In a future time, children will work together to build a giant...

phrontist — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:44:52 -0800

Two industrial robots spin records.

Was Tigermilk worth it?

The Jesse Helms — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:39:05 -0800

What is the value of your vinyl record? An archive of the marketplace of wax.

Finally, a decent use for silicone.

31d1 — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:23:59 -0800

How to copy records.

1980s Vinyl Multimedia

meehawl — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 11:20:11 -0800

1980s Vinyl Multimedia In the 1980s UK, artists were busy embedding multimedia-enabling compiled computer code into the locked grooves of their vinyl releases (and some cassette tapes). Who knew?

It's an

Stan Chin — Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:17:22 -0800

"With VinylVideo™, you can now transform your old record player and your TV set into a brand-new home movie medium - quickly, conveniently, and without complicated instruction manuals. With the revolutionary VinylVideo™ Picture Disks, for which numerous top-name artists have already produced exclusive works, you can now design your own TV viewing program featuring picture quality that is truly extraordinary." Hey hey that sounds useful! Maybe their next big idea is replacing DVDs with Viewmaster reels. Check out the real audio informercial if you have the chacne.

Digital Needle

brittney — Mon, 10 Feb 2003 00:24:42 -0800

Digital Needle is a virtual gramophone open source program that converts scanned--yes, scanned--vinyl records into audio.

Dead again

badstone — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 13:12:13 -0800

The end of Vinyl II? Stanton ships Final Scratch, which enables a DJ to manipulate (mix, scratch, cut...) any music on their PC with their turntables. Besides not needing to carry all the weight and bulk of crates of records around, DJs can now skip the expensive and complicated step of cutting their own records in order to play original tracks. Is vinyl going to die for real this time?

Show and Tell Music - Thrift Store Vinyl.

condour75 — Thu, 05 Dec 2002 17:51:37 -0800

Show and Tell Music - Thrift Store Vinyl. There are lots of vinyl sites out there, but some of the items in this collection had me floored. And the quantity is just as impressive as the quality -- several pages of unintentionally funny Christian vinyl you have to see to believe. MP3 samples too! Via BoingBoing, but got lost under a lengthy EFF post (which was also good).

jonmc — Sat, 31 Aug 2002 20:09:55 -0800

In an a era where so much music seems overly mechanical Funk45.com and Galactic Fractures are terrific reminders that danceablity can be warm and loose and that human-powered music is the funkiest. These sites have what every good music site should have, encyclopedaic knowledge, detailed info, and truckloads of audio that makes you wanna find a good record store and hunt down the 45's yourself. And it's all presented in a way that encourages you to dig deeper. The song You Got Me Mama by Hayes Ware is a favorite, but there's plenty of great stuff. requires RealAudio

MrBaliHai — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 17:19:31 -0800

Frank's Vinyl Museum is an invaluable resource for those of use who think that there's a thin line between trash and treasure. It's also a great place to indulge your taste in guilty musical pleasures without having to actually buy any of these crappy records at your local thrift store.

paulrockNJ — Tue, 16 Oct 2001 22:35:55 -0800

Recordnerd.com : Possibly a repeat - sorry if it is. This is a cool site for record nerds like me to get rid of some old stuff and search out some new stuff at the same time.