Tomorrow Is Vinyl Saturday...

 

...and you know what that means: It's an official reason/excuse for yer vinyl-centric EIC to buy more wax! Yes, it's true — the folks who bring us that wonderful annual spring event, Record Store Day, are presenting Saturday, June 20, as the inaugural Vinyl Saturday. Among the day's sweet exclusives are limited-edition offerings from the likes of Wilco, Green Day, Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson, and Modest Mouse. So get on out to your favorite rekkid store and do yer vinyl duty. And feel free to look for me at my preferred haunt in NJ, Vintage Vinyl. Happy hunting, y'all... —Mike Mettler, S&V EIC

Lovin' the LP: my first weekend with PerspeX

Longtime S&V readers know how much your humble Editor-In-Chief loves vinyl. But my old turntable was, well, old, and the more I listened to my LPs, the more I realized I had to bite the bullet and get a new 'table. I never enter new-gear purchase modes lightly, so, after months of research, a few sort-of clandestine listening sessions at CES, and some persuasive expert advice, I decided to go with the Pro-Ject 6 PerspeX turntable and a Sumiko Blackbird cartridge. 

And I am sooooo glad I did.

I had to wait one weekend longer that I wanted to before I could devote the proper time to set the 'table up properly. I got the 'table itself set and level on a wood table out of the line of fire of my speakers and subwoofer on Saturday and installed the cartridge and adjusted the tonearm on Sunday. I, of course, took meticulous care in optimizing tracking force, antiskating, overhang, zenith, azimuth, and the arm's VTA (vertical tracking angle). As soon as I was satisfied with my adjustments, I connected the PerspeX to my receiver's phono stage and got down to putting needle to platter. . . .

April 18 is Record Store Day!

Worried about the demise of independent record stores nationwide? Then make a date to visit your local "mom and pop" shop this Saturday, April 18 — the second annual Record Store Day.

Bands will play. Special releases will be available. And despite the logo above, this isn't only about vinyl; it's about everything that your local record store offers. Including little things like music knowledge and customer service.

For a complete list of participating stores, product exclusives, in-store performances, and related events, go to recordstoreday.com.

Last year, my photographer son Tony and I went to 4 Record Stores in 1 Record Store Day. Visit that link to get a taste of what the second RSD will be like.

Alas, I will be unavoidably otherwise engaged this Saturday, so I won't be able to do another multistore mecca. But I hope to visit at least one shop before the sun goes down.

Don't let the sun go down on your local record store. Spread the word about Saturday, go to the store, buy some stuff, and buy some more stuff. You'll be glad you did.

— Ken Richardson

Boxed Set of the Month: Pearl Jam's "Ten"

Let's see now . . . two CDs, one DVD, four LPs, a buncha other stuff, and a cassette! What, no 8-track? Despite that, the Collector's Edition of Pearl Jam's 1991 debut, Ten (Epic/Legacy), truly goes to Eleven — and as such, it's without question our Boxed Set of the Month for March.

In an increasingly non-physical-product Entertainment Age, this box, subtitled Pearl Jam 1990-1992, is the epitome of how record companies — when they do get physical — are pulling out all the stops for certain projects. I mean, just look at that thing above.

List price for the Collector's Edition: $199.98. Amazon.com is selling it here at $134.99.

Another thing that the box doesn't have, however, is — hello? HELLO?! — a surround mix of the album itself. Sigh.

Some details:

B&W&E Street: Steve Van Zandt is a B&W Fellow

Audio company Bowers & Wilkins has just announced that Steve Van Zandt is the newest Fellow in the company's Society of Sound. Van Zandt is a longtime member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, as well as a solo artist and actor (best known for his role as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos). He's also a very vocal audiophile, who had some interesting things to say in the announcement:

"The CD was the biggest scam perpetrated on the public. If you don't believe me, compare your CD to the same record on vinyl. It's shocking: The difference is vast. "The challenge for the industry is to archive these very cool records that our elder brothers and sisters made — archive them in their original analog form. Currently, this isn't happening; they are being preserved in a digital format, which is a big problem."

The Society of Sound is a collective of musicians and other music industry professionals who discuss issues regarding music, audio quality, and the issues that affect sound. As a Society of Sound Fellow, Van Zandt joins the ranks of musicians like Peter Gabriel, Cassandra Wilson, and Alfred Brendel, along with other prominent figures in the music world, including producers Peter Van Hooke, Michael Gleason, and Dave Stewart, composer James Newton Howard, and Professor Tod Machover of M.I.T.'s Media Lab.

— Will Greenwald

4 Record Stores in 1 Record Store Day

That's what my photographer son Tony and I accomplished last Saturday (April 19) on the first annual Record Store Day. As I announced here previously, RSD is an effort (spearheaded by indie-shop organizations) to remind people that, yes, record stores still exist. And on Saturday, some participating shops had specials, and some even had in-store appearances, such as the one you see above: The Parlor Mob at Jack's Music Shoppe. For more on that and the other three stores that Tony and I checked out, click below.

Get Thee to a Shoppery!

What's a "record store"? If you've never been to one, it's time for you to paddle away from your computer keyboard's virtual Amazon and enter the real world of bricks and mortar. And if you're, ahem, an older buyer who hasn't been to one in a while, it's time for you to remember the future. (Band? Nationality? Year? Famous guy who joined them later? Answers below.)

Floyd, U2, Radiohead in surround. NOT!

It's getting tougher and tougher these days to cheerlead the cause of music in surround sound. No, we at S&V aren't giving up. But, coming so soon after hearing that we're getting the best of Led Zeppelin on stereo CD (again) as opposed to any of the studio albums in 5.1, we can only give a huge sigh at some recent announcements from titans of three different music generations.

Radiohead, Eagles: Out of Record Stores

"Record stores"? What are those? Judging from actions by bands as seemingly disparate as Radiohead (left) and the Eagles, record stores are obsolete.

Just this morning, it was confirmed that Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, will be available on Oct. 10 — but only through radiohead.com. You can preorder the album in two different versions: as DRM-free MP3 downloads or in a "Discbox," which, according to the band's PR agency, "includes double-vinyl and CD versions of the record and a second, enhanced CD with additional new songs, artwork, and photographs of the band, all exclusive to the box. Anyone purchasing this deluxe edition will automatically receive the bundled MP3 album on Oct. 10." The box will ship "on or before" Dec. 3, according to the band's site.

The Discbox will sell for 40 pounds (about $80). But get this: The Oct. 10 download-only version will sell for . . . apparently, whatever you want! That's right! How much is the new Radiohead album worth? "It's up to you," says the band's site.

Talking about devaluing music.

But let's get back to those things called record stores . . .

"Magic": Early Vinyl Gets the Grammy?

Hot on the heels of my Bruce Springsteen post last week comes word that his new album with the E Street Band, due October 2 on CD, will appear on LP a full week earlier, on September 25.

Why? Because the cutoff date for albums to be eligible for the 2007 Grammy Awards is September 30. A-ha!

Of course, the very fact that the cutoff date for the year is three months before the END of the year is, ahem, RIDICULOUS! Every year, some important records miss that cutoff — which explains why the Grammys have always been hopelessly out of sync with the rest of the award-givers and Top 10 listers. Really, it's time that the Grammy folks joined the rest of the world and made their cutoff date, if not December 31, then at least November 30. (Very few albums are released during the month of December. It's considered too late for extended holiday shopping.)

Anyway, vinyl junkies, you can now beat the rest of the Boss's fans by 7 days. So get ready. Meanwhile, here's the cover art.

And get ready for the tour, everybody. It will happen. —Ken Richardson