Monthly Archives: March 2018

In rotation: 3/21/18

By TVD HQ | Published: March 21, 2018

Local record store turns vinyl into gold: In an age in which more Americans are turning to subscription services and online streaming for their music, one Baltimore record store is making money the old fashion way: selling vinyl. The Sound Garden, which is located at 1616 Thames Street in Fells Point, boasts a diverse selection of over 5,000 vinyl LPs and a wide variety of CDs, movies and cassettes that has allowed it to stay in business since 1993 despite a digital revolution that has closed several popular record stores in Washington, New York and other parts of the country. Customers who enter the warehouse style box store are greeted with the sounds of the 1980s and 1990s and can thumb through albums much like music lovers did 30 years ago. And while management says the store is not doing the same business it did in the 1990s, sales are high enough to keep things humming.

Vinyl discs festival held in Athens: All the lovers of vinyl discs met this weekend at the 12th edition of “Vinyl is back” festival at the Motor Museum in Athens to fresh up their record collection and share their love for music. Despite internet streaming revenue being the largest source of global music sales, there has been a resurgence in vinyl over the past decade, making a hundred-year-old technology come back from near extinction, the organizers told Xinhua. “The first recovery signs were noticed back in 2009 at a global level, Greece followed as well,” Yannis Alexiou, journalist, collector and writer who is behind the event, said. “Vinyl has gained an important place in Greece. But, it cannot compete with internet,” he added. In Greece, there are more than 50 vinyl record shops in big cities across the country…

6th annual Vinyl Record Haul attracts music lovers to Blue Moon Saloon In Lafayette: Vinyl Records Lovers were in heaven Sunday as they gathered at the Blue Moon Saloom in Downtown Lafayette to buy, sell, and swap their vinyl records and meet other passionate vinyl-heads who love music and the format. Thousands of records were available in different price ranges. A DJ was on scene spinning everyone’s favorites and taking requests. KLFY Digital Media Producer Dionne Johnson, who is a big vinyl record fan, purchased the self titled 1985 Whitney Houston album.

Cratediggers Rejoice! Record Raid Coming To New Orleans Jazz Museum: Looking for some new vinyl to add to your collection? Rejoice, because Record Raid is back. On Sunday, March 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old US Mint, record vendors from far and wide are coming to town to satisfy local music lovers’ cravings. The record show is bringing vendors from all across the Gulf to sell LP records, CDs, cassettes, and more. Record Raid started in 2010 as the WTUL record fair, later to be named RECORD RAID and run as a non-for-profit LLC. The event happens quarterly, with record shows which “welcome all forms of recorded media from all vintages and musical styles.” It’s remained a one-of-a-kind event in Louisiana and plans to expand in the future to Baton Rouge and Metairie.

Posted in A morning mix of news for the vinyl inclined | Leave a comment

TVD Live Shots: Lucius
at the Columbus Theater, Providence, 3/17

By Laura Kilgus Jenkins | Published: March 20, 2018

Lucius played a sold out show at the Columbus Theatre in Providence, RI Saturday night. Originally a space for vaudeville and silent films, the recently renovated theatre is now host to today’s inspired musicmakers, such as Lucius. Led by voices of the wigged wonders, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the show featured fan favorites such as “Go Home,” “Tempest,” and even a few special covers including “Right Down the Line,” a Gerry Rafferty hit.

Laessig shared that it is through the power of collaboration and coming together with not only the band, but with the audience, that has made something so positive and greater than themselves. “That’s what we do everyday when we sing together, we create a third voice that’s it’s own thing and we write songs that are two hearts and two minds giving plenty of perspective to each other,” she said.

Wolfe added that in their 13 year-long journey of working together as a band, their consistent hope is that whether listeners need hope, humor, or something bittersweet, that they bring that home with them and turn it into something positive.

“Our greatest hope and dream is that you will take something from this moment that we are all sharing, whatever it is that you need to take from this, to go out into your everyday lives and pay it forward to something positive to your neighbor or someone you are passing on the street. That’s what we need. It’s a crazy time right now and as trite and repetitive as it might sound, we need love and we need joy,” said Wolfe.

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

TVD Live Shots:
Stone Temple Pilots
and The Dirty Hooks
at the Fillmore, 3/12

By Alan Snodgrass | Published: March 20, 2018

Stone Temple Pilots is back with a new singer, a new album (in stores now), and a new tour which included a Monday night stop at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore with support from The Dirty Hooks.

Let’s just cut to the chase and address the question that is most certainly on everyone’s mind. How did STP’s new vocalist Jeff Gutt measure up? A fair question given he’s stepping into the shoes of not one, but two iconic front men for a band that has seen its first four albums (all now classics of the ’90s grunge era) go platinum at least once, if not many times over. In short, he nailed it better than almost anyone could and that’s a feat of accomplishment. Still obviously getting comfortable in those big shoes, Gutt no doubt has the pipes to do these songs justice, showing off his vocal range straight out of the gate with “Wicked Garden.”

For their part, brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz absolutely blew the doors off the Fillmore. Crushingly heavy when called for (“Still Remains”) and subtle and smooth when needed (“Lounge Fly”). These three guys were clearly invigorated by Gutt and the prospect of an STP that can carry on without the cloud of addiction or your lead singer’s main music project. It felt like a new beginning for the band.

Posted in TVD San Francisco | Leave a comment

TVD Radar: Waxwork Records and Comics debuts Poser issue #1,
in stores now

By TVD HQ | Published: March 20, 2018

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records and Comics is thrilled to announce the debut issue of POSER.

Long thought to be an urban legend in the underground music scene of Redondo Beach, Poser is back to carve a gory slash through the heart of Los Angeles in this brand new multi-issue horror-comic book series! Penned by Matt Miner and illustrated by Clay McCormack, Poser is a brand new punk rock horror-comic series that Steve Niles (30 Days Of Night) calls “relentless and brutal” and Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus, Tokyo Ghost, Hellblazer) raves is a “master class in sequential storytelling.” Poser features colors by Doug Garbark and letters by Taylor Esposito.

In continuing with Waxwork’s acclaimed combination of original music with great storytelling, Poser features an all new companion soundtrack by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust) pressed to colored 7” vinyl. Enjoy the Black Flag meets John Carpenter “Poser Theme,” and the climactic Discharge meets Tangerine Dream infused track “The Gig.”

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

UK Artist of the Week: Alberteen

By Zara Hoffman | Published: March 20, 2018

Experimental alt-rockers Alberteen have put down the guitars that they’re known for and instead have embraced analogue synths, flutes, clarinets, and samples for their latest release. Its their utterly unique sound and ability to create something very much “out there,” which makes them our Artist of The Week this week.

Their latest single, “The Son’s Room” is a truly quirky yet mesmerizing song from start to finish. Its multiple layers of electronica are matched perfectly with the band’s choral singing to create something not far from Metronomy’s early eccentric sound. The single is inspired by lead singer Phil Shaw’s relationship with his father, a bittersweet reflection on memory and loss.

Having already released two critically acclaimed albums, Alberteen are no strangers to hard work. They have performed with artists such as Primal Scream and Field Music to name but a few and show no sign of slowly down as they make their 2018 debut with “The Son’s Room.”

“The Son’s Room” is in stores now via Rhythm and Noir Recordings.

Posted in TVD UK | Leave a comment

Graded on a Curve: Entourage,
Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions & Outtakes, 1972-1977

By Joseph Neff | Published: March 20, 2018

Integrating elements of jazz, folk, classical, global sounds, and experimentation into non-trad performances that included dancers and whenever it was possible, mood-enhancing lighting, the Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble cut a pair of records for Folkways in the 1970s. Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions and Outtakes 1972-1977 greatly expands the group’s story, offering 30 unreleased tracks in a 3CD package with notes by music critic J.D. Considine and sole surviving group member Wall Matthews. But vinyl lovers fret not, as ten tracks from the set are getting issued concurrently on LP. Both are out March 23 through Tompkins Square.

The Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble, or just Entourage for short, can be aptly described as having crafted progressive-avant-folk-global-fusion; for all those hyphens, it’s a sound that regularly just gets reduced to the tag of ambient. Formed by saxophonist-keyboardist Joe Clark, initially as a loose live band that held court in a Baltimore nightclub, the outfit went through a few distinct phases.

Once Clark, who was a musician in residence in the dance department at Bennett College in Millbrook, NY, tired of weekly commutes to Charm City, a second incarnation of the group took shape, featuring violist-guitarist Rusty Clark (no relation) and drummer Michael “Smitty” Smith; this is the lineup that recorded Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble, which Folkways put out in 1973 (and reissued on LP in 2012, with copies still available from the label).

After relocating to New London, CT for another college gig, Clark recommenced Entourage, in part due to Richie Havens’ interest in releasing an album by Clark on his Stormy Forest label. Augmenting the first album’s trio with guitarist Wall Matthews from the group’s Baltimore period, by the time they were ready to make a record, Havens was no longer keen on the idea, and The Neptune Collection came out through a return to Folkways in ’76, with Moses Asch providing a whopping budget of $300 (it’s also currently available physically, but only as a custom CD).

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

In rotation: 3/20/18

By TVD HQ | Published: March 20, 2018

CDs, Vinyl Records, Cassette Tapes! Indie Music Market Musika Is Back: In Malaysia, the reports of the death of record-buying culture and the end of physical music formats have been greatly exaggerated. Even with the shuttering of several popular record stores – notably three Rock Corner outlets, Love Music and diggers’ favourite Joe’s Mac – in the Klang Valley last year, there’s still a hardcore following of music lovers keeping the art of collecting alive. There is some truth in The Smiths’ song There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. The annual Musika independent music market, set to return at The Gasket Alley, Section 13 in Petaling Jaya on April 1, promises to bring much-needed cheer to record collectors who have been cut adrift by the closure of so many mainstream music stores. This year’s event is billed Crate:Musika, with support from entertainment company FWD.

DJ duo open new Stroud record shop: Stroud is set to become a vinyl haven as another record shop officially opens its doors this Saturday. With a number of popular DJ collectives in Stroud and Dursley and new venues such as the Marshall Rooms opening, it only seems fitting that Stroud now has two record shops. The new shop, Sound Records in Gloucester Street, hopes to meet the growing demand for vinyl records in the town, which is thought to be due to the explosion of DJ culture in the district. Sound Records is a partnership between local DJs and record dealers Sean Roe and Tom Monobrow. Both have an extensive knowledge of all genres and they also promise regularly rotated stock to draw collectors to the town. Tom explained that a varied selection of vinyl will be on offer.

Atomic Pop Shop record store to close its doors this summer: BATON ROUGE, LA – The Atomic Pop Shop record store on Government Street will close after the end of May. The store’s owner, Kerry Beary, told WAFB she will be moving her operation to Charlotte, North Carolina despite the record store’s success in Baton Rouge. “I’m sad to leave, but excited for the opportunity in Charlotte.” The record store owner did not go into detail about her new operation, but said she hopes to have it open in 18 months. Beary is currently in talks with a buyer who is “very interested” in purchasing the Baton Rouge record store, but declined to give further information on the matter. If the buyer does purchase the Atomic Pop Shop, it will operate under a different name. Beary said sales at The Atomic Pop Shop, which first opened in 2011, increased by 20 percent each year. She also said 2017 was the shop’s most successful year ever.

Gary Burden, Designer of Famous Album Covers, Dies at 84: Gary Burden, who beginning in the late 1960s designed memorable album covers for Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Doors and numerous other stars of rock and folk-rock, died on March 7 in Los Angeles. He was 84. His wife and frequent collaborator, Jenice Heo, confirmed the death. No cause was given. Working in the predigital era, when music was sold primarily on vinyl and artists were often trying to make a personal statement with their albums, Mr. Burden created cover after cover that seared their way into the minds of fans. He designed the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album in 1969, featuring a Henry Diltz photograph of the three on a ragged couch. He also designed the cover of Ms. Mitchell’s acclaimed 1971 album, “Blue,” a striking close-up of the singer in blue and black tones. He put the Eagles in Wild West regalia for “Desperado” and Mr. Young in a cheesy yellow jacket for “On the Beach” (1974). Among his most recent work was Conor Oberst’s “Salutations,” released last year.

Posted in A morning mix of news for the vinyl inclined | Leave a comment

TVD Live: Jason
Isbell, Amanda Shires, and Jerry Douglas at
the NCTA Benefit at
The Hamilton, 3/14

By Roger Catlin | Published: March 19, 2018

As the prevailing king and queen of Americana, it’s more likely you’ll see Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires at amphitheaters or headlining big summer festivals. It’s rare to see them together in clubs these days, especially one as intimate as The Hamilton in DC. But there they were last Wednesday night, special guests on a night of music organized by dobro player extraordinaire Jerry Douglas that was a fundraiser for the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

NCTA in turn helps organize ongoing free festivals of indigenous music in far-flung American outposts that play for three years at a time at a site (and by then are expected to be a traditional offering). This year, the three-year stint will begin on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Salisbury September 7-9 and on Wednesday, its mayor, folk fans who paid $100 for a seat, and even a US Senator, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was there to bask in the music.

It was worth it, too, if only to hear Isbell and Shires look into each other’s eyes as they sang about their love and mortality on his “If We Were Vampires,” a recent classic (chosen last Sunday as one of the “25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music is Going” in The New York Times Magazine).

It was great, too, to have Douglas join them on Isbell’s “Traveling Alone,” and having his “Something to Love” close out the night as a rousing all-star finale, with solos from Douglas, Shires on fiddle, and a brother-sister act that had previously brought down the house for faithfully bringing old string band sounds, Giri and Uma Peters.

Posted in TVD Washington, DC | Leave a comment

TVD Live Shots: At The Drive-In and Death From Above at the Brixton Academy, 3/9

By Jason Miller | Published: March 19, 2018

At The Drive-In and Death From Above sharing the same stage? Is this reality?

That’s the first question that popped into my mind when I saw the show announcement for the legendary Brixton Academy in London. Two bands that paved their way through a crowded clusterfuck of terrible early to mid-2000s alt-rock radio staples—one of them redefined the post-punk genre, and the other stripping rock ‘n’ roll down to its absolute core. Both have influenced many over the years—one could argue that their legacy is locked in place with neither have anything left to prove—yet none of that mattered this particular evening.

First up was Death From Above. Having dropped the unnecessary 1979 identifier from their name, the duo of Jesse F. Keeler and Sebastian Granger are currently touring in support of their first new record in three years Outrage! Is Now. It’s a bit of a different sound for the band as this time they’ve enlisted hitmaker Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Good Charlotte, Ride) to produce the record. The result is exactly what you would expect—slick production, big hooks, tight grooves, a bit of funk, and several options for keeping the band relevant for their core audience while introducing them to an entirely new one.

When most bands go this route, their live show tends to mimic their polished sound on record. I’m happy to report that this is not the case with Death From Above. In fact, they might have gone the opposite direction just to point out that they are a fucking heavy, heavy band live.

Posted in TVD UK | Leave a comment

TVD Radar: Baby Driver Volume 2: The Score For A Score vinyl in stores 4/13

By TVD HQ | Published: March 19, 2018

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Featuring even more gems from almost every musical genre and spanning across multiple decades, Baby Driver Volume 2: The Score For A Score will be released on April 13, 2018 via 30th Century Records / Columbia Records.

The album features more memorable songs from the movie, exclusive tracks, and special remixes that mirror the unique experience of the movie as well as dialogue excerpts from the film, and the unreleased score by Oscar-winning composer Steven Price. Available today for the first time is TaKillYa (Baby Driver Mix) – an original track exclusive to the soundtrack release.

This special album follows Music from the Motion Picture Baby Driver, the 30-song soundtrack from Edgar Wright’s critically acclaimed, music laden blockbuster film Baby Driver. The fast-paced soundtrack garnered two Grammy Nominations – including for Best Soundtrack – and sat atop the #1 chart position on iTunes. The soundtrack can be purchased both physically as a two LP and two CD set, as well as digitally across all retailers.

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

Pale Houses,
The TVD First Date

By Special to TVD | Published: March 19, 2018

“From the moment I was first exposed to music, I was into it. My dad used to talk about how when I was two years old, I could do a spot-on vocal impersonation of Ronnie Millsap. And while that may have been a bit of a stretch (like many of his tales), it does sound like something I would have at least attempted to do.”

“But my first real memories of music were quite literally given to me by my mom, Judy Crawley (Robinson). In the late ’60s and early ’70s, my mom was a bit of a rising star in the unassuming, church-packed town of Cleveland, Tennessee. She was a fantastic singer, somewhere between a southern Karen Carpenter and Anne Murray, but more dynamic, more piercing in the upper register. She and my sax-virtuoso uncle Tommy had both signed with a small Nashville-area label called Chart Records. Seemingly unbeknownst to most everyone involved, for that brief moment, some really magical stuff was happening in that little speck of the deep south.

My mom would track songs written by would-be heroes of the great Muscle Shoals Sound not long before they fled to south Alabama to take over the music industry. A couple of my mom’s singles were picked up by radio stations scattered around the country. She briefly moved to Nashville and, before long, found herself hanging out in historic studios with the likes of Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.

But nearly as quickly as it began, life’s priorities changed and it all just sort of stopped on a dime. She married young, divorced, re-married, had me, and her brief affair with the industry remained captured only on those circular, black time capsules that eventually wound up buried in my grandmother’s basement.

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

TVD’s Press Play

By TVD HQ | Published: March 19, 2018

Press Play is our Monday recap of the new and FREE tracks received last week to inform the next trip to your local indie record store.

Oberon Rose – A Place In The Sun
The March Divide – Get In Line
Fawns of Love – Something Stupid
Peelander-Z – Yeah Yeah Yeah
Words In Flight – The Ravenous Affair
Youth in a Roman Field – I Saw You
No Name Hotel – Blood on Sky

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
LEEDS – Someone

Noble Son – Aces
HI Lo Ha – Cold Weather Clothes
Red Wanting Blue – Ulysses
MADAM WEST – Warm Bodies
Joel Levi – Will We Ever Change?
Parker Longbough – RNC 2000
The Incredible Vickers Brothers – Mirrors
GNUCCI – Fuck What They Want Fuck What They Need (ZEAN remix)

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

Graded on a Curve:
The Velvet Underground,
Loaded

By Michael H. Little | Published: March 19, 2018

Choosing your favorite Velvet Underground studio LP (and I’m talking here about the famous four released between 1967 and 1970) is a helluva lot tougher than choosing your favorite Beatle. I mean, everybody KNOWS who their favorite Beatle is, but if you’re like me, your fave VU album varies in response to a whole lot of variables including mood (Angry? Gimme White Light/White Heat! Euphoric? Make mine The Velvet Underground!), romantic status, drug intake (Bad trip? Gimme White Light/White Heat again!) and for all I know barometric pressure.

At this moment in time 1970’s Loaded, the Velvet Underground’s final studio album (if you don’t count 1973’s Squeeze, that Doug Yule solo LP featuring none of the Velvets we all know and love) is at the top of my list, and this despite the fact that in many ways it’s the least “Velvet Underground” of the VU’s quartet of great studio albums.

Why? Because for a multitude of reasons that have yet to be explained–although I’m certain poor mental health, burnout, business worries, and galloping drug abuse had a lot to do with it–on Loaded Lou Reed saw fit to offload a lot of the heavy lifting on to Doug Yule, the rather faceless fellow who stepped into John Cale’s shoes at Lou Reed’s behest in 1968. Yule may be an outlier in your standard Velvet Underground hagiography, but he sings lead on four of Loaded’s ten songs, plays lead guitar on some more, and plays some of the LP’s most fiery solos–and all of this in addition to playing bass, piano, and organ. Oh, and he also plays drums on half of the album’s songs, as Maureen Tucker was on maternity leave and didn’t play on the album, although she’s credited on the LP for doing so.

It can be argued, of course, that the only real “listenable” difference lies in Yule’s newfound prominence as a singer, and that even this is no big deal seeing as how he and Lou sound so much alike that even The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau saw fit to praise Lou’s vocals on “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” when it was actually Yule singing. Hell, for a long time I thought that was Lou singing on “Who Loves the Sun”–he didn’t quite sound himself, it’s true, but I wrote it off to an oddly adulterated batch of methamphetamine.

Posted in The TVD Storefront | Leave a comment

In rotation: 3/19/18

By TVD HQ | Published: March 19, 2018

RPM Pizza and Records Returns for an Encore Under New Ownership, The Pioneer Square restaurant and vinyl shop has a new recipe for pizza dough and plans for live acoustic shows thanks to new owner Richard Cano: Like vinyl, RPM Pizza and Records is back and better than ever. Also known as Revolution Pizza Music (240 2nd Ave. S #120), the Pioneer Square pizzeria and record store closed December 2017 with no hint of a revival, but thanks to a tipster who spotted a sandwich board, Eater confirmed that Richard Cano purchased the company from previous owner Harvey Ward Van Allen (Casco Antiguo) and reopened the business this month with plenty of similarities and also some fresh ideas…Van Allen turned the former home of Pizzeria Gabbiano into a pizza place again last summer, with RPM pairing local vinyl and hot pies, mostly straightforward combinations like margherita, Hawaiian, and sausage and pepper complemented by a couple salads, beers, and wines.

Go on a trip through the NYC’s best vinyl shops for Record Store Day: Take a trip through all the city’s best havens for vinyl on April 21, as Warner Music Group hosts its third annual record store crawl for Record Store Day. For the past three years, this international celebration of independent brick-and-mortars has escorted lovers through the city’s best record stores accompanied by special performances at some of the stops. Similar crawls will take place in other cities around the world from May through October. While last year’s NYC trip featured the Heliotropes, this year’s dates include pop-up shows from artists including Lionize, Eddie Berman, SISTERS and Walker County among many others. You can find tickets at the official website here, which will provide you with a seat on the Record Store Crawl bus.

No music, no life. And now, no Russ Solomon. “No Music, no life.” That was his motto. Sadly, after 92 years of lots of music and lots of life, we no longer have Russ. Tower Records founder, the visionary Russ Solomon, died last Sunday at his Sacramento home of an apparent heart attack while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars. The man who showed so many of us how to live life well has now set the standard for dying well also. And he did live an incredible life. From selling used records at age 16 out of his father’s pharmacy on the corner of Broadway and Land Park Drive in 1941, this high-school dropout eventually owned 200 stores in 15 countries with over a billion dollars in annual sales.

Third Man Records lays off 7 Nashville staffers to ‘streamline’ operations: Third Man Records laid off seven employees at its Nashville office in a move to cut costs at the high-profile music business. Third Man, founded by rock star Jack White, is a multi-faceted business including a retail record shop, mail-order vinyl operation, live music venue, event space, small recording studio and record label. Margo Price and Joshua Hedley are among the artists signed to the label and a litany of superstar artists have recorded at the Third Man complex in Nashville’s SoBro neighborhood. A Third Man executive said through a publicist this week that the layoffs were done to “streamline” operations…Laid-off employees were asked to sign separation agreements that would pay them cash in exchange for not divulging information about the company.

Posted in A morning mix of news for the vinyl inclined | Leave a comment

TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

By Jon Sidel | Published: March 16, 2018

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face / And stars fill my dream / I’m a traveler of both time and space / To be where I have been / To sit with elders of the gentle race / This world has seldom seen / They talk of days for which they sit and wait / All will be revealed / Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace / Sounds caress my ear / And not a word I heard could I relate / The story was quite clear

MATT DIKE | 1962–2018

It’s difficult to sum up the life of a human with just a few words, yet the tale of Matt Dike is a rock ‘n’ roll tale, and this Idelic Hour of songs is my best pitch.

In the ’80s, Dike was LA’s coolest—the kid from the New York suburbs who turned DJing a dorm room into rock legend. The guy had it all. Taste, looks, charm, charisma, and a fun sense of humor. For the two to three years we ran underground nightclubs together, Dike was my best friend and constant companion.

It came as no surprise that Dike named his label Delicious Vinyl. Dike was a vinyl collector of epic proportions. Records literally meant the world to Matt, for it was his DJ sets and a collector’s nature that were at his core, his soul, his god. As Dike’s business partner, it was part of my job to protect “the records” over all else. Money, the sound system, the staff, as he bluntly explained, “can be easily replaced, but my records would take years.”

In the heat of running a sometimes illegal party, the stacks of heavy milk crates could really weigh a dude down, but fuck man…so many great times. And all of them revolving around songs and record collecting. We used to sit and eat the $2.99 breakfast special at the greasy spoon joint on Santa Monica Boulevard and discuss his DJ sets, freaking about that magical, unpredictable record that would seem to drop out of left field and rock an unsuspecting dance floor into both sweat and ecstasy. “How about ‘Atomic Dog’ into ‘How Soon Is Now?'” a then new single from The Smiths.