Q&A: Kevn Kinney of Drivin’ N Cryin’ talks vinyl, folk music, legacy: “’Best Of Songs’ is an album with the best of our five EPs. It actually just came out on CD last month but vinyl sells better than anything else these days. People don’t buy as many CDs because they mostly download music or stream it. If they want to buy a physical copy, they like to by vinyl because vinyl is chic, popular now. But, vinyl also sounds amazing. A lot of people have record players again. Having vinyl is kind of a trendy-hip thing to do but it also looks cool because you get the full-on album cover. I prefer vinyl. I personally don’t own a CD player or a steaming device. I only listen to vinyl at home.”
Paul McCartney to release 3-track Record Store Day cassette: Paul McCartney has announced that he’ll release a three-track cassette for this year’s Record Store Day. Titled Flowers In The Dirt – The Cassette Demos With Elvis Costello, the limited edition release features I Don’t Want To Confess, Shallow Grave and Mistress & Maid which were all recorded in 1989. It’ll be on sale on April 22 and comes after the re-launch of the Flowers In The Dirt Archive Collection, which will arrive on March 24. McCartney says: “The demos are red hot off the skillet and that’s why we wanted to include them on this boxed set.
Anton Newcombe named UK Record Store Day Champion: Given the psychedelic band’s prolific output – that’s five albums in the last three years and two of those have been in the last six months – the choice of Newcombe is an apposite choice. Speaking on a specially filmed video to celebrate the upcoming vinyl orgy of limited edition releases and major labels clogging up production at vinyl pressing plants, Newcombe extols the pleasures of the your independent record store. “Independent record stores are still a source of community and cultural centres. We’re living in time of MP3s and people hoarding things and downloading so much stuff… the record experience could be more personal,” he explained.
Help Musicians UK becomes official charity partner of Record Store Day 2017: Independent music charity, Help Musicians UK (HMUK), has been named the official charity partner of Record Store Day 2017…“We’re thrilled to partner with Record Store Day in such a milestone year for the event – its 10th birthday. We encourage everyone across the UK to get involved this year,” said Richard Robinson, chief executive of HMUK. “Visit a store, embrace the unique culture, and donate to the work that HMUK is doing to support musicians and those in the industry at every stage in their career. Record Store Day is a powerful reminder to value our musicians so that they can continue to thrive.”
The vinyl album, once given up for dead, is making comeback, Records are the rage again! Vinyl albums are gone, consigned to the dustbin of history, right? Wrong. Very wrong. Record sales dropped off to nearly zero from roughly 1992 to 2006 with the advent of newer technologies. But then a funny thing happened: hipsters began to start playing records again. And the trend has expanded to more music lovers. U.S. record sales, at just 988,000 in 2007, jumped to a whopping 13.1 million in 2016, according to The Nielsen Company. Sales went from 11.88 million in 2015 to 13.1 million in just one year. And, in 2017, financial services firm Deloitte stated, in a report, record sales are expected to approach $1 billion (yes, with a “b”) globally in revenue. That would be about 40 million records sold worldwide.
Say Hello To Miniot Wheel, A Clever, Compact, Minimal Turntable: At the heart of the concept of every turntable is the wheel. Miniot have reduced the complexity of controls and visible moving parts of the record player to just that. A wheel. It’s minimal. It’s elegant. It’s got style (and a stylus that’s out of the way and can’t be damaged through user error). There’s no buttons or switches on the outer surface of the Miniot Wheel, except for a simple stick in the very center. The belt drive, the tone arm, and amplifiers are all built into the platter. And Wheel is 100% analog. Oh, and you can use it in a horizontal or vertical orientation. The choice is yours.
