Author Archives: Robert Ham

With everyone’s favorite holiday, Record Store Day, only a month away, news is starting to come out fast about the exclusive releases that will only be available on April 16th. We here at TVD Portland were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at a partial list and it is looking to be a doozy.

Since we try to keep things local on this blog, we thought it would behoove us to clue you in to the Portland-based bands that will have limited edition goodies for sale on RSD 2011. A heads up for the vinyl/music lovers to help you budget accordingly for the big day. Without further ado, and in alphabetical order:

Ilyas Ahmed/Steve Gunn split 7″ One side of this disc will be taken up by an instrumental track from Ahmed, an amazing local avant garde/experimental guitarist; the other features Gunn, an equally jaw-dropping player based out of Brooklyn. Limited to 200 copies.

Blitzen Trapper – “Maybe Baby” b/w “Soul Singer” 7″ Two new tracks from this rootsy collective. Our guess is that, at the very least, the a-side is a cover of the song popularized by Buddy Holly. Limited to 1,500 copies. (Blitzen Trapper will also be featured on Sing For Your Meat, a tribute to Guided By Voices that comes out on Record Store Day.)

The Decemberists – Live At Bull Moose CD This disc captures seven tracks that the band performed in Scarborough, Maine this past January, all of them coming from their latest LP The King Is Dead. Limited to 2,500 copies.

Beth Ditto – “I Wrote The Book” 12″ EP An exclusive collection of tracks is The Gossip front woman’s first solo effort. This physical version will only be available at independent record shops starting on Record Store Day (the digital version is already available).

John Fahey – Requia and other solo compositions for Guitar Solo This year marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of this folk/blues giant, and with it comes the reissue of his 1968 classic LP (it was previously reissued in 2007, but that edition has gone out of print). Limited t0 1,000 copies.

This is just the tip of the iceberg folks. Keep your ear to the ground for more announcements from the Record Store Day folks about what is coming on April 16th, and then budget accordingly. We would hate for you to go broke over your love of vinyl.

Nathan Walker is one of the hundreds upon thousands of people working tirelessly behind the scenes of the indie music world. Working alongside the fabulous Joan Hiller, Walker helps run Riot Act Media, an independent arts and music publicity firm that helps bands from all over the world reach the ears of journalists and fans. You may have heard some of their clients such as Wow & Flutter, Darren Hanlon, Hot Panda, and Good Night Billygoat. If you’re lucky enough to be at SXSW this year, be sure to stop by the Riot Act Media Day Party at the Ghost Room where they will be showing off the current roster of amazing artists. RSVP here.

Nathan Walker

My first record is a hard one to define. Growing up, my father had a massive record collection and my earliest memories of twelve inches of vinyl are from before I was in school. He’d be at work and my mom would be off doing things around the house and I’d sneak into the dining room to pull records off the shelf and stare at their covers. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Emerson, Lake and Palmer‘s Brain Salad Surgery are two that are forever frozen in my brain.

I’d listen to the Beatles and wonder what was going on in that photo…there were people I recognized from movies and the Beatles themselves looked like a character off of one of the PBS shows I watched religiously (Electric Company anyone?). Then to stare at it while listening to songs like “With A Little Help From My Friends” and “Good Morning, Good Morning” is certainly my beginning of a lifelong obsession with music.

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On Tuesday next, I will be descending into the belly of the beast that is SXSW. I haven’t been to the annual music fete in at decade, but it has evolved into a completely different animal during that time. I’ve heard rumors of 2,000 bands playing show after show after show during the course of the festival. I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m already exhausted.

For those of you Portlanders who will not be joining me deep in the heart of Texas, fear not: you can have a small taste of the festival style action right here at home.

Called FXFU, this one day festival of local artists will be taking over the kitschy cool confines of the Hawthorne Eagles Lodge on March 19th, the same day SXSW says its final hurrah for another insane year. The lineup for FXFU – which runs from 5pm into the evening – is a doozy as well. There’s the roots-y fervor of On The Stairs and Mike Coykendall, the steely indie warble of Pigeons, and the freeform brilliance of Stiffwiff. Add to it DJs, inexpensive food, free admission for kids under 16, and you’ve got the makings for a fine way to spend a Saturday evening. If I weren’t going to Austin, I’d certainly be there. Go in my place, would you?

That’s right! You’re invited to the The Vinyl District/Sneak Attack Media/Luv Luv Luv Records day party at Clive Bar (609 Davis St) on Friday, March 18th from 12-6 pm. We’ll have some tasty nachos courtesy of Zocalo Cafe to go along with our stellar lineup of music throughout the day (see below).

You can RSVP here: www.sneakattackmedia.com/austin2011

See you there!

12:30 Sean Rowe

1:15 Saadi

2:00 Babeshadow

2:45 Only Son

3:30 Craig Wedren

4:15 Hanni El Khatib

5:00 Nicole Atkins

Mike McGonigal is a music nerd of the highest order, and is one of those rare individuals who has used this obsessive love to amazing ends. From 1984 to 1995, he was the publisher and main contributor to Chemical Imbalance, a ‘zine that covered everything from raw jazz to comics to surrealist literature. The best issues of the magazine featured exclusive 7″ singles or CDs with rare and unreleased tracks by some of the best in the indie and outsider art world.

He has extended this idea to his work with Yeti, a quarterly publication that draws in interviews with musicians, essays and studies about music and the creative process, and some incredible drawings and artwork. And, of course, each edition comes with a wisely curated CD of material from artists featured in the issue and from the dustier corners of the music world.

If that weren’t enough, McGonigal’s Yeti Publishing has released books featuring the art and music of Tara Jane O’Neil and collected essays by the great Luc Sante, and will soon be unleashing the oral history of Galaxie 500 (something which he previewed in an abbreviated version last year on Pitchfork).

Now that we’ve established the man’s bona fides, I encourage you to check into yet another venture, this one specifically aimed at the vinyl enthusiasts among us. Called Social Music Record Club, this subscription series offers up 10 pieces of wax (nine 12″s and one 7″) for one small price. And the work he has collected for this…positively breathtaking.

Sir Richard Bishop

The first batch features an LP of instrumentals by guitarist Sir Richard Bishop, a collection of Jamaican gospel from the ’60s & ’70s, and a split 7″ of Christmas songs done by the great New Zealand pop group The Bats and Chicago’s sonic explorers Califone. Batch #2 boasts a collaboration between Grouper and guitarist Ilyas Ahmed, an experimental effort by Ty Segall, and some brutally fun garage rock from Jacuzzi Boys. It’s a massive collection that also offers up some wicked cool bragging rights: these and all the selections in this club are only available to subscribers.

And, for pity’s sake, he’s not stopping there either. He’s got a jaw-dropping list of releases in the works for the next couple of years. I recommend you get over to the SMRC website and see for yourself.

If you live in Portland and are into metal, you have likely met or at least know who Nathan Carson is. When he’s not busy manning turntables around the city spinning rock and metal classics for hungry audiences (including his weekly Heavy Metal Ladies Night at East End, he is booking tours and shows for bands through his company Nanotear, or is holding down the rhythmic end of the dark abyssal sound as the drummer for Witch Mountain (who are gearing up to release their first LP in a decade, South Of Salem). Nathan was kind enough to take time out of his impressively busy schedule to reminisce for The Vinyl District Portland on his first record: The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

Nathan Carson

For my eighth birthday, my aunt Susan bought me a Capitol reissue of the Yellow Submarine LP. As my parents were devout rockers and my mom had seen The Beatles in ’66, this was no great stretch. I was a fan from birth, and Mom had even hand-painted a little yellow submarine replica onto the glove box in our vintage Saab station wagon. There were road trips that involved us singing, “We all live in a yellow Saabmarine,” in unison. Oh the Seventies…

I know I had at least partial possession of a number of children’s storybook albums and hit single 45s (“Cars” by Gary Numan was in heavy rotation on my kiddie turntable) but Yellow Submarine is the first LP I recall being mine and mine alone. I’d been watching the Beatles-inspired psychedelic cartoon film when it was played annually on television for several years in a row. Blue Meanies and Apple Bonkers and Seas of Holes were already integral stitches in my mental tapestry. And then there was that bit of pot cookie that I ate when I was six… Yes, I can literally say “I was stoned in the Seventies.”

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WILD FLAG

We know you’re thrilled about Record Store Day 2011. Heck, you wouldn’t be bothering to read this blog if you weren’t. But if you weren’t keyed up to visit your local record shop to pick up some exclusive wax, well, this news should push you right over the edge.

The fine folks at Merge Records just announced today that WILD FLAG, the indie supergroup that marks the return of former Sleater-Kinney guitarist, and current Portlandia star, Carrie Brownstein to the studio and the stage, will be releasing their first take home piece of music as an exclusive for RSD 2011.

The 7″ will feature two brand new songs produced by Spoon front man Britt Daniel: “Future Crimes” and “Glass Tambourine”, the latter of which you can listen to up at NPR’s All Songs Considered blog.

Merge is also planning a bunch of other amazing sounding RSD 2011 exclusives, including a vinyl reissue of Superchunk‘s Here’s Where The Strings Come In, and a split 7″ with the ‘Chunk and Coliseum each covering their favorite Misfits songs. Read more about what’s in store here and then start saving your shekels for the big day.

Taking the lead of our colleagues at The Vinyl District Memphis, we will be featuring first person stories from music makers, booking agents, band photographers, DJs, and anyone else who is driving the sound of the Portland scene about the first record they ever owned. To start us off, though, I thought I would share my nostalgic musical memory from 1986. Read on…

Technically, this isn’t really my first record. If my hazy memory serves me correct, there were other records before this: a hand-me-down copy of Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, 45s of such classics as a-ha’s “Take On Me” and Paul McCartney’s theme to the Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd vehicle Spies Like Us, and at least two Men At Work albums.

But those always came to me through the largess of someone else. Usually a family member trying to make me feel better about being the youngest child and being the one prone to browbeating at the hands of his older siblings. It wasn’t until 1986, when I was 11 years old, that I was finally able to buy an album that was of my choosing.

I couldn’t tell you the name of the place I bought it – it was a chain music outlet inside a mall in Lynnwood, Washington – but I remember clearly eyeing the strange green tinted cover, with a body lying in repose under pink letters that read “The Smiths” and “The Queen Is Dead” and gravitating towards it.

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Hello and welcome to the newest member of The Vinyl District family: TVD Portland! My name is Robert Ham and I’m going to be leading the charge here for the foreseeable future. You may know me from my work writing for local publications like The Oregonian, Willamette Week, PDX Magazine, and others. Or you may know me from my days sitting behind a drum kit for local bands such as Rally Boy, Parks & Recreation, and Super XX Man. You may not know me at all. But rest assured, I’m a music lover of the highest order and an inveterate vinyl collector. In other words: I’m just like you.

My plan for TVD Portland is to not only clue you in to news from our many local record purveyors – events, in-store performances, etc. – but to also let you meet the people working behind the counters at these shops. I’ll be interviewing clerks and owners of stores throughout the city. And I’ll do my best to clue you in to those out of the way places that you might not have heard of before.

I’m also going to be following the lead of the esteemed TVD Memphis and bring you tales from record collectors, musicians, booking agents, etc. about their first record (like your first kiss, you never forget), and give them space to brag about their greatest crate digging scores. You can bet that I’ll also be calling your attention to local bands and musicians that I feel are worth your while, and to what you can look forward to when Record Store Day rolls around on April 16, 2011.

I’m sure there will be plenty more that I will be able to fill this space with, but I also want to know what you’d like to see here. If you have ideas or stories or news that I need to hear about: by all means, e-mail me (robert [at] thevinyldistrict.com) and I’ll do my best to include it.

I hope you come back regularly and check us out. This here post is only the beginning, my friends and fellow music junkies.