This week we’re turning the spotlight on the bands and artists trekking down to Austin to join us at our very own SXSW Showcase show this Friday, 3/18, at Clive Bar. As mentioned yesterday we’ve curated a line-up that reflects the various cities that have joined us in the TVD Network of blogs, and from New York City (via Syria and Pennsylvania) today we’re joined by multi-genre muse, Saadi.
“I’m 10 years old in a musky basement in western PA with a crappy turntable and my parents’ dusty and bizarrely eclectic record collection. I want to be Olivia Newton John. I want Crystal Gayle’s crazy long hair. I pore over 12 by 12 inch images of kodachrome pop stars.
Years go by, and I dismiss vinyl as a relic from a bygone generation. I buy tapes, then CD’s, and grow up and move to New York City and play in bands. I buy an Audio Technica turntable on a whim for $125 from a right wing audiophile/gun toter in Augusta, GA who hates 2 things: Osama Bin Laden and Bose speakers. He throws in Verdi’s “La Traviata” in for free.
I bring the rickety little turntable back to NYC. A sweet boy gifts me “The Women Of Studio One,” a 2 record set that I listen to almost every day. Hearing the ladies of Kingston on vinyl make me want to sing reggae and play bass. I am addicted. All my releases from here on out are 45’s or 12″. All my CD’s go back to the previously mentioned musky basement, replaced by digging finds and aural oddities (Bill Cosby has a lot of records out).
I stop listening to CD’s. Sweet boys continue to give me vinyl. I need 2 sides to every story now.”
—Saadi
