We’re delighted to premiere the brand new video from Washington, DC’s Black Dog Prowl, “No Robots.” The video and single will both be available on May 21. —Ed.
“How many times have you looked back at a seemingly insignificant decision only to realize you made a catastrophic mistake? Some probably have more experience with this than others. The most memorable of these ninja regrets for me has to be selling my father’s record collection…for next to nothing…then spending the money on candy.”
“In my defense, I was 10-years-old and couldn’t possibly have known any better. All I knew was CDs were taking over and I now had candy money. My dad, a member of the US Foreign Service, had been hauling his collection of vinyl around the globe from post to post. As CDs became more prevalent, it seemed as if vinyl was going the way of the dodo.
Or, at least, Betamax.
So, on his orders, I held a fire sale on the front stoop of our apartment building on the American Embassy Compound in Moscow. And thanks to this cruel twist of fate I was robbed of the solid foundation needed to build a respectable, if not glorious, collection of music. (To make a list of the titles in the collection would be an exercise in self-destructive behavior and deprive you of your chance to use your imagination.)
Of course, there is a reason the way we listen to music has evolved. We have become more mobile and we had to take our music with us. There isn’t a record player in the dashboard of your car. And, if there were, you’d never be able to go faster than five miles per hour.
We invented 8-Track tapes, the Walkman, Discman, iPods and digital clouds. We wanted and needed to take the music with us.
But, in this quest for portability, we lost something. CDs and MP3s are too clean. Music is about imperfection not the clarity of the recording. It’s about the grit and the feeling that you get when it passes through your ears. Vinyl captures that in its purest intended form, before it’s Pro-Tooled to hell and squashed into an itty-bitty file.
I grew up with the pops and the hisses in the speakers. These were not flaws, they were audible anticipation.
It took me a long time to realize that I missed vinyl. In recent years, some very generous friends and thoughtful family members have gifted me copies of records like The Doors’ Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, a special edition of Nirvana’s In Utero (my favorite record in any format), along with rare releases from Talking Heads and The Beatles. I‘ve also picked up a few classics from AC/DC, Petty and Hendrix, along with more recent records from Soundgarden and Them Crooked Vultures.
Now that most new vinyl releases include free digital downloads of the album, I don’t have to choose between mobility and the unmatched feeling of touching needle to wax. It’s our love of music, particularly of our music that led us away from vinyl, and it’s that love which has ultimately brought us back.
Sidenote: For the last couple Black Dog Prowl releases we opted to go completely digital. But in discussing our plans for future recordings, we recently decided that the next time we press physical copies of our music, it will be done exclusively on vinyl and include a free download. After all, anything less would be uncivilized.
In the meantime, check out the music video for our new single No Robots, which premieres, exclusively right here on The Vinyl District. The song will be available on iTunes and everywhere digital music is sold on Tuesday, May 21st!”
—Josh Finver
