“One of my most fond experiences concerning vinyl records happened on a gig with Forest Fire, actually.”
“We were playing music in a record store during SXSW, and immediately after the set, this guy approached Mark (lead singer)—who hadn’t even set his guitar down—and said, “I’ve been in a funk for 6 months and you guys just brought me out of it. There’s $200 credit for you guys at the counter.”
And the band happily picked out some music to bring home! My take of the day: Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music, Walt Dickerson and Sun Ra’s Visions, and a Bill Withers 45 (“before I make love to your body, I wanna make love to your mind” Classic.) So, thanks Guy, wherever you are – we hope you are still feeling good!
I grew up with records. My father’s collection was kept in the attic, and his personal selections tucked under the turntable in our living room. I began digging through the boxes of records in the afternoons after school, and my finds became a source for conversation during dinner.
My mother asked me to put music on whenever we had company—flipping the records over became a welcome escape from the table during dinner parties, when I would go sit with our dog and listen to the first few tunes of the B-side before going back in.
And these days—living in Brooklyn—I am fortunate to have such diversity in independent music outlets. Some of my haunts are The Thing, with its overwhelming and unorganized stacks of vinyl; Heaven Street Music, carefully selected new and used records (they currently have a copy of “William S. Burroughs’ Break Through In Grey Room on the wall); and New York dance music convergence, Halcyon, where you can walk in with a list of obscure or underground dance music and the clerks (all local DJs themselves) will get you sorted.
Some recent additions to the stacks of records all over my apartment: Alice Cohen, Walking Up Walls (Olde English Spelling Bee), Lee Gamble Diversion 1994-1996 (PAN), and a few that never leave ‘my bag,’ Watazumido-Shuso’s Mysterious Sound of the Japanese Bamboo Flute (Everest) and Hype Williams’ Meets Shangaan Electro (Honest Jon’s).
—Galen Bremer, bass
Forest Fire’s third LP, Screens hit store shelves on September 2nd.
