It was Wednesday. Not just Wednesday, but an excellent Wednesday at that.
Why?
Because I BOTH got to see Toy Story 3 at Silvercity and picked up some vinyl records yesterday as well!
The local thrift shop usually has their 50% off sales on Fridays, but in some rare cases they do these sales on other days, such as Mondays and Wednesdays. In this case, this particular 50% off sale happened on the latter day of the week (the day I went to the thrift shop, which is Wednesday). So I got lucky and scored some finds! Not as many as that other Friday, but I'll tell you what I got:
Various Artists - K-Tel Double Gold (1983)
Note: I got this one because unlike other K-Tel albums, the grooves aren't so squeezed together! I hope this album doesn't have the terrible volume errors that other K-Tel albums do...
Erroll Garner - Paris Impressions Volume II (195?)
Various Artists - 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of "American Graffiti" (1973)
Note: Heck, one of the two records were missing, but I still got it!
The Alan Parsons Project - Ammonia Avenue (1984)
Note: This one's for you Eric Woofson.
The Alan Parsons Project - Stereotomy (1985)
Note: This one's also for you Eric Woofson.
Waldo de los Rios - Symphonies for the 70's (1975)
Note: This guy does some awesome popified versions of classical compositions. I already have three of his albums, "Sinfonias", "Mozartmania", and "Operas"!
The Charlie Daniels Band - A Decade of Hits (1983)
Note: Not only did the devil run down to Georgia, but the South's gonna do it again!
Various Artists - Pretty in Pink (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1986)
Note: Features music by OMD, Suzanne Vega, INXS, the Psychedelic Furs, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths, and more.
The Cars - The Cars (1978)
Note: The Cars self-titled debut album. I dare not mess with WMG's foolish copyright act, so I won't post anything from it on YouTube.
Tears for Fears - Shout (12" single) (1984)
Note: I have "Songs from the Big Chair on vinyl". And well, that's nice.
The Monks - Suspended Animation (1981)
Note: Punk rock band consisting of former Strawbs members. If you may not know already, this album was a Canadian exclusive and was released nowhere else!
Journey - Frontiers (1983)
Note: This album is what made Journey the masters of 80's rock. Did you know that Bally Midway made an arcade game based on the band to concide with an ongoing US tour? That is 100% true!
Duran Duran - The Reflex (12" single) (1984)
Note: I'm still looking for Union of the Snake.
Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It (12" single) (1985)
Note: I already have this 12" single. I bought a second copy because I'm gonna put some records up for trade soon!
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle (1979)
Foriegner - Agent Provocateur (1984)
Note: As with the Cars record, I daren't post this on YouTube because it's WMG.
A-HA - Hunting High and Low (1985)
Note: WMG again! Ha! Now I wonder why I have so many Warner Bros records in my trip?
Dr. Hook - A Little Bit More (1976)
Depeche Mode - Stripped (12" single) (1986)
Note: German pressing on Mute. I won't let WMG mess around with this one either!
Leonard Bernstein - Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris (195?)
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World (The Urban 12" mix part 2) (12" single) (1984)
Note: I also have this same song on a 10" 45 rpm single. Huzzah!
The Kinks - State of Confusion (1981)
Note: I already have this album. The copy that I bought yesterday is a Columbia House issue, and I might be thinking about putting it for trade!
The Music Department of the Halifax School Board - Ukulele Yes (197?)
Note: Uke NO? Uke YES! That four stringed Hawaiian instrument that everyone's been playing for years... well it's smaller than a guitar, and it has a higher tuning!
Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are (1973)
Note: You might expect your rock-n-roll YouTuber to try to upload "Woman from Tokyo", but he gets angry at the fact that it is blocked by WMG. And they ain't gonna get on my knees. Fer sure.
The San Sebastian Strings - Home to the Sea (1969)
Note: Rod McKuen redaing poetry over fitting orchestral music... nice. Also don't forget that this album employs the Haeco-CSG system, which was a way to battle against monophonic compatability problems with strereo records by shifting the phasing on the right channel about 90 degrees.
Well that's all my finds for today. See you later, and have a nice Canada Day!
Ryan AKA OldMusicOnVinyl1 signing off.
Welcome to the place where big black pieces of plastic live... that is, vinyl records. Unless you don't know exactly what they're called.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Mad Shadows
On my last vinyl shopping trip, I came back with a huge haul of excellent finds, including a record by yet another mysterious Canadian artist.
Ok, now let's recap about the record.
It's a 12" 45 rpm EP entitled "Music in the Night" by a Canadian rock group from the 1980's called the "Mad Shadows". I can't find any info about them on the net, because it's likely an independent record (I can tell from the small "custom record people" writing on the bottom right corner of the back cover, and also by looking at the front cover).
The one thing interesting about this record is that there is some handwriting on the back, probably David McLennan (leader of the Mad Shadows), who autographed this record and gave it as a gift to somebody:
I played this EP and turns out it's a pretty nice Bruce Springsteen-esque record with 6 great songs on it. It would be likely that if they had made any more records, they surely would have been a popular band here in Canada. Unfortunately they didn't and I think they have been forgotten for a long time...
...until now, when I finally rediscovered this record in the vinyl section of Value Village.
Here are videos of both sides of the record; listen and enjoy.
Side 1
1. Gold (3:24)
2. Real Eyes (3:25)
3. Music in the Night (3:47)
Side 2
1. (Driving My) Jaguar Far (3:37)
2. The River Flows (3:04)
3. "747" (3:26)
P.S. If anybody has any info about the Mad Shadows (members: David McLennan, Randy Reibling, Kevin Cholerton, and Blair Polischuk), feel free to leave a comment in the comments section!
EDIT 07/04/2010: MYSTERY OF THE MAD SHADOWS SOLVED.
"bzkzgz" made a comment on my YouTube video about the Mad Shadows record and provided some further information about them:
Since he also requested a picture of the album cover, I'll put it up on this post later today.
EDIT 07/05/2010: PICTURES.
Ok, now let's recap about the record.
It's a 12" 45 rpm EP entitled "Music in the Night" by a Canadian rock group from the 1980's called the "Mad Shadows". I can't find any info about them on the net, because it's likely an independent record (I can tell from the small "custom record people" writing on the bottom right corner of the back cover, and also by looking at the front cover).
The one thing interesting about this record is that there is some handwriting on the back, probably David McLennan (leader of the Mad Shadows), who autographed this record and gave it as a gift to somebody:
To Samuel very special
and very wonderful,
I won't ever forget you,
David.
I played this EP and turns out it's a pretty nice Bruce Springsteen-esque record with 6 great songs on it. It would be likely that if they had made any more records, they surely would have been a popular band here in Canada. Unfortunately they didn't and I think they have been forgotten for a long time...
...until now, when I finally rediscovered this record in the vinyl section of Value Village.
Here are videos of both sides of the record; listen and enjoy.
Side 1
1. Gold (3:24)
2. Real Eyes (3:25)
3. Music in the Night (3:47)
Side 2
1. (Driving My) Jaguar Far (3:37)
2. The River Flows (3:04)
3. "747" (3:26)
P.S. If anybody has any info about the Mad Shadows (members: David McLennan, Randy Reibling, Kevin Cholerton, and Blair Polischuk), feel free to leave a comment in the comments section!
EDIT 07/04/2010: MYSTERY OF THE MAD SHADOWS SOLVED.
"bzkzgz" made a comment on my YouTube video about the Mad Shadows record and provided some further information about them:
Album is from 1985 I believe (I have it on cassette - taped from a friend's lp). Mad Shadows were from Winnipeg, and were a favourite bar band fo some of us in Brandon, MB in the early 80's. They did great covers of groups like the English Beat (Ranking Full Stop, Tears Of A Clown) as well as some original stuff. A good band to dance to .... I remember partying with them one night after their show at "the hill" as well.
Since he also requested a picture of the album cover, I'll put it up on this post later today.
EDIT 07/05/2010: PICTURES.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Beethoven in Quad
Here's something that you may like. It's Beethoven's Piano Concero No. 3 and the Andante favori in glorious SQ quadraphonic, performed by Sviatoslav Richter on the piano, and Riccardo Muti conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. This record was released on EMI/His Master's Voice in 1978, catalogue number ASD 3543.
If you're new to the SQ (Stereo Quadraphonic) quadraphonic matrix encoding process, check out this article on Wikipedia.
If you're new to the SQ (Stereo Quadraphonic) quadraphonic matrix encoding process, check out this article on Wikipedia.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Welcome to my blog!
Hello there everybody. My name's Ryan, and you may recognize me from my YouTube account as OldMusicOnVinyl1.
Now let's get to my history of collecting vinyl records.
2006
It all started in late 2006 when I pulled out my old Technics P-mount turntable and thought about fixing it. The big problem was the annoying hum sound that overlapped the music when playing a record.
I soon brainstormed a way to fix that problem. I decided to dissasemble the turntable and put some ground wire inside there.
Well, unfortunately, that solution didn't work. It turned out that the audio cables were bad RCA wires. So they had to be replaced, and once that was done, it sounded as good as new!
Most of the vinyls in my then-small collection were property of my mom. She usually used to play them on either her Lloyd's stereo system (I still have both of the speakers, her portable suitcase record changer, or the Technics I just fixed.
2007
Through the first quarter of 2007, my obsession with vinlys slowly started to grow. It soon grew big enough, that, on my birthday, I got the Numark TTUSB turntable as a gift. It was an awesome record player that you could use to digitize your old vinyl record collection. I have used in in succession throughout the year to digitize my records, and I still do that today.
My first hunt for records was at Kops Kollectables in Toronto, an excellent store with a wide range of genres from reggae to soul, and from jazz to dance music and much more. I also went to Second Vinyl... got some more interesting finds there including a Genesis "Trick of the Tail", Oregon - "Roots in the Sky", and more.
The best of all the record stores I have ever visited was Star Records in Oshawa! Over 100 thousand vinyls and counting, including:
-sealed vinyls
-new vinyls
-used vinyls
-7" singles
-coloured vinyls
-picture discs
-die-cut picture discs
-some records that you may never find anywhere else
-and MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY MORE!
I have come back to Star Records 3 times already (the last time was in 2009) to get LOTS and LOTS of vinyls.
2008
I think this was the best year for finding vinyls. On January of 2008, I went to the Salvation Army hoping to get some vinyls. And guess what... I lucked out with a few great scores, including a Steely Dan album, Al Di Meola "Scenario", and guess what I found along with them? Two Japanese laserdiscs documenting computer animation! I don't currently have a laserdisc player in my hands, so I hope to get one when I have time.
About a week or so later, I went back, and found BOTH the Model 1 and Model 2 Sega Genesis! Retro video gaming is yet another one of my interests... especially chiptune and 16-bit music associated with those great old consoles.
After that, I tried another thrift store for the first time. In this case it was Goodwill. I usually was able to get more at Goodwill back then compared to today (the mega-haul I had two Fridays ago was an exception). Lots of eBay sellers check out these stores daily, making it difficult for us collectors to find great oldies.
I went to good ol' Goodwill and Sally Ann LOTS of times during the years and damn, it surely was an awesome year. But the stock started to get low towards Christmas time with mostly holiday vinyls, and little more than that. Yet, overall, I still got some great hauls throughout 2008!
2009
As I said, things were starting to get more Christmas-y (even after Christmas!), especially in the Sally Ann, which is a Christian charity shop. They're usually closed on Sundays when I shop, which means that Sally Ann usually doesn't often have many great hauls (I only had a few). There are always LOTS of Christian records over there, and sometimes, a rare find jumps out at you and makes the trip worthwhile, like "Back to the Egg" by Paul McCartney and Wings.
But still I got some great finds at Goodwill, including what I consider to be my all-time favourite golden age rap album, "All in a Day's Work" by Mark Dee, even though I'm positive that 90% of the people don't know about him. I think it was a pretty overlooked album that should have been appreciated by many more people. And the possible reason is that it might have been overlooked, is that I don't think it really did sell well compared to the rest of MCA's artist roster in 1990.
I went again TWO TIMES to Star Records in 2009 to get some big hauls, including the awesome Spider-Man 3 picture disc soundtrack, a Be Bop Deluxe album on white vinyl (limited edition copy exclusive to Canada only!), etc.
And I don't have much more to say about this year, except that I (STILL) had many more great vinyl finds. Which would continue on to the next year...
2010
This is the year that I currently live in, and the year that I formed my YouTube account! After looking at videos of people spinning vinyl records for over two years already and hoping to join the vinyl on YouTube trend for such a long time, I finally decided to set aside the time and get down to it! The first video that I uploaded was of the B-side to the Shocking Blue's "Venus", entitled "Hot Sand". I made it a response to Spencer Morasch (known on YouTube as WABCRADIO77)'s video of his copy of "Venus", and in an instant he became my first subscriber! My YouTube account grew REAL popular in a short time, and, to date, has 83 subscribers, and 52 friends!
Don't forget: my record trips still continue to this year, especially with the HUGE haul I had in the last two Fridays. Eventually, I hope to put some records up for trade on my YouTube account. I'm always looking out for great quality duplicate copies of vinyls I already own. I'll be talking more about that in future posts.
Well, that's a long history. Talk to you later!
Ryan AKA OldMusicOnVinyl1
Now let's get to my history of collecting vinyl records.
2006
It all started in late 2006 when I pulled out my old Technics P-mount turntable and thought about fixing it. The big problem was the annoying hum sound that overlapped the music when playing a record.
I soon brainstormed a way to fix that problem. I decided to dissasemble the turntable and put some ground wire inside there.
Well, unfortunately, that solution didn't work. It turned out that the audio cables were bad RCA wires. So they had to be replaced, and once that was done, it sounded as good as new!
Most of the vinyls in my then-small collection were property of my mom. She usually used to play them on either her Lloyd's stereo system (I still have both of the speakers, her portable suitcase record changer, or the Technics I just fixed.
2007
Through the first quarter of 2007, my obsession with vinlys slowly started to grow. It soon grew big enough, that, on my birthday, I got the Numark TTUSB turntable as a gift. It was an awesome record player that you could use to digitize your old vinyl record collection. I have used in in succession throughout the year to digitize my records, and I still do that today.
My first hunt for records was at Kops Kollectables in Toronto, an excellent store with a wide range of genres from reggae to soul, and from jazz to dance music and much more. I also went to Second Vinyl... got some more interesting finds there including a Genesis "Trick of the Tail", Oregon - "Roots in the Sky", and more.
The best of all the record stores I have ever visited was Star Records in Oshawa! Over 100 thousand vinyls and counting, including:
-sealed vinyls
-new vinyls
-used vinyls
-7" singles
-coloured vinyls
-picture discs
-die-cut picture discs
-some records that you may never find anywhere else
-and MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY MORE!
I have come back to Star Records 3 times already (the last time was in 2009) to get LOTS and LOTS of vinyls.
2008
I think this was the best year for finding vinyls. On January of 2008, I went to the Salvation Army hoping to get some vinyls. And guess what... I lucked out with a few great scores, including a Steely Dan album, Al Di Meola "Scenario", and guess what I found along with them? Two Japanese laserdiscs documenting computer animation! I don't currently have a laserdisc player in my hands, so I hope to get one when I have time.
About a week or so later, I went back, and found BOTH the Model 1 and Model 2 Sega Genesis! Retro video gaming is yet another one of my interests... especially chiptune and 16-bit music associated with those great old consoles.
After that, I tried another thrift store for the first time. In this case it was Goodwill. I usually was able to get more at Goodwill back then compared to today (the mega-haul I had two Fridays ago was an exception). Lots of eBay sellers check out these stores daily, making it difficult for us collectors to find great oldies.
I went to good ol' Goodwill and Sally Ann LOTS of times during the years and damn, it surely was an awesome year. But the stock started to get low towards Christmas time with mostly holiday vinyls, and little more than that. Yet, overall, I still got some great hauls throughout 2008!
2009
As I said, things were starting to get more Christmas-y (even after Christmas!), especially in the Sally Ann, which is a Christian charity shop. They're usually closed on Sundays when I shop, which means that Sally Ann usually doesn't often have many great hauls (I only had a few). There are always LOTS of Christian records over there, and sometimes, a rare find jumps out at you and makes the trip worthwhile, like "Back to the Egg" by Paul McCartney and Wings.
But still I got some great finds at Goodwill, including what I consider to be my all-time favourite golden age rap album, "All in a Day's Work" by Mark Dee, even though I'm positive that 90% of the people don't know about him. I think it was a pretty overlooked album that should have been appreciated by many more people. And the possible reason is that it might have been overlooked, is that I don't think it really did sell well compared to the rest of MCA's artist roster in 1990.
I went again TWO TIMES to Star Records in 2009 to get some big hauls, including the awesome Spider-Man 3 picture disc soundtrack, a Be Bop Deluxe album on white vinyl (limited edition copy exclusive to Canada only!), etc.
And I don't have much more to say about this year, except that I (STILL) had many more great vinyl finds. Which would continue on to the next year...
2010
This is the year that I currently live in, and the year that I formed my YouTube account! After looking at videos of people spinning vinyl records for over two years already and hoping to join the vinyl on YouTube trend for such a long time, I finally decided to set aside the time and get down to it! The first video that I uploaded was of the B-side to the Shocking Blue's "Venus", entitled "Hot Sand". I made it a response to Spencer Morasch (known on YouTube as WABCRADIO77)'s video of his copy of "Venus", and in an instant he became my first subscriber! My YouTube account grew REAL popular in a short time, and, to date, has 83 subscribers, and 52 friends!
Don't forget: my record trips still continue to this year, especially with the HUGE haul I had in the last two Fridays. Eventually, I hope to put some records up for trade on my YouTube account. I'm always looking out for great quality duplicate copies of vinyls I already own. I'll be talking more about that in future posts.
Well, that's a long history. Talk to you later!
Ryan AKA OldMusicOnVinyl1
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)