The White Stripes - Party of Special Things to Do

And this was just the beginning. By the end of 1955, rock and roll, as performed and consumed by both blacks and whites, had emerged as a distinct musical style, rather than simply a euphemism for the black r&b which spawned it and with which it continued to overlap. In late 1956, Billboard reported that 25 of 125 pop chart entries during the first 50 weeks of the year had been black r&b/rock and roll records. Many others were either white cover versions of black songs or by white artists performing in styles obviously derived from black music. In 1957, the independent record companies responsible for recording much of this material accounted for an astonishing 76 per cent of the year’s hit singles. In 1958 more than 90 per cent of the 155 records appearing on the national Rhythm and Blues charts during the year also appeared on the pop charts.

Taken together, the rise of these Independents and the unprecedented popularity of black and black-derived styles with young white audiences threatened the traditional distribution of power and influence within the music industry. According to Charles Hamm, “At no other point in the two- hundred year history of popular song in America had there been such a drastic and dramatic change in such a brief period of time”. The powerful alliance of Tin Pan Alley music publishing houses, professional songwriters, network radio stations and major recording labels, which had long dominated the popular music business, was challenged and for a while bested by a new breed of song publishers, black-oriented radio stations, distributors, and record labels.

Most of the Independents involved in the production of r&b had emerged in the mid 1940s, after the Majors, responding to the enforced economies of the Depression and then war, had curtailed minority ranges like black music and concentrated on the more lucrative mass market for white popular music. After the Second World War, however, a disparate group of entrepreneurs moved into the market niches created by these cutbacks, encouraged by the fact that the cost of entry into the business of record production remained relatively low. A thousand dollars was enough to hire a studio (typically at $50 an hour), book musicians, pay American Federation of Musicians (AFM) dues, have a master tape prepared, and press 500 singles at 11 cents a shot.
Source: Just my soul responding Rhythm and Blues, black consciousness and race relations by Brian Ward

The White Stripes - Party of Special Things to Do

• Released December 2000
• Genre Garage rock
• Cover of a song by Captain Beefheart

"Between the releases of their seminal albums De Stilj and White Blood Cells, the iconic duo released a 7-inch for Sub Pop’s Singles Club series taking on a hero of their own: Captain Beefhear."


Gorillaz - Baby Queen

• Released by: Parlophone UK
• Release date: November 2022
• Genres Synthpop, Trip Hop, Alternative

"Previously the best-known '"cartoon bands" were animated versions of The Monkees and The Beatles that kids could watch on Saturday mornings. But Gorillaz (initially called just "Gorilla") was to be an ambitious musical project with eclectic, genre-bending tunes, unique visuals, and a detailed backstory for how the virtual band came to be."

See previous Song of the Day

Aretha Franklin - The Long and Winding Road

Aretha Franklin - The Long and Winding Road

• Written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney
• Released on Young, Gifted and Black Album January 24, 1972

"Rolling Stone Magazine has said that no one covered The Beatles songs as well as the immortal Aretha Frankin and called her version of The Long And Winding Road” the best Beatles cover ever."

It is impossible to date the origin of the blues with any precision, although its roots in the music which West African slaves would have brought with them to the Americas have always been assumed. There are accounts of calls and field hollers back into the nineteenth century. Working individually in the fields in comparative quiet, such calls had practical use, (to ease the drudgery of repetitive actions, or to call instructions to animals), but they would also sometimes become communal expressions, as when one field hand picked up the call from another, and so on. These workers were politically segregated. The hopes which had arisen in the wake of the 1875 Civil Rights Act, which gave blacks equal treatment in terms of access to accommodation, places of entertainment, and public transport, were dashed on its repeal in 1883. Segregation became more rigidly enforced to the extent that in 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court validated new segregationist laws enacted in southern legislatures and which received national government sanction in 1913. These were extreme. The economic depression of the 1880s and 1890s hit African Americans hardest, as they were increasingly barred from any form of economic competition with whites. And, as the blues became identified as a recognizable genre singers like the stylistically eclectic Henry Thomas and Charley Patton, born in the 1870s and 1880s, are usually cited as among the first “blues” singers. The repertoire of most of these singers extended far wider than just the blues, folksongs, dances, worksongs, even minstrel songs on occasion. Many of these early singers were travelers. A disproportionate number were blind or otherwise disabled, (music being one of the few sources of income for such individuals), carrying their songs from community to community by railroad, by steamboats, by wagon and even by foot. As travelers, it was vital that their means of earning were portable, hence the widespread adoption of the guitar as an accompanying instrument.

The guitar had played a role in both nascent jazz bands, for example that of Buddy Bolden in the late 1890s, and the early string bands. Blues thus settled down in the years prior to their first recordings as an acoustic form, in which the singer accompanies him- (or less often her-) self on the guitar, particularly for various social events, dances, picnics etc. This form has been identified by various names: country blues or rural blues, recognizing its original location or downhome blues, a term more favored by players themselves. Geographical location is also important: there are recognizable stylistic differences between singers emanating from Texas, from Mississippi, from Alabama or from Georgia.
Source: The cambridge companion to Blues And Gospel Music by Allan Moore

Grant Green - Idle Moments

• Genres Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, Cool Jazz
• Recorded November 4-15, 1963
• Released February 1965

"All the unique colors of the ensemble present themselves with Green’s soulful guitar joined by Duke Pearson’s piano, Bobby Hutcherson’s vibraphone, Bob Cranshaw’s upright bass, Al Harewood’s subtle drums, and lastly Joe Henderson’s magnificent tenor saxophone."

See previous Song of the Day

Garfield - Private Affair

LSD’s most obvious and pervasive influence on culture is to be found in music. That’s surely because music can be enhanced by the drug, prompting synaesthetic responses: seeing sounds as colours, patterns, shapes. What LSD doesn’t do, however, is make it easy to read a book, or concentrate on plot. So it’s only really in music that there’s a true overlap between work made about acid, and work made for enjoying when on acid… And while the sonic experimentation prompted by LSD may have rippled right into mainstream pop music, it’s not like full-on psych has ever really ceased: you can see it noodling away, right up to today’s bands.

Few musicians working today could claim to be unaffected by records such as, say, Revolver. The Beatles’ ‘acid album’ was released in 1966, and was a huge leap forward in sound, featuring tape looping, reversed guitars, vocal effects and altered speeds. The warp and wobble of Tomorrow Never Knows, with lyrics based on Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience Manual, might sound a bit trippy-hippie cliche today, but it was revolutionary at the time.
Source: How LSD influenced Western culture by Holly Williams


Garfield - Private Affair

• On their second album "Out There Tonight"
• Composed by Garfield French
• Release Year 1977

"Frontman Garfield French (lead vocals) and the rest of the sextet (drummer Dennis French, keyboardist Jacques Fillion, guitarists Walter Lawrence and Paul O'Donnell and flutist Chip Yarwood) debuted in 1976 opening for 10cc in Ottawa, Canada."

See previous Song of the Day

The Uncommon Vinyl Sizes & Speeds

The Uncommon Vinyl Sizes & Speeds

The standard sizes and speed for vinyl records are 12" and 7" both played at 33 1/3 RPM or 45 RPM. RPM means revolution per minute, the number of times the record rotates a minute.



Image by Mink Mingle

Unusual Sizes for Vinyl

2 in (5.1 cm)
Recorded at 10-20 seconds each side.

3 in (7.6 cm) 

Also known as 8ban for 8cm Bandai, these were developed in Japan by record pressing company Toyokasei. Records in this format continue to be manufactured. 3 inch singles are made available exclusively.

4.7 in (12 cm) 

Although dubbed a 5 inch record, to be usable in most compact disc players, the record can be no bigger than 120 mm.

5 in (13 cm)

Children's records records were manufactured in this size from the early 1900s all the way up to the late 1950s and underground punk bands in the 1990s.

6 in (15 cm)

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s. The 78 RPM speed was used for some children's records of this size well into the 1960s, as nearly all record players still included it and it allowed an old disused 78-only player to be used as a toy. 6 inch flexi discs were popular in Japan where they were known as sound-sheets, these releases were often in traditional round format. The American magazine National Geographic's January 1979 issue included a 6 inch flexi disc of whale sounds called "Songs of the Humpback Whale."

 

8 in (20 cm)

Prior to 1910, 8 inch records to replaced their inexpensive 7 inch product, but they were soon discontinued. In the 1980s and 1990s, they were mostly seen as Japanese pressed records and often included in magazines.

9 in (23 cm) 

Popular in Japan where they were known as sound-sheets, these releases were often in traditional round format and often included in a magazine. The Seeburg 1000 background music system ,1959 to mid-1980s, used 9 inch, 16 RPM records with an unusual 2 inch center hole. Recordings had a capacity of about 40 minutes per side.

14 in (36 cm) 

Between 1903 and 1910, American companies made recordings of 14 inch records that played at the unusual speed of 60 RPM but then soon abandoned.

16 in (41 cm) 

These records provided the sound in the Vitaphone talking picture system developed in the mid-1920s, electrical transcriptions of prerecorded radio programming in the early 1930s. Standard groove records used roughly the same large groove dimensions and spacing found on 78 RPM records and typically played for about 15 minutes per side, with very good fidelity. When heard over the air, it was indistinguishable from live broadcasting to casual listeners.

11 in (28 cm), 13 in (33 cm) 

Underground hardcore punk and goth bands in the 1990s started releasing EPs in these sizes.

8.3 in (21 cm), 9.8 in (25 cm), 10.6 in (27 cm) 11.4 in (29 cm), 13.8 in (35 cm), and 19.7 in (50 cm) 

In the first three decades of the twentieth century European companies made recordings in this size.

Unusual Speeds for Vinyl

78 RPM

Records offer the best sound quality when turned at a higher RPM. But on the downside, when the RPM of a record increases, the playback time it offers decreases. 78 RPM became the standard record speed by 1925. 10 inch records started becoming the standard size for 78 RPM records. Because the standard 10 inch record could hold about three minutes of sound per side, most popular recordings were limited to that duration. The durations of recordings is about three to five minutes for 12 inch and three minutes for 10 inch.

8 1/3 RPM

Beginning in 1969, 8 1/3 RPM records began to be produced normally in 10 inch format, 12 inch and 7 inch records. One 10 inch record holds four hours of speech with the 12 inch variety holding six hours and the 7 inch variety holding roughly 90 minutes. The format was later used to distribute magazines on nine-inch flexible discs recorded at the same speed. These discs were made of thin plastic and were literally flexible, similar to an overhead projector transparency sheet. The last analog disc produced as a format for audio book and magazine was distributed in 2001.

16 2/3 RPM

This speed was used almost exclusively for spoken word content, in particular for earlier versions of the talking books used by the visually impaired, though it was also employed in the Seeburg 1000 Background Music System. For this reason, the inclusion of a 16 2/3 speed setting on turntables became standard roughly between the mid 1950s and very early 1970s despite the records themselves being a rarity. 16 2/3 records require a 0.5 mil stylus to avoid increased wear. 7 inch records used shallow and narrow ultra-microgrooves, requiring a 0.25 mil stylus.

Image by Samantha Lam

Experimental Speeds

3 RPM & 4 1/6 RPM

No recording lathe can engrave a record accurately at such a slow speed, in actuality the record was mastered at four-times speed or 16 rpm with the program material similarly being played at quadruple speed. Audiobooks experiments in 1966 were the highest successful density tested. In the experiments, records could play10 hours on one side of a 12-inch disc although it was surmised by engineers that this could be extended to 12 hours per side if needed. But mastering companies deemed the audio quality insufficient and wouldn't master records below 16 RPM.

24 RPM

During the same period of 16 RPM, especially in the UK, producers manufactured this speed prior to the days when 16 RPM could provide intelligible voice recognition quality over repeated plays. The U.S. manufactured this speed for dictation records such as the Edison Voicewriter which recorded on thin flexible plastic discs.

Other Speeds

Between 1910 - 1930, a number of proprietary formats existed: with recordings made at speeds including 130 RPM, 80 RPM, 60 RPM, 73.29 RPM (before the 78 rpm was considered a worldwide standard), 77.92 RPM became European standard, and 78.26 RPM became American standard.


For other sources and additional information:
Unusual types of gramophone records
What Is Vinyl

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Frank Sinatra - All Of Me

Just as we might feel inclined to see music resisting the implicit morality of high and low (high being the good and low being the bad or base, basso, by that telling ambiguity of language), music is much more than melody. Melody may be the pre-eminent quality of western metrical music; but in most performed genres since the middle ages, music was arranged in different voices. Initially, this may have involved little more than a drum or drone that accompanied one voice, more or less providing padding or a beat for the single voice that rose above it. But the bulk of early music already reveals a bass part. With the development of the keyboard, the bass notes could even be played in the left hand by a single performer while the right hand typically provided the melody on the higher side of the scale.

The continuity of the drone is perhaps recalled in the delightful Italian baroque term basso continuo, a bass line that keeps going, or as English musicians would say in the same period, a ‘thorough bass’, meaning a bass that runs through the piece (‘through’ and ‘thorough’ possessing the same etymology). Romantic music makes us think that high and low instruments are put together to make a duet; but that conception does not belong to earlier music, right through the baroque. Even in the romantic period, a piece for violin and piano is not referred to as a duet but a violin sonata (with accompaniment). In the baroque a solo which is unaccompanied is rare and will often be published with the stipulation of being unaccompanied, so that there is no confusion and musicians do not go hunting for the missing part or invent one for good measure.

Source: Basso: A Low Point in the Study of Musical Meaning and Metaphor by Robert Nelson


Frank Sinatra - All Of Me

• First recorded on October 19, 1947
• Released on "All of Me" single April 5, 1948
• Written by Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons

"Count Basie and his orchestra performed this song in an instrumental on Sinatra's 1966 live album, Sinatra at the Sands. Many unconfirmed sources claim this work was introduced over the radio by Belle Baker in 1931. Broadcasting day and station remain unknown."

See previous Song of the Day

Bobby Oroza - There Can Be No Love

Swing jazz in the 1920s and 30s aimed for making people move. The music was rhythmic, repetitive and danceable. Over time, however, different sub-categories of jazz evolved into less danceable music, such as bebop, cool jazz, and free jazz. The tempo became too fast or too slow. The structure was less transparent, with many improvised parts. A respectful jazz audience did no longer dance but had their attention fixed on the musicians. Gradually, jazz concert conventions became as fixed as for the classical concert halls: a seated audience that should applaud after solos and nod their head or tap their feet modestly to the beat. In line with the classical conventions, attentive listening was the only way of showing respect for the musicians.

The rock’n’roll that spread like wildfire in the 1950s evolved from the African American rhythm and blues. The African American music culture has always had a close link between music and movement, in the church, in concerts, in social gatherings, and many African American music genres are especially rhythmic oriented (funk, hip hop) with an obvious focus on dance. Olly Wilson points to repetition, a percussive orientation and the link between music, movement and dance as some of the elements that point to a heritage from the African continent.

In the 1950s, American society was still highly segregated, and a white artist was needed to break this new music genre to a larger white audience. Elvis Presley was the perfect man; he could sing, he was good looking, and he could move. Today his movements do not seem very provoking, but in the 1950s his moving hips were immediately associated with sex and a promiscuous lifestyle. The music was danceable and invited the audience out of their chairs to participate in the music while dancing and singing along. Still, TV hosts and concert arrangers tried in any way possible to avoid the exposing of his dance moves to escape reactions from the parent generation. The connection between music and movement was seen associated with wild and uncivilized life.

Source: A Brief History of Music in the 20th Century


Bobby Oroza - There Can Be No Love

• Released by: Big Crown Records
• Release date: May 3 2019

"A large record collection of early jazz, blues, Motown hits, gospel choirs and doo-wop, as well as albums from Brazil and Africa, folk songs from North and South America from Bobby's mother, and salsa music from New York, all of these influences can be heard and felt in Bobby's music today."

See previous Song of the Day

David Bowie - Five Years

The development of the phonograph record industry was a great boon to the entertainment world and became a big factor in the popularizing of songs. First efforts in this medium entailed the use of cylinders, which proved impractical. Columbia and Edison were early companies, joined in 1901 by Victor, and these three became the most important companies in the development of records. Other companies formed a decade or so later. After cylinders came the standard type of 78- rpm record used during all the years following till about 1950. Early records utilized an acoustical process of recording which left much to be desired because of its poor fidelity and volume. The early records featured band marches, string ensembles, instrumental solos, comedy and novelty songs and dialogues, and opera singers performing operatic and semi-classical airs. By 1909 the companies began to record the popular songs of the day by well-known entertainers. The first electrical records appeared in the mid 20s on a small scale, and by the late 20s most companies had converted to the far superior electrical process.

The roots of jazz took hold decades before. Jazz in something like its later form began to emerge about 1890. By 1900 it was being played in New Orleans. Leading early jazzmen were Buddy Bolden and Bunk Johnson, followed by King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Small jazz groups played for street parades and funerals, in brothels and dance halls. Many future jazz greats were spawned in New Orleans in the formative years.

Jazz bands began to play on riverboats up and down the Mississippi, stopping to play at river towns and spreading the sound. Bands moved to Chicago in the postwar era. That city became a mecca for jazzmen from all points, a wild and lively place during Prohibition.
Source: Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Vol. 1 Music By Year 1900 1950 by Roger D. Kinkle

David Bowie - Five Years

• Songwriter David Bowie
• Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott,
• Released June 16 1972

"Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974

In February 1976 Rolling Stone published an extract from Bowie’s aborted autobiography, The Return of the Thin White Duke, in which he suggested that his half-brother Terry Burns had inspired ‘Five Years’."

See previous Song of the Day

Mildred Bailey - You're Laughing at Me

Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop creates a forum for the interdisciplinary discussion of popular music performed and created by American Indian musicians. In addition to examining the influence of popular musical forms from blues, jazz, country western, rock, folk, punk, reggae, and hip hop on Indigenous expressive forms, our contributors similarly note the ways that the various genres have been shaped by what some have called the “Red Roots”of American-originated musical styles... the study of this body of music provides an important window into history, politics, and tribal communities, as it simultaneously provides a complement to literary, historiographical, anthropological, and sociological discussions of Native culture. In doing so, our understanding of American culture as a whole is challenged and enriched.

The study of Indigenous music and song-making has long been constrained to the realm of ethnomusicology, and has often focused on the old songs, “traditional songs,” or chants. It has been studied for its rhythmic patterns, timbre, tonality, and symbolic meaning. However, it hasn’t been discussed in the broad continuum of expressive artistic responses that lends itself to literary and rhetorical analyses. While there is clear value in the linguistic and ethnomusicological approaches, it is important to recognize that music commands attention within other fields, as well as note that the artificial divisions between song, music, and literature are constructs of western academia. By translocating our discussion of contemporary Indigenous popular music, we’re claiming new and multiple spaces for the analysis of musical traditions; traditions that are responsive, evolving, and in dialogue with shifting sociopolitical contexts. Arnold Krupat, well-known scholar of American Indian literature, once said, “Literature is that mode of discourse which foremost seeks to enact and perform its insights, insisting that we understand with affect, feel with comprehension”... The register of the literary is different and unique, involving emotional and affective cognitive involvement: indeed, it commands it. Krupat’s comment is true for music as well. In fact, in writing about the distinctiveness of song and music generally... “Singing heightens the aural and visceral presence of the body in language.” 
Source: Indigenous Pop: Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop by Jeff Berglund, Jan Johnson, and Kimberli Lee


Mildred Bailey - You're Laughing at Me

• Released on Where Are You? Single February 1937
• First recording by Hal Kemp and His Orchestra
• Written by Irving Berlin

"Mildred Bailey greatly contributed to the 1930's jazz and swing music scenes. She greatly influenced the musical career of her childhood friend Bing Crosby, and also acted as a mentor to Billie Holiday. In 1989, Bailey was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame."

See previous Song of the Day

The Different Types of Vinyl

The Different Types of Vinyl

Vinyl records are an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed, a diameter, use of the "microgroove" groove specification, and a vinyl composition disk.



Image by Jack Hamilton

12 inch Album/12 inch Single
(LP or Long Playing/EP or Extended Playing)
The 12" vinyl format is often referred to as an LP as it can play much longer than the Single or Extended Play 7". LPs were 10" records at first, but soon the 12" size became by far the most common. While the 12" format is most commonly used for LP purposes, it is also quite common to see Singles and EPs pressed on 12" vinyl.

The recording time available on 12" records depends very much on the frequency spectrum, the dynamic range, the width of the stereophonic signal and other characteristics of the recording. Recommend 12" records playing times are 14.0 – 15.5 minutes at 45 RPM and 20.0 – 22.5 minutes at 33 1/3 RPM.

The 12" format is available on standard weight, 140g or Heavy weight 180 – 220g vinyl.

Image by Oleg Sergeichik

10 inch Album
Before the early 1950s the 33 1/3 RPM LP was most commonly found in a 10" format. The 10" format disappeared from United States stores around 1950, but remained common in some markets until the mid-1960s. The 10" vinyl format was resurrected in the 1970s for marketing some popular recordings as collectible.

The recording time available on 10" records depends very much on the frequency spectrum, the dynamic range, the width of the stereophonic signal and other characteristics of the recording. Recommend 10" records playing times are 10.5 – 11.5 minutes at 45 RPM and 14.0 – 15.5 minutes at 33 1/3 RPM.

The 10" standard weight, 110g only.

Image by Nik

7 inch Single
Traditionally, the 7″ 45 RPM format has been used for Singles and would contain one item per side, but they are also great for Extended Play (EP) releases, multi-track records that play longer than the single-item-per-side records. Since the 7″ can be cut at either 45 RPM or 33 1/3 RPM, longer recording times can be achieved at the expense of attenuating and compressing the sound to reduce the width required by the groove.

The recording time available on 7″ records depends very much on the frequency spectrum, the dynamic range, the width of the stereophonic signal and other characteristics of the recording. Recommend 7″ records playing times are 6.0 – 6.5 minutes at 45 RPM and 8.0 – 8.5 minutes at 33 1/3 RPM.

The 7″ format is available on standard weight, 42g or Heavy weight, 70g vinyl.


Flexi Discs/Vinyl
The Flexi is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl (or paper) sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable. Developed in communist Russia through the pressing and distribution of illegal pop music on old X-Rays called Bones, flexis have since come to embody a variety of products thinner than a normal vinyl record. A flexi can be molded with speech or music and used for a huge variety of purposes. While they are certainly used as standalone promotion tools, collectibles, gifts and invitations, most find themselves bound into the magazines and books with a perforated seam.


For custom vinyl manufacturing, for independent musicians, artists and entrepreneurs visit:
Pirates Press Inc

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Freddie Hubbard - The Summer Knows (Live)

The process of identifying a history and tradition of jazz has been one of the most significant influences on jazz music and culture. The quick succession of stylistic changes in jazz have often caused disagreements as to the role of innovation in jazz and the character of its authentic forms. While these disagreements are now largely amongst academics, throughout the twentieth century musicians, critics, and members of the music industry had been the principal actors in formulating jazz history. Their participation has helped shape the music itself, the manner in which it is performed, and its place in American culture. The revival of ‘traditional’ jazz that started in the late 1930s marked the first major impact of history on the industry.

The revivalists were a group of musicians and critics who often complained that the developments that characterised swing were too formulaic and clich´ed. Traditionalist critics such as Rudi Blesh, David Stuart, and Ralph J. Gleason thus promoted jazz musicians from the 1920s and earlier as purveyors of the timeless and historically significant style. While a large number of white musicians participated in this revival, the focus of most traditionalist critics, journals, and record labels was on the black musicians of New Orleans. Many of these ‘original’ New Orleans musicians represented the uneducated, ‘folk’ roots of jazz epitomised by the experiences of many blacks in the early twentieth century South. In fact, it was their ‘folk’ quality that implied their authenticity and historical significance as the pioneers of American popular music.

Source: Making America’s Music: Jazz History and the Jazz Preservation Act by Jeff Farley

Freddie Hubbard - The Summer Knows (Live)

• Genres Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Jazz-Funk
• Theme from "Summer of 42"
• Recorded December 1979

"Freddie Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the 1970s with a series of albums for Creed Taylor and his record label CTI Records. In the 1980s Hubbard was again leading his own jazz group attracting favorable reviews, playing at concerts and festivals in the US and Europe."

See previous Song of the Day

Alice Cooper - Be My Lover

In the 50s, audiences still liked bebop that packed heat and drama. By the middle of that decade, there emerged a variant of bebop called hard bop, which was characterized by dominant blues and gospel elements, and may have rendered those still wondering what is bebop even more confused. Hard bop became the most popular form of jazz in the 50s, and among its main practitioners were Miles Davis who, ever the restless soul, quit the cool school soon after it started. 

Hard bop remained a valid jazz currency right into the 60s, though by then another offshoot, called soul jazz, offered a more accessible and gospel-infused version of bebop, and was popular for a few years. But jazz as a whole was losing its audience to rock and pop music. With the rise of avant-garde jazz, the music continued to shed its mainstream appeal, though every now and then the occasional jazz record would infiltrate the pop charts.

Even though fusion and jazz-rock further diminished bebop’s appeal in the 70s, there were still musicians who played it, and there was even a mini-revival of interest in it during the late 70s and early 80s, when acoustic, bop-influenced jazz was once again in vogue.
Source: What Is Bebop? Deconstructing Jazz Music’s Most Influential Development by Charles Waring


Alice Cooper - Be My Lover

• Songwriter(s) Michael Bruce
• Producer(s) Bob Ezrin
• Released February 8, 1972

"Alice Cooper was known for their controversial stage show, but the “Killer” album's two singles, “Be My Lover” and “Under My Wheels”, firmly established them as a top flight rock and roll band and a top concert draw in the early 70’s."

See previous Song of the Day

Nirvana - Come As You Are

This observation is especially apt when discussing music, perhaps the most experiential art form. Like music itself, which operates on a primal level best described as “pre-rational,” musical judgment seems more visceral than cognitive, more automatic than reasoned. An old opera joke addresses the problem of relying on the expert’s opinion: Wagner’s music is better than it sounds, while Puccini’s music sounds better than it is.

The humor lies in the absurdity of judging music, the audible art, apart from how it sounds. It is the difference between experiential appraisal (“I know what I like when I hear it”) and analytical discernment (“I discern its value when I measure it”). These divergent modes of apprehension help explain the often-wide chasm between popular musical tastes and the rarified tastes of music critics, theorists, historians, and other professionals.

Rather, we are aroused by our own involvement, and mistake that excitement for emotions expressed in the music. We may ascribe sadness to a musical passage. However, our response, sometimes with tears, is not one of sadness, but of pleasure in the appreciation of aesthetic features.

The capacity of music to express emotion, as opposed to our experience of emotion in music, is a major subject in contemporary musical aesthetics. Whereas pre-modern thinkers viewed music as a branch of mathematics, following the Platonic- Pythagorean tradition, late medieval and Renaissance thinkers introduced a humanist understanding of music as the “sonorous art,” which gave mathematics a secondary place of “calculating means to audible ends.”
Source: Musical Aesthetics: An Introduction to Concepts, Theories, and Functions by Jonathan L. Friedmann

Nirvana - Come As You Are

• Songwriter Kurt Cobain
• Producer Butch Vig
• Released March 3, 1992

"Kurt Cobain agreed to release "Come as You Are" as the second single because of its commercial potential. Cobain described the lyrics of "Come as You Are" as contradictory, and said the song was about "people and what they're expected to act like"."

See previous Song of the Day

Marvin Sapp - Never Would Have Made It

From the earliest oral traditions Delta storytellers possessed a strong sense of place, of which the landscape, water, and heat formed the backdrop. Tragedy and melodrama are popular southern genres, and kinship and family are important themes in Delta literature. Southern class differences and racial conflict have also long given rise to written expression, and the themes of delta writers, especially the elementalism and focus on "blood, sweat and tears" reality, often parallel those of Delta blues songs.

Music and the lower Mississippi River delta are synonymous and, indeed, the Delta is the cradle of American music. Musical styles within the Delta region are diverse and it was here that the blues, Cajun music, jazz, and zydeco evolved. Yet best known around the world is the blues music of the lower Mississippi River Delta. Developed by people engaged in struggle, infused with spirit and speaking in dialect, the blues are rooted in African music and evolved from field hollars, the work songs of slaves that often carried deeply layered, coded messages. It is said that misery produces creativity and resiliency, and the blues is deeply rooted in the African-American experience and the rural settings of the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas. The blues tell stories of frustrated love, broken homes, and other miscues of an oppressed and displaced people. The blues is a music of hardworking, exploited people and this distinct, indigenous music was largely developed by musicians with no formal training, but with an ear for the rhythms of their daily lives.

The success of blues music, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally a rural sound and strongly connected to place, blues went unrecognized as commercially viable for years, due to racial prejudice and the subsuming of the blues under other types of music, such as jazz and rock & roll. As the Mississippi River facilitated the movement of people and their music all over America, major metropolitan areas along the river, such as New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago soon shared similar musical forms. Later, the blues began to circulate the nation on the radio, first recorded in Memphis before the Depression and later in Chicago. Today rap music is a form of contemporary blues that draws upon past blues’ themes and musicians, but old time Delta blues barely exists and is now mostly for new types of audiences.
Source: History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta Region


Marvin Sapp - Never Would Have Made It

• From his seventh studio album Thirsty
• Released 2007

"Marvin Sapp wrote this song as a tribute after the death of his father, Henry Lewis Sapp, Jr. He testifies that it was created by divine inspiration the Sunday after his father’s burial."

See previous Song of the Day

Queen - All Dead, All Dead

Because music is a language that puts structures and written forms into play within a homologous relationship with other forms of expression, the relationship between music and politics cannot be understood solely based on the esthetic criteria of musicology, or the historic or cultural criteria found in the way sociology studies how music is received.

Music, as a cultural product and symbolic form, is part of social life. “As organized sound, it expresses aspects of the experience of individuals in society.” As shared experience, music mobilizes and unifies groups, contributes to their movements and accompanies celebrations and rites. It excites to violence and combat, as it does to fervor and effusion. In short, it reveals social and political processes that are, as Rousseau observed, “capable of acting physically on the body.” Yet these very characteristics also present the enigma of music, which seems neither to want nor to be able to say anything. While all social and cultural activities are made up of meanings wherein language is the code and norm, music, though manifestly social and expressive, seems devoid of any actual semantic capacity to feed the active and informational dimensions of a statement. This is the paradox within music’s very expression: without referring to any visible image of the world, music nonetheless reveals something about the world, and, free of any referential ties, its language depends on something other than itself.

Source: Music and Politics: The Language of Music – between Objective Expression and Subjective Reality by Jean-Marie Donegani


Queen - All Dead, All Dead

• On Queen's sixth studio album News Of The World
• Released 28 October 1977
• Written by Brian May

"Brian May stated in an interview that "We'd already made a decision that...[after] A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, we wanted to go back to basics for News of the World. But it was very timely because the world was looking at punk and things being very stripped down."

See previous Song of the Day

Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues

Couldn't find anything interesting to share today, will find something for tomorrow. Peace to theworld. ✌️☮️

Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues

• Lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, and songwriten by Gary Moore
• Released in April 1990

"Gary Moore's only single of his solo career to chart in the US was Still Got The Blues. Germany court ruled that the guitar solo on the song was plagiarized from a 1974 instrumental recording."


J. J. Barnes - You Are Just A Living Doll

• Released in 1973
• Written By David Jordan & Patrick Adams

"It's perhaps no surprise that with the 1973 comeback bid Born Again he chose to introduce a heavier, more emotional vocal approach and slow-burning melodies rooted in blues and gospel."

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Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Love Is Here To Stay

Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - Love Is Here To Stay

• Composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin
• First performed by Kenny Baker in The Goldwyn Follies
• Released October 1957

"Love Is Here to Stay" was the last musical composition George Gershwin completed before his death on July 11, 1937. Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics after George's death as a tribute to his brother. "


All children are musical—they are born musical, and are keenly aware of sounds around them. Let’s begin with a journey from the perspective of the child—a very young child at the beginning of life. What does the child experience? What does he or she hear? Inside the womb, the baby hears the mother’s heartbeat, the rushing sound of amniotic fluid and the mother’s voice. From outside, the baby hears language and music, mostly low sound waves from bass instruments and loud noises. Because the visual sense is not viable at this point, the auditory senses are primary, and hearing is the most keenly developed of all of the fetal senses. Hearing develops from about 19 to 26 weeks of the pregnancy when the inner ear matures, and babies respond to voices and classical music by turning towards it and relaxing. They respond to loud noises as well by kicking, and curl up and turn away from loud rock or pop music. 

The brain is wired for music and language... Music making and artistic endeavors represent the heart of a culture, and are part of each culture’s core identity: not only what makes us human, but also what makes each group of us unique. In the U.S., unique genres of music that are part of our cultural fabric have developed over the centuries. The melting pot that is America has yielded brand new genres such as big band, jazz, blues, rock and roll, etc. Blends of European, Caribbean, and African-American people combined in a way like that of no other culture. In America, all of the music we currently know today is derived from the musical genres that came before us. All children are born into that musical environment and pick up the musical repertoire and vocabulary around them.
Source: Music and the Child by Natalie Sarrazin

Frazey Ford - One More Cup Of Coffee

• Written by Bob Dylan English January 5, 1976
• From the album Obadiah July 2010

"Frazey Ford focused on performing soul for Obadiah. The album takes its name from her middle name "Obadiah". She has said that the album relates to an emotional time she had with her family."

See previous Song of the Day

The Nurons - Hurry Up Tomorrow

The ‘new’ culture industries, dance halls, radio, gramophones and cinema, that had risen to mass popularity since the 1920s were to some extent nationalised cultures, with widespread and often universalised economic infrastructures. They provided the general public with access to music and leisure activities even in more remote, rural areas (see below). There were two domestic media of musical experience, radio and gramophone records, and two which were public and social, dancing and cinema-going.

Technological advances over the previous decades had enabled music to become a ubiquitous, and largely cheap, commodity, and had dramatically changed the general public’s access to music and habits of listening (see below). Moreover, as Ehrlich argues, music technologies broke the link between musical demand and live performance, and increasingly privatised the listening experience.

By the late 1930s, these ‘new’ mass culture industries had established structures and settings, and were supported by powerful instruments of musical promotion: recording, publishing, and broadcasting. With the exception of broadcasting, they were driven by economic rather than aesthetic values, and musical experience became part of a wider consumer culture that prioritised ‘popular tastes’ and sought popularity for their musical products. Overall, the 1930s were a time of ‘economic downturn’ in Britain, but the histories of these mass entertainment industries each document ‘booms’ of attendance and use that reinforced their centrality.
Source: A Study of the Experience of Listening to Music in World War Two Britain by Kerri-Anne Edinburgh.

The Nurons - Hurry Up Tomorrow

• Recorded in 1980 at Sigma Sound Studios
• Written and produced by lead singer of the Nu'Rons, Daryl Howard.

"The Nu'Rons, a family group consisting of two sets of brothers & cousins; Daryl Howard, Ray Howard, Otho Bateman & Charles Bateman, began their singing career prior to their teenage years. Finding their voice at their local Church singing gospel, the group."


Smokey Robinson – Cruisin'

• Release Date: May 22, 1979
• From the album Where There's Smoke...

"Everyone Must Hear supplement that when he wrote this song, his guitarist Marv Tarplin had already written the music. Smokey added: "He put it on cassette and gave it to me to write the lyric. As it turned out, it took me five years to write."

See previous Song of the Day

Led Zeppelin - Since I’ve Been Loving You

The 1960s was one of the most dramatic and controversial decades in American history. Opinions about its achievements and failures continue to be divided between those who condemn the decade as the source of much that is wrong with contemporary America and those who hail it as the last time the nation made a concerted effort to realize its best ideals. Yet amid passionate disagreements about the significances and legacies of the 1960s, few dispute that popular music was a powerful cultural, social, and economic force in the period, or that it has played an important role in shaping how the decade has been remembered.

The Motown soul of the Temptations and Marvin Gaye; the folk revivalism of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez; the folk-rock syntheses of the Byrds; the surfing sounds of the Beach Boys; the free jazz of Archie Shepp and Ornette Coleman; the girl-group sounds of the Chiffons and Crystals; the southern-fried soul of Percy Sledge and Otis Redding; the lush Nashville countrypolitanism of Eddy Arnold and Tammy Wynette; the country-rock blends of the Flying Burrito Brothers; the progressive, psychedelic sounds of the Grateful Dead and the Doors; the self-reflective meditations of singer-songwriters James Taylor and Laura Nyro; the daring blues-rock-jazz blend of Jimi Hendrix; the pioneering funk of James Brown; the garage rock of the Standells and Seeds; and the avant-garde noisescapes of Captain Beefheart and the Velvet Underground, these and many other styles and artists can be fun and effective vehicles for helping students explore the complexities and ambiguities of this pivotal decade.

Hello Dolly!, and Mary Poppins—not necessarily what one thinks of as quintessential expressions of the turbulent 1960s. In the early 1960s, however, adults dominated the market for albums while singles were the main currency for the pop, rock, and soul styles with the greatest youth appeal. Yet even later in the decade, albums by the Monkees and Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Sound of Brass far outsold the debut albums by Big Brother and the Holding Company, Velvet Underground, Love, and Jefferson Airplane that we conventionally think of as far more redolent of the mood and preoccupations of late 1960s America.

The underlying point here is an obvious but important one: we need to be careful to acknowledge and be prepared to take seriously the sheer range of popular music that struck a chord with different audiences during the 1960s. Indeed, talking about that diversity reminds students that—sex, drugs, and rock and roll clichés aside—there was no single experience of the 1960s shared by all Americans. In a decade characterized by deep social tensions, it should not surprise us that there were important generational, racial, gender, class, regional, and ideological differences among performers and audiences, and within the entertainment industry itself.
Source: What’s That Sound? Teaching the 1960s through Popular Music by Brian Ward

Led Zeppelin - Since I’ve Been Loving You

• On the album Led Zeppelin III.
• Released 5 October 1970

"Jimmy Page did his guitar solo in one take. Engineer Terry Manning called it "The best rock guitar solo of all time." The song was recorded live in the studio with very little overdubbing. If you listen carefully, you can hear the squeak of John Bonham's drum pedal."

See previous Song of the Day

The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

Finally, an envoi and a performance practice recommendation. One of the earliest ingredients the arranger/producer mixes into the final confection is mono/stereo. Stereo background effects are extraordinary compared to mono, which can be appreciated perfectly with headphones plugged into a receiver with a mono out switch. Toggling between the two modes is an ear-opening exercise. Stereo spreads sound horizontally between the ears, while mono concentrates it vertically, as if in a column bisecting that same between the-ear space. Stereo-specific foreground effects can be extraordinary as well, including all those that descend from the bouncing ping-pong ball demonstrations used to sell early models of home stereophonic equipment.

There’s another venue besides the car where mono sounds better than stereo. Parties, rock concerts, clubs (really, all versions of the same thing) are crowds of people buzzing, mingling, moving, laughing, dancing. They aren’t an ideal formation for stereo effects, which is to say standing in single file, a bisector to the line between the stereo speaker- array, or wearing headphones. So those who end up in front of one side of a stereo output will hear a distorted mix, as will those on the opposite.

Source: Good Vibrations A History of Record Production by Mark Cunningham

The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

• From the album Abbey Road
• Released: 26 September 1969
• Songwriter: George Harrison

"Harrison said in a 1969 BBC Radio interview. "It was just a really nice sunny day, and I picked up the guitar, which was the first time I'd played the guitar for a couple of weeks because I'd been so busy. And the first thing that came out was that song. It just came. And I finished it later when I was on holiday in Sardinia."


Harry Nilsson - Life Line

• Originally recorded 1970 and released 2002
• Release date: 20 October 2017
• Released by: RCA/Legacy

"During a 1968 press conference, the Beatles were asked what their favourite American group was and answered "Nilsson". Sometimes called "the American Beatle",[3] he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr."

See previous Song of the Day

Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue

At the first major antiwar rally in Washington in April 1965, Judy Collins sang Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are A-Changin,’” and Joan Baez led “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the civil rights movement. That year, Malvina Reynolds wrote and sang “Napalm” (1965), which contributed to the anti-napalm campaign. It began, “Lucy Baines [Johnson], did you ever see that napalm? Did you ever see a baby hit with napalm?” Tom Paxton highlighted President Johnson’s deceptions with his popular, catchy, sing-along, “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation” (1965).

Heavy metal protest songs gave vent to emotion, the lyrics barely decipherable amidst the throbbing instrumental beat, but still carried the movement’s antiwar orientation into the mainstream culture. Jimmy Hendrix’s distorted, screaming guitar rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1968) was played, not as a patriotic anthem, but as a reflection of the violence done in the name of the flag. Commercial radio stations were generally averse to playing music with controversial lyrics, but the popularity of the antiwar movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s allowed for the airing of general antiwar themes. Among the hit songs were Edwin Starr’s “War!” (1969) and Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Ohio” (1970), which captured the nation’s grief over the killing of students at Kent State, and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” (1971).
Source:  “Protest Music of the Vietnam War.” United States Foreign Policy History and Resource Guide website


Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue

• From the album At San Quentin
• Recorded February 24, 1969
• Released July 2, 1969

"The core story of the song was inspired by humorist, children's author, and poet Jean Shepherd, a close friend of Shel Silverstein, who was often taunted as a child because of his feminine-sounding name."

See previous Song of the Day

Takuya Kuroda - Everybody Loves The Sunshine

Takuya Kuroda - Everybody Loves The Sunshine

• Release date: 2014
• Duration: 09:26

"Kuroda signed with Blue Note Records and recorded his third solo album, the José James-produced Rising Son. Released in 2014, Rising Son featured a strong soul-jazz and hip-hop influence exemplified by the presence of several Roy Ayers compositions including “Everybody Loves the Sunshine." Blue Note Records


Whatever the radical constructionists may say, it is lived as a coherent (if not always stable) experiential sense of self. Though it is often felt to be natural and spontaneous, it remains the outcome of practical activity: language, gesture, bodily significations, desires.

tis impossible not to be borne down with the rapidity of these movements. A symphony of furies shakes the soul; it undermines and overthrows it in spite of all its care; the artist himself, whilst he is performing it, is seized with an unavoidable agony; he tortures his violin; he racks his body; he is no longer master of himself, but is agitated like one possessed with an irresistible motion.

For true jazz is an art of individual assertion within and against the group.
Source: David Andrew "Jazz Cultures"


Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Summertime

• Louis Armstrong - Vocals, Trumpet
• Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals
• Paul Smith - Piano
• Alvin Stoller - Drums & Orchestra

"Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s."

See previous Song of the Day

Billie Holiday - Summertime (and her orchestra)

Billie Holiday - Summertime (and her orchestra)

• Written by: Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward
• Recorded on July 10, 1936

"Summertime by Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra was written by Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward and was first performed by Abbie Mitchell."

Best Record Stores in America

Best Record Stores in America
Visit Anomale Used Records eBay Store

Find a list of stores that sell new and second hand, vintage or used collectibles, CDs, preordered vinyl records, DVDs, TV shows, cartoons and concerts. You can also find record shops that host musical performances, live events and listening session such as Good Records.

Amoeba Music

"We're a 21st century music outlet, a website, a popular live performance venue, and together with our customers we're a meeting place for California's most colorful community of progressive and creative minds."

https://www.amoeba.com/
San Francisco
1855 Haight St. San Francisco, CA 94117

Open 11am-7pm every day

(415) 831-1200

Berkeley
2455 Telegraph Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704

Open Wednesday - Sunday 11am-7pm [Closed Mon/Tues]

(510) 549-1125

Hollywood
6200 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028

Monday - Thursday open 11am - 8pm | Friday - Sunday open 11am - 9pm (Trade counter closes at 7pm every day)

(323) 245-6400


Electric Fetus

"The first thing people usually notice is the name. National Lampoon magazine singled the store out for having the worst name for a business. Be that as it may, it’s a name people don’t forget."

https://electricfetus.com

2000 S. 4th Ave.

Minneapolis, MN 55404

Tues - Sat 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sun 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Closed Mondays
(612) 870-9300


Goner Records

"A label. A store. A state of mind. Headquartered in Memphis, TN. Host of Gonerfest. Record store in Cooper Young carries vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, and more, specializing in garage rock, punk, indie rock, soul, jazz, blues and Memphis music. Home of Elvis Impersonator shrine."

https://goner-records.com/
2152 Young Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104

Monday - Saturday Noon - 7PM
Sunday 1 - 5PM
(901) 722-0095


Dearborn Music

"Whether you’re looking for the latest music releases or building your collection of classic vinyl, Dearborn Music is a sound choice for every generation of music fans."

https://dearbornmusic.net/
Dearborn Location
22501 Michigan Ave.
Dearborn, MI 48124

Mon - Sat 9:30AM - 9PM
Sun - 11AM - 6PM
(313) 561-1000


Farmington Location
33025 Grand River Ave.
Farmington, MI 48336

Mon - Thur - 10AM - 8PM
Fri - Sat - 11AM - 9PM
Sun - 11AM - 5PM
(248) 516-3898


Jackpot Records

"In its current conception, Jackpot Records operates as a reissue label featuring albums and bands that have been seminal within their respective genres."

https://jackpotrecords.com
3574 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregon, 97214

Mon-Sat 11AM - 6PM
Sun 11AM - 5PM
(503) 239-7561


Easy Street Records & Cafe

"Easy Street opened its store in West Seattle in 1988, and later added a cafe/bar, which serves coffee, breakfast, lunch and beer & wine. Easy Street Records often hosts live in-store performances by national and local musicians."

https://easystreetonline.com
4559 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116

Mon - Sat 9AM to 9PM
Sun 9AM to 7PM
(206) 938-EASY(3279)


Good Records

"An Adventure In Listening, opened in Dallas, Texas, in 2000. We have been selling albums you love ever since."

https://goodrecordstogo.com/
9026 Garland Road
Dallas, TX 75218

Mon - Sun 12PM - 8PM
214-752-4663


Dusty Groove

"The store opened for business daily 2001, expanding to a nearby location where it remains. Dusty Groove maintains an extensive warehouse and retail presence with up to 30,000 items in inventory at any given time and several hundred new titles added on a daily basis."

https://www.dustygroove.com
1120 N Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL 60622 USA

Sun - Mon 10AM - 6PM
773-342-5800


Academy Records and CDs

"Academy Records & CDs has grown over time to become a NYC landmark. Know as a cultural destination for devoted music lovers and collectors since 1977, it originally opened as Academy Book Store, and expanded in 1995 to become what it is today."

https://www.academy-records.com
12 W 18th St
New York, NY 10011

Sun - Thur 12PM - 7PM
Fri - Sat 12PM - 8PM
(212) 242-3000


Reckless Records

"Reckless Records of London Inc has three record stores in Chicago. We are also related to the Reckless Records shop on Berwick Street in London. Our original location opened on Broadway in Chicago in 1989. We carry new & used records, CDs, DVDs, video games, cassettes and more."

https://www.reckless.com
929 W Belmont
Chicago IL 60657

Mon – Sat: 10am – 7pm
Sun: 10am – 7pm
773-404-5080

1379 N. Milwaukee
Chicago IL 60657

Mon – Sat: 10am – 7pm
Sun: 10am – 7pm
773-235-3727

26 E. Madison
Chicago IL 60657

Mon – Sat: 10am – 7pm
Sun: 10am – 7pm
312-795-0878


Visit Anomale Used Records eBay Store


Academy Records

"We carry one of the best and largest selection of new and used vinyl in all of New York City. We also sell used CDs, DVDs, zines, used stereo equipment, LP and 45 storage boxes, as well as supplies for vinyl like paper and plastic sleeves, and cleaning products."

https://academy-lps.com
415 E 12th St,
NY, NY 10009

Open 11am-7pm every day
212-780-9166


Acadamy Records Annex
242 Banker Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Open 11am-7pm every day
718-218-8200

Generation Records

"Generation Records is one of the last men standing in what was once a vibrant record store scene in Greenwich Village, including its since departed sister store Bleecker Street Records (and its cats). It specializes in punk, hardcore and metal, but carries a wide range. The store also offers posters, t-shirts and cds."

https://www.generationrecords.com/
210 Thompson At
New York, NY 10012

Mon - Sat: 12:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sun: 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
212 254-1100


Antone's Record Shop

"It's not just selling their records and making a little change for us and for them. It's about supporting the scene in general. Records, live shows and deep roots in the Austin music scene make Antone's Record Shop an authentic Austin spot."

https://antonesrecordshop.com/
2928 Guadalupe
Austin, TX 78705

Open Daily 11am-7pm
512 322-0660


BLK Vinyl

"Along with the idea of being a place to hang out and buy, sell/trade and talk about records, BLK also offers Guitar Lessons to students of all skill levels. For more information, check out our lessons page."

https://blkvinylatx.com
2505 E 6th St
Austin, Texas 78702

Tues - Fri - 11AM - 6PM
Sat - Sun - 12PM - 7PM
512 220-6536


Captured Tracks Shop

"The flagship shop of Captured Tracks Records. Located in beautiful Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York! We buy and sell new & used LP's, cassettes, books & ephemera. Monthly curated artists booths."

https://www.capturedtracksshop.com
195 Calyer ST Garden Level
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Open everyday 12 - 8 PM
(718) 609 - 0871


Gramaphone Records

"We're a dance music/electronic oriented record store in Chicago. We've been open since 1969!! We post rare & desired items from collections we buy, also new releases and represses! Plus we have lots of new and used vinyl at our physical shop in Chicago."

https://gramaphonerecords.com
2843 N Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60657

Thur - Sun - 12AM - 6PM
(773) 472-3683


Bric-a-Brac Records & Collectibles

"Bric-a-Brac Records & Collectibles is your one-stop shop for all the necessities that no one really needs! New and used vinyl records and cassette tapes, VHS tapes, vintage movie posters, 80s/90s toys, and all kinds of pop culture ephemera. Always buying or trading quality goods!"

https://www.bricabracrecords.com/
2845 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

Open 12-7pm every day
773-654-3915


Earwax Records

"Earwax was an integral part of Williamsburg's cultural renaissance that began in the early 1990's and we are happy to have played a role in that phase of its evolution ...and, we continue in our endeavors to deliver great music."

https://earwaxrecords.net
167 North 9thStreet,
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Fri -Tues - 11:30am - 6:30pm
718.486.3771


A-1 Record Shop

"The formula at A-1 is remarkably simple (for those who know how): stock a well-curated range of second-hand records from across the dance music spectrum – jazz, funk, soul, hip hop, disco, and latterly a greater emphasis on house and techno – offer knowledgable tips and keep the prices reasonable."

https://www.a-1recordshop.com
439 E 6th St
New York, NY 10009

Daily 12pm-8pm
(212) 473-2870


Waterloo Records & Video

"Along with a knowledgable staff and an emphasis on customer service, they form the cornerstone of what Waterloo Records is, has been, and will always be about. Add to that an extensive selection of music spanning all styles with a special propensity for Texas artists, then it becomes readily apparent what Austin's music lovers have been shouting about."

https://waterloorecords.com/
600A N. Lamar
Austin, TX 78703

10AM to 9PM DAILY
(512) 474-2500