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TVD Live: Mercury Rev at the Atlantis, 4/13

6 days ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Roger Catlin

Since it first formed 35 years ago at the University of Buffalo, Mercury Rev has gone through a lot of phases before settling into the kind of poetic grandeur it gave its high water mark, 1998’s Deserter’s Songs and that continues to inform their latest work, last year’s Born Horses. It’s the kind of big, synth-washed saturation with guitar embellishment and booming drums that would satisfy an arena crowd.
Graded on a Curve: The Dictators, Go Girl Crazy! - The Vinyl District

6 days ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

Celebrating Andy Shernoff in advance of his 70th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.You can’t judge a book by its cover, but LPs? A whole different story.
Graded on a Curve: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Henry’s Dream - The Vinyl District

6 days ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

What’s all the fuss about this guy? And does anyone listen to him for pleasure? Between that sepulchral voice and the black attire and the overheated Gothic death dirges, which split the difference between folk music and lurid (and despite his rep as a “poet,” not very well written) and lugubrious blues melodrama, I just don’t see (or hear) the appeal. His “dark vision” is verbosity for verbosity’s sake and might work as comedy, but the man ain’t in it for the laughs. He’s for dead real serious.
Graded on a Curve: Deep Purple, Machine Head - The Vinyl District

1 week ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

Celebrating Ritchie Blackmore on his 80th birthday. —Ed.If I’ve never come forward publicly about the indelible mark I made on rock history at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971, it’s because I’m still peeved that Deep Purple saw fit to slander me as “Some stupid with a flare gun” in their big hit single “Smoke on the Water.” Firing that flare gun into the roof of the Montreux Casino may not have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but STUPID?
Graded on a Curve: Pussy Galore, “Sugarshit Sharp” - The Vinyl District

1 week ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

Garage rock primitivists and noise rock provocateurs Pussy Galore will always occupy a special place in my black heart thanks to their gleefully shambolic 1986 desecration of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. It’s ugly, incoherent, and a reckless and hilarious foray into the beyond incompetent, yet still manages to sound like a homage rather than a piss-take. Lots of bands commit to vinyl first takes—none I can think of, aside from Pussy Galore, use first tries.
Graded on a Curve: Meat Puppets, Dusty Notes - The Vinyl District

1 week ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

Many decades have passed since Arizona’s Meat Puppets first arrived on the hardcore scene, and they’ve finally become what they were always destined to be—grizzled but cheerful desert prophets just returned from panning for psychedelic gold in some dry gulch in the remote reaches of a fantastical place you won’t find on any map. They know things you and I don’t, they’ve seen and learned things you and I haven’t, and they have a mystical gleam in their eyes.
Graded on a Curve: Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage - The Vinyl District

2 weeks ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Joseph Neff

Celebrating Herbie Hancock in advance of his 85th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.The short description of Herbie Hancock’s gorgeous 1965 LP Maiden Voyage, is that it’s the ’63-’64 Miles Davis Quintet with Freddie Hubbard subbing on trumpet. But as nicely as that reads, it’s actually much more. Hancock’s fifth and best record as leader, to this point it was also his most ambitious, and was additionally something of a rarity in jazz terms; a wildly successful and delightfully peaceful concept album.
Graded on a Curve: The Animals, The Best of The Animals - The Vinyl District

2 weeks ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Joseph Neff

No single album can encompass the range of The Animals’ ’64-’65 run, but ABKCO’s recent vinylization of the ’88 compact disc The Best of The Animals comes pretty close. Gathering all the early hits without neglecting the enduring appeal of their R&B core, it sports the same cover photo as MGM’s 11-track ’66 LP while slightly modifying and significantly expanding the contents.
Graded on a Curve: Television, Adventure - The Vinyl District

2 weeks ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Michael Little

Celebrating Fred Smith, born on this day in 1948. —Ed.Sometimes I flabbergast myself. I think I know what I like and what I don’t like, only to find out I don’t know a damn thing about anything, least of all my likes and dislikes. Take KC and the Sunshine Band. I hated them with a passion for like 30 years and now I think they’re great.
TVD Live: mssv, Motherf*ckers JMB & Co. at Pearl Street Warehouse, 4/3 - The Vinyl District

2 weeks ago | thevinyldistrict.com | Roger Catlin

The cheers went up when Mike Watt loped on stage with his bass and his cane, en route to his chair. The beloved bassist from the Minutemen, Firehose, and endless collaborations, at 67 is a punk rock mainstay and hero, who despite the chronic knee problems that require the cane, still lays it down with verve and force, as he showed with the experimental power trio mssv, at the Pearl Street Warehouse in DC Friday.