gringopig's guitars
I used to love visiting Avalanche records and Fopp in Edinburgh back in the 1990's. I went every week and spent £50. I bought based on the recommendations of the staff, asked what was playing and bought loads of stuff of all kinds. Exciting!
I had bought vinyl as when I was young and CDs supplanted them in time but I lost interest in this format eventually.
Record shops were all around: Virgin and HMV on Princes Street, The Other Record shop, Vinyl Villains and Backbeat for the rare stuff, 4 branches of Avalanche at one point and Fopp. My favourite Avalanche branch was on Cockburn Street. Sadly, they are all gone with Backbeat the honourable exception. Dougie is a sort of legend. It was always a packed shop but these days you literally can't even get in and have to shout requests in at the door!
I had a SEE Revolver turntable, an A&R Cambridge amplifier and Monitor Audio speakers and A&R P77 cartridges and a Marantz CD player but I ditched the CD player and had loads of CDs too. So, I'm sticking with vinyl!
I sold the turntable, amplifier and speakers and bought a Rega Planar 3 with Elys 2 cartridge and got some upgrades for the platter and sub platter, a Rega moving magnet phono pre-amp and a PSU controller and use it with my Yamaha active monitors and source mixer unit. I can listen without a PC and record vinyl straight to WAV when I want. It sounds great! It's the system I use to record too.
So, vinyl only. Purely because CDs are disposable and not as robust as some might suggest as I found out when I ripped the lot to FLAC recently; quite a lot of failures actually and it renders the disc utterly useless.
I have been buying vinyl again a lot!
Discovering stuff I missed out on like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, actually buying some Led Zeppelin finally as well. You can see my discogs profile with my collection by clicking below.
I have bought a great record cleaning machine too and am enjoying the Zen-like calm of cleaning each record prior to play. I'm really liking the Nokki Okki One I bought.
It's a vacuum device and you put the record on the turntable and apply the surfactnat and distilled water mix to the surface and spread with the supplied brush. A few revolutions and then the vacuum arm goes on and the motor turned on and it sucks up all the liquid plus the gunge and dirt from the grooves. It really works and I am using this to go through my records.
Released in March was a special release of The Lemonheads 'It's a Shame about Ray' for the 30th anniversary of its first release. I bought this on CD when it first came out and I loved it. I saw Evan Dando play a show for Radio Forth in Edinburgh during the '90's sometime. Details are hazy but it was some competition I won. I imagine details are even hazier for Evan Dando.
I thought this album was really special. I had bought the previous ones and really loved his music and song writing but it's been a frustration that he seems to have almost deliberately sabotaged his career in rock. Maybe he didn't want one? I have no idea but a friend was a tour manager of sorts for them in the '90's and he has tales to tell, man. Tales...
So now I got to buy it on LP and a lavish double LP version. It's an evocative LP for me and it has been 30 years. Unbelievable.
I bought at Drift Records in the UK as I like the shop. Out of stock now though!
I love all their LPs. They had soul and were melodic and sort of sad sometimes but powerful without any bluster but Evan Dando seemed to drift off like a ghost. He is still great though and I wish he would record more.
This has to be my favourite Evan Dando song. The off beat stereo guitars: left channel choppy off beat and the distorted right channel chug in the verse and the drumming which is loose and funky but the killer bit is 02:03 and that lovely harmony line and the guitar counterpoint in the left channel. It's just an awesome bit of song writing, production: melodic, groovy and well titled as I can't help but.... Repeat.
Coming up in April is a new LP from Kurt Vile - (watch my moves) and a tour too!
I saw him with the Violators in Glasgow in SGW3 and I love his laconic melodies and the trippy feel of his music. He always has great sounds and I got into Fender Jaguars because of 'Pretty Pimpin'. Very excited for this one as it's the first since 2018 and 'Bottle it in'.
There is a new video too and I have ordered a limited edition Translucent Emerald LP and Exclusive 11x11 Signed print from Recordstore.co.uk which I bought in a split second after it popped up in my email notifications. I normally hate notifications on phones with a vengeance but this was an insta-buy.
UK customers only but I will bet it's all over. Nice!
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Just out is this teaser video for the LP. He's onn Verve Records now. I thought that was a record label for Smooth Jazz Guys™ in black and white.
Recently released was 'Holy Diver' by Dio in a new remix by Joe Barresi in a gatefold sleeve with 3 sides and a 4th etched. Weirdly it is unavailable in the UK but I got a copy from iMusic in Denmark, Very quick delivery actually and I must bookmark their site as it's just as easy to buy from them as a UK retailer actually.
Nokki Okki cleaned and I am enjoying it right now!
Fantastic crisp and punchy sound on thick quality vinyl.
