Westwood Avenue (featuring Erin Rae)
Bachelorette Screams b/w Tennessee
scum stats: two versions, 25 copies on Wax Mage variant, the rest on pink (mine is pink)
HAPPY SEVEN YEARS OF RECORD OF THE WEEK WRITE-UPS!!!!!
Each anniversary here, I choose a record from the local Nashville label Soul Step. As a local vinyl focused label that is (essentially) a one-man operation.
I am disappointed in the missed opportunity to rhyme "bachelorette screams" with "Jason Aldean's" but otherwise, the a-side is a charming country ode to the "change" that has gone down in downtown Nashville, specifically the neon jungle of Broadway. Even more in the spirit is that Melvin, main man behind Soul Step, oversees a large corporate operation in the heart of Broadway and he described to me his release of this song as some quasi-payment of karmic debt to the situation.
Melvin explicitly said to me "I might only ever sell a handful of copies, but I just felt like I needed to put it out."
Having been in the game for nearly 25 years, shit, just this morning digging through decades old boxes of Cass Records backstock looking for a single copy of a record long-since declared unimportant by the masses of record buying public...I know the exact feeling. It's real. It motivates. It is arguably the reason I'm even here.
So while it seems like once a year is too infrequent to relay such a message, I will continue to relay it...SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT VINYL RECORD LABELS. They are not forever. They are not lucrative. They are not easy. They NEED it. They are imperative to the success of the overall vinyl (and music) ecosystem. Without small labels doing the leg work, taking chances, discovering the unknown...you don't ever get huge successes of the "next big things."
As a celebration of seven years of you folks continuing to read what I put here...I'm doing a giveaway. Post a comment here before Friday October 6th. Just make it good. Maybe it's about something YOU JUST HAVE TO DO. Maybe good equals funny. Maybe good equals emotionally heartbreaking. Maybe good is clever. You be the judge...until I be the judge.
Prize is...since I don't have anything specific sitting in my hands that makes me think that the winner will be all "oh boy oh boy oh boy!" I'm gonna call the winner, we're going to have a conversation about records and music and we'll decide, together, what record from the depths of my closet is commensurate with their award-winning commenting abilities.
I used to help run a very small indie record store in Brooklyn. For most of my time it was just me and the owner doing it all – buying used collections, ordering stock from local labels, setting up in-stores, organizing the bins, etc. Despite the reputation it might have, working the register at a record store was WORK. A few years back a band I play with got offered a tremendous amount of consecutive touring – like 6+ months straight. I knew the owner couldn’t do it alone, so I offered to help find and train a replacement. Long story short – it didn’t work out with that person, and shortly after that the shop wound up losing its lease and shuttering. I don’t doubt that I made the right call for myself career-wise, but boy do I miss those days. I guess all this is to say that it remains SO important to me to support & protect indie stores, labels, venues, and just about anyone busting their ass to keep the indie music world alive. We need it so much more than we even realize.
I really don’t know what to write. So I will just say this. Blurpity blurp blurp, diggy figgy stu. Roses are green and the sky is too. Catch a tiger, his toes too big, eenie, meanie, blurpity fig.
Wanna hear something good??? I got THREE somethings for ya!!!
1. So far, no recurrence of my cancer!!! 2. I finally fell in love and the dude is a vinyl selector/DJ and a drummer, so like WOW and OMG and LUCKY ME!!! 3. I love Rhino Records and I will continue to pour my paycheck into their cash register monthly. 😁
I was going to leave a comment but I went to another the window and the comment disappeared your going to have to believe it was the best and funniest comment
I just had to…get to Ireland. And I did. 10 days with family, and another 10 with a friend I friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years. We are almost through we our 6 day traveling. The main reason my family and I finally pulled the trigger is my brother died of cancer and my mother pass of early onset dementia, within a year. They were supposed to be with us, but were in spirit. Let me just say, if you are planning a big trip, do it now, don’t sit on your hands. Cheers all.
I have been attending concerts / buying records for 46/47 years now (I’m 61). Music has always been the release I needed. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of shows in many states / countries and as long as my health is good I will continue to travel to shows. I have 2100+ albums and 1500+ CDs and couldn’t imagine having anything cooler that something from Mr. Blackwell’s vault! (Okay other than my UHQR Dark Side of the Moon 😂).
The local scene is often overshadowed and outshined by the neon rainbow. Still, for the local fans, there’s nothing better than the up-and-coming artists and labels that continue to create magical music and moments that resonate with homegrown followers who will be at every show, buying all the merch, and screaming their newest favorites to the skies to introduce their friends and strangers to listen to whatever the new hotness is on the scene. I’ve personally been a fan of Soul Step for a while. Keep up the good fight, and thank you!
Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this comment presupposes is… maybe he didn’t?
Life is very, very complicated so music should be allowed to be too.
So glad to see another Soul Step record here. Melvin rocks. I NEED to go and buy the new Emily Nenni album from Melivn.