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.
Super jealous of the ability/initiative to start a record label. As a record collector and (bad) player of instruments, I feel it must be a very common road to both not start a band and not start a label and then just dream out loud about what could have been when you reach your 30s. I am a foreign student living in the US, and during the pandemic my wife and I considered finally starting a small record label, but not being citizens made it very difficult to think about going through starting a formal company and researching pressing plants, contacting artists, etc (we are too risk averse as foreigners to be DIY, much love and respect to 16 year olds starting labels). For now, while still being a student, I limit myself to collecting, but, if we stay in the US, we still hope to start a label motivated exactly by what you describe, just really wishing some particular release existed tangibly because we love it and want to support the artists we love.
I HAVE TO GO… home
My girlfriend and I share a love of music. She lives in Indianapolis and I live in Seattle. We both have turntable setups in our homes. We have been traveling around a lot, with a few roadtrips this year. Everywhere we go, we hit local record shops. Usually blowing our budgets on new music.We spend hours in record stores. Even have shared notes on music we are searching for. Music is part of what binds us, we listen and share new music all the time. We create playlist for each other, listing to it over the phone, then talking about it. It is what binds us, share out emotions, our moods, our desires and general since of being.
Things have been a little rough lately, it’s getting more and more expensive to fly out to spend time with each other. Right now I’m sitting in Indy, getting ready to fly home tomorrow, with almost a dozen new records in tow. Saying goodby is always hard, as we go back to spending hours texting and talking on the phone. Giving us something new to share would brighten both our days.
Third Man is my first and only subscription, only place where records have been purchased online.
Pick someone else.
“Maybe good equals…”
“Because Good Is Dumb” – Dark Helmet
I just gave a talk about vinyl at my local community college and we spent time talking about why we love it. The audience thanked me for helping them revisit their enthusiasm and love for it. Most of them didn’t know that new records are pressed every day. No one in the audience talked about the Rarity, Collectability, etc. They talked about the Nostalgia and personal connections they made to the music and others they were listening with. It honestly warmed my heart! One person said that they liked the active listening commitment and that you have to be present and attentive (they gave Exile on Main Street as an example), especially if the differnt sides of the album have different themes. Another person noted that vinyl allows us to experience the album in the sequence the artist wants us to listen it. And then everyone lost it when we talked about album covers! Thriller was on the top of the list. I showed them my Sticky Fingers OG lp with the zipper! Everyone thought M. Jagger is on the cover, but alas – it’s a Warhol model. Someone in the audience yelled “nice bulge.” They were talking about the album cover thankfully – haha!
Always nice to connect with vinyl community!
My wife and I after waiting 4 years and establishing ourselves here in the US have bought our first house and we would like nothing more than to christen our record room with something from your closet so we can cherish it, like we cherish our home!
I love Bachelorette Screams especially in Tennessee, or for that matter, really anywhere!!!
Lots of love to you Blackwell! Appreciate you sharing our work.
A few years ago my family & I were in Nashville and visited TMR store. My son was 12 and I took the opportunity to share the experience of shopping for records. Rifling through the bins, admiring the artwork of record sleeves, reading the liner notes to learn who wrote the songs, who are the musicians, and produced the album. Then the listening booth allowed us to further enjoy the experience where you discover something new. I shared my experiences as a youth discovering new music not because a steaming service algorithm thought I would like something, but because I wanted to hear an artist or band because their name was cool or the artwork looked exciting and different. I think it’s time for another vinyl excursion.