Tag Archives: album reviews
SWEET MARS LANDING
Like a lot of things in life, I came late to the edgy melancholic jangle-pop world of Matthew Sweet. Stumbled across the album after the one that got him known and worked backwards to fill in the history. But although I’m slow, I’m loyal, and we have gone forward resolutely together to the extent that […]
ASTRONAUT GODS
It is not easy to appreciate the interest – the fervour even – generated by Erich von Däniken’s book Chariots of the Gods? when it was published in 1969 (the year after the original German publication). Without doubt the excitement was fuelled by the Apollo 11 moon landing in July of that year. Anything seemed […]
ETERNAL WARRIOR RETURNING
One of the tell-tale signs of the activated Vinyl Hunter-Gatherer is how their speed increases when they approach a Record Store. Up on the balls of their feet, there is a pronounced spring in the step as the shortest possible distance from here to the records is calculated with pinpoint precision. Breathing may be more […]
HALF MAN HALF MACHINE
After Melbourne University and I parted company – not on speaking terms – I needed to plug the gap left by going to uni and not studying (more on my favourite diversion, the Rowden White Library, here). The record store where I worked 6 hours a week offered me a full-time position. At that time […]
TOUCH THE DISTANT BEACHES
Eric Clapton and girlfriend Charlotte Martin were at London musician’s club The Speakeasy in Spring 1967. It was the same club where, not long previously, Eric had his first taste of LSD in circumstances that were probably not your average first trip, even in that much mythologized year. The way Eric tells it, ‘the Beatles […]
WALKING TOWARDS SUNSET
Chapter One: A potted history from 1963 – 1967 Being an ambitious but ultimately ludicrous attempt to summarise the early days of blues legend John Mayall. Skip to Chapter Three if uninterested in early British blues. John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers started playing London’s famous Marquee Club in late 1963. In the following year they […]
TRANSCENDENTAL (NEW) MUSIC
Josef Zawinul wrote the melody ‘In a silent way’ after visiting his Austrian family for Christmas. It is a wistful, almost folky melody that you can hear on the composer’s self-titled 1971 album. But more famously and influentially the tune became the title for a 1969 album that indicated a far-reaching change of direction for […]
ALL HOPPED UP AND READY TO GO
Part of the energizing outré CBGBs scene in mid-70s New York, the Ramones story is well known. How a lanky outsider by the name of Jeffrey Hyman linked up with Douglas Colvin and Johnny Cummings to form a three-piece called Ramones. Band manager Thomas Erdelyi recalled ‘they were terrible. It was the worst thing I’ve […]
OF FLEAS AND FAUST
Like a down-market department store for heads and hippies, Goesunder Flea Market in the heart of Melbourne’s retail district was the unlikely venue for an import record shop, yet that is where I first encountered Krautrock. It was my first year at the university, a 15 minute walk north of the city centre. I was […]
BIRTH AND DEATH OF A WORLD
Not long ago I wrote about an unscheduled month in the UK in the late 90s. A side trip to Wales was mentioned and that is where our story begins today. Every music tragic knows that it is not civic architecture or religious edifices that get the music hunter-gatherer’s pulse a-quickening; it’s record shops. We […]
CLOSE TO PERFECTION
CONTEXT Just in case it isn’t immediately obvious, music is a passion and hobby here at Vinyl Connection. There are several thousand titles in the collection and no imminent danger of a growth plateau. [Picture here, if you will, the crestfallen expression on Ms Connection’s face.] Close to the Edge sits high on my list […]
SING A SONG IN A SHAKEY VOICE
In the late 70s, I loaned a girl a record. It was never returned. And that, I confess with equal parts shame and defiance, was the last LP I ever loaned. Books? No problem. CDs? If you have references and are of good character. Vinyl? Forget it. In psychology it is called ‘one trial learning’. […]
vinylconnection.com.au 