Well the Scottish Album of the Year shortlist has eliminated my first choice, as well as the two biggest selling Scottish artists of the year. Awards are meaningless I suppose, but it is nice to get one.
A fox came into the shop the other day. He must have been hungry for some tunes. He eyed up the top shelf and went crazy jumping like a loon. He was jumping up trying to bring down a Moby Grape album from the high shelf. He was on our red chair, bouncing up and down but getting no higher. He couldn’t reach the record, so Reynard left the shop muttering that the Moby Grape are probably rubbish anyway.
I read something online asking “Is Taylor Swift currently the world’s best pop star?” with a link to a video. I was expecting the short article to be tongue in cheek but it turned out that it was deadly serious. I have to admit that I didn’t know what she looked like but I was reminded of the clip last night after I saw a blonde lass on the TV*. Err I had Britain’s Got Talent on in the background. There was nothing on TV! I should definitely have gone to Bake Myself Silly at Henry’s Cellar Bar where The Leg were playing. The Leg are a fantastic band that kick out tasty slightly stange [sic] music with a bit of aggression. Saying that, they’re friendly chaps so we can change the word aggression to gusto. They kick out tasty jams with gusto.
I looked up Taylor Swift online to see if she looked the same as the lass on the TV and then couldn’t make up my mind if it was she or not and had to check the TV guide to see who was booked for the show.
‘Taylor Swift duets with Ed Sheeran’.
OK.
It’s popular pop music. Just as pop music should be and it’s easy to be a music snob and dismiss the charts altogether. Well, I say that now, but if Taylor Swift’s record was released in the UK and she offered an in-store, would VoxBox stock it and put up with the entourage?
Well, you know, yes I think we would stock it. We sell the Monkees which were the first prime time made for TV pop stars and there’s not too big a hop, skip and jump to 2013 and Taylor Swift and she does write too. The song, 22, is incredibly catchy, almost as if the essence of a hit song has been computer analysed with reference to MRI scans of the brains of daydreaming beliber teenagers or something like that. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-scans-predict-pop-hits
You probably like how it sounds too, even if you don’t like it, we all do, even if you don’t want to.
Watch this:
The critique:
The video is slick. It blows you away with the amount that seems to be going on, the number of people involved and the practice that it would/must have needed to get right. All the dancers are so healthy looking and are wearing the pl__n colours of glee. This is not punk.
It reminds me on one of those daydream sequences in Scrubs. In this episode, JD has a patient who has dislocated her left shoulder (guest star Taylor Swift). This sets up a dance sequence where she is moving around trying to relocate that dislocated left shoulder throughout the four minute stramash directed by North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un in a future sinister scenario reminiscent of The Truman Show.
Is this the best popstar in the world? A Buddhist would mentally beat you to death if you asked him/or her this question and you might be lucky enough to get an answer of a shrug and/or a ‘Meh’ if anything.
So mehbe yes, mehbe no. Why compare Warhol to Waterhouse? Frankly I’m more familiar with The Leg than Taylor Swift and much more familiar with jam out-kickers, the MC5. Two years ago (our anniversary has just passed) George and I opened the VoxBox shop to sell records we really liked and believed in. We wanted to sell the historically great records and to get those classic jams out of Stockbridge and into the heart of Edinburgh and maybe help local bands a bit too. To give a tiny foot up to The Leg all the while recognising that everyone will have different jams that they wanted us to stock too because everyone’s version of what good pop is is different:
And if after this, Taylor Swift is still not your cup o’ tea, don’t worry, I won’t really get in any Taylor Swift. Our shelves will remain free of the worst of the overproduced chart stuff. Always remember, if you do happen to stumble across a talent show on TV or a youtube clip of Taylor Swift’s brand of polished pop, that you can safely enjoy it guilt free if you remember to wash out your ears afterwards with something really rough. There is a 3 chord antidote to chart music by a group that make much better role models for the kids. Wayne Kramer was not quite 22 when he wrote this: (contains swearing)
And the music of the cosmos remains in balance. AH AH, AH AH!
*‘dolls are stuffed with sawdust, and yet are excellent playthings’ Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh 1881.
‘dolls are excellent playthings and yet are stuffed with sawdust’ VoxBox Music, Edinburgh 2013.
I had a bee. A bumble bee.
In my garden this week I saw a big bumble bee crawl into a hole in the rockery (please don’t judge me harshly for having a rockery).
I looked it up, Queen bees hibernate. At this time of year, as the soil gets warmer they wake up and try to find a nest, often a disused mouse hole in a rockery. These are cozy places as mice fill their holes up with leaves and fluff for a warm bed. She then sets up her home and starts to produce babies. All the honey that’s made goes to her baby bees. Grub for grubs. There’s not enough left to feed me honey for my morning toast as well but that’s ok.
A full bee belly holds enough sugary solution for 40 minutes flying time, about an album worth. Often the little buggers get caught short between gardens. Some are just knackered with old age though and beyond saving.
When you see a bee crawling along the pavement, you can help resuscitate it by bringing it to a flower or a flower to it so that it can eat up some nectar. Yum. If you are so inclined a sugar solution will do the trick.
Bumble bees very rarely sting unless you really pester them. They tend to just get on with being a bee. Buzzing around on nice days and pollinating apple blossom trees.
If you like fruit, look after your bees.
The SAY award is fairly new and is an important shop window for Scottish talent. The longlist of 20 bands/artists is up now and it will be whittled down to 10 at the end of the month. Record industry people were involved in nominating the list. VoxBox is new and mainly a 2nd hand shop so far, and so (correctly) we weren’t involved in the nominations. However, I’m totally chuffed to see that even without our biased input, PAWS and Meursault are on that list. Both bands are good friends of the shop so I’m indeed really (really really) pleased for them. They work so hard. They helped us on our 1st record shop day last year too. More on this year’s fantastic RSD once I get the footage in order.
This SAY award is interesting though, as this year it pits Emeli Sande against mostly independent music makers.
If it was a straight democratic vote, Sande would win against everyone else put together. But, awards are an odd affair, whether the Mercury Music Prize or the Grammys, Crufts, Sid Vicious lookalike competitions and whatnot. Generally the judges are passionate, perhaps music industry, celebrity, blogger, label owner, radio presenter, music shop owner, or some other mover and shaker with more or less bits of the above. The public get a small say in the final.
The Scottish Adele, Sande has a multi-million selling debut album. She opened and closed the Olympics and her songs are always in the charts. You’ll see her when you go to the cinema in an advert too. [aside: I miss proper trailers]
She’s from Aberdeen! And she deserves the award. Yes she does. What else should you have to do to win it?
If greatness is measured in sales, them Emile Sande has already won. She wins not only the Scottish Album of the Year but also UK album of the year 2 years running.
The idea of awards too is flawed but at the same time wonderful. We can now have Meursault, The Twilight Sad, Admiral Fallow, PAWS, Miaoux Miaoux and PAWS rubbing shoulders and getting equal billing with a new local Superstar.
This is a really interesting contest. Judging a record’s merit involves more than just sales and the sales often are more than the record merits. I think this award acknowledges this. Like all awards though, it’s truly meaningless in many ways, but do remember to take the positive approach, at best, SAY is a real outside title shot for some of the bands and at worst… well it’s good publicity. So it’s a great and useful event. You can listen to the albums here:
The strangest thing for me is that there are so few big Scottish bands this year. (Frightened Rabbit and Primal Scream will be next year). The top prize is £10 000. The majority of the 20 bands on the long list aren’t even full time. It’s hard to make a living as a band you see. It has always been thus and it’s worth pointing out that, if you are in a band, it’s hard to hold down a job. You have to tour. Spread the tunes. Get in among folk. Find someone who can make you a star. Charts are less important now too. It’s better to inspire young people to feel, jump up and down, download your album and buy your t-shirts and artwork direct. As a poor Scottish songwriter once said “…poor beastie, thou maun live”.
Not many of these guys and galls get significant radio play despite Vic Galloway’s fantastic efforts at inviting young Scottish bands onto his BBC Radio show yet the talent on our doorstep is crazyily abundant.
It’s not fair to judge an album on one quick listen. Is it fair to judge an album in context? A backstory can prick up your ears and add a level of meaning to a song that was otherwise just ok. Example: Blood on the Tracks is a great album but it adds a whole new spin when you find out that it’s really about a marriage breakdown and divorce.
The Case For PAWS:
Their debut album caught me by surprise. It’s themes are dark but the album is positive. Like Iain Bank’s remarkable response to cancer. This is an album opening and closing with a young man speaking to a parent who recently died of cancer. Look at me now. I’ve achieved something mam. I took your advice and I wish you could see me now and the great response we get.
What are the other songs about? Just listen to the songs! The lyrics are often lost in the thrashing of guitar so they were just jumping out at me from time to time.* I didn’t realise Bloodline was about cancer. I thought it was about revenge What I heard: “You’ve got my nose, (but) I’ve got your eyes!” Had he plucked out someone’s eyes? The joys of misheard lyrics! Nope. “I’ve got your nose, I’ve got your eyes, I’ll continue the bloodline” is a hereditary reference. The title to this blog is a PAWS line too.
Why is Cokefloat! in my opinion, the best Scottish album? It’s not! It can’t be.*** Why not? Well, because I really love it! Unfortunately for Phil, Matt and Josh, the music I like is not often the most popular -you know, the predictable record shop guy stuff- and the modern music I like these days is made by the PAWS three. Animal hands! But weird things can happen and especially with awards.
Josh was born in Edinburgh and moved to Tain where, at some point, he met Phil. Tain. A mystical place. In Disney terms, this is far far away. If you’re from there it’s normal though. They moved to Glasgow to pick up Matt as a bassist and have become the hardest working band in showbusiness.
It’s hard as a band to get noticed and get signed. Even if you have potentially chart topping songs, without contacts, a backer, a label and a means of distribution then you’ll struggle. There’s a lot of luck needed too. You need to meet the right people. The serendipity required will come through hard work and talent. A second hand record shop like VoxBox knows about the phenominal amount of great music that never sold in its day. They’re the expensive records now!
What I’m trying to say is that it’s difficult coming from a place where there is not the established framework to become a star with album numero uno.
You need a friend of a friend or an uncles cousin or have a builder who worked with the producer of Later with Jools Holland’s girlfriend. Otherwise you must work hard until you can’t be ignored. This can take upwards of 3 albums.
To break out of Tain is difficult and it takes a rare sort of person to create their way out of there. Add to that the energy they put into every gig too. You’ll be caught up in no time. Their LP has a poppy thrash light side A and a really rough and thrashy side B. People like this stuff don’t they?
So that’s why I’m biased, Cokefloat didn’t just push my buttons, it took a 15kg sledgehammer to the metaphorical fairground test yer strength machine. Wham! The bell fell far far away.
I like Emile Sande and her journey has been tough too, but her breakout has led to her writing music for X Factor contestants. Sande is great too for powering out of Aberdeen. She quit her medical degree for better things (If you like over-exagerated imagery then that’s a bit like what Che and Steve Biko did) -sorry it’s nothing like that at all. There’s some honest music there I’m sure, but with a Stoogey heart I will always have to go with the PAWS for their punky thrashy wow! factor.
PAWS brand of music isn’t new. None of the nominees sound particularly new either. We can’t invent new notes or chords! Personally, I’m happy as a pig in muck to have heard an album that I identified with.
For my part, I was brought up in places a bit like Tain: Hythie, Peterheid, Crimond, New Pitsligo and New Aberdour in Aberdeenshire. If yer mair interested in music than coos and fesh, ye hivteh ging awa ‘n’ move sooth. Ye must muster on and moove. (minein’ ti drap the Doric in lern ti spick Inglish guid enough so thit ither Scots ‘ill ken fit yer seyin is weil.)
PAWS also came to the shop to do a quick in-store before their Edinburgh gig in February. It was supposed to be a quick acoustic affair. Where shall we position Phil for optimum sound and so on? Maybe a stool in the window? “Where should I put the bass drum” said Josh as he came in with a bass drum. Still fresh from European tour, Phil brings electric guitar and a hefty guitar amp. Matt comes in with electric bass and heavy beast bass amp. Oh shit! You’ll ruin our floor… No, we have a drum carpet. But the neighbours! Oh.
Our neighbours are great. The gig was great.
Friend of the shop, William, recorded some nice footage which although a bit flickery is here to see.
It definitely is bootleg quality but it was ace. Totally fun and totally totally ace!
0.40 Jellyfish
3.35 Catherine 1956
7.10 Bloodline
10.25 Sore Tummy
13.40 Tulip
18.00 Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Brd
20.40 Poor Old Christopher Robin
After this tour they went to SXSW festival in Austin Texas, helped along by a Creative Scotland grant and played 10 shows in 4 days.
***It is.
*
Lyrically, they’re the best. With or without listening to Catherine 1956, read this:
She wasn’t only just my mother; she was my friend, a good friend.
She had only just begun to live.
It’s unfair because she worked hard for it.
We spent 18 full years under the same roof.
That sounds like a long time, but it’s not.
I would trade anything for one full day to just sit and hear her voice again.
So I sat and I twiddled my thumbs as you told me to “be strong”.
“It’s the only certain thing in this life, so be a big boy because
Life goes on.
You can’t live your life in fear.
Do something for me and get out of this town because there’s nothing for you here.”
She never had to tell me twice, she was intelligent.
I promised that I’d keep my word, so I will.
She gave good advice, the best that I have known.
She said “It’s not the dead I’m afraid of…it’s the living I fear”
So if a kid at school had broken my arm or a girl had smashed my heart.
She would hold me and tell me that “It was their loss” and to “toughen up, because
Life goes on.
You can’t live your life in fear.
Do something for me and get out of this town because there’s nothing for you here.
Remember to vote for who you like. Give them all a listen and remember that although it’s a competition, it’s not a competition.
The VoxBox team invite Edinburgh’s music lovers, record fans and vinyl junkies to our shop in Stockbridge on Saturday 20th April to help us celebrate Record Store Day 2013.
Last year was a fantastic celebration and we are going bigger and better this year as we approach our 2nd anniversary in the music business.
We will have a much larger number of the exclusive records this time. Exact titles will be known nearer the day. But remember, it’s not really about the exclusive records. The shop will be open at 9.30am.
We are celebrating what we love. A wide selection of music! The vinyl format, the grass roots record industry, the local bands and record labels as well as our fantastic regular customers that give our shop such a positive feel and of course our wonderful street too.
We are proud to announce a fantastic line up of bands that will perform for us on the day between the shop and The Last Word Saloon down the road.
Playing live:
12.00-12.30 Wounded Knee
13.00-13.30 Magic Eye
14.00-14.30 eagleowl vs Kid Canaveral
15.00-15.50 Mike Heron Band
16.00-16.30 Rob St. John
16.50-17.20 Honeyblood
17.30-18.00 Adam Stafford
* The Mike Heron Band
Music legend and founding member of Edinburgh’s Incredible String Band (the last known good quality ISB recording -Live at the Fillmore, 1968 is out now). The only Scottish band to play Woodstock. They will perform as a group and the individual group members will perform solo. They comprise:
– Mike Hastings of Trembling Bells/The Pendulums – Scotland’s finest psychedelic folk-rock guitarist.
– Georgia Seddon – Beautiful self penned golden voiced melancholy songs.
– Frog Pocket – Super-talented multi-instrumentalist and experimental folk-popster.
* Adam Stafford
Musician and filmmaker from Falkirk. Formerly of the group Y’all is Fantasy Island. He will perform songs from his forthcoming album Imaginary Walls Collapse and will have a limited edition cassette tape of more new songs (on Gerry Loves Records) which will be made especially for the day.
* Honeyblood
Two girls from Glasgow, who play songs about things they really hate and things that are okay. Nominated for Best Newcomer in the 2013 SAMA Awards. There is a real underground buzz about this talented twosome.
* Wounded Knee
Edinburgh’s finest vocal loopist. Drawing from a variety of influences his music ranges from stripped down folk balladry to abstract improvised vocalic stravaigs. Expect songs from the bawbag.
* eagleowl vs Kid Canaveral
Kate Canaveral and friends, promoting Kid Canaveral’s fantastic new album, Now That You Are A Dancer. No space, no capitals, eagleowl are a lo-fi post folk ensemble from Edinburgh.
* Rob St. John
Drawn-out and ghostly songs underpinned by the creaks and drones of the harmonium, musical saw, fiddle, skittering drums, analogue synth and field recordings.
* Magic Eye
Ethereal, dreamy pop songs with a beautifully jangly guitar shimmering alongside gorgeous vocals.
Any purchase in the shop will get you £2 off entry to Song, by Toad’s ‘Beer vs Records‘ gig at Summerhall that evening. We will be selling the brand new split LP featuring Magic Eye, Le Thug, Zed Penguin and Plastic Animals. Buy that and you get a stonking £4 off entry to the gig!
Remember to share this and invite your record fiend friends. It’s going to be a blast!
The Facebook event is here: http://www.facebook.com/events/159619074197662/
Be sure to check back for a list of the records we have been allocated – expected mid-late next week. Then it’s squeaky bum time.
With all that talent, there will be a series of beautiful moments throughout the day. That’s Mike on the right. Listen to this gorgeous tune!
Okay folks,
Here is what we have.
Most titles are limited to one or two copies unless specified. We missed out on the best stuff form EMI due to a delay in opening an account and an early deadline. So there will be no Bowie, no Beta Band and no Pink Floyd. Anyway, it’s not really about the records…
Adam Stafford EP RSD Cassette
The Song, by Toad beer vs Records LP Le Thug/Magic Eye/Plastic Animals/Zed Penguin
Randolph’s leap RSD Cassette
Cleavers -if it arrives in time.
Tappa Zukie
Dark Dark Dark 10″
Michael Horowitz Paul/Weller/Damon Albarn/Graham Coxon (single and album) (6 copies available)
Dinosaur L 12″ Go Bang
Gonn Est. 1966 7″ Pic Disc
Public Enemy Planet Earth: Rock and Roll History
Cypress Hill Black Sunday
CSC Funk Band Funkincense
OST Bride of Frankenstein EP
Rory Gallagher Continental Op 10″
Sly & the Family Stone I want to take you Higher 10″
Residents Kawliga
Aerosmith S/TAerosmith Get Your Wings
Aerosmith Toys in the Attic
Miles Davis Milestones
Miles Davis Round About Midnight
Miles Davis Someday my Prince Will Come
Taj Mahal Natch’L Blues
Mad Season Above 2LP
King Creosote That Might Well Be It Darlin CD
Edwyn Collins 7″ single
Breton Remixed 7″
Admiral Fallow Tree Bursts in Snow (5 copies available)
The Fall Sir William Wray 7″ (6 copies available)
Glasvegas I’d Rather be Dead than be with you 7″ (6 copies available)
Hawkwind Kings of Speed 7″ (6 copies available)
x Manchester Rain &2
xA Baby Got Back..
x In a Broken Promise..
Frightened Rabbit Midnight Organ Fight 2LP and Ltd Ed print. (8 copies available)
x no-one knows nothing..
x Sheep
Grizzly Horn of Plenty
x Swimming
x Relationship of Command (5 copies available)
x Criminal Fingers
Depth and Current Transient 7″
Robyn Hitchcock There Goes th..
Junior Electronics 12″
Qluster 12″
Roedelius Schneider 12″
Stranded Horse Transmission 7″
Black Roots S/T LP
x TMALC The Only Way to
x SMITE ALternate versions 7″
Joe Meek I Hear a new world…
Conny Plank12″maxi
Fela Kuti Sorrow Tears and Blood 12″ maxi
Dutch Uncles Slave to the Atypical Rhythm 12″ maxi
Ghostpoet Meltdown 12″ maxi
Pulp After You 12″ maxi
Brian Eno Jaar Grizzly 12″ maxi
The xx Jamie xx Edits 12″ maxi
The Leisure Society Fight for everyone 7″
Sharon Van Etten We are fine 7″
Testament Animal Magnetism 7″
British Sea Power Facts are Right 7″
Shearwater and SVEtten Stop Draggin’ 7″
I AM KLOOT Natural History remastered
A Place To Bury Strangers Strange Moon
Daniel Johnston Space Ducks (4 copies)
Funeral Suits Lilyof the Valley
Anthrax Anthems
Amorphis Circle
Guards In Guards We Trust
Orange Juice Rip It Up
V/A SubPop 100
Davy Graham 3/4 AD EP
Luluc/Lisa Hannigan Songs of Nick Drake (4 copies) 7″
The Ukranians Pisni iz the Smiths (cover version s of Smiths songs in Ukranian) 12″EP
Nick Harper Juicy Fruit Girl 10″
Smoke Fairies Upstairs at United Vol 6
Marc Bolan Maxi Pack (6 copies available)
The Jesus and Mary Chain (5 Copies available)
Ian McCulloch Killing Moon 7″
Suede Barriers/Animal Nitrate 7″ (6 copies) this was particularly expensive
The White Stripes Elephant 10th Anniversary ed. (6 copies available)
Lee Scratch Perry Chapter 1 10″ BOX SET
Scientist Scientific Dub 10″ BOX SET
Napalm Death Leaders not Followers
Nick Cave Animal X 7″ (4 copies)
Gil Scott Heron The Bottle
The SHangri Las Remember 7″
Steven Wilson Luminol (four copies)
Echo and the Bunnymen Crocodiles (3 copies)
Frida Sundemo Indigo
Ultravox Vienna
Blind Melon S/T
Duran Duran Is there Smoething I should Know 7″
UFO Live N Ready 7″
Gabrielle Aplin Please don’t say.. 12″
Georgi Kay In my Mind 7″
David Guetta pic disc 12″
Royksopp Ice Machine 10″
Arriving sometime before 1200 noon are this lot below:
Kirsty MacColl A New England 7″
Venom Black Metal
Mayhem De Mysteries Dom…
Frankie Goes to Hollywood Maximum Joy pic disc
Charlie Feathers EP
Mayhem Deathcrush
Jethro Tull Nothing is Easy
Rainbow Rising
Burzum Filosifem
Burzum Hvis Lyset…
Rainbow Long Live Rock n Roll
Burzum Det Som…
Burzum Burzum/Aske
And there are some other bits in a small box.
We’ve stocked up on some really nice new and limited edition vinyl. Caravan, The Brain Police, Joy Division, Velvet Underground, Cribs, Radiohead, Mogwai, Bill Moffat, James Yorkston.
George has topped up the shelves with some nice Beatles/Bowie/Stones/Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin and so on.
This is one of my favourite places in Edinburgh. It has recently had a makeover and it is now a really nice space! In its previous incarnation, even famous souse Charles Bukowski wouldn’t have drank in there. Maybe that’s unfair? Ok, hey! Bukowski would have loved it in there! If you know this great man’s writing the compliment loses its sheen. This was a difficult venue to honestly plug even six months ago.
But, if you wanted to see live music, 3 bands for a fiver, this was the place to come. If you wanted to bring a lady-friend on a first date you’d go somewhere, anywhere else. The walls! Covered in old gig posters and drawings =some of penises- on A4 paper. Someone put these up and no-one took them down. Were they meant to be there? I was afraid to ask. Maybe they were for sale?
Go to Hank’s place!
Look folks, I’m not a toilet inspector but I need to share this too. The gent’s urinals had foam pads above them at head height. Cleverly designed so you could lean forward and rest your head against the wall in comfort while you took a piss in between watching the live bands and drinking the pints. Punters liked the headrests so much, they picked the foam padding out of the middle of them to take home as a freaky souvenir. Also, if you were happy to stand up straight there was plenty to read and many more artistic schoolboy interpretations of teenage kicks.
What was surprising was that the bar would fill up. Not with Barflies and ageing defiant alcoholic writers with tales of ordinary madness.* No sir, these were young music making types. Young record label types and healthy looking youngsters with rosy cheeks. If they had a uniting factor, I’d guess it was either that they all liked to stand up and pee in comfort while resting their heads on the wall as an odd Yoko Ono-ish artistic statement or that simply, live music plays an important part in their lives.
They came for the tunes, for the bands that come down to the Cellar Bar to kick out their tasty jams and spread them on our loaves and hope that the fruity chunks will get into our open and receptive lugs so that we’ll go on to spread the word to our muso friends or sign them to our tiny label, stock them in our tiny shop, or buy them a full sized pint. Happy too, if you just buy a T-shirt and clap your leg politely between songs.
So I’m really pleased that they’ve tidied the place up a bit. No more headrests, the copious penises have gone, it has had a decent coat of paint and frankly it’s looking like a tidy wee venue.
The live music nights are really great. The place really punches above its weight and there is always good cheer and enthusiasm from the 2 organisers I know, Nora and Claire. As a tiny shop ourselves this has not a little resonance. So when they asked if we’d like to get involved with a bit of cross promotion between Henry’s and VoxBox we said great! Count us in. Edinburgh is a relatively small city and it makes sense to make friends with like-minded music people.
I was last there for the Song, by Toad ‘Bad Fun’ event and to check out Magic Eye who are doing a short set for us for Record Shop Day on 20th April. The live performance was tip top and would say that their Bandcamp songs available are good but don’t do them justice. A really floaty gentle acid house ethereal experience and a good looking band. I’m a convert and look forward to hearing their Record Shop Day record. We’ll be selling their songs as part of the beer vs records experiment.
Henry’s is small for sure but it is a serious venue and as a such it is the first step on the ladder. Every band formed in or coming through Edinburgh must play here. The line-up is eclectic and if you are willing to do some research on the bands that are playing, or are happy just take a punt and see whatever talent is on our doorstep, then an evening at Henry’s to see 3 bands for a fiver is certainly worth a punt and perhaps better value than paying for the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury. (Having said that, I would really like to see the Rolling Stones this year) Although it appears that the Stones won’t play Henry’s any time soon, to find their successors in their youthful prime, you will have to look for them somewhere like here, in a very fine basement venue hidden in the middle of Edinburgh.
*”I have met free men in the strangest of places and at ALL ages – as janitors, car thieves, car washers, and some free women too… the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
It’s that time of year again! We are so excited about Record Store Day 2013. This has not been written by our publicist and there is not a hint of sarcasm. We are genuinely very excited indeed. The year has come around really quickly. Like Easter eggs, the hype will soon start just after Christmas. Record Store Day hype for a full 4 months! Someone shake me!
Every day in VoxBox feels to me like record shop day. Ahh, Surrounded by iconic albums. Each one a limited edition at one time. OK some were a limited edition of 100,000, then repressed in a limited edition of 15,000 and so on. A great example of the mass produced limited edtion is The Beatles White Album, which came as a numbered limited edition of 3,000,000 or so (no-one really knows fer sure) before being repressed again and again.
Check out this link for a man who buys only the White Album: http://www.dustandgrooves.com/rutherford-chang-we-buy-white-albums/
I love this guy. I have a collection of 2 White Albums. Both are top opening Mono copies. One pretty wrecked with badly scratched vinyl and a torn cover but with the prints and poster, the other a strong VG+ but without the poster bumf. It just seems wrong to marry them together then flog the knackered copy sans prints and poster to Mr Chang. I’m a bit of a record geek you see. Not as much as the collector who insisted I smell the inside cover of White Album No. 0132397 though. He became excited and he was right to be. It got me excited too. The smell of vintage ink, card, vinyl, paper, plastic and dust. There is some otherworldly thing of 1968 still stuck to those 2 records and their inner and outer sleeves you see that gives it an extra oomph.
Whiff this!
A record is not just a means of playing music and that’s why records are so great.
I’m still a sucker for limited editions. Picture discs? Yessir! Coloured vinyl? Oh boy! Splatter effect vinyl? Erm there’s no need for the splatter effect vinyl platters.
Whether they’re coloured, decorated or just plain shiny black vinyl, with RSD comes the limited edition records and that in itself is something to get excited about.
Record Store Day has always had a few problems. Overpriced. Too limited. Not limited enough. This year sponsored by a shoe company that uses child labour. Others over the years have listed RSD’s many faults and I won’t repeat the arguments here. The main factor is that the music industry does not know how to handle the growing interest in records. They are caught between marketing very expensive box sets to a worldwide handful of audiophiles who own very high end stereos and will pay a premium for a re-mastered reissue. Or alternatively, to the youthful masses with much less disposable money and to whom records are new technology. It’s a peculiar time and it’s certainly an odd niche to be involved in just now.
I have only one gripe. I overheard someone say that ‘RSD was never meant for second hand shops like VoxBox’. I’d like to answer that briefly as it hurt my feelings.
I take the contrary view. I think Record Shop Day has everything to do with all record shops, and especially second hand shops. This is because a good record shop must sell a lot of second hand stock. Record buyers tend to want originals and so many classic titles have been criminally out of print for a such a long time that new copies of fantastic albums simply don’t exist (eg Ziggy Stardust). RSD helps second hand shops reach out to bands, record labels and distributors, it helps shops to find out about new releases and also encourages them to try something different on the shelf. To put PAWS next to original Clash albums or Adele next to Aretha or Bassey or something. Or why not Rick Redbeard next to maybe Tom Rush?
There has been such a terribly large white gap.
If the record companies kept making enough records from 1990-2008 to keep up with the demand, some second hand shops would have moved into the market and been selling them too. From our point of view, as a predominantly second hand shop, it is only natural to start selling some select records. Second hand Stooges, Velvet Underground and Scott Walker LPs are hard to find. So we found the distributor and sell recent reissues as well as Scott’s new album too and some other bits and pieces. Thanks to Record Shop Day, we are involved in new vinyl and because of that, this year David Bowie’s new vinyl album will be able to sit proudly on our shelf beside his magnificent pre-owned and pre-loved back catalogue.
So back to Record Store Day and the excitement!
This year it falls on Saturday April 20th and sadly for us, shop favourites PAWS who played for us last year, will be tearing up Europe that week. So we had been looking for a suitable local artist(s) to entertain our record shoppers. I’m very proud to say that we have found many. Full details will be released shortly.
For me, the purpose of Record Shop Day is to get music loving people together to celebrate their favourite record shops and for the fans of the bands to shop somewhere they’ve maybe never been before. It is to mix the elusive exclusive product with inclusive in-store events. It is a fantastic opportunity for the record industry at all levels (and I use the term record industry literally) from our friends at tiny labels Cath Tapes, Gerry Loves Records and Song, by Toad through the larger Fence Records and Chemikal Underground to the behemoth EMI and Universal.
On the day, some youngster looking for a RSD Jake Bugg 7″ single may even browse our second hand stuff and for the first time discover an original 1968 copy of The Beatles self-titled double album complete with its embossed and individually numbered minimalistic white gatefold cover, now very slightly yellowed by 44 years of musical time. Poster and 4 prints included. They may take their first step into the vast world of records old and new, and lean in to have a tentative first sniff…
The RSD list is released Thursday. Needless to say, we’ll get in everything we can.
Well it’s Saturday and George has volunteered to do the shop all day to let me have a day off. Part of me wonders if someone is bringing in a tasty record collection at three. I just hope today is not the afternoon that Vashti Bunyan chooses to come in.
The break is handy though as I can sit down and write this. There is a lot to talk about. But rather than clear the backblog and finish some of the six blog pieces in the pipeline (I need some photos of Henry’s Cellar Bar among other stuff), here is a brief new one to keep you folks up to date.
“You know we should just buy some Kingspan and shove it up the rafters”. This is the reason the blog has been tardy. I’ve moved into a new place and it needs a tonne of work. If you’re a Cockney, then you’ll understand I need a full tree of monkeys. Or hey, a rock of Gibraltar! All this work needs more cash than a humble record shop can provide and I’ve been working extra shifts at my other job. Some of you already know that when not inventing Cockney words, I’m a part time Geriatrician -which helps me look after George too. Boom Boom.
I also need to discuss the resuscitation status of some of our customers. I’m afraid some are a getting bit decrepit. Luckily the new resus guidelines say I don’t have to give mouth to mouth to our favourite regular Saturday customer. But as a trained medical professional, if erm, Elbert* pops his clogs in the back room I’ll probably have to get stuck in. Note to self: Make sure to leave a pocket mask and a copy of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack under the counter.
It’s good business sense to properly resuscitate your customers.
As I said to a legendary Chilean record dealer when he told me outside of Café Camino “I’ve not been able to take a pizz in 3 days, now I’ve got zees painsh in my back”; “Seriously dude, you need to go to hospital as soon as possible! Have you been into the record fair yet? No? Well make sure you go to the fair and then go to the hospital immediately.”
It’s with a sigh of relief then, that record buyers are getting younger. Prostates are thankfully smaller and a good proportion of our customers have no prostate at all. That’s in part due to the success of Record Store Day and I’m stoked to say that we will be involved again this year. It falls on Saturday April 20th and our plans for the day should be confirmed and formalised by next Thursday when the organisers announce the official vinyl releases. It’s not about the records though guys. Is it? Is it? Is it really?
I’ve freed up some time to get organised and like a good catheterisation this will lead to an outpouring of pent up…. (this analogy has already gone too far)
What to expect in the next few weeks?
1. Ponderings on Record Store Day 2013
2. An update on the VoxBox DJ night
3. New friends and collaborate-bars (title a work in progress)
4. Classic Pop!
5. Where are all ze records?
6. A review of reviews
New blog bits will be announced on facebook and twitter. RSS will be easier to set up next week.
Finally, an in-joke for those in the know, this is BPH.**
Wow, Billy Joel has really sold a lot of albums. I’m not going to look up Wikipedia to find the exact numbers but I can always be sure that when the people of Edinburgh pull out a box of records (Songs) from the Attic to bring into the shop there will always be hefty Billy Joel contingent and I’m afraid we are struggling to cope. We currently have 5 copies of Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man. I believe him, he didn’t do it.* We are guilty though, throughout the 1970s and 80s we all did it. We bought Billy Joel albums by the truckload.
Anyone who has been into our Backroom lately could be forgiven for thinking they were browsing the LP section of Woolworth’s in their heyday. Elton John, Phil Collins, Genesis, Rod Stewart and the ubiquitous Billy Joel. Our Backroom was getting a bit tired and I’ve pulled out all the double/trebles. There were 30 albums! 10 of which were our friend BJ. They’re all in good nick and are already literally as cheap as a bag of chips -£1.50 each.
Backroom Bargains!
So how does an otherwise thriving Edinburgh record shop sell a classic yet now unfashionable Billy Joel album?
Nostalgia?
It’s not nostalgia for those who have never heard these records before. Some VoxBox customers weren’t born when they came out and it’s the older folks that are bringing them in. I’m not sure this will work.
Maybe ironic coolness?
You can be a retro-record-relisher! Be ahead of our time by looking to the past. You could be the coolest person in Edinburgh as you walk out of VoxBox with a stack of BJ albums under your arm. “No Bag for me George, not today! Hahahahahah!! I want all of the people on the Street to see that I just LOVE Billy Joel. I’m absolutely crazy for the curly haired Piano Man! Save me those Elton John albums too, I’ll pick ‘em up next week! I’m gonna have an Elton vs Joel piano duel for the VoxBox DJ night!** Toodle-ooo!” As you head back uptown, girls will be throwing themselves at you seeing how retro-cool you are. Needless to say, you’re a Billy Joel sensitive guy and you can be sure that everybody loves you now!
OK, so you will look a bit like a lunatic but you will get the people passing by thinking again… ‘Hmm, I’ve got some Billy Joel records in my attic, I’ll maybe sell them to VoxBox’
Celebrity endorsements?
Hip and bearded frontman and Scottish songwriting superstar Scott (Rabbit Hutch) Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit once wrote a handful of intense and emotive songs powered by an evening of Billy Joel music and a bottle of whisky. You too could emulate this by pouring some big shots and attempting to write break up songs with emotional honesty and a clutch of Billy Joel albums from VoxBox!
I’m reliably informed that Scott’s all-time favourite Billy Joel album is the genius, The Stranger. Incidentally, The Stranger was once rated as the 70th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Sheer talent, honesty, tragedy and black humour?
If only the good die young then BJ has turned out to be a whole lot badder than MJ.
He’s undoubtably a great songwriter and add to that, he’s a performer with a tragic past. He battled divorce and alcoholism. In his early years, he left a suicide note (which inspired the lyrics to Tomorrow is Today) and attempted to commit suicide by drinking polish. This wasn’t the Tyskie lager that your European joiner likes.
He said later, “I was just lookin’ for poison. I looked in my mother’s closet and there was bleach, and it had the skull and crossbones, and then there was furniture polish. And at the time I thought, Well, the furniture polish will probably taste better than the bleach, so I’ll drink the furniture polish. And all I ended up doing was farting furniture polish for a couple of days and polishing my mother’s chairs.”
Wow… (!) This is serious stuff. These are songs from the grooves of a furrowed forehead. In this context, his pop songs become poignant personal poems of internal turmoil. At least some do, sometimes.
A Fantasy?
What if something happened to Billy? While retired and fishing, a 4 eyed radioactive bear-fish could kiss his drowning black maggot lure and send a pulse of wEiRD energy up his fishin’ line. His ivory tinklers could turn instantly to human talc. This spooky ailment would spread effortlessly, like dark magic, quickly turning him into clothed dust, collapsed and blown away like a forgotten dream.
Where is Billy Joel? “Gone Fishin’!” The headlines read. (pronounced reed or red -go for it, this is a fantastic voyage and you may be right) The inevitable instant reappraisal happens reassuringly quickly. BJ songs crowd the radio. Bono mentions he was a fan and volunteers to raise money for the search for Billy Joel. Volunteers raise enough to finally send Bono into space via the Iranian space programme. Everybody has a dream…
We search.
We walk for four days, dazed and distant, as quiet and humble as a Richard Dawkin’s prayer.
The stars looking down would see that their hero was gone forever and cry screams of intense nuclear energy lighting the sky with a kaleidoscopic dot to dot where any picture is possible. Our own Sun cools with mourning gloom. Global warming is averted. Wind whips Joel’s near weightless pieces into the outer atmosphere. His living ash is scattered. Cells of creative genius serenade the ozone helping it mate and reproduce. This is contagious. He is worldwide again. New Hope springs and from our collective imagined night-sky-polka-dot drawings fierce optimism and hope and charm overflow and lead the hominids finally to a societal creative and cultural peak.
Finally Eureka! We are beginning now to understand that the search for Billy Joel is not literal. It is in us. His dust may well be in each one of us. On us. Inspiring, polishing, keeping our end up when we feel down. Helping us when wallowing in despair. To wallow from the deep, to the shallow and finally out home and dry, free of trouble and thinking as a youngster. Those touched think as a child, naïve yet hopeful thoughts that congeal and stiffen and as the global epiphany hardens this world has become already a better place. At last we are all piano men as we are all the folk in that bar. We are as light as the breeze, we are absent friends, a light in the hallway. We can now admit that we love others and in turn we are loved right back just the way we are.
Eventually, we finally re-learn and realise that tomorrow is today and we can replace procrastinating with telling short sweet secrets. Whispered love poems are the new wind.
Bullets and bombs are touched by BJ dust and explode with more dust. The more violence, the more that BJ speaks to us in dust. Mendacity becomes Joel-dust and chokes liars that speak with forks and knives. BJ threatens to inflict world peace and an end to global hunger and local poverty.
New records become cheaper and definitely dust repellent. Sadly, the BJ effect does not permeate the record industry and BJ vinyl re-issues come out at £25 each. But there is a new hope (for some of you, that’s Episode IV). Moving quickly on. People realise again that they don’t need a re-issue. The originals are in all of us. (metaphorically, and are more importantly for George and me, literally -in the VoxBox record shop on St Stephen Street). Now we are all in the mood for a melody. Parties start and someone pulls out BJ’s records again. Any requests?
The world is unanimous…
Next week, How Rod Stewart’s 1980s Albums Saved My Life.
*He/We did not start the fire
** Starts Feb 28th at The Last Word Saloon across the road, on the last Thursday of the month.
Your breath is sweet, your eyes are like two jewels in the sky. Your back is straight, your hair is smooth, on the pillow where you lie.
No, I’ve not been in your bedroom watching you while you sleep. The line above is a Bob Dylan lyric from a song whose title I pinched for the title of this rambling blog bit.
And moving swiftly on, I want to say thank you to all of our customers as the VoxBox shop has a really great feel to it just now! From those newly converted to vinyl records and those who maybe received their first record player this Christmas and to the wonderful record collectors and the vinyl hardcore who never ever lost that loving feeling in the first place.
There is a Starbucks on the corner of St Stephen Street and Howe Street. Starbucks have been in the news recently as they aren’t paying much tax.
There are 39 independent businesses on St Stephen Street. About 10 of which will serve you a coffee. To be absolutely honest, that makes a total of 40 businesses and 11 coffee sellers that want to pay as little tax as is legally possible. Certainly, no-one wants to pay any more than a competitor. I really don’t mind it if folk still drink coffee in Starbucks, they were a small company once and their coffee tastes fine. Add to that -if you’ve been in just once then you can pop in to use their toilet and baby changing facilities with a clear conscience and finally it’s none of my business where you get your brownish caffeinated liquid.
Our wee record shop has been open over 18 months now and I wanted to talk around that and coffee. As a record shop, traditional vinyl enthusiasts and collectors will tend to find you. We’ve had a helping hand in this with our sponsoring of the Edinburgh Record Fairs at Café Camino (Next one on 2nd Feb). We’ve advertised in various magazines but nothing has been better than the sign at the end of the street and our occasional stall at the Stockbridge Sunday Market. One customer never noticed us before until he saw George who had a stall. The chap lived on St Stephen Street -above our shop.
I’m sure that lots of people living in the street probably still don’t know that we’re here and that goes Double Espresso for folk in the Stockbridge area and Grande Americano for the rest of Edinburgh. But that’s just the way it goes. If you are not a big brand then it does take a bit of extra hot foamy milk and caramel syrup to get noticed and a bit more chocolate dust on the top to get someone to take the bold step and actually come in to sample your tasty marshmallows. Our street is still a little under appreciated and so I’d like to raise a coffee mug to our street to toast some of our marshmallows.
Many years ago, my favourite Teutonic chanteuse, Nico lived here with punk poet John Cooper Clark. With the threat of demolition and cheap rent, St. Stephen Street had attracted penniless artistic types and became trendy with baggy-kaftan wearing flat-white and skint bohos. The weird and the wise, the decadent and the woahoa! Hold on a minute, there’s a shop here that only sells oil lamps!* Here we also have the only Gramophone and 78rpm record specialist shop in the UK too. Elaine’s vintage clothing shop doesn’t even have a sign.
Since opening, we’ve befriended most of the other businesses on the street and helped to set up the St Stephen Street Trader’s Association. In recent years there have been new shops opening that have the young energy and great passion for what they do and that has helped awaken our once bohemian street. I suppose St Stephen Street had become a little tired in recent years.
With the injection of new blood, our street has rubbed its eyes, scratched it’s backside a bit and awoken. We’ve jumped out of bed, had our vitamin fortified cereal, gulped down a mug of instant coffee, most of us showered a bit and brushed our teeth standing in the bath in the shower, we towel dried and put on some fresh and really tight underwear and then some other clothes and we are finally up and out the door and are raring to go. There is definitely a feel of community in the air, all of us sharing the freshly washed, tight new pants feeling. The street feels vibrant again and it feels like we’ve always been here before.
Meetings with the Council have led to the new street signs and hopefully more prominence on the broader Edinburgh tourist map. In the meantime, we have set up a street website: http://www.ststephenstreet.com/*
At VoxBox, we like our hot drinks and buy our tea and scones from Rosie at The Proper Tea Shop across the road and get great sit-in coffee and the odd lunch from Sprio. We’ll buy the occasional jumper from Claire who owns vintage clothes shop Those Were The Days across the street. She will bring in a friend who might buy a record or two. I’ll nip into Sarah at Hibiscus Flower for a fair trade gift for a birthday. I win a Hibiscus Flower voucher in a local charity raffle! Street meetings are at The Antiquary pub and the wine flows. The VoxBox DJ Night starts at The Last Word Saloon down the road on the last Thusday of the month. VoxBox’s George has the odd meal at Purslane or The Blue Parrot or The Stockbridge Restaurant. Bill from Bells diner will buy a few CDs to play in his restaurant. We’ll eat the best burgers in Edinburgh in Bell’s Diner. Elaine from the vintage clothes shop down the road buys a Country Joe album from us. I’ll point folk her way and then late on Saturday, I buy some Bessie Smith 78s from Billy at the Gramophone Emporium across the road and he keeps the money.
Starbucks is fine, but don’t forget that a little goes a long way. If you spend a small amount in a wee shop on St Stephen Street, you can feel chipper knowing that your money could circulate locally for a week and eventually keep me in Bluesy 78s and the Gramophone Emporium’s Billy living in the lap of luxury, (probably) helping to fuel the decadent and lavish lifestyle that he has become accustomed to.
This is also a broad invite to Edinburgh folks to come and have a more than a peek at St Stephen Street and also at Stockbridge. Get up and down the steps and into the smaller shops. You’re always in for a cheery grande-caramel-aribica-double-shot-espresso-mocha-chocca-latte-marshmallowtastic-welcome. Sometimes with sprinkles on top too.
* Set up buy JoJo of Lilies and Dreams on our street.
VoxBox Music became the newest record shop in the world on May 21st 2011. We buy and sell vinyl and other formats of music. We are independent and sell mostly pre-owned records although we are slowly branching into new vinyl too.
