Though I'm still mourning the loss of Final Vinyl in the East Village, that won't stop me from seeking out and patronizing my local record store this Saturday, April 19th, on Record Store Day. Get out there and support your local music retailer--more specifically, the ones selling vinyl!

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, album covers, cassettes, Jamaincan Record Label Art, music, record labels, records, tapes, turntable, vinyl

While I do own a lot of the 45s in this collection, NONE of my singles have their original picture sleeves. This is where my jealousy of Michael, Erwin & Alex begins. These guys are the proprietors of Demon Fuzz Records, what appears from their photos to be quite the vinyl record store located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I've never been there in person (unless it was unknowingly in 1991), but I have been on their website, which sports such wonderful record cover and picture sleeve galleries as "Mysterious Ladies" (Ritual), "Products" (Steinski), and "Singles Bar" (Nina Simmone) among others. Join me as I gaze in the greenest of envies at the seven-inch picture sleeves of Ray Barretto's Soul Drummer or Willie Henderson's Funky Chicken...

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, album covers, music, records

I've now received as gifts both the paperback and hardcover versions of 45 RPM: A Visual History of the Seven-Inch Record, an interesting and amusing survey of 45 RPM record sleeves from the 1950s through the 1990s. And while my preference is (obviously) for label art, I can't help but to pull these books out from time to time and flip through the actual-size reproductions of such visually interesting covers as the Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance" donning a photo of one of Yoko Ono's installations or a Jackie Gleason "Lonesome Echo" single with a custom Salvador Dali painting on the cover or the Rat Fink-inspired Man... or Astro-Man? seven-inch. Quite possibly the main selling point for me is the index in the back of the book that lists all of the meta data on each record including, whenever possible, designer and illustrator. Turns out I have a couple of Burt Goldblatts in my collection.

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, album covers, ephemera, music, records, vinyl

Join "black crack" addicts worldwide on August 12th as we celebrate Vinyl Record Day commemorating the anniversary of the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison. Go crate-digging at yard sales, flea markets and thrift shops, support your local vinyl record store, shop for new and used vinyl online at such great stores as Dusty Groove and Gemm, or finally get a replacement stylus for that used turntable you bought off Craig's List.

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, album covers, music, records, turntable, vinyl

If, like me, you have lots of rare, out-of-print vinyl records that just don't exist digitally, the Numark TTUSB Turntable with USB may just cure your ills. This is a true plug-and-play solution for importing 33 1/3 & 45 RPM vinyl records into your computer via a standard USB 2.0 interface. The bundled Audacity software allows you to save songs as MP3s (or virtually any other digital music file format) and has a filter that allows you to easily remove scratches and pops from older records without compromising sound quality. You can use the turntable to play records through your computer speakers via USB or connect it to a home stereo system using the included RCA cable. I recently set one of these up for a friend and was amazed at how utterly convenient it was to both install and use. And while it's not as heavy duty as my Technics 1200s, the belt-drive Numark TTUSB Turntable still produces a respectable sound considering what an amazing value it is. At under $125 bucks, I give it two thumbs up!

Labels: Numark, records, turntable, USB, vinyl

I probably posted this a while back, and it's also listed in the Interesting Links section, but there's a whole mess of rockabilly label art over at the Rockin' Country Style Label Shots website. While many of the label designs verge on boring sans-serif type with little or no graphics, there are a few well worth the dig. Dig?

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, country, music, record labels, records, rockabilly, vinyl

This is getting ridiculous. Ian of Jamaincan Label Art informs me of another site dedicated to Jamaican 45rpm label art, the Dance Crasher website. In addition to labels, Dance Crasher hosts a plethora of reggae ephemera to gaze. It seems the UK is replete with these precious discs. And it looks like I'm gonna have to hook up the ol' scanner and get to work if I hope to contend...

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, jamaica, Jamaincan Record Label Art, music, record labels, records, reggae, vinyl

Check out the great piece on the "B" side blog about Marshall Sehorn, an influential and controvercial figure in New Orleans music history—though his influence was surely not confined to the Crescent City.

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, mardi gras, music, new orleans, records, vinyl

I found this site by accident while looking up an old LP by "Booty People." I'm ashamed of how many of these records I own!

Labels: album covers, records, vinyl