Record Store Day Black Friday 2013

After gorging on food on Thanksgiving Day, I dragged my self to Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax for the Black Friday special edition of Record Store Day. For those unfamiliar, RSD is when artists will release special stuff, usually 7" vinyl but sometimes 12" selections. A store does not get everything, so it's kind an exciting and sometimes disappointing proposition. But it's a cool way to support local vinyl shops!

I was planning to get in line at 6am but sense took over. I wound up sleeping until 7am. After hopping up and brushing my teeth and throwing on a bunch of layers I drove over to the shop. I brought a blanket to protect my rear end from the cold concrete and my iPad to help while away the time. I was 7th in line with a bunch of high school kids ahead of me. Not too shabby. Nobody showed up after me until the store opened, so one could argue it didn't really matter but whatever.

But MAN it was cold. Like high 20s when I got there. I was warm for the first 30 minutes but it did not last. I was convinced my nose was going to fall off. My toes went numb even through the wool socks and my heavy hiking boots. I talked a little while with the kid in front of me but for the most part is read and listened to my iPod to tune out the talk of the group of 5 kids at the front of the line.

My list included live cuts from Dawes and Band Of Horses, the Albini mix of Nirvana's In Utero, a Rush 10" single, a Townes Van Zandt collection and the latest Brendan Benson which doesn't come out officially until 2014. From that all I got was the Band of Horses 7". But it is very cool. It's two acoustic songs from a Ryman Auditorium gig, a beautiful version of a favorite called "No One's Gonna Love You" and backed by a cover of Gram Parsons' "Song For You." The Nirvana record was there but somebody snatched it. The rest didn't interest me.

I then headed over to the new vinyl arrivals section and happily found a bunch of gold. The Beatles White Album, the first James Gang album as well as their Carnegie Hall live album, One Of These Nights from The Eagles, the last Peter Gabriel-fronted Genesis record The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Led Zeppelin 1, and three classic Rush LPs. I also got my sweetheart a copy of The Muppet Movie soundtrack, since I wasn't able to find the special Muppets Christmas 7".

All in all a good day record wise!! If you like vinyl you should definitely check out Record Store Day when it happens.

Old Favorites: Living Room Scene

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everybody has a great holiday, eats a ton, and then hits the gym tomorrow!!

I am going to debut a new feature and I am calling it "Old Favorites." Three guesses as to what it means. You...in the back...what's that you say? CORRECT! Here I will be talking about old records that happen to be favorites of mine yet maybe haven't been played for a while.

For this inaugural post, I am listening to Living Room Scene by the late, great Dillon Fence. They are a four-piece out of North Carolina who toured the East coast extensively in the early to mid-90s. They never got any national exposure, except for a brief mention in a Rolling Stone cover story about Hootie and the Blowfish. Regardless of that, they were one of my most favorite bands whilst in college. Their sound in kind of typical alternative power-pop from those days. Hootie was one of the bands they were "associated" with; they and other bands from the North Carolina and South Carolina power-pop scene had supposedly made an agreement to take some of them on tour if they ever made it big. Hootie did so they took Dillon Fence with them. That's nice.

Dillon Fence only made three full length records, the mellow-ish Rosemary, the harder edged Outside In, and their swan-song Living Room Scene. I probably like OI slightly better than LRS, but this was the one that first got me into them. The music is earth-shattering but it is really well done. Lead singer and guitarist Greg Humphreys was the soul of the band; his voice is very reminiscent of a rockier, Faces-era Rod Stewart.

I first saw them when they opened for The Connells, another North Carolina favorite, at old WUST Hall, which is now known as the New 930 Club, though it's been there nearly 20 years now. WUST Hall didn't have many rock shows there back then. The configuration was pretty much the same as the 930 is now, but it was much dingier. The coolest part was there were murals of Baptist revivals on the walls. Back then, the U Street Corridor in DC was much more sketchy than it is now. Going down there for college kids was a bit of a dangerous thrill. We didn't know any better.

After LRS came out the band went through a bunch of members. Bassist Chris Goode left to go back to school or something, then guitarist Kent Alphin left to form Granger. Drummer Scott Carle stuck around. I saw the original line-up just once, though I wound up seeing their various incarnations about five times. I remember seeing them at old old 930 Club and meeting the band in the long hallway leading to the club. What was most cool was how happy they were to see me and my friend Eric wearing our Dillon Fence tee shirts. They were genuinely happy about it. I remember seeing them at at the old Bayou in Georgetown where we got to hang out with them for a while after the show. I also saw drummer Scott Carle as a roadie for The Connells and was very excited he remembered us and talked with us for a while. They were very nice guys but seemed bummed about not making it big.

I still spin the old Dillon Fence records, and my LRS tee-shirt is one of my oldest and rattiest but I still like wearing it. Here's the title track; hope you enjoy it!

Sink In The Fangs

Red Fang continues in the tradition of scuzzy looking guys drinking a shitload of beer and playing heavy stoner rock. They are heavy, they are loud, they play fast and then they play sludgy. And if you watch any of their videos they really love beer. Take "Wires" for instance. The setup is they receive a check for $5000 to make a video, which they promptly use to buy beer and destroy a ton of shit. It's funny and stupid all at the same time and perfectly encapsulates who they appear to be.

Whales and Leeches is their new record and it builds on their self-titled debut and 2011's Murder The Mountains.  Like the last record it is produced by Chris Funk from The Decemberists. If you have heard of that band you might find it curious he would produce a band like Red Fang. They both come from Portland, OR, so they have that going for them but other than that the connections are sparse. The Decemberists offer a very progressive take on folk music. Red Fang would be expected to beat those guys up. But music is really all connected. It's chords and notes and guitars and beats no matter if it is loud or soft or someplace in between. And Funk's production is something that makes Red Fang stand out from the common stoner metal band. Sure it's heavy but there are dynamics and nuance working here that you don't always find on albums from like-minded but lesser bands. A special treat is seeing Roger Joseph Manning Jr.'s name in the credits, he being the former keyboardist in power pop bands Jellyfish and Imperial Drag. His talents are utilized for just one track but it helps escort Red Fang's trip down the road toward more interesting and different places.

Stand out tracks include the album opening one-two punch of "DOEN" and "Blood Like Cream." The latter offers an almost power-poppy bounce and an Iron Maiden-esque guitar run near the end. Other cuts, Like "No Hope" and especially "Crows In Swine" remind me of their former tour mates Mastodon. Album closer "Every Little Twist" brings on the psychedelic-a; if you have the vinyl and are not paying attention, you'll find this song will go on forever as the record's lock-groove comes blessed with the end of the song...playing forever and ever and ever.

Here's "Blood Like Cream" from Live at KEXP: