Third Man Records

Today's purchase was The White Stripes 'Conquest', this is one record in a three vinyl set.

After the record arrived, I headed over to the Third Man Records [thirdmanrecords.com] web site to check out the other releases and was struck by the labels building/shop and their mission statement. The mission statement struck a chord with me because it's exactly the sort of thing I am aiming for with the combination of my studio, Beliefspace [beliefspacestudio.co.uk] and my label, Fiercely Independent Records [fiercelyindie.co.uk].


Third Man's Mission Statement:

"Third Man Records was originally founded by Jack White in Detroit in 2001. In March of 2009, a physical location was established in Nashville, TN. Third Man Records in it’s current state serves as record store, record label, live venue, and one stop production house with a rehearsal and photo studio, darkroom, and production office and distribution center. All of our records are produced by Jack White in his own Third Man Studio, then printed and pressed right here in Nashville. With our unique set-up we can have an artist recorded and photographed in one day and have records for sale in our store within weeks. In this way we are bringing a spontaneous and immediate aesthetic back into the record business."

More Vinyl

Last week I sold a piece of audio gear with the intention of purchasing a new piece of gear. Details on the Beliefspace Studio blog [beliefspacestudio.blogspot.com]. After I had made my sale and subsequent purchase I had a bit of capital left over which I used to buy some more vinyl.

I'm probably in a minority here but I've always been a big fan of Brendan Benson's song writing and Jack White's production, especially the way he uses a combination of modern effects and vintage recording equipment to forge a particular sound and my Raconteurs and White Stripes purchases don't disappoint in that respect.

Record Store Day

Today was Record Store Day [recordstoreday.co.uk] in the USA and the UK. This week I ordered a few 7" singles to celebrate the day and two arrived this morning Elbow 'Neat Little Rows' and Jane's Addiction 'Mountain Song'.

Also, one of our friends found a picture disc of The Beatles 'Sgt. Peppers' in their office which they brought over for me to test and grade for sale. It's a good copy, I think I'll be buying this one myself.

New Vinyl: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

My copy of the Foo Fighters new album 'Wasting Light' arrived this morning courtesy of HMV (I cancelled my previous Amazon pre-order as they were being total asses about their inability to fulfil pre-orders).

Beautifully presented on heavy weight vinyl. I put it on the record player and my initial reaction, was "Okay. This sounds a bit weird." Then Grohl's voice kicked in very slow and low and I quickly realised I was playing a 45rpm record at 33rpm! Which explains why it's presented on 2 discs. I'm guessing this is obtain a higher quality than 33rpm.

After changing the belt on my Project turnatble to the 45rpm setting, the album sounded more familiar (I've been having a sneek preview on the Foo's Soundcloud [soundcloud.com/foofighters] this week).


Produced by Butch Vig, Recorded in Grohl's garage on 2" analogue tape through an API 1608, mixed by Alan Moulder. This is the type of album that I would like to engineer myself.

The entire process of recording, mixing and mastering has been blogged by the band on twitter [twitter.com/foofighters] and yfrog [yfrog.com/user/foofighters/profile]. Providing an excellent insight into the processes involved, together with the usual Foo Fighter's comedy excerpts.

This is absolutely classic Foo Fighters.

Charity Shop Finds

There's now a Barnado's in Plymouth Armada Centre where Ham & Sewell used to be. They have a lot of vinyl in there, most of it is the usual stuff you find in charity shops but if you have twenty minutes or so to dig, there's some interesting records in that little lot. They also have masses of 7" singles but they would take another trip to dig through. Today, in ten minutes I found a few records for £1 each!

ZZ Top (pictured) 'ZZ Top's First Album'. I've seen a few copies of 'Eliminator' in charity shops and, indeed, that's where I got my copy from, but to find the other titles is rare.

Next up was a Chris Rea 'Road to Hell'. My Dad used to play this album in the car when I was a kid. It especially evokes memories of driving to the family caravan in Polzeath on a Saturday afternoon.


Finally, a copy of Ravel's orchestrated version of Mussorgsky 'Pictures at an Exhibition' performed by L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. This is almost mint, despite being from 1972 it looks like it's only been played a couple of times.

Westcountry Record Fair

Just got back from the first Westcountry Record Fair [westcountryrecordfair.com] of 2011.

Hosted in the Lower Guildhall in Plymouth it's bargains galore on all sorts of genre but mostly 60's, 70's Rock, some Metal and loads of Blues and Jazz. There's even a stall of brand new releases on vinyl, although those can be pricey.

There wasn't as many 'bargain bins' at today's fair and there were a few more CDs stalls. Despite this we still managed to grab a few bargains. I spent just over £20 on 6 records and Helen spend £18 on 7 records (pictured below).

My haul: Jeff Beck - Wired, The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You,
The Rolling Stones - High Tide and Green Grass, Eric Clapton - Journeyman,
R.E.M. - Out Of Time, David Byrne - Uh-oh.


Helen's haul: Paul McCartney - All the Best!, Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,
Joni Mitchell - Wild Things Run Fast, The Animals - House of the Rising Sun,
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Milk and Honey, Genesis - Selling England by the Pound,
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail.

New Vinyl: J Mascis - Several Shades of Why

I just managed to catch the postie this morning before he carded me.

So I am currently listening to the mellower side of J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) on vinyl. The Sub-Pop release of 'Several Shades of Why' on coloured vinyl.

I first got into music during the late 80s/early 90's so I like to support labels like Sub-Pop [subpop.com].

The vinyl included a little piece of paper with a download code to download the mp3 versions which are now safely copied onto my iPhone for on-the-go listening, together with a PDF version of the sleeve notes which was a nice touch.

The record looks great, the artwork is by an artist called Marq Spusta [marqspusta.com].

What's up with these tightly fitting modern vinyl sleeves?!? It took me a whole five minutes to carefully ease the actual record out of the gate-fold sleeve this morning.

The record is really mellow and is dominated by vocal and acoustic guitar with electric guitars and a whole host of guests playing instruments such as violins, dobro, clarinet, flute and even a saw.

It's currently on repeat on my record player.