Frank Turner’s music has long been near and dear to my heart. We all have bands and artists that are constants for us. We may not always listen to them on a weekly basis (or perhaps we do), but just knowing they’re there is comforting. Frank’s music has been with me over the long haul, and has steadied the ship for me in times of trouble, and rode happily beside me for the good times as well.
This week we got the chance to “sit down” with someone who has become very special to the Vinyl Writer universe, none other than the Chief Operating Officer of Kindercore Vinyl, Cash Carter.
Picture this…it’s three o’clock in the morning. You’re half asleep. The light radiating forth from the TV is flickering off the walls, shadows caressing your half-open eyelids. Muffled under the dark enclaves of your lucid dreams. In the very back of your mind’s eye, you hear cheesy saxophones cracking distorted notes over blown-out speakers. Amidst the chaos, you can just make out the distant chattering of smile-laden infomercial stars, peddling the latest and greatest soon-to-be dumpster fodder: “Billy Mays here, with Oxi-Clean!”
This week we are taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming for a very special interview with Andrew Rossiter of ORG Music. Andrew Rossiter is not only the general manager of ORG, he’s also co-owner.
Records stores make next to nothing on new vinyl. They are basically strong armed into buying all this product, or they will be left out of the party and have no one in their store on a day that was supposed to be all about them.
We no longer need to pretend, or “ironically” like her music. Now fully unleashed and un-tethered from Big Machine Records, I have a feeling we haven’t even scratched the surface of what Taylor Swift is truly capable of. Taylor Swift the pure radio Pop superstar may be in the past. Now, with intent, she has become something new or perhaps chosen to finally reveal her true self. If Lover, and folklore are any indication, at thirty-one years of age, Taylor Swift the singer-songwriter is just getting started.
What even is normal? Everyone has strange quirks. We all have embarrassing stories. Each and everyone of us has made mistakes. The point is– we are all weird in our own ways. It got me thinking – how can I relate this to music? The first artist that came to mind was none other than Frank Zappa.
As seminal and influential a band as Hüsker Dü were, it is my humble opinion that Bob Mould didn’t need them, and arguably ended up better off without them. After the disillusion of Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould decided to center himself.
Neil Young has had a long and eventful career. He’s achieved fantastic success, and also experienced significant lows, both professionally and personally. It seems that Neil Young is a man who also is at his best in times of turmoil, particularly during times of personal turmoil.
Over the decade’s Bob Dylan has seen and sung on just about every important topic of the last half-century. We find ourselves as a nation collapsing unto itself, and directly into a great divide. It’s a chasm of our own doing. Our blatant refusal to be kind and decent to one another is coming to a head now. What happens next is in our hands.
