Tag: 12″

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Various artists “Tiny Changes: A Celebration Of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight'”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Various artists
Album Title: Tiny Changes: A Celebration Of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’
Year released: 2019
Details: Double LP, 24 page booklet

The skinny: Back in the middle of January, I went on a bit of a Frightened Rabbit kick, posting photos from the one time I saw them live in 2013, as well as ‘Vinyl love’ instalments for the albums “The midnight organ fight”, “Pedestrian verse”, and “Painting of a panic attack”, and all of this in the span of a week. However, I waited until today, what is widely-acknowledged as the second anniversary of frontman Scott Hutchison’s death, to post this, the only other Frightened Rabbit-related vinyl in my collection (for now). This tribute to “The midnight organ fight” was in the works before Hutchison’s suicide, the recording of the album’s tunes by friends of the band were already mostly recorded to celebrate the album’s 10th anniversary, but the remaining band members decided to refocus its release after the fact. They named it for the mental health charity launched in honour of Hutchison and donated a portion of the album’s sales to it as well. The album includes covers by Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Canadian indie rockers Wintersleep, fellow Scots The Twilight Sad, dream-poppers Daughter, and the lovely one below by Julien Baker. This heavyweight double-LP pressing includes a 24-page booklet filled with words and memories supplied by other members of Frightened Rabbit and by the artists that performed the covers (a few of these are shown above). And reading these really hits you hard and you can’t escape the feeling that we’ve lost a great songwriter. We miss you Scott.

Standout track: “The modern leper” as covered by Julien Baker

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Essex Green “Hardly electronic”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Essex Green
Album Title: Hardly electronic
Year released: 2018
Details: Limited edition, peak edition, red & orange swirl vinyl

The skinny: Last week, I wrote about how I discovered this Indie Rock trio from Brooklyn, New York, when I saw them open for Camera Obscura back in 2007. This here album, The Essex Green’s fourth, and their first in almost twelve years, was a bit of a surprise release back in 2018. Indeed, even after hearing a few tracks, it wasn’t on my radar to add to my vinyl collection but then, I saw it on the racks while perusing one of my favourite local record stores, Compact Music, and I just couldn’t help myself. This limited ‘Peak’ vinyl edition of “Hardly electronic” is lovely in orange and red translucent and hit my platter so often back in 2018 that it ended up on my top ten list for the year.

Standout track: “The 710”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Essex Green “Cannibal sea”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Essex Green
Album Title: Cannibal sea
Year released: 2006
Year reissued: 2018
Details: Limited edition, peak edition, opaque blue marble vinyl

The skinny: In January 2007, I purchased tickets and went to see Camera Obscura play Barrymore’s Concert Theatre here in Ottawa and as per usual, I headed down to the show early enough to catch the opening acts. One of these was Brooklyn-based indie rock band The Essex Green, whose blend of rock, folk, and psychedelia slid comfortably right into my wheelhouse. I enjoyed the energy, groove, and male/female traded vocals so much that I purchased a copy of their recent CD from the merch table. (While so doing, I had a conversation with multi-instrumentalist Sasha Bell about their cover of Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Older guys” at the end of their set). “Cannibal sea” became one of my favourite new discoveries and albums from around that time but sadly, The Essex Green went on hiatus shortly after that tour. Two years ago, the band surprised everyone (perhaps even themselves) by surfacing with a new album and to celebrate, their label, Merge Records, reissued their previous two long players on special edition ‘Peak’ vinyl. Obviously, I had to get myself a copy of “Cannibal sea” for my collection and as you can see, the baby blue marbling is just as pretty and peppy as their tunes.

Standout track: “Don’t know why (you stay)”*

*This very song appears on the playlist I created last summer out of songs by bands I’ve seen live as opening acts.