Tag: 2000s

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: The National “Boxer”

(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 National
Album Title: Boxer
Year released: 2007
Year reissued: 2011
Details: yellow

The skinny: The last post in this series featured the just purchased brand new album by The National, “I am easy to find”, and it’s been on regular rotation on the turntable ever since. The American alternative rock band has consistently put out excellent records, at least since I picked up on them. And the record that started it off for me was this one, “Boxer”, an album I ranked at number four for 2007 when I counted down that year’s best album many months ago now. In that same post, I talked about how I fed an MP3 version of the album through my stereo so that I could record it to cassette tape in order to listen to it in my car. Good times. Now I just spin it on my turntable in pretty pretty yellow.

Standout track: “Mistaken for strangers”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Veils “The runaway found”

(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 Veils
Album Title: The runaway found
Year released: 2003
Year issued: 2017
Details: First time on vinyl, black, 180 gram, limited to 1000, signed by Finn Andrews

The skinny: The Veils’ debut album, “The runaway found”, is one of those albums that burrows itself deep into your soul, lodges itself there, and periodically releases some sort of chemical that incites a strong need to listen to it again and again. This is thanks mostly to the brilliance of frontman and creative force, Finn Andrews. When I first got into this album, I was telling anyone who would listen that he has the voice of a Rufus Wainwright or a young Lou Reed (before his voice sent to seed) and the soul of a Tom Waits or a Nick Cave, or even an older Lou Reed. The band has changed lineups and sounds over the years and have gained some notoriety recently with an appearance on the “Twin Peaks” reboot but I’ve always been partial to this album. So when “The runaway found” was finally pressed by Music on Vinyl a few years ago, I didn’t hesitate to snap it up.

Standout track: “Lavinia”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Metric “Old world underground, where are you now?”

(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: Metric
Album Title: Old world underground, where are you now?
Year released: 2003
Year reissued: 2015
Details: Black vinyl

The skinny: So Metric is doing a show tonight at Ottawa’s TD Place with another Canadian indie rock success story, July Talk. I’m not going (though I’m sure it’ll be a great show). I’ve seen both bands live already and in the case of Metric, a couple of times. But it got me thinking about their humble beginnings during the hey day of Canadian indie rock and I thought I’d give their debut a spin. Metric is another band that I came across as a result of discussions with my friend Jez (whom I mentioned a few days ago in connection with Neutral Milk Hotel) and it’s with whom, I had a few chances to see the group live at some tiny, intimate clubs in Ottawa before they really hit it big. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of cash in those days and only finally got to see them live five or so years later at Bluesfest, circa 2009, with a larger crowd (though perhaps not as large as tonight). “Old world underground, where are you now?” is a very sturdy debut for an indie band with an ear for the past and hints for the future… And as my friend Mark might say, Emily Haines is a rock goddess.

Standout track: “Combat baby”