clear vinyl Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Sleigh Bells “Texis”

sfilzen — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:11:34 +0000

Sleigh Bells “Texis” 2021. Torn Clean Records/Mom+Pop Music, on clear vinyl. Noisy experimental pop, Texis is duo Alexis Krauss’ and Derek Miller’s fifth album (the hype sticker on this record’s plastic sleeve weirdly says it’s their 6th record but literally every reputable website says it’s their 5th). I’ve been a Sleigh Bells fan since their first LP Treats (2010), blown away by their combination of a dense wall of hard electronica and killer beats that are overlaid with Krauss’ soaring and gorgeously angelic voice. I also really liked Reign of Terror (2012) and Bitter Rivals (2013) but while I enjoyed Jessica Rabbit OK I don’t think I’ve listened to it since 2016 when it came out. Texis, however, brings back some of the earlier excitement from their older releases. An Allmusic review describes their sound as “cheerleader metal” which is pretty perfect: sweet, poppy and infectious but also gritty, loud and dangerous. My top tracks from Texis are the lead track “Sweet 75,” “Locust Laced” (about which an NME review describes as “a crazed mash of go-go pop, torture-porn thrash metal and dubstep”), “Tennessee Tips” (“a barrage of ray gun synth-punk,” NME), “Red Flag Flies” and the album closer “Hummingbird Bomb” which is weird and excellent: light and fluttery with layers upon layers of intense/insane synth-rock explosions.

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Murphy’s Law “Back With a Bong”

sfilzen — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 22:21:13 +0000

Murphy’s Law “Back With a Bong” 1989. Profile Records. Clear vinyl. New York melodic hardcore, Back With a Bong is the band’s second album and had an almost completely new lineup from their s/t debut in ’86 – save vocalist Jimmy Gestapo (James Drescher) – that included Agnostic Front and Warzone guitarist Todd Youth (Todd Schofield). The revolving door of members continued throughout subsequent years – drums, guitars and bass have seen around 20 different players each. And then with the addition of a ska/horn sound on this album (on the aptly titled “Ska Song“) and other records following, there’s been about 80 Murphy’s Law musicians. Even though Murphy’s have been around forever (since ’82 and they have concerts scheduled in New York later this month) I never really listened to them; this record was part of a collection a friend gave to me awhile back and I’m finally getting around to spinning it. It’s hardcore punk with more than a little speed metal so it’s loud, fast and really adolescent in content. The song “Panty Raid” is both offensive and hilarious. Same with “Cavity Creeps.” As the album’s title suggests, Murphy’s Law clearly likes their weed, that sentiment also punctuated with the tracks “Quest for Herb” (link here to a 2020 livestream during the shutdown) and “Bong.”

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Duran Duran “Future Past”

sfilzen — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 17:45:58 +0000

Duran Duran “Future Past” 2021. Released just a couple of days ago, limited(ish) edition exclusive clear vinyl for “Spotify Fans First” pre-orders. Today, October 27th, is also Simon Le Bon’s birthday (b. 1958)! Future Past is Duran Duran’s 15th studio album and it is GREAT! The track “Anniversary” is pure, crank it to 11 dancing bliss, put it on repeat and as catchy and addictive as any of their other great hits like “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Planet Earth” or “Reach Up for the Sunrise.” My other top tracks so far (I’m on my fourth listen since getting the delivery two days ago) are “All of You” which has an excellent play-that-fucking-bass John rhythm, “Beautiful Lies” which is synthpop goes funk (the secret Duran Duran sauce) and “Invisible” which was the first song I heard a few months ago with that wild AI generated video. I’m working on really liking the songs upon which they collaborate with other artists (“Give It All Up” which features Tove Lo, “More Joy!” featuring Chai and “Falling” which features Mike Garson). But I’m just so happy that I still love this band and they continue to put out fantastic music.

The title Future Past is also resonating with me a lot: about a week ago an old friend of mine who I met through our mutual love of Duran Duran back in 1984 sent me ALL of her old Duran Duran posters, magazine pictures, little tiny newspaper clippings, etc. In that pile of goodness was a letter I had typed and printed out on my dad’s old dot matrix computer that I literally have no recollection of whatsoever. Apparently my Duranie penpal from California (who I did get to meet in-person I think in the summer of ‘84 or ‘85) and I had schemed to write a book about Duran Duran and sent out this form letter to people requesting photos and must have included some sort of survey that the letter references. Spoiler: that book never materialized.

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Frankie Goes to Hollywood “Welcome to the Pleasuredome”

sfilzen — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:44:36 +0000

Frankie Goes to Hollywood “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” released 35 years ago today, March 18th, 1985. 12″ single, super-limited (300 copies) test pressing on clear vinyl. And according to the letter included by Jeff J. White of Island Records, he stole the pressings for radio stations from Island’s “never to be distributed vault.”

“Welcome to the Pleasuredome” was FGTH’s fourth and final single from their debut smash album Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, released in fall of ‘84. The title track wen to #2 in the UK, the only single from the record which didn’t hit #1 (stymied by Phil Collins’, that f*ckr, and Phillip Bailey’s duet “Easy Lover”) in the UK; it went to #48 in the US. There’s a whole slew of versions of this track, the single and album versions differ and even the 7″ single had variations and it was impossible to know which one you got based on the cover and catalogue numbers which were identical, though I guess the paper sleeves varied in thickness. Weird. Because it’s a test pressing, this copy has different tracks than the commercial release (though it’s not that dissimilar from the US and UK 12″ – those included the track “Get It On” (T. Rex) and “Happy Hi!”). Side A has “Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Trevor Horn Remix)” which was the standard remix for the commercial versions. Side B has a remix I’ve never heard before and doesn’t seem to be available on any other releases (though I’m sure someone out there will correct me if I’m wrong): “Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Vocal/KZAP Edit)” and it’s super-cool with extended instrumentals, acoustic-ish guitar jams and extra Holly Johnson sing-snarls. Also on Side B is “Relax (Vocal/Live Version).”

I saw Frankie Goes to Hollywood perform a few months after the release of this single in July, 1985 in Irvine, CA. My dad and I traveled to Los Angeles that summer for a family reunion and he somehow got us hooked up with really great seats for this concert. FGTH were massively popular in ‘85 and at the time were my second-favorite band (behind Duran Duran of course). It was a wild show and I’m sure my dad was massively uncomfortable the entire time. I was pretty clueless as to the context of all of their songs so I just danced and screamed the entire time (I was like 13 years old so of course I did).

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