harvest records Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Pink Floyd “Meddle”

sfilzen — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:50:54 +0000

Pink Floyd “Meddle” 1971. Harvest Records. Vaguely trippy prog-rock, Meddle was Pink Floyd’s sixth studio LP and “is considered a transitional album between the Syd Barrett-influenced group of the 1960s and the Waters-led era of the 1970s.” I’m in desperate need of a nap today and this record is the most likely in my to-do pile to get me in a mellow mood. I recall listening to this record a fair amount in college (lol, of course I did), especially the track “Fearless;” I forgot how beautiful that song is (it also has a Zeppelin-esque guitar riff which is probably why it’s my top track). It was released as the b-side of the single “One of These Days,” a mostly-instrumental that features a rare vocal “performance” by drummer Nick Mason; he says the line “One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces,” which “was aimed at Sir Jimmy Young, the then BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJ who the band supposedly disliked because of his tendency to babble. During early 1970s concerts, they sometimes played a sound collage of clips from Young’s radio show that was edited to sound completely nonsensical, thus figuratively ‘cutting him into little pieces.'” (wiki) I also recall listening to the bluesy “Seamus” in college but I’m not nearly as fond of that track (same with “San Tropez“). The entirety of Side B is made up of the song “Echoes” which is a bananas 23 minutes long and many consider one of Floyd’s best. I’m not sure about that but it definitely is making me sleepy.

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Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf”

sfilzen — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 23:17:01 +0000

Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf” May 1982, 12″ single, US promo-only with press release. Harvest Records. Today, August 10th, is Duran Duran Appreciation Day, though I will continue to argue that EVERY day is #DDAD . Some sources say the day was created by a Michigan disc jockey, the date chose because it was his birthday. Other sources say it takes place on August 10 because it was on that date in 1985 when Simon Le Bon was involved in a near-fatal boating accident (I remember that day very well – I was inconsolable until the news reported he was going to be OK).

The 12″ is at 33-1/3 (other 12″ versions are at 45rpm) with “Hungry Like the Wolf” on Side A. Side B has the slightly longer original album version of “Rio” (there are at least 13 different “Rio” variants out there) along with “Lonely in Your Nightmare” – all tracks from their 1982 album Rio.

So celebrate the day with a spin of your favorite D2 song or album and meditate on the closing lines of the press release: “Blending the traditional values of dues-paying through hard gigging with the hipper fascinations of dance-funk music, Duran Duran have a sparkling future ahead.”

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Duran Duran “Electric Barbarella”

sfilzen — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 18:55:33 +0000

Duran Duran “Electric Barbarella” 12″ single, remix, 1997. Harvest Records, promo. It’s my birthday today so this is the perfect spin: my favorite band (Duran Duran) remixed by a member (Russell Simins) of one of my other favorite bands (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion). Did you know this existed??? I didn’t and my mind is blown (big thanks to pop-catastrophe for making me aware)! Side A has two remixes by Russell Simins: “Electric Barbarella (The Electric Sex Remix)” and “Electric Barbarella (The Electric Sex Instrumental Remix).” Both layer 90′s NYC electronica/hiphop beats and vibes over and under Duran Duran’s swirly psychedelic synthpop and it’s f’ing amazing. Side B has two other remixes by Eli Jamney (of Americruiser and Girls Against Boys), Steve Raskin (aka Raskal, composer/producer, Edsel) and DJ Jamin – “Electric Barbarella (The Americruiser Remix)” and “Electric Barbarella (The Yo Shorty Americruiser Remix).” Also electronic, trip-hoppy with a super-heavy dose of bass and scratches for days courtesy of DJ Jamin, these are definitely meant for the dance floor.

The original Duran Duran single “Electric Barbarella” came out in 1997 as the lead single from their LP Medazzaland. The song’s title is a reference to the 1968 Roger Vadim film Barbarella: Duran Duran took their name from a character in that movie (it’s not a good movie but as a Duranie I dutifully watched it back in the 80′s on Betamax). The single went to #52 in the US and to #23 in the UK. A ton of other remixes exist besides this one – apparently “Electric Barbarella” was one of the first singles to be actively marketed as a downloadable single release for the internet and at least one of the remixes (by Dom T) was the first download-only release ever. Supposedly this pissed off a lot of retailers at the time and they refused to stock Duran Duran’s single or LP and that, coupled with some video censorship issues, led to the relatively poor chart showing for the single. Too bad, it’s a great song!

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“The Rare Stuff”

sfilzen — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:33:46 +0000

“The Rare Stuff” 1979 comp on Harvest Records of tracks by punk/new wave bands including The Saints, Wire, Rich Kids, The Flys, The Banned and The Shirts. The Saints, early punks from Australia, have four tracks (they, and Wire, are probably the biggest acts showcased on the LP): “River Deep Mountain High” (a punked-up and almost unrecognizable cover of Ike & Tina Turner’s famous song), “One Way Street,” “Lipstick on Your Collar” (a golden oldie which was a hit for Connie Francis in 1959; The Saints version is much better) and “Demolition Girl,” all originally recorded during their debut album – (I’m) Stranded – 1976/77 sessions. Experimentally punk Wire from the UK has just two tracks: “Dot Dash” and “Options R” which were recorded – but not included – on their amazing debut record Pink Flag. Rich Kids, formed by ex-Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock with vocals by future Ultravox member Midge Ure, have one track, “Only Arsenic” which they recorded during their sole album’s session Ghosts of Princes in Towers and released as the B-side to the LP’s title track single. It’s not particularly Sex Pistols-esque – rather it’s rough-edged 60′s-styled garage-pop, lending even more weight to the rumor that Matlock was fired from the Pistols for expressing his admiration for The Beatles. I’m not very familiar with the other bands on The Rare Stuff. The Flys, a British band described by Allmusic as “Half punk, half pop, a jangling, jarring cross between the Byrds and the Buzzcocks,” have four tracks: “E.C.4″ (which is really great!), “Love and a Molotov Cocktail,” “Can I Crash Here?” (also excellent) and “Civilization” which I believe were all recorded (but, again, not included) during sessions for their 1978 debut album Waikiki Beach Refugees and the EP Love and a Molotov Cocktail. The Banned, also from England, “only [released] two singles released at the height of punk. Both were cover versions delivered in a power pop vein – arousing suspicions that the group were among the many members of the pub rock fraternity attempting to jump onto punk’s bandwagon.” (Allmusic) All four songs from those two singles are on The Rare Stuff: “Him or Me,” “You Dirty Rat” (both originally by Paul Revere and the Raiders), “C.P.G.J.’s” and a fairly faithful rendition of “Little Girl” (originally by Syndicate of Sound, 1966). The final track is by The Shirts, the lone American band who were contemporaries of Talking Heads. They only get one song on the comp: a kinda sweet, arty song called “Cyrinda” which was the b-side to the song “Tell Me Your Plans” from their debut self-titled release The Shirts in ‘78.

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Crate digging: Harvest Records in Asheville NC

sfilzen — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 20:53:24 +0000

What we did on vacation day 2. Also: two years ago I stopped by this record store and found Milwaukee band Plasticland’s 12″ single. Today I found their LP. Odd I find these in NC and not MKE (though it’s possible I just don’t notice).

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Vinyl From the Vault on the road in Asheville NC

sfilzen — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 19:56:48 +0000

Vinyl From the Vault on the road in Asheville NC, Harvest Records. Large used vinyl selection mainly catering to a clientele more into the likes of Dan Fogelberg and Yoko Ono than punk/new wave etc. But I found Jesus and Mary Chain and Plasticland 12″s and a 1979 British indie label comp that looks interesting.

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