Saturday, November 20, 2010

Music? Vinyls? Life?

I don't quite know what this blog will be about yet. Music, for sure. But these days my music consumption is 98% digital. Yet I keep buying music, mostly vinyls. I like the feel of the vinyl, the sound too, but mostly it's the feel. A physical connection to the music, being able to see the grooves. The recent trend of vinyl + digital download in a package is heaven sent. I also love a really good cover (or a really bad one, like the one below). So I guess this blog will showcase recent purchases, fun special editions, music memorabilia and that kind of stuff. It will be in English, because most of the few people whom I know will actually read this doesn't speak Swedish.

Lets start with a bang. This is the cover to Art Boys Collection's Stoned Wall. Their one and only album from 1972, recently reissued in white vinyl. It is amazing because everything is wrong about it.

Beatles in Austria = Nude Geishas and pink. Thanks for clearing that up!

The band name, Art Boys Collection, falls flat. The band mixes Beatles influences with some prog rock, but the name sounds like a C-grade fashion brand.
The album name, Stoned Wall. What does that even mean? A stone wall? A wall that got a lot of stones thrown at it? A wall that smoked weed and is now floating in space?
And don't get me started on the geishas with helium breasts and hairdos bigger than their waists...
Then all of this is wrapped in a pink border?!?!
But put each stupid, horrid decision together and we have an album cover of epic badness. Almost worthy of framing. I love it. Two wrongs doesn't a right make, but around 20 wrongs sure does!

Did I mention the band was Austrian? Because that's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. Let me quote the booklet: "[Lead vocalist Egger] became one of the pioneers of Austrian Alpine Rock and wrote the 1st Alpine Rock Opera ever". So we know who to blame now, then?

But in the end it's all about the music. So how is it? Pretty decent, actually. All My Life could've been a huge hit if recorded by any chirpy upbeat 60s band. And here's a track that takes the template of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and puts it through a psychedelic filter.

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