Play this record if you’re having trouble sleeping at night. In the mid-1980’s Belgian puppeteer Michel Dejeneffe and his terrifying creation named Tatayet were an enormous sensation in Europe. The Tatayet Show was broadcast on RTBF (the public channel for the French-speaking part of Belgium) every Sunday evening and as result of their success, an entire discography of Tatayet LP’s and 45’s were released to widespread acclaim. The 1986 dance single “At the Graveyard” which received much radio airplay featured a memorable chorus that anybody could sing along to: “At the graveyard, stiff and ten feet underground. In a pine box, like potatoes, with a ton of earth on top of the pine box.”
 

 
More fun with Tatayet after the jump…

 
A miniature record store made entirely of LEGO bricks by Ryan Howerter (AKA eldeeem). This is so damned adorable it’s adorable.

The blue milk crate at the bottom is a nice touch.

Via KFMW

 
According to the always supremely informative daily almanac published by Vintage Vinyl News, today is the anniversary of RCA’s 1931 introduction of the 12” vinyl 33 1/3 record. (Also, happy birthday to Hank Williams, Fee Waybill and Guy Picciotto, but were it not for 12” records, would we have heard of those people? I say “who knows?” So let’s move on.) This gave me pause, as all of us really good dorks know that credit for the the format is typically offered to CBS/Columbia in the late 1940s, but it appears that RCA beat them to the punch by a long spell, but failed to make the format stick. Their first release on the format that would go on to define hip music geekdom for decades to come was the decidedly square but inarguably awesome Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which you surely know. If not, good lord, what the hell? Seriously? It’s firmly ensconced in the Western Canon for a reason. Here, treat yourself. (And while you’re listening, marvel at Beethoven’s influence over our audio formats - the CD was famously constructed to contain his 9th Symphony, uninterrupted.)
 

 
Here, in an informative article credited to the widely respected (and sadly now deceased) British sound archivist Peter Copeland on the MASSIVELY out of date History Of Rock web site (last updated in 2009, last redesigned, perhaps, in 1997), the history of record sizes, materials and rotation speeds is discussed, and it’s less dull than you’re imagining.

The 33, a.k.a. the “LP” (Long Playing record) or “album” ... was invented in 1948. These LPs were popular until around 1990 when CDs were popular enough to take over. An LP could hold up to a total of 60 minutes of music, but most didn’t have more than 40 minutes. They are made of vinyl plastic rather than shellac, so they are more flexible and don’t tend to break like 78s. The grooves are 4 times smaller, so they were originally called “Microgrooves” (MG), and early LPs have this written on the label.

Interestingly enough, there are enough people still willing to buy “classic” albums, particularly jazz and blues, that some of the labels in those styles, like Blue Note records, Original Jazz Classics (a.k.a. Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, New Jazz, etc) and Delmark Records are once again pressing and selling LPs for about $9 - 13 through mail order. LPs of some newer releases are available, in very limited quantities. [Obviously this predates the format’s revival - RK]

Records of 33 1/3 rpm were developed in conjunction with films. A 12-inch 78 with Berliner-type grooves could hold between 4 and 5 minutes per side. The first practical sound films produced in the US in the late 1920s had their sound on separate disc records and it was more important for the sound to be continuous. A reel of film might run for 11 minutes, so a rotational speed of about 32 rpm was required to make the sound match the picture. History doesn’t tell us why precisely 33 1/3 was chosen, but in retrospect it was a very good choice because stroboscopic speed testers can be made for this speed which will work on both sides of the Atlantic.

And that, kids, is why we can buy fake collectibles on Record Store Day. Ain’t history a gas? And speaking of history, enjoy this wonderful 1956 documentary on how records are made. Don’t let the film’s vintage throw you, the technology has hardly changed a bit.
 

 
In a wonderful bit of news for far-gone vinyl collectors looking to up the stakes on unnecessary depths of obscurantism, the Ship to Shore Phonograph Company is releasing a version of “Nobody Else Can Love Me (Like My Old Tomato Can)” cut by musician/antiquarian/delightful freakshow Tiny Tim - on the utterly obsolete Edison Cylinder format. Per Hyperallergic‘s Allison Meier:

Only 50 of the cylinders were recorded by Benjamin Canady (aka “The Victrola Guy“) who has been working with ongoing experiments of recording on old Edison cylinder phonographs. As the Vinyl Factory points out in their coverage of this momentous music resurrection, the cylinder record hasn’t totally vanished — Beck also used this tech recently as inspiration for his tracks cut into a beer bottle this year — but there’s been no wide release for the round records since the early 20th century. And if you decide to buy one of the Tiny Tim recordings for $60, it’s quite likely you’ll have no way to play it, although they each do come with a digital recording of the song blaring from some antique phonograph horns. This isn’t the analogue age, after all.

 
If the only bells the name “Tiny Tim” ring for you are Dickensian, he was an out-of-left-field media star in the late ‘60s. Even in a decade as indulgent of oddities as that one was, Tim’s (nee Herbert Khaury) weirdness stuck out farther than most. He was a musician of an old-timey archivalist bent, and he might have made a fine fit for the early ‘60s folk revival if that movement hadn’t been so grimly earnest. His stage presentation was disarmingly odd - coming off as a pudgy, sartorially randomized, lysergically Jewy hybrid of Carl Sagan and Danny Devito’s Penguin, he sang hits and obscurities from the turn of the 20th Century to the Depression era in an improbable falsetto. He rose to fame and had a massive hit single with “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” thanks to appearances on TV comedy/variety shows that appreciated his eccentricity, most notably Laugh-In and The Tonight Show. It was the latter program on which, at the height of his fame, Tim notoriously got married in front of an audience of over 20 million. As he was utterly genuine in his love of the music he performed, his act fell out of step in changing times, which inevitably led to his waning popularity. Though he did eventually add some modern material to his repertoire, doing so only served to underscore his diminished stature from a popular conservator to a fringe dwelling novelty act. He died in 1996 of a heart attack suffered onstage in Minneapolis.

Here’s the seldom-seen A Special Tiny Tim from 1970:
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Crystal Castles’ ‘Untrust Us’ covered by Capital Children’s Choir
Listen to Pink Floyd before they were even called Pink Floyd
Pro-marijuana ad to be shown on the large screen at NASCAR race

 
Apollo Music purchased a small home a little over a year ago with at least 250,000 records inside of it. There’s no backstory on their website about the previous owner or what they plan to do with the home after all the vinyl has been removed. Probably just sell it, I guess?

Apparently these photos were taken partway through the clean-out (when Apollo first got there they couldn’t even enter the doorways). It took over 6 months to remove and pack all the vinyl from the home.

I can only imagine the floors in the home must be warped from the weight of all those records!

You can see more photos at Apollo.

 

 

 

 
Via KMFW

 
WIth the rumored abandonment of CDs by the music industry, and after the closure of 60 of its stores at the start of 2011, it looks like the writing is on the wall for the British music retail giant HMV. The chain, the largest of its kind in the UK and which launched al the way back in 1921, announced on Monday that it will be selling off its Ritz chain of live venues, and Simon Fox, CEO of the company, has admitted that the 2011 Christmas season is make or break time for the brand.

The passing of HMV would truly be the end of an era, so what better time to take a look back at its glory days? In particular these photos from the retailer’s flagship store in London’s Oxford Street, taken in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and handily collected and posted in two different entries on the excellent Voices of East Anglia blog. The first of these entries was posted over the summer, and did the rounds back then, but the second entry is even better still.

I have mixed feelings about HMV - too many hours spent searching for music they would never stock and I would find more easily at an independent shop, versus occasionally finding incredible bargains on “unwanted” releases lurking in the discount bins (and sometimes a good pop album on sale for less than any other shop.)  But looking at these photos, and the clothes, hairstyles, design and records, the viewer is reminded not just that this is an era long gong, but that it was also a golden age of physical music retailing, the like of which we will never see again.

I don’t think records or record shops are ever going to go away - downsized for sure, but not extinct. However it’s unlikely we will see this much flash (and cash) invested in the humble vinyl emporium ever again:
 

 

 

 

 
See more fantastic pictures of HMV at Voices of East Anglia - part one and part two.

Bill Clinton (yes, I know this is photoshopped)
 
Famous faces and their record collections.

Patti Smith
 

Sophia Loren
 
More after the jump…

 
Well here’s one creative way to recycle your vinyl: Turn them into melted 3D face sculptures. The work entitled “Through The Barricades” is by artists Angelo Bramanti and Giuseppe Siracusa AKA L017. I wonder if the face is of the actual artist who made the record?

L017 prefers the use of waste materials and recycled objects.

L017 uses any type of media without any discrimination between the various methods of expression:painting, sculpture, installation, graphic work that live togheter and often get in touch, mingle together

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(via Mister Honk)

 
Chicks and vinyl! Vinyl and chicks!

Lifelounge says, “May we present to you a gallery that is a homage to lovely ladies of the past caught mid turntable tease with vinyl in hand. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get the timeless appeal of this subject. Enjoy.”
 
Chicks and Vinyl