Polyvinyl Records order!

I placed an order with Polyvinyl Records last week and just got it in time for the weekend!!!

I was introduced to this record label after discovering “The Japandroids” a little while back on CBC radio 3. I had “Celebration Rock” on my wish list for a few months and finally got the urge to order it when I saw the great online garage sale that Polyvinyl Records had going on.

How the garage sale works is they have a bunch of records that may get a bend on the edge of the sleeve or some other minor imperfection. They can’t sell these at full price so they blow them out once a year. Most of the vinyl sells in between $4 and $6. I figured this was a great opportunity to try some new bands out.

I have to add that when I received these garage sale LP’s I saw no defects whatsoever. I don’t know why they thought there was something wrong with them. I was expecting the worst. What I got was a few crisp mint new albums. Nice score!

First album I listened to was “Celebration Rock” by “The Japandroids”. This LP had very nice packaging. It had a nice thick book that came with it including all of the lyrics and some great pictures. The vinyl was heavy 180g and white. Sexy!

For those of you who do not know who these guys are, here is a brief overview of “The Japandroids”. They are a two piece band from Vancouver British Columbia consisting of Brian King on guitars and vocals and David Prowse on drums and vocals.

These two guys achieve a seriously heavy and full sound for a two piece band. Brings me back to my reaction the first time I ever found out that RUSH was a three piece band. Such a full complete sound with minimal musicians! (FYI - These guys sound nothing like RUSH, just comparing the minimal amount of musicians and the ridiculous amount of sound that comes from them). They achieve this full heavy sound with David Prowse basically ignoring his hi-hats and ride cymbal but using his crash to get that heavy rhythm. I love it! Add to the drums the great fuzz distortion of the guitar and just a tint of distortion on his screaming vocals. This LP rocks!

It is hard to pick out a favorite song. Although I find they all sound similar I like them all just the same. I highly recommend checking them out. Trust me, by the middle of the second side you will be chanting along “oh oh oh oh oh oh OHH!” with the “The House that Heaven Built”.

The next album I picked up was the self-titled album from a band called “The M’s”. This was the first of the two garage sale LP’s I picked up. These were pure “let’s give it a shot” kind of albums. I never heard of these bands. Glad I took the chance.

The M’s are an Indie band from Chicago Illinois. The band consists of Josh Chicoine on vocals and guitar; Steve Versaw on drums; Joey King on vocals and bass; Robert Hicks on vocals and guitar and Glenn Rischke on keyboards and percussion. Their band bio says that basically this group of friends met up one day, started drinking beers together and writing songs, with no intentions on trying to make it as a band. Some of these songs were eventually released on this debut LP and I really enjoyed them. I have a hard time putting my finger on exactly what kind of band I would compare them too but two bands/artists came to mind. Stone Temple Pilots and David Bowie. Now I’m sure I’m going to get lots of bashing for that comparison but those are the first two artists I thought of when I listened to this album.

A bonus that was added to this album was a 7” tucked inside. This 7” is probably the highlight for me. I love this song! It’s called “turn on, tune in, drop out”. This song is stretched out on both sides of the 7”.

I love finding stuff like this included with an lp!

Last but not least I picked up a copy of “AM/FM’s” album called “Mutilate Us”. Maybe I’m too easy to please when it comes to music (hope I am.. I keep a positive outlook at all these artists and I get tonnes of enjoyment!), but I am a big fan of this album too!

“AM/FM” is an Indie band from Philadelphia Pennsylvania consisting of Michael Parsall and Brian Sokel who both share duties on all of the following: Drums, guitar, Percussion and Keyboards. I have a hard time putting these guys under a certain category in music except saying that they are just pure indie! Really cool song arrangements and they did a great job putting everything together in the studio. They basically recorded bits and pieces of songs and did the majority of the song writing in the studio as they went. They have multiple layers of harmony vocals which is really appealing.

This album has been the main album on my iPod since I was given the download at the time of purchase.

On that note! This was another perk for shopping from Polyvinyll Records. As soon as you placed the order you were sent a code to get the digital download. This was great! Once I got the LP I already knew all of the songs and couldn’t wait to throw it on the turntable!

I’m really looking forward to buying more from these guys!

Hell, I can’t wait to order from Polyvinyl Records again! They even threw in this treat!

 

How do they know me so well??

*** all band information was taken from www.polyvinylrecords.com