#collection selection

After a nourishing respite, our biographical vinyl series returns to Trenchermen on Monday November 11th, 2013, with another insight into the sound of Chicago hospitality, this time via visitation by Windy City beverage peddler Patrick Gould. Gould’s primary function is to travel the planet and expand his palate for the benefit of Wicker Park and West Loop watering holes; and though busy with said forays, he has managed to intermittently build an impressive record collection and home hi-fi setup. Here below is a peak into his personal space and some pre-emptive photographic selections. If you like what you see, come join us 11/11 at the Trench Bar for a proper listening and a taste of some rare beers from Allagash and Maine Beer Company, all courtesy of Gould.

The first piece Gould shared, A Fading Summer by The Clientele, is actually one of his favorite late night wind down albums, an opening closer.

Gould nabbed the above 10” Guillemots record, and the above above record by The Clientele (also a 10”) at a Salvation Army. Salvation Army is not the most common source for uncommon pressings, but is a quite common shopping arena for Gould-ian record mining.

Gould is currently loving the blissful mellow indie vibe, which is quite characteristic of Sun Kil Moon.

He enjoys the sound of Sun Kil Moon's front man Mark Kozelek under various monikers and on various formats.

He hadn’t ever heard the music on this Blue Roses record, but picked it up for its aesthetic unity with the foggy indie folk he craves. Sound was not shocking, a la Joanna Newsom or The Gentle Waves or Alela Diane.

He was nice enough to dip into his fridge and share with me this fine saccharin imperial stout by Oskar Blues, a delightfully chewy crude ale with plenty of ABV.

With the blood a little thinner, it was prime time to throw on some cans and get intimate with Gould’s pristine hi fi setup.

He busted out a second pair, and we both took Led Zeppelin II straight to the dome.

Another big source of his record collection was a single bulk Craig’s List purchase he made from an older gentleman in Evanston. For 200 dollars Gould got 500 records, a huge amount of which were old Chicago blues titles from Delmark, Alligator, and etc.

Gould loves the Alligator aesthetic; almost as much as the music on this killer Koko Taylor album, The Earthshaker.

Another great electric Chicago blues record from that same pickup.

Not Chicago - but definitely another boast-able blues spoil from his collection - Professor Longhair's legendary live album, produced by Paul and Linda McCartney and recorded aboard the Queen Mary off the coast of California.

Not blues - but definitely Chicago - our own Shel Silverstein “recited, sung, and shouted” Where the Sidewalk Ends for our listening enjoyment before it was cut to this handsome picture disc and sent down the rabbit hole to Gould’s record shelf. This one gets my vote for a night closer on 11/11.

We close a quick month this Monday, September 30th at Trenchermen with a visit from and a listen to Kyle Hodges, ex-franchisee of Karma Records in Greenwood, Indiana (our mutual homeland) and current Minister of Propaganda for Dark Matter Coffee (Trenchermen's guest roaster for the month of November).  In addition to his history with Karma and subsequent tour of duty at Reckless Records here in Chicago, Hodges musical engagement extends to present with the limited edition mixtape series he launched for Dark Matter over the summer.  Here we'll take a look at, and on Monday we'll have a listen to, the records he calls his own and stores at home.

The first piece to surface, one of his prize records, is O.G. Hoosier Melvin Rhyne's first Jazzland release, Organizing.  Hodges collection bears a decent bit of organ jazz recordings; this title was an excellent entry into the ensuing acid jazz, lounge, and exotica set he shared.

This Groove Merchant Compilation features another another swinging Hoosier, Dr. David Baker.  If I'm not mistaken, this recording predates Baker's latter day clumsy cello sawing.

A fine lounge offering, Reuben Slade's "Theme from The Iron Horse" is a groovy little bumpy breakbeat, a smooth modulator for jazz and/or trip hop and/or downtempo, exotica, et cetera.

Hodges has a nice gathering of Exotica proper, including this Richard Hayman LP.

And another piece of mid-century hepcat ephemera.

Hodges likes to keep sku stickers on the dust covers and receipts in the sleeves to make sure all acquisitions are contextualized.

Our exotic adventure took us into trip hop and European downtempo, where we started with one of Richard Dorfmeister's duos, Tosca.

The photo set in the gatefold is humorously fabulous, almost as if the album could be renamed "Posing Euro-Trash in Manicured Forests."

Attempting to play me a track from a Kruder and Dorfmeister album, Hodges realized that he hadn't yet unsealed the LP.  He chuckled and said "this was the problem with working in record stores, I bought shit relentlessly, never even opened some of it."

Hodges expects a good downtempo exotica vibe to at some point land in Golden Era Hip Hop, of which he got an education from cassettes his twin brother thieved in the early 90s.  Sex Packets by Digital Underground was a major component of his ill juvie rap canon.  Little did I know, "The Humpty Dance" is just one tiny element of a greater concept album composed and conducted by the thematic geniuses of the Digital Underground.

After jamming a few pervy digi tunes, it seemed appropriate we took a listen to this Sexotone 7".  I shan't describe the content, I'll just say: "Sin from Sweden" left us both speechless.

Buddha with Protractor.  One of the remnant relics from the old Karma location that Hodges owned until the internet killed the industry in the early 2000s.

A kind introduction by our friend Jon Kirby led us to The Hideout last week, where we had the pleasure of meeting the next guest of our biographical vinyl series at Trenchermen - prolific music performer/collector Lawrence Peters.  The 14 year veteran of the H/O bar staff is a former member of Plastic Crimewave Sound, a current member of the Golden Horse Ranch Band, and a lifelong compiler of fine vinyl pieces, of all sorts, boasting an eclectic collection that spans Country, Surf, Soul, Swamp, Psychedelic, et al.  Though Peters' more publicized DJ set is "LP's Country Throwdown" (specifically at The Whistler as a longtime resident), his most genuine impartial affinities are articulated in a set he privately calls "The Mutant Hit Parade," a program featuring a bounty of hit-like non-hits that are unrecognizable yet nearly indistinguishable from their Billboard-topping bizarro brethren.  He'll be giving us a thorough tasting of said mutants at Trenchermen this Monday, September 23rd; please feel free to wet your beak with the preview selections below.

Though the cover art makes this Country Weather album look like an impulse buy from a Flying J, this record actually contains a couple of Peters' favorite tunes.  He heard them first on a mix tape gifted by his friend Steve Krakau from Plastic Crimewave.

An odd sound from the Carl Perkins timeline, part of his post-addiction early 70s output.  "Country Boy's Dream" has many of what Peters considers the good parts of 70s country: grit, funk, and gospel; this one reminds him of a field holler folk tune.

At first glance, this band is in line with Peters' preferred Country from the '70s, but Country Funk is actually far from what their name implies, touting a misnomer like Grand Funk Railroad (who Peters confirms is "neither grand nor funky").

Moderately popular band The Strawbs were once fronted by Sandy Denny, as seen here in this rare document that Peters unearthed after years of searching.

Denny also fronted Peters' favorite arrangement of British folk band Fairport Convention, apexing with their 1969 album Unhalfbricking.

This unknown oldie is exciting news to me - Jeff Lynne had this band Idle Race before he hit it big with his Electric Light Orchestra.

The sound of The Flys = nearly indescribable for Peters.  The best he could come up with is that they are "weird like Tenpole Tudor is weird."  I am excited to find out what the hell that means.

We had a moment of bonding over our mutual bewilderment of Oneida drummer Kid Millions.  Peters has a great story about seeing Kid slay a kit in the nude at SXSW a long time ago.  It'll be nice to have "Sheets of Easter" on hand in case the bar needs to cleared out after last call.

Peters had the pleasure of getting to know Jimmy Martin when he was on the crew for a documentary his friend shot about the aging Bluegrass master.

...in case you can't make it to Trenchermen this Monday.

In front of her summer-soaked secret garden, meet Carrie Weston, the 29th featured collector of our Collection Selection series and the slated vibe claimer for Monday September 9th at Trenchermen.  Weston is a proud home-owner, a radio DJ for WLUW (88.7 FM), and a clutch hitter in the Toast and Jam DJs lineup, titles that only partially explain the radness of her record, CD, and tape collection to which we were privy on a recent Wednesday afternoon.  Here below, preview her personality and the sound she'll bring to the bar at Trenchermen next Monday.

We'll begin with this beautiful rarity, a lost and found LP by the ancient British psych band Dark, which has the delightfully dead drum sound of all my favorite proto-metal recordings, plus a gorgeous high-resolution cover photograph that is both spellbinding and sublimely congruous with our portrait of Weston in front of her garden.

Before going any further, we have to talk about the sweet-as-shit hifi setup in her home.  A prisine VPI piece, with what appears a substantial Crown phono preamp, plus...

...Sound Technology tube-powered Mini Amps for Bowers & Wilkins speakers, plus...

...a VPI brand RECORD VACUUM (wtf???!!!) used for cleaning and destaticizing vinyl records before playback.  So badass.  Weston and I had a brief discussion about how tactilely satisfying toggle switches are.

Weston's espresso machine also has some pretty satisfying toggle switches.

Okay, back to the music...a killer 30th Anniversary compilation of material by Dutch underground collective The Ex.

Great music, great pressing, and great statistics listed in the liners, including details on cities, shows, members, and bands they worked with over the years.  It was kind of shocking to learn that The Ex played with Chumbawamba 38 times.

Weston had a great story about a journey she and friend made to New Zealand because they were so in to Flying Nun Records at the time.  Apparently the label offices were less than fantasy-fulfilling, but they did manage to scoop up some great records, including this reversible gatefold LP by The Chills.

An excellent Frenchy punk record by Snipers, Weston scavenged this LP at one of her favorite stores, Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh.

Not a magic eye; this is an EP by one of Weston's more current band crushes, Fuck Buttons.  Her favorite cut on this record features vocals by Suicide's Alan Vega.

The subject of Suicide prompted a discussion of Neneh Cherry's recent cover of "Dream Baby Dream," which is driven by the gnarly-as-hell double bass playing of Norwegian expatriate Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, a residual member of the Chicago free jazz family who was all over town last weekend during Jazz Fest.  Discussion of The Cherry Thing prompted Weston to share this New Age Steppers album, an old punky reggae record that features vocals by Neneh Cherry and Ari Up of The Slits.

"Better Than an iPod" is the title of this oil-on-canvas portrait of Weston that she commissioned and gifted to her husband Bob for a Christmas passed.  Bob asked for an iPod that year, he got this painting instead.

Proud to present another primetime barkeep on the decks at Trenchermen this Monday August 26, 2013.  At Longman & Eagle, James Deia is a bev concoctor slash one of the few staff contributors to their top notch music program; plus he's a former employee of Reckless Records and current employer of piping hot wax slabs for occasional DJ gigs at Rainbo Club, Big Star, and The Burlington, qualifying him on all fronts to fit the hospitality-focused profile of our weekly listening party in the Trench Bar. In this piece we have the privilege of eternalizing some fine vinyl selections in his name via photographs taken at his apartment in Logan Square, scroll along for the skinny.

Walk-in jams were courtesy of this Kevin Ayers record, some beautiful raw soul rock work by the ex-Soft Machine bassist which was released by Harvest Records inside this linoleum-feeling plasticky purple sleeve.

One of the first things I noticed was the chair placement in his apartment, which put a fairly humorous image in my head. I imagined Deia sitting directly in front of his record player, day after day, listening to records and staring contemplatively at the stylus running along the groove, a hypnosis only broken every 25 minutes or so when the needle bumps into the center sticker.

When I started thumbing through his vinyl archive (IKEA brand, once again), I came across a bulk of Beach Boys LPs, which Deia discounted as somewhat worthless.

I tried to rush to the defense of the Beach Boys, but he was already one step ahead with this Holland LP, one of their druggy soft rock efforts from the early 70s, the exact type I would have referred to had he tried to discount their whole catalog. He threw it on and we basked in the haze of their invisible days.

One of Deia’s personal prize possessions - this original Decca pressing of the Small Faces' s/t album, which features “You Need Lovin" - a mind blowing (supposedly unrelated) precursor to Led Zeppelin's “Whole Lotta Love" where the Faces’ Steve Marriott belts out “you need coolin, baby I’m not foolin, I’m gonna send ya, back to schoolin.” Plant, you plagiarizing bastard…

Another one of his personal favorites (and possibly mine too, after hearing for the first time here) by The Poppy Family - an R&B-ish country funk masterpiece, ripe with breaks for the plucking (apparently Dan the Automator has had his hands on this one). One of the biggest hits to come from Canada at the time, Which Way You Goin Billy? was produced by Terry Jacks, who when all was said in done was far more famous for his AM pop hit “Seasons in the Sun.”

This Oblivion LP was the first piece of vinyl Deia voluntarily purchased. The acquisition took place at the Johann’s Face merch table at Fireside Bowl back in the days when that sort of thing happened.

Another piece from his Johann’s Face collection, a split 7” featuring Scared of Chaka, an old Albuquerque NM garage punk outfit whose bass player David Yanul Hernandez went on to join The Shins.

Deia’s got a group of his own called Blasted Diplomats. Their last album was released by Chicago label Plus Tapes. They’ve got another one in the works, set to be released by another Chicago label, Blvd Records.

Deia had one of Blvd’s other releases on his shelf, this LP by Fake Limbs that dons the unmistakeable font styling of Chicago artist Ryan Duggan.

Why not one more Chicago-centric bit? Deia does occasional Bob Dylan DJ sets, the flyers for which are drawn by his good friend, a legendary dude on the scene (which I admittedly assume, entirely because of his name) Psychedelic Steve.

Monday August 19th 2013 at Trenchermen - the bar belongs to Austin Skiles, multi-tasking multi-venue bartender/musician who works the stick for La Sirena Clandestina and Barrelhouse Flat, and works the pick for his outlet outfit Power Haunts.  Skiles, the 26th local music appreciator we've featured at Trenchermen, will conjure the vibe from a minimal vinyl stash, representing a unique angle of his musical biography, a short stack of sentimental artifacts from his Hardcore days in Nebraska, blended in with a handful of reticently-collected LPs that he's allocated for ritualistic listening.  What the hell does that mean, you ask?  See below.

There wouldn't be any ritualistic listening on this day; the belt on his vintage hi fi snapped...so we had to listen to music the old-fashioned way: via iPod.

Though tactilely unsatisfying, an album by Seattle dreamy garage pop band Chastity Belt sounded fantastic coming from his old-fashioned iPod, and made for good vibe while we starting going through his records.

Like a true bar man, he stores most of his records in a Tenzing Wine and Spirits box (a la Bradley Bolt, who rocks the Southern Wine and Spirits brand vinyl storage).

The origin of Skiles record collecting goes back to his DIY days in Lincoln, Nebraska, collecting 7" singles from his friends' bands off grimey merch tables.

In that unsorted stack I found this split 7" half-featuring legendary Chicago thrashers Haymarket Riot, who apparently had some sort of presence in Skiles' local zone - this split was released by Lincoln-based label Caulfield Records.

I was a little thrown off by this one - Skiles explained that this was a 7" by noise group Camera Obscura - no relation to the more famous Scottish chamber pop group who apparently won the popularity battle, causing the rockers responsible for this 7" to change their name.

Copyright infringement started proving itself the thematic thread of his record collection.  This is an out of print copy of The Faint's 3rd album Danse Macabre; they had to pull this first pressing from the shelves since the cover photo was unauthorized.

This album by The Oxes had some seriously explicit artwork - the front and back covers along with the insert depicted the story of a woman roofie-ing the band and then taking advantage of them.  There's almost a dozen unobscured cock shots, hence the label pulled the record from the shelves when they realized what they had done.  But not before Skiles scooped up a copy.

Skiles also had an old record by epic-riffing Drag City legends The Champs - released before they changed their name to The Fucking Champs, which they were forced to do by threatened litigation from a predating rock band also named The Champs.

Speaking of epic riffage - Skiles owns a nice copy of Ride the Skies by Lightning Bolt.  One can only hope the mood calls for this record on Monday at Trenchermen.  Doubtful, however.  I've often likened Lightning Bolt to the sonic marriage of Free Jazz and Drag Racing.

No doubt the mood will call for a few Prince tracks from the original Batman soundtrack.  It'd be most excellent to recreate the scene where Joker gasses everyone in the restaurant and jams out to "Partyman" while painting over all those masterpieces.

Man of beer and beard Chris Kolodziej is set to contribute curatorial chops to our weekly listening party this Monday August 12, 2013, poised to share records from his eclectic hoard with the receptive airwaves in the cool tiled barroom of Trenchermen.  Kolodziej is a craft beer sales supervisor (or more aptly, a professional drinker) for River North Beer who spends his days contemplating the endlessly nectarous flow of indie ales ravaging the modern market, which keeps his whistle wet and tank full for occasional nights pounding drums with his grunge band Roach Beach.  We pounded beer and tunes (not drums) for an hour of hang time at his apartment in Ukrainian Village, please enjoy a few glances from the scene to prime you for his live DJ set on Monday.

Before tapping into the hoard I had to get a look at his turtle Steven Boots.  This guy has a lot of personality, living like a creepy old man among cute little goldfish.

First thing Kolodziej played for me was this West African psychedelic compilation, African Scream Contest, a record he first heard in the back room of Whole Foods during his days as the beer buyer for the Lincoln Park store.

He had a bunch of compilations on the shelf, they had their own dedicated cell in his record storage unit, ripe with a few titles from Chicago's Numero Group (including Patrick Sisson's favorite, Light On the South Side).

This recently released Devo compilation is a sweet piece, a collection of recordings capturing their formative years in Akron Ohio from 1974-1978.  Not that the group ever grew out of their playfulness, but these early jams have the endearingly antic sound two young punks messing around with synthesizers and 4-track tape in their parents' basement.

Kolodziej was (coincidentally?) toking on a tall boy of 8-Bit Pale Ale from Manhattan Kansas's Tall Grass Brewery, a perfect aesthetic pairing with the angular intergalactic lo fi of Devo.

While on the kick, we jammed some late 70s San Franciscan synth punk from The Units, locking in tight with the analog Devo fuzz and the Australian Galaxy Hop buzz.

On the subject of San Francisco (and of buzz and fuzz), Kolodziej threw on this collection of singles by Thee Oh Sees, one of his favorite bands.

Careful not to get carried away on the West Coast - he brought me back home with a glass of Letherbee's Malort (Robbie Haynes's teethy blend) and a Local Option stein of dark ale.

Clearly locality is a priority for Kolodziej and his roommates.  They have a large map of Chicago on their wall, with a single pinpoint stabbed into their residential whereabouts.  Context.

And the duct-taped marquee on the threshold of their kitchen reps their home address.  Terroir.

The August initiation of Collection Selection at Trenchermen will be helmed this Monday the 5th by Patrick Sisson, a Wicker Park residing writer whose words have graced the pages of many fine publications, including Wax Poetics, Pitchfork, XLR8R, and more.  Considering a decade of work has found him across the table from some seriously iconic artists (his interviewing vitae includes on-the-record conversations with Mavis Staples, Gil Scott-Heron, Portishead, and Diplo), our interrogation of him in his home was in some ways an overdue turning of tables, but in more ways it was a cozy Chicagoan nerd-out over a few records with a few bottles of beer.

Sisson's first spin was "I Can't Stand the Rain" by Ann Peebles, which he hailed as being one of the best breakup songs ever recorded.  Not certain if he was hinting at any contemporary personal significance (I chose not to dig in that direction), but the song did end up having some climatic relevance when it starting pouring outside a few minutes later.

Next we had a quick listen to this whacky-as-hell Incredible Bongo Band single(for the record, pretty much anything by the IBB is whacky-as-hell), a rare 45 that he picked up at Hyde Park Records.

Allen Toussaint made most of his career writing and producing hits for other artists - Southern Nights was one of very few albums that he released under his own name, and coincidentally the only charting it generated was a later-recorded Country version of "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell.

Another prolific musician who made their name pulling strings behind the scenes was Arthur Verocai, who produced and composed music for Jorge Ben, Gal Costa, Erasmo Carlos, and practically every other internationally known Brazilian musician.  Verocai's self-titled album was originally released in 1972, and like most of Toussaint's solo efforts, generated little critical and commercial success.  Sisson's copy of the album is a reissue from Ubiquity Records subsidiary Luv N' Haight.

Luv N' Haight also recently reissued this Geater Davis record, a lost and found Southern soul singer whose smoky vocals remind Sisson of many songs from one of his favorite records, Pepper's Jukebox, a compilation of bar Blues from the South Side of Chicago released by the Numero Group in 2009.

Pepper's Jukebox was released by Numero in conjunction with a book of photographs called Light on the South Side, all in all making for one of the most impressively curated compilations in the history of music history.  Sisson told me he wrote a piece for Wax Poetics about the making of this book, and joked that it would have been a bitch to review the accompanying record (or any Numero release) because the liner notes leave so little to be said.

On the subject of Chicago music (and of reissues), Sisson has a nice copy of the Tortoise classic Millions Now Living Will Never Die, as recently reissued on vinyl by Thrill Jockey (vinyl was originally pressed in 1996 by England's City Slang Records).

The liners aren't Numero-chocked with historical context, but there is some notable stuff here - included in the "thank you" segment are Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, current comedian/former musician Fred Armisen, and Tortoise's long-time full-time guitarist Jeff Parker (this album was made when David Pajo, aka Papa M, was the main axe man for the band, shortly before Parker was all in).

Speaking of Jeff Parker - Sisson had a framed poster above his record player from his days as a radio DJ for WNUR, when he curated the first Chicago Sounds Jazz Festival in 2001, which featured Parker's Chicago Underground Quartet with Rob Mazurek, Noel Kupersmith, and Chad Taylor.

My favorite relic on his wall was this sweet arrangement of vintage tape reel boxes that Sisson inherited from his brother's wife's grandfather, looking sharp and reinforcing the breadth and the superiority of mid-century package design.

Sisson's preferred exit music, "Spottieottiedopaliscious."