Friday 6-pack - "Viva La Vinyl"
Bad news readers...due to rising oil prices, we've been forced to make some budget cut-backs at RFC and the "Friday 8-track" has been downsized. With gas over $4, we just couldn't justify keeping the Radio Free Mobile Unit, our beloved 1974 Gremlin with the sweet in-dash Pioneer 8-track tape deck. So, there's no reason to make any more 8-track tapes since we don't have anything to play it in. Fortunately, a six'er of cheap canned beer at the corner liquor store is still under 4 bucks, so in honor of that we bring you the new RFC Friday freature... "The Friday 6-pack."
Inspired by the good times had by all at the recent Record Store Day, I went back into RFC's vinyl vault and picked out some of my favorite b-sides and vinyl-only bonus tracks. I probably could've cheated and found digital versions of most of these on-line, but as usual, I decided to kick it old school and ripped the MP3 files directly from the actual records. Yes, you may hear a click or pop here and there, but personally I think it's worth it to get as close to the real vinyl experience as possible.
1: Low - Hatchet (Optimimi Version)
This track is the A-side to the bonus 7" that came with the full-length 12" vinyl version of Low's 2007 release, Drums & Guns. Sounds nothing like the album version, doesn't fit the sound of the rest of the record whatsoever and was probably just the product of goofing around late night at the end of a recording session, but damn...this track blows the original out of the water! Then again, I am a sucker for dub and fuzzy old analog sounds, so maybe take my raving with a grain of salt.
2: Jarvis Cocker - "Cunts Are Still Running The World"
Just like with Drums & Guns, I was delighted to find a bonus 7" fall out of the sleeve upon opening up the vinyl version of Jarvis Cocker's eponymous release from 2006. This track had already been an internet sensation prior to the release of the album, so I wasn't completely blindslided by its conclusion, but it still was a nice surprise. Again, not surprising that it was left off the formal record as there's a slight novelty-hit vibe here, but Jarvis pulls it off and makes it brilliant.
3: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "At My Door"
When BRMC emerged on the scene with their debut record in 2000, Virgin released a set of promo 7"s consisting of all of the album's singles and a slew of amazing b-sides. Easily one of my top 5 favorite b-sides of all time.
This is a total "record store day" kind of track...I probably never would've heard this song ever had I not had a couple of bucks of store credit left over one day at Reckless. This was from a 12" single version of "E-Bow The Letter" from the brilliant, yet often overlooked record New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I already own the full CD and this was post-Around The Sun, so my enthusiasm for REM had bottomed out at this point, but I had a couple of bucks to use up and was always curious how New Adventures... would sound on vinyl. I did appreciate the added warmth the vinyl brought to the somber tones of "E-Bow," but on the flip side I oddly fell in love with this Richard Thompson cover. It's a stupidly simple and somewhat goofy song, but something about the hook and the Stipe vox on this one that really grabs me.
5. King of Woolworths - "Falling In Love"
Another total "record store" kind of track, this wasn't something that I would've necessarily looked for directly, but I seem to remember this being an impulse buy at one of those Reckless "half-off old inventory" sales. This was a B-side on a 10" single for the track "Bakerloo." (the 10" is sort of the redheaded stepchild of vinyl formats, but that's what makes them cool). Another borderline cheesy song that somehow ends up sticking in my head enough to make me like it, it's a cover of a solo Dennis Wilson track from 1970 that also was originally released as a b-side.
6. Paul Weller vs. Portishead - "Wildwood"
Great track made even better on the b-side thanks to the Porishead production team. After I ripped this, I noticed that the record actually has a skip in it near the beginning that I either forgot about or never noticed. Thus, I wasn't going to include it on here, but then I thought..."hey, maybe someone will dig it regardless and it will inspire them to go try to find a better copy at their own favorite record store?" Which, in the end, I guess is the whole point of this post. Enjoy and have a great weekend...
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