Vinyl, Vinyl, and more Vinyl

It’s definitely sexier than the compact disc. Not only is it cooler looking, an LP in pristine condition played on a highbrow system kicks the tushy of the CD’s sound quality.

On Saturday, July 3 at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, a large amount of big-bearded folks showed up to express their love for the irresistible circular-treat-gone-über-hipster at Vinyl in the Woods.

It all began with the controversial Kids; then there was the gratuitous look into the white trash world in Gummo; and now, Trash Humpers. My score of the day was a 107/500, 7“ pressing of the soundtrack to bizarro filmmaker Harmone Korine’s latest plunge into the world of mega-disturbing and jaw-dropping cinematic high(or low)-art. The Chicago-based Drag City record label pressed 500 of these vinyl oddities—the pseudo-documentary is about a gang of derelict senior citizens that enjoy grinding trash receptacles in addition to achieving college-level intoxication—and the packaging is as raunchy as the film's premise. My $8 purchase of crudeness supposedly had urine and other bodily fluids rubbed all over its sleeve. Drag City rep Nicole Yalez (pictured below) said one of the albums purchased recently at Amoeba Records in San Francisco had a small worm crawling on it.

A couple of my other notable scores included Death’s [Drag City], an all-black, pre-Bad Brains punk trio from Detroit, …For the Whole World to See and Be Yourself: A Tribute to Graham Nash's Song For Beginners [Grass Roots Record Co.], co-produced by local promotion guru Britt Govea.

FutureRecordings, the brainchild of local alt-rockers Fuck I’m a Ghost, had a table displaying its uniquely packaged vinyl and other recordings on thought-to-be-dead formats like cassette tape and 8-track. 

More highlights from the event...

Echo Park-based Origami Records featured crates of vinyl from Los Angeles-based bands like The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Rock Buddha Bob Gamber of Vinyl Revolution, basked in the glory of a celebration starring the audio format that he never gave up on. Other vendors on hand included Amoeba Records, Burger Records and B-Music/Finders Keepers.



The young and jumpy Salinas garage-rockers The Mystery Lights played a quick and active set under Big Sur's late afternoon sun.