Many years ago at my current place of employment, someone made a donation of, who knows, maybe 15,000 vinyl records. This was long before I took the job. After the donation was accepted, the records proceeded to sit down in a dark room called the receiving room and went untouched for years. The records would have probably sat there indefinitely, but due to space issues, it was finally decided to do something about them. So it fell to me and a small band of others to see to it that the records vacated the premises. Of the many jobs I’ve had at my workplace, this is the job I have enjoyed the most. I like the job, because I get an incredible sense of joy watching physical things happen to space (i.e. records slowly disappear from the receiving room). The best part about the entire job is that a number of vinyl finds have been made along the way. I’ve been introduced to the music of Glenn Branca, found a recording of Joseph Byrd’s Yankee Transcendoodle and even a copy of Yoshi Wada’s Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, which is really worthy of a post unto itself. There have also been a number of fantastic record covers. While I know it is a very internet thing to post nutty record covers, I couldn’t help myself and thought I would make my contribution to the glut of other funny record sites out there. I thought I’d start out subtle with Sound Waves… or not so subtle…
Sound Waves: Flipper king of the sea.
For the Birds by Laurence Trott: A co-worker commented that Laurence might be wearing a part to a piccolo on his finger.
Behavioral Drift II/ Rugugmool by Franz Kamin: In the liner notes, Kamin writes, “DROP OUT, DEDOCTRINATE”. No kidding, dude.
Click here to see behavior drifting round the bend.
Sextuor à Vent and Organasm: Sextuor might seem risky, but let’s face it, the organ freaks win this one. It is also worth mentioning in addition to defining the word “organasm”, the record Organasm comes with a “play at your own risk” warning.
Star Wars by John Rose: This just should have been called Star Fight.
Mystic Moods Orchestra Plays Nighttide, English Muffins and The Mystic Moods of the Mystic Moods Orchestra: The Mystic Moods Orchestra had a number of albums, but they hit the jackpot when they decided to go scratch and sniff. Too bad the sniff smells like old record when you scratch it.
I like the smell of old records (old books more though), but probably that’s not what they were going for.
Cool – so do you have to trash these records or are you allowed to keep the gems you find? 15,000 records – if recycled would make enough petrol to fuel a Hummer from Maryland to Washington State and back.
What a waste of records.
I agree, but I’d rather see them recycled than put in a landfill. Either way though, its sad. Mike – I think Bobert would like 15,000 records in his bedroom – bring up a car load Sunday.
For a little sample of “Behavior Drift II”…
http://innig.net/music/syndicate/audio/syndicate-franz.mp3
We check all the records against our holdings to see if we want to retain them. Most of them we don’t and they are sold to the public and/or given away. At the point they are given away, I look through them to see if anything catches my eye. The stuff like the Branca and Byrd wasn’t even sold, it just went straight to the free pile, which is surprising. Branca and Byrd are both pretty important figures in their own rights and all of the material that was given away by them is pretty hard to find. Certainly, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I appreciate it. As for Wada, I don’t know how seminal of a figure he is. He is an experimental sound artist and is associated with the Fluxes movement (Byrd actually has been too). My rather limited knowledge of Fluxus art extends mainly to Fluxus films – but it is sort of interesting to hear Fluxus sound art.
I’ve not listened to Behavioral Drift II yet. I think Kamin comes from the John Cage camp though. He’s got a small treatise about the record in the linear notes.