A Record Each Day

[arecordeachday]

This is a beautiful blue vinyl copy of Stars’ 2012 album The North, released on the band’s own Soft Revolution Records (with, I believe, help from Arts & Crafts). The blue is a continuous pressing, which is cool because it works really well with the art.

I ordered this from the band online, because I believe in supporting artists or whatever!

[arecordeachday]

This is possibly the most striking album by Montreal pop band Stars. Released in 2007, this is a double LP pressed on heavyweight 180-gram black vinyl that runs at 45 rpm. It sounds like thunder and lightning and is probably the clearest-sounding record I own; the bass response is absolutely phenomenal.

I got this at X Ray Records in Regina. Nothing could have stopped me from getting this record. “Take Me To The Riot” and the trio of “Personal,” “Barricade,” and “Window Bird” are an incredible hat trick of loveliness. This is a great album.

[arecordeachday]

This is the landmark third album by Montreal indie pop band Stars, Set Yourself on Fire. It was released on Arts & Crafts Records in 2004. I bought this at a record store on Osborne in Winnipeg that I have since forgotten the name of, though I go back to it virtually every time I am in that city. 

I was a huge fan of Stars’ second record, Heart. It contains no less than two perfect songs and a great many more that are probably close. This album gives it a run for its money before overtaking it. It is a rapturously beautiful record.

[arecordeachday]

It’s my personal favourite Spoon record, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga! Merge Records put this out on 180 gram vinyl in 2007. It has non-stop hits! This came with a download, and has a locked groove on the last track, which is one of the most annoying things there is. TRUST ME.

I ordered this from Merge in 2007 or 2008 or whenever they did a big reissue campaign and I swooped in and got all of their albums at once.

[arecordeachday]

This is Kill The Moonlight, the 2002 release by Austin rock band Spoon. It came out on Merge Records, as all of their records have, until they went major label anyway. This is a good one, but not their best. Nice to be a completist though.

[arecordeachday]

This is the 2005 album by American rock band Spoon, Gimme Fiction, which is awesome. This came out on Merge Records, as did pretty much all their other albums. I ordered this with all their other albums when they did a big reissue campaign a few years ago, and it is great.

[arecordeachday]

This is a 180 gram heavyweight vinyl reissue of Spoon’s first album, Girls Can Tell. This came out in 1994, with Merge Records reissuing it in 2008. I got a bunch of Spoon albums when they did this reissue campaign after getting semi-famous. This came with a digital download, which is always nice.

[arecordeachday]

This is a reissue version of Spoon’s 1998 album A Series of Sneaks. Merge Records put out this 180 gram black vinyl version in 2008, packaging it with a download that includes the album and two bonus tracks.

Is there a more consistent rock band than Spoon? I really don’t think so. Their old albums were reissued on vinyl by Merge after they got big-ish with “The Underdog.” All the better for the rest of us!

[arecordeachday]

This is a double-LP copy of rock band Sparta’s album Threes, which may or may not be their third record. It is on peach vinyl with black splatter, one of three versions made in the first pressing. There were 200 copies done in this fashion, with another 300 on white vinyl and 500 more on black with peach splatter.

I loved Sparta’s first album. This is their third one.

[arecordeachday]

This is the 1992 release from The Smugglers, a Canadian garage rock band that is perfectly delightful (and best known as an early project by future CBC radio superstar Grant Lawrence). Atlanta Whiskey Flats was released by PopLlama Records. 

I got this at Recordland in Calgary, which is a singularly amazing place that you really need to check out. I also got a CD version of Jonathan Richman’s country album there. Pretty great!

[arecordeachday]

This is Fell and Found, the comeback album from Small Brown Bike, a great Michigan rock band that put out a lot of albums on No Idea Records. This came out in 2011 after a hiatus of like five years or something. There were 500 copies made on this white vinyl in the first pressing, which consisted of a total of 1,000 LPs. I ordered this on the internet from No Idea because they rule and I wasn’t about to miss this one.

Check out the attention to detail on the sticker!

[arecordeachday]

This is the album The River Bed by rock and roll band Small Brown Bike, released in 2003 by No Idea Records. This is a first pressing copy on pink vinyl, on which there were 330 copies made (out of a total of 1,050). I mailordered this from No Idea because I own everything Small Brown Bike has ever done because I love them.

I actually somehow ended up with two copies of this, so I gave one to my brother. He probably never even listened to it, because he doesn’t know what’s good for him. 

[arecordeachday]

This is the 2003 EP Nail Yourself To The Ground by Small Brown Bike. This was put out by No Idea Records in a pressing of 1,152 copies, 331 of which were on “cloudy” (aka white) vinyl, 821 on black. This is the black. 

I got this from No Idea because I like them a lot and I like this band and there’s some really nice songs on here for an EP.

[arecordeachday]

This is Small Brown Bike’s 2001 album Dead Reckoning, put out by No Idea Records. This green vinyl copy is from the second pressing, which took place in 2007, when 200 copies were made. I mailordered it from No idea because they’ve always been the best at mailordering.

I got into Small Brown Bike because at one point they sounded a lot like Hot Water Music, which is one of my all-time favourite bands. But they went a really amazing course over the span of their career and are definitely their own thing, and it’s a thing that is good.

[arecordeachday]

This is the delightful (though punctuationally problematic) Saskatoon rock band Slow Down, Molasses’ 2010 LP Walk Into The Sea. This was pressed on black vinyl by the adorably-named Little Pictures Recording Concern (came with a CD too, which is always nice). No idea how many were made, but it’s probably not enough! It’s a really good record!

I bought this direct from the band at a show at what I believe was the Exchange. I liked to see them live because they occasionally used a typewriter for musical purposes. I haven’t seen them in a while though, so I don’t know if that’s still a thing.

[arecordeachday]

This is the 2009 reissue of The Slackers’ 1996 record Better Late Than Never, which was re-reissued by Asbestos Records. This came on white vinyl in an LP+7″ format with a run of 500 copies; 350 were done on this white vinyl with 150 on black.

I ordered this from Asbestos because they were a pretty young label and I knew the dude running it through vinyl message boards from the early 2000s. Oh, and because The Slackers are just about the only ska band I would actually admit to listening to because they’re awesome.

[arecordeachday]

This is Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits compilation, released in 1972, a full two years after they broke up. This was put out by Columbia Records and purchased by my wife, who has never met a Greatest Hits album she didn’t like.

This photograph should never have been considered for an album cover. Or for being a photograph.