Vinyl Vednesday 9/29/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm (2005) on black, The Hadituptoheres’ Wild City Honest Dancing (2010) on maroon marble, and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (1994) on black.

Place of Purchase: Bloc Party came from eBay. Hadituptoheres was mailed to me for review. Pulp Fiction came from Disc World (R.I.P.) in Conshohocken.

Thoughts: I have this stupid habit of doubling up on vinyl and CD for records I love, and I sure do love Silent Alarm. I got it extra cheap on eBay since it’s missing the bonus Dim Mak remix 12-inch, which I honestly don’t miss. I have a bevy of Bloc Party singles, and I rarely listen to the remixes (although the Streets’ version of “Banquet” is pretty good). Silent Alarm is great on its own, a nervous British indie rock/post-punk collection of anthems about longing and/or dancing and/or getting high. It reminds me a lot about being young, and it’s weird thinking that this record came out five years ago. In my memory, it’s still a relatively recent release, and my girlfriend and I are still making out to “This Modern Love” for the first time.

I rarely keep promos lately. I’m trying to scale down my music collection, so I don’t feel like holding on to records that I only kind of like. Wild City Honest Dancing is an exception; this album packs a solid garage rock punch in the vein of many a great Detroit band. And the vinyl sure is perty.

It’s an unfortunate coincidence that I picked the Pulp Fiction soundtrack the same week that Sally Menke, Quentin Tarantino’s editor, passed away, but here goes. Music has always played a key role in Tarantino’s films, and attitudes towards his music selections tend to mirror attitudes towards his movies in general: Is he honoring or ripping off obscure works? Either way, he has great taste. Pulp Fiction is all over the place musically, and beautifully so. It packs funk/soul (Kool & The Gang, Al Green), original rock ‘n’ roll (Chuck Berry, Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, who perform “Misirlou,” which you probably know as the Pulp Fiction theme. You know the one, with the guitar part), and even some country courtesy of Ricky Wilson and Dusty Springfield. Sprinkled throughout the soundtrack are the most popular lines from the movie. “Royale with cheese.” “Zed’s dead, baby.” And of course, the “Ezekiel 25:17” speech by Samuel L. Jackson.