Tag: records

sketching in the record shop

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Armadillo Music 091424

This is Armadillo Music in downtown Davis, I have sketched the outside before but never sketched the interior. Well, I sketched the interior of the old store back in 2011, when I had my first art show in Davis for the Art About, but the store moved a couple of spaces up F Street to its larger location several years ago. I have been in a few times, but not really had much reason to look through records these days. When I first moved over here, my wife bought me one of those suitcase record players, and I brought over a bunch of my old records from when I was a teenager, not that many but as many as I could carry in hand luggage back in 2006 or 2007 or whenever it was. My old Beatles records I was given by my uncle Billy, largely, but also a bunch of old singles. I still think about the ones that I ended up leaving behind because I could only bring so many. But you know, I didn’t listen to them. That little record player wasn’t very good, as it was too small to play an LP without it flopping about, the speed was a bit off, and the sound from the speakers was, well it was fine but not with much depth. That record player sat in my closet for years, and the records have sat in my cupboard. My son recently started getting into music a lot, and one day came home with a vinyl album from one of his favourite singers (Laufey), so we got the little suitcase player out and he played it in the living room. Sounded alright, but right away I was online thinking, I should get a new record player.

So I bought a brand new up to date Audio Technica turntable, much smarter looking, with bluetooth capability so you can connect speakers or headphones. It connected well to my trusty little Bose speaker and sounded great. The difference is huge. However, when I was growing up I always had nice stereo speakers with my old record player, so I decided to get some new bigger and more powerful speakers too, stereo, that are both wired and bluetooth (I plug them into the record player, but I also connect my devices to them wirelessly). Not as mobile as my little Bose, but it’s for a different thing. Sure, this all takes up a bit of room that really I do not have. Space is a finite commodity in a small house, and I had to put them where I had all my sketchbooks piled up (I am in the process of finding a better storage solution for the sketchbooks, one where I can access them but they won’t get dusty). And now, I can get my old records out and play them the way I remember them sounding. It’s a bit middle-age retro of me, but it was inspired by the teenager in our family after all. I also bought it on the fifth anniversary of my uncle Billy dying, and he was the man with all the records when I was a kid, I would go over to his on a Saturday afternoon and he’d play me loads of records, then we’d go and get snacks and rent a movie and watch that until time to go home for dinner. So I was thinking of him when I finally got my record player. I realized it was the first one I’d ever got myself. My wife got me the suitcase one; my old record/tape/CD stereo system I had in England was given to me for Christmas when I was about 16, brand new at the time and the first CD player I ever had, and before that I had this massive (and practically indestructible) deck from the 60s or 70s with huge box speakers that used to make our little street rattle when I would play Never Mind The Bollocks. Sure I had the big old headphones on a coil as well but nothing like turning it all the way up, but that’s how it was in our street, we were never a quiet sleepy lane.

I won’t be turning it up to 11 nowadays. Anyway, I thought I should get a new record to christen the new player. Vinyl albums are expensive now; they were not cheap when I was a kid either, I used to go through second hand stores and car boot sales looking for my records, only buying cheaper singles from Loppylugs (my local store, where I’d spend hours), or going to the Record and Tape Exchange in Notting Hill or Camden. I never bought albums on cassette (tapes were for taping things on to!) and when CDs started to enter my life I went for them in a big way. I wasn’t really a big record collector like my uncle, and I have no intention of becoming one. I missed the vinyl format though (I still get up instinctively half way through Beatles albums to switch the side over) and the little crackle, the warm feeling. But they are heavy and take up space. Still, I wanted a record, so I popped down to Armadillo on this Saturday afternoon after drawing some trees, and spent a while flipping through the racks, like the old days. Not looking for anything in particular, just browsing. One aspect about Armadillo now is that they actually have a little bar in there now, so you can have a beer while browsing, or after browsing in my case. So I sat with a pint and sketched the store. There were some other people sat at the bar, one guy who was Arizona or Texas or somewhere was talking about eating rattlesnake in the desert, and declared loudly to his younger companions “Oh I hate Oasis, they are just a Beatles covers band!” At which I bristled, and wanted to say, “Well it’s not for you, is it” but I don’t to talk to strangers. After all, get me on the subject of, say, Phil Collins or Ed Sheeran and you’d get a much more dismissive response. I remember when I was in the surgery that time and they started playing Phil Collins, and there was not enough anesthetic in the hospital to cover that agonizing pain. But enough about that. I ended up buying a remastered version of Joni Mitchell’s album ‘Blue’ which I do have on CD, but always felt like more of a vinyl album. And it sounds great. I’ve no intention of becoming a record collector, but I will get a few albums that I’ve always wanted on vinyl (perhaps including the newly re-released Definitely Maybe) and spend a bit of time browsing in record shops. If anything, they are good subjects to sketch.

all things must pass away

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All Things Must Pass

I nearly missed it, but yesterday was George Harrison’s 80th birthday. He passed away just over twenty years ago, but he’s still out there somewhere, he’s George Harrison. I love George Harrison. I’m a massive Beatles nerd; Paul was always my favourite, massive fan of John, I adore Ringo, but I always had a huge love for quiet George and his dark eyes, even if one of my earliest memories of George was when Nick Cotton off Eastenders played him in Birth of the Beatles. So last night to celebrate, I rewatched the Scorsese documentary “Living in the Material World” (my wife couldn’t believe his brother was called ‘Harry Harrison’; I tried to convince her that John had a brother called Lenny Lennon, and that Mike McCartney’s middle name was ‘Arnie’), played some ukulele, and listened to the All Things Must Pass triple album while drawing my old copy of the All Things Must Pass triple album. I must admit, I listened to it streamed on my iPod rather than on the record player, because it would mean getting the record player out of the cupboard and I was too tired to deal with that. It tends to play the records a bit too fast anyway. But I love this old album. I don’t love all of it (really not into “Johnny’s Birthday”, although ironically tomorrow is my brother’s birthday and his name is Johnny) but the whole thing is a slide guitar soundscape, and listening to it on streaming means I didn’t have to keep getting up to change the record over (triple albums, really?). It was nice drawing this while I listened to it. I love the songs “All Things Must Pass” and “Isn’t it a Pity”. I wanted to get this posted though in tribute. Happy Birthday George, wherever you are in the cosmos.

shake it up baby

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beatles twist and shout 022122 sm

Time for some more Beatles story. This is an old EP (“extended play” for you modern kids, not an album or “LP” – long play – and not a single, but it’s the size of a single, and it has four songs on it instead of two. A bit like you would get on a CD single in the 90s) from 1963, “Twist and Shout”. It’s an original copy, with the yellow-lettered Parlophone, and I’ve had it since about 1989, when I would go around second-hand shops and car-boot sales looking for old Beatles records to add to the collection that my uncle Billy started me off with. As you can see it still has the little two quid sticker on it. I forgot I still had this, sitting in my cupboard, so when I came across it again I thought that would be a good opening page for my new Moleskine sketchbook. A sketchbook that I have now closed, and started a new one (I’m very far behind posting). Still, with the rekindling of my life long Beatles obsession with the release of both the “Get Back” film and Paul McCartney’s “The Lyrics” book at the end of 2021, now’s a good time to post this. Macca just turned 80 over a week ago, so I’ve been gorging on Paul’s songs lately, but Twist and Shout – perhaps the Beatles’ most famous cover song, recorded in a single take and an absolute belter musically – is very much about John and his ripped-to-shreds voice. I bloody love it, I love the “aaaah….aaaah…aaaah” harmonies, the call and response with George and Paul, I love the leather-jacketed guitar riff which feels it has bounced straight off the sweaty walls of the Top Ten Club in Hamburg, I love Ringo’s excited drumming, I love that this is the sound of a band that absolutely loved playing music and gave it their all. It’s also got “A Taste of Honey”, “Do You Want To Know A Secret” (I quite like that one) and “There’s A Place” on it, but after the raw energy of Twist and Shout, these are like cups of tea to help you calm down.

I still have most of my old Beatles records, the ones I either got my uncle when I was 12 or 13, or ones I picked up in second hand shops and car boot sales around the same time, a mixture of originals, imports or old reissues, or new (new for 1988) reissues given to me as Christmas presents, like my beloved and much-played copy of the White Album. I never had a big record collection, but it was decent and full of personal memories. I don’t even play records any more; I have a small record player here now that my wife got me ages ago, but it plays records a bit too fast, and the sound comes out of a little built-in speaker on the back, not out of two big speakers in wooden boxes perched on top of my wardrobe like in the olden days. The sound of records couldn’t be beaten, that crackle of the vinyl, the realness of it. Sure CDs came along and suddenly we could hear it all, but the vinyl experience was something special. In Beatles albums especially there was usually a distinct side 1 and side 2 feel that is lost in modern albums which are – or were? – one-side constructions for CDs, now for download albums. There was a reason the ‘Ringo song’ was sometimes track 1 of side 2, it made it easier to skip it when you flipped the disc over, now it’s in the middle of the album and catches you out. Ah, I’ve learned not to mind “What Goes On”.

I’ve got a million things to say about the Beatles and they’ll always be my comfort blanket to escape back into, same as for many people, but right now I’m just enjoying the post-Get Back world and spending time with the guitar again, which I’d not done in years, even messing around on the keyboard, and of course the ukulele. I recently bought my first new guitar in 16 years, and last week got my son his first ever guitar, so there’s a bit more music back in the Scully household again.

track 1, side 1 of album 12

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Page 1 of Moleskine 12

Page 1 of Moleskine 12. I wanted it to look impactful, and so I wrote ‘Davis CA on the page and the next day I went downtown at lunchtime to sketch a typical street, maybe 2nd St. It’s so sunny these days though and the shade was too great so I moved into F st and drew Armadillo Music. I drew the whole thing, except for some detailing on the tree, in my lunchtime, and added the colour at home. Armadillo is an independent record store in downtown Davis, I exhibited there a couple of years ago at the Art About, famous local singer Rita Hosking performed, lots of people came and it was a great experience. Always nice to have independent stores like this, but especially records stores. So, first page of a new sketchbook, let’s see where this particular illustrated journey takes us!

see me at the record shop

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Here’s an exciting piece of news: next Friday, January 14, I will be exhibiting some of my sketchbooks (including the fire hydrants book and the Davis accordion moleskine) and prints of my work, as well as giving a live sketching demo, as part of the monthly Davis 2nd Friday ArtAbout event. It will be at Armadillo Music, a small independent record store on F St (near 2nd St). This should be a lot of fun! The artist reception will be between 7-9pm, preceded by live music from 6-7 by a surprise special guest (I don’t know who it is!). I’ll have a selection of prints up in the store for about a month, available to buy, mostly Davis urban sketches.

armadillo music, davis

This is Armadillo Music on F St, in case you’re wondering. I sketched it today (in the cold).

Here’s the flier for the ArtAbout event (pdf). So, if you are in Davis next Friday evening, please pop down to Armadillo and say hi!

he’s had a dream for a year or two

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20, ossie

#20 in a series of 30. The cobalt copic fineliner pens are still holding out!

So this one is very appropriate, because right now Spurs are sitting at the top of the English Premier League, albeit after only two games. This new season has been very unusual – so far we have had no draws at all, and all of the London teams have been winning. But Spurs are top, and I’ll enjoy it while it lasts (that’ll be Saturday, then). It’s a nice change after last year, when we had to wait nine matches for our first win – and had to sack the manager to get it. Interestingly enough, the last time we won our first two matches was in 1994, when of all people Ossie Ardiles was manager! And he was sacked by November. Well, that’s Tottenham Hotspur for you.

Or “Tottingham” as Ossie used to call it. I was dumbstruck when I met him, outside the old Spurs training ground in Mill Hill, shortly before those two victories in ’94. I had met Klinsmann too of course, who had just arrived at the club, plus Sheringham, Anderton, Barmby, Mabbutt, all of those guys. After getting their autographs on a Spurs shirt (which I still have) and a few polaroids, I sat on the hood of a car to pack up my bag. And then Osvaldo CésarArdiles comes up and opens the car door! He was really nice, posed for a photo, said hello to my little sister, shook my shaking hand, and we left. He drove past as we walked down Bunn’s Lane, and actually waved. I know, it is incredible that a World-Cup winning footballer can actually say a few civil words and wave from a moving vehicle, but when you were the kid who wanted to actually be Ossie Ardiles, that is in fact a big deal. My knees were even trembly.

Year 2, Week 75: The Vinyl Frontier

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After living here for nearly a year an a half, I’ve finally found something about my neighbour metropolis of Sacramento that I like. I know I’ve never really given that sprawling urban splat much of a chance, the way it just squats in the distance across a vast flat swamp, thick with suffocating Valley air and the sound of gunfire on every news broadcast, utterly lacking the grand charm of New York or the dramatic slopes and vistas of San Francisco. Getting the bus through West Sacramento is hardly inspiring, miles of rotten industrial grounds, trailer parks and the sort of motels you only ever see in films with a high death count. I warmed to grubby old Charleroi, years ago, but I think you’d have to be pretty cold to find anything to warm to here.

But recently I’ve been going up to Midtown, where the leafy boulevards are lined with charming old wooden houses, and there are shops and cafes and people walking because they want to, and yet because it’s still Sacramento there’s still some grit, and none of the urban snobbery you find in the more affluent areas. I guess that’s why it’s called Midtown, because it’s between downtown and Uptown, I’d not really thought of it like that. But that’s not what brings me there. There’s this really cool record shop called The Beat, and it’s my new favourite place. My wife first took me up there in January, after I got my new record player, so I could buy my first vinyl LP in many years and add to the ones I’d just lugged back from London (you know, vinyl’s a lot heavier than you think, isn’t it). I was so impressed – the place was so well-stocked, but still airy and spacious, not crazy like Amoeba Records, and they had a phenomenal collection of Beatles stuff, both British and American versions, most of which I have, some of which I salivated over but couldn’t really justify spending on. I spent most of my time in the Who section, trawling through rare European imports, but finally settling on the old compilation favorite Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, because it was the first Who record I ever heard back at my uncle Billy’s years ago, and because if you are going to listen to the old stuff, you can’t do it on CD, it has to be vinyl. I went home, put the needle in the groove, and rocked out; it was like being thirteen again.

I’ve gone back up there a few times to trawl through their CDs, new and used, and have been generally impressed with the large stock, particularly as I seem to find a lot of British stuff you’d never expect to see in a shop deep in Sacramento. No David Devant, however, but you can’t have it all. Nearby though there is a British pub called the Streets of London, which I’d known about since we moved here but have always resisted going to for the following reasons: it’s in Sacramento, it has a name which indicates it’s probably nothing like a London pub, and because we met a slightly weird couple once that said they go out there and I had no inclination of bumping into them. Well I finally decided to pop in and check it out (and to find a table to add some paints to the sketches I’d made around town), after all they might be showing Spurs on the TV. They weren’t, but I bought a pint of London Pride and had an utterly new sensation. It was actually cold, and tasted really good. I like Pride, I used to drink it a lot, but back at the Haverstock in Belsize Park it would always be edging room temperature. Here it was damn cold, and damn good. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, so I left, passing by The Beat on the way back to the bus-stop. Or I would have passed by if I’d not heard them playing ‘Boredom’ by the Buzzcocks, one of my all-time favourite tracks (and one I never hear blaring from a shop doorway). I popped back in and sure enough they had the Spiral Scratch EP. I’d never even seen it before! But I resisted, for now, giving myself an excuse to come back down, and I will too. I don’t yet like Sacramento, and I’m not about to move there or anything, but after all this time I’ve found I don’t hate crossing the Causeway quite as much.