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Holy sale bonanza, Batman! What a weekend for us here at Sorry State. A mighty, heartfelt and sincere thank you to all of you who stopped by the store this weekend or placed an online order or have supported us at any point. Thank you so much. We just want to continue being your local record spot, bringing joy and positive vibes through music, in a world going increasingly mad. For as long as we can, we’re going to try and hook you guys up with as much good music as possible.
I just want to say that I had a great time over the weekend, even if they were a couple of long and tough shifts. Circumstances left me and Jeff the two to handle the store for the sale. Typically, there’d be two of us for Friday and Saturday, our busiest days of the week, and Jeff always holds down Sundays. It got a little crazy at moments on Friday, with a lot of folks crammed into the store at once, but that’s what we had hoped for and it was great seeing so many of you come out. A lot of cool records were snagged by y’all, but there are still lots more left, so don’t be put off visiting if you didn’t get a chance last week. I’m always surprised when certain records linger and don’t sell right away. I certainly understand that when records get into the $50-plus range and into three-figure territory, that it’s not a casual purchase for most people. But with the added incentive of 15%–25% off, I thought one or two more of our wall pieces might have tempted people. I think we always try to price the high-end collectibles at the lower end of the price spectrum anyway, and we certainly took down several of those “wall” records over the course of the three days. There’s been one up there for a few weeks now that I was convinced would have sold sooner. I’m certain I priced it correctly and according to its condition and demand, but it has just sat, staring out from the wall behind the counter. We’ve played it two or three times, and it sounds fantastic. The vinyl is nice and clean, the jacket is decent, but the insert has a light moisture stain. No biggie for a record as old as I am. The important part is that when played, it sounds great. I had told myself that I could budget a purchase to chip in for the cause. Not that I’m not buying records all the time, of course, but I wanted to contribute and take part this weekend, especially as we were asking you guys to consider spending money with us. The record I am referring to is the great self-titled album by Silver Apples. Released on Kapp Records here in the United States in 1968.
I have a thing for listening to and collecting records that were made and released in the year of my birth, and this one is a great one to have in the atmosphere as I joined humanity. I’m no stranger to the record and the duo that made up Silver Apples. I probably first heard this record sometime in the 1990s and have seen it a few times in stores over the years. It has never been easy to find or that cheap, and as the years pass that only increases. I satisfied my hunger with a reissue on CD that combined their just as cool second album, Contact, which originally came out the year after the first in 1969. Then in the 00s I picked up a vinyl reissue, a bootleg I think. It sounded okay, and that pretty much did me over the years. I will say whoever made it did a great job with the silver foil cover and even included the color photo insert. I wasn’t going to go out looking for it necessarily, but if an original came across my path one day and owning it wasn’t too much of an issue, I always thought I’d like to have one.
I must imagine most of you seasoned music heads know about Silver Apples and how influential their two records, especially the first, have been on future generations of electronic music makers. Everyone from John Lennon to Alan Vega has sung their praises, and so many artists and bands like Clinic, Stereolab, Suicide, Spiritualized, to name a few have built their sound on the foundations laid down by Silver Apples. I think I heard about them through a Geoff Barrow from Portishead mix tape or DJ set. Both probably. He’s turned me on to so many great tunes. Anyway, if you are not familiar with them, I would recommend a deep dive when you get a chance. I can’t do their story justice here in just a few words.
The band was made up of two guys, Simeon Coxe, who just went by Simeon, and Danny Taylor. Simeon made his own synths and produced music and sounds through these and other electronic methods. He also played banjo, which was used to great effect on their cover of the bluegrass classic Ruby. That song appeared on the second album. Taylor was the drummer and supplied inventive drum patterns for Simeon’s songs. After the release of the first album and the positive response it received, they quickly recorded the follow-up. The album cover featured a photo of the boys inside a Pan Am plane cockpit. The Pan Am logo was visible, and the band had obtained permission to have it shown. However, it was decided that on the rear of the album jacket there should be a scene of a plane crash. Understandably, Pan Am wasn’t too cool with that and promptly sued the asses off the group and their label, Kapp Records, resulting in copies of the record being pulled from shelves and essentially ending the group and the label.
A third album had been begun but never completed, and those songs remained unreleased until the late 1990s. In fact, through him calling into a radio fund drive and the DJ recognizing the name, Danny Taylor was reunited with Simeon after years of not seeing each other, and those lost songs saw the light of day again. Taylor had hung on to the tapes all these years, and it turned out to be about seven completed songs recorded back in the day and another half dozen or so that had Taylor’s original drum tracks. To those drum patterns, Simeon produced new music in the spirit of the originals to layer over them, and the results, added to the original recorded songs, were released on an album called The Garden. It’s great too and thoroughly recommended for fans. There are a few different versions of this set out there now. The one I have is a double that includes two additional tracks, both unreleased but intended for a soundtrack to a movie. Pretty cool.
Well, that’s my “pick” for you this week. Go out and investigate, if Silver Apples are new to you, and if they aren’t and you haven’t listened to them in a while, go play them. Before I sign off, I will say that I was enjoying the sounds of the Bikini Mutants, a post-punk bad from the UK that recorded in 1982. Sealed Records has just issued a nice album set of their recordings. Very cool, female-fronted band that if you like Marine Girls, Au Pairs and the like, you’ll probably love just as much. I did and got my copy. Get yours.
Cheers - Dom