May 2021 - Vinyl Spins Challenge Thread

Day 03: Celebrate Spring

This is the May Day bank holiday over here. Before the socialists made it a Labour day it was our traditional date to have festivals celebrating spring. Play an album that fills you with the joy, beauty and fresh hope that spring encapsulates.

Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Everbody Loves Sunshine
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Being a Midwest transplant in the Pacific Northwest I enjoy analyzing the regional differences between the two areas (WTF is “Fry Sauce” and why does everyone dip their jojo’s in it... also, WTF is a jojo?). One of the more interesting and fun differences is the way people out here absolutely LOVE a sunny day and for good reason, as one might expect for a region known for its rainfall, the warmth of the sun is in short supply for large chunks of the year but on those times when the sun peaks through its like...well, Portlandia’s opening sketch pretty much nailed it...

All this to say with Spring comes a much welcome uptick in Sunbreaks and outdoor fun; which we have to enjoy before the fire season starts mid-July and we lose the sun again, this time to an smokey ashy hellacious haze until the gloomy rains of Autumn return...Anyways, here’s Roy Ayers kickin’ it on Soul Train...

I doubt Almost Live reruns are still playing every Saturday night out there, but this sketch is a classic:



And yup, that’s Bill Nye
 
I doubt Almost Live reruns are still playing every Saturday night out there, but this sketch is a classic:



And yup, that’s Bill Nye

LOL that is great! I hadn’t seen that one. Almost Live reruns were actually still on King 5 until recently. Usually very late at night on the weekends. I’ve seen my fair share. It’s interesting in a time capsule sort of way, the Late 80s/early 90s in Seattle with the rise of Microsoft and the cultural notoriety of Grunge and Starbucks made that time very interesting. Without Almost Live reruns I would have never known that Ballard used to a neighborhood of elderly Nordic immigrants, Renton was full of hillbillies and rednecks, or that Joel McHale used to be bald.
 
Day 3: Celebrate Spring
George Winston - Winter Into Spring

Man does this album mean a lot to me. My parents played this album incessantly when I was a kid, on our Bose CD player. This album along with December, another classic by George Winston, made me realize that the piano was my favorite instrument.
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Day 3 - Celebrate Spring
Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring
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Sometimes this masterpiece gets forgottten in discussions of 80s acts of genius due to the mastery of the next few releases by Mark Hollis. It straddles electro pop and their Erik Satie inspired post rock beautifully.
 
Day 3 - Celebrate Spring
Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring
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Sometimes this masterpiece gets forgottten in discussions of 80s acts of genius due to the mastery of the next few releases by Mark Hollis. It straddles electro pop and their Erik Satie inspired post rock beautifully.
Day 3 - Take 2
R.E.M. - Fables Of The Reconstruction
Shit I see @jamieanderson1968 has also chosen this beauty. No problem as I’ve loved listening to it. And it lets me stick on another beauty before bed. I’ll pick Fables Of The Reconstruction or Reconstruction Of The Fables depending on what side of the album cover you look at. Green Grow The Rushes gives the May required new life and plant based fun. Also it’s nice textures from Joe Boyd make it feel a bit more pastorally than Murmur and Reckoning. It’s also great.

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Day 3 - Take 2
R.E.M. - Fables Of The Reconstruction
Shit I see @jamieanderson1968 has also chosen this beauty. No problem as I’ve loved listening to it. And it lets me stick on another beauty before bed. I’ll pick Fables Of The Reconstruction or Reconstruction Of The Fables depending on what side of the album cover you look at. Green Grow The Rushes gives the May required new life and plant based fun. Also it’s nice textures from Joe Boyd make it feel a bit more pastorally than Murmur and Reckoning. It’s also great.

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My favourite REM album
 
Day 3 - Celebrate Spring

This album reminds me of spring, not for any specific song or theme. I guess partly because his music has some kind of built-in nostalgia for me...a few of the hooks remind me of 70s disco playing on the radio on road trips in the family station wagon.
The cover and vinyl color help too.
It’s a fantastic record that I actually got sick of because I played it weekly if not daily for quite awhile.

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Day 4: May the Forth Be With You
(riding @Turbo 's slipstream)
BMX Bandits - Star Wars. 30th Anniversary reissue.
How this album did not get hit with a ton of LucasFilm lawyers I have no idea, but it probably helps that it sold about 100 copies when it first came out.
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"I'm going in. Cover me, Porkins!"
 
Day 4: May the Forth Be With You

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid


This IS the droid you're looking for.

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Day 4: May the Forth Be With You

Interpreting it literally, I see the Forth is both a place in Tasmania and a river in Western Australia. That leads me to spinning a band from Australia. I go with Tame Impala whose album "Currents" and whose great live shows with lots of lights also have a modern futuristic feeling, fitting the Star Wars reference.

Tame Impala "Currents"

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Day 4: May the Forth Be With You

Meco - Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk (1977, Millennium Records)
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Rough shape bargain bin purchase from years back. Looking at it, it's the Canadian pressing. Droid fell off the back of a sand crawler.


It's high on the cheese factor for SURE, but there's some good sounds and synth tones swimming around. Leia's Theme section of the A side is actually really chill and I could do with a whole side of that vibe. Also dig the label a bunch.
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I do love that they just straight up called a cash grab a cash grab, and named the mostly uninspired b-side tracks 'Other', 'Galactic' and 'Funk'.
 
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