PUBLIC COLLECTORS

Sounds of Nowhere, a record that came “Compliments of Halcyon Days Hotel on St. Lucia, W.I. - It’s in the middle of nowhere.” To my great disappointment, after picking this record up at a thrift store, I discovered that it has the wrong album tucked inside - one of those damn Environments records of ocean sounds. I can find no information about this Sounds of Nowhere record online and now I fear that I’ll just never get to hear what nowhere sounds like. Fuck! The album cover design is exactly the same on both sides and the blank spine contains no other information. A vinyl mystery.

1960s record shopping. From The Free People by the Swedish photographer Anders Holmquist with an introduction by Peter Marin.  Published by Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1969. More from this book here.

A strong morning for records at the flea market - all cheap and truly worth leaving the house at 5:30 AM! Now I really need some damn coffee.

Normally Public Collectors does not reblog, but I have to make an exception for this publication that Temporary Services, the group I’m a member of, just completed. It’s a really sweet booklet, if I do say so myself, and I know that many record-loving followers of this blog would enjoy it. Remember that all currently in print Public Collectors booklets are also available from Half Letter Press.

halfletterpress:

Now available for purchase in our web-store:

Records as Portable Exhibitions and Interactive, Participatory Objects by Temporary Services

This booklet focuses on vinyl records and their packaging that are either interactive and participatory, or that operate like portable exhibits. Temporary Services made this booklet to accompany a collection of the albums that are featured in this publication. We love music and the rich collaborations that surround its production and presentation. We also enjoy the democratic aspects of mass produced creative works like records. As a group that has released no records but has authored and/or self-published nearly 100 booklets, books, and newspapers (along with lots of posters and ephemera), we love the idea of creative things that don’t cost a lot of money to make or sell and that thousands of people can own. And okay, a couple people in the group are record collectors so this project was bound to happen at some point.

The albums in this exhibition and booklet represent a range of inspired listening concepts, design strategies and interactive possibilities for 12” long-playing phonographic records. We have collected these records together because they serve as a vehicle for a range of interactive possibilities or an unusually generous array of readable and viewable materials. These records go far beyond the standard presentation of music recorded to vinyl and packaged in a cardboard sleeve. Some of these records include enough printed inserts to comprise a substantial wall display or a small exhibition. Others encourage action – even asking you to draw on the cover or dismantle part of the interior and wear it.

Some of the records discussed in this booklet include albums by: Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Cheech and Chong, Chicago Thrash Ensemble, Alice Cooper, Crass, The Ex, Faces, Hawkwind, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Man, Parliament, Rolling Stones, Sweet, Terry Plumming and The Who.

A promotional 7” sampler record of various Classical music recordings produced by Crossroads Records. Amusingly, for a record that is supposed to impress listeners with the quality of stereo sound, they jammed nearly fourteen minutes of music onto this record. No year or cover designer listed.

A strange thrift store record haul, all from the same store in McHenry, IL, (top row): A 1980 funk 12” EP titled “Butch” with a hand-colored paste-on cover by the band Are You Ready For This?, a compilation of local music from the Cincinnati radio station WEBN with cover art by Charlie Harper, and a Thin Lizzy live EP. Bottom row: a record by Riot, a Iannis Xenakis LP, and most obscure of all, the sole album, titled “Thunderpussy” by the Quincy, Illinois prog/psych band Documents of Captivity. This last record would be a remarkable score if it wasn’t moldy as hell and if the LP wasn’t cracked in a way that messes with the first two songs. Still, it is playable enough for me to hear what it is, and it’s pretty interesting. Go download it from some MP3 blog.

Scanned from Stereobook by Paul Dean / Paper Shrine, published by Barefoot Press, Raleigh, NC, 2000. More here.

Scanned from Stereobook by Paul Dean / Paper Shrine, published by Barefoot Press, Raleigh, NC, 2000. More here.

Scanned from Stereobook by Paul Dean / Paper Shrine, published by Barefoot Press, Raleigh, NC, 2000. More here.

The cover of Stereobook by Paul Dean / Paper Shrine, published by Barefoot Press, Raleigh, NC, 2000. Described, accurately, as “A celebration of the promotional ephemera of the twentieth-century high fidelity stereographic phonograph record, Stereobook is not a parody!” More here.

Recently spotted on its way to a landfill: Shape Record Grip - a kind of record grabber/oven mitt for people who are unable to carefully handle vinyl records by their edges like a normal human being.

Public Collectors Trading Post: Merrill Womach Record Collection

I’m reopening the Public Collectors Trading Post as a way of trying to officially end my morbid fascination with the records of Merrill Womach. For those who have never encountered Merrill’s records, here are the details of his story from his page on Wikipedia:

“Merrill Womach (February 7, 1927 in Spokane, Washington) is an American undertaker, organist and gospel singer, notable both for founding National Music Service, which provides recorded music to funeral homes across America, and for surviving an October 26, 1961 plane crash in Beaver Marsh, Oregon that left him disfigured with third degree burns over most of his body. Womach authorized an autobiography of his recovery titled Tested by Fire, co-authored by his former wife Virginia and Mel White. A documentary film titled He Restoreth My Soul was also made about his accident and subsequent recovery.”

This collection includes the following records: My Song (1960), A Time For Us (1969), Surely Goodness and Mercy (1970), Happy Again (1974 - two different versions, one still sealed!), Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory (1976), In Concert (1977), Merrill (1981),

The condition of these records is generally excellent - aside from some thrift store stickers on many of the covers. This collection is not for sale, only for trade. I’ll hear any offers you wish to make. You can offer other records, books, ‘zines, food, or anything else you feel could be of interest. The last time I opened the Public Collectors Trading Post I traded a big box of Grateful Dead bootlegs for a bottle of really good bourbon and everyone went home happy. I will ship these anywhere in the world, however due to the weight, U.S. shipping is preferred. Email me and let me know what you’ve got: marc [at] publiccollectors.org

And what did I actually get at the estate sale? These records, plus a few others. Nothing shockingly unusual but they were a dollar each and I was particularly pleased to find a cheap copy of “The Who Sell Out”, not to mention “Sticky Fingers” with the zipper cover.

Walkers - “Dabadio-Dabadie” / “Set Me Free” 45, Philips, 1972.

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - “Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus” / “Jane B” 45, Fontana, 1969.