Oh how we heart all things related to the vinyl record: the warmth of the sound as the needle glides across the shiny round surface. The ritual of exploring every inch of the square cover with liner notes and enveloping artwork.  An afternoon with stack of records is an afternoon well spent!

Well, we're not alone in this assertion: the folks at the Henry Art Gallery have put together a weekend of activities celebrating the record as part of their exhibition, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl.  If you haven't stopped by to see the exhibit, it's a look at the culture and breadth of the vinyl record mystique through the eyes of over 40 artists from around the world.  The exhibit runs through October 7, 2012 and features a slew of fascinating events throughout its run.  This weekend's special events related to the exhibit include:

Friday, August 10, 2012 - 6pm-8pm
Record Appreciation with Kathy Slade and Brady Cranfield
Visual artists Brady Cranfield and Kathy Slade will host a casual listening party that will look at the role vinyl records have played a role in their work both physically and conceptually.

Sunday, August 12, 2012 - 12pm-3pm
National Vinyl Record Day
135 years ago on this date, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph! To mark this special day, aka National Vinyl Record Day, head to the Henry for an afternoon of celebration. Festivities include a record sale and a panel discussion with both large and small local northwest labels.  The panel chat will include discussion of "production, distribution, and cultural economy of the Record as both medium and social object."

And looking ahead, mark your calendars for the remaining events scheduled in coordination with the exhibit:

August 24, 2012 - Record Appreciation with Matthew Green

September 13, 2012 - Record Appreciation with Rachel Kessler

As part of their awesome The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl exhibition, the Henry Art Gallery is having a bunch of workshops and activities that are perfect for vinyl-loving imaginaries! 

Live to Lathe, which happens on Saturday, July 21 from 12-3pm is a FREE (with admission) talk by Mike Dixon from People in a Position to Know about he mechanics and history of pre cord production from early formats to 45s … and then, my friends, then: you can cut your own record demo!!! 

Bring your MP3 player, guitar, keytar, kazoo, whatever -- and record your own record in the gallery for a mere $5. 

Man. If only I still had my clarinet. ("Never had one lesson!") 

We here at TIG have always considered the record, whether it's 7", 10", 12" or custom cut somewhere in between, a piece of art. Colored or standard black, civilian weight or hi-fi 180 gram, each record is precious. Listening to a song on vinyl creates both a physical and emotional bond to the sounds wafting from each (usually) round piece of magical plastic.

It's hard to just be a casual listener when interacting with the vinyl medium; you have to slow down and consciously listen to the record. Even when you're not listening to the record you need to lovingly care for it, respectfully storing, or in some cases displaying, your collection.

It's no secret that most folks hooked by the medium liken perusing someone's record collection akin to reading their palm. The management, care, and contents of a stranger's collection can give great insight into their… dare I say, heart. It's an open door to connect with one another, sharing stories about their favorite memories finding, listening, and sharing the sometimes smooth, sometimes scratchy depths of the vinyl grooves.

We here in Seattle are extremely lucky that the people at the Henry Art Gallery share our reverence for all things vinyl and have brought the new exhibition, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl to Seattle. Organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, The Record is "the first museum exhibition to explore the culture of vinyl records within the history of contemporary art. Bringing together 41 artists from around the world who have worked with records as their subject or medium, this groundbreaking exhibition examines the record’s transformative power from the 1960s to the present."

The Record exhibit opens this Friday, July 13, 2012 in the North Galleries at the Henry (15th Ave NE & 41st St in the University District) with the big opening night festivities run from 6pm-9pm (so still plenty of time to see the Young Evils later that night!).  

The opening celebration includes live musical performances from Slashed Tires and The Hive Dwellers (Calvin Johnson's latest band); Mark Baumgarten (City Arts editor at large) will read from his new book Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music (hitting shelves on July 10th!); and, of course, a first peek at the exhibit.

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“Do you have Some Girls?” I asked the guy at Bop Street, fingers crossed.

“Yup! Got it right up here. Oh look, we even have the uncensored cover.”

And this is how I bought my first vinyl since the 80s.

My boyfriend and I had recently decided that we definitely needed a turntable—me, after many years of hemming and hawing about getting one, him, swayed by the release of Tomahawk’s Eponymous to Anonymous—and what better day to set out to do it than Record Store Day 2012?

But what vinyl would I buy? What would be my first purchase? I thumbed through the bins at Sonic Boom, stopping on The Cure Entreat, a collection of Morrissey records, and gazing fondly at the GIGANTIC Joy Division and Smiths sets I couldn’t possibly afford—when I found it: The Rolling Stones Some Girls. But wait—this was the reissue, and the reissue didn’t have the pull out cover with the band’s faces and the wigs that I remember so fondly from my youth.

As soon as my hands touched the copy from Bop Street, I was back in my parents' house leafing through my dad’s record collection and carefully sliding the cover back and forth, counting how many different face and wig combos I could make, gazing at Marilyn and Lucy and admiring the rainbow colors.

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My video addiction this week hasn't been a video for a song but a video about a vinyl record single. Each time I watch it, I'm more intrigued, baffled, and hungry to get my hands on a copy of a Triple Decker Record. Anyone in Nashville want to run down to their local Third Man Records to pick me up one?

Here's the press clipper scoop:

The Dead Weather's latest single, "Blue Blood Blues", will have a limited edition component in the form of an all new Triple Decker Record. Designed by Jack White and assembled by United Record Pressing, the Triple Decker contains a 7" record embedded inside a 12" record. The Triple Decker is limited to 300 copies and are available at Third Man Records in Nashville on Friday Sept. 17, and at finer brick and mortar independent record stores worldwide. 50 copies will also be inserted in random mail order for "Blue Blood Blues."

Side note: I also would sign up for any class that Jack White teaches. Civil War History 101, Calculus, or Auto Mechanics... I'm in. He's such a good explainer!

My mind is being blown as I look at my calendar pages for today and tomorrow. On top of the intoxicating sunshine the weather folk have predicted for the weekend, the indie-gods have bestowed a packed schedule of wonderfulness:

APRIL 16-18: EMP Pop Conference
It's going to be full of great sessions around this year's topic of sounds and the machines that make them. This year I'm most excited about hearing Tim Quirk and his look at "The Quiet Revolution: From the Walkman to the iPod, How Portability and Infinite Storage Have Changed the Way We Listen, and What We Listen To" on Friday at 10.45am. Catching Mike McGonigal moderating "Identity Projects" and Michaelangelo Matos on the "Interrogating the Digital" - both on Sunday - will rock 33 1/3 socks off as well.

APRIL 17: Record Store Day
Empty out your canvas bag and your bus pass, it's time to take Seattle record stores by storm on an all day tour picking up a slew of very special limited edition releases to remind us all how important it is to support out local independent record stores.  I am most looking forward to getting to Jigsaw Records in time to pick up each release in their LTD RSD-only series (only 25 will be pressed!) with floppies by Math and Physics Club and BOAT. (full scoop)

{even more amazing things to do this weekend after the jump!}

And I'm sure I missed something... what else is going on this weekend? All this fun must be a thank you for getting our taxes done on time, right?

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There have been rumblings all over the internet of the special Record Store Day-only releases that will hit the shelves on this most holy day.  Personally, I've mapped out my route from Jigsaw Records (Ballard) to Sonic Boom (Ballard) to Damaged Records (Belltown) to  Easy Street (Queen Anne) to make sure my canvas bag is full with the celebratory bingeing and I catch all the special instore performances and swag they have planned for the big day.

I've had a hard time finding a list of everything that will be available on RSD, but thanks to an indie shop in Michigan (Sound It Out) who kindly listed a bunch of really special RSD releases, I have the start of a skeleton wishlist of things I want to pick up:
1. R.E.M. Chronic Town 12″ EP (Previously out of print debut; limited edition blue vinyl, individually numbered)
2. The Thermals/The Cribs Split 7″ single
3. Superchunk “Misfits and Mistakes”/”Misfits and Mistakes” 7″ (Meatwad version, picture disc release; autographed by the band)
4. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists “The Oldest House”/”North Coast” 7″
5. Telekenisis “Dirty Thing”/”Non-Toxic, The Drawback” 7″ (2 songs exclusive to this RSD release)

One stop I'm most excited about is the newest of independent stores around town, Jigsaw Records (remember their cute opening party?). Jigsaw has arranged to have some ultra-limited-edition floppy records cut featuring songs by some of my favorite indie-pop bands: Math & Physics Club, BOAT, and Mill Kids. When I say limited, I mean like only 25 of each release will be in circulation.

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I had a low-key Sunday writing nearly-overdue thank-you notes (which is actually quite fun because you get to gush to your friends about how great they are), sipping copious amounts of tea, and pulling an afternoon soundtrack from the most recently acquired vinyl in the stack. Near the top of the stack was the debut album by Melbourne, Australia's Summer Cats entitled Songs for Tuesdays. It's a mighty fine album (if the fact that it's on Slumberland Records wasn't enough proof) and all, but what raised my interest most was that the record is printed on what experts describe as "multi-color splatter vinyl." Songs for Tuesdays is both mesmerizing to listen to and to watch spin round as it plays. Note: the above photo doesn't do it much justice, but that's what happens when you've got an iPhone and bad lighting. You get the *idea* that it's spectacular though, right?

Colored vinyl is magical. It's way up there with the phrase "limited edition" on the list of things that make me lose my cool (and empty my wallet). I read somewhere that, for some scientific reason, colored vinyl doesn't have as good of sound quality as the standard black issue... but whatevs. I can't deny it's power.

It got me thinking... what vinyl records rank up there as prettiest? I put 7" and 12" in the running and came up with these off the top of my head:

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