Their really is nothing I love more than listening to a new record on vinyl. Unlike older record collecting friends of mine, I’m totally a child of the CD era—in 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection—and spent a considerable portion of my teens perusing the used and scuffed aisles at Everyday Music with my trusty and worn copy of Spin’s “90 greatest albums of the ’90s” in hand.

While some of the things I picked up quickly made way to the sell-back bins, I remember the first time I heard Beck’s Odelay—a record that, though I still love it, sounds a bit dated today—and just geeked out the crazy juxtaposition of sounds: harmonica, rickety pawnshop guitars, hip-hop beats, two turntables and a microphone. What should have been a mess was held together seamlessly by three men (I’m included the Dust Brothers here, as the duo’s production and samples were just as important as Beck’s delightfully laconic lyrics). I’ve never heard Odelay on vinyl, but I don’t really need to. Boy Eats Drum Machine has stolen my ramshackle heart.

I bring this up because yesterday Jon Ragel stopped by the office (more on that later) to drop off a few homemade, screen-printed, and just beautifully constructed and totally unique versions of his new album Booomboxxx in LP form. I’ve liked Booomboxxx since I first heard it back in early August, but last night, dropping the needle onto the groove, I realized just how much I love the record—especially “La La La La LA!”, the jittery pop song that sits at the heart of the record. Ragel, who like Beck, recorded all of BEDM record by himself, has a deft sense of percussion, mining the best beats from the Bridgetown Breaks compilation and coating each breakbeat in a layer of guitar, saxophone, scratching and harmony. “La La La La LA!”, unlike most BEDM songs, opens without percussion and gradually reveals layers after the first minute as Ragel does a nice call-and-response with himself before the beat and sax come in. And though this MP3 sounds great, it doesn’t hold a candle dropping the needle and cranking “La La La La LA!” at top volume. If you see a BEDM show, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the record the way it’s supposed to be heard.

Download audio file (lala.mp3)

Links:
Boy Eats Drum MachineSpace

Photo taken by Casey Jarman with his nifty iPhone