This is Vinyl Tap

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we jump into Joe Jackson's fantastic sophomore LP, 1979's I'm the Man. When Joe Jackson's hit the airwaves in fall of 1978, critics labeled him as one of the new "angry young men" on British music, the other two significant members of that group being Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. This was lyrically mature music that o...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, we discuss what was once considered one of the hottest bands to come out of the late sixties San Francisco scene, Moby Grape and their debut album, 1967’s Moby Grape . Moby Grape is one of the most celebrated debut albums ever produced. Recorded by five musicians who could all write and sing, Moby Grape spans multiple genres (rock and roll, folk music, pop,...

Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we discuss King Crimson's 1969 debut: In the Court of the Crimson King. Not only is In the Court of the Crimson King regarded as one of the greatest and most influential progressive rock (or prog rock) albums of all time, it is considered by many to be the album that defined the genre. Like all prog rock musicians, Robert Fripp, Greg Lake, Micheal Giles...

Send us Fan Mail It's a violation episode!!  Often times we wonder how much the members of the This Is Vinyl Tap team are actually paying attention to what we do around here.  In an effort to find out, we present the first ever This Is Vinyl Tap "Trivia From The Vault" episode, where we ask each other in-depth questions pertaining to past episodes to determine who has (and who has n...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss one of the seminal bands of what would become the alternative country and Americana movement: the Long Ryders, and their 1984 debut LP Native Sons. Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s,  the Long Ryders were a counter to the synth-heavy music that was in vogue at the time.  Drawing on their diverse musical backgrounds (punk and garage rock, ska, cou...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we tackle a BIG album, the 1967 debut LP by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced. Heralded by many as the greatest rock guitarist of all time, to many Jimi Hendrix, along with his band the Jimi Hendrix Experience (bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell) seemingly came out of nowhere. However, in reality, Hendrix more than paid his dues, playin...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we discuss the debut LP by the seminal psychedelic rock band, the 13th Floor Elevators: 1966's The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The  13th Floor Elevators were one of the the first well-known bands to come  out of the Austin music scene in the 1960's, and one of the first  band's nationwide to purposely embrace the term "psyche...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we tackle the Rolling Stones 1968 LP Beggars Banquet. 1968 was a tumultuous year for much of the world and a transitional time  for  the Rolling Stones. Their founder and original leader, Brian Jones,  was  increasingly absent due to his drug use, and their long-time  manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham had grown disinterested in the band  due to his own drug and a...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the podcast, we discuss Spirit and their fourth album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. The band Spirit sports an impressive pedigree. Drummer Ed Cassidy (20 years older than the rest of the band) was an established jazz musician, having played drums with many jazz greats throughout the 1940s and 1950s.  His stepson Randy California (né Randy Wolfe) was a young g...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we dig into the debut LP by the Scottish jangle pop band Aztec Camera , 1983's High Land, Hard Rain. The creative force behind the band was Roddy Frame, a fine singer, remarkable guitarist, and very gifted songwriter, who started his career at 15, and was 18 when this album was recorded.  Completed in just three weeks, the album is filled with wonderful pop songs t...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode we look a one of the finest songwriters to come out of Texas, Guy Clark, and his 1975 debut LP Old No. 1.  While Clark is considered one of the great county and folk songwriters of the latter half of the 20th Century, he is also one of the least appreciated when it comes to recording his own songs. On Old No. 1 , he records his own songs, many of which...

Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we take on a big LP, the 1979 monster hit by Supertramp, Breakfast in America. Supertramp struggled early in their career to find an audience. The two main song writers brought different strengths to the band. Founding member Rick Davies leaned more to the progressive rock side of things, where as Roger Hodgson was more pop oriented.  Every album after their...

Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we take a listen to the second LP by one of the foundational bands of 1970's power pop: Fresh by the the Raspberries. The Raspberries were an intentional antithesis to everything that was going  on in the early Seventies. Instead of focusing on the extended (and as they saw it, self-indulgent) musical jams, the Raspberries would craft three-and-a-half-m...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss Beck and his twelfth studio album, 2014’s Morning Phase .  Beck is known for embracing a wide-range of genres, to include folk, lo-fi, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia (just to name a few). He often glides between genres on the same album, and sometimes even on the same song. What makes Morning Phas...

Send us Fan Mail When Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood started hanging out and jamming together after the dissolution of their previous bands (Cream and Traffic respectively), there was no set plan to start a band together. That changed when Cream drummer Ginger Baker joined the fun. With the addition of bassist Ric Grech from the band Family, Blind Faith was born.   Their one and only album combine...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we dig into Pete Townshend's official debut solo LP, 1980's Empty Glass. As the main songwriter for The Who, Pete Townshend crafted songs that let singer Roger Daultrey flex his powerful voice and lets the rhythm section stretch out and indulge their bombastic sides. But on Empty Glass , Townshend is able to show that he can write songs that...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we turn our attention to one of the most successful bands from the late 1960s and early 1970's, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and what is considered by many their masterpiece, Cosmo's Factory . 1970 was a fertile year for music. While the English Invasion was still dominating the airwaves and the psychedelic scene was still influencing everything from mo...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode we discuss Sunflower , the1970 LP by the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys' songwriting was mainly Brian Wilson's department, especially after their masterpiece, Pet Sounds . But on 1970's Sunflower , all members contributed to the songwriting, instrumentation, vocals (with some help from other background singers and members of the great Wrecki...

Send us Fan Mail This week's podcast is a listener's pick and boy are we grateful to have it be Shake Some Action by the Flamin' Groovies.  Shake Some Action   is nothing short of a power pop masterpiece. With its British Invasion vibe, it's hard to believe it came from 1976. There a bunch of great covers, including one that goes back to 1914.  But it's the  originals wher...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we revisit an artist we discussed during our first season  - Van Morrison when we talked about his 1974 album V eedon Fleece .  This time we discuss his 1986 LP No Guru. No Method, No Teacher.  Morrison is known for making albums rich in spiritual themes and Celtic lore. Around the time of No Guru , he was also writing songs from the perspective of a c...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we explore the 1973 LP by one of progressive rock’s most interesting (and entertaining) bands, Selling England by the Pound by Genesis.  Considered by many to be the best album of the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis, it is definitely the most accessible, and even gave the band their first Top 40 single int he UK with “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss the debut album by Kris Kristofferson 1970's Kristofferson .  A man of many talents, Kris Kristofferson is a scholar,  an athlete, a pilot, an actor, a performer, and most importantly, one of country music's most beloved (and most successful) songwriters.  On par with Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine, he has penned some...

Send us Fan Mail This week it is another listerner's pick as we dig into the debut solo LP by Texas music legend Doug Sahm, 1972’s Doug Sahm and Band . Doug Sahm was by all accounts a musical prodigy, having mastered the guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, and fiddle by age 8. Born and raised in San Antonio, TX, Sahm was attracted to a variety of music: blues from the black clubs of his neighborh...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss Tomorrow, the criminally underappreciated 1968 self-titled debut album by the band Tomorrow. Mostly known as a band that featured future Yes guitarist, Steve Howe.  Alongside bands like Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine,  Tomorrow was a pillar of the British underground scene, and their song "My White Bicycle" was considered by many...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss the Band and their second LP, The Band (also affectionately known as the Brown Album) .  With 50 plus years having passed, its difficult to understand the impact the Band had on the music industry, but it was HUGE.  It is also hard to find a band that incorporated more American music traditions into their sound than the Band did, which is od...