LP Giveaway: R.Stevie Moore “Phonography”
As I’ve posted over at AD , there’s a new issue of Phonography out. Here’s how R. Stevie describes Sundazed’s latest pressing:
“Premier. the audiophile pressing is shocking. pure warm loud lo-fi sound – zero vinyl surface detection. no turntable rumble, not one tick or pop, no static cling even. absolutely total quiet. and especially in the more silent passages. kinda hard to believe. it’s magic….don’t think it’s EVER sounded this good. A+++”
We love this record + luckily Sundazed got us a free LP to give away to a Rising Storm reader, SIGNED by R. Stevie himself. To enter for a chance to win, just leave a comment below (with a working email address). While you’re at it, tell us what’s your favorite cult classic, lo-fi, d.i.y, home-taped artist, album, song or anything (besides Stevie of course).
HD Vinyl | 2010 | 
Spotify link | Also Recommended
you look pretty today
i’m a sucker for anything with a catchy tune.
Can I just go with Guided By Voices? My favorite band.
Can you believe Nebraska’s leaving the Big 12?
Currently, I’d probably have to say that the Farm Band (Akarma Reissues of early 70s albums) is my favorite lo-fi, DIY group. Man, that’s often really great stuff.
“Why Can’t We Live Together” by Timmy Thomas has always impressed me…
I’m down with R Stevie Moore and this give away! My favorite cult record would have to be Gary Wilson’s “You Think You Really Know Me”
I have a tape made by a cleaner from a supermarket I once worked in that’s pretty special and holds a place close to my heart. It’s a fairly high quality Michael Jackson pastiche, where Thriller, for instance, becomes Frightening, with lots of creaking-stairs noises, and the lyrical peak being, “I try to cry, but the tears won’t come/And now a female photographer is picturing my bum”.
Wow, where d’ya even start with Steebie? Couple years ago it may have been the reel-2-reel (et al) and compositional mastery that got me hooked; but nowadays RSM personifies what strikes a chord with me – that is, music made simply for the love of music. What’s heartwarming also is the lack of cultish pretension amongst the fans. I started up the Last.fm RSM Fan Club (join! and there’s a palpable sense of injustice – in a parallel universe he would have been… a Gawd.
Departmentstore Santas – “At the Medieval Castle Nineteen 100-Year Lifetimes Sinceâ€
Ty Segall, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane over the Sea, Pavement’s earliest recordings, and Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. Words can’t explain how much I love lo-fi and D.I.Y recordings!
I’m gonna go for Ray Zinbrann’s cover of the 4:30 Movie Theme!
Someone sent me Phonography on cassette in 1988 or 1989 and I was blown away. Fast forward a decade and I buy it on CD. Now there is vinyl, my god!
Another indie self-pressed wonder? Another favorite is the 1975 album BATSTEW by MARK TUCKER.
Please enter me into the contest. I can’t afford the LP. I should get a real job!
i love dylan’s “when i got troubles” and anthro rex’s “goth booty”
P.S. – Alex mentioning Gary Wilson, YES! I second that, amazing album !!
A bunch of the Alan Lomax recordings qualify as lo-fi homemade, right? Love those! Some of my favorites are his conversations and musical ramblings with the great Jelly Roll Morton..Salty dog anybody?!
I stumbled across a digital copy of a tape recorded by The Leningrad Psychedelic Blues Band from Japan, in approximately 1989. the opening song is 24 minutes long. can’t get enough of it. you can hear the tape scratches, and the fuzz, oh the fuzz.
Diamond Mountain’s People Are Good
My favorite d.I.y. Guy is Ariel pink. It seems that rsteviemoore borrows heavily from ariel’s sound.
Not super obscure, but early Daniel Johnston would be my favorite…
A recent lo fi favorite is Cooley-Munson’s “In Debt”. Sounds perfect most warm mornings. Especially “Sightly Sue” and “Never Came Back.”
I’ve never heard “Phonography” but have yet to be let down by this site’s recommendations.
@John ferguson: pretty sure it’s the other way around. read the end of this article.
@Tandard Teve: hell yeah, diamond mountain’s album is instant classic for me.
great shoutouts people, keep em comin!
I’ll second the Ariel Pink, and also mention Nick Nicely whose brilliant “Psychotropia” collection was recently reissued by Cherry Red.
I’m partial to Jack Rose!!
i learned half of what i know about making records at home from R. Stevie.
Cheers!
-Jeff Humphrey Trio
not sure if this would extend to australia but it’s worth a shot…
I wrote R. Stevie in the 80’s and he very nicely sent me a cassette copy of Phonography. My favorite poorly recorded album would have to be 8 Eyed Spy live.
Mayo Thompson – Corky’s Debt to His Father. Hell yes.
I have recurring, torturous dreams of being able to purchase RSM’s entire recorded output.
Gotta go with Emitt Rhodes first album recorded as a 4-Track in his home. McCartney-esque but so much better than any solo McCartney album.
worth two shots from australia then..
Yeah, I guess I’ve got to go with GBV as well, especially the early stuff they recorded on 4-track and boombox.
What a treat to have the album released with its original cover on heavyweight vinyl.. (THANK you, Sundazed!) Fans of the SRM creative approach should check out his UK-based colleague, Terry Burrows who released the great “Tree Climbing Goats (and other analysing shanties)” among other DIY classics, under the why-not pseudonym Yukio Yung. Or try “The Greatest Living Englishman” LP by fellow DIY tape master Martin Newell. Indispensible stuff
WOW A SIGNED R. STEVIE ALBUM?? yeah i’m gonna Sebadoh’s ‘Harmacy’
My fave lo-fi recording ever is the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Session album, all recorded straight to two-track on a single omnidirectional stereo mike in a Toronto church. I may be the only Earthling who’s not familiar with R Stevie Moore, although there’s no excuse as this album has a post on The Rising Storm.
check out Debris’ ‘Static Disposal’ or Afflicted Man ‘Get Stoned Ezy’!
My current lo-fi favorite is Charlie Tweddle’s 1974 honky-tonk/field-recording pastiche, Fantastic Greatest Hits, reissued by Companion Records a few years ago.
Man, just one home recording person? There’s so many great ones…
A few off the top of my head: Swell Maps, Shoes, the Pink Moon record, any Father Yod joint, Jem Targal, Bobb Trimble, Index, Peter Grudzein
I’m pretty excited about this reissue, and I think it’s probably gonna be on my next list of favorites.
Nice work. My favourite lo-fi home made album is Smog’s ‘Sewn to the sky’ Plus the man’s a genius.
Omega Tribe’s demo is probably my favorite. Not lo-fi by any means, but slowdives “souvlaki” is pretty much a cult classic & probably in my top 5 favorite albums of all time
I’m a Cool Daddio. All-time Stevie track.
But, to answer your question: Either “Holocaust” or “Kangaroo” from Third/Sister Lovers. I think one or both of those tracks mark a significant “Tomorrow Never Knows”-type quantum leap in music.
As a close runner-up, I would throw in the entire corpus of Tall Dwarfs.
First, let me say how much I love your blog and when I saw that you were giving away the same R. Stevie Moore record that I’ve been trying to win forever on ebay, I had to give it a try. While I firmly believe that Stevie is the absolute king of the lo-fi genre. A few other artists/albums that I enjoy are Ariel Pink’s “The Doldrums”, Tommy Jay’s “Tall Tales of Trauma” Strapping Fieldhands “Discus” and both of Bobb Trimble’s early records. Thanks for the opportunity and keep up the good work
much appreciated, Scott
I have heard so much amazing music for the first time on The Rising Storm. Les Sinners comes immediately to mind. R. Stevie Moore I believe was another i heard here first a few months back. My favorite home recording artist is probably this guy Bobby Brown from California in the 1970s who plays several homemade instruments, who put out an album called The Enlightening Beam of Axonda, it is a beautiful album.
Trevor McNamara – Yeah Captain. DIY late 60’s style.
i really love eric’s trip
I would like to enter my name into the drawing…what can I say, I love this guy…
Daniel Johnston’s “Yip Jump Music” stands out as one of the best DIY, in my opinion!
RSM has graced the fungus laden halls of my inner ear for many a turn on my table and i would stand n my head in Salamba Sirsasana deep in an om of thanks if i landed this slab. cant name a favorite lo-fi antihero cause there are too many but the first one that pops into my brain is “Scheme” from ann arbor circa ’93 – sort of the justice league of america meets oscar the grouch on lsd but more destructive.
D.R. Hooker – “The Truth” is a favorite but nothing, NOTHING, beats the majesty that is Skip Spence’s “Oar.”
RSM >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Daniel Johnston (no shit)
Love “Phonography” but fave DIY has to be Steve Kilpatrick’s “Westside Crop Circles”. Smart , catchy odd stuff; accessible ,too with lots of nice guitar work.
I gotta say that the Homosexuals’ self-titled album defines the late 70’s/early 80’s UK DIY sound for me and is definitely a stranded island album. So much brilliance, thrown onto cassette so sloppily. Love it.
half japaneeeeeeeeeeeeeese.
I’d have to go with Danielle Dax’s POP EYES, if only because she seems so far to be the only woman listed.
Then there’d be Islaya, Tar Pet, Spires That In The Sunset Rise, etc.
Oh, and Maureen Tucker’s PLAYING POSSUM.
A chance to listen to PHONOGRAPHY on a phonograph? Just seems right…
As for favorite cult DIY act I’m inclined to also name the irreverent Homosexuals but I think I’ll turn the other cheek and go with Half Japanese’s first seven inch! Can’t beat it with a stick!
UPDATE: The contest ends tomorrow, June 15 (official release date) at 5:00PM EST. Winner will be selected at random. Best of luck!
Michael Hurley singing “The Time Is Right” with Amy Boute on Parsnip Snips.
‘hit the town’ by ricky spontane…lost liverpool gems!
Non-RSM obscurities? I don’t know. I like Eugene Chadbourne and the early ’80s Church of the SubGenius “Media Barrage” tapes.
But what I’d really like to see is a deluxe vinyl remaster of one of Stevie’s brilliant home-tapes in its full original glory (as opposed to a compiled collection like Phonography). How about a 2-LP reissue of “The North” in a sleeve replicating the original yellow cassette J-card (at least, my copy was yellow)? That would be a mindbender.
RSM is the undisputed king of catchy low-fi pop tunes (and more esoteric stuff too!). He hit the ground running with Phonography and is still running 30-some years later. Amazing (nothing short of a miracle, really, considering his lack of recognition). My other favorite is the incredible Martin Newell, Wivenhoe’s psychedelic poet, gardener, and pop music maker. “The Greatest Living Englishman” is right behind “Phonography” in the running of greatest low-fi pop album ever made (and produced by Andy Partridge in a garden shed, I think…!).
I always wanted to have this Lp… but sorry Mr Moore but my favorite DIY Lp ever if this great curio :
cross my fingers and my toes and hope i’ll win!!!
best everything
Phil Spector (just out of jail)
personally im vunerable to RINGOSTARDUST and i like TREX-UNICORN.
Without the typewriter/keyboard, there’d be no qwerty.
Screaming Broccoli’s cover of Eleanor Rigby, a B-side to their bigger than University of Vermont area hit “Fashion.”
Dwarves, Salt lake city, don’t wanna go 7″ record. I’ma gonna winna da record!
No one’s better than R. Stevie – not just at lowfi recording, but most anything he attempts. Haven’t really thought about “home recording” as such, but two things that come to mind are early Bevis Frond, and, more obscurely, a cassette from the ’80s under the name “Daemon” – instrumental music that had some brilliant Frippish guitar work.
other great home-taper: Richard Nixon.
but still doesn’t beat the big R.
the secret is boundless talent and good microphone placing.
rsm is a god as are pete mccabe with his man who ate the plant lp and wim oudiijk with all his albums
R. Stevie is a beast of a genius, so of course I would love to own this! I gotta say other than Gary Wilson’s ‘You Think You Really Know Me’ (that was already mentioned) Michael Yonkers’ ‘Lovely Gold’ is one of my favs lately.
Thanks to all for participating in the contest! Random.org has determined the winner who has been contacted.
Don’t blame the knickers if you didn’t win, just remember that the record drops today over at Sundazed and you can always mine the entire catalog direct from RSM at rsteviemoore.com
‘weed forestin’ by you know who, jerusalem & the starbaskets’ most recent 7″, eat skull ‘wild and inside, scuz, a million others that i’ll think of over the course of the day now..
i’m gonna go with nick drake
Hands down: Skip Spence’s “Oar.” It gives a strong American rival to Barrett’s “Madcap Laughs” and the other more “accessible” outsider music masterpieces.
i can’t believe i forgot…elliott smith’s roman candle