(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 14: Digital Analog (70s Edition)

I used to maintain a playlist called Digital Analog which was essentially a playlist of all my vinyl and cassettes. It had a nice ring and was useful for tracking what I owned as I started V2 of my vinyl journey. That playlist is long gone, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it as I start to re-think my purchasing habits – there’s just not enough room in this house for what has built to just over 1,400 records in about six years. Especially with the new releases – most of these were recorded digitally, so ANY vinyl master is going to come from a digital source in most of those cases (I know, a few bands and starts still record analog, but that’s increasingly a rarity). So is there still a benefit? Maybe if there’s a specific vinyl master, but who knows who’s doing that?

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groundhogs - thank christ for the bomb

Groundhogs: Thank Christ For The Bomb (1970)

I had no idea who the Groundhogs were when I first heard about them. It came, like so many of the albums I eventually fell for, from a list. Specifically from Decibel Magazine’s Stoner Rock special all the way back in 2007.Their Top 20 Stoner Rock Albums of All Time list was okay, if a bit,well…underwhelming. But tucked away was also an article by Scott Seward dubbed The Filthy 50, where he lists out as it states in the article “50 forgotten late 60s/early 70s thud-rock masterpieces.” And number one of that list was Thank Christ For the Bomb. When I started collecting vinyl it became the #1 must-have on my wishlist, and the good news (besides the fact you can read his article for free here) is that the album holds up superbly as a killer early hard rock record. It’s filthy, it’s thunderous, and those guitars are just sublime.

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