Friends, roamers, record hunters…
We made it! Issue 08 of You Dig? is finally here. And, as always, we’re coming at you from that funky lil’ intersection of music, art, physical media, people and photography.
Down at those crossroads we reckon you’re sure to find this month’s cover art, from NY-based artist Pia Dehne. The painting’s based on her 2004 photoshoot, which recreated Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland cover – the one that didn’t make it to the then-prudish US market in 1968. The stencil-cum-cave painting style gives the iconic cover a whole new, yet curiously fitting vibe. Find out where to buy your own copy of the print, below.
German-born Dehne was picked as a favorite visual artist by this month’s guest curator, DB Burkeman. DB, who hails from London but has called New York home since 1989, is a longtime friend of Dust & Grooves. Check out his interview with Eilon from back in 2011. DB’s known for bringing his love of London’s nascent drum and bass and rave scene to New York, and co-founding the Breakbeat Science label and record store. Since around 2010, he’s focused more on art and books via his Blurring Books and Blurring Radio projects – find out more below.
As someone who grew up around many similar musical influences as DB, I found his selections for this month’s DG Curates especially interesting. He picks out Richard Russell’s book, Liberation Through Hearing, as one of his top reads, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s a fascinating, riveting history of turn-of-the millennium alternative music. (It also happens to be the book that inspired me to kick off Record Shop Stories, as you can read here.)
Enjoy the ride.
Rich Headland
Resident Editor
Vinyl Quotes
“Collecting records is like voluntarily becoming a historian or a chapter in a long book of musical histories.”
Dust & Grooves Curates
by DB Burkeman
I’m DB Burkeman, FKA DJ DB. Was a bit of a DJ, now making some noise in art and publishing.
[I know we said to keep it brief, man… but for those curious to know more, check DB’s backstory here, and check out his record collection on his 2011 Dust & Grooves interview.
New Musical Impress
Heroes and Villains: Long-form interviews that caught my eye
Being a music fanatic/nerd kid, which led me to actually having a 30-year career in the music industry, I considered myself fairly musically knowledgeable. However, after discovering a podcast called A History of Rock Music in 500 songs, I’ve listened to the 179 episodes available so far, and I now realize I knew nothing! Andrew Hickey is my new hero.
Sticky Zipper
Economy Class. Amazing finds from the $1 bin
Found a Russian bootleg of Sticky Fingers in a stoop sale once. The owner never noticed the cover was completely wrong!
XL: Always Eclectic
Hello, I Love You: Labels we dig
No contest: XL Recordings has been the most interesting and best label for more than 30 years. Fiercely independent, and always trying new ways of engaging with musicians and audiences. Everything they sign is not for me, but I have always loved the majority of their output – from early 90s with The Prodigy and Johnny L to The White Stripes, then The Horrors, and recently signing possibly my favorite electronic artist, Burial. It’s also the parent label to Young, which releases The xx and Sampha.
I’m also a fan of labels that reissue rare or obscure music from different genres, such as Light in the Attic, Soul Jazz Records, and others doing similar jobs.
Blurring the Lines
Listen To This. Mixtapes and listening experiences
I used to search and listen to a lot of Andrew Weatherall mixtapes on YouTube or Justin Strauss from the Lot, but haven’t really been craving mixtapes recently. (Photo: John Barrett)
Maybe that’s simply because I’ve been putting so much energy into recently launched, Blurring Radio, my own 4-5 hour eclectic monthly playlist.
I jokingly say, it’s curated for people who believe they are open-minded by someone who believes they have impeccable taste 😉
Liberature
Books Are Magic. Music books that are not Dust & Grooves.
From newest to oldest…
Liberation Through Hearing by Richard Russell. His ability to show the connecting musical threads is astonishing & wholly satisfying.
Record Play Pause: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist Volumes 1 & 2 by Stephen Morris.
Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group by Stan Cornyn & Paul Scanlon.
Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain, Funnist, saddest book ever.
Sounds Like New Again
We Love Lists. Top 5 records on my deck this month
1. My son, Max, turned me on to the world of Dean Blunt a few years ago and bought me his Black Metal album for Christmas. I love how English his music is.
2. Even though I don’t think I’d pay to go see Oasis now, Definitely Maybe and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants have been getting played very loudly in the living room, when Wini’s not home. I don’t think I appreciated how sick “Fucking in the Bushes” was at the time. I still need a copy of What’s the Story Morning Glory.
3. Burial is a constant and I’m always switching out 12-inches in the current pile.
4. I’ve gone back to Richard Russell and Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here a lot recently.
5. Also the lesser-known interpretation of the same GSH album, We’re New Again: A Reimagining By Makaya McCraven, which is truly incredible.
Musing on Music
The Out Crowd. Art Meets Music Meets Art.
There are so many artists I love who use music as their muse. In fact I wrote Art Sleeves, focused on fine artists that have made album covers for music artists. But two that spring to mind are Mark Leckey, a visual artist I really love, who fucks with music. His film Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore is possibly my fave moving image artwork ever. If you’ve never seen it, give yourself a 15-minute break from doomscrolling. And another is Pia Dehne who’s Electric Ladyland inspired painting is cropped in the header above.
DB Digs NY
You Dig Where? DB’s recommended local record spots
297 Grand St #2a New York, NY 10002.
Kyle is always playing something weird that I’ve never heard before.
32 E. 2nd St, NY 10003.
Great resource for the obscure, for not insane prices.
My hope is to open a physical Blurring Books shop/gallery, where I will have a curated records section!
Get Out!
Put your phone down and feed your soul with live events.
I’m excited to see/hear Jamie XX under the K Bridge Park this month, a venue I’ve not made it to yet. And Jamie is one of the few big-name DJs that deserves the praise.
Recovery Sunday
Let’s kill more time and reassure ourselves with high-brow viral scrolling.
Although he can trigger envy in me, I do love learning from Matthew Higgs. He’s someone who’s taken his nerdish, youthful love of music and art into the grown-up world, and is now operating on a very high level.
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Our Cover Artwork
Naked City Study – Pia Dehne
The Naked City project is a recreation of the controversial 1968 Jimi Hendrix album cover “Electric Ladyland”. Growing up in the 60’s and seeing this album cover in my parents record collection and the fact that the original photograph was censored in the US, inspired me to replace the groupie models with dynamic contemporary women of New York whom I scouted and photographed. A group photo shoot was executed by photographer Jason Schmid and I, followed by work in my studio producing a large velvet painting, drawings and studies. Paintings on velvet were popular kitsch style in the 1960’s, but this painting’s large scale of 18’ x 9’ gives it a different context with a royal air. The show took place in 2004 at Deitch Projects in NYC.
Dust & Grooves Memberships and Support
By now, we’re sure you can see how much love goes into Dust & Grooves. It’s a pure passion project, and Eilon has worked super hard to keep it an independent endeavor—always completely ad-free. This has been going for over a decade, and in that time Dust & Grooves has seen the building of a genuinely great community that celebrates record collecting, and one that has a huge love of music. We absolutely love to see it, and it means a lot to us.
We’re going to kindly ask that you consider to continue this support by looking at becoming a paid member, or make a one-time donation. There are some real groovy benefits to this and discounts on a range of merch, lovely!
Your support means we can preserve the culture we all cherish.
Dust & Grooves Books
Order Now.
Dust & Grooves Vol. 2
Further Adventures in Record Collecting – First Limited Edition
Renowned photographer and publisher Eilon Paz returns after the successful release of Dust & Grooves: Adventures In Record Collecting. For Volume Two, Paz highlights the planet’s biggest proponents of vinyl collecting, bridging stunning images with extensive interviews, revealing the motives and backstories behind the global vinyl community. Ten years after the first release, with vinyl sales skyrocketing and a booming popularity among Gen-Zs, Volume Two digs deeper than its predecessor, underscoring gorgeous collections from astute everyday enthusiasts to venerated DJs, musicians, and producers. Veteran journalist and editor David Ma handles the editorial end to this sequel, making Volume Two a cultural leader in the field, expertly accentuating the world’s unifying devotion to vinyl.
Tailor made for lovers of world-class photography, novice and expert collectors, and music obsessives alike.
Foreword by Prince Paul
Includes interviews with A-Trak, DaM Funk, Quantic, DJ Spinna, Kid Koala, Don Letts, Andy Votel, Mayer Hawthorne and more.
First limited edition of 4000 copies.
Portables
A Visual & Historical Exploration of 222 Vintage Portable Turntables
A 470-page hardcover book featuring highly detailed photos and comprehensive research on 222 portable vinyl record players, sourced from the collections of Paola Puente, Kalle Aldis Laar, Eric Cohen, Bas Bogerd and Mark Cruz.
Once considered little more than a children’s plaything or a grade school accessory, the portable record player has gained newfound respect in recent years. Whatever they may lack in high-end audio fidelity, battery-powered turntables more than make up for it with their convenience and ease of use. Just ask any crate digger: a cult favorite portable like the Columbia GP-3 or the Audio-Technica Sound Burger (or even the Fisher-Price Big Bird model) can be an absolutely essential companion on an all-day vinyl hunt.
Portables features lavish, detailed photos of 222 portable turntables from around the world, including rare record players from Japan, the UK, Germany and the Soviet Union as well as the USA, and ranging in vintage from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. They’re all gorgeously captured here by photographer Eilon Paz, with accompanying commentary from music historian Dan Epstein.
Whether you’re a hardcore turntable collector, an aficionado of cool vintage audio gear, a student of industrial design, or a vinyl lover curious about the wild world of portable record players, Portables will make your head spin—and will soon have you scouring thrift stores, antique malls, and even your grandma’s attic for the portable record player of your dreams.
Dust & Grooves: Vol. 1 & 2
Deluxe Limited Box Set
A deluxe slipcase box set of Dust & Grooves Vol. 1 (10th Anniversary Edition) & Vol. 2.
Includes:
4mm cardboard slipcase with foil stamping and blind deboss
The Dust & Grooves Sleeveface Poster
