This is Vinyl Tap
Mining the layers of long players. We focus on great albums in their entirety and believe every album tells a story. We take a deep dive into the history of the artist and the album while discussing the merits of the music within the grooves. We are highly opinionated and outspoken and hope to provoke you into sharing your own opinions on albums. If you are serious about great music, this is your podcast. www.tappingvinyl.com
Episodes
On this episode we discuss Dave Alvin and his 1994 LP, King of California.
Dave Alvin started his storied career in Los Angeles with the Blasters, a band he founded with his brother Phil. Full of energy and attitude, the Blasters found themselves embraced by the LA punk scene. The band did find some commercial success, but they fought like cats and dogs, which while it added to their intensity, but not their long-ter...
On this episode we discuss one America's great modern singer-songwriters -Robbie Fulks, and his wonderful 2016 album Upland Stories.
Produced by the late, great Steve Albini, Upland Stories combines folk and traditional country elements into a rich collection of narrative-driven songs. The album and the fantastic opening track “Alabama at Night” both earned a Grammy nominations, recognition for what is considered...
On this episode of the podcast, we discuss Joni Mitchell’s 1971’s LP Blue, regarded by most critics as a masterpiece and consistently is listed on best of lists of the greatest albums ever made.
A bit of a sea change for Mitchell, incorporating jazz stylings in both her phrasing and the music, it’s sparse on instrumentation, yet the songs feel full largely due to Mitchell's own vocals.
Created just after her bre...
It's a listener pick! On this episode we look at one of the most influential musical groups of the twentieth century - Sly and the Family Stone, and their 1970 LP There's a Riot Goin' On.
By 1970, Sly Stone and his band had already had a huge impact on modern music. It was a mixed-race and mixed-gender band that spoke of love and harmony among all people. Hits like "Everyday People,"...
This week we discuss Ian Hunter and his 1979 LP You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. Hunter worked a long time to find success. His band Mott the Hoople were instrumental in advancing glam rock by giving it a rougher edge. David Bowie was such a fan of the band that he even gave them the song "All the Young Dudes" which became the title track for their most popular album, which he also produced. Hu...
On this week's episode, we discuss the self-titled debut by the New York Dolls, one of most influential albums of the 1970s.
The New York Dolls blended the Rolling Stones' swagger with garage rock aggression and glam rock theatrics, that both embraced the sounds of early rock and roll and foreshadowed punk rock.
Produced in what seems like an unusual hands-off approach by Todd Rundgren,The New York Dolls pre...
On this week's episode, we discuss an album that came out in 2024, the fifth album by the Lemon Twigs, A Dream is All We Know.
Consisting of multi-instrumentalist brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, the music of the Lemon Twigs often feels like it’s been plucked straight from the 1960s or 1970s. Echos of the Beatles, the Kinks and the Beach Boys are obvious, in fact they brothers call the sound of this LP...
On this episode, we discuss one of the most heralded debut albums of the early 1990's: The La's by the La's.
Heavily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion bands, The La’s is full of bright, jangly, melodic guitar pop, ear-worms all. The single “There She Goes” has become a classic, and is possibly one of the most perfectly constructed pop songs ever recorded. The album’s history, however, is one of t...
On this episode, we discuss one of the first albums of 1967, the eponymous debut by the Youngbloods.
1967 is one of the most heralded years in rock music, and The Youngbloods was a good primer to the music that would come culminating in the Summer of Love. Originally from the East Coast, the Youngbloods took inspiration from the folk music and acoustic blues they heard and played in the coffee houses of the in The Vi...
On this episode, we discuss Grievous Angel, the last album recorded by one of the most interesting, tragic, and influential people in modern music: Gram Parsons.
In just six short years, from 1967 until his death in the fall of 1973, Gram Parson help pioneer what would become known as country rock, or what he preferred to call "Cosmic American Music." In those six years, he made several landmark albums wi...
On this weeks episode, we discuss an LP by John Wesley Harding (né Wesley Stace), 1996’s John Wesley Harding’s New Deal.
After releasing two EPs and three full length albums with a full band for Sire Records, Harding decided to strip down his sound for his debut on his new label Forward Records (an imprint of Rhino Records). Harding much preferred the intimacy of acoustic live performances and created an album that e...
On this weeks episode, we take a listen to a true Texas legend, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and his 1993, Spinning Around the Sun.
With his high, lonesome voice, Jimmy Dale embodies the very essence of that land from which he hails, the Texas Panhandle. Even thought he was in his forties when his first solo album was recorded, he had already made his mark on the musical landscape of the Lone Star State, having been in the leg...
On this week's episode, we take a listen to another Listener's Pick: Thin Lizzy's sixth studio album, Jailbreak from 1976. It took some time, but by the time they recorded Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy's had figured out their formula and Jailbreak became their breakout LP.
Showcasing the tuneful songs of Phil Lynott and the expert twin guitar interplay of Scott Gorman and Brian Robertson, the album is the ...
On this week's episode, we dig into the the forth album by the band the National, 2007's Boxer.
The National is a band, literally, of brothers (two pairs) and a friend all from Ohio that formed after all parties moved to New York. From the get go, the band's music leaned heavily on and atmospheric and stood out due to the deep baritone vocals of lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger.
After slowly but...
This week This Is Vinyl Tap discusses the criminally underrated album by Pure Prairie League, 1972's Bustin’ Out.
Bustin' Out contains the band's most well known song, "Aime," a radio staple for the last 50 years. Oddly, while even the most casual of music listeners know the song, many would be hard pressed to name the band that performs it. As a result, Bustin' Out has been somewhat igno...
On this episode, we take a deep dive into a “Listener Pick” - the fifth and final studio album by the Simon and Garfunkel, 1970's Bridge Over Trouble Water.
While the partnership between Simon and Garfunkel was under immense strain that elementally led to its demise, the duo went out with a bang. Bridge Over Trouble Water was a commercial smash, and is regarded by many as Simon and Garfunkel's mas...
This week we dig into the 1973 self-titled debut by Bad Company.
Coming off of the success of Free, Paul Rodgers hooked up with Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and along with former Free drummer Simon Kirk, and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, formed what may be the most American-sounding British band ever: Bad Company.
Rodgers soulful and powerful voice and Ralphs crunchy guitars punctuate...
This week we dive head first into the 1968 psychedelic rock opera by the Pretty Things, S.F. Sorrow.
Ask any music fan what was the first rock opera was and most would say Tommy by the Who. That answer would be wrong. Recorded on S.F. Sorrow started a year before the Who even went into the studio to begin Tommy. Unfortunately the release of the album was delayed and was released after Tommy, placing S.F. Sor...
We start Season Five off with a monster album, Eat a Peach, by the Allman Brothers Band. Released in 1972, it is a double album and simultaneously their 3rd studio album and their 2nd Live album.
The Allman Brothers Band were perhaps the first "Southern Rock" band, but they were so much more than that. Steeped in the blues, the brothers Duane and Greg actually had careers as session musicians playing everythi...
On this episode, we have a listener pick: Nick Lowe and his 1994 album The Impossible Bird.
Nick Lowe has been a topic of conversation several times on This Is Vinyl Tap due to the indelible mark the man has left on pop music. Lowe was a bass player, singer and songwriter of the influential pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz. He was a member of the the fabulous Rockpile. He is a producer of some note, having wo...
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