Today’s post comes from my new intern Samantha, who has proven to be incredibly hardworking and helpful in the short week I’ve had her on my team. Having spent time in Halifax recently for school, she grew to know the people at Black Buffalo Records well. Here, she tells us how owner Kevin Beal has done something I think needs to become more of a priority in every city around the country – helped usher in a renewed interest in vinyl. 

Written by : Samantha Stevens

Today’s generation of music lovers plug themselves into high-tech music devices such as iPods, BlackBerrys and Androids to provide themselves with the non-stop pleasure of sound. Between the 1960s and 1970s however, vinyl records and record players were the preferred method for one’s listening experience.

Black Buffalo Records owner Kevin Beal was just nine years old when he first dreamed of owning his own record shop. When Plan B Merchants Co-operative opened, that dream turned into a reality. “CDs or cassettes were just not that personal,” comments Beal. A record needs to be pulled out of the sleeve and  placed onto the record player; it “became its own ritual,” he continues.

Evidently, Beal is no stranger to music. At the age of nine, he was influenced by his older brother, who had him listening to vinyl and a diverse list of artists. By the time he was 10 Beal began to collect vinyl when he could afford it, starting with the hip-hop genre. Now his collection has expanded into thousands of rock classics and modern indie rock albums.

Beal dedicates his time to searching for collectables that will satisfy his customers’ music desires.  He is also involved in promoting local musicians and bands in the city. You could classify him as a music promoter for the arts.

The first time a customer visits Black Buffalo Records one’s attention is drawn to the giant Basin Buffalo head mounted on the back wall.  Beal takes pride and respect in having his company logo as the buffalo because it symbolizes his Metis ethnicity. His trademark also complements the shops’ atmosphere both culturally and artistically.

In less than a year, Black Buffalo Records has started to grow a profit in the music trading industry. He offers buyers and traders a wide-ranging collection of music for any age to enjoy. A component of Beal’s success comes from the support of Plan B located on 2180 Gottingen Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Plan B is an organization where local vendors can rent space to establish small and large businesses. It’s a venue for displaying hand-made or personal collections on site while vendors  tend to other full-time commitments. Kevin explains, “Plan B has helped me pursue a business that I have dreamt of since I was young.”

If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting the rest of our lives.

- Lemony Snicket

So this is a super cute idea. AUX paired with Exclaim to make a new show on the influence parents have had on their musician kids. Full episodes of Parental Advisory air Sunday nights at 8:30pm EST, but for now here’s a clip featuring Max from The Arkells talking about his parents influence on him as a musician.

It’s mixtape monday! This month’s mix comes from the music selection I put together for my parents 30th anniversary (which also happened to be my mom’s 50th birthday) last weekend. I was responsible for the music, and the bar, of course. My sister took care of decorating the venue since that’s what she does on film sets for a living, and we spent too much money on catering – but it was an awesome night and I think it made up for the seriously shitty wedding my parents had 30 years ago. My mom’s siblings were not allowed to attend because her dad was a huge asshole, they had the reception in a crappy restaurant because of limited funds, and my dad’s family didn’t think my mom was good enough for him – my dad (who was very much a mama’s boy) actually punched a hole through his parents wall because they were trying to convince him not to go through with it. I’ll never get tired of hearing that story.

Obviously everything worked out in the end or I wouldn’t be here.

So this is probably the most personal mix I’ve ever made, because these are the songs and the artists I grew up listening to via my parents. My entire musical identity could be traced back to hearing these tracks a million times growing up. There are some artists on here I don’t particularly like (Kim Mitchell, umm, sorry guys) but for whatever reason – my parents connected with this music and that made it important to include.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!!

(If you represent an artist on the mix and would like their song removed, please contact me at lisa at turntherecordover.com and I will happily remove it right away, thanks!)

John Mellencamp- Small Town This is pretty much my parents theme song. They love their small town and do not understand how they raised two kids who don’t. And my dad loooved John Cougar, as he called himself back in the day. It’s incredibly uncool to like him now, but this song will always be huge to me. I rejected everything about the small town and moved to the city as soon as I could, but I am so incredibly grateful I was born and raised in Welland. It gave my sis and I ambition, determination and passion. I doubt we would have been half as interested in art and creative expression if we had constant access to it like city kids do. Having to watch movies to experience any culture and diversity at all made us long for something more. No I cannot forget where it is that I come from, I cannot forget the people who love me…  This was a hard one to choose because I easily could have included “Jack and Diane” or “Pink Houses” instead (I grew up in a little blue house, no joke).

Bob Seger -Night Moves Bob Seger songs are the only songs that get my incredibly shy dad to let loose on a dance floor.

April Wine – Song For Mary I probably should have chose a different April Wine song, but this is one of those bands that I just don’t really dig much despite my dad loving them. He was a big supporter of Canadian music, but not all of it was excellent, unfortunately. I went with this one because its the one April Wine song I really love.

Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road Bruce is the ultimate in my family. My earliest life memory consists of dancing to the “Dancin In The Dark” video in front of the television. Bruce’s music was the one catalog that never had a break in our house. We bought my parents tickets to see him and the E Street Band in August as their present this year. I went with “Thunder Road” because I think the sentiment of being young and running away from everyone to be together was incredibly apt for my parents back in the day, but it was hard not to include “My Hometown,” “Glory Days,” and basically all of Born In The USA in this. As a side note, it also features the Bruce line that basically defined my experience growing up… it’s a town full of losers, I’m pullin out of here to win. 

Johnny Cash & June Carter- If I Were A Carpenter This one is more from my mom, who is a big country music fan, to my dismay. They actually named my sister after Roseanne Cash, since they were both big Johnny Cash fans (and me after Loretta Lynn – my first name is actually Lisa Lynn). I respect legit country music like this and love Johnny, it’s the ‘nu’ country stuff she loves that I refused to play. This song is probably the cutest duet ever, btw.

Bryan Adams – Everything I Do (I Do It For You) Another request from my mom. Since they didn’t have a dance-floor at their reception and therefore didn’t have a ‘wedding song’ my mom decided to claim this as their song, even though it came out almost a decade after they were married. I do not approve of the cheese, but I get it. He did have a few good songs.

Neil Young - Harvest Moon The ultimate enduring love song, and I mean, it’s Neil. I was raised on Harvest as much as I was raised on Born In The USA, Rumours, Breakfast in America and Scarecrow. Very thankful for that. When we were strangers, I watched you from afar… When we were lovers, I loved you with all my heart. 

Kim Mitchell – Patio Lanterns I know, I know. I already apologized for this one once, yet I feel the need to again because it’s that bad – but for whatever strange reason (it was the 80s, Canadian pride?), my dad loved Kim Mitchell. The more I dig into it, the more his taste confuses me, but we must all admit that this song is incredibly hilarious. It’s so bad it’s good. I’d spend half the night making lemonade, which we all drank a lot, because we were all so shy, shy and nervous. And if you really want to pee your pants, check out the video for “Go For A Soda”. It seems he wrote music for 10 year olds.

The Guess Who – These Eyes Then again, there definitely was some respectable CanRock they loved.

Bachman Turner Overdrive – Hey You My dad constantly talked about “BTO” when I was a kid. I think he actually preferred Randy’s work in BTO to what he did with The Guess Who .

Tom Petty – Even The Losers Though he always came in secondary to Bruce, Tom’s work obviously hit the same note for them. Even the losers get lucky sometimes. I fucking love this song. My parents never really fit in with anyone but each other and because of that I think they are very lucky to have found each other, so it’s a fitting song.

Fleetwood Mac – You Make Loving Fun I doubt there is a single album I’ve heard more in my life than Rumours, which might be because I love it equally as much as my parents do. I think it’s that one absolutely flawless album that so few artists ever achieve. Although it is the definitive break up album, this one song steers clear of the moving on territory the album is famous for, so it worked out nicely. You, you make loving fun, and I don’t have to tell you but you’re the only one. My dad used to always talk about how cool Lindsey Buckingham was (he definitely stole his style in those days from Lindsey – %100, afro and all) and for the longest time I thought he was talking about Stevie Nicks because my tiny brain couldn’t put together that the guy had a girls name and the girl had a guys name. He also had a massive crush on Christine McVie, which as I got older I had to question. Who likes Christine more than Stevie?! But he thought Stevie was too ‘witch like,’ of course.

Marianne Faithful – As Tears Go By Such a depressing song, but we used to always hang out in the basement when I was little and my dad would turn this song on and my mom would teach me how to play it on the keyboard while he would mess around on his guitar. It was the first song I ever learned how to play. I definitely prefer the Stones version, but this was the version they loved.

The Band – The Weight More CanRock gold I’m glad I grew up with.

Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends For all the music obsessing they did, they were never really big Beatles fans – I heard this version of the song many many times as a kid before I ever realized it was a Beatles song.

The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want When I was young my dad always joked that this was my theme song because I was a stubborn as hell kid. He would play it whenever I would have a fit over wanting something they couldn’t afford, and I would threaten to run away if I couldn’t have it (which I did, many times, my nickname was ‘The Escapee’ and they had to put a fence up and buy one of those kid leashes for me, but I always found my way out).

Wilco – My Darling My parents don’t really know Wilco as they don’t pay attention to modern music, but I included this song because it’s the song I feel my dad would have wrote for us if he had the capacity to write music like Jeff Tweedy. It’s also the song I think expresses the sentiment of my family the most. Cause we made you, my darling, with the love in each of our hearts, we were a family, my darling, right from the start. 

Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child of Mine I think driving around town in his black Spyder with this song playing and his kids rocking out in the backseat was one of my dad’s favorite things to do in the late 80s. Probably why I always thought he was the coolest person ever (still do). I loved that car, was so mad when my mom made him sell it for something more respectable.

Supertramp – Goodbye Stranger My dad still talks about Supertramp like they were gods, and it’s one of the best goodbye songs ever written. Perfect closer for a mix.

You should check out the previous mixes while you’re here. 

If you liked this mix, please stumble, reddit, tweet or share it! I appreciate the support more than you know. 

(click the image to make it larger)

Since today is Mother’s Day – a day to celebrate the strong women in our lives – I thought this would be an appropriate infographic to share, as it is so incredibly accurate.

I’m fairly sure all of you are more than aware of the ridiculous lack of  strong female characters that exist in the movies. It’s one of the reasons I studied film in school with a fleeting interest in screenwriting – I absolutely loved acting, but the roles for women were always so limited and simplistic – I wanted to help change that. I still do, but my lack of patience means I have a painfully hard time writing something as massive as a feature screenplay, despite having a constant flow of ideas I’d love to see on screen some day.

Women are complicated, crazy, fascinating people and there is no reason for the movie business to limit portrayals of half the population of the world to these one dimensional idiots we are bombarded with 99% of the time.

If you have yet to see the great documentary Miss Representation, it covers this topic brilliantly. I highly recommend checking it out. They show some incredible facts about how as little kids, girls and boys equally want to be president when they grow up, but by the preteen years that number begins to drop massively for girls as they absorb more media and never see females represented in powerful political roles. They show Paul Haggis discussing how he tries to write interesting female characters, but not being a women himself means there’s only so much he can do. Women have to push themselves into this industry and make their voices heard if this is ever going to change. A man can’t write a strong female character because he has no idea what it feels like to be a woman, and you can only write what you know.

It is absolutely shameful that women made up 14% of screenwriters and 5% of directors in Hollywood in 2011.  The entertainment industry is dominated by men, and this sad fact will never change until we start raising girls to believe that they can and should fill these positions of power.

I’m thankful I have a mom that, indirectly, inspired both her daughters to dream big.