VMP Magazine

So... what's your sign? Whether you're an astrology fanatic or just the casual dabbler who appreciates an aesthetically pleasing astrology meme, we can all agree Stevie Nicks and our May Essentials ROTM Bella Donna have some serious celestial goddess energy. Luckily, we teamed up with one of our favorite vintage astrology Instagram creators, @cogey, to pair all 12 astrological signs with our favorite lyrics from the album.

Check out what Stevie's got written in the stars for you below, or on Cogey's stunning Instagram feed, which we're obsessed with.

It was six years and 11 solo albums after the release of Dolly Parton’s solo breakthrough, Coat of Many Colors, that she sat down with Barbara Walters on ABC Evening News on December 6, 1977. After guiding Walters and the camera crew through her tour bus while gushing about the wonders of a life on the road for a restless woman from humble beginnings, she wielded her nylon-string guitar and serenaded Walters, and the American public, with an intimate rendition of the album’s opening and title track.

How do you begin to honor something as integral to your identity as the place where you grew up? Most folks from small towns or rural regions learn it’s often easier to describe your home in terms of what’s relatively close to it, rather than where you’re actually from. To save time or avoid confusion, it’s simpler to pick the nearest well-known city, geographical landmark or place that otherwise matters enough to exist in our common cultural lexicon. While less concerned with concision, Dolly Parton illustrates this habit while proudly describing her geographical roots in her first big interview with a major country music publication, Music City News, in 1967. 

Kacey Musgraves is standing in front of a glitter wall at the release party for her sophomore record, Pageant Material, at the stuffed-to-capacity Play, an LGBTQIA+ dance club, one of the few in Nashville. The audience wears plastic tiaras and sashes embla-zoned with the album’s title, and she’s up on the club’s catwalk, swimming in a fuchsia spotlight the shade of a feather burlesque boa. But it’s not Kacey who’s performing at her own album launch. 

The characters that inhabit the muggy and restless world of Kacey Musgraves’ 2013 debut full-length Same Trailer Different Park rocket country’s old three-chords-and-the-truth adage to another stratosphere. Simply put, Musgraves would seemingly rather burn her guitar than pick it up just to sugarcoat things. Take, for example, the record’s first single, “Merry Go ’Round,” a melancholy track punctuated with the sparse glow of banjo plucks that gleam intermittently throughout the song the way warm light from dull street lamps passes through car windows. It explores what it means to get stuck in your downtrodden surroundings and settle “like dust” where you are. In it, the characters get boxed in by tradition and feel so secure in their blanket of familiarity that they never leave it, turning to an array of vices for stimulation when inevitable boredom sets in. The chorus is a blunt-force early example of the kind of addictive tongue-in-cheek paronomasia that Musgraves would come to be beloved for: “Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay / Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane / And Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down / Mary, Mary quite contrary / We get bored, so we get married.” 

An instinct to impose a flat surface over a multi-dimensional reality has been a source of human error since the beginning of time. Resisting that instinct is where magic happens.

Tennis have had a lot of flat surfaces placed over their reality, basically since they debuted in 2011. And it’s easy to see why; Tennis are easy to romanticize. A beautiful, young married couple that sails around the world in seemingly unattainable luxury, writing dream-worthy indie rock, being madly in love, waking up with perfect hair? It has to be straight out of a 1940s romance. Tennis’ shiny seafoam surface practically breeds easy misconceptions about who they are or what their music is. But to apply neat and tidy storybook tropes to real human beings would be to miss the boat on Tennis completely.

It’s the late ’60s and USPS worker John Prine, still carrying the glinty eyed, apple-cheeked remnants of boyhood on his face well into his early 20s, is seeking refuge from the gnarly Chicago winds along his daily mail delivery route. He crams himself into a relay box, those large, slotless olive green drop boxes for one carrier to leave mail in for later pickup by another. As he enjoys a ham sandwich and a moment of rest, he lets his mind wander, and writes the bulk of “Hello in There,” an eerily accurate song about the loneliness and resignation of old age, penned by a young man only a few years removed from adolescence.

The afternoon Caroline Rose, 30, showed up at the Chateau Marmont, the previous night’s guests were, in all likelihood, nursing very important hangovers. Aside from the humming parade of lavish cars exiting the garage, the rustling of an expensive landscape, and the heads-down shuffling of crisply uniformed staff, the area was an unsettlingly quiet, vast pocket of Sunset Boulevard. It was the day after Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Oscars afterparty, and Caroline walked through the same space Timothée Chalamet and Rihanna had not long before, looking a bit baffled she was being allowed on the property in the first place. On various occasions in the past, she’d tried to get into the Chateau to no avail, she explained upon entering, dressed head-to-toe in her now-signature red, down to her suitcase, with the exception of a black leather jacket. She’d been told at each previous attempt to enter it was closed for a “private event” and turned away.

In 2015, indie pop, uh, genius Perfume Genius tweeted, “I don't have any tattoos but I feel like going in to parlor with a bunch of printed out Fiona Apple lyrics and just going to town.”

It turns out Perfume Genius semi-seriously joking about that on Twitter is a window into a subculture I found on social media platforms: people who get Fiona Apple lyric tattoos. There’s a certain type of artist whose work moves their fans so deeply beyond the routine acts of fandom that they inspire acts of devotion like getting a visible, permanent reminder stamped on the only carnal vessel we’re given, and it turns out Fiona Apple is definitely one of them.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Whatever The Weather, Loraine James’ new self-titled Ghostly debut. 

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Classic Objects, Norwegian experimental musician and novelist Jenny Hval’s latest release.

Though much of the story that led up to Aaliyah Dana Haughton’s third and final album — and so much of what came after it — is filled with trauma and loss, we’re not here to talk about that. The record has become understandably inseparable from that fateful day, less than two months after the release of Aaliyah, when the world lost the singular artist at just 22 years old when her plane went down in the Bahamas on a return trip from filming the video for “Rock The Boat,” killing all nine people on board. Of course, nothing exists in a vacuum, and it’s impossible to consider the singer’s life, impact and career outside the darker forces that shaped them. But, imagine pressing play on Aaliyah on the day of its release. Just for a moment, imagine only hearing the album itself, removed from its context. All you’d hear is a record of the creatively fruitful and personally transformative years in which it was created. All you’d hear is a warm red light, a blossoming, a revelation, the sound of someone shedding a complex girlhood as she crossed the threshold of womanhood to emerge on her own terms. 

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is SASAMI’s masterful sophomore release, Squeeze. 

The  web page of the GLBT Historical Society that houses scans of the singer, songwriter, performer and disco artist Sylvester James Jr.’s obituary is filled with guestbook signatures. In 2020, Chris posted from Paris remembering some charming exchanges with him in a supermarket. In 2017, Jewell described seeing him live and the feeling of listening to a well-worn Sylvester record, loosely quoting “Dance (Disco Heat)”: “You can't calm my feet in the disco heat, dancin' thru the night, til mornin' light shines on me!” In 2009, John wrote in from San Francisco, remembering a handful of revolutionary artists taken from us too soon due to AIDS’ devastation: Patrick Cowley, then Sylvester, then Frank Loverde, then Marty Blecman. 

Each entry in the page’s collection serves as a little glimpse into the way Sylvester’s legacy remains alive to this day. His spirit thrives in a collection of vignettes stored across generations of memories, in songs that flood kitchens, basements, block parties, pride events and clubs alike and in every kinetic dance move they inspire. 

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Laurel Hell, the forthcoming long-awaited follow-up to Mitski’s 2019 album, Be the Cowboy.

When I first got into record collecting in high school, I was overwhelmed with the amount of items you could acquire as a record collector that weren’t, well, records. While I love getting records as a gift, I’ve been gifted an album I already own by a well-intentioned gift-giver more than once. And nothing is more fun when you first start collecting than going to the record store (online or IRL) and picking out a record you’ve been waiting to add to your collection.

So, as a record collector, some of the best gifts are gifts that compliment my record collection — things I may not buy for myself over buying a record I want, but feel like a luxury to own. Here are some fun, functional and otherwise delightful gifts for someone in your life who’s just starting out their collection, or even someone with a more robust collection.

I love music, but rarely do I take the time to think about the ways I consume it. Despite being an avid music listener, my music life is a black hole of bad habits and disorderly chaos. I’m the perfect specimen for a rehaul to the logistical system through which I organize and consume music, because I truly have no system.

In our resolution frenzies, our music routines are often overshadowed by hollow promises to work out or to cut back on drinking, but these music resolutions will actually make your life easier and more enjoyable. You can thank us while you’re enjoying your favorite album of 2017 with a drink in hand, as far away from the gym as possible.

Are you a puzzled relative of a vinyl-loving, music-obsessed youth? Or are you a vinyl-loving, music-obsessed youth that is really trying to avoid another well-intended Coldplay T-shirt, even though you've told Uncle Pat that you haven’t liked Coldplay since your 6th grade boyfriend broke up with you at Hot Topic in 2004 while “The Scientist” played on the radio? Or, perhaps, your Uncle Pat is more vinyl-loving or music-obsessed than you, but you seemed to have drawn his name again in the family Secret Santa. Either way, this article may be of some assistance.

If I’m being completely honest, I, a vinyl-loving, music-obsessed youth, am writing this because I’m fairly sure my mom searches the internet regularly for my bylines, and I’m hoping she finds this and buys me a few of these things. That being said, I realize this is likely a helpful tool to make your favorite vinyl-lover beam during the holiday season.

Every week we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Cool Dry Place, the debut album from Texas-bred, Nashville-based indie rocker Katy Kirby.

VMP is thrilled to feature Teddy Pendergrass’ Life is a Song Worth Singing as our Classics Record of the Month in October 2021. The album is the Quiet Storm R&B icon’s second solo album, and the release that solidified his rightful throne in solo superstardom, which you can read more about in the album’s Listening Notes.

VMP is honored to feature Emmylou Harris’ breakout album, Pieces of the Sky, as our Country Record of the Month in September 2021. Pieces of the Sky is Harris’ solo breakthrough, and an album with a heart-breaking story behind it, which you can read more about in the album’s Listening Notes.

With a career spanning over 50 years, Pieces of the Sky is merely the telltale beginning of a career that would go on to influence country music, and music at large, for decades. From solo albums that hold their weight against her stunning breakthrough to collaborations with some of the biggest names in country music, Harris’ catalogue is beyond worthy of some focused listening. We put together this primer so you can widen your understanding of the context surrounding her Record of the Month and further explore some of the many heights her work reached following Pieces of the Sky.

“You have to grow up, start paying the rent and have your heart broken before you understand country.” — Emmylou Harris to The London Times, 2008

Spin Emmylou Harris’ breakthrough album, Pieces of the Sky, just once, and it’s tough to even imagine a voice as free as hers coming from someone who’s ever had a single reservation in her life.

VMP is honored to feature the first definitive vinyl release of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s masterpiece self-titled second album as our Essentials Record of the Month in August 2021.

Photo by Peter Ash Lee

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week's album is Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is color theory, the new album from Soccer Mommy.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Likewise, the first solo album released under her own name from Philadelphia punk-infused indie rock outlet Hop Along’s Francis Quinlan.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is MAGDALENE, the sophomore album from FKA twigs.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2, the second collaborative album from Mount Eerie (Phil Elverum) and Julie Doiron.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Anak Ko, the third album from Jay Som.

On a drizzly April evening in New York's Chelsea, Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss pack onto a stylish couch in the windowless bowels of a creative agency. Slumped a bit after a long day of shooting the cover of Sleater-Kinney’s ninth studio album, The Center Won’t Hold, they engage in a brief discussion about an unidentified object in the corner of the room made up of a large barrel, approximately 10 brooms, and a plastic children’s urinal (Is it art? The consensus is yes). My request to know what we can expect from the album art is met with three smirks, followed by the type of silent eye contact conversation that seldom occurs outside of people who have known each other for decades.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Immunity, the debut full-length from internet pop sensation Clairo.

Getting too excited waiting for your record to get to your doorstep? Or maybe you just want to know as much about Sleater-Kinney as humanly possible (who can blame you)? Here’s a few recommendations for you to enjoy before, during, or after listening to The Center Won’t Hold.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is the latest from soulful, country-infused artist Faye Webster, Atlanta Millionaires Club.

Every week we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is U.F.O.F., the new album from Big Thief.

Every week, we tell you about an album you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is What Chaos Is Imaginary by Girlpool.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is thank u, next by Ariana Grande.

In December 2016, when VMP Rising — our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl — was in its fetal stages, we pressed Moses Sumney’s third EP Lamentations onto gold vinyl and sold it for $17. Just 10 months later, in October 2017, Sumney’s debut full-length record Aromanticism was our Essentials Record of the Month, and that same EP now sells on Discogs for well over triple what we sold it for. In that time, Sumney had blown up as one of the hottest emerging artist of that time.

Through our 24 Rising artists so far — from our first (Madison, Wisconsin, rapper Trapo) to our latest (Swedish singer/songwriter/producer Becky and the Birds) — our Senior A&R and head of our Rising program Alex Berenson always had this in the back of her mind as she scouted for who to feature: “If they came out with a debut album, do I think it would be the type of record we’d wanna go all in on?” Sumney was the first, and probably won’t be the last.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Becky and the Birds, the debut EP from Stockholm singer, songwriter and producer Thea Gustafsson, aka Becky and the Birds. You can buy our exclusive edition over here.

If we could harness and bottle raw adolescent feminine rage — in all its intensity and urgency — and distribute it to the general populace, we’d probably launch our society into progress of unfathomable heights and depths. Until then, Bratmobile’s 1993 debut album Pottymouth gets pretty damn close.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Empress Of’s Us, which you can pre-order on vinyl from the Vinyl Me, Please store, here.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Molly Burch’s First Flower.

We are featuring the only color variant of Chris, the sensational new album from French pop star Christine and the Queens, in the Vinyl Me, Please store now. You can buy it here.

The album is out Friday, so we talked to Chris over email — she’s quite busy these days — about the album, the role of pop music and trying to not get discouraged with the state of the world.

The air stood swamp-thick and dead-still, the pace of the life it engulfed even thicker and stiller yet. The suburban sprawl gave way to jungle-like landscapes that seemed both manicured and like they’d been left to the wild for too long. What felt like foreign cities to me were, to Mitski, simply stops in her life of near-constant touring. In mid-June, with her fifth album Be The Cowboy on the horizon, I made my way down south to follow her on two of her tour dates — Oxford, Mississippi, and Gainesville, Florida — during an intimate solo tour of smaller towns across America that artists like Mitski don’t often visit.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring CDW and Stone Woman, the debut and sophomore releases from the soulful Toronto musician Charlotte Day Wilson.

There’s no time like now to be a Mitski stan. From the outside, the Mitski-heads could be described as “intense” or “rabid,” but not without reason. Her fanbase is a bit of an anomaly in the indie rock world where being “super cool and chill” reigns over all. More than a lot of artists, Mitski’s rise has been fan-driven above all else. This certainly isn’t lost on her.

We went to Bon Iver's festival again this year. Read our review below.

Believe it or not, the Royal Wedding was not the most exciting thing to happen in the United Kingdom this weekend; it was Great Escape. For the uninitiated, the Great Escape is basically a British SXSW with fewer grackles and BBQ, more seagulls and “chips,” Ss where Zs should be, and the word “literally” pronounced with three syllables instead of four. Vinyl Me, Please trekked our American selves across the pond all the way to Brighton, a picturesque seaside town, for three days of showcases of the most up-and-coming artists on the scene right now.

‘Tis the season for summer restlessness, which can only be quelled by an impulsive alternative haircut or truckloads of good new music. To save you a bit of money and potential social ridicule because “it looked good on Cara Delevingne or whatever,” we watched carefully for the latest and greatest artists to turn your ears to next time they come through your neck of the woods.