COLLECTION SELECTION: Mike Oberlin
Monday, September 16th, 2013 at Trenchermen - our featured collector is Mike Oberlin, bass player for Sass Dragons, drummer for a million bands (Treasure Fleet, Rad Payoff, and The Long Hairs, to name a few), and legendary veteran toast chef at Gilt Bar. Though his vitae as a performing musician is fairly thrash heavy, Oberlin’s eclectic vinyl compilation is significantly more sensitive, a dynamic stack that has only made it into public for a few ELO-initiated voyages on the decks in the old Gilt Bar basement Curio. We’re excited to bring Oberlin and his collection back to the people, please enjoy these preliminary glimpses to prep you far the bar scene next Monday at Trenchermen.
Oberlin was quick to play Upstairs at Eric’swhen we started getting into it, one of his go-to titles for entertaining peeps at his apartment (often a good Townshipafter-party). Yazis actually only the American moniker of this British synth pop band, whose original name is Yazoo. I’d like to give a medal to the stateside marketing rep who refused to let them put “Yazoo” on this album.
Yaz had us in the vibe - Oberlin unsheathed the Human League‘s Dare, another hard dancing synth pop masterpiece.
This deluxe reissue of Freedom of Choice was pressed onto 140 gram vinyl, a befittingly obtuse weight for the weirdos in Devo.
Oberlin’s copy of Kraftwerk's Computer Worldwas a killer scoop at Reckless Recordson Milwaukee Ave, where he’s purchased at least 90% of his collection over many rabid binges.
Kraftwerk segued nicely into this Cave album Pure Moods, a 2010 extended playing slab of soft kraut revival from Chicago’s favorite motorik heavies.
Another indie Chicago band, Owls. The drum sound on their self-titled LP is Oberlin’s favorite, some beautiful percussion tones recorded by Mike of the Kinsella family.
Thrill Jockeyrecently reissued some finely-pressed versions of older Tortoisealbums (we saw one at Patrick Sisson’s place); Oberlin nabbed up their debut s/t LP.
To illustrate the Chicago-Toronto post rock connection, we’ll jump from Tortoise to Broken Social Scene. "Meet Me in the Basement“ will be a coincidentally excellent closer, it was the song that sealed the deal at Oberlin’s wedding ceremony just a few weeks ago.
An outward snap at Oberlin’s mini-gallery of Chicago show posters (all Chicago minus the outlier on the bottom left, a Screaming Females show from…Portland, Maine?).