Adam’s World Weekly for 1/12

The other week I made time to do one of my favorite things – head to The Archive in Bridgeport, CT to dig through used vinyl with a friend.

I wound up taking home three albums, two of which will require a bit of an explanation, and one of which led to seeking out the artist because I desperately needed a question answered.

The Rolling Stones live album was a heck of a find, and it has a fantastic version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” with Keith Richards making sounds with his guitar that only he could do. That was an obvious pick up.

The other two albums … are less obvious.

I’d seen both The Brandos album, and the Raymond Lauchengco album in the big boxes of discount used vinyl the past few times I’d been to The Archive, and I’d already decided that if I saw them there again I was going to buy them.

The Brandos were an NYC band, by way of Seattle, that had a brief brush with fame in the mid to late ‘80s. As someone who writes about music in NYC, and spends a lot of time in NYC indie music venues, I’m all for a little bit of lore, especially for the price of $3. The lore, however, was more than just the band – it was also the sticker.

Underneath The Archive’s price tag was the original price tag from St. Mark’s Sounds. The store served the city’s music fans from 1980 to 2015, and the sticker, at least in my mind, is an important piece of NYC music history. I had to have it.

An an aside, I also have a copy of Stacey Q’s Better Than Heaven with an original Crazy Eddie’s price tag on it, so picking up albums with historical stickers on them is kinda one of my things.

The Raymond Lauchengco album requires even more of an explanation.

Point blank – I hadn’t heard of him, but each time we saw the copy of his Rated R album there we were fascinated by it because it has a really unique presentation, including a few pages of photos and quotes, and a plethora of Pepsi logos.

Seriously, look at this

The Pepsi logos were what really had us intrigued, so I finally picked up the 1988 album, and then did some digging.

First off, I discovered that if my copy was in better condition it would be worth a heck of a lot more than the $3 I paid for it!

Then, like any slightly insane music journalist would do, I tried to find Raymond Lauchengco.

It didn’t take long, because much to my surprise, he’s still active! A Filipino artist with a long career in his native country, he recently took home an award for his concert, Everybody Loves Raymond (yes, that was the name! I wonder if he wore a Hofstra shirt). I found a contact email for him, and sent him a quick note letting him know that a copy of the album somehow made its way to a record store in Connecticut, and asking him about all the Pepsi logos.

He replied just a few hours later, thrilled to hear the album had made it to CT, and letting me know that he was an artist who, at the time, endorsed Pepsi as part of their “Pepsi New Generation” campaign, and the Pepsi branding all over the album was because Pepsi paid for the printing.

This is what the internet was made for!

The internet was also made for my writing, and this week’s update is led off by my column on the legacy issue that’s potentially awaiting some of music’s biggest artists, and the role streaming is playing in this.

In addition to that column I also have fresh editions of Pop Shots, and my NYC Scene Report for you to check out.

For those of you who’ve been missing seeing me do interviews, don’t worry, I not only did an interview on Friday, I have another booked for later today, and I’m working on booking four others, including having reached out to the frontman of The Brandos, so there will be plenty on the way!

Read the full column here

Read the full column here

Read the full column here

As always, thanks for reading, and have a fantastic week.

– Adam Bernard