Guns & Roses had some controversial ideas for their debut album cover and the one they selected caused issues with several record stores worldwide. Today we discuss the artwork from renown artist Robert Williams and the story of GnR's multiple covers for Appetite for Destruction. We also stop by Warbler Records and talk to the owner about what it's like to own the best record shop in Santa Barbara California.

This week we speak to Tesco Vee, founder of Touch & Go fanzine, record label and lead singer of the band The Meatmen. Tesco tells us his history, shared stories from the early days of punk in the US including the time he danced on SNL during Fear's infamous performance. Fans of punk rock will not want to miss this episode!

What will happen to your body when you die? Jason at AndVinyly.com has an option; get your ashes pressed into vinyl records to be enjoyed by your loved ones. Hear his interview as well as some discussion on cratedigging in Northern China. I travel to the city of Dalian and made a video of a record hunt, available on Facebook.com/vinylguide.

In the late 80s there were 2200 independent record shops in the UK. By 2009 there were just 269. Graham Jones documented this demise in the book and DVD "Last Shop Standing", available at www.lastshopstanding.com . Plus we discuss the 7 errors in the first US pressing of The Beatles White Album.

Still down-under for the 2nd part of our 2 part cratedigging expedition through Melbourne Australia. In this episode Steve from Greville Records in Prahan shares tales of Monster Magnet, Metallica & the Beastie Boys stopping by the oldest record shop in the city, Benny of Wax Museum manages an underground record shop at Flinders Street train station & Nick from Collectors Corner talks about his legendary shop in the Melbourne CBD.

This week we're in glorious Melbourne Australia connecting with some of the best record shops of the city! We visit Heartland Records in North Melbourne to hear the history of one of Melbourne's great rock record shops and then to Northside records, the soul, jazz and afrobeat center in the suburb of Fitzroy, where we learn about some new music and how to cratedig in Africa!

Jay Millar, record dude for Sundazed Music & Modern Harmonic, shares his stories, opinions and experiences working in United Record Pressing, the largest vinyl pressing plant in the United States. He also shares his stories of special projects including Microfiche Records w/ vinyl turntable sports games and putting together the blood-filled records from "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends", a charity project led by Wayne Coyne. 

The Amen Break is the most popular, most used, most sampled drum beat in history, and it's appeared on over 2000 separate recordings and spawned new music genres. Hear the story of the song, the track, the sample and the man behind it. We speak to Richard L Spencer, owner of the song 'Amen Brother' and the Amen Break.

Eric Spitznagel goes on a journey to find the old record collection. Not copies of the records, the exact ones! The story is detailed in his new book "Old Records Never Die" and he shares some of the tales on today's podcast (buy his book here!). Plus we discuss a little known Pink Floyd secret message on their LP The Wall.

John Lennon inadvertently plagiarized a Chuck Berry song that was owned by a mobster and hatched a plan with Phil Spector to correct it. What could go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot! This is the story of a John Lennon record that sold less than 1500 units and was a huge embarrassment to Lennon, Capitol Records and the Beatles.

We also speak with Port Of Sound Record Shoppe in Costa Mesa California and discuss other thingamajigs related to vinyl records.

The Vinyl District is an awesome website as well as application for Apple iOS and Google Android smart phones and we speak to the founders about their contributions to the vinyl community. Plus I share an announcement regarding The Vinyl Guide podcast and discuss the hard-to-find status of Prince records.

The Black Album is a mysterious album in the Prince catalog, originally recorded, mastered, duplicated then cancelled with all but a handful of copies destroyed. Today we share the story of the LP, the theories about Prince's change of mind & more. Plus we answer listener email, talk about rap / hip-hop records and more talk about the Iron Maiden Vinyl Guide episode on The Soundhouse Tapes.

Iron Maiden is one of the biggest bands in the world and today we cover their first release in the UK "The Sound House Tapes" one of the most rare and sought after Maiden artifacts. There are heaps of counterfeits so we discuss how to tell a genuine version from 1979 from one of the many fakes on the market. A great info source on the details would be this website.

Also we discuss Record Store Day and the activities around what is certainly one of my favorite days of the year. And Guns & Roses frontman Axl Rose fronting AC/DC? Sounds like there's been some discord in the ACDC camp lately, I can't imagine Axl will decrease the drama. Let's see where this one takes us.....

Record Store Day 2016 is upon us, are you ready? Hundreds of new releases on vinyl as well as cassette and CD are making their way to the shops. Will you line up at your local record store the morning of April 16? Today we speak to one of the co-founders of RSD and share the story of RSD, from it's limited origins to the challenges of managing a global phenomenon.

Also we share a track from an upcoming Velvet Underground tribute LP "Reloaded" which is super limited run and only available in Sydney at The Vintage Record on April 16. It's awesome so if you're in Sydney on April 16, get yourself a copy as you likely won't ever see it again. 

This week we tell the story of Jazz pioneer Norman Granz, founder of Verve Records, Jazz at the Philharmonic and a rare record set he produced called "The Jazz Scene". Plus we discuss Sun Ra, John Cage and their collaboration (listen here) as well as a new record release on Sundazed Music, as well as asking the vinyl doctor about manual and automatic turntables.

Sundazed Music is a great reissue label and record dude Jay Millar discusses how the company goes about putting together reissues as well as some of the cool upcoming releases on the new Modern Harmonic record label, including Sun Ra, John Cage and others. We also review some vinyl news stories and discuss how we'll go about sponsorships of The Vinyl Guide.

The story of the 'Golden Records' that contain sounds, images and greetings from the Earth, that were blasted into space as part of NASA's Voyager space program. We also talk to Dan Cook of Gimme Gimme Records in Los Angeles California, as well as discuss the passing of Keith Emerson of ELP. Great band....oh yeah and Henry Rollins sent me an email!

Dead Kennedys debut LP "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" is still a high-water mark in the history of American hardcore punk, today we discuss the LP, the various pressings and the history with DK bassist Klaus Floride! Plus Record Store Day is coming on April 16, we talk about the release list. Also George Martin, uber producer of The Beatles, has passed and we say a short goodbye.

A newly discovered Beatles one-off acetate is up for auction, we tell the history of that, also we visit Permanent Records in Highland Park in Los Angeles, discuss the Prince 'Piano & a Microphone' tour and other vinyl discussion. 

We are in Singapore and checking out the local music shop scene including 2 great record shops Vinylucky & For The Record, as well as test driving some high end audio gear that we can't afford (check Facebook.com/VinylGuide for videos of this). Also we review two excellent entries into the record cleaning market Groovewasher and VinylVac.