Hey folks,

Here’s a post that I’ve been planning for a while, and with a couple of recent developments, it is time to make a couple of announcements!

The one year anniversary of Addicted to Vinyl came and went in February, and at the 15 month mark, I’m pretty happy with where things are. The site began with simple goals – after nearly 10 years of blogging in various locations, I wanted a space to call my own.

Initially, I debated between the idea of starting something with a group of friends or putting up my own site. In the end, a sudden need for web space for other projects pushed me to spring for my own hosting, and I purchased the Addicted to Vinyl domain. The move secured the much needed server space, and I began mapping out plans for the unknown future site that would eventually become ATV.

In the time since launching Addicted to Vinyl, I’ve done a good amount of unexpected networking, and made a lot of new friends, including plenty of fellow Cleveland bloggers. Anyone that knows me will appreciate that as much as I like to view myself as a happy loner, I am truly happiest when I am working on new and exciting projects with friends.

With that in mind, I’d like to announce the addition of a couple of new voices to Addicted to Vinyl.

The first one will be very familiar to most of the readers here at Addicted to Vinyl.

From the moment that I met the infamous Mel of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Your Boyfriend fame, I knew that we would eventually end up collaborating on something together. We had too much in common musically, had been to too many of the same shows in the 90s, and it was not a big stretch to envision that she would eventually contribute at least a few guest blog entries to the site.

As time passed, I realized that it was time to skip straight past the guest blogs and add Mel to the Addicted to Vinyl team.

After 6+ years of writing about the highs and lows of relationships, and the most colorful parts of Cleveland, I had an idea that she would be down for a change of pace – and perhaps it was time for a bit of a musical vacation?

Mel agreed, and she’ll be contributing what is sure to be an entertaining cocktail of musical memories and the ex-boyfriends that are attached to them. Expect a rapid-fire look at the fresh tunes and events that are infecting the world of Mel at any given moment, and also plenty of randomness. There will be at least one post involving Bob Seger, I promise.

The other new face at Addicted to Vinyl is a little bit less familiar, but if you read the review of Jason & The Scorchers reunion show at the Beachland on New Year’s Eve, you might recognize my buddy Kevin Brennan, a regular reader and commenter here on the site since it was launched.

Kevin is one of my oldest friends, and we’ve enjoyed many musical adventures and plenty of conversation in the nearly 15 years that we’ve known each other. We share a mutual love for all things Dan Baird/Eric Ambel/Georgia Satellites/Yayhoo related, Blue Rodeo, The Smithereens, Del Amitri, the Jayhawks, and so many more.

Plus, you’ve really gotta love a guy that incorporated the name of a Johnny Cash song as part of his daughter’s name (and perhaps, he’ll tell you that story.)

Kevin loves the eclectic (Webb Wilder, Del Fuegos) and a whole lotta the rock (AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, etc.) I credit him for really exposing me to stuff like the genius of Warren Zevon, and also for making me an even bigger fan of the Stones. Kevin’s always been great at looking at my collection, and exposing me to the records that I’m missing.

With Kevin, we’ll dig deeper into the stacks of music from the 70s and 80s with the artists and prime cuts that you know, and plenty more that you’ll want to know about.

Both Kevin and Mel are folks that I have huge amounts of respect for that aren’t currently writing about music, and I feel like they’ve got a lot to contribute that many people will enjoy. I wanted to give them both the voice here at Addicted to Vinyl to do that.

Mel and Kevin represent step one in the planned growth of Addicted to Vinyl as a musical community. I can definitely see the possibility of adding additional voices and regular features as the site continues to grow.

In the meantime, I’ve got a few things that I would like to knock out in the coming year. First, I’d like to develop a real logo for Addicted to Vinyl. In connection with that, I am planning for a long-overdue facelift and actual design for the overall site to enhance the experience for the 12 people that actually visit this site on a daily basis, instead of reading the latest posts with an RSS reader 🙂

I owe a lot to everyone that visits Addicted to Vinyl, leaves a comment, sends me an email, or links to this page from their own website. This site is a hell of a lot less interesting if you’re not participating! I am also grateful to the many industry friends that have sent music, books, DVDs, concert tickets, site giveaways, etc. etc. Thanks for making me look cool by giving me cool stuff to give away!

And I’d really like to give special thanks to my longtime pals Chris Akin at Pitriff, Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, Jeff of Jefitoblog-fame and Popdose, and Gregor at captain’s dead for providing great reading material, the inspiration to start this site, and plenty of encouraging words along the way. Special thanks to Chris for giving me my first shot at writing for Music’s Bottom Line, and also for being the best friend a guy could ask for. You rock.

Thanks also to my good friend Brian for joining me in the blogging crusade to write about the heavy percentage of bands that have a lot of tattoos that I’m not covering here.

To John, Peter, and D.X. – I’ve spent years enjoying the stuff that you write – it’s an honor that you’re reading my stuff. Thanks fellas!

To my blogging friends, consider this a thank you to all of you, and there are way too many of you to mention here in this single post. Let’s continue to take shots, and have fun with each other – the ball is in your court now.

Now that we’ve officially gotten the belated 1st anniversary post out of the way, I’m guessing that the same post in future years will feel a lot less like I’m accepting a Grammy. Thanks for reading this far!

As we welcome Mel and Kevin to Addicted to Vinyl, I’ve added an author tag to each post to clearly identify the proper writer for each piece posted here on the site. Clicking on the author name will bring up a list of all of the latest posts from that person.

Let’s get started!

Here is introductory post #1 from Kevin, and you can prepare yourself for the first dose of Mel on Wednesday!

As always, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and comments – feel free to leave them below, or send them in email.

Cheers!

Matt