Back in August when I saw The Black Angels in Buffalo, I had picked up a copy of Christian Bland & The Revelator’s Pig Boat Blues on (lovely blue) vinyl from a merch stand.
As seen here:
After I took it home and placed it on my turntable for the first time (and became a fan of it instantly…) I not only discovered a download coupon card inside the sleeve, but that it was biodegradable and imbedded with wild flower seeds.
Now one of the things that I absolutely love about records is the interactive quality that they have, especially when the artists take advantage of said quality and push the envelope by adding things like creative inserts, stickers, volvelles (like in Soft Machine I and Led Zeppelin III), etc. So when I saw this card, I went nuts about it. I’m unsure if Bland is the first artist to have done this sort of thing with a digital download card, but it is certainly the first time I had ever seen it. I just thought, “holy shit, how cool is that?!”
Yet I held off from planting it, as I was about to go back to college and didn’t think I’d have the time to care for an indoor garden (that, and it wasn’t exactly the growing season anymore). But now, seeing how it’s the concluding months of winter, I thought now would be a better time than any.
I planted it in a medium sized pot a few days ago in some organic potting soil and placed it in front of the window in my room that gets the most sunlight. I’ll post a photo each week to show the garden’s progression until it reaches full bloom.
There’s not much to report on yet, since I just planted it, but here’s the pot as of now.
I got to say, I am really excited to see what flowers from one of my favorite recent records would look like. I just hope I didn’t wait too long or something else bad happens to them.
So here’s to one amazing combination of two of my favorite things, music and gardening!
Record Crates United 