Car record player

Back in the early 1950s there were many fewer music radio stations, and if you didn’t like those that were within range, your only choice was to shut the radio off and listen to the road, the engine noise and the splat of bugs on the windshield.

Then in 1956, Chrysler Corporation stepped up to offer car buyers a new listening option – an in-car phonograph.


The players, made by Columbia, were mounted on the bottom edge of the dash, directly above the transmission hump, and were wired directly into the car radio.

The player had to be small, so the 7-inch size of the 45-rpm record was ideal; but using 45s would have meant changing the record every few minutes, a little risky at highway speeds. To solve that problem, 7-inch records for the player were produced in the new 16⅔-rpm format (ultra-microgroove) offering up to an hour of playing time per side and the added benefit of a slower speed that was less likely to kick up the needle.

If you ordered the option for your new 1956 Chrysler, Desoto, Dodge or Plymouth you also received the first six of 42 special platters available exclusively from Columbia Records.

What happened? The records skipped – just like they often did with the first version – if the ride and the road weren’t smooth as glass. It was an insurmountable problem

The Crawlspace Singles

Here an article by Andrew Schmidt

Space 001 – Feast Of Stevens – Amsterdam/ Neatly/ Promise - 1993
Palmerston North was busy with good acts in the early to mid 1990s. Most were released on Yellow Bike Records whose groups tended to the dark and rock, whereas, the one that pricked our ears was the full-on folk-strumming Feast Of Stevens who'd produced a brilliant seven song CD, Etch, for Christchurch indie Failsafe Records.

Heeding the Shepherd's advice we made sure they were good live. Stu and I caught them at the Dogs Bollix in Auckland with PNorth punks' Noddy On The Cross, and if anything, they were better and rawer than on record, and more than a little pissed off that only a handful of people had shown up. They reminded me of The Wild Poppies, an under-rated mid to late 1980s Wellington group.

When we heard Feast Of Stevens' had recorded an album's worth of songs with Nick Roughan at York Street Studios in Auckland in February 1993, we snapped up Amsterdam, the standout song, and Neatly and Promise for the flipside then pressed up three hundred copies in Australia. By the time it was available guitarist and vocalist, Hamish Anderson, and drummer Glen Fletcher had left the group. There remains the best part of an album unreleased.

Space 002 – Figure 60 – Six Days On The Road/ Stoned Loser/ Dumb Blue - 1994
We tapped Auckland trio Figure 60 for the second single after hearing Rain Is Poison, the standout track off their Bludger tape from 1993. It had a sound like Bob Mould's Sugar with simple catchy words that rode the instrumental surge. We wanted Rain Is Poison on the record, but the group bristled (quite rightly it turned out) and came up with the noisy twang of Six Days On The Road, a cowboy road lyric atop the best song (and riff) David Rush, the group's creative pulse, has written. The flipsides are okay, nothing great, and the cover is a disappointing screen print. I saw Figure 60 many times in Auckland, before and after bass player Darren McShane left a core duo of guitarist Rush and drummer Nicholas Clarke, and they were a frustratingly inconsistent group.

Space 003 - Chris Hazelwood - Introducing The Ron Asheton Club - 7"EP - 1994
This was pre-deification of Ron Asheton (most thought of The Stooges as primarily Iggy Pop then). Chris was from Dunedin, had a chip on his shoulder, and would occasionally make brilliant music. The two sided sword of attitude. It works here on his self-recorded skronky instrumentals, beautifully housed in a black and white picture sleeve featuring some amazing cover artwork from the man. A classy single, Badge or Medallion, followed on Flying Nun Records.

Space 004 – Crude – Bionica/ Triggram Rag-Love Theme 03/ untitled - 1996
More South Island skronk and electronica. A sound Gonzo would mine further for his 8” lathe cut series.

Space 005 - The Victor Dimisich Band – Native Waiter/ Walking Slow/ Thirteenth Floor - 1996
The first thing you notice about this reissue of Native Waiter is the warmth of the sound which makes the tin shed production of the original (from The Victor Dimisich Band’s FN retro release in 1984) sound dismal. That they are the same recording makes this even stranger. Generally speaking I was opposed to the boys putting out old groups or those who had made their rep elsewhere, but my reluctance was overcome by the vibrancy of this single. We’d been big fans ever since the original record which in turn prompted Ray Berry to squeeze the live at the Gladstone in 1981 tape out of VDB’s Peter Stapleton, in 1985. The single’s two live b side’s - Walking Slow and Thirteenth Floor - taken from that session also stand up well sound-wise. I’d go as far as to say Thirteenth Floor tops its studio version. The songs come in a wonderful sepia cover by artist Kim Pieters.

Space 006 - Constant Pain – Trail of Tears/ A Million Years - 1999
The unlikeliest Crawlspace single was also the best. It had a fine red on white Saskia Leek drawing on the cover - her best record sleeve - which set the music off beautifully.

Constant Pain were Roddy, and Cameron Bain. An Auckland act. I never did get Roddy’s last name even though I knew him years earlier from my first time in Auckland. He’d come around to Bond Street to see Bronwyn, have a smoke, and a chat. They had a trio with drummer John Farry, which had played in our backyard. Even then Roddy had a couple of good tunes which he played on a strangely shaped white guitar. I’d seen him a few times since. Rumours were circulating he’d turned untrustworthy although I never saw that. Cameron Bain played in later day Figure 60 with David Rush.

None of which prepared me for Million Miles, a glorious psychedelic shiver that prompts the same spaced awe as The Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ second album version of Dylan’s (It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue. Trail Of Destruction rattles along on a trashcan Sister Ray riff.

Space 007 – Alastair Galbraith – Orbital/ Head Soup Dream – 1999
“wrapped in layers of droning claviolines and keening e bow guitars Galbraith’s half spoken, half chanted intonations come to the swirling surface like bubbles…" That’s Bill Meyer in Magnet and he's spot on.

Space 008 – Jakob – ERFO – Anaese/ My Brand New Haircut – 1999
Surf music. For Star surfers. This doesn’t so much rock as roll, endlessly.

Space 009 - Kiwi Music Sampler – Plasticene/ Fantababy/ The Brunettes/ Matt Backhouse – 2000
It was Stu who chose most of the songs and groups in this series. Finding four worthy tracks from new actsfor a compilation single required even more listening. I think he did pretty well. Plasticene became The Tokey Tones and a driving force in L’il Chief Records. The Brunettes you will have heard of. The other two have faded back. Fantababy’s track was an infectious rocker. Matt Backhouse was just 17, but had a highly effective Smog/ Lou Barlow/ East River Pipe thing going. Last I saw Matt was deputy editor at Craccum. I hope he returns to music at some point. He may yet prove to be the biggest talent of all.

Space 010 – Snapper – Hammerhead/ Vader - 2001
This one came about when Peter Gutteridge was stuck in Auckland needing money for an air ticket home to Dunedin. The Gutman looked ill. So ill that Jane Dodd burst into tears on seeing him in the corridor outside Crawlspace so Gonzo slipped Peter some money in return for a single. Which never arrived. Cue the beginnings of a Gonzo vendetta. After repeated attempts to get a response from Mr Gutteridge Gonzo uncovered a well-recorded live track from a Dunedin acquaintance. That was one side taken care of. For the second he dispatched a friend to Dunedin with the shop DAT to record another. Side two. Neither track was classic Snapper and some of us were uncomfortable about the semi-legit nature of the release. Nevermind. History will be kinder. The lost man of sub-Antarctic pop is chronically under-recorded.

This is from
http://mysterex.blogspot.com/2008/03/crawlspace-records-singles-1993-to-2001.html