September 17, 2020

RECORD STORE DAY DROP #2 IS SEPTEMBER 26TH:

RECORD STORE DAY DROP #2 IS SEPTEMBER 26TH:

The second Record Store Day drop event is Saturday, September 26. Here is Strictly Discs' plan for the day. We will be blunt: this won't be like RSD events of years' past. We cherish this day of music and community every year but as we battle a pandemic, it is not possible to throw a party in the store responsibly. 

1. We OPEN at 7AM for RSD shopping

2. Line to form westbound on Monroe Street

3. Masks (covering nose & mouth) & distancing REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES

4. While in line, you will be handed a menu of all RSD titles 

5. We will pull your requests & you will check out outside on Harrison Street

6. Our website will be updated as titles sell out HERE

7. The shop will open for normal browsing at approximately 10AM.

Our goal for this day is to get you the records you are looking for while limiting potential exposure. Stay strong & have #hope.

WISHLISTS:

Wishlists for October can be made HERE. 

RECORD STORE DAY IS NOW RSD DROPS SPREAD OVER 3 DATES:

It's an unusual year, which means unusual news about Record Store Day.

Earlier this spring, Record Store Day announced a rescheduled June 20 date for the annual holiday, but with ongoing health and safety concerns, we now have a new plan.

Instead of a single-day global celebration, the 2020 releases will now be available over a series of monthly RSD Drops events, from August to October, followed by a regularly-scheduled Black Friday in November. This means we'll have four months of release events – the RSD 2020 exclusives spread out over three months, followed by a new round of exclusives for Black Friday – to end this strange year on a high note.

NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP:

  

As the temps drop and we abolish ice coffee from our daily routines, we welcome some of 2020's longest awaited vinyl releases. Few artists have found their music as called for by the public in this tumultuous year than the iconic rap duo RUN THE JEWELS, who at last deliver their fourth album in a striking variety of physical formats. The status that the emcees Killer Mike and EL-P have achieved in so many artistic and political spheres puts them at the level of statesman few musicians achieve, and would certainly explain a lot if their flow was to fall off. Well, that ain't happening anytime soon. It's all darts on this fresh dozen tracks, hitting more direct than any tweet ever could, with guest action from Pharrell, DJ Premier, Mavis Staples, and Zack De La Rocha. We've got this one in on CD, indie exclusive marbled vinyl, and while they last, some deluxe 4LP sets that include all instrumentals. The dad in me really wants THE WEEKND to slow his roll a little, so he can live long enough to make as many of the ooey gooey dollops of studio R&B genius like his latest, 'After Hours', in the house on vinyl now. Also bloodied but unbowed is humble Detroit rapper EMINEM, who finally gets us that vinyl edition of 'Music To Be Murdered By' that he's been promising all year. 

  

Canadian organist SARAH DAVACHI has cast wide skeins of electro-acoustic brilliance across dozens of LP and cassette releases over the last decade, but she's never let us hear her human voice before. That's sorted with her latest, 'Cantus, Descant', a lush flyover of pre-historical serenity made all the more welcoming by a small bit of lyricism. Japanese artist PHEW has been inspiring awe in obscure sound fellow-travelers since the early 80s, when she cut records with Holger Czukay and Conny Plank, and now brings us up to speed on her most recent work with 'Vertigo KO', a hallucinogenic hidden line between DAF, the Raincoats, and the brutal now. Polish pianist and vocalist HANIA RANI provides some respite with her elegant compositions on 'Home', which feel perfect for the impending autumn. 

  

We've officially been living in the pandemic long enough for the Covid-era albums to start arriving. A trio of prolific artists deliver their lockdown responses this week, with a new CD from NEIL YOUNG called 'The Times', a vinyl/cd release from BRAD MEHLDAU called 'Suite: April 2020', and the delightfully perky 'How Ill Thy World Is Ordered' from DANIEL ROMANO. 

  

Not long after the release of their debut album in 1999, the members of the space-rock band Duster returned to the studio to try something a little different. As VALIUM AGGELEIN, the group extrapolated their formula of short-n-sweet melodic fuzz pills to fit across a vast, lunar landscape. They completed one scarcely-pressed LP and cassette, and left the project to gather (even more) dust. Originally released with all titles in German, it's clear the band wanted this music to stand apart, inspired as it was by 70s prog and Kraut, but what you hear on 'Black Moon', a new remastered collection of the group's songs from the Numero Group, ends up being so much more than a genre exercise. The songs develop slowly, at a near-terminal pace, like a lunar rover picking up bits of pedal steel exotica, feedback peals, windblown Morricone, the churchical slowcore of Low's 'The Curtain Hits the Cast', and the occasionally arcing prominence of a crushing riff. Back on Earth, we welcome a lovely album of blissful countrified ambient from RAYMOND RICHARDS on 'The Lost Art of Wandering', and a reissue of math-rock heroes EL TEN ELEVEN's 'Tautology'. 

  

Fragile chill-pop with a gallery sheen is here from SPENCER ZAHN on 'Sunday Painter' and FENNE LILY with 'Breach'. Spectral pop duo CULTS return with their strongest album yet, entitled 'Host'. 

  

The latest acoustic session from THE AVETT BROTHERS, 'The Third Gleam', is now here in a gorgeous vinyl edition. Intimate, amusing Byrds-ian pop abounds on the latest from BLITZEN TRAPPER, 'Holy Smokes Future Jokes', and we have a new compilation in from the Sacred Bones label, 'What Is This That Stands Before Me?', which finds members of their eclectic roster covering BLACK SABBATH. Who amongst us is not extremely here for Zola Jesus doing a world-ending rendition of "Changes"?

 

 

Gimme the flute! For our money, the best flautist in the game right now is Madrid's CHIP WICKHAM, who follows up his year-end list topping 2018 album with a total sureshot called 'Blue To Red' that revels in a nocturnal, narcotic splendor. Sometimes you put a record on you think you've never heard before, but then it starts to sound familiar. So it goes with the heavily-sampled funky soul rarity 'My Queen' from Atlanta's GASTON, originally released in 1978. 'Coral Keys' by WALTER BISHOP JR. is one of the most polished albums in the Black Jazz canon, sounds like it could have come out on Blue Note back in the day. Back in print on vinyl for the first time in forever is the essential Afro-latin-cumbia compilation from Luaka bop, THE SOUL OF BLACK PERU. 

  

Some big classics come back in stock on wax this week, including a new gold vinyl print of DAVID BOWIE's 'Young Americans', a vastly expanded version of FLEETWOOD MAC's third and best album (fight me), 'Then Play On', and a stunningly beautiful new 60th anniversary edition of JOHN COLTRANE's totemic album 'Giant Steps', expanded now across 2 LPs. 

  

By major popular demand, which still counts for something here, we welcome the heart of the batting order for JOHN PRINE albums, his second, third, and fourth studio LPs 'Diamonds in the Rough', 'Sweet Revenge', and 'Common Sense'.

  

A pair of RICHARD and LINDA THOMPSON's most beloved albums are back in print as well, as we see 'I Want To See The Bright Lights' tonight and 'Hokey Pokey', with 'Pour Down Like Silver' also on the way. Esteemed Floydian NICK MASON has a new live album with his group Saucerful of Secrets doing classic renditions of the early PF songbook.

  

Timeless, tender deep house is here from DELANO SMITH on 'Shades of Detroit', which combines a pair of classic, out of print EPs. Night Slugs producer KINGDOM returns with a futuristic slab of clubsoul called 'Neurofire', and we get some deep dubby ambient from BVDUB on 'Wrath & Apathy'.

  

As I suppose is true of most of the Sub Pop label's 1990 roster, they don't really make bands like L7 anymore. The undeniable sludge-raunch majesty of 'Smell the Magic' is back, in a new loser edition color vinyl pressing. Underrated melodic darkwave group IRON CURTAIN have their 80s material collected on 'Desertion', and we have the unnervingly cool debut album from the French dark ambient folk/tronic group VOX POPULI, 'Myscitismes'.

  

The Pan label reissues the EP that put producer ARCA on the map, the ever-illuminating, shapeshifting ambience of '&&&&&'. Erstwhile Black Dice-man ERIC COPELAND never makes the same record twice. On 'Dumb It Down', he goes for truly peculiar mid-fi synthpop that wont sit still, and pairs oddly well with the latest from suave pop weirdo GUS DAPPERTON on 'Orca'.

STRICTLY DISCS IS HIRING:

VINYL PRICING SPECIALIST:

Required skills:

Excellent customer service skills; ability to anticipate customer needs

Computer proficient

A passion for music, and a broad, deep base of recorded music history

Knowledge of Goldmine standards & experience grading and pricing records

Knowledge of stereo equipment/functionality

Availability to work nights and weekends

Ability to lift and carry 50 pounds repeatedly

RETAIL/FRONT COUNTER STAFF:

Required skills:

Excellent customer service skills; ability to anticipate customer needs

Computer proficient

A passion for music, and a broad, deep base of recorded music history

Availability to work nights and weekends

To apply, submit letter of interest & resume to angie@strictlydiscs.com

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SELL US YOUR CDS & LPS:

Ron, Ryan, Angie, Marty, Evan, Ben, Matt, Will, Ed, Mark, Jack, Eric & Dave