This week's big snowstorm gave us a chance to do a bit of long-needed rearranging around the shop upstairs. With so many more folks browsing for vinyl these days, we wanted to spread out our new LP selection around the store, in an effort to reduce the traffic jams that sometimes arise between the bins. It's our hope that this makes the store easier to navigate in this era of social distancing and beyond. No CD or LP sections have been removed, but just about everything is in a new place, so feel free to ask for the lay of the land on your next visit.
Lots of great new releases help us with a fresh start, starting with the long awaited studio debut from UK singer/songwriting sensation ARLO PARKS. 'Collapsed In Sunbeams' is full of confessional pop-folk brilliance that wins over critics and fans alike (rare!), and we've got this lovely record in stock on limited mustard yellow vinyl. A few seconds into 'I Told You So' by the DELVON LAMARR ORGAN TRIO and you are hooked immediately. Dripping with chemistry, this instrumental jazz LP features original tunes and some ear-pleasing covers, and hits the same sweet spot as those classic Booker T LPs of old. UK geniuses SLEAFORD MODS return with a cracking new album of pointed humour and snappy rhythmic loops called 'Spare Ribs'.
A nice, back-to-roots return from MAYER HAWTHORNE is in this week, and we've got cool neo-soul produced by Adrian Younge in ANGELA MUNOZ' 'Introspection', and songwriter and Brother of Billie Eilish FINNEAS sees his 2019 album 'Blood Harmony' re-released in an expanded vinyl edition.
Last year's lovely surprise album of synthy instrumentals from STRFKR, 'Ambient 1', finally gets a nice vinyl release. New England fingerstyle guitarist ROB NOYES has an incredible new record of melodic, structurally rich 6-string work called 'Arc Minutes', and Death Cab keyboardist DAVE DEPPER steps out solo with a truly gorgeous album of illuminating, lightly jazzy ambient instrumentals written/recorded in various hotel rooms across Europe while on tour with DCFC. Wasn't expecting this one at all!
The Light in the Attic label's series of Japanese compilations continues with SOMEWHERE BETWEEN, a collection of "mutant pop" that doesn't quite fit into the "city pop" or "furniture music" categories of their previous selections. Daring, timeless, and strange these songs are! We've also got a must-hear reissue of a 90s classic by Japanese blues guitarist KAN MIKAMI, and the first ever LP version of a 1989 disc from pop musician NADJA, who channels righteous boogie and pop-star cheek on 'Tsukihoshi'.
More beloved records reissued this week include JANE BIRKIN's legendarily romantic chanson album 'Di Doo Dah', a gem of the writing/production team of Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier; a fresh printing of the leftfield chiller 'Tourist' from ST. GERMAIN; and a new pressing of the most-wanted album from the FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS: 'Gilded Palace of Sin'.
A fresh trio of JOHN PRINE catalog classics are back in print. We've got the live album 'September 78', from the peak of his touring days, and the lovely albums 'Pink Cadillac' and 'Storm Windows'.
Mikey from Total Control and Raven from Grass Widow have a delightful new synth-pop project called THE GREEN CHILD, and their 2020 tape 'Shimmering Basset' is now in stock on LP. Melodic, retro-futurist gems abound on this one, recalling early OMD. San Fran indie trio CINDY deliver their first full length, called 'Free Advice', and it has well hit the spot this week, especially in that period of time where you are awake but not really awake yet. Velvets-like easy cool here, with bits of artful synth that give this LP a nice turn of the century Darla records feel. A new LP called 'Bakunawa' from the artist WHITE BOY SCREAM is likely the first record we've ever stocked with the genre tag "noise / opera".
Swedish doomsters TRIBULATION return with 'Where the Gloom Becomes Sound'. New week, new OSEES record: this one is called 'Metamorphosed' and comes via an Austrian label. Nobody makes records like ROKY ERICKSON's 'The Evil One' anymore, and honestly, that's not an issue as long as we can keep copies of this one in stock.
The latest PJ HARVEY reissue is 1998's 'Is This Desire?', which arrives with its companion release of demos. Two long out of print LPs return from the 90s catalog of songwriter BILL FOX. Fox's short-lived band The Mice were unheralded Cleveland power-pop legends, highly influential on the sound of Guided by Voices, and the variety of modes on 'Transit Byzantium' and 'Shelter From The Smoke' have more Ohio vibes than Drew Carey and Jim Brown hosting a chili cookoff.
Audiophile jazz reissues this week include the iconic 'Study In Brown' by CLIFFORD BROWN and MAX ROACH, plus a new press of PAUL CHAMBERS' Bass On Top'. On the spiritual tip, we've got an incredible reissue of LON MOSHE's 'Love Is Where The Spirit Lies', and ABDULLAH SAMI's 'Peace Of Time'.
The Dark Entries label reissues, expands, and annotates the legendary electro funk record by the anonymous 80s group SEXUAL HARRASSMENT. 'I Need A Freak' pours a gallon of gasoline on any dance floor fire. OH-OK, the Athens GA new wave group founded by Michael Stipe's sister, gets a nice full discography LP, and we've got the first ever LP release of the earliest material by THE FROGS, the infamous Milwaukee band who can't quite get their proper due in a PG-rated newsletter such as this one.
A new label devoted to emerging sounds of the Iranian experimental electronics scene delivers an incredible LP called 'Raaz' by HOOSHYAR KHAYAM and BAMDAD AFSHAR. The estate of sculptor and sound-artist HARRY BERTOIA has been quite selective with his archive. A stunning new LP reprint illuminates his fantastic 1975 recording of gong drones called 'Glowing Sounds'. Another great CD-only release from the heyday of glitch gets an LP press; check the minimalist dub-click brilliance of FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER and TAYLOR DEUPREE's 'Balance'.
The golden age of modern Algerian rai can be somewhat hard to come by on LP, but now we have the incredible collection of cassette-only gems from one of the greats of the scene, DRISSI EL-ABBASSI. Combining drum machines and synths with plaintive guitar, this is some of the most haunting, hummable music out there. Brazilian samba/jazz/party classic 'Tam...Tam...Tam!' by JOSE PRATES is back in print with a better remaster, and a killer comp called COLOR DE TROPICO collects a fascinating variety of Venezuelan psychedelic dance and funk.
Last up, gorgeous, fluid techno is in from XDB and SURGEONS GIRL. A rare oughties gem from cerebral deep house man KUNIYUKI, 'Flying Music', is back in print, and we have a scintillating new LP of exotic tech from Brazilian producer ZOPELAR.
Most of these titles are in-stock at the shop (even if out of stock online). So feel free to call us to coordinate pick-up, curbside or delivery.
USED VINYL ALERT:
Lots to explore in the Used Vinyl Alert this week! We go especially thorough on older, affordable jazz, folk, blues, and international traditional records this week, plus a slew of female vocalists, lots of classical, guitar albums, exotica, sports related LPs, and oddly enough, quite a few records about planes. You know, aircraft and the like.
Plenty of big names in rock are here, including Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, ZZ Top, Vanilla Fudge, Tim Buckley, the Beatles, Canned Heat, the Grateful Dead, Santana, Tom Petty, Billy Joel, Dire Straits, Rory Gallagher, Queen, Dick Dale, and so many more. More jams are in from Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, New Order, the Feelies, Buffalo Tom, Fuzzbox, Ozzy, Def Leppard, Van Halen, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
We have a whole lot of jazz for you spanning several decades. Some names include George Russell, Chick Corea, Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Bud Powell, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Clifford Brown, Willie Bobo, Ron Carter, Ted Curson, Hamiet Bluiett, and Kenny Burrell. Soul and funk is here from Bohannon, Fatback, Prince, Marvin Gaye, and many more.
A nice crop of 'new music' gems is in from Steve Reich, Daniel Gutwein, Suzanne Ciani, Stuart Dempster, Michael William Gilbert, Patrick Gleeson, and more. We have a considerable amount of early folk gems as well, including Jean Ritchie, Odetta, Jack Elliott, Bascom Lunsford, Utah Phillips, Stan Rogers, Peggy Seeger, Richard Dyer-Bennett, and more, plus a good amount of various Folkways compilations!
USED CD ALERT:
This week we warm up the front of the shop with some very firey fresh used CDs. A heady blend includes soul, funk, jazz and blues nuggets, a slew of leftfield and chillout classics of yore, folk and traditional sounds from the Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil and Africa. Even more choice golden era hip-hop and rap is in, plus a rather tasty spread of dub and reggae, including several of the now quite-scarce, ever-seminal Trojan box sets!
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE'S BIWEEKLY FEATURE ON STRICTLY DISCS:
As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the music industry, Chris Eggertsen has been speaking with Angie every other week to chronicle the experience of an independent record store throughout the crisis. Here is a link to the stories in the series so far:
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