December 9, 2021

STRICTLY DISCS IS HIRING:

VINYL PRICING SPECIALIST AND/OR SHOP CLERK:

Required skills:

Excellent customer service skills; retail experience with ability to anticipate customer needs

Extreme Computer proficiency

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 weekends

Ability to lift and carry 50 pounds repeatedly

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

NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP:

  

Well dang. There's a lot of new stuff to tell you about this week. First things first, we have a new album from American songwriting icon MICHAEL HURLEY, called 'The Time of the Foxgloves'. Mr. Mike has been around an astoundingly long time; his perambulations through the early folk scene predating even Dylan. He never reached the big time, or even tried to, by all accounts, which is why we still have him here at 80 years of age, delivering albums as pure and true as his earliest classics. For more on this fascinating, truly one of a kind individual, check the loving feature on him in the New York Times this week, in which the paper of record devotes ink to Hurley for the first time since they panned his live show in the early 60s. Speaking of rustic rockers what are a bit long in the tooth, we're thrilled to have a new ripper from NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE called 'Barn' on LP, CD and deluxe vinyl, and speaking of barns and bands that liked to play in them, THE BAND's 'Cahoots' turns 50 this year with an expanded and remastered reissue in the house.

  

'Another Thought' was the name of the 1990s CD compilation that introduced everyone who wasn't a downtown NYC musician to ARTHUR RUSSELL. Technically a selection of unreleased material, this set ended up containing many of Russell's most-loved outsider pop gems, and flows like the successful album he never managed to release in his lifetime. Be With Records restores this set to triple vinyl with its original cover art intact, and Russell life-partner Tom Lee's revelatory liner notes. I'm of the opinion that you need every Arthur Russell record, but this is definitely "the one" you need to hear. The DAVID BOWIE career retrospective arrives at his rapidly shifting 90s period with  'Brilliant Adventure', available in hefty sets of either 11 CDs or 18 LPs, with oodles of unreleased material. SPOON's tantalizing new single 'Wild', backed with a dub edit by none other than Slits producer DENNIS BOVELL, is here after getting delayed just a scosh from Black Friday.

  

Chicago guitarist JEFF PARKER continues his renaissance with a surprise new solo album, 'Forfolks', on which he dispatches his usual collaborators in favor of a session of pure, unadulterated guitar invention. Do I need to say more? This album is amazing, living and breathing as if he just cut it to tape this morning. A generous new comp NEW HORIZONS VOL. 2 introduces us to a impressive range of young South African Jazz talent, while a new LP called 'Welcome Adventure' pools the collected talents of the NYC scene's elder heavyweights, DANIEL CARTER, MATTHEW SHIPP, WILLIAM PARKER, and GERALD CLEAVER.

  

  

Screaming Females' front-female MARISSA PATERNOSTER brings us a moving, introspective record of amplified punk-folk on 'Peace Meter'. Swedish group MAKTHAVERSKAN are not a metal band, a lesson for anyone (like me) who's tempted to judge a book by its cover. Their new record 'For Allting' is a marvel, sounding like a Swedish Go-Gos crossed up with the Cocteaus. Wrens founding member Kevin Whelan has a lovely new LP out on Sub Pop under the name AEON STATION. Montreal's HELENE BARBIER turns in a Quebecois take on taut, odd pop ala LoneLady or Melody's Echo Chamber on the enchanting 'Regulus'; Philly guitarist EMILY ROBB turns in some truly crushing guitar moves on 'How To Moonwalk', and we've got the latest from Frisco slow-core savants CINDY. 

  

Artist and curator Gangster Doodles knows his way around the hip-hop underground, witness the lineup of his latest comp, GANGSTER MUSIC VOL. 2, which rolls out of your speakers like a smoked-out version of classic group efforts like Soundbombing or Diplomatic Immunity 2. Super cool interactive art on this one, and white vinyl. Departed rap legend DMX gets his propers on a gold-plated hits compilation called 'The Legacy', and we have a new limited color vinyl reprint of the early classic 'Fetish Bones' from MOOR MOTHER. 

  

  

Quite the truckload of reissues this week from some of the most beloved acts of the 90s/00s indie world. Ah the 90s; compact discs were in vogue, Facebook did not exist, Donald Trump was lucky to make the cover of People Magazine once in awhile, and the bands...oh my, the bands. Forget colored vinyl, not a lot of LPs period got pressed for acts like THE DECEMBERISTS ('Picaresque' is back on clear vinyl), BARDO POND (fan fave 'Amanita' is here on purple), THE LILYS (Their Kinks-ish 'Better Can't Make Your Life Better' is back), LAMBCHOP (early gems 'I Hope You're Sitting Down' and 'Jack's Tulips' are combined on a new set), NEW PORNOGRAPHERS (their debut 'Mass Romantic' returns), or VERSUS (the '93 warning shot 'Let's Electrify!' gets its first ever vinyl release). 

 

 

Anyhoo where were we. Ah yes, two members of Orville Peck's band have split off as BRIA for a debut mini-album called....oh what's this they got me typing now? 'Cuntry Covers Vol. 1'. A new limited splatter vinyl version of CLAIRO's 'Sling' is in the shop, plus we've got a new LP of unheard demos from undersung lyricist MARGO GURYAN on gold wax, and a souped up 10th anniversary edition of LADY GAGA's 'Born This Way'

  

With his heavily-anticipated tour canned by Covid, MOSES SUMNEY commits to a spectacular recreation on '"Live" From Blackalachia'. Psychedelic soul perfection is in from CURTIS HARDING on 'If Words Were Flowers', and tragically departed folksinger JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE has his final album 'The Saint of Lost Causes' come back in a limited color vinyl run.

 

 

A phenomenal spread of Blue Note reissues are in this week, including ART BLAKEY's 'First Flight To Tokyo', KENNY COX's 'Introducing Kenny Cox', HERBIE NICHOLS' 'The Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol.1 and 2', and JIMMY SMITH's 'Home Cookin'.

 

 

Delayed a bit from Black Friday, we finally have some lovely looking copies of SUN RA's 'Omniverse', pairing well with a crisp reprint of a French spiritual jazz rarity, 'Orphee 2000' by CHENE NOIR. A pair of reissues land from iconic jazz poet, singer and arranger NIKKI GIOVANNI: 'Like A Ripple On A Pond' and 'The Way I Feel'.

  

CHUCK PROPHET fans! We know you're out there, we saw just about all of you this summer. His fan-fave album 'No Other Love' is back in stock on limited red splatter vinyl, along with nice new color pressings of hard to find classics from TODD RUNDGREN and THE DAVE CLARK FIVE. 

  

With their immense track record when it comes to compilations, we have pretty high expectations for the Honest Jon's label, but they've absolutely smashed them with THE PATHS OF PAIN, the first volume of comps exploring the largely unheard archives of the 1960s Ecuadorean label and radio station Caife. No words from this gringo can do justice to the overflowing realness of these songs, none of which have been heard outside of Quito or Guayaquil ever before. Brazilian rare groove gem 'Rota-Mar' from ZECA DO TROMBONE gets its first ever repress, alongside the heavy funk classic of the lone album from OS BRAZOES.

 

 

With the number of tracks he's unearthed, DJ HARVEY could keep doing these 'Sound of Mercury Rising' comps forever, and I hope he does, as long as they're as good as the latest installment, which hits the perfect sultry sweet spot between downtempo house and oddball disco. Few if any modern DJs have as much infectious exuberance as ERIS DREW, and her debut full length 'Quivering In Time' is absolutely rapturous. Minneapolis native and child of Berlin DUSTIN ZAHN nukes the whole damn planet with his latest album, 'Gain of Function', an incredible set of limber 140 bpm techno that doesn't even say hello before taking you away. Need a rest? Chill out with Budapest duo PLEASURE VOYAGE who boop the poolside cocktail vibes right in the nose on 'Daydreams'.

 

 

Heavy sonics are in on anticipated new albums from sound designer HELM and dark techno supergroup PDP III. UK dancehall smashers EQUIKNOXX link up with the Twin Cities soundsystem FEEL FREE HI-FI on an elaborately walloping new EP. Lithuanian ambient-folk group MEROPE achieve a dreamy mindmeld on 'Salos', an album that's gotten a lot of virtual play around these parts before the LP finally arrived.

  

Big soundtracks this week include LICORICE PIZZA, in the house on indie red vinyl; FLAG DAY, which features new music from everyone's faves Eddie Vedder, Cat Power, and Glen Hansard; plus a new vinyl edition of the ever-timely WEST SIDE STORY.

  

Up the punks! We have a new color wax edition of live versions of many of the best GREEN DAY songs on 'BBC Sessions'. Massively influential 90s peace-punk from ANTI-FLAG is back in print, plus we've got a new LP from Bay Area band THE MUSLIMS called 'Fuck These Fucking Fascists'. Seems like a good note to end on!

USED VINYL ALERT:

Quite a haul in this week's Used Vinyl Alert! Might need to change our name to Strictly Deccas because ooh wee we've got a lot of UK imports this time around. Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, a huge slew of Jimi Hendrix bootlegs and live LPs, Jeff Beck, Tom Petty, Them, Neil Young, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, the Beatles group and solo, the Doors, the Kinks, the Small Faces, the Who, the Grateful Dead, and on and on!