February 20, 2023
RECORD STORE DAY IS APRIL 22ND:
Launched in 2007 with the humble idea to recognize independent record stores, Record Store Day (RSD) has blossomed into a global phenomenon. The list of RSD vinyl and CD exclusives continues to expand, as more labels continue to throw open their catalogs to an appreciative audience that grows each year.
Beyond the day-long frenzy, RSD exists to offer proof of the lively role record stores play in the community and a chance for folks on both sides of the counter to offer gratitude for each other. It's a capsule-sized snapshot of what this whole record world is about. Whether you’re a hardcore type who times their arrival for a spot at the front of the line or somebody who waits until the afternoon for a more leisurely experience, we hope you’ll join us.
WISHLISTS:
Record Store Day wish lists can be made HERE. The deadline to create or modify a RSD WISH LIST Is Thursday, February 23rd at NOON.
Launched in 2007 with the humble idea to recognize independent record stores, Record Store Day (RSD) has blossomed into a global phenomenon. The list of RSD vinyl and CD exclusives continues to expand, as more labels continue to throw open their catalogs to an appreciative audience that grows each year.
Beyond the day-long frenzy, RSD exists to offer proof of the lively role record stores play in the community and a chance for folks on both sides of the counter to offer gratitude for each other. It's a capsule-sized snapshot of what this whole record world is about. Whether you’re a hardcore type who times their arrival for a spot at the front of the line or somebody who waits until the afternoon for a more leisurely experience, we hope you’ll join us.
WISHLISTS:
Record Store Day wish lists can be made HERE. The deadline to create or modify a RSD WISH LIST Is Thursday, February 23rd at NOON.
NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP
After stellar new records from Animal Collective and Panda Bear, we've got high expectations for AVEY TARE to keep the AnCo renaissance in full swing. The early singles from '7s' sound vivid and alluring, as Avey keeps up his folk-funk end of the bargain with plenty of elliptical trippyness. Our copies of this one are on violet vinyl. Vancouver producer KHOTIN has built an impressive sound-world of hauntologic dreamhouse over his last few records, and turns in his most impressive set yet on 'Release Spirit', in the shop on 'pink cloud' wax. The London venue TOTAL REFRESHMENT CENTRE is the creative hub that has sent acts like The Comet Is Coming, Sons of Kemet, The Vels Trio, and Alabaster DePlume our way, so a new compilation of fresh artists they're championing on 'Transmissions From...' can't be welcomed enough. Jammer vets WIDESPREAD PANIC dip back into the archives for the third volume of their 5-LP sets with 'Huntsville 96'.
Friscan freak-daddys THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE return with 'The Future Is Your Past', a new album that comes with a coloring book-style cover and colored pencils for you do your own album art. Sounds like a nice snow day activity alongside the other things one does with BJM records. More new rock n roll records are in this week from HIGHLY SUSPECT, SCREAMING FEMALES, and INHALER.
A nice pair of Blue Note Classic series releases roll in this week with the HORACE PARLAN QUINTET's 'Speakin My Piece', an underrated 1960 gem that features the brothers Turrentine, and JACKIE MCLEAN's 1962 melodic session 'Bluesnik'. A nice repress of 'Earth Passage - Density' by JOSEPH JARMAN and DON MOYE restores a super heady set of spiritual freedom from the Art Ensemble camp, and for the first time on vinyl, we've got the incredibly languid 2003 album 'Sensual Hours' by AVISHAI COHEN.
Trap hero LIL BABY returns with 'Its Only Me' on vinyl, plus we've got what is sadly the the last record from TAKEOFF may he rest in peace; he is co-billed on 'Only Built For Infinity Links' with Migos partner QUAVO. An elaborate splatter vinyl edition spruces up a reissue of the 90s underground rap classic 'Doom' by MOOD, featuring a young Talib Kweli on several tracks. Pop songwriter MELANIE MARTINEZ's debut album 'Cry Baby' re-emerges in a deluxe edition with demos.
Several years back, the JON HASSELL album 'City: Works Of Fiction' got an expanded reissue that provided a great deal of sonic context to a record that has bewildered some critics since its release in 1990. Hassell adapting his forest canopy-scale approach to an urban landscape involved too many synths for some (or too much Seinfeld bass for others) but of course, now, decades later it sounds amazing. The bonus material from that set is now on two neat vinyl editions for the first time. The Mexican artist MURCOF made some of the early 00s most intensely beautiful ambient music on albums like 'Martes', 'Utopia', and 'Remembranza', which delicately laid strings, beats, and poignant roomsound across a classical frame. A trio of these are remastered for vinyl in 2023 by Stefan Betke aka Pole aka exactly who you'd want on a job like this.
It's not too much of a primer on how they sound (for that, you just have to check out the records), but the list of bands that likely wouldn't exist without BEAT HAPPENING first lighting the path is eclectic and long: Screaming Trees, Nirvana, Unwound, Tiger Trap and the Swirlies and the rest of the twee end of Riot Grrl, Modest Mouse, the Microphones and Mount Eerie, Death Cab and Phantogram and the rest of the classic Barsuk bands, etc etc. They all took inspiration, either in sound or method, from the totemic Olympia trio who made catchy, dreamy, relatable and approachable pop music on their own DIY terms. Broken out from a massive recent box-set that recreated all of the classic album art from its original handmade art sources, we've now got limited copies of their five studio albums, 'Beat Happening', 'Jamboree', 'Black Candy', 'Dreamy', and 'You Turn Me On', plus the collection 'Music To Climb the Apple Tree By', each with new notes written by various members of their legion of acolytes.
UK group MOVIETONE defined the post-rock sound of 90s Bristol with their self-titled debut, a beguilingly zonked take on the Velvets that served as a kind of leaky connector between Spacemen 3 and Broadcast as far as the UK psych pipeline goes. This gem gets a proper celebration this week with an expanded double vinyl edition with demos and singles. Free-form folk collective JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER begin a review of their early unreleased material with a promising set called 'Manual of the Bayonet'. Locally-based but world-renowned drone trio SPIRAL JOY BAND see a release of a 2011 live session from the Shockrasonic house over on Baldwin Street emerge in a lovely edition on Feeding Tube, and the brilliant CD-only 92 album 'The Red Shoes' by THE DURUTTI COLUMN gets a nice vinyl release.
'City Of Echoes', the third album from the mighty Chicago post-metal unit PELICAN gets a vinyl reissue this week, alongside a 20th anniversary edition of the iconic 'Apple O' by art-rock frontierspeople DEERHOOF. A remastered, lovingly embossed sleeve edition of NEW ORDER's 1985 single 'The Perfect Kiss', and we've got a beautiful orange vinyl pressing of the pioneering new wave classic self-titled LP from FLOCK OF SEAGULLS here. Depending on your generation, a number of entities could be responsible for ruining "I Ran (So Far Away)" for you, but don't let that distract you from how incredible this album is.
A trio of must-haves from NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS are back in print this week. We've got 'The Good Son', 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!', and 'No More Shall We Part' in stock. Panhandle honky-tonker JOE ELY advanced the genre-bend of Americana a great deal with his powerful trio of early albums, all reissued this week.
A rather unreal assortment of Afro-funk and afrobeat jazz arrives this week, with a fresh printing of the Benin psych-funk grail 'Original Vol. 1' by OGASSA, bluesy Nigerian highlife from THE MOONRAKERS BAND, and a new LP edition of 'Jaiyede Afro', the incredible 2014 comeback album from Lagos saxophone legend ORLANDO JULIUS with THE HELIOCENTRICS. No edition of this newsletter is complete without input from the Numero Group, and this week's entry is a doozy: an LP called 'I'm Not Your Toy' collects the unreleased 90s private soul fire of Oakland musician PETER BARCLAY, a seriously quiet storm.
'Lunapark', the first album from LUNA after Dean Wareham dissolved Galaxie 500, gets a lush reissue this week from Runout Groove. Early Berman/Malkmus brilliance is all over the SILVER JEWS classic 'Starlite Walker'. Drag City rolled the world a serious fatty when they found and re-released 'Red Hash' by Connecticut folk-rock mystery man GARY HIGGINS back in '05; that edition's been OOP for close to a decade until now. Curt Boettcher-produced sunshine pop perfection from DOTTI HOLMBERG has lain unreleased until this week as well. Skol!
Nice up your house and techno shelf with some of the greatest to ever do it this week. METRO AREA rewrote the rules on minimal, funky house with their early EPs. We have two of them in stock this week with others said to be on the way in coming weeks. DREXCIYA's massive second album 'Harnessed the Storm' gets a cracking remaster and entirely new artwork, plus we've finally got a vinyl edition of the incredibly arctic dub-tech environ 'Whistleblower' by VLADISLAV DELAY.
Italian percussion pioneer TULLIO DE PISCOPO's long career took him through worlds of jazz fusion, proggy symphonia, and delirious disco, but it began with a stellar LP of solo rhythm work, 'Suonando La Batteria Moderna', that has remained a hard to source bit of his discography. What else is out there like 'The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon', the second and final 1973 album from San Francisco's SOPWITH CAMEL? This indeed miraculous record sounds like the unholy child of a union of Can's 'Monster Movie' and the Pretty Things 'Parachute', and it is back in print this week. ANXIOUS COLOR, a deeply dug compilation of west coast garage psych is back in print via Mississippi, and we've got a fresh edition of the complete recorded works of the Swedish giants PARSON SOUND, one of the first bands to bring titanic, bluesy, proto-metal riffs to the open air of the countryside, where some say they truly belong.
USED VINYL LP ALERT
Boy howdy have we got a Used Vinyl drop for you! We've got some jazz classics and heavy hitters from John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Roy Ayers, Chet Baker, Phil Upchurch, Wes Montgomery, Don Ellis, Toshko Akiyoshi, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Spyro Gyra, Zoot Sims, Bob James, and The Crusaders.
A great selection of contemporary titles and reissues (many out-of-print) from Radiohead, Daft Punk, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sun 0))), Captain Beefheart, Can, Mac Demarco, Beastie Boys, Madlib, Tycho, Olivia Tremor Control, Flying Lotus, and Tame Impala.
Classic Country fans will yahoo at our offerings from Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Skeeter Davis, Chip Taylor, Conway Twitty, and so many more.
We've also got loads of classic rock including some scarcely seen titles from Pink Floyd, U2, The Beatles, Van Halen, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Tears For Fears, Madonna, Aerosmith.
Rounding things out for the week, there's plenty more folk, soul, soundtracks, international, experimental, and classical within what we highlighted above.
A great selection of contemporary titles and reissues (many out-of-print) from Radiohead, Daft Punk, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sun 0))), Captain Beefheart, Can, Mac Demarco, Beastie Boys, Madlib, Tycho, Olivia Tremor Control, Flying Lotus, and Tame Impala.
Classic Country fans will yahoo at our offerings from Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Skeeter Davis, Chip Taylor, Conway Twitty, and so many more.
We've also got loads of classic rock including some scarcely seen titles from Pink Floyd, U2, The Beatles, Van Halen, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Tears For Fears, Madonna, Aerosmith.
Rounding things out for the week, there's plenty more folk, soul, soundtracks, international, experimental, and classical within what we highlighted above.
SELL US YOUR CDS & LPS
Yes, we are still buying! Call Ron to schedule (608.213.3610).
Ron, Ryan, Angie, Marty, Evan, Matt, Ed, Eric, Jack, Steve, Mark, Brad, Roger, & Adam
