Your RSD 2024 Wishlist Goes Live Tomorrow!

Bristol rock band IDLES crashed the scene around 15 years ago, wielding a fresh take on post-hardcore fury that seemed to gain potency as Britain made its fateful rightward political shift, giving them ever more to rage against. In 2024 they are a British rock institution, which historically calls for a stylistic makeover. So it is with 'Tangk', their fifth album, which approaches topics like love, friendship, and brotherhood with a familiar vigor, but a broader sound. Soul, funk, droning noise, and even the unmistakable dance-punk influence of James Murphy turn up on this one, which we jammed front to back on Wednesday night to a packed house of appreciative fans. 'Tangk' is here on indie exclusive pink vinyl and deluxe yellow vinyl, and we've still got some Idles valentine's left over because, in case you weren't sure, this band really loves you a lot. A banner week for new rock records continues with the latest from Atlanta trio OMNI. Their Sub Pop LP 'Souvenir' has a welcoming, choppy tightness to it that reminds of Devo, Pylon, and B-52s deep cuts. Buzzy English band CRAWLERS finally land here with 'The Mess We Seem To Make', a lovely and soaring album of grungy pop, like a female fronted 'Disintegration'-era Cure, in the shop on blue vinyl with an alternate cover. The Windy City has been serving up progressive-minded power pop since time began (or since Cheap Trick first hit the stage at Huey's), and the latest generation is here to pick up the torch with FRIKO's debut 'Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here', which offers soaring string crescendos amidst its crunching riffs. The glam-pop wizardry of I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME returns with 'Gloom Division', produced by the legendary Dave Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips), and sounding anything but gloomy. Los Angeles noise-rockers HEALTH have been a band a long time, but somehow sound even more ferocious than in their their youthful era on 'Rat Wars'.

It's been ten years since jazz-rockers LAKE STREET DIVE's breakout album 'Bad Self Portraits', and they celebrate with a deluxe edition featuring a bunch of bonus tracks and new cover art featuring a ton of pictures of the band members, none of which look bad to me. How does Australian whistler MOLLY LEWIS make the act of blowing air into the air sound so evocative and sultry? I am definitely afraid to ask her, so its best just enjoy her new album 'On The Lips', which immediately transports you to the most chic (and relaxing) cocktail lounge of the mid-century. Songwriter MADI DIAZ returns to Anti- with another great album of soul-baring rock called 'Weird Faith', which features a guest appearance from Kacey Musgraves. Against Me's LAURA JANE GRACE returns with another ruckus solo record called 'Hole In My Head', including a track called "I'm Not A Cop", which is not something I'd guess she's ever been confused for, and an instant folk-punk anthem in "Dysphoria Hoodie". Cathartic post-goth vocalist CHELSEA WOLFE remains as bracing as ever on the chilly, industrial powered 'She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She'. Portuguese composer XEXA turns her voice into that of a clarinet on the woozy 'Vibracoes de Prata', in from the ever boundary-pushing Principe label.

I'm no PhD-level jazz aficionado, but I try to play one at the front counter as needed. When newcomers to the genre ask for the best entry-level jazz record, there's always 'Kind Of Blue', 'Giant Steps', 'Time Out', or 'Black Saint and the Sinner Lady'. To this can't miss quartet, we could easily add YUSEF LATEEF's groundbreaking 1961 album 'Eastern Sounds', which gets a long-awaited audiophile edition this week from Craft Recordings and mastering engineer Kevin Gray. On this spartan and spacious album, tenor and flautist Lateef explores his love of Asian musical modes, merging their delicacy with a gently swinging blues; an accessible combination which surely introduced tens of thousands of listeners to a region of music they had never heard before. Lateef's version of 'Love Theme From Spartacus' may be the most transcendent version ever cut, and album closer 'The Three Faces Of Balal' is a triumph of minimalism, a full decade before that term even came into widespread usage. A wealth of classic jazz titles get the audiophile treatment this week: JOE HENDERSON's combustible 1966 classic 'Mode For Joe' returns, featuring peak performances from Curtis Fuller, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton, and LEE MORGAN, who's stone cold essential '66 album 'Search For The New Land' also returns. We've got new editions of the ART PEPPER QUINTET's 'Smack Up' and the archival STAN GETZ & BILL EVANS collection 'Previously Unreleased Recordings', which dates to the early 60s but was not released until 1974. Soul jazz rarity 'Ghetto Suite' from cult-fave composer GALT MACDERMOT gets a welcome reissue as well.

Real ones pirated it months ago, but all you law-abiding vinyl buyers finally get to lay your hands on EARL SWEATSHIRT & THE ALCHEMIST's rap bulldozer 'Voir Dire' this week, and on silver vinyl no less. Canadian beatmaker ELAQUENT goes back to his childhood for sample inspiration on 'Rediscovery', a lively batch of bopping instrumentals featuring all kinds of guest MCs. Mom said I can have the gameboy after you, in five minutes. KNXWLEDGE chopped-not-slopped beat tape '1988' gets a fresh pressing on purple and black wax. Crazy white boys Mike Posner and Blackbear team up once again as MANSIONZ, and they're taking a sledgehammer to a grand piano on the cover of 'Mansionz 2'. George Maciunas already did that about 50 years ago but sure, lets have another go. Bootleg gospel-funk comps usually aren't our thing, but the tracks on SLOW TO SPEAK's 'An Atheists Guide To Gospel Music Vol.1' are too classic, and too impossible to track down to deny. This rough n ready set came out 15 years ago but apparently some copies have jarred loose and landed in our bins. Gotta praise somebody for that. Speaking of likely atheists, we've got a pair of nice vinyl editions of recent albums by progressive death-metal titans KRALLICE: 'Crystalline Exhaustion' and 'Psychagogue'.

Longtime LA producer SECRET CIRCUIT pays taxes as Edward Ruscha V, as in *that* Ed Ruscha (his dad), the pop art genius who has made words and ideas glow for decades. For whatever reason, that fact has always made me appreciate the musician's remarkable body of work all the more. Your dad is an icon, are you really gonna stick the family name on some music that doesn't completely slap? 'Green Mirror', his latest album, keeps up the promise; it feels like his longest record yet, and it travels through cosmic chuggy synth, playful electro and back again, with his trademark attention to detail. It's likely already happened, but I'd throw Eddie on a double bill with ANTHONY NAPLES, whose 2018 fan fave 'Take Me With You' is back in print this week, a flawless set of afterhours chill. Probably best not to wonder exactly what Drexciya's Gerald Donald was going for with his JAPANESE TELECOM alias and essential album 'Virtual Geisha'; just enjoy its cheeky electro brilliance as done by one of the genres inventors. Chinese-Canadian producer CIEL delivers her most full fledged suite of tracks yet with 'Homesick', paying homage to traditional Chinese sounds with thumping, aerated techno. The Trilogy Tapes label continues to be appointment listening with a pair of fresh bangers. Italian duo CICCIO & 2MO deliver artisan-level abstract industrial on 'Maremoto', while MM/KM (the duo of techno outsiders Mix Mup and Kassem Mosse) emerge with 'Ich Sehe Vasen', a massive double LP of minimalist rhythmic daring.

The most unique record on offer this week is unquestionably the debut album from Australian duo YIRINDA, which pairs austere, haunting modern piano, synth and contrabass compositions with a vocalist singing in the Butchulla language, an endangered tongue from the Fraser Coast region of Queensland, spoken by just a handful of people, and only sung by three people, total. Free-form synthesist JEREMIAH CHIU turns in a solo work for International Anthem called 'In Electric Time'. Immersive ambient veteran RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI delivers 'Midnight Colours', a stirring work dedicated to the Doomsday Clock. Whoa...too intense? How about the first ever vinyl edition of MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD's 'It's A Jungle In Here', or the playful fusion of ADMIRAL's 'Do You Want To Sit On The Green?' Legendary 80s bedroom producer MICHAL TURTLE is still at it, and he still has a bedroom, just like you and me. He revisits some of his classic, ethereal 80s fourth world gems on 'Same Songs, Different Room'.

Resting down here at the bottom of the newsletter like silt at the bottom of a pelagic eddy, or the lees of a fine 18th century Burgundy, are some phenomenal ambient records that have mostly come out in the last year or two, but have never made their way to us until now. Behold: ULLA STRAUS' shapeshifting 'Big Room', EX WIISH's disorienting, metallic, Huerco-ish 'Intuitive Word', LIAI's thrumming, fragrant 'Pome', CIVILISTJAVEL's chilling, skeletal groove of a debut, back in print for the first time since its 2018 release, LAMIN FOFANA's underwater architecture on 'Unsettling Scores', and a welcome remastered repress of the dub techno swirl of CV313's 'Sailingstars'.

Whether you call it Valentine's Day or Singles Awareness Day, we're confident you'll find the love in your heart for this week's fresh new used vinyl.

With all this romance in the air, we must start with Soul. Lovely offerings by the likes of Sam Cooke, Pearl Bailey, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin.

Rock Essentials from Canada's finest export Rush (no offense syrup and Molson Ice), studio wizard Alan Parsons, The Police, everybody' s favorite burnouts The Grateful Dead, some elusive wax from Yaz/Yazoo, and southern rock stylings from My Morning Jacket. The boys from Poison show up in an Aquanet haze joined by fellow makeup enthusiasts The Cure. Finally we have Trey Anastasio, Madonna, Boston, and The Byrds rounding a heady week in rock.

Pop vocals are represented by the soothing tones of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Harry Belafonte. One cannot offer records the week of Valentine's Day without some Sinatra so know that Frank and Nancy are both here, respectively adorned with a top-hat and boots of course.

A light week for hip-hop but what we have will go quick: Travis Scott, Brooklyn's gone too soon Pop Smoke and Machine Gun Kelly before he picked up a guitar.

The jazz heads will be happy with titles from Miles Davis, Johnny Smith, Johnny Hartman, Hubert Laws, Ramsay Lewis, and Edwin Hawkins. We also go big down to NOLA with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

We have a slew of fantastic soundtracks hitting the floor tomorrow. Top Gun, Flashdance, West Side Story, The Big Chill, The Great Gatsby, Miami Vice, Stand By Me, Skatetown USA, and The Wiz all are here. Yes half of those films were already remade...with the others likely already in development for their inevitable Summer 2026 release starring Zendaya and Tom Holland. But the music of the originals live forever on vinyl!

What would looking back on Valentine's Day be without the Blues? An OG press of bluesman Howlin' Wolf joins a host other great titles from the likes of The Night Tripper Himself and Dr. John.

It's not so often that we can satiate the ravenous appetite of our metal heads but this week we are serving up some meat and potatoes for you all. We've got hard to find titles from Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Lizzy Borden, and the elusive Blue Murder!

We throw on the stetson hats and strap on our spurs to bring you some prime cuts from Country & Western stars like Jerry Jeff Walker, Ernest Tubbs, Mr. "Take This Job and Shove It' himself Johnny Paycheck, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and the Ramblin' Man Waylon Jennings.

See you all you lovebirds tomorrow at 10!

Record Store Day 2024 - Event Perimeter

Yes, we are still buying! Call us at the shop to schedule: 608-259-1991