Greetings and happy almost-Friday, newsletter readers! Evan here, back from vacation and writing these lines as I sit at an actual desk, as opposed to atop a slow-moving alligator like last week, or the parking lot of a Wawa the week prior to that. There are a whole lot of great next records in the shop this week, and I will endeavor to cover about fifty of them here. I foolishly slept on the show that LA LOM played in town earlier this year, but I've been hearing about it ever since, and its built up a lot of expectations for their debut album, 'The Los Angeles League Of Musicians'. The trio have risen rather quickly out of the fertile ground of the LA jazz scene, from busking sidewalks to thousand-cap rooms, on the strength of a passionate interpretation of afro-latin jazz and cumbia distinguished by nimbly lyrical guitar and hand percussion. Oddly, this record reminds me a lot of the Khun Narin LPs that came out of Thailand about a decade ago, as well. It's a small world after all. # Originally released in a tiny Swedish edition late last year, we now welcome a wider pressing of one of the best progressive pop albums to ever exist: STERNPOST's magical 'Ulrika'. This LP sounds like a symphony, but is entirely the work of one man, Petter Herbertsson, who's spent decades making racket in the Swedish underground before turning his hand to this masterwork. Lyricon, guitar, bass, vibraphone, and crucially, a tasteful amount of melodica are the elements in this jazz-art object that gives one the impression of having just woken up in a sun-dappled meadow after a mild dose of psilocybin. Comparisons can be made here to the stately elegance of Robert Wyatt, or the plush velour production of Brian Wilson, or the pinch-me-I'm-dreaming wonderment of that first Dungen LP to hit stateside, but the vibe here is so committed to a unified and unique vision that analogues truly fail. # I saw the names MILTON NASCIMENTO & ESPERANZA SPALDING together on a new album and hit the order button with a quickness. The Brazilian musical icon has retired from performing live, so this may be the last time we hear him on new studio material, after six decades of influencing music around the globe. Spalding is the perfect foil for Nascimento here, on a florid suite of songs that benefit from lush backing including Shabaka Hutchings on flute. # From his earliest days in The Clean in the early 1980s and onward, New Zealand's DAVID KILGOUR has established himself as a guitar hero in the most unassuming fashion. His gently melodic playing refracts the blues and the raga as if through a dusty desert mirage, then he turns around and cranks out a heavenly pop ditty that won't leave your head. No single record drives this notion home like his first proper solo album, 'A Feather In The Engine', which came out on CD in 2002 and gets its first-ever vinyl pressing this week from Merge. # They've conquered prog, death metal, and synth-pop, but what diehard fans of KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD really want is their particular band of chooglin roots-rock, like a souped up Aussie version of The Band, and they get it in spades on their new album, 'Flight b741'. # Swapping out genres about as often as they tweak their bandname, John Dwyer's eternal garage-plus project OSEES is back to inject us with its ovipositor on 'Sorcs 80'. With rudimentary synths and oscillators in the mix, I'm getting a Screamers/Devo vibe on this one. We have the color vinyl on this one. What color you ask? Not sure, but it's probably gross!

A half dozen crucial jazz reissues hit the racks this week. PHAROAH SANDERS landmark 1971 album 'Thembi' found him expanding his arsenal of instruments, and in its combination of beautifully contemplative spiritual pieces, head-rattling free moments, and artful uses of minimalism and space, it sums up all of Sanders' trademark strengths. It also features legendary pianist Lonnie Liston Smith playing a Fender Rhodes for the first time. In 1967, ELVIN JONES & RICHARD DAVIS were booked to record a trio album with guitarist Larry Coryell. He bailed for some reason (probably couldn't find his shirt), so the duo pressed on with the sessions that became 'Heavy Sounds', one of the better examples of the drummer and bassist's post-bop skill. The sounds here aren't particularly heavy (who named these records anyway?), moreso delicate and deep. A pair of Blue Note essentials, ART BLAKEY's 'Moanin' and WAYNE SHORTER's 'Speak No Evil' each get limited edition blue vinyl runs. The Verve/Acoustic Sounds turns its audiophile acumen to a pair of classics. The monumental 1960 session GERRY MULLIGAN meets BEN WEBSTER is a landmark of the bop era, smoothly escorting the lasting influence of Duke Ellington into a new decade; pianist and singer DIANA KRALL hit the peak of her performance on 2001's 'The Look Of Love'.

Down in New Orleans last week, I encountered a rather motivated fellow affiliated with a label releasing a series of hard (or impossible) to hear recordings from some Big Easy legends. His substance-aided sales pitch moved me to check these out and they are in fact the real deal. EDDIE BO's late 70s private press album 'The Other Side of Eddie Bo' is electrifiyingly funky rare groove; EARL KING's blazing live album 'Street Parade' pairs his soulful vox with the whipcrack backing band of The Meters; an unreleased 1980s set by CLIFTON CHENIER called 'Live At Tipitina's' captures the Zydeco King in his raving prime. All three of these are on limited run, heavyweight color wax. A two LP edition of 'Memphis' pares down the massive ELVIS PRESLEY collection of material recorded at Sun Studios and elsewhere to a more manageable amount. New West adds to the mythology of the tragically departed songwriter JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE with 'All In', a vast collection of unreleased and rare tunes. Influential folksinger AMOS LEE returns with a vulnerable collection of new songs called 'Transmissions'.

Gotta say, it doesn't feel like we are a legit record store without at least one copy of the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB album in stock. Luckily that absence is rectified with a fresh (and affordable) repress of this Cuban jazz landmark this week. The ongoing Fania Records revival continues with the reissue of a rare one from 1974 by the funky rock-n-horn ensemble CAFE, produced by the legendary Ray Barretto. Numero returns to the well of West African guitar king ZANI DIABATE and his SUPER DJATA BAND for a second volume of his blazing early 80s blend of fuzz rock and afrobeat. As a standard bearer for traditional Anatolian rhythms and also a collaborator with Swedish jazz musicians as well as the then-Sweden based trumpeter Don Cherry, Turkish percussionist OKAY TEMIZ found himself the 'Drummer Of Two Worlds', and his 1980 album with that title encapsulates this universality to perfection. This inventively funky gem went worldwide enough to get sampled by Scarface from the Geto Boys. Few musicians capture brisk energy and deep melancholy like Algerian composer AHMED MALEK, who is crowned once again by a second volume of 'Musique Original De Films', packed with expressionist filmscore gems by the Habibi Funk label, who continue to carry the standard for reissues of essential music from the Middle East. We've also stocked up on copies of anything else in print from Habibi Funk, so come grip!

The year of JESSICA PRATT continues, as we still ride the high from her incredible performance here last month, and the utterly unexpected news of her collaboration with A$ap Rocky. We've gotten several requests for her 2013 self-titled album, where she made her debut already fully formed as a timewalking nightingale, and our wishes have been granted with a repress. Bay Area "weird indie" legends THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 continue to pierce the membrane of modern consciousness with a repress of their 1994 record 'The Funeral Pudding'. If you find the catalog of guitar-elevators DINOSAUR JR. intimidatingly large, try out 'Ear Bleeding Country: The Best Of Dinosaur Jr.' available on vinyl for the first time. Speaking of intimidatingly large, the mighty WEEN's elusive breakout album 'Chocolate and Cheese' finally has a legit vinyl release. Originally released in 2001 on CD, the SMASHING PUMPKINS greatest hits collection 'Rotten Apples' is thusly confined mainly to the era in which Billy Corgan had hair, which might be your preference, or might not be! That's fine too. Indianapolis legends ZERO BOYS were at ground zero of the American hardcore explosion, but don't quite get the props of your DC and LA what-have-yous, so remedy that with a new edition of their discography, 'History Of'.

Canada's hardest post-hardcore band FUCKED UP are back with a fresh slab of slashing, studio-drenched anthems called 'Another Day'; Sacto riot-grrage heroes DESTROY BOYS slap 'Funeral Soundtrack #4' on us; Wilkes-Barre, PA, pit maintenance comes from ONE STEP CLOSER on the melodic, punchy 'All You Embrace'; veteran sludgey metalcore heroes COALESCE release 'Live at BBC's Maida Vale Studios', recorded for the famed radio station back in the late 00s; pummeling grindcore legends PIG DESTROYER re-release their collection of early rarities, 'Painter of Dead Girls', which probably contains some songs they played when I saw them absolutely level a tiny basement bar in the year 2000. Haven't been the same since then.

Filipino-Brit indie queen BEABADOOBEE hits a new high with the plush, melodic, Rick Rubin-produced 'This Is How Tomorrow Moves', in on color vinyl. Other pop musts this week include DASHA's 'What Happens Now', and CULTS' 'To The Ghosts', which comes with a signed zoetrope slipmat. Superstar rapper LOGIC finally unleashes his mythically never-released 2017 album 'Ultra 85', plus we are on fire with a reissue of the HOT BOYS' 'Guerilla Warfare', and a freshie from CONWAY THE MACHINE.

For as long as I have worked at the shop, I have gotten requests for vinyl copies of any releases by the storied Japanese group FISHMANS, who evolved Gizzard-like from album to album across decades, from reggae, to jazz, to funk, to triphop, and eventually to a wonderful combination of all of that and more. Their LPs remain elusive, but we now have a pair of "Best Of" compilations, split thematically between 'Kuchu (Aerial)' and 'Uchu (Universe)', providing a broad panoramic view of this incredible band. A pair of classic City Pop gems arrive as well in TAEKO OHNUKI's 'Sunshower' and TAMLYN TOMITA's 'Sweet Surprise'. AZAR LAWRENCE's 1976 album 'People Moving' is one of the finest jazz-funk albums of all time, featuring key contribs from Harvey Mason and Patrice Rushen. Turnabout is fair play for THEE MARLOES, an Indonesian soul trio who aim to eclipse Khruangbin with some smooth stuff straight from the source on 'Perak'.

Lastly and most weirdly, some excellent experimental records from the fruitful fringes. UK trio STILL HOUSE PLANTS have established a buzz (they were on the cover of The Wire a few months back) and follow through on the incredible 'If I Dont Make It, I Love U', a supremely wonky excursion in bold art rock that sounds like if Bar Italia went in a Beefheart direction. New Orleans haze merchants BELONG have been in deep hibernation for a long time; so long that some of you readers might be too young to remember how massive their debut album 'October Language' was. Out of nowhere they return with 'Realistic Ix', which maintains their trademark maximalist, withering fuzz, while introducing piston-like drum machine and buried vocal harmonics not too far off from those of a certain Kevin Shields. If he's not gonna do anything with em, its fair game! Monumental abstract dub techno from (who else?) an anonymous German guy lands hard with GHOST DUBS' 'Damaged', on The Bug's new label. Oakland's CUNEIFORM TABS channel Swell Maps and TV Personalities to an uncanny degree on a new self-titled gem. Declared the best free jazz record of the modern era by people who know about these things (aka not me), the UK trio [AHMED]'s 2023 album 'Wood Blues' is back in print, and we sink the rest of the way into oblivion with a reissue of the Takoma-released free-skronk of CHARLIE NOTHING's 'The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing'.

Here is your weekly update for August 8. We'll pickup where the Thursday night sneak peek video on our @StrictlyDiscs Instagram and Facebook left off. No frills. Just the artists. The rest is for your 500+ fresh-used digging pleasure downstairs. Some of the headliners this week:

Rock/Pop: Black Sabbath, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Roky Erickson, Queen, The Doors, Billy Joel, Madonna, U2

Jazz/International: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Celestine Ukwu, King Tubby

Folk/Country: Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, Hank Williams

Contemporary: Bon Iver, Billie Eilish, Dirty Heads, Vulfpeck, Bech House, Hozier, Wallows,

Soul/Funk/Blues: Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson

Soundtracks: The Lion King, Jesus Christ Superstar, Blues Brothers

Happy Digging!

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