January 30, 2025
Greetings dear newsletter readers. It has been a week to say the least. With so much poor communication going around, it feels important to make something plain and clear: Oh hell no. This weekly ramble has always stuck to records in the strict sense, and it will continue to do so. Music on LPs and CDs and tapes is a tempting material escape from reality for us listeners, and an outlet for the creator to build their own ideal environments. But those artists and us listeners also exist in the real, everyday world that affords us all some level of comfort in which to enjoy and make art. When that comfort is threatened by a campaign of bigotry, it falls to us listener-citizens to say something about it.
Strictly Discs has always opened its doors wide to anyone, and aimed to be a place where all are welcome, with the understanding that there are certainly ways for us to do better. The new administration has chaotically signaled a number of threatening measures against undocumented immigrants, women, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups, with a particular scapegoating of transgender Americans leading the list. We have many transgender customers (who knows how many! We don't ask and it is their prerogative to mention it or not); we have friends, loved ones and family members who are transgender. In a moment where this community is being singled out, we must simply reiterate that we stand with them, and will not remain silent as their lives are put in danger.
Other than that, we've got lots of records to talk about, so lets get to it.
Strictly Discs has always opened its doors wide to anyone, and aimed to be a place where all are welcome, with the understanding that there are certainly ways for us to do better. The new administration has chaotically signaled a number of threatening measures against undocumented immigrants, women, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups, with a particular scapegoating of transgender Americans leading the list. We have many transgender customers (who knows how many! We don't ask and it is their prerogative to mention it or not); we have friends, loved ones and family members who are transgender. In a moment where this community is being singled out, we must simply reiterate that we stand with them, and will not remain silent as their lives are put in danger.
Other than that, we've got lots of records to talk about, so lets get to it.
New This Week At The Shop
Until recently, the Mexican folk singer NATALIA LAFOURCADE was one of the better known international musicians who had yet to break through in the US. That changed with her tenth album 'De Todas Las Flores', which came out in late 2022 to universal acclaim. This deft, perceptive blend of samba, bolero, cumbia and bossa nova is finally here on vinyl; an elegant stepping stone between the old masters Nascimento and Piazzolla, and their modern tradition-keepers like Helado Negro and Lucrecia Dalt. Eternal renewal remains the theme for tireless folk hero BONNIE PRINCE BILLY, who returns with 'The Purple Bird', his first proper solo album in several years. In a perfect world, we'd be treated every couple of years with a new album from MADVILLAIN, the iconic duo of rapper MF DOOM and producer MADLIB. For reasons outlined in this email and elsewhere, we do not live in a perfect world, but its still very exciting to have a listen to the original demos for the pair's 2004 debut. Underground jazz/avant/punk legend DAMON LOCKS (of the Eternals, Exploding Star Orchestra, Trenchmouth alongside Fred Armisen, and "the guy who rented me the PA for my wedding" fame) always commands our attention; his latest LP for the International Anthem is called 'List of Demands'. Lets hear em!
THE WEEKND seems anxious to wrap up the trilogy of albums that began with 'After Hours' and 'Dawn FM'; the final installment is called 'Hurry Up Tomorrow', and has fans waiting patiently. In addition to a shockingly affordable vinyl edition of this release, we will also have some limited edition CD versions with alternate artwork from Basquiat and Frank Miller, no big deal. CLEO SOL's 2024 album 'Gold' has remained elusive for over a year until this week, plus we've got another incredible new album from R&B crooner EDDIE CHACON, and the latest volume of Numero's unstoppable ECCENTRIC SOUL series.
You can't help but beam with pride when you listen back to SLOW PULP's debut album 'Moveys', which gets the deluxe reissue treatment this week on white vinyl with a second disc of bonus material. The Madison West grads really did it, turning their earnest, unpretentious and fun indie-pop into a national sensation - the type of band you can hear when you walk into a Idaho Chipotle at noon. While you contemplate that image, also consider that we have essential indie reissues from CHAPPAQUIDDICK SKYLINE (the late 90s side hustle from members of the Pernice Brothers and Fruit Bats), BIG THIEF, and BAD BAD HATS.
The Rhino label launches an entertaining entry in the audiophile world with the Rhino Reserves series, a run of reissues pressed locally in California on affordable heavy weight vinyl. They've picked some doozies for the first wave: ALLEN TOUSSAINT's 'Southern Nights' and EDDIE HAZEL's 'Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs'. The latter album remains an impossible to find grail in the world of P-Funk, arguably the best record from that whole scene, even. I've looked for an original for over a decade and never found one. I do sometimes consult Wikipedia when writing these mailings, but I never quote directly, until now: "A 1994 episode of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street involved a shooting motivated by one character's destruction of another character's copy of Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs." Wow. Also in the hopper, new remasters of big fan faves from RUSH and YES.
Farflung gems of underground rock, punk and hardcore return this week. The immensely underrated 90s DC band KEROSENE 454 somehow made a sound more blistering and serrated than Fugazi on 'Came By To Kill Me'; North Carolina legends THE DB'S paved the power pop path between Big Star and R.E.M. on their opening albums 'Stands For Decibels' and 'Repercussion'; two very different but no less influential bands from the dawn of US hardcore, FITZ OF DEPRESSION and JUDGE, each all have key bits back in print.
Before they changed their name to the much more familiar mouthful Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, a group called ICE began their explosive trajectory with 'Each Man Makes His Destiny', an uber rare slab that now gets a crisp repro from the Strut label. Afrobeat legend EBO TAYLOR makes a new entry in the Ali Shaheed Mohammed/Adrian Younge-led Jazz Is Dead series, plus we've got frequently-requested reissues of leftfield hiphop essentials from EYEDEA & ABILITIES and NUJABES.
Used Vinyl LP Alert
Here is your weekly update for January 30. 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 650+ fresh-used digging pleasure downstairs in our Madison shop.
Contemporary/Pop: Sade, R.E.M., Cocteau Twins, Beach House, Father John Misty, Madonna, WHAM!, Depeche Mode, a-Ha
Soul/Blues/Hip Hop: Rick James, Issac Hayes, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kendrick Lamar
Rock: The Ramones, Devo, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, Blondie, ZZ Top, Brian Wilson, Black Sabbath, Talking Heads, Kate Bush, Prince, AC/DC, The Band, The Clash, George Harrison, STYX, Pink Floyd,
Country: Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson
Jazz: BadBadNotGood, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Evans, Fred Weiss, Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane
Soundtracks: Top Gun, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Beverley Hills Cop II
Happy Digging!
Contemporary/Pop: Sade, R.E.M., Cocteau Twins, Beach House, Father John Misty, Madonna, WHAM!, Depeche Mode, a-Ha
Soul/Blues/Hip Hop: Rick James, Issac Hayes, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kendrick Lamar
Rock: The Ramones, Devo, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, Blondie, ZZ Top, Brian Wilson, Black Sabbath, Talking Heads, Kate Bush, Prince, AC/DC, The Band, The Clash, George Harrison, STYX, Pink Floyd,
Country: Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson
Jazz: BadBadNotGood, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Evans, Fred Weiss, Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane
Soundtracks: Top Gun, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Beverley Hills Cop II
Happy Digging!
SELL US YOUR LPS!
Yes, we are still buying! Call us at the shop to schedule: 608-259-1991
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