If you saw some crazy pictures of our block on Saturday, don’t worry, we didn’t get flooded out here. Although it sure came pretty close! Good thing there isn’t a basement in our building. While there isn’t a ton in this week, it’s going to be ramping up in the coming weeks with the last few months of new releases coming out for the year, and there’s some big ones. Meanwhile this week sees the reissue of some mega cool soundtracks that have finally been made available on vinyl….
……pick of the week……
*Edward Artemiev: Solaris
Stalker/The Mirror: Music from Andrey Tarkovsky’s Motion Pictures (Mirumur) LP
Originally released in The Netherlands in 1990 on a long out of print – and now $150+ on eBay – 2LP, Mirumir is pleased to present this collection of classic Artemiev film scores as two separate and single 180 gram LPs in what are, in our humble opinion, far more beautiful and breathtaking covers with better sound quality than the original. Recorded in Moscow in 1989-90, these are re-recordings of Artemiev’s soundtracks to three classic 1970s Tarkovsky films. At the time of its release in 1990, there were no legitimately available versions of the original soundtracks and Artemiev chose to fill that void in the market with these re-recordings. The reissue of the Solaris soundtrack, and the forthcoming Mirror/Stalker original remastered soundtrack, all officially licensed from the artist himself, Mirumir is now home to the definitive collection of electronic pioneer Artemiev’s most heralded work.
File Under: OST, Synth, Tarkovsky, Electronic
…..new arrivals…..
*Birthday Party: Mutiny/The Bad Seed (Drastic Plastic) 2LP+7”
Drastic Plastic Records is pleased to announce a very special and very limited release: For the first time since the 1980s, and for the first time in one package, The Birthday Party’s final recordings collected on the two 12-inch EPs The Bad Seed and Mutiny! will be available ON VINYL! In addition, the package will contain a never-before released 7-inch single containing two tracks from the Mutiny! Sessions: ‘Six Strings That Drew Blood’ and ‘Pleasure Avalanche’. The single comes complete with a unique picture sleeve. Our reissues of Prayers on Fire, Hee-Haw and Junk Yard SOLD OUT in HOURS! We anticipate this extremely limited release in June, so we encourage pre-orders. Beautiful triple-gatefold recreates original art for both original Eps and contains both 12-inch 45s. Remastered for vinyl by Masterdisk. Hand-numbered.
Captain Beefheart: Franks Freeman’s Dance (Ozit) LP
2013 RSD release back in stock…. Deluxe 180 Gram vinyl LP on purple wax with gatefold sleeve. One of the highlights of Captain Beefheart’s 1968 tour of the UK was the concert at Frank Freeman’s Dance Club in Kidderminster. Fortunately legendary DJ John Peel brought his tape recorder and recorded four brilliant numbers from the show which appear on this album along with four other tracks from that era. Pride of place on the front cover of the LP goes to one of the recently discovered 1968 screen printed posters for the Frank Freeman’s Beefheart show. With Beefheart coming from a country where band names like Quicksilver Messenger Service and Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen were de rigeur, when Peel told Captain Beefheart he was driving him to a concert venue in Kidderminster called Frank Freeman’s Dance Club , Beefheart said “What a groovy name” thinking it was in the same hippy west coast vibe as the aforementioned bands. Peel explained it wasn’t a groovy name but simply a Dance Club run by Frank Freeman. Track list : Side 1 : Rollin and Tumblin, Well well well, Electricity, Neon meat dreams of a octafish. Side 2 : Kandy Korn, Sure enuff yes I do, Moody Liz, Yer gonna need somebody on your bond.
File Under: Beefheart, Blues, Live
City & Colour: The Hurry & The Harm (Dine Alone) LP
Finally in on vinyl! Recorded at Nashville, Tennessee’s Blackbird Studios during the fall/winter of 2013, the new album was produced once again by Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Death Cab for Cutie and The Mars Volta). In addition to Green, the album features Jack Lawrence on bass (The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather), Bo Koster on keys (My Morning Jacket), Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam, Fiona Apple) and James Gadson (Bill Withers, BB King) on drums and Spencer Cullum (Caitlin Rose) on pedal steel. Of the new album, Green comments, “I don’t have a lot of faith in myself, so it is hard for me to have a lot of faith in something I have created. But I’ve never been happier or prouder about something that I have done.”
File Under: SSW, Folk, Alexisonfire
*Miles Davis: In A Silent Way (Mofi) LP
Shhh. The command to be quiet is not just part of the title of one of the two sprawling compositions on this pioneering album. It’s also an apt metaphor for the relaxed hypnotism and spaced-out atmosphere that define In a Silent Way, a record that pushes the boundaries of studio possibilities, artist-producer relationships, and rock-jazz chasms. Recognized as Miles Davis’ first full-on fusion effort and part of his “electric” era, the 1969 landmark claims a Who’s Who lineup that sends the music into an ethereal stratosphere. Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Miles Davis catalog restoration series, In a Silent Way now immerses the listener in lineolate landscapes starlit by the intuition, suspension, and paradoxes wrought by a once-in-a-lifetime collective. Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, this unsurpassed 180g LP edition lifts the veil on the cutting-edge assembly process that created the pair of lengthy suites. Helmed by three electric instruments, the beveled compositions melt away all preconceived notions of “jazz,” ‘rock,” and “ambience,” following a loose theory Davis dubbed “New Directions.”
File Under: Miles, Jazz, Ambient, Mofi
Miles Davis: Milestones (Mofi) LP
Miles Davis created just one studio album with his original sextet. He made every moment count. Pairing with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, the trumpeter not only laid the groundwork for the modalism that immediately followed but tailored a genuine modern-jazz masterwork laden with performances among the most explosive of his distinguished career. Due to its sandwiched position between the more famous ‘Round About Midnight and epochal Kind of Blue, Milestones remains, for too many music lovers, an overlooked classic. Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Miles Davis catalog restoration series, Milestones has been restored to mono for the first time as to expose the record’s standing as one of the all-time great jazz efforts. Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, this unsurpassed 180g mono LP edition grants each musician their own space in a well-defined, broadened soundstage. Colors, shapes, and dimensions appear in the manner they do when beheld from behind a studio-control room’s window. Davis’ burnished trumpet? Rendered in three-dimensional perspective, coaxing his mates out to play with unburdened zest and commotion. Coltrane’s trademark saxophone? Witness it in life-size proportion, his solos working in tandem with and against the driving rhythms. Garland’s swaggering piano lines? Visualize the 88 keys as he hits full stride, the chords and fills slithering around skeletal frameworks.
File Under: Jazz, Miles, Mofi
Miles Davis: Round About Midnight (Mofi) LP
Miles Davis’ first album for Columbia, ‘Round About Midnight, represents both the beginning of a three-plus-decade relationship with the famed label as well as the start of an extended collaboration with then-unknown saxophonist John Coltrane. As one of the era’s only complete start-to-finish full-length LPs, the 1957 set stands as a hard-bop benchmark—a summation of the styles that came before its creation, an immersion into the period’s cutting-edge strains, and a hint of the rivoluse modalism that would follow. Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Miles Davis catalog restoration series, ‘Round About Midnight now resonates with a physical palpability and emotional heft never before experienced. Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, this unsurpassed 180g LP edition traces the individual paths each musician takes in contributing to the whole, whether it’s pianist Red Garland’s left hand spinning actinoid chords or Coltrane infusing a tune with harmony-defying fills that suggest arabesque patterns. Recorded at three separate sessions, the music has never sounded so cohesive, immediate, or involving.
Klaus Dinger & Japandorf: s/t (Gronland) LP
Japandorf is the last album production of Klaus Dinger (1946-2008). In fact Japandorf is the perfectly accomplished third album of a series of three albums in total, which were produced since 2000 by the likewise named project Japandorf. The two predecessors of Japandorf are called pre-Japandorf and VIVA Rimix 2010 and are yet to be released. Through an artist friend Nakao, Klaus got introduced to Japanese musicians and artists living in Düsseldorf, especially the sessions together with them had a dense and exciting atmosphere. “Nakao opened the door to Japandorf” Klaus said. From these sessions the new project, Japandorf emerged. On from the beginning of their partnership Klaus, Kazu, Nakao, Miki and Satoshi besides playing music, had spent a lot of time together camping, cycling, being close to nature, discussing, in order to slowly broaden the musical scope.
File Under: Dinger, Neu!, La Dusseldorf, Krautrock
*Don & Stevie: s/t (Finders Keepers) LP/CD
Lost love songs and self-pressed pop acetates by this previously unheard Californian folk duo from beneath the shadows of the Hollywood Hills. These recordings of unreleased and unknown American acidic folk and acoustic pop were made in the late 60s by husband and wife duo Don & Stevie Gere. For over 40 years they’ve sat untouched and unplayed in a box of unmarked studio tapes at their family home in Los Angeles. As original pop songs and guitar based arrangements from the man who made the stoner psych soundtrack for cult movie Werewolves On Wheels, these rescued one-off pressings were sung in harmony with his teenage sweetheart and lifelong partner, Stevie Howard, recorded at LA based walk-in studio sessions. Sprouting a missing branch in the family tree of L.A. based artists like Curt Boetcher and Doug Rhodes (The Millennium), Waddy Wachtel (Buckingham Nicks) David Gates (Bread) and members of The Steve Miller Band, this LP includes original versions of tracks written for or featuring all of the above as well as destroyed and unreleased film music. What might have been considered ‘lost’ treasure until now has remained previously unshared outside of the duo’s own private relationship, and presents fans of obscure folk and privately produced pop with a unique LP that defies collectability and paints a fuller picture of a lesser-spotted enigma in uninhabited unison with his closest musical confidant.
File Under: Finders Keepers, Folk, Acid Folk, Private Press
Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO) LP
Internationally renowned gypsy punk rock group Gogol Bordello return with their sixth full-length album Pura Vida Conspiracy via ATO Records. Produced by Andrew Scheps, the new album was recorded in El Paso, Texas at Sonic Ranch Studios and is a powerful collection of 12 surging new songs. The album’s title is derived from a Spanish slang phrase for “pure life,” which is a theme that resonates throughout the new material. The new songs are infused with ideas rooted in Eastern philosophy but also search for a means of joining fragmented parts and persons, and of creating a worldwide consciousness.
File Under: Gypsy Punk
King Khan & The Shrines: Idle No More (Merge) CD
“It has been a lengthy hiatus, but we have finally finished our latest ‘masterpiece’ and named it after an incredible indigenous-rights movement that is happening right now called Idle No More. I was born and raised in Montreal and spent a lot of time on the Kahnawake Mohawk Indian reservation. Idle No More is probably the most refined piece of music we have made to date. The songs are about the state of the world we live in today. Originally, I was going to call the album Of Madness I Dream, but then I became very enthused about the amazing work of the Idle No More movement. Everyone I asked had never heard of it, so I contacted the leaders of the movement and, with their permission, decided to rename the album Idle No More in hopes that it would increase the world’s awareness of this miracle that is taking place for the indigenous peoples of the world. If you are not familiar with Idle No More, look it up and GET INVOLVED! It took a long time to make, but we are very proud and pleased to bring you this album. I hope that the future will brighten up every time it is played. Ultimately, John and Yoko were absolutely right: LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED!” Peace and Love, King Bama Lama Khan, Emperor of RnB.
File Under: King Khan, RnB, Garage
No Age: An Object! (Sub Pop) LP
With An Object, their fourth full-length album, No Age has forgone the straight and narrow route, landing in a strange and unexpected place, feet planted in fresh, fertile soil. This new LP finds drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt exploding from behind his kit, landing percussive blows with amplified contact mics, 4-string bass guitars, and prepared speakers, as well as traditional forms of lumber and metal. Meanwhile, guitarist Randy Randall corrals his previously lush, spastic, sprawling arrangements into taught, refined, rats’ nests. Still, this is hardly a work of avant garde noise music. These songs are hummable, political, recognizably rooted in underground rock, and informed by an understanding of sound as a material to be shaped, handled, and worked over. It is an aesthetic in which the relationships between guitar, percussion, and vocals – as well as those between rhythm and melody – become relationships between things. These relationships are built into An Object at every level.
File Under: Indie Rock, Sub Pop
Pond: Hobo Rocket (Modular) LP
Hobo Rocket is the fifth LP from Perth, Australia based five-piece Pond. Made up of Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Cam Avery, Joseph Ryan and Jamie Terry, the band set out to make a record that captures a portion of rock music’s great, decadent history through a personal lens. Hobo Rocket is brief and dark. It captures the live intensity the band cultivated during their tour across a large swath of the world around the release of 2012’s Beard, Wives, Denim. But Pond are not a retro or ironic band. They genuinely love what has come before in rock, but they don’t have a problem skewering the genre in all its comically over-the-top glory. This love and perspective comes across in all the songs on Hobo Rocket, which is vital but reverent.
File Under: Rock, Tame Impala
*Ty Segall: Sleeper (Drag City) LP
Between two minds, between two places, beyond Twins, Sleeper envisions a world of haves and have-nots, but the currency that separates them is psychic. Class is determined by where your head goes – and Ty puffs the pied pipe, leading you back to what you forgot you knew. Sleeper is Ty-fi, for sure, but it’s not that different from this world we live in. It’s a hard-knock existenz, but there’s plenty tenderness to try, and the trip is crafted especially to fit in your ears and sail down the canals deep into your skull. The acoustics expand upon contact, creating new shapes for you to fill inside yourself over the full-length of a true album-length entertainment. With Sleeper, Ty Segall explores your mind, coming through his own head to slip inside with thought sharing. Ty engineered this one from beginning to end, and his ultimate sonics were accessed with a freaky hand and an instinct for what makes something perfect. Sleeper flows more colors than ever before through your mind’s eye, pushing the walls of the universe out just a micron further, making everything heavier and lighter all at once, to allow for one moment that will live forever.
File Under: Garage, Psych, SanFran
Superchunk: I Hate Music (Merge) LP+7″
Limited to 2,500 worldwide. Comes on 150-gram & pressed to fluorescent orange vinyl. The bonus 7-inch is pressed to white vinyl, and features two non-album tracks, which are exclusive to this deluxe piece. An inserted download coupon and ‘I Hate Music’ stencil completes the package. Superchunk has offered up that sonic salve off and on for two decades, at various volumes. Like most great bands that started loud, they also explored the quiet, beginning the 1990s with a self-titled debut and ending them with Come Pick Me Up, a stately set that incorporated strings and horns. 2001 saw the even gentler Here’s to Shutting Up, but the rest of the aughts saw so little activity that the end seemed nigh. I Hate Music is Majesty’s dark twin. It’s similarly aggressive- often moreso – and every bit as energetic. It reflects the joys of a life spent immersed in music (‘Me & You & Jackie Mittoo,’ ‘Trees of Barcelona’), but there’s a dark undercurrent as well. That title isn’t tongue-in-cheek, but it’s really more a question than a statement: When you’re 20, lazy co-workers and romantic missteps number among your biggest worries; two decades later, life’s bigger questions knock louder and louder, demanding answers.
File Under: Indie Rock
Tragically Hip: Up To Here (Music On Vinyl) LP
Critically acclaimed for over two decades, The Tragically Hip has been at the heart of the Canadian musical zeitgeist for evoking a strong emotional connection between their music and their fans that remains unrivaled in this country. A five-piece group of friends including Robby Baker (guitar), Gord Downie (vocals, guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Gord Sinclair (bass), who grew up in Kingston, Ontario, The Hip has achieved the enviable status of a band that enjoys both mass popularity with over 8 million albums sold worldwide, as well as peer recognition through 11 Juno Awards from more than a dozen recordings. 1989’s Up To Here is the debut full-length recording from the Tragically Hip following the release of their 1987 self-titled EP. Recorded with Don Smith and Bruce Barris at Ardent Studios in Memphis, the promising 11-song set is awash in driving rhythms, effective riffs, subtle soloing and the heartfelt vocals and poetics of singer Gordon Downie. Standout tracks on Up In Here include “Boots Or Hearts,” “38 Years Old” and “Blow At High Dough” which became the theme song to the CBC comedy-drama Made in Canada.
File Under: Gord Downy, CanCon
Venom P. Stinger: Meet My Friend Venom (Drag City) LP
Venom P. Stinger: What’s Yours Is Mine (Drag City) LP
The Venom P. Stinger retrospective is on! One of the roughest groups of the 80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. “Playing unconventional avant-garde music to a strong live audience, Melbourne band Venom P. Stinger issued their debut album, Meet My Friend Venom, in January 1987. Completely uncompromising and uncommercial, it was followed by the equally uncompromising single, “Walking About”/”26 Milligrams,” in July 1988. Guitarist Mick Turner left to re-form the band Fungus Brains for their 1989 album I’m So Glad, until Turner, bassist Alan Secher-Jensen, drummer Jim White, and new singer Nick Palmer re-formed Venom P. Stinger in 1991.” – Brendan Swift, Allmusic.
File Under: Punk, Aussie Punk, Dirty Three
Washed Out: Paracosm (Sub Pop) LP/CD
The music recorded by Ernest Greene as Washed Out has been nothing if not dreamy, and on his second full length, Paracosm, he takes the dreamlike, otherworldly atmospheres of his music a huge leap further. The title refers to a phenomenon in which people create detailed imaginary worlds, and the idea of escaping is all over Paracosm’s music and lyrics. Paracosm finds Greene reaching beyond the computers and synths that filled Washed Out’s previous recordings, expanding his sonic palette to include over 50 different instruments, the most significant of which turned out to be old keyboards like the Mellotron, Chamberlin, Novatron, and Optigan. With its gorgeous execution and uplifting attitude, Paracosm is primed to be this year’s summer record. And it promises to do what its name suggests: take listeners to a better world. Paracosm was recorded at in Atlanta with Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Gnarls Barkley, Washed Out – Within and Without) at Maze Studios. Embossed single LP sleeve with custom dust sleeve and MP3 coupon.
File Under: Indie Rock, Sub Pop
…..restocks…..
Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse) LP
Black Keys: El Camino (Nonesuch) LP
Built to Spill: Perfect From Now On (Warmer) LP
*Charles Bradley: No Time For Dreaming (Daptone) LP
Nick Cave: Dig! Lazarus! DIg! (Anti) LP
Leonard Cohen: Songs From A Room (Sundazed) LP
Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen (Sundazed) LP
Deafheaven: Sunbather (Deathwish) LP
The Doors: s/t (Rhino) LP
Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (4 Men With Beards) LP
Grouper: The Man Who Died In His Boat (Kranky) LP
Grouper: Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (Kranky) LP
Francoise Hardy: s/t (Klimt) LP
*Arve Henriksen: Cartography (ECM) LP
Ikonika: Aerotropolis (Hyperdub) LP
Isis: Celestial (Robotic Empire) LP
*Cliff Martinez: Only God Forgives OST (Milan) LP
*Menahan Street Band: Make the Road By Walking (Daptone) LP
National: Boxer (Beggars) LP
National: Alligator (Beggars) LP
Raconteurs: Consolers of the Lonely (Third Man) LP
Ramones: Acid Eaters (Let Them Eat Vinyl) LP
Ramones: Adios Amigos (Let The Eat Vinyl) LP
Ramones: Brain Drain (Let Them Eat Vinyl) LP
Ramones: Mondo Bizarro (Let Them Eat Vinyl) LP
Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros: s/t (Vagrant) LP
*Velvet Underground: MGM Albums (Sundazed) 5LP Box
Tom Waits: Rain Dogs (Music On Vinyl) LP
Walton: Beyond (Hyperdub) LP
White Stripes: Icky Thump (Third Man) LP
Various: Sun Record Story (Charly) 6LP Box
Various: Sound City: Reel to Real OST (RCA) LP
…..used goodies…..
Arab Strap: Philophobia (Chemikal Underground) LP
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (Merge) LP
Beastie Boys: An Exciting Evening at Home (Capitol) 12″
Dave Brubeck: Take Five (Columbia) LP
Johnny Cash: At San Quentin (Columbia) LP
The Darkness: Permission to Land (Atlantic) LP
Dub Narcotic Sound System: Out of Your Mind (K) LP
Electric Six: s/t (XL) LP
Fraser & Debolt: s/t (Columbia) LP
Huevos Rancheros: Dig In (One Louder) LP
Iggy & the Stooges: California Bleeding (Bomp) LP
Led Zeppelin: III (Atlantic) LP
Corb Lund: Hair in My Eyes like a Highland Steer (Stoney Plain) LP
Meat Puppets: No Joke! (London) LP
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes: Are A Drag (Fat) LP
Motorhead: Over Kill (Castle) LP
Motorhead: Welcome to the Bear Trap (Castle) 2LP
Harry Nilsson: The Point (RCA) LP
Ozzy Ozbourne: Speak of the Devil (Jet) 2LP
Ramones: s/t (Sire) LP
Ravi Shankar: Genius of (CBS) LP
Uday Shankar: Indian Music: Ragas & Dances (RCA) LP
Tokyo Police Club: Champ (Memphis) LP
U2: Rattle & Hum (Island) LP
Yo La Tengo: Genius+Love= (Matador) 2LP
Neil Young & the Shocking Pinks: Everybody’s Rockin’ (Geffen) LP
Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Reprise) LP
OST: Repo Man (San Andreas) LP