Well, it’s been a real weird year. But we’ve survived another one, 19 years selling all the best tunes pressed to those magic sounding slabs of vinyl. Seems weird to be celebrating anything this year, and we’re going to be celebrating alone, but at least next year for the big one we should be able to have a real banger of a party right?!
But we’re still celebrating, and as usual, even though it’s going to be strictly online through our webshop, we’re still having our biggest sale of the year. 20% off new & used vinyl, accessories, and apparel. Use the code ‘BFRSD’ at the checkout. (BFRSD titles and brand new arrivals are exempt). We’ll email you when your order is ready to be picked up.
And of course there’s the Black Friday Record Store Day releases. There is technically some cool stuff, but lots hasn’t shipped, or even arrived at the warehouse, or the fill was pretty sad. But those are all up on our RSD page on the website and will go live at 11am on Friday morning.
As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! It’s getting competitive around 5pm when we post up fresh used stock. If you haven’t hit up the WEBSTORE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD! If you can’t figure out the site, or don’t like to use computers, you can always call the store and we can do an order over the phone. We’ll be at the shop 11-5 Tuesday – Friday & Saturday 11-4. Stay safe!
Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSTORE!!!
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…..picks of the week…..
Nick Cave: Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace
(Bad Seed LTD) LP
Idiot Prayer – Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace was recorded in June 2020 as the UK slowly emerged from lockdown, and was conceived as a reaction to the confinement and isolation of the preceding months. Initially imagined as an online only event, fans will now be able to see the film in cinemas as an extended cut featuring four unseen performances followed by this double album of the same name featuring all 22 songs from the original film on vinyl. In Idiot Prayer, Cave plays his songs alone at the piano in a rarely seen stripped back form, from early Bad Seeds and Grinderman, right through to the most recent Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album, Ghosteen. The performance was filmed by award winning cinematographer Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, Marriage Story, American Honey) in Alexandra Palace’s stunning West Hall. It was edited by Nick Emerson (Lady Macbeth, Emma, Greta). The music was recorded by Dom Monks. Idiot Prayer is the fourth film that Cave has released in collaboration with Trafalgar Releasing, following 2018’s Distant Sky – Live in Copenhagen directed by David Barnard, 2016’s One More Time With Feeling directed by Andrew Dominik and 2014’s award winning 20.000 Days on Earth directed by lain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. “The film ‘Idiot Prayer’ evolved from my ‘Conversations With…’ events,” Cave says. “I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage – whenever I could find the time. Then the pandemic came – the world went into lockdown, and fell into an eerie, self reflective silence. It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them. We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace – a venue I have played and love – on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us.” “On 19th June 2020, surrounded by Covid officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain time, but was in no way bowed by it,” he adds. “This is the album taken from that film. It is a prayer into the void – alone at Alexandra Palace – a souvenir from a strange and precarious moment in history. I hope you enjoy it.”
File Under: Live, Pop (?)
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…..new arrivals…..
AC/DC: Power Up (Columbia) LP
Power Up is the long awaited new album from AC/DC, and the band’s seventeenth studio effort overall. For Power Up, the band reunited with producer Brendan O’Brien who helmed the double-platinum Black Ice in 2008 and the gold Rock Or Bust in 2014. Charged up for the next decade, AC/DC cut twelve new tracks for the album, proudly maintaining their signature sound and all of its powerful hallmarks. Power Up was announced with the release of the album’s first single, “Shot In The Dark,” and features the lineup of Angus Young [lead guitar], Brian Johnson [lead vocals], Cliff Williams [bass guitar], Phil Rudd [drums], and Stevie Young [rhythm guitar] firing on all cylinders once again. “This record is pretty much a dedication to Malcolm, my brother,” Angus says. “It’s a tribute for him like ‘Back in Black’ was a tribute to Bon Scott…All of the tracks that we’ve got on the album were written by me and Malcolm. A lot of them were ideas we had that we knew were good AC/DC ideas at the time. But we just never got around to getting them on record.” 180 gram vinyl LP housed in a gatefold jacket.
File Under: Rock
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Alice in Chains: Facelift (Columbia) LP
The first album from the grunge movement to reach the top 50 on the Billboard 200 and be certified Gold, Alice In Chains’ equally metallic and melodic 1990 debut, Facelift boasted a dark and moody production from Dave Jerden (Jane’s Addiction, The Offspring, Anthrax) and yielded the name-making early singles “We Die Young,” “Man In The Box” and “Sea of Sorrow.” Capturing the spirit of a changing era with steely riffs, haunting harmonies and lyrical vulnerability, the pivotal release also earned a Grammy-nomination and has subsequently been certified 2x Platinum. In celebration of Facelift’s 30th anniversary, the long out of print album is being reissued back on vinyl as a 2LP-set with remastered audio.
File Under: Rock, Grunge
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The Awakening: Hear, Sense and Feel
(Real Gone) LP
The Awakening were the only ‘group’ recorded by Black Jazz, for which they made two albums; those two releases happen to be among the most collectible in the label’s entire catalog, which, given the value Black Jazz titles command in the open market, gives one an idea just how sought-after these records are. Recorded in 1972, Hear, Sense, and Feel marked the band’s debut, and featured the same line-up that played on next year’s Mirage. Being from Chicago, The Awakening’s line-up unsurprisingly boasts a heavy connection to the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) collective that claimed The Art Ensemble of Chicago among its most esteemed artists; in fact, both bassist Reggie Willis and tenor saxman/flautist Ari Brown were AACM members and appeared on albums with Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, and Anthony Braxton among others. The other members of The Awakening, on the other hand, hailed from the city’s soul jazz scene, specifically Young Holt Unlimited, for whom co-leaders trumpeter Frank Gordon and keyboardist Ken Chaney played (trombonist Steve Galloway played on Melvin Jackson’s soul jazz classic Funky Skull). And it is that sweet spot, somewhere between the free jazz and Afrocentric explorations of the Art Ensemble and the rhythm-heavy soul jazz sound being recorded at Chicago-based labels like Brunswick and Cadet, that Hear, Sense and Feel lands. Which explains why this album sells for hundreds of dollars online if you can find it at all. Real Gone Music’s first-ever LP reissue was pressed at Gotta Groove Records with lacquer cutting by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music. Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision Mastering has remastered the album. And liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, set the scene for both the label and the band. A lost gem worthy of all the attention we think this reissue is going to get!
File Under: Jazz
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Bahamas: Sad Hunk (Republic) LP
Bahamas’ sound defies genre categorization, yet it incorporates many – pop, R&B, rock, folk, soul, alternative, Caribbean, blues and more. Sad Hunk contains eleven songs that encapsulate all that legions of Bahamas fans have grown to love – great songs, insightful lyrics, infectious hooks, exceptional musicianship, distinctive arrangements and sharp wit. Bahamas is the moniker for singer/songwriter/guitar virtuoso, Afie Jurvanen. Jurvanen, along with Christine Bougie (guitar), Don Kerr (drums), Mike O’Brien (bass), Felicity Williams (vocals), and longtime producer, multi-Grammy nominee Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Jack Johnson, Robbie Robertson) have elevated Bahamas music to new heights on Sad Hunk. The new collection is the follow-up to 2018’s Earthtones, which won Adult Alternative Album Of The Year at the 2019 Juno Awards, and received a Grammy nomination. From his vocal phrasing to his songwriting to his masterful guitar work, Sad Hunk reflects a natural progression of Jurvanen’s artistry. “Trick To Happy” is a laid-back, soulful entry point, while the quirky, self-conscious “Not Cool Anymore” offers a tropical acoustic ambiance. “Done Did Me No Good” and “Up With The Jones” feature signature up-tempo Bahamas style and harmonies that legions of fans have come to love. Jurvanen’s vulnerability is on display in the touching “Less Than Love,” and he opens up his heart on the tender and beautiful “Half Your Love.” Sad Hunk is an album inspired by domestic life and embodies an undaunted self-awareness. The album title and artwork finds the Jurvanen’s self-deprecating humor out front as the result of a nickname given to him by his wife in reaction to an overdramatic photo shoot a while back that was out of character.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Roots & Herbs (Tone Poet) (Blue Note) LP
How is it that one of Art Blakey’s greatest albums with the Jazz Messengers is so little known? The 1961 edition of the Messengers included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. In February and May of 1961, this group (with pianist Walter Davis Jr. sitting in on two tracks) entered Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey and proceeded to lay down Roots & Herbs, a brilliant set of six Shorter compositions including the driving hard bop of the title track, the playful “Ping Pong,” and the clever “United.” The album was eventually released in 1970 and deserves a place among Blakey’s finest recordings. Blue Note Records has announced the continuation of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series in 2020. Launched in 2019 in honor of the label’s 80th Anniversary, the Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley (from Music Matters) and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” gatefold Tip-On jackets. The titles were once again handpicked by Harley and cover the crème de la crème of the Blue Note catalog along with underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from other labels under the Blue Note umbrella including Pacific Jazz and United Artists Records. Every aspect of these Blue Note/Tone Poet releases is done to the highest-possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. “The LPs are mastered directly from the original analog master tapes by Kevin at his incredible facility called Cohearent Mastering. We go about it in the exact same way that we did for so many years for the Music Matters Blue Note reissues. We do not roll off the low end, boost the top or do any limiting of any kind. We allow the full glory of the original Blue Note masters to come though unimpeded! Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” – Joe Harley
File Under: Jazz
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Peter Broderick: Blackberry (Erased Tapes) LP
Acclaimed American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick is set to release his new solo album Blackberry on 28th August via Erased Tapes. This is a digital surprise release with the physical release following on October 30. Blackberry is Peter’s first vocal album in five years, since 2015’s Colours of the Night. The entire album was recorded in Peter’s bedroom in London during the summer of 2019, hence Peter’s description of it as ‘Experimental-Bedroom-Folk-Pop’. All instrumentation is by Peter with additional vocals on the last track by his wife, singer Brigid Mae Power, and his stepson, Seán Power. The subject matter of Blackberry is wide-ranging. He touches on family and on the connection we all need as social animals. He writes about technology and whether it will save or doom us. And of course, he writes about nature, about foraging, about the importance of engaging with the outside world in cities
File Under: Indie Rock
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John Carpenter: The Fog OST
(Waxwork) LP
Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the 40th Anniversary Original Score release of John Carpenter’s The Fog. The Fog is a 1980 American supernatural horror film directed, co-written, and scored by John Carpenter. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh, and Hal Holbrook. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in California, bringing with it the vengeful ghosts of mariners who were killed in a shipwreck 100 years before. The film is consider a cult classic and a favorite among horror fans. The Fog was Tom Atkins’ first appearance in a Carpenter film. He later appeared in other Carpenter films such as Escape From New York and Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Jamie Lee Curtis, who was the main star of Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween, appears in The Fog as Elizabeth. The music to The Fog by John Carpenter is a synth driven, minimalist score. The director/composer considers it to be one of his best musical works. It features dark, ambient drones, piano, and utilizes heavy usage of early synthesizers such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Prophet 10, and Minimoog Model D. Carpenter strived to achieve a softer, understated fear rather than a heavy handed, and obvious musical composition to a horror film. The now classic score successfully captures the haunting emptiness of the 1980 gothic-ghost-story to The Fog. Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the 40th Anniversary expanded release of John Carpenter’s The Fog Original Motion Picture Score. It features a 180 gram double LP album, colored vinyl, deluxe packaging, a 12”x12” twelve page booklet including unreleased behind-the-scenes set photography, and full album artwork by Jérémy Pailler.
File Under: OST
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John Carpenter & Alan Howarth: Escape from New York (Waxwork) LP
Waxwork Records is proud to release John Carpenter’s Escape From New York Expanded Original Motion Picture Score. Released in 1981, Escape From New York is a science fiction action film co-written and co-scored by John Carpenter starring Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasence, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dean Stanton. The film is set in the near-future world of 1997 where the United States has devolved into a coast to coast crime-ridden continent. Manhattan Island in New York City has been converted into the country’s maximum security prison where criminal offenders are transported and forgotten. In an effort to kidnap the president of the United States, Air Force One is hijacked by insurgents and purposefully crashed into New York City. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner, Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the president (Pleasence), after which, if successful, Snake will be pardoned. John Carpenter’s Escape From New York received commercial success upon its summer 1981 release and is now considered a cult classic. The film has inspired popular video games such as Metal Gear Solid, filmmakers such as J.J. Abrams, and authors such as William Gibson. The score was written by John Carpenter and co-produced by Carpenter and Alan Howarth. Howarth used equipment including ARP and Prophet-5 synthesizers and a Linn LM-1 drum machine, as well as an acoustic piano and Fender guitars, to create the palette of sounds used in the score, while Carpenter composed the melodies on the synthesizer keyboards. As the MIDI standard had yet to be invented, Howarth manually synchronized the equipment to picture while listening to a copy of the film’s dialogue. Initial inspirational directions which Carpenter shared with Howarth included albums by Tangerine Dream and The Police. Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the expanded score album as a deluxe double LP featuring 180 gram colored vinyl, deluxe packaging, a 12”x12” twelve page booklet featuring unreleased behind-the-scenes set photography, and full album artwork by Marc Aspinall.
File Under: OST
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Jennifer Castle: Monarch Season
(Idee Fixe) LP
Jennifer Castle’s sixth full-length record, the moon-suffused Monarch Season – an album as delicate and diaphanous as its namesake butterfly – stands, in a literal sense, as her first proper “solo” album, performed alone in her coastal kitchen, windows open to the insects and the wind and the reflection of the moon on Lake Erie, entirely without human accompaniment (though a chorus of crickets provides rich interstitial support throughout). The first-pressing also includes a songbook of sheet music to every song and inner sleeve with lyrics. “I had forgotten, somehow, that moonlight is the reflection of sunlight,” Castle explains. “The moon is so iconic, it had become its own celebrity to me. Sometimes individualization is like that. We are praised to become our own identity – singular shining orbs. This record is a reminder to cherish openly that which reflects off and onto me. A reminder that stone orbs only become meaningful moons when they experience the gravity and light of others.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Rhino) LP
The pinnacle of the Grateful Dead’s studio output, American Beauty certainly lives up to its name. Made just months after its companion release, Workingman’s Dead, the San Francisco legends’ second 1970 masterpiece furthers the former work’s close-knit relationship between country and folk while adding extra rock and bluegrass currents. Understated amplified passages, graceful melodies, layered singing, and old-time string flavors – including mandolin work from masterful guest David Grisman – bestow the material with easygoing, comfortable vibes. Again taking advantage of the best songwriting of Robert Hunter’s career, the Dead turns in its most collective studio performance, with every individual contributing equally and focusing on nothing but the songs at hand. From Garcia’s breathtaking gospel-laden homage to his mother (“Brokedown Palace”) to Lesh’s healing salve in the form of the groove-based “Box of Rain,” from Weir’s jaunty and free-wheeling summer escape “Sugar Magnolia” to McKernan’s eloquently simple homespun plea “Operator,” all the way to the closing autobiographical anthem “Truckin’,” American Beauty feels like the warm, spirit-infusing embrace of a loved one after a long journey away. Jerry Garcia noted that American Beauty had “some of the first things I’ve written, and that we’ve performed as a band, that in my opinion are genuinely beautiful” which was confirmed by Rolling Stone’s Andy Zwerling who wrote in 1970 that, “A complete contentment shines through the vocal work on this album. A full contentment. The instrumentation is rich with sound that moves through, under, and into the listener…the album is American beauty, of the best possible kind. The positivity of the Dead just can’t be kept down.” Newly mastered in 2020 for 50th Anniversary 180g vinyl LP reissue by Grammy Award-winning engineer, David Glasser.
File Under: Rock
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Head and the Heart: Living Mirage (Reprise) LP
Living Mirage is the fourth studio album from five-piece indie-folk act The Head And The Heart and follow-up to 2016’s Signs of Light. After the release of their third LP, co-founder Josiah Johnson amicably left the group, with the band replacing the guitarist/vocalist with Charity Rose Thielen‘s husband, Matt Gervais. In the time since, longtime keyboardist Kenny Hensley has also returned to the fold. Appropriately, Living Mirage touches on these major changes, with bassist Chris Zasche describing the collection as a “rebirth, a spirit quest of sorts.” Living Mirage was initially conceived early in 2018 when the band came together for a retreat in Joshua Tree. The writing and recording process continued across the country, with sessions in Wisconsin, Seattle, Nashville and Los Angeles. Singer Jon Russell explains that “the tunes on this record are vignettes. This is literally the most work we’ve ever done on an album. ” For lead single, “Missed Connection,” the group focuses in on the “anxiety that reasoned that growth spurt” following their recent lineup changes. Initially created as a tribute to Russell’s girlfriend and how they met, the song shifted to a reflection on the group ‘s history, meeting for an open-mic in Seattle ten years. Musically, the song infuses tastes of hip-hop and pop production. Elaborated drummer Tyler Williams, “A lot of the beats on this song are quicker, and there are high hats that were never in our music before.” The Living Mirage: The Complete Recordings deluxe vinyl 2LP reissue features four brand new tracks (“Glory of Music II,” “Sun Is Rising,” “Backwards Breathing,” and “One Big Mystery”) and alternate cover art.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Impurity: Into the Ritual Chamber (Greyhaze) LP
Originally released in 1996 by Cogumelo Records, Impurity’s second effort Into the Ritual Chamber is one of the band’s most sought after albums. It takes the listener through a mystical journey imbued in the rawest black metal themed around real devil worship. Greyhaze Records is proud to unearth this milestone album for the first time ever on vinyl mastered from original master tapes.
File Under: Metal
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OST: Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) LP
Following the popular LP releases of ‘’Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,’’ ‘’Castle in the Sky,’’ ‘’My Neighbor Totoro,’’ ’’Kiki’s Delivery Service,‘’ and ’’Porco Rosso’’, ‘’Princess Mononoke’’ is finally coming out on LP. Image Album, Soundtrack and Symphonic Suite are remastered, with new deluxe artwork and liner notes. Furthermore, these three scores have never been released on vinyl before. Please enjoy the beauty of the artwork and rich sound of this vinyl record.
File Under: OST
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Orville Peck: Show Pony (Columbia) LP
Purple vinyl! Columbia Records presents Show Pony, the eagerly awaited EP from country artist and songwriter Orville Peck. The self-produced 6 track EP is an evolution of Peck’s debut album Pony, which was released in March 2019, and features all-new songs including a duet with reigning Queen of Country Pop and global icon, Shania Twain, as well as a cover of Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy.” Says Peck, “I loved my experience with Pony. However, Show Pony is a more confident perspective and allows me to share even more both lyrically and musically. Like all country albums, Show Pony is a little collection of stories – some sad, some happy – and I am excited for people to hear it. Working with Shania was a dream come true, her music made me feel empowered as a kid and was a huge influence on me.”
File Under: Country
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Pink Floyd: Delicate Sound of Thunder
(Pink Floyd) 3LP
Sony Music presents a new remixed and remastered 180g vinyl 3LP reissue of Pink Floyd’s Grammy-nominated film/live album Delicate Sound Of Thunder complete with nine bonus songs not included on the original 1988 release. As a record of the creative power of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright at their incendiary best, Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder is an engrossing and uplifting event, bigger and better than ever here. The sound for this 2020 reissue was completely remixed from the original multitrack tapes by longtime Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins. In 1987, Pink Floyd made a triumphant resurgence. The legendary British band, formed in 1967, had suffered the loss of two co-founders: keyboardist/vocalist Richard Wright, who left after sessions for The Wall in 1979, and bass player and lyricist Roger Waters, who had left to go solo in 1985, soon after the 1983 album The Final Cut. The gauntlet was thus laid down for guitarist/singer David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason, who proceeded to create the multi-platinum A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album, a global chart smash, which also saw the return of Wright to the fold. Originally released in September 1987, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was quickly embraced by fans worldwide, who flocked to attend the live tour dates, which started within days of the album’s release. The tour played to more than 4.25 million fans over more than two years, and, as a celebration of the enduring talent and global appeal of Pink Floyd, was unsurpassed at the time. The setlist carefully balances the then-new material and Pink Floyd classics, including songs from The Dark Side Of The Moon (“Time,” “On The Run,” “The Great Gig In The Sky,” “Us And Them”), the anthemic title track of Wish You Were Here, The Wall’s “Comfortably Numb” and a cathartic “Run Like Hell.” A Momentary Lapse Of Reason tracks include the powerful “Learning To Fly,” the lyrical “On The Turning Away,” and the mesmerizing “Sorrow.” Pink Floyd’s stellar supporting cast for the live dates included: Jon Carin (keyboards, vocals), Tim Renwick (guitars, vocals), Guy Pratt (bass, vocals), Gary Wallis (percussion), Scott Page (saxophones, guitar), Margret Taylor (backing vocals), Rachel Fury (backing vocals) and Durga McBroom (backing vocals).
File Under: Rock
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Hiroshi Sato: Super Market (Nippon Columbia) LP
This solo debut album of Hiroshi Sato announced after his participation in Hackleback is its first reissue on vinyl. Guided by Shigeru Suzuki, he joined Hackleback, a band formed opposite to Tin Pan Alley. One year later, in 1976, this work was inspired by local musicians who traveled to LA to create this “supermarket.”
File Under: Japan, Pop, Electronic
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Bruce Springsteen: Letter to You
(Columbia) LP
Limited grey vinyl version! Letter To You is Bruce Springsteen’s new studio recording with the E Street Band, and is a rock album fueled by the band’s heart-stopping, house-rocking signature sound. Recorded at his home studio in New Jersey, Letter To You is The Boss’ twentieth studio effort, and his first album with the E Street Band since 2012’s High Hopes and their first performances together since 2016’s The River Tour. “I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Springsteen. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.” Letter to You includes nine recently written Springsteen songs, as well as new recordings of three of his legendary, but previously unreleased, compositions from the ’70s, “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest,” and “Song for Orphans.” Springsteen is joined on Letter To You by Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano and Jake Clemons. The album was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
File Under: Rock
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War on Drugs: Live Drugs (Super High Quality) LP
Culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple critically acclaimed records, Live Drugs is unlike anything previously available in The War on Drugs’ catalog. The first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations, Live Drugs is a document showcasing the evolution of the band’s live show over the years. Additionally, Live Drugs is a portrait of the enduring relationship between Adam Granduciel and Dominic East. A longtime friend, guitar tech and stage manager, East is Live Drugs’ co-producer and the presence Granduciel credits as holding everything together. Work on Live Drugs began in late 2018, then fell by the wayside until this past March, when Granduciel stumbled upon the mixes in a Dropbox folder. Inspired to finally finish with fresh ears, Granduciel and East poured through the vaults of live multi-tracks, sending final selections for mixing to Jonathan Low at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond Studio. Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute set would flow, Live Drugs thrives on live set staples immortalized on record for the first time. This includes “Buenos Aires Beach” from the band’s 2008 full-length debut, Wagonwheel Blues, and the longtime musical interlude flowing between “Under the Pressure” and “In Reverse” – which bookend 2014’s Lost In The Dream. There’s also the band’s essential cover of Warren Zevon’s “Accidentally like a Martyr” – a song “so true, you should ever be lucky to write a song that simple,” Granduciel says. Also important to Granduciel was showing how years of live performance nurtures an evolution of the songs. For example, an early live version of “Strangest Thing,” off 2017’s A Deeper Understanding, feels joyfully loose; Granduciel fell in love with this early version while going through the recordings with mental notes of memorable shows. On the last five minutes of the live favorite, “Under the Pressure,” a crowd of 20,000 people are heard singing along to the extended guitar melody. Or take “Eyes to the Wind,” the version heard here has grown wholly independent of the version found on Lost in the Dream. “As a band leader, I always want to know where a song can go,” Granduciel explains. “Even though we’ve recorded it, mastered it, put it out, and been touring on it, it doesn’t mean that we just have to do it the same way forever, for the rest of our lives.” And in that way, Live Drugs is a freeing moment for the band. Now finally captured, these live iterations of the songs feel recontextualized, and subsequently less precious. “It puts a nice exclamation point on our touring because we’ve memorialized the performances in a way,” he adds. “It feels like it’s kind of a reset, to be able to put something out that’s a really good interpretation of the way we interpret our music live. There’s something cathartic about having all of it printed on a record. Even though this recording is from a year of tours, this is really how these six guys evolved as a band from 2014 to 2019.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Yaz-Kaz: Jomon-Sho (Glossy Mistakes) LP
Glossy Mistakes present a reissue of Yas-Kaz’s Jomon-Sho, originally released in 1985. Peaceful, percussive, and idyllic new age from Japanese composer and student of gamelan music, Yas-Kaz. This seminal album is a cornerstone to understanding the Japanese ambient and environmental movement. He rose to musical prominence composing for the dance troupe led by one of the founders of Butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata. The album features a wide range of entirely acoustic instruments and field recordings and was made for stage performance by Sankai Juku Butoh Group at Theatre de la Ville, Paris. Yas-Kaz has influenced quite a few important artists (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Midori Takada, Geino Yamashiro-Gumi) over four decades. However, he remains somewhat “unsung”: Glossy Mistakes unveils his art throughout this special edition. His composition/music is not focused on any specific genre/style of music either. Especially in his work for dance theatre he often delivers bare abstract sound/resonance which might not be recognized as “musical” from the Western perspective. He lived in Bali, Indonesia in the ’70s introducing the gamelan Balinese sounds and culture to Ryuichi Sakamoto (collaborated in the album Esperanto), Midori Takada, Shoji Yamashiro (leader of Geino Yamashiro-Gumi who later created the soundtrack for Akira) among others. A unique and unseen masterpiece unveiled again throughout a remastered edition.
File Under: Japan, Electronic, Ambient
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Various: Eccentric Funk (Numero) LP
Clear vinyl! Twelve unstoppable deep funk burners from across the Numerosphere. A smorgasbord of sounds from R&B’s dapper younger cousin. Loose guitars and chunky drums lie in wait for discerning break-makers to finely chop and flip. The only funk record you’ll ever need to own.
File Under: Funk
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…..Restocks….
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Apollo) LP
Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Sonovox) LP
Kenny Burrell: Introducing (Tone Poet) (Blue Note) LP
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (Acoustic Sounds Series) (Impulse) LP
John Coltrane: Blue Train (Blue Note) LP
Brian Eno: Film Music 1976-2020 (Opal) LP
Gatecreeper: Deserted (Relapse) LP
Erik Hall: Music for 18 Musicians (Western Vinyl) LP
Harmonia: Deluxe (Gronland) LP
Andrew Hill: Black Fire (Tone Poet) (Blue Note) LP
Freddie Hubbard: Hub-tones (Blue Note) LP
Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (Legacy) LP
Modest Mouse: Lonesome Crowded West (Glacial Pace) LP
Paul Page & His Paradise Music: Pacific Paradise (Subliminal Sounds) LP
Dolly Parton: Jolene (Legacy) LP
Duke Pearson: The Phantom (Tone Poet) (Blue Note) LP
Bo Anders Persson: Love is Here to Stay (Subliminal Sounds) LP
Tom Petty: Wildflowers & All the Rest (Warner) 7LP Box
Pink Floyd: Meddle (Pink Floyd) LP
Pink Floyd: The Wall (Pink Floyd) LP
Protomartyr: Ultimate Success Today (Domino) LP
Nina Simone: Pastel Blues (Acoustic Sounds Series) (Verve) LP
Skinny Puppy: Last Rights (Nettwerk) LP
Lonnie Smith: Live at Club Mozambique (Blue Note) LP
Luke Schneider: Altar of Harmony (Third Man) LP
Stanley Turrentine: Comin’ Your Way (Tone Poet) (Blue Note) LP