Another hefty week for new arrivals and restocks. And MORE used stuff purchased as well. And in case you missed it, this weekend is Easter, so our hours this weekend will be….
Friday, April 2 – 12 – 5
Saturday, April 3 – 11 – 4
Sunday, April 4 – Closed
Monday, April 5 – 11 – 6
Also! Like the Other Music Documentary, we are again teaming up with Oscilloscope Labs for the distribution/viewing of the new documentary TRUTH TO POWER, about System of a Down’s frontman Serj Tankian. Click the link to rent the film and we’ll get a cut of the proceeds. Rent it HERE
As always, big thanks to everyone who’s been hitting up our webstore and placing orders! It’s getting competitive around 6 pm 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 11-6 Monday – Friday & Saturday 11-4. Stay safe!
Oh ya… if you don’t follow us on Instagram, WHY NOT?! And now you know.
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…..picks of the week…..
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! (Constellation) LP+10″
FYI… We are almost out of stock of this, but should have more next week, so we will leave this one in ‘pre-order’ mode on the website, but you may have to wait until middle of next week to pick it up. GYBE returns with another soundtrack for our times. As the heretical anarcho-punk spirit of the title implies, Godspeed harnesses some particularly raw power, spittle and grit across two riveting 20-minute side-length trajectories of noise-drenched widescreen post-rock: inexorable chug blossoms into blown-out twang, as some of the band’s most soaring, searing melodies ricochet and converge amidst violin and bassline counterpoint. Field recordings and roiling semi-improvised passages frame these fervent epics, and two shorter self-contained 6-minute pieces find the band at its most devastatingly beautiful, haunting and elegiac. Poignant atmospherics, noise-drenched orchestration, drone, hypnotic swingtime crescendos, inexorably-layered towers of distorted clarion sound: STATE’S END encapsulates every beloved facet of the band. Twenty-five years on, this new album is as vital, stirring, timely and implacable as any in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s storied discography. Just as STATE’S END summons the gamut of Godspeed’s constituent sonic trademarks, so the album artwork spans the entirety of the band’s visual history: the grainy monochromatic photography of recent releases finds its way onto the inner sleeves, while the gatefold cover art harkens back to the iconic graphics of earlier classic records like Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. STATE’S END features illustrations by William Schmiechen, with the front cover taijitu flowers and back cover tear gas canisters rendered in raised thermographic black ink on the double-vinyl album jacket. The illuminated cross from Godspeed’s debut F#A#∞ also makes a reappearance on the inside gatefold drawing, in recurrent homage to the electrified hilltop landmark crucifix of the band’s Montréal hometown. STATE’S END was recorded and mixed in Montréal in October 2020 at the group’s homebase studio Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango by Jace Lasek, the veteran award-winning indie producer (and co-founder of The Besnard Lakes) who works with Godspeed for the first time on this recording. Thanks for listening. OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN. (R.I.P. D.H.)
File Under: Post Rock, Instrumental, Indie Rock, CanCon
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Various: Belong to the Wind (Forager) LP
For all those who relate “maybe to the wind, because they can feel it or dirt because they can touch it. But nothing else.” Like Bobby Cornett (aka Shane), we are all trying to find where we belong. Belong To The Wind marks Forager Records’ debut release: A lovingly curated collection of crooning psychedelic folk and soul songs gathered from American 45s of the 1970s. The compilation features 10 songs from 10 different acts, each with an indelible story of love, loss, loneliness, and an unrelenting desire to shed the confines of routine existence. Meet a man named Denny Fast, perched behind a tobacco-stained piano in a smokey Michigan lounge. He’s singing of the faded memory of distant hope and better times past. Listen to a portrait of the heartless Texan, told in arrestingly angelic prose by Connie Mims of St. Elmo’s Fire. Contemplate with Snuffy, the honest musings of a failed and misunderstood outsider, daring to hope for change. Belong To The Wind aims to shed light on the more opaque cuts of these brooding artists. Many of these songs were recorded at the early stages of a career, at a time when experimenting and searching are pursued with reckless abandon. As a result, these songs are aggressively honest and uncompromising. Many have a distinct sense of the lo-fi DIY variety. Others are polished in production. Some are minimal, tentative and vulnerable. What all of these songs share, is a transportive quality. An uncanny ability to take a captive listener on a search for the soul, and a journey into the bellowing fields of easy reflection. Sit back and enjoy a soft trip through the hazy milieu of a loner’s mind.
File Under: Folk, Soul, Private Press
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…..new arrivals…..
Blues Creation: Demon & Eleven Children (Nippon Columbia) LP
Demon & Eleven Children, a masterpiece of blues creation from the dawn of the new rock era, is finally reissued! The cover and the cover of this album are truly one of the classics of Japanese hard rock music. The solid sound of fuzz and blues rock influenced by British hard rock has been highly acclaimed by foreign psychedelic fanatics as well. The title track is over 9 minutes long, and the guitar riffs of “Atomic Bomb Drop” and “Just I Was Born” are impressive. The band consists of four members: Kazuo Takeda (g, vo), Hiromi Osawa (vo), Masashi Saeki (b), and Masayuki Higuchi (ds).
File Under: Japan, Psych
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Death From Above 1979: Is 4 Lovers (Death From Above) LP
Canadian dance-punk pioneers Death From Above 1979, the boundary pushing musical alliance made up of Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler, return with their first new album in four years! Is 4 Lovers was produced, mastered and recorded entirely by the duo themselves and captures the creation of a totally new sound and a reimagining of the format they created more than 20 years ago. It’s introduced by the high-energy love song “One + One.” “It’s the karmic sequel to [2004’s] ‘Romantic Rights,’ Grainger reveals. “My wife, Eva, became pregnant not long after we started working on the song and after hearing an early version she said, ‘I wish this song was dancier’. So I went back into the studio and re-worked the drums. As the record was taking shape, every time I would come home from the studio the baby would start dancing in Eva’s belly. Even before I walked in the room the party would start. One plus one is three, that’s magic!”
File Under: Rock
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Ensemble Al-Salaam: The Sojourner (P-Vine) LP
“The Sojourner” was released on Strata-East in 1974 and is well known as one of the label’s rarest recordings. Most tracks are focused on a soaring, spiritual groove, and some of them expressed their soulfulness. The last track “Peace (Salaam)” could be the most impressive tune on the album, having a very warm and spiritual style.
File Under: Jazz, Strata East
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Female Species: Tale of My Lost Love (Numero) LP
This is the story of two sisters who nurtured a dream for half a century and never let it die. Vicki and Ronni Gossett launched their musical career as teenagers in Whittier, California in 1966. They called themselves the Female Species. Members came and went; their base of operations moved to Las Vegas, back to LA, and over to Nashville. Along the way their sound transformed from garage rock to lounge to country-pop, the only constant being an innate mastery of hooks and harmony. These ladies had it. Along the way, they crossed paths with The Carpenters, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Judds, and seemingly half of the industry’s power players, rebuffing all untoward advances, focused always on their craft. In the 1980s they became staff songwriters for music publishing companies in the hit-making business. Relentless pushing landed them a once in a lifetime audition before the court of RCA’s top executives – the kind of new talent showcase that almost never happens after 30. Vicki and Ronni were by then in their 40s. Tale of My Lost Love is the whole story from beginning to end of two sisters who gave everything to their dream, yet never made a single record…until now. Sometimes great music just isn’t enough to break through – until it is. Numero Group is thrilled and proud, at long last, to introduce Female Species!
File Under: Garage Rock
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Johnnie Frierson: Have You Been Good to Yourself (Light in the Attic) LP
“My dad loved people. He was an activist for Black people, but also an activist for human rights. I don’t care what color you are, my dad was kind to you. He wanted the word ‘love’ out there: the self-love message, the world-love message. Anything good he knew, he wanted to let everyone know about it.” – Keesha Frierson Followers of our output might have a pang of recognition on reading the name, Frierson. That was the surname of Wendy Rene, whose work was collected into the 2012 LITA anthology After Laughter Comes Tears, and indeed, Johnnie Frierson is Wendy’s brother – a fellow member of her mid-’60s Stax four-piece The Drapels. But Have You Been Good To Yourself will come as a surprise to anyone expecting more of the beat-driven R&B Johnnie and his sibling produced – including that compilation’s much-sampled title track. A mix of spoken word and gospel songs laid down direct to cassette, these ultra-rare home recordings draw from Johnnie’s religious upbringing and his history in the music business, which was interrupted in 1970 when he was sent to fight in Vietnam. Cratedigger Jameson Sweiger found Have You Been Good To Yourself and a companion album, Real Education, released under the name Khafele Ojore Ajanaku in a Memphis thrift store, but it was noticeably Frierson’s work. They hadn’t made it far – they would originally have been sold at corner stores and music festivals in the Memphis area, where Frierson continued to perform and host a gospel radio show, all the while working as a mechanic, laborer and teacher. The seven songs on Have You Been Good To Yourself are overtly religious; some, such as “Out Here On Your Word,” are strident and faithful; others, like the self-questioning “Have You Been Good To Yourself,” are more meditative. They reflect the difficult situation that Frierson was in when recording, shell-shocked from his time in the military and grieving the untimely death of his son. “He was really trying to find his way,” remembers Frierson’s daughter Keesha in Andria Lisle’s liner notes. “And writing and making music were a way out for him.” Remastered and released professionally for the first time, the message spread by Frierson – who passed away in 2010 – remains undimmed.
File Under: R&B, Soul
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Giant Step: Giant on the Move (Strawberry Rain) LP
Giant Step’s ‘Giant On The Move’ was released independently on both LP and cassette in 1976. Original vinyl copies were limited to just 4 songs, resulting in more than half the album being omitted from the LP edition. A progressive rock offering, Giant Step’s second album demonstrated the true potential of the group and cemented their place in Indonesia’s rock history. Lead singer and legendary rocker Benny Soebardja once again connects with British songwriter Bob Dook to deliver incredible lyrics over top of organs, keyboards and guitars. For fans of Shark Move & Benny Soebardja.
File Under: Psych, Indonesia
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Allen Ginsberg: At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl and Other Poems (Omnivore) LP
Recorded in 1956 and discovered in 2007, one of the most important audio documents in the history of American literature, from the second half of the 20th century, is available to be heard far and wide on vinyl LP in 2021! Allen Ginsberg’s first public reading of his epic poem Howl took place in October of 1955 at the famous Six Gallery in San Francisco. In attendance that night were Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Imagine if that evening’s readings been recorded! It was long thought that the first recorded reading of Howl was the March 1956 reading in Berkeley, California; however, prior to that evening, Ginsberg travelled to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, with Gary Snyder for a series of readings. Reed College, a small liberal arts college founded in 1908 and known for its academic excellence had been attended by the likes of Steve Jobs, Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento), Barbara Ehrenreich, Ry Cooder, Max Gordon (founder of The Village Vanguard), and poet Gary Snyder. Snyder and Ginsberg read at Reed on the nights of February 13 and 14, 1956. The Valentine Day’s performance was recorded and then forgotten about until John Suiter, researching Snyder at Reed’s Hauser Memorial Library, found it in a box in 2007. Having gotten the material he required for his research, Suiter returned the tape to the box in the library and there it remained for another decade plus. In 2019, when Dr. Audrey Bilger was named Reed College’s president (the first female president, no less), she brought with her, her wife, record producer and Omnivore Recordings co-founding partner, Cheryl Pawelski. Omnivore had previously worked with the Allen Ginsberg estate, releasing a comprehensive, expanded 3CD version of Ginsberg’s album, First Blues in 2016 (titled for Omnivore, The Last Word On First Blues), followed by an expanded edition of Ginsberg’s 1970 album Songs Of Innocence And Experience in 2017, which made its CD debut on the Omnivore edition, The Complete Songs Of Innocence And Experience. Upon learning of the existence of the recording of Howl at Reed, Pawelski knew exactly how historic the recording was and just whom to call to allow the recording to be heard by a wider audience. Wanting to pay tribute to Reed and make certain that the release of this historic document was appropriately tied to the place where it happened, Pawelski tapped Dr. Pancho Savery, Professor of English and Humanities at Reed to write the liner notes, not only to trace the history of how Snyder and Ginsberg came to Reed in February of 1956, but to also explain the history of the poems and their development at this early stage. Since the readings at Reed were not widely publicized, no photos of the events exist. And so for the album cover, Pawelski asked Gregory MacNaughton of Reed’s Calligraphy Initiative, in honor of Lloyd J. Reynolds, to create the cover, imagining what a Reed poster for the event might have looked like in 1956. Calligraphy has a long history at Reed College, and it just so happened that one student of Reed calligrapher and professor of creative writing and art history Lloyd Reynolds was Gary Snyder. The package also includes photos from the era and pages from the early Howl manuscript, courtesy of the Estate of Allen Ginsberg, who worked with Grammy Award-winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski to bring the project to fruition. The original analog tape was freshly transferred, restored, and mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer, Michael Graves. Omnivore Recordings is proud to be able to bring this historic recording to a broad, worldwide audience on vinyl. From the liner notes: “Ginsberg just starts reading. He does ask later, before reading ‘Howl,’ if anyone in the audience was in attendance the previous night, and this is how we know this reading took place on the 14th rather than the 13th. The poems are read almost in a monotone at first, and the audience is completely silent, until Ginsberg’s voice rises at the end of ‘Over Kansas,’ and there is laughter. Someone in the audience then says something that can’t be heard, and which elicits laughter, and Ginsberg’s response is, ‘I don’t want to corrupt the youth.'” Go back in time to Anna Mann Cottage on the Reed College campus and enjoy this early, historic first recorded reading of “Howl.”
File Under: Spoken Word
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Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump… On a Wooden Piano (Dangerbird) LP
Clear vinyl! Modesto, CA’s influential indie-rock group Grandaddy celebrates the 20th-anniversary of their classic second LP, 2000’s The Sophtware Slump with a brand-new solo piano recording of the album by principal songwriter Jason Lytle. The candid arrangements reveal new layers of meaning embedded in The Sophtware Slump’s melancholy and touching vision of the future. With a meticulous yet scruffy sound that continues to draw comparisons to a post-millennial OK Computer – and which Pitchfork called a “sad, quaint, low-key Y2K-era classic” – The Sophtware Slump, now heard as a solo piano album, is a chance to let the songwriting shine. This is not a record made up of demos or rough sketches; it is a shadow sibling to a record that inspired a generation in the earliest days of the 21st century.
File Under: Indie Rock, Piano
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P.J. Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea: Demos (Island) LP
UMC/Island offer up a new reissue of Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, the fifth studio album by PJ Harvey, alongside a collection of unreleased demos. Produced by PJ Harvey with Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey, and originally released in October 2000, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea features the singles “Good Fortune”, “A Place Called Home” and “This Is Love” and includes a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on “This Mess We’re In.” Widely recognized as a career best, with NME declaring it to be “a magnificent, life-affirming opus,” the album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2001. One of Harvey’s most acclaimed albums, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea earned her multiple accolades, including BRIT Award nominations for Best British Female Artist two years in a row, Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Female Rock Performance and, of course, the aforementioned Mercury Music Prize for Best Album. It reached No. 23 in the UK Albums Chart and appeared extensively on end of year lists. Included here are unreleased demos of every track written for Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, including “Good Fortune,” “A Place Called Home” and “This Is Love.” Audio has been mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey collaborator Head. Features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.
File Under: Rock
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Lee Hazlewood: The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides (Light in the Attic) LP
Back in print! With his handlebar moustache and booming baritone, Lee Hazlewood was one of the defining stars of the late ‘60s. Though he’s perhaps best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including writing mega-hit “These Boots Are Made For Walking”), Hazlewood did stunning work away from that particular glamour queen and found latter day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, and Jarvis Cocker. Now, for Record Store Day 2012, we are kicking off our excavation of the Lee Hazlewood archives with this anthology, Singles, Nudes & Backsides, collecting the best of Lee’s solo songs and duets from his LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries) imprint. As a true legend of the great American songbook and a rebellious pioneer who left behind a lengthy trail of echo laden pop masterpieces, Lee’s influence continues to reverberate today. Between 1968-71, Hazlewood not only released his finest solo work, but produced numerous artists on LHI. From acid-folk and country-rock to pop-psych and soul, LHI issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. This series will include material from LHI (re-mastered for the first time from the original analog tapes), along with Lee’s output for other labels, rarities, and unreleased gems. See the sleeve: surrounded by nude girls, each wearing a fake moustache, Hazlewood wears a suit, ever-so-slightly awkwardly playing the role of the ‘60s playboy. Just like the picture, the songs present a man conflicted; he’s the tender-hearted romantic, the broken-hearted loser and the rugged cowboy, all in one. It’s there in the western swing of “Califia (Stone Rider)”, the loneliness of ”The Bed” and the bleak beauty of ”If It’s Monday Morning.” Hazlewood’s tremulous voice was made for duets (indeed, he wrote ”Some Velvet Morning”, one of the greatest of all time); here, Suzi Jane Hokom, Ann-Margret and Nina Lizell play counterpart to his manly tones. In the wonderful liner notes, written by British journalist Wyndham Wallace, the writer describes his friend Hazlewood as “a curmudgeonly, unpredictable sort at the best of times, as impatient with his own talent as he is with other people.” The Hazlewood Wallace knew was puzzled by the growing interest in him in the last two decades of his life, which was ended by cancer at age 78. That late flurry of interest saw him perform at the Royal Festival Hall in 1999, his first ever solo performance in the UK. A natural wanderer, Lee lived a big life, fighting in the Korean War, working as a radio DJ in Phoenix, Arizona, setting up Viv Records in the ‘50s, working as a big-shot LA producer in the ‘60s, signing Phil Spector to his Trey Records label and prematurely announcing retirement in the wake of the mid-‘60s British invasion. He didn’t: Nancy Sinatra came along, the hits started flowing and he continued producing characterful solo albums into the ‘70s, which saw his move to Sweden. By 2007, Hazlewood was living in Vegas, and begrudgingly enjoying that flurry of latter-day interest in his work. This landmark compilation promises to create many more converts.
File Under: Country
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Jilala: s/t (Rogue Frequency) LP
Until Now, Jilala has been a much sought-after phantom in relation to their better-known musical and spiritual contemporaries, The Master Musicians of Jajouka. Culled from three and a half hours of 1965 recordings by writers/artists/poets Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles, the first batch of Jilala recordings were released on a 1965 LP that was scarce even upon its initial release. The second batch of recordings, which this LP has drawn from, came in the form of a CD by Baraka Foundation in 1998, which is also now long out of print. The Jilala brotherhood — like the better-known Jajouka culture — has pre-Islamic roots in Sufi mysticism that span across northern Africa from Morocco to India. Jilala shares the kinds of small, portable instruments historically favored by nomadic cultures. Even among the more ardent aficionados of “world music” these recordings have seldom been heard. In the original liner notes Ira Cohen provides a breakdown of the Jilala ensemble: “The instruments used are the shebaba, a long transversal cane flute, which leads the way; the bendir, a handheld drum resembling a tambourine without cymbals; and the karkabat which is a double castanet made of metal. On this record, there are usually three flutes, six drums and one pair of castanets.” In conjunction with the qraqaba – an iron analog to the wooden castanets featured heavily in the Flamenco music of the Roma people that also flourished over the centuries mere miles to the north in southern Spain. These bendir drums provide a range very similar to that covered in contemporary popular music by the bass drum, snare, and cymbals that make up a standard drum kit. The Trance-inducing grooves were major influences on such bands as Led Zeppelin, Agitation Free, Can and the Rolling Stones. The collective rhythms are often reminiscent of early hip-hop.
File Under: Africa, Morocco, World
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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Teenage Lizard (Digger’s Factory) LP
After the incredible success of Polygondwanaland in 2017, we want to give everyone a chance to get their lucky hands on these King Gizzard albums, so let’s make it real together one more time with fair prices and no margin ! MAKE IT VINYL! Tracks 1-8 recorded some time in 2010 in Angelsea, Victoria, Australia Tracks 9+10 recorded some time in 2011 in Carlton, Victoria, Australia
File Under: Psych, Punk
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King Khan: Murder Burgers (Ernst Jennings) LP
King Khan, master of psychedelic H&B, used all of his magic to reunite one of his all time favorite bands The Gris Gris from Oakland, California to back him up on this 2017 long player. Produced by Greg Ashley at his Creamery Studio which has since disappeared because of the unfortunate gentrification of Oakland, Murderburgers shows a more singer/songwriter side to King Khan, while mixing in his classic garage punk swagger and many more subtle influences here and there. You can taste slot of Stooges, screaming saxes in full Steve Mackay style, pounding pianos, some Bakersfield California Country swing, some haunting desert sunset vibes and most of all the classic rock n’ soul that has become King Khan’s genuine signature sound. The resulting gumbo is as tasty as ever and even has the Oakland Taco King, Oscar ‘El Tacoban’ Michel on bass and legendary Oakland drummer for hire Garrett ”with an A in the 0” Goddard bashing the skins. “We made this album in about one week, I got the Gris Gris to back me up and do a few shows in all the murder capitals of America,” Khan says. “In Chicago we even had Andre Williams come and join us on stage for a song…it was quite a trip, and then we holed up at the Creamery and put it all on to analog tape with Greg Ashley twiddlin’ his knob like there was no tomorrow. It was a bitch slappin’ good time and a tribute to how much love I have for Oakland and especially to all the good times we had at the Ghost town gallery and eating Big Poppa’s burgers. Oakland may never be the same, but it will always be in my heart!”
File Under: Psych, Garage
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Naomi Lewis: Cottage Songs (Mapache) LP
Back in 1975, singer-songwriter Naomi Lewis entered the studio to record her first album, Cottage Songs. The result was a beautiful album inspired by family, friends, got and nature. And also, an obscure secret is known by very few. Lewis’ songs are equally inspired by popular music like The Beatles and Joni Mitchell as psychedelic sounds and her lyrics spill out as small diary entries, written as gift for one friend or another. Blending touchstones of soft rock, pop and dreamy singer-songwriters with Lewis’ cherubic voice, her albums have been praised as pinnacles of the privately- issued folk movement of the 1970s.
File Under: Folk, Private Press
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Naomi Lewis: Seagulls and Sunflowers (Mapache) LP
1976’s Seagulls and Sunflowers is Naomi Lewis’ second album. This is the result of a young songwriter’s dream. She was involved in all the process from songwriting to vinyl pressing to be sure that her second album was exactly as she wanted it to be. And It worked. Acclaimed by genre fans, Seagulls and Sunflowers is Naomi’s masterwork. Lewis’ songs are equally inspired by popular music like The Beatles and Joni Mitchell as psychedelic sounds and her lyrics spill out as small diary entries, written as gifts for one friend or another. Blending touchstones of soft rock, pop and dreamy singer-songwriters with Lewis’ cherubic voice, her albums have been praised as pinnacles of the privately- issued folk movement of the 1970s.
File Under: Folk, Private Press
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Carmen Maki & Blues Creation: s/t (Nippon Columbia) LP
Folk singer-turned-rock singer Carmen Maki collaborated with Blues Creation on this album (’71). Immediately after the release of her masterpiece “The Devil and the Eleven Children”, Carmen Maki’s youthful voice, which was influenced by Janis Joplin, fused with a sturdy sound reminiscent of Bruce Creation’s LED ZEPPELIN, and it was a miracle of the early days of Japanese rock music. Later on, Kazuo Takeda’s Blues Creation was active as Creation, and Carmen Maki formed OZ. This is a monumental album that can be said to be a milestone for both artists to dominate the Japanese rock scene.
File Under: Japan, Psych
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Mutiny: A Night Out with the Boys (Tidal Waves) LP
Jerome “Bigfoot” Brailey is an American drummer who started performing in the early 1970s with several R&B groups from the likes of The Unifics, The Chambers Brothers and The Five Stairsteps where he developed his unique style and finesse on drums. Later in 1975 he joined George Clinton’s P-Funk collective and has appeared on many of Parliament & Funkadelic’s most popular recordings (some of which he also co-wrote). Brailey played on classic albums like ‘Mothership Connection’ and ‘One Nation Under A Groove’. Samples from that body of work (and his drum arrangements) have since then appeared on hundreds of hip hop and contemporary R&B songs by renowned artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino. Jerome Brailey is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inducted in 1997) and part of their ‘50 greatest drummers in the Hall’ list (stating that his drum style kept Parliament-Funkadelic rooted in the old-school ‘James Brown-style funk’)…next to this achievement, he was proclaimed by Rolling Stone as one of the ‘100 Greatest Drummers of All Time’ for his steady kick drum, shifty hi-hat action and intricately unpredictable snare patterns. Brailey earned numerous Gold and Platinum records with the P-Funk Organization and has worked as a session drummer for many talented artists such as Herbie Hancock, Buddy Miles, Snoop Dogg and Pharoah Sanders. George Clinton’s funk empire was not without its disagreements and Jerome Brailey’s ‘Mutiny’ project was a direct result of just such a disagreement (as well as one of the more notable offshoots of the P-Funk axis). Mutiny performed in a style not far removed from the classic P-Funk style and with a lot of emphasis on the dual lead guitar work, but what makes them unique compared to their contemporaries is that at times their recordings also emit a darker, more sinister feeling. Besides Brailey on drums (and on most of the lead vocals) Mutiny featured a funk-alumni line-up and released three amazing and collectible albums: ‘Mutiny On The Mammaship’ (CBS, 1979), ‘Funk Plus The One’ (Columbia, 1980) and ‘A Night Out With the Boys’ (J. Romeo, 1983)…these were followed by two comeback albums: ‘Aftershock’ (Rykodisc 1995) and ‘Funk Road’ (Catbone, 2013). The ‘Mutiny’ album we are proudly presenting you today (A Night Out With The Boys) is an underrated gem made by musicians who defined the funk scene of the ’70s and ’80s! Featuring an all-star line-up that includes Rodney Curtis (Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker), Michael Hampton (Funkadelic-Parliament, Deee-Lite), Kenni Hairston (Cameo) and Maceo Bond of Osiris/Afrika Bambaataa fame! ‘A Night Out With The Boys’ has it all: Jerome’s trademark drumbeats, funky bass grooves, driving riffs accented by stinging synth parts, slow spacey (and prominently featured) guitars, top-notch lead vocals and chants that recall Sly Stone’s “Loose Booty”. The whole album is a hot dance jam with crisp percussion…an extremely infectious, locked-in-the-pocket bass-heavy monster-funk-bomb that any serious self-respecting funk fanatic must have in his/her collection! Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the FIRST ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic album (originally released in 1983 on Brailey’s own imprint J. Romeo Records). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) and also comes with a reproduction of the original insert.
File Under: R&B, Funk, Soul
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Sturgill Simpson: Cuttin’ Grass Vol 2 (Cowboy Arms Sessions) (Thirty Tigers) LP
Coloured vinyl! Just a few weeks after the surprise release of the Cuttin’ Grass (Vol. 1): Butcher Shoppe Sessions album – which Uproxx called “the most sublime and delightful music he’s yet made on record” – Sturgill Simpson returns with the next installment of his bluegrass series, Cuttin’ Grass (Vol. 2): The Cowboy Arms Sessions. The genre-defying singer/songwriter reconvened an A-Team of acoustic players (now dubbed “The Hillbilly Avengers”) for another round of reinterpretations of his catalogue, this time largely focusing on 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, which won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year and was nominated for Album of the Year. This volume also includes “Jesus Boogie,” originally performed by Simpson’s first band, Sunday Valley, and two previously unreleased songs, “Tennessee” and “Hobo Cartoon,” the latter of which was co-written with the incomparable Merle Haggard – who once said that Simpson was “about the only thing I’ve heard that was worth listening to in a long time.” “On Volume 2, we recorded everything I was too afraid to do on Volume 1,” Simpson said. “It’s hard to deny that this is a much more personal record. I was thinking about my kids, my grandfather, my wife.” Vol. 2 was produced by David Ferguson and features Sierra Hall (mandolin, vocals), Mike Bub (bass), Stuart Duncan (fiddle, vocals), Scott Vestal (banjo, vocals), Tim O’Brien (guitar, vocals), Mark Howard (guitar, vocals), and Miles Miller (percussion, vocals).
File Under: Country, Blue Grass
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Various: La Ola Interior: Spanish Ambient and Acid Exoticism 1983-1990
(Bongo Joe) LP
Following “La Contra Ola” (BJR015), Bongo Joe is pleased to present LA OLA INTERIOR, a compilation exploring the ambient side of the Spanish electronic music produced in the ’80s. It gathers musicians from various horizons and of many generations, who shared the desire to create an immersive soundscape and to combine electronic music with non-Western musical traditions. As a general rule, the Anglo-Saxon tropism did relate the Spanish peninsula’s ambient music to the Balearic Sound, that is to say to the relaxing music played in Ibiza’s nightclubs. But this music takes place in the productive territory of experimental musics, and particularly in its two main breeding grounds: the tape recording underground and the independent musicians-producers scene. Inseparable from the processes of self-publishing, distribution and exchange of music that were then taking place in Spain in an artisanal way, the vast underground movement of cassettes was divided between an “ethno-trance” combining industrial beats and oriental sounds on the one hand (Esplendor Geométrico, Miguel A. Ruiz / Orfeón Gagarin) and unclassifiable low-fi tinkerers on the other hand (Camino al desván, Eli Gras, Mataparda, Victor Nubla). Hyperactive, this scene is radical and strongly dominated by the hardest musical styles, but the ambient, influenced by the German Kosmische Musik and “krautrock”, also develops here. The second vein of Spanish ambient comes from some of the independent labels of the peninsula (DRO, GASA, El Cometa de Madrid, EGK) whose activity will mark the return of some of the most adventurous musicians-producers of the 70s. Some were influenced by American minimalism (Luis Delgado / Mecánica Popular, Suso Saiz, Javier Segura), others by Fourth-World Music conceived by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno (Finis Africae, Jabir). Having passed through folk, ancient, traditional or contemporary music, and being familiar with improvisation and studio techniques, these artists come from a mutant hippie culture, capable of phagocyting many musical styles from electronic ambient to ethnic improvisation and modal jazz. These two scenes and generations that makeup LA OLA INTERIOR intersect around a common interest in non-Western musical traditions. Their exploration may be that of the tribal origins of electronic rhythms or the Arab heritage of Spain. Above all, it is a dreamy exoticism, an immobile journey as the sounds, rhythms or instruments of these traditions are scrutinized by Western practices (avant-garde music, electronic technology). The result is a hybrid music, filtered and reinvented, neither Western nor extra-Western, with a pronounced taste for the fusion of opposites, which we have called “Acid Exoticism” because of its permanent search for trance or contemplation. Atmospheric, contemplative and serial, these musics still plunge us today into a sensorial journey, at the same time interior and distant, organic and technological, between exotic reminiscences and interior visions. LA OLA INTERIOR brings together 20 little-known and innovative pieces from the golden age of Spanish electronic music.
File Under: Ambient, Experimental
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