Well, another successful RSD/Black Friday in the books. Our big used rares drop seemed to really bring out some serious shoppers, and caused some people a lot of stress! There’s still some killer raers waiting for a new home, but you’ve got to come in to see what’s there. It’s starting too look like maybe one shipment I’ve been waiting on won’t show up until tomorrow. I’ll post up the stuff anyway, just be sure to wait for a ‘ready for pick up’ email if you grab something off the site tonight.
As previously mentioned, in line with current health restrictions we are operating as below..
– in-store shopping/pick ups – 11 – 6 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 4 pm Saturday
(if you don’t want to come into the store for a pick up, call and/or use the back door)
– Max 4 people in the store at a time
– Wear a mask (if you don’t have one, we’ll have some)
– Sanitize your hands(we’ll have some)
…..pick of the week…..
Richard Dawson & Circle: Henki (Domino) LP
It’s a well documented fact that Circle is one of my favorite bands, and once again, they don’t disappoint! Henki is the epic joint record from Richard Dawson, the diminutive Geordie troubadour, and Circle, the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal. Unlike any metal album you have heard before, Henki’s seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history, making it the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you’ll hear this year.
File Under: Metal, Folk, Psych, Prog
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…..rsd online…..
Now that Black Friday RSD has come and gone, we are able to post the titles we have left (or are just finally arriving) on our site for purchase. Move quick, many of these are single copies.
All Them Witches: Live on the Internet (New West) LP
Chet Baker: Albert’s House (Tidal Waves) LP
Broken Social Scene: Feel Good Lost – 20th Anniversary (Arts & Crafts) LP
CFCF: Continent (Paper Bag) LP
Evanescence: s/t (Craft) LP
Tav Falco: Club Car Zodiac (ORG) LP
Andrew Gabbard/Kendra Morris: Don’t Talk (Karma Chief) 7″
John Hicks: Is That So? (Tidal Waves) LP
Jackson Conti: Sujinho (Madlib Invazion) LP
Judas Priest: Best of (eOne) LP
K.D. Lang: All You Can Eat (Warner) LP
Matata: Independence (Tidal Waves) LP
Motorhead: The Lost Tapes Vol. 1 (BMG) LP
Munsters: At Home With (BMG) LP
Oneohtrix Point Never: Renditions 1 (Warp) 10″
Os Brazoes: s/t (Mr. Bongo) LP
Grant Lee Philips: Yuletide (Yep Roc) LP
Sons of Kemet: African Cosmology (Verve) LP
Soundtrack: Iron Giant (Varese Sarabande) LP
Soundtrack: Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Disney) LP
Staple Singers: Twenty-Fifth Day of December (Craft) LP
Joe Strummer: Johnny Appleseed (Dark Horse) LP
Wrens: Secaucus (Craft) LP
Various: Beleza Tropical (Luaka Bop) LP
Various: Tickets for Doomsday (Now Again) LP
…..new arrivals…..
David Bowie: Brilliant Adventure (Parlophone) BOX
Sold out, but more en route! The latest in an award-winning and critically acclaimed series of box sets, Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) is an 180g vinyl 18LP collection that includes newly remastered versions, with input from the original producers and collaborators, of some of David Bowie’s most underrated and experimental material: Black Tie White Noise, The Buddha of Suburbia, 1.Outside, Earthling and Hours….along with the expanded live album BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000, the non album/alternative version/B-sides and soundtrack compilation Re:Call 5 and the legendary previously unreleased album Toy. Toy was recorded following David’s triumphant Glastonbury 2000 performance. Bowie entered the studio with his band to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964-1971. Unfortunately, in 2001 the concept of the ‘surprise drop’ album release and the technology to support it were still quite a few years off, making it impossible to release. Exclusive to the box set are BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000 and Re:Call 5. The former was recorded two days after the famous Glastonbury performance in front of 500 lucky fans at the BBC’s art deco theatre in central London. Re:Call 5 features 39 non-album/alternative version/b-sides and soundtrack songs over 4LPs. The accompanying 128-page book features rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers including Frank W. Ockenfels 3, Nick Knight, John Scarisbrick and Nina Schultz Terner and others, as well as memorabilia, technical notes about the albums from producers/engineers Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers, Reeves Gabrels and Mark Plati as well as a new interview with The Buddha of Suburbia collaborator Erdal Kizilçay.
File Under: Rock, Pop
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Can: Live in Brighton 1975 (Mute) LP
Live in Brighton 1975 is the second in a series of Can live concerts available in full for the first time on vinyl! Originally recorded on tape, these carefully restored live albums will comprise the entirety of each show in the format of a story with a beginning, middle and end, with Can’s performances taking on a life of their own. The band’s line up for this legendary 1975 performance features all four original members – Irmin Schmidt on keys, Jaki Leibezeit on drums, Michel Karoli on guitar, and Holger Czukay on bass. Can’s powerful influence has never diminished, and their indelible mark is apparent in the bands who freely acknowledge their importance – from Portishead, James Murphy, Sonic Youth, New Order, Factory Floor, Public Image Ltd, Mogwai, Madlib and Radiohead – as well as across other disciplines such as visual art and literature.
File Under: Prog, Psych
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Vic Chesnutt: Drunk (New West) LP
Faithfully remastered and complete with thirteen bonus tracks, New West Records is proud to present Vic Chesnutt’s influential third full-length Drunk. Recorded over five total days, Drunk is marked by sparse instrumentation and minimal studio trickery that accent the depth of Chesnutt’s idiosyncratic lyrics and storytelling style. Bonus tracks feature B-sides, selections from an Inner Ear session and from a 1994 Radio Holland performance. This is a limited edition color vinyl pressing. The first pressing of this record in over five years. On his third and maybe most conceptually complete album, Vic Chesnutt emerges as that rare kind of artist who can see right into the living room of small-town America. Drunk is a fine example of how he can turn seemingly self-absorbed songs into something strangely universal. In the end, it is probably that ability which makes his genius the most readily apparent. – All Music If you let Drunk stay with you, thorns and all, the rewards only increase over time. – Pop Matters
File Under: Folk, Indie
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Julie Doiron: I Thought of You (You’ve Changed) LP
Julie Doiron is back with I Thought Of You, her first solo record since 2012’s So Many Days, emanating a radiative force with nothing more than her guitar and her unmistakably indomitable voice. In her time away from the solo spotlight she has remained deeply entwined with music, releasing a critically acclaimed record with members of Cancer Bats and Eamon McGrath as Julie and The Wrong Guys, translating some of her previous work for Spanish label Acuarela, and returning to her otherworldly collaboration with Mount Eerie for Lost Wisdom pt 2. On I Thought Of You, Julie enlists close and trusted friends: the uber-prolific and multi-talented Daniel Romano, superstar drummer Ian Romano, and Quebecois songwriter Dany Placard on bass. We live for these moments, when our dearest friends find their way back to the places they love, and we once again hear their voices rise back into our lives.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Steve Earle: Townes (New West) LP
Steve Earle’s 2009 Grammy award winning album, Townes, is pressed on color vinyl for the first time. This clear vinyl variant is limited to 3500 copies worldwide.
File Under: Alt Country, Folk
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Andrew Gabbard: Homemade (Karma Chief) LP
A musician whose influences span hard rock, psych, garage rock, and energetic pop, Andrew Gabbard has long been a force on the Southwestern Ohio music scene. Working with Thee Shams, The Buffalo Killers, and currently as The Gabbard Brothers with his brother Zach, Andrew is truly a prolific artist covering a wide range. The Buffalo Killers caught the attention of Dan Auerbach who produced their debut LP and Andrew is currently part of the touring band for The Black Keys. Now joining forces with another Ohio establishment, Colemine Records, Andrew hopes to hone his sound and grow his reach. His first LP as Andrew Gabbard is Homemade, a mix of hazy pop infused with alt-country vibes that feels part Neil Young, part Wilco, and part Flaming Lips all at the same time.
File Under: Country, Pop, Soul
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Goldfrapp: Head First (Mute) LP
Head First remains one of Goldfrapp’s most powerful trips to date, a speedy rush of synth optimism, euphoria, fantasy and romance. With life affirming lyrics and stellar production it lifts off at full tilt and takes us on a journey to the heart of 2010. The diversity, ambition and direction of the album highlights Goldfrapp as true agenda-setters and modern British musical icons. Head First followed-up the critically acclaimed Seventh Tree, and was the fifth entry in a brilliantly consistent body of work from the captivating electronic balladry of their Mercury nominated debut Felt Mountain and its distorted-dancefloor follow-up, Black Cherry to the glitterball glamour of Supernature which went on to sell over a million copies. The Grammy-nominated album yielded the trio of singles “Rocket,” “Alive” and “Believer.” Following the reissue series of Black Cherry, Supernature and Seventh Tree by Mute/BMG, Head First is presented here on gatefold colored vinyl LP with an exclusive art print of the original artwork.
File Under: Pop
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Eddie Hazel: Game, Dames, And Guitar Thangs (Real Gone) LP
If your circle of friends includes any guitar players, take this little test. Ask them if they are familiar with Eddie Hazel’s Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs. Chances are their eyes will widen, followed by an exclamation something like “I thought I was the only one who knew about that record!” Indeed, knowledge of this relatively obscure album is something of a secret handshake among axe men, because the guitar work on it is flat-out incredible. But then, you had to be a bad mutha to be in a band with George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and the rest of the Parliament/Funkadelic mothership, and that’s where a 17 year-old Eddie Hazel found himself in 1967, as the new guitar player in the Parliaments. Over the next ten years, Hazel would become an instrumental mainstay in PFunk, most notably on Fender Strat showcases like “Maggot Brain” and “Dollar Bill,” which he co-wrote. By the time he recorded this album in 1977, however, Hazel was out of the band, beset by personal problems that led to his premature demise in 1992 and which also explain at least in part why this album never reached commercial lift-off. All of the aforementioned PFunk notables are here, along with the Brides of Funkenstein on vocals, but this is Eddie’s show, as he lets loose with one coruscating, psychedelic funk lead after another over a mixture of George Clinton-penned originals and covers of “California Dreamin’” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” And now you can get Game in two different ways: on CD with liner notes by former Minister of Information for PFunk, Tom Vickers, or on LP in an electric blue vinyl edition!
File Under: Funk
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Calvin Keys: Proceed with Caution (Real Gone) LP
Bay Area jazz guitar legend Calvin Keys released his debut solo record, Shawn-Neeq, in 1971, and it remains one of the most beloved albums on the Black Jazz label. But that record was mere prelude for 1974’s Proceed with Caution; this time around, the arrangements were more complex, the instrumentation more diverse. In short, a quantum leap forward; indeed, as Calvin tells Pat Thomas in his liner notes for the release, “I started going to the Los Angeles School of Music studying orchestrations and I was putting it to use!” And he recruited the band to fulfill his ambitious musical visions to their fullest, including legendary drummer Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, fellow Black Jazz mainstays Henry Franklin on bass and Kirk Lightsey on keyboards, and Charles Owens (Horace Tapscott, Buddy Rich, Terry Callier, John Mayall) on sax and flute. Despite being hugely collectible, Proceed with Caution has never been reissued on vinyl before; our newly remastered edition is also available on CD or orange with black streaks vinyl limited to 750 copies and exclusive to independent record stores!
File Under: Jazz
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Fela Kuti: Box Set 5 (Curated by Chris Martin & Femi Kuti) (Knitting Factory) BOX
Knitting Factory Records is proud to release the next installment of long-awaited vinyl reissues from the Fela Kuti catalog. Vinyl Box #5 was co-curated by Fela’s son, world-renowned multi-instrumentalist and Afrobeat ambassador, Femi Kuti, and Chris Martin (yes, that Chris Martin). This volume includes Why Black Man Dey Suffer, Noise for Vendor Mouth, Kalakuta Show, Excuse O, Ikoyi Blindness, Original Sufferhead, and Overtake Don Overtake Overtake. The artwork for each album has been meticulously recreated from the original vinyl pressings, alongside vintage vinyl label artwork. The custom made box also includes a 20-page full-color booklet featuring: introductions by Chris Martin and Femi Kuti, seven in-depth commentaries by veteran music journalist and Afrobeat historian, Chris May; song lyrics; never before published photos of Fela Kuti; and stills taken from the 1982 Fela documentary Music Is The Weapon; and 16×24” poster designed by Nigerian artist Lemi Ghariokwu, the creative force behind 29 of Fela‘s album covers.
File Under: Afrobeat, Funk, Africa
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Lilys: Better Can’t Make Your Life Better (Sundazed) LP
On the heels of our reissue of the Lilys 1999 cult classic The 3 Way, we’re honored to bring you its predecessor of equal acclaim, 1996’s Better Can’t Make Your Life Better. Together they form what most would call the band’s pseudo British Invasion period, and in our opinion, two of the greatest albums to come out of the 90s. This album found a new audience via multiple tracks appearing in AMC’s Lodge 49. We’re honored to bring you the first vinyl reissue of Better! “After shaking off their early ’90s shoegaze guise, the Lilys delivered a major-label debut that’s full of Kinks—in the big-K and little-k senses. Better Can’t Make Your Life Better is classic Brit-rock contorted. While ‘Shovel Into Spade Kit’ revs up on a snarling riff you’d swear was emanating from an old Pye Records 45, Heasley spends the rest of the circuitous song smashing up the vinyl and gluing the pieces back together into curious new combinations.” Pitchfork
File Under: Indie Rock
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Makaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message (Blue Note) LP
With his new remix album, Deciphering The Message, the Chicago-based drummer, producer, and beat scientist Makaya McCraven digs through the vaults of the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records to put a modern bounce on classics by Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Kenny Burrell, and Eddie Gale, among others. McCraven has always been a collaborative artist and Deciphering The Message features newly recorded elements from vibraphonist Joel Ross, trumpeter Marquis Hill, alto saxophonist Greg Ward, guitarists Matt Gold and Jeff Parker, bassist Junius Paul, and De’Sean Jones on tenor saxophone and flute. In that way, Deciphering The Message connects the past and present, proving that musicians become legends by trekking the same roads with like-minded creators all moving toward the same goal. That throughline is evident on the lead single in which Jack Wilson’s hard bop cut “Frank’s Tune” – from the pianist’s little-known 1967 album Easterly Winds – is remade into “De’Jeff’s Tune,” an ‘80s R&B-inspired arrangement with a two-stepping dance groove, wafting guitar chords courtesy of Parker, and delicate flute from Jones. The track opens and closes with the voice of Blue Note legend Art Blakey, the irrepressible bandleader of The Jazz Messengers, addressing his audience: “We want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing… So as the message is being delivered, ladies and gentlemen, you may pat your feet and have a ball.” While Deciphering The Message collects songs from several years of Blue Note history, it plays like a continuous set taking place in one show at one venue. “When piecing everything together, I wanted to create a narrative that made the listener feel like they were falling into this space or a movement,” McCraven says. “I was really trying to make a record out of it, not just a series of tracks.” McCraven hopes the album is both educational and an outright good listen. “I always want to make music that will connect with people in one way, where it makes them nod or feel something or transport them somewhere,” he says. “I also hope this makes them check out the source of this music if they have it. The music that we’re making now is part of the same route and is connected, so I want to honor tradition and release something that people can vibe to.”
File Under: Jazz
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Mankunku Quartet: Yakhal’ Inkomo (Mr. Bongo) LP
The Mankunku Quartet’s 1968 album ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ clocks in at just over 30 minutes of jazz perfection. This compact, and to-the-point, album would sit comfortably in amongst some of the best works in the catalogues of any of the quintessential jazz labels such as Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse. ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’, however, was originally released on the South African record label World Record Co., which resulted in it becoming an elusive and sought-after piece for jazz collectors. First press copies sometimes fetch as much as £1,000 on the collectors’ market. It has been long regarded as one of the finest South African jazz albums and DJ / broadcaster Gilles Peterson cemented this when he included it in his “best of genre” focussed radio show, ‘The 20 – South African Jazz’. Tenor saxophonist Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi recorded the session on 23rd July 1968 at the Manley van Niekerk Studios, in Johannesburg. It was recorded by Dave Challen and produced by Ray Nkwe. The session is built up of two original works by Mankunku on the A-side, ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ & ‘Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)’, and on the B-side, the Horace Silver composition ‘Doodlin’, and a John Coltrane number ‘Bessie’s Blues’. What is striking is how the Mankunku-penned compositions not only hold their own next to Silver and Coltrane but they are, arguably, the better tracks on the record – a testament to the beautiful writing and playing of Mankunku. ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ features the great musicians; Agrippa Magwaza on bass, drummer Early Mabuza, and pianist Lionel Pillay. Pillay was of Indian descent, making this a mixed-race group, thus the very recording of the album was an act of resistance as it broke the apartheid restrictions of the time. The title of ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’ means “the bellow of the bull”, the Black audience would have understood this as coded community symbolism and an act of protest but it escaped the attention of the white government. For this edition, we have enlisted the services of Abbey Road Studios mastering, and lacquer-cutting engineer Miles Showell to cut a special half-speed master from the audio taken off the original master tapes. Miles has previously worked on our Arthur Verocai, Marcos Valle and Ian Carr re-issues, and once again we are blown away by the richness and clarity of Miles’ work. We have also presented it as a replica copy using the cover artwork and labels from the primary World Record Co. original version. On the sleeve notes, Ray Nkwe the producer and the President of the Jazz Appreciation Society of South Africa writes ” This is the LP that every jazz fan has been waiting for” and Ray was not wrong, it’s a stone-cold timeless jazz classic.
File Under: Jazz
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Mastodon: Hushed and Grim (Reprise) LP
Coloured vinyl! Mastodon returns on Reprise Records with their anxiously awaited ninth full-length album, Hushed and Grim. Over the past year, the metal mavericks recorded the album in their hometown of Atlanta, GA, collaborating with producer David Bottrill (Tool, Rush, Muse, Peter Gabriel) behind the board. As their most ambitious body of work to date, it consists of 15 tracks, surveying sonic landscapes of rock, psychedelia, punk, metal, alternative, and prog threaded together by the innately expressive musical interplay of these four musicians. At the same time, an atmosphere of loss, loneliness, and longing permeates through the trio of cathartic vocals as they musically say goodbye to old friend, confidant, and longtime manager the late Nick John by architecting a magnum opus that bears the influence of his eternal memory.
File Under: Metal
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Gigi Masin: Plays Venezia (13) LP/CS
An exquisite new expanded edit of Gigi Masin’s venetian nocturne, an highly intimate, impressionistic soundtrack to Venice at night. Venezia is certain to strike chord with anyone lucky enough to have visited the city, and even if you haven’t, it’s a beautifully evocative set, marrying Masin’s balmy drift of solo keys and chiffon synth pads with absorbing mental imagery of the city’s narrow ginnels softly lit by lone street lamps that mirror the music’s plays of light and shadow.
File Under: Ambient
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Charles Mingus: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (Impulse) LP
The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady is without question Charles Mingus’s magnum opus. Originally released on Impulse! in 1963, the album broke new ground in both genre-defying composition and innovative recording techniques. A six-part suite with dramatic shifts in mood and tempo, The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady features the three-way brass dialogue of trumpets, trombone and tuba, swooping reeds and awe-inspiring rhythm section. Balancing delicate Spanish modes and Ellingtonian themes, the ensemble breaks into a divine cacophony of group improvisation on par with free jazz giants Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor. This all-analog 180g vinyl LP reissue was mastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed at QRP, and comes housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket.
File Under: Jazz, Audiophile
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Monophonics: Last One Standing (Colemine) 7″
An epic part 1 / part 2 soul jam from Monophonics that would make Curtis Mayfield proud!
File Under: Funk
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Moor Mother: Fetish Bones (Don Giovanni) LP
Fetish Bones is the Don Giovanni Records debut of Philadelphia-based musician, artist, and activist, Camae, who performs under the name Moor Mother. The album features 13 songs conceived and recorded in Camae’s home studio using a variety of machines, field recordings, and analog noisemakers. The music is often harsh and strange, projecting both the visceral anger of punk and the expansive improvisatory spirit of Sun Ra. It’s an album intended as a form of protest and also as form of time travel — a collection of sounds that are events themselves, telling stories rich in history about the journey that brings us to today and the future we are creating. Fetish Bones is not an album meant to help you forget. It is made so that you will remember the injustices that we bear witness to and participate in.
File Under: Experimental, Hip Hop, Jazz
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Ben Pirani: More than a Memory (Colemine) 7″
Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production are back with their first single from their newly built studio! Heavy dancefloor vibes with a punk attitude are the order of the day! Dig on Ben’s new composition “More Than A Memory” with lush, soulful string arrangements from Ben and mix engineer Rafferty Swink!
File Under: Funk, Soul
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Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof (Rounder) LP
Raise The Roof finds Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Robert Plant and 27x Grammy-winner Alison Krauss, reunited after some fourteen years, following the historic success of their first collaboration Raising Sand (2007), which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, generated platinum sales, and earned six Grammy Awards including Album and Record of the Year. Like its predecessor, Raise The Roof was produced by T Bone Burnett, who worked with Plant and Krauss to expand their collaboration in thrilling new directions, accompanied by drummer Jay Bellerose, guitarists Marc Ribot, David Hidalgo, Bill Frisell, and Buddy Miller, bassists Dennis Crouch and Viktor Krauss, along with pedal steel guitarist Russ Pahl among others. The album features twelve new recordings of songs by legends and unsung heroes including Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch and more. Other highlights include a Plant-Burnett original, “High and Lonesome,” and the classic “Can’t Let Go,” written by Randy Weeks and first recorded by Lucinda Williams. The songs selected for Raise The Roof alternately reflect deep-rooted influences and new revelations. For his part, Plant was keen to introduce the English folk traditions he has loved since adolescence, while Krauss cites hearing “Quattro (World Drifts In)” by the American group Calexico, as “the moment I knew we’d make another album.” “We wanted it to move,” Krauss continues. “We brought other people in, other personalities within the band, and coming back together again in the studio brought a new intimacy to the harmonies.” Adds Plant: “You hear something and you go ‘Man, listen to that song, we got to sing that song!’ It’s a vacation, really – the perfect place to go that you least expected to find.” Released in 2007, Raising Sand is one of the most beloved and acclaimed albums of the 21st century. In addition to winning all six Grammy Awards for which it was nominated, it also earned a CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year, plus Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year accolades from the Americana Music Honors and Awards. Gatefold 180g vinyl 2LP-set.
File Under: Country, Folk
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Andy Shauf: Wilds (Anti) LP
Canadian musician Andy Shauf pens songs that explore universal truths through picaresque vignettes, from the colorful people-watching observations of 2016’s The Party to the tale of a failed relationship explained over one night at a local watering hole on last year’s The Neon Skyline. But Shauf has never exactly been held up as a confessional sort of songwriter, even though underneath the carefully plotted narratives and conceptual storylines, he’s always been writing about himself. Wilds might change that. A collection of nine songs culled from around fifty tracks recorded by the prolific Shauf during the writing of The Neon Skyline and presented in a near-unfiltered form, the unstudied rawness of the songs on Wilds is a revealing look at Shauf’s mindset during the time he was writing Skyline – what he calls “a glimpse into the window of how chaotic things were” – as well as a peek into the creative process behind a proper Andy Shauf studio album, a snapshot of how the multi-instrumentalist first begins building his songs into more ornately arranged final products.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Sigur Ros: Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust (Krunk) LP
Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust is Sigur Rós’ fifth studio album which was initially released in 2008 via EMI and XL Recordings. It was produced by the band with renowned producer Flood and recorded in New York, London and Havana. The album was written, recorded and toured all within 12 months – a first for the band that often labored for years over their previous records. Completely out of print worldwide Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust is re-released here via the bands own label, Krunk. “Sigur Rós remain in a wonderful universe of their own” (BBC). “Glistening with glacial cool” (Guardian). “The band achieves a new unity in variety here, winding from near-glam romp and fireside-folk warmth to slow-climb grandeur” (Rolling Stone).
File Under: Indie Rock, Ambient
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Tragically Hip: Road Apples: 30th Anniversary (Universal) LP
For the 30th anniversary of Road Apples on October 15, Universal Music Canada will release comprehensive Deluxe CD, Vinyl + Blu-Ray audio box set editions of one of the most iconic albums from The Tragically Hip. Working directly with all members of the band, those who worked behind the scenes, and devoted fans, the 30th anniversary deluxe edition of Road Apples is a deep dive behind the scenes of what made this album one of the most beloved in The Tragically Hip’s deep catalogue.
File Under: Rock
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Tragically Hip: Road Apples: 30th Anniversary BOX (Universal) BOX
Created to mark the 30th anniversary of The Tragically Hip’s second studio album, which became their first record to hit No. 1 in Canada, the Road Apples: 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition was carefully crafted with input from each living member of the band. The outcome is a deep dive behind the scenes of what made this album one of the most beloved in The Tragically Hip’s vast catalog. The expansive deluxe edition is jam-packed with rare and more previously unreleased and never heard before pieces of music chronicling The Tragically Hip’s Road Apples era, including: Road Apples, the original album re-mastered in 2021 by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in Nashville. Saskadelphia, as released earlier in 2021. Live At The Roxy Los Angeles, May 3rd, 1991, originally recorded for a Westwood One radio show, often bootlegged and sought after by fans for many years. It has been re-mastered and expanded and includes the rare “Killer Whale Tank” version of “New Orleans Is Sinking.” This legendary Roxy show is now a double vinyl album. Also, Hoof-Hearted, an album of previously unreleased demos, outtakes, and alternate versions. The vinyl 5LP box set is rounded out with special Dolby Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, and binaural mixes by Richard Chycki of Road Apples and five cuts from Saskadelphia. Included in a 36-page booklet are essays from Bruce Dickinson (who initially signed them to MCA Records in the U.S.), and from producer/engineer Mark Vreeken, both of whom played pivotal roles in The Tragically Hip’s career; reproductions of original handwritten lyrics from Gord Downie’s personal notebooks; never-seen photos from Kingsway Studio recording sessions and the Road Apples era; and a touching tribute to late producer Don Smith, along with further commentary from the band. Recorded in 1990 in New Orleans at Daniel Langlois’ The Kingsway Studio in an old mansion that looms over the French Quarter neighborhood by a group of young men from Kingston, Ontario – singer Gord Downie, guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay – Road Apples was first released in 1991. Guided by producer Don Smith and engineer Bruce Barris, the band created an album that yielded an avalanche of gritty rock ‘n’ roll with a relentless quality to it, like a stream of blues that struggles to be contained. Road Apples contains some of their best-known songs, including “Little Bones,” “Fiddler’s Green,” “Long Time Running,” and “Three Pistols.” The album is now approaching double diamond certified status in Canada.
File Under: Rock, Boxsets
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Whitehorse: Strike Me Down (Six Shooter) LP
Since their debut, Whitehorse has traveled from magnetic folk duo to full-blown rock band and beyond. In truth Whitehorse is never fully either one or the other, but an ever-evolving creative partnership that challenges both artists, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet, to explore new instrumental and lyrical terrain with each record. Steamy, swampy and squalling in equal measure, Whitehorse’s signature sound is guitar-heavy, harmony-abundant and lyrically deft. Now, the JUNO Award winners return with Strike Me Down, a collection of disco-twirling, hard riffing tales from the brink. Strike Me Down showcases Whitehorse’s masterful, fantastical storytelling and melodic pop sensibilities, with plenty of space made for guitar shredding, epic basslines and spaced-out vocal layering. High-impact production and prismatic visuals contribute to Strike Me Down’s high-stakes, epic vibe.
File Under: Country, Pop, Rock
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Various: Essiebons Special 1973 – 1984 (Analog Africa) LP
After opening West Africa’s first record pressing plant in 1967, Essilfie-Bondzie’s Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous – for most of the 1970s – with the best in modern highlife, and his roster was a who’s-who of highlife legends. C.K. Mann, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Kofi Papa Yankson, Ernest Honny, Rob ‘Roy’ Raindorf and Ebo Taylor all released some of their greatest music under the Essiebons banner. Essiebons Special features a selection of obscure workouts from some of the label’s heaviest hitters. But in the course of digitising his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and Inst- rumental masterpieces tracks from the label’s mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those songs are included here for the first time. Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away shortly before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world in his lifetime.
File Under: Afrobeat, Funk, Africa
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Various: Winter Tales (Deutsche Gramophon) LP
Deutsche Grammophon presents Winter Tales – a new seasonal album featuring music from some of the label’s star composers, who were invited to reimagine the music of Christmas and Chanukah, drawing inspiration from their childhoods and homelands. The album comprises 12 very personal responses to that creative challenge, all of which have something fresh and timely to say about winter’s promise of renewal and light’s power over darkness. Featuring Roger Eno & Brian Eno, Balmorheam Vanbur, Hania Rani & Dobrawa Czocher, Ane Brun, Joep Beving, Abbott Peter Gregson, Mari Samuelsen, Víkingur Ólafsson, and Dustin O’Halloran & Bryan Senti.
File Under: Ambient, Classical, Xmas
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…..restocks…..
Amyl & The Sniffers: s/t (ATO) LP
Beatles: Let It Be Special Edition (Capitol) BOX
Birthday Party: Junkyard (Drastic Plastic) LP
Black Mountain: IV (Jagjaguwar) LP
Boygenius: s/t (Matador) LP
JJJJJerome Ellis: The Clearing (NNA Tapes) LP
Fleet Foxes: s/t (Sub Pop) LP
Neal Francis: In Plain Sight (ATO) LP
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: KG (ATO) LP
Azar Lawrence: Summer Solstice (Craft) LP
LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening (DFA) LP
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Low: The Great Destroyer (Sub Pop) LP
Mogwai: Happy Songs for Happy People (PIAS) LP
Mogwai: The Hawk is Howling (PIAS) LP
Ngozi Family: 45,000 Volts (Now Again) LP|
Rugged Nuggets: Odds & Ends (Colemine) LP
Shellac: 1000 Hurts (Touch & Go) LP
Ghedalia Tazartes: Diasporas (Dais) LP
Tragically Hip: Fully Completely (Universal) LP
Tragically Hip: Up To Here (Universal) LP
Kanye West: College Dropout (Universal) LP
Wire: 154 (Pink Flag) LP
Young Gun Silver Fox: West End Coast (Wax Poetics) LP