January 8, 2010

NEW VINYL:

Os Haxixins: self-titled LP

Bad Sports: self-titled LP

Denton, Texas is the equivalent for Douchemaster Records of a bar you can always go into and always expect to get laid afterwards. In this case she's particularly young and hopped up on speed. If you missed the two BAD SPORTS singles from 2008, then you don't know about their major league hooks and their seemingly unchallenged quickness. Bad Sports are a three piece that features DANIEL from WAX MUSEUMS and GREG RUTHERFORD from HIGH TENSION WIRES. ORVILLE just sits around and writes most of the songs. Bad Sports are a bit more playful, but don't be surprised if this record reminds you slightly of The Reds or the first Marked Men LP.

White Wires: self-titled LP

The White Wires are a three piece from Ottawa. This LP was originally released by Going Gaga Records on Novemer 8, 2008 in a quantity of 325 copies. Those of you lucky enough to score a copy before it went out of print were well aware of how urgently this record needed to be available again, and we are flattered to be the people responsible for that. It's a perfect summer time record yet it is just in time for the holiday season for the second consecutive year. The White Wires have found a harmonious balance somewhere between the lands of goofy and cool, and their songs reflect that brilliantly. This LP features nine songs of maximum sing-a-long-ability without a trace of pretense. A couple of listens and you'll be planning imaginary BBQ's with The White Wires as your entertainment and guests of honor.

Beauregarde: self-titled LP

This album omes from what some may perceive to be the most unlikely of influences: psychedelic rock and professional wrestling. The year was 1970, and the Portland-based wrestler Beauregarde was at the height of his career. Known for his loud entrance music, and the even louder three-wheeled motorcycle that would carry him into the ring, he was one of the most genuinely intimidating and charismatic wrestlers of the time. In early 1970, he entered a Portland, OR recording studio with his band and a then-unknown seventeen year-old guitar player. That seventeen-year old would later become punk rock legend and Wipers frontman, Greg Sage. In one afternoon they recorded what would see a limited release as an album, and would be used for Beauregarde's entrance music for the duration of his career. All lyrics and music were written by Beauregarde and, ironically, never mention wrestling at all. His vocal style is passionate and direct, yet never goes overboard. The music features Hendrix-esque guitar solos over rock rhythms and soul drum beats. After being highly sought-after by collectors, we are proud to release these songs back on the vinyl format. With the help of Beauregarde and Greg Sage, the original master tapes were found and used to re-master this limited vinyl release. This LP serves as an important landmark in the worlds of wrestling, Portland's musical history, and psychedelic rock. We hope that you will come to enjoy and understand the importance of this album as we do."

Esquerita: self-titled LP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PooeEcto9qY

Hubble Bubble: self-titled LP

A kick-ass reissue from Belgium/Brussels number one 1970s punk band of all time. HUBBLE BUBBLE were ALAIN "ALAN VON BUR" BUREAU, ROGER "JUNIOR" JOURET, and DANIEL "DEE" MASSART. The band released two singles and two albums in '78 and '79 on Sinus Records. And Jouret went on to fame as new wave pop legend PLASTIC BERTRAND. The band’s debut LP is considered one of the best European Punk records of the era.

Milk n' Cookies: self-titled LP

This is the definitive version of the 1975 Glam-Pop classic! The complete LP on one record and six studio bonus cuts on the second LP. Influenced by Sparks, Roxy Music and Sweet; these Woodmere, Long Island boys were flown out to England to record this masterpiece of star-struck teenage anthems. Released at the wrong time and with barely any record company help, this brilliant record couldn't get a foothold at the time. The time is finally now, with MILK N’ COOKIES popping up as major influences for bands like The Busy Signals, Cheap Time, NoBunny, Baby Shakes and The Pets and recently getting the front cover treatment from pop-obsessed mag Rock Mania. Due to the renewed interest, Radio Heartbeat has pulled out all the stops, going for a deluxe gatefold with an 11”x17” full-color repro of the original promo poster. Mastered for vinyl to perfection by JAMES FLAMES, this thing sounds ridiculously good on new vinyl and the second record spins at 45rpm for maximum fidelity.

Thee Headcoats: Headcoatitude LP

This album can stand alongside the debut recordings of the Downliners Sect and the Pretty Things (not to mention the compiled work of the Liverbirds, so we're talking really, really extreme) as some of the finest primitive rock ever to emerge from England. From the bluesy British Invasion-styled "My Dear Watson," Thee Headcoats engage in a crude but compelling assault on their instruments that's as clever as it is unpretentious — "Hog's Jaw" takes the central riff from Ian Samwell's Brit-rock standard "Move It" and turns it sideways on the opening, while "By Hook or by Crook" could have been the early Who (of "Anytime You Want Me") rehearsing on a good day with a fill-in for Keith Moon, and "It's Gonna Hurt You (More Than It Hurts Me)" is a delightful rewrite/reconception of "All Day and All of the Night," except that it makes the latter song seem overly sophisticated. And "Neither Fish nor Fowl" may be the finest Bo Diddley track that the rock & roll legend himself didn't write or record, and also manages to conjure up echoes of the Rolling Stones' "Please Go Home."

Hex Dispensers: Winchester Mystery House LP

Austin's HEX DISPENSERS are back with their sophomore album, and it pretty much picks up exactly where the previous LP ended. If you've been paying attention over the past few years, you know that the Hex Dispensers are masters in the art of spewing forth short bursts of haunted fury. D~M~R isn't exactly known for it's story tellers, but Winchester Mystery House offers a thematically torturous series of songs concentrating on the horrors of love, life, sailing, skin masks, and the end of it all. The good news is that there are twelve songs, so there is an opportunity to feel satiated. One of those songs being a Devo cover, and another being "My Love is a Bat" from a tour single that most of us on this side of the water didn't get a chance to own.

The Litter: Distortions LP

The Litter: $100 Fine LP

Not all of the garage-punk spirit was gone from the Litter by the time of their second album, when they were moving in a more hard rock and psychedelic direction. It's not on the level of the debut, however, because the material, about half original and half covers, is often unmemorable, and boring at times. "Mindbreaker" moves along in a pretty crunching garage-pop style with guitar that would have fit in with Distortions, and "Morning Sun" is fair California-type psychedelia with those meltdown sustain guitar riffs. Trendy guitar phasing is all over "Kaleidoscope," and things take a down-turn with the blues-rock stomp "Blues One" and a nine-minute cover of "She's Not There.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou: Echos Hypnotiques 2LP

Double vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve with a poster (first 400 copies only) and printed inner sleeves which replicate all of the liner notes from the CD version booklet. Subtitled: From The Vaults Of Albarika Store 1969-1979. Four years in the making, Analog Africa finally presents the highly-anticipated second volume of music from Africa's funkiest band, the mythical Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Volume One (The Vodoun Effect: Funk & Sato from Benin's Obscure Labels, 1973-1975), released by Analog Africa at the end of 2008, was a collection of amazing lo-fi recordings produced for various labels around Benin. Volume Two showcases superbly recorded tracks, courtesy of the EMI studios in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the best studios in the region. All tracks here were recorded for the mighty Albarika Store label and its enigmatic producer, Adissa Seidou. The idea for this compilation was born five years ago when Samy Ben Redjeb, Analog Africa's founder and compiler, first heard the addictive funk track "Malin Kpon O" (included here), which was originally released in 1975 on Albarika Store. That discovery triggered the compiler's curiosity and what followed was a long journey through the musical history of Benin and the history of its most important ambassador, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. The result: approximately 100 pictures, 120 master tapes, 20 hours of interviews and a few hundred Orchestre Poly-Rythmo vinyl records -- 500 songs in total -- some of which previously unreleased. Almost half of those tracks were recorded for Benin's number one label -- Albarika Store. During the period presented here -- 1969 to 1979 -- the mighty Orchestre was without any doubt one of Africa's most innovative groups. Capable of playing any style of music, the band moved from traditional Vodoun rhythms to funk, sato, Latin, sakpata, psychedelia and Afro-Beat seamlessly and quickly became the powerhouse of Benin's music scene. Some of the planet's most exciting rhythms are related to the complex Vodoun religion born in Benin. Those rhythms, supported by chants and dances, have been transmitted from generation to generation and are still being performed to this day, a few hundred years after they were created. The composers and arrangers of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo understood that they were surrounded by a gold mine of inspirational sounds which, if modernized and mixed in with whatever was in fashion at that particular moment, could have a strong impact on the urban population. Those astonishing combinations can be heard here, all mixed into a heavy hypnotic sound -- Les Echos Hypnotiques.

Doug Snyder & Bob Thompson: Daily Dance LP

Daily Dance is a genuinely unique artifact from rural Ohio; a mythical frenzy of distorted guitar and improvised drums creating walls of psychedelic noise. Originally released in 1973, its sound is unparalleled for its time and precedes its closest kin, New York's no-wave explosion, by a solid 5 years. 'They generate waves of energy through cascading feedback squall and drumbo bash and shimmer. A few tracks will start with something vaguely resembling a 'groove,' before they quickly deteriorate into their lonely Buckeye din.' - Dante Carfagna. Cantor Records is proud to make Daily Dance available on vinyl for the first time in 35 years. Daily Dance was remastered from the original tapes, pressed at RTI, and is lavishly packaged with a heavy Stoughton paste-on jacket, informative Obi/U-Card, and an extensive 20-page booklet of liner notes. RIYL: Fushitshusha, Dead C, The Stooges, Velvet Underground.

Bert Jansch: L.A. Turnaround LP+CD

Drag City is 'chuffed' to announce the firsttime release on CD of the three albums Bert Jansch recorded for The Famous Charisma Label in the 1970s: L.A. Turnaround, Santa Barbara Honeymoon and A Rare Conundrum, all of which have been out of print for decades and are among the most sought-after Jansch albums among fans and collectors. For these new releases, Bert Jansch handpicked the bonus material, much of which is previously unreleased. In some cases this material has been unheard by anyone in thirty years, including Bert himself. Bert Jansch was signed to Charisma by label boss Tony Stratton Smith in 1973, the year that Pentangle decided to go their separate ways. L.A. Turnaround appeared in September 1974 to great acclaim, hailed in the press as 'not far off from being the perfect album.' It was produced by former Monkee Mike Nesmith at Stratton Smith's house in the country in Crowbridge, Sussex, and in Los Angeles, and features not only Nesmith on guitar but also pedal steel guitar maestro Red Rhodes, then in Nesmith's group. Rhodes' presence gives the album a unique sound enhancing Bert Jansch's own songwriting and performance skills with his haunting steel guitar. Other tracks on the album were completed by a group including Klaus Voorman on bass and, on certain songs, slide guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and fiddle player Byron Berline, giving this album an authentic L.A. '70s vibe, despite its UK origins. This edition of L.A. Turnaround is also enhanced to include a previously-unseen 13 minute cinema-verité film, made during the recordings at Stratton Smith's Sussex mansion and featuring Bert, Mike Nesmith and Red Rhodes recording and performing four songs including 'Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning.' This charming, informal film -- a wonderful historical document -- also sees everyone chatting, dining and playing billiards at the pub -- brilliantly capturing the atmosphere of the sessions. Each of these new editions is packaged using the original artwork along with contemporary photos, etc." Includes commentaries by Mick Houghton and Tony Stratton Smith. 

Sunburned Hand of the Man: A LP

A is Sunburned's second album with producer Kieran Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet. Directed by Kieran like actors in a film, Sunburned is taken off the bandana smokestage of their previous collaboration -- Fire Escape -- and put onto a sweat-soaked 4am lysergic dance floor. Kieran uses the band like his live instrument laptop and sampler. The results are truly stunning which makes this record into one of the best moments of each artist's respective musical careers. With artwork by California visionary and band favorite Raymond Pettibon, A has looks that kill along with the sounds that thrill." Includes double-sided poster of Pettibon artwork.

Glass Rock: Tall Firs Meet Soft Location LP

Glass Rock is a song, is a band, is a way of life. Glass Rock is the crystallized movement formed by the molten lava makeout of the two bands of the album title: Tall Firs meet Soft Location. It's a werewolf and a rhino on a first-date rampage of Korean Food and poppers, doing the Cabbage Patch on the boardwalk, kissing babies with beer breath, all with truthful love in their hearts. The core elements of the Soft Location sound are Kathy Leisen's haunting voice and boneyard guitar, and Matt Kantor's slo-mo jet fuel bass jamminating. Add Tall Firs: Ryan Sawyer's could-blow-your-pants-off-but-prefer-to-slowly-work-them-over-your-hips drumming and Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan's creamy dual-savant guitar stylings: two dudes who don't even know how the other guy's guitar is tuned but nonetheless have brought the tandem knockout reverb dropkick since 1991. The band actively refuses to discuss influences, even with one another. With two pairs of childhood friends in the band, the music just happens and the listener is left to speculate. The dilettante thinks Chan Marshall or an Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison caught an extra-rad time machine ride and now inhabits every moment from 1955-2013 simultaneously. The serious aficionado is thinking Martha Reeves, Amon Dull II, the Gories, Otis Redding. But Heads know: This thing is wigs, Pepsi commercials, Sam Cooke, hardcore festivals, and free stuff on craigslist. In reality, Glass Rock are a prisonyard football team: a motley collection of wizened lifers, small-time pimps, and the wrongly convicted. Leisen is their Burt Reynolds. A painter on the Outside, she woke up back in the huskau of a recording studio after Awesome Michael ratted her and Kantor out to Ecstatic Peace. In the yard Tall Firs were hanging around bench-pressing twice their body weight. This record documents their crushing and dramatic defeat of the prison guards, and their harrowing escape during the ensuing melee. There is nothing contrived about this band. Neither derivative nor hybridized, GnR II are truly Chimeric. This ain't reference-rock. This is the half man/half shark/half alligator sung of in days of yore, with inflatable Sasquatch feet and one popsicle arm. This thing will get bestial with you on the dancefloor, and will hold you tight on a pre-dawn canoe ride; staring at the stars crying at the wonder and terror of it all.

William Nowik: Pan Symphony in E Minor LP

One of the newest and most surprising discoveries in the '60s & '70s rock rarities field, William Nowik's Pan Symphony In E Minor caused a big hype among collectors. Certainly easy to understand, as it's an ace album no one had heard of before. Guitarist William Nowik recorded this obscure instrumental record back in 1974 somewhere in New York. It has such a deep feeling, and is nothing anyone could have done without really loving it aside of any commercial view. Psychedelic, progressive, very early Floyd-sounding at times, Crimson-esque, and a kind of sound that reminds of the early '70s British underground but with an experimental, trippy touch. Fourteen tracks in total, but played like suites. Seems only 200 copies were pressed and never distributed, so it needed 35 years to be discovered! This wonderful reissue comes with the intended original artwork (it came out in a green and black cover instead of the black and white that William wanted), has nice remastered sound and includes an insert with rare, unseen photos and extended liner-notes. 

Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro: self-titled LP

Jazzman Records makes way for a neat dose of super-duper, hard 'n heavy funk from Japan -- it's the debut UK album from Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro. Although these funk sides were recorded over a year ago, the reserved nature of the Japanese music scene has kept MMK recordings hidden from the ravenous ears of funk fans around the world. That's until Jazzman Gerald & Fryer went on a DJ trip to Tokyo recently where they stumbled across an MMK album -- an amazing secret privy only to the ears of Japan's burgeoning funk scene. They instantly knew they had hit upon something big, and the wheels were set in motion and a deal was struck. Jazzman has already excited funk fans the world over with their many superb deep funk reissues, but none yet has caused such excitement as the incredibly dope, Japan-themed, super-size, big-hole white vinyl 10" single that's just been released, taken from this very album. And now's the time for that album to be unleashed upon the world -- you get no less than 14 proper-good, original, hardcore, deep-funk party bangers on one album!

Old Yeller & the Pigbites: Songs for Nadine LP

Milva Son is pleased to present the first appearance of Bob Frankford on vinyl (along with the simultaneously released track on the label sampler 7"). Other than a handful of pseudonymous cassette micropressings leaked out over the past quarter century, Bob's vision has been, shall we say, strictly personal. In Bob's words: 'At the time, I was deeply immersed in the Basement Tapes, especially the classic boot on Surprise Records, (which still has the best track sequencing of all the various incarnations). I just wanted to sing and play songs like that. And I wanted to be all of the original members of the Dead. I was living in a closet (literally) in an apartment behind the Nottingham co-op in Madison, eating tomato soup and crackers every other day and paying rent with sheets of this ridiculous green gel. My roommate had a dual cassette deck with a mic input. My dad had a cheap classical guitar that I knew he hadn't played for years so I 'borrowed' it and taught myself how to play. I scotch-taped a radio shack microphone to the body and bounced the tracks from one cassette to the other with the microphone input turned on. Some strange things happened, sometimes by accident.' So says Bob, and we are inclined to agree. Some strange things did happen, but perhaps nothing quite so strange as seeing these songs and 'experiments with feedback' made available in the permanent format. The beginning of a long journey, retraced. 300 copies pressed, color printed lyric insert.

Bad Drumlin Grass: Live at Timber Cove LP

The third full length album by 'The Grass,' following 2007's Invigorating Scent LP and the Birth/Death CDR from 2006. Timber Cove is the name of a Pacific Coast outlook off Highway 1, near Jenner, north of Gualala. The mysterious duo's synthesizers, pedals, guitars and amps were taken to the foot of Benny Bufano's legendary sculpture, 'The Expanding Universe,' an 80-foot tall missile-shaped cement monument decorated in mosaic with images of benevolent aliens. Thereafter, the equipment -- and the audience -- was turned on. The first track on the LP, mastered in glorious mono at 45 rpm for maximum impact, transposes Bufano's vision into sound, an analog anthem from deep space designed to inspire sperm whales and giant squid alike to lay down their weapons and fight no more. The small audience (of European tourists?) appears to have been moved. The entirety of side B (33 rpm, wide stereo) consists of 'DMT Elf Blues.' Amidst a disquieting drone accompanied by a languid guitar, the damaged laughter of a clown skull is irregularly audible until ultimately vanquished by plucked strings wafting in from the East. All that remains is a pair of felt boots, a cicada, a whipporwill, and a distant echo. Is this the first businessman's trip to end up in a regional wilderness? We doubt it, but only because we've previously woken in places where we never expected to be unconscious. 300 copies, color sleeves, color insert.

Tom Ardolino: Unknown Brain LP

Teenage home recordings of NRBQ's Tom Ardolino from 1971. "I made these tapes in my basement... I was 17, still two years away from joining NRBQ..... I had some friends who would come to the basement at night and we would smoke and listen to records. They would leave around midnight and I would start to record one track over another using the (Kenwood reel to reel) recorder's Sound On Sound feature. I would add drums the next day.... Sometimes I would try to do songs that I just felt like doing (like the Nutty Squirrels' 'Zowee'...) but usually things were just made up. I would just kind of hear things in my head and just try to go for it... I never thought these tapes would be heard by anyone except for a few friends. WARNING: If out-of-tuneness bothers you, do not listen." Numbered edition of 500, each with unique silkscreened cover.

Rev. Johnny L. Jones: Jesus Christ from A to Z LP

Before the Rev. Johnny L. Jones earned the nickname "Hurricane" for whipping sermons into a frenzy, before he recorded a string of gospel LPs for Jewel Records, before his church in Atlanta's West End burned in 1973, and long before his records started showing up again in thrift stores to be discovered and bought by a younger generation, Johnny Jones was just a young boy sitting at a tent revival in Marion, Ala. The year was 1949. "I can't think of the man's name, but he played piano and sang," Jones says. "I guess the audience went wild along with me and I sat back there watching him. At 13 my prayer was, 'Lord, let me play a piano just like he's playing it.'" Called to preach at the young age of 19, Jones preached at country revivals and around LaGrange before settling in as pastor at Second Mount Olive Baptist Church in Atlanta. At the small church on Maple Street in the late '50s, Jones started recording the songs and sermon of each Sunday service on reel-to-reel tape. Jones says that Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in the neighborhood at the time. Jones started his recording career by putting out his own debut, an LP titled Working For God, financed with cash borrowed from his father. His third self-released LP, Jesus Is In Town, caught the ear of Stan Lewis at Jewel Records. The Louisiana-based record label -- "the largest Gospel one-stop in the business," according to Billboard magazine around that time -- re-released Jesus Is in Town in 1969 and continued releasing Jones' records throughout the '70s. Jones earned such a reputation for building up his sermons from slow teaching into a frenzied power that a local radio DJ started calling him "The Hurricane." Though Jones' congregation quickly outgrew the Maple Street location and moved to a church on Westhaven Drive, a fire that broke out during service on Dec. 9, 1973 stopped Second Mount Olive Baptist from growing larger. Jones says that during the peak, Mount Olive was drawing 1,500 people on a regular Sunday, but the fire almost immediately diminished that to a few hundred congregants. Jewel released Jones' last album in 1978. In the years since, those records have gone out-of-print, eventually circulating into used bins and thrift stores where they've been picked up by younger listeners unfamiliar with Jones or his church. Since being introduced by Cole Alexander of the Black Lips, Dust-to-Digital founder Lance Ledbetter and Jones have worked together, listening to the vast archive of recordings that Jones has never released. Together, they've culled those tapes into Jones' first LP in 31 years, Jesus Christ From A To Z. The collected recordings are striking, loose documents of that Hurricane style: soaring organs, screaming congregants and Jones leading it all in his distinctive moan. The Methodist theologian John Wesley once asked, "Why should the devil have all the good music?" Today, the Rev. Johnny L. Jones is proof that he doesn't.

USED STUFF: 

rock:

dust: hard attack

sir lord baltimore: kingdom come

amon duul 2: hijack

eton crop: yes please bob

iron butterfly: live

ear trumpet: bring on the dirt (with b.c. gilbert of wire)

flying lizards: self-titled

flying lizards: money 12"

love: reel to real

white plains: my baby loves lovin'

delbert & glen: self-titled

polyrock: self-titled

popular history of signs: ladder jack 12"

jfa: nowhere blossoms

rude buddha: blister my paint

vapors: magnets

biff bang pow: oblivion (creation label head alan mcgee's band)

tony kosinic: bad girl songs

killing joke: what's this for...!

rasa: everything you see is me

tracy nelson: sweet soul music

the jam: celluloid heroes (bbc recordings, live tracks)

the rainbow band: self-titled (spiritual hippie stuff on elektra)

head of david: LP (godflesh/jesu/napalm death members)

danielle dax: inky bloaters

danielle dax: jesus egg that wept

nrbq: self-titled

earthquake: self-titled

yo: charm world

yankees: self-titled (nice private power-pop album)

mark ashton: self-titled

mama cass: dream a little dream

john lodge: natural avenue

the heaters: self-titled

pigbag: dr. heckyle and mr. jive

malcolm mclaren: duck rock (with double dutch & buffalo gals)

radioblue: warehouse (local band)

the expression: self-titled

the weirz: imagination 12"

g. moroder/paul engeman: shannon's eyes 12"

dream syndicate: days of wine and roses

rudimentary peni: the e.p.s of r.p.

deee-lite: groove is in the heart 12"

iron butterfly: in-a-gadda-da-vida

spirit: feedback

family: anyway

pretty things: cross talk

jack bruce: songs for a tailor (real nice copy)

dewey martin and medicine ball: self-titled (buffalo springfield member)

barry goldberg: and friends (live album with mike bloomberg and harvey mandel)

nervus rex: self-titled

minutemen: buzz or howl under the influence of heat (later pressing)

minutemen: ballot result (later pressing)

minutemen: double nickels on the dime (later pressing)

red monkey: difficult is easy

camper van beethoven: out beloved revolutionary sweetheart

mecca normal: water cuts my hands

jazz:

ahmad jamal: jamalca

junior walker: blow this house down

eddie harris: is it in

ira sullivan: horizons

gary burton/chick corea: duet

art blakey & the jazz messengers: backgammon

dollar brand: voice of africa

jimmy madison: bumps on a smooth surface

weather report: i sing the body electric

weather report: self-titled

fats navarro: featured with the tadd dameron band

bill evans: new jazz conceptions (OJC)

bill evans trio: quiet now (UK)

herbie hancock: thrust

revolutionary ensemble: the people's republic

terje rypdal: what comes after

houston person: goodness!

jaco pastorius: self-titled

keith jarrett: mysteries

joe thomas: masada

stanley turrentine: the look of love

shirley scott trio: great scott!! (impulse)

jimmy mcgriff: flyin' time

gil fuller & the monterey jazz festival orchestra: featuring dizzy gillespie

duke ellington: the duke at tanglewood

duke ellington: the popular...

phillip upchurch: darkness, darkness

jimmy smith: got my mojo workin'

archie shepp: further fire music

houston person: get out'a my way

eddie harris: how can you live like that?

count basie and his sextet: the swinging count! (clef)

enrico rava quartet: self-titled

marion brown: vista

oscar peterson trio & singers unlimited: in tune

donald byrd: stepping into tomorrow (super clean copy)

steve lacy sextet: the condor

bill evans: the tokyo concert (fantasy pressing)

bill evans: new conversations

funk/soul/disco:

fonzi thornton: the leader

lou rawls: all things in time

lou rawls: shades of blue

lou rawls: let me be good to you

lou rawls: carryin' on

lou rawls: that's lou

sam & dave: soul men

otis redding: otis blue/sings soul (really nice stereo copy)

side effect: after the rain

hues corporation: love corporation

el chicano: cinco

marvin gaye: in our lifetime

gene chandler: situation

jerry butler: suite for the single girl

bernard edwards: glad to be here

john & arthur simms: self-titled

leroy gomez: got it bad

howard johnson: keepin' love new

commodores: caught in the act

commodores: movin' on

norman connors: presents aquarian dream

graham central station: release yourself

graham central station: ain't no 'bout-a-doubt it

buddy miles: more miles per gallon

war: platinum jazz

brothers johnson: right on time (with strawberry letter 23)

aretha franklin: sparkle

masekela: i am not afraid

masekela: colonial man

blackbyrds: flying start

b.t. express: do it 'til you're satisfied

ohio players: honey

curtis mayfield: heartbeat

the mar-keys/booker t. and the mgs: back to back

james brown and his famous flames: live at the apollo volume II part 2 (rhino)

esther phillips: confessin' the blues

esther phillips: performance

esther phillips: black-eyed blues

esther phillips: from a whisper to a scream

esther phillips: alone again, naturally

country/folk/gospel/blues:

dillards: pickin' and fiddlin'

dillards: copperfields

bluegrass connection: bluegrass francais

norman blake: the fields of november

norman blake: home in sulpher springs

willie nelson: stardust

flatt & scruggs: original foggy mountain breakdown

chapparal brothers: introducing...

mason williams: fresh fish

chet atkins: superpickers

bluegrass specials: the train i ride (german)

ralph stanley & the clinch mountain boys cry from the cross

jimmy driftwood: best of (sealed)

osbourne brothers: up this hill and down

the fast flying vestibule: union station (local band)

dillard hartford dillard: self-titled (1977)

buffy saint marie: she used to wanna be a ballerina (produced by j. nitzsche, w. neil young & crazy horse)

burl ives: the times they are a-changin'

various artists: philadelphia folk festival (dave van ronk, odetta, n. blake...)

dave guard & the whiskeyhill singers: self-titled

theodore bikel: from bondage to freedom

theodore bikel: young man and a maid

theodore bikel: a folksinger's choice

theodore bikel: harvest of israeli folksongs

theo bikel: a new day (theodore gets hip with covers of donovan, stones, beatles...)

pennywhistlers: songs from everywhere

oscar brand: bawdy songs and backroom ballads

pete seeger: rainbow race

tom rush: take a little walk with me

john koerner/tony glover/dave ray: lots more blues rags, and hollers

john koerner & willie murphy: running, jumping, standing still

fairport convention: angel delight

chicago/the blues/today volume 1

willie dixon: catalyst

mississippi fred mcdowell: i do not play no rock 'n' roll

country music and bluegrass at newport (1963)

the story of the blues 2LP

charles walker and the new york city blues band: blues from the apple

johnny cash: a thing called love

jim kweskin & the jug band: jug band music

the dillards: back porch bluegrass

rusty wier: stoned, slow, rugged

rusty wier: self-titled

waylon jennings: ruby don't take your love to town

waylon jennings: the one and only

loretta lynn: you ain't woman enough

soundtracks:

trial of billy jack

shoes of the fisherman

three tough guys

shaft

sound of silents; music for silent film classics

married to the mob

a clockwork orange (2 different versions)

theme used in the motion picture z 

December 4, 2009

NEW VINYL:
 
Alex Bleeker and the Freaks: self-titled LP
Alex Bleeker & The Freaks self titled album was recorded live on June 11th, 2009. The bulk of the session took place in the basement of Julian's childhood home, in Ridgewood, NJ. The group consists of Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Matt Mondanile (Real Estate, Ducktails), Martin Courtney IV (Real Estate) and Julian Lynch. Some of the songs mirror the boys collective disposition, that of a gentle and warm young man. Others however, invite the listener in for a glimpse at that same boy's restless, virile soul. A sensitive type may describe it all as Raw, Live, Honest Rock and Roll with Heart. Alex Bleeker & The Freaks have been friends since High School and as healthy, red blooded American men so often choose to do, they've channeled their romantic energies into an electrified musical powerhouse. It's as classic and genuine as an adolescents Playboy collection or a fat, bald man in a Red Corvette. The Great American Rock Band captures our collective enthusiasm for life's appropriate deviances. As wiling as we all are to allow ourselves to slip into this nostalgic mindset, it is the rare band that actually forces warmth over our chests and sheepish grins around our tongues. in one breath, chords that rain like clouds of arrows accompany beignet guitar solos. While in another, Loose snares and haunted vocals, drift forward through hazy fields. Alex Bleeker & The Freaks encompass a large swatch of genuine article Rock and Roll. The band is uniquely tailored to everyone.
 
Flaming Lips: Embryonic 2LP/CD
http://www.nme.com/video/bcid/49582897001
 
Girls at Dawn: self-titled LP
http://www.myspace.com/thegirlsatdawn
 
Spectre Folk: Compass, Blanket, Lantern, Mojo LP
For an out-of-it fogie like myself, it's tough to keep up with the many musical hats our boy Peter Nolan sports. There's of course The Magik Markers and then there's Lil Dusty, Spectre Flux, Spectre Folk, Folk Spectre, Cops, etc. I gotta admit I sorta lost the thread on Petes' musical output for awhile there due to the simple fact I couldn't keep up with it all. My chrome dome would literally throb with all the names and phony catalogue numbers that must accompany all these sound whims that must fly off his ginger head like bats from a belfry. Luckily, I put down the Brupenex long enough to catch up with Compass, Blanket, Lantern, Mojo, Nolans' latest expulsion under his Spectre Folk moniker. As expected, the album reeks of the musty homespun psychedelic scent that would make both Al Simones and Uncle Neil Young red as a beet. The tunes are hazy with hope and bobbing audio to spare. Seagulls or rusty bedsprings sound off in the crackly distance on one track and I get a salty taste in my mouth like I licked the third pier boardwalk in Wildwood circa '79. And check out the track 'Burning Bridge' where Petes' voice soars and wavers like a wounded dove flying to the safety of a clean cage and the awaiting name of 'Walter.' The whole thing is a gorgeous, fully conscious stumble into a self made sunset and it just reminds me of something someone never said to me 'It's not over until you declare everyone a loser and paint yourself in a corner'.
 
Sex Worker: Labor of Love LP
Still waters run deep but wild waters run deeper. Both when fronting San Fran free-punk body-music trio Mi Ami or performing angst-dance psycho-dramas under his solo alias, Sex Worker, Daniel Martin-McCormick always succeeds in generating total motion (and emotion) and breaking the fourth wall. His vision of tranced/anguished rhythm questing hits an apex on The Labor Of Love, his LP debut under the Sex Worker guise, and we've been soaking in its dark arts for months. Pulsing, lo-fi kraut electronics bubble and sputter under hazy arcs of weirdo vocal smear. Escapist disco drum machines cruise into the horizon under a canopy of dubby accents and FX percussion, sometimes peaking in harsh frenzies of echo-scream meltdowns. All three pieces function as anthems or elegies or protest songs articulating Daniel's heavy anti-sex trafficking/enslaved bodies activist agenda but you don't have to know the depths of the ethical framework to grasp the vibe. An intensely unique and hyper-personal statement from one of our favorite West Coast music-dreamers. Black vinyl LPs in jackets designed by the artist.
 
Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981 5LP Box
Deluxe 5LP box version containing 2 exclusive tracks not available on CD or digital download, plus two tracks previously only available on the CD version of Ghana Soundz. Includes a large, high-quality 12-page booklet stuffed with rare photos, label scans and a detailed history of the period. Compiler and label boss Miles Cleret travelled many times to Ghana to track down these long-lost and unavailable recordings. Ghana Special focuses on a variety of the vast number of diverse musical styles made in Ghana at that time -- a selection of 37 tracks hand-picked from a multitude uncovered over nearly 10 years of on-going research: driving around the cities of Ghana, banging on musician's doors, visiting distributors, DJs, collectors, manufacturers and shop owners.
 
Dr. Boogie Presents Heavy Jelly: Essential Istrumentals LP
This is the fifth volume in Sub Rosa's collection devoted to rare and lost recordings from the '20s to the '60s, following Dr. Boogie Presents Rarities from the Bob Hite Vaults (SR 271CD/LP), Oh, Run Into Me, But Don't Hurt Me! Female Blues Singers -- Rarities 1923-1930 (SR 268CD/LP), Shim Sham Shimmy (SR 279CD/LP), and Dr. Boogie Presents 26 Deranged And Smokin' Cool Cats (SR 286CD/LP). This time around, musicologist and radio personality Walter De Paduwa aka Dr. Boogie has assembled a collection of hot-shot instrumentals culled from the original 45s -- tunes mainly dominated by a sax and organ, and always backed by a strong rhythm section. The first half of the '60s was a perfect test ground for whoever wanted to make a record for a fistful of dollars. The 45 rpm was king, and among the other genres of the day, instrumentals occupied a sizeable chunk of production. The best-known instrumentals came from California in the late '50s, thanks to the surfers who quickly adopted a new guitar sound from Texas. Simultaneously, all over the United States bands started recording lots of diverse and surprising instrumental tracks. They did so for various reasons: lack of a good singer, as filler for a B-side, or for a shot at the charts with a different, jukebox-ready mix of an already-released song. The mark of a good instrumental was often a gimmick, i.e. that little something -- a riff, an intro, a repetitive chord -- that would act as the piece's signature item. The tracks here were shamelessly designed for no other reason than to fill up the dancefloor, to great effect. 
 
Moebius Plank Neumeier: Zero Set LP
In 1983, Dieter Moebius (Cluster) and legendary producer Conny Plank teamed up for the third time, resulting in the Zero Set project, originally released on Sky Records. On this occasion, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Moebius had gotten to know and admire him as the live drummer for Harmonia (Moebius, Roedelius, Rother) and during the recording sessions for their second album (Deluxe). Plank, usually more of a background figure as producer, takes an equal share of the limelight alongside the musicians. His supermodern studio is brought into play like an instrument in its own right; Plank explores the full range of audio editing, pushing recording techniques to the limit to achieve maximum brilliance and plasticity. Neumeier uses all of his many years of experience as a drummer, demonstrating the precision and stamina of a drum machine, just infinitely livelier and more inventive. And finally, to Moebius: always one of the patriarchs of German electronic music, a creator of the most bizarre sound happenings, yet never sounding forced or arbitrary. On the contrary, he consistently worked within the context of the tracks themselves and their relationship to each other. The music on Zero Set flows both smoothly and energetically. No single idea is overplayed, and none of the tracks hits the 10-minute mark. Aural and musical structures are concentrated to the point of askesis, yet there is no mistaking just how much the musicians are relishing playing together -- these are the two very different, yet defining characteristics of the album. The trio is unsentimental in their use of technology, exploiting it as an effective tool in pursuit of their musical vision. Moebius Plank Neumeir are three musicians at the top of their game and far too smart to allow their efforts to drift into psychedelic meanderings. Infectious, tribal motorik rhythms chunder along to dark synth squelches and squeals, that all feels exquisitely-placed with factory-precision. An important and mystifying chapter in the legacy of Krautrock/Kosmische Musik and a historic moment in German electronic music. "Recall" features Sudanese vocals by Deuka. 
 
Moebius: Tonspuren LP
This is the first solo album by Dieter Moebius, recorded at Conny Plank's studio and originally released in 1983 on Sky Records. By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, while Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes of Brian Eno and Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru. Somehow, it took Moebius until 1983 to release his own solo debut album. Tonspuren is an album of minimalisms, miniatures and stringent form -- 10 consistently concise and precise pieces. Moebius develops tonal variations out of minimalistic, rhythmic, harmonic basic tracks, sometimes coming close to tangible melodies. Yet this is exactly the point at which he purposely steers clear of electronic pop criteria. Nevertheless, Tonspuren is a pop album, its radically stripped-down contents replenished with harmonious elements of prevalent popular music. Echoes of Cluster notwithstanding, the music of Tonspuren is a separate entity altogether. Moebius seems to be avoiding improvisation as the devil keeps his distance from holy water. Each piece is thoughtfully composed, as Moebius crafts his miniatures layer by layer. Spontaneous inaccuracies have no place here; noise escapades are nipped in the bud. Baroque, folklore and frivolity are not admitted into the studio when the red light is on. Thanks to Tonspuren, the keen listener now has the opportunity of direct comparison in his appraisal of the solo albums of Moebius, Roedelius and Rother. Tonspuren thus represents a vital piece of the Harmonia puzzle. Full color inner sleeve with liner notes by Asmus Tietchens. 
 
Bob Desper: New Sounds LP
If you haven't heard Bob Desper's New Sounds yet, you may have heard something about it. Originally recorded in 1974, New Sounds is considered to be one of the Pacific Northwest's best-kept secrets, a regional Holy Grail with copies fetching upwards of $1000. Until recently, not much was known about this mysterious blind folk-singer from Oregon. In 2007, Discourage Records located Bob Desper, alive and well, living in Albany, Oregon. After two years of culling materials, Discourage Records is proud and honored to officially reissue this once lost masterpiece. Evoking the melancholy mood of Nick Drake, the fluid improvisation of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, and the intricate instrumentation of Jose Gonzales, New Sounds' dark, meditative urgency immediately transcends the thirty-five years marking its original release. This official reissue of New Sounds includes Bob Desper's 1972 debut 7", Dry Up Those Tears (including picture sleeve); an 11 x 17 insert with extensive liner notes and full color photos; and 1970s style tip-on sleeve.
 
Schibbinz: Livin' Free LP
In 1967, a bunch of U.S. and Argentinean kids recorded a magical album which has remained unknown for many years due to its extreme rarity, with less than a handful of copies known to exist. Released in 1968 in Argentina by a label called Phonexa, the Schibbinz album could be regarded as the ultimate teen garage folk-rock album, ever. An album of fragile beauty, full of teen charm, innocent vocals, jangly guitars, charming, lo-fi sound and a lost-in-time atmosphere. It has the look and sound that can only be found on some U.S. '60s private-pressings like Rising Storm or Summer Sounds, but Schibbinz' music is something else. Guerssen Records is proud to present this wonderful and mega-rare vinyl album to the world, with the production fully benefitting from the band's involvement and assistance. The original master tapes were lost, but the sound has been carefully-remastered from an original near-mint copy. Extensive, detailed liner-notes and lots of cool pictures from the band's archives are all included in a 4-page insert.
 
Pyramids: Lalibela LP
'We were playing music to burst out of our bodies. Extremely free! Extremely intense!' -- Idrissa Ackamoor. The Pyramids came together in the feverish expat climate of Paris & Amsterdam in 1971 where the three Antioch classmates -- Idrissa Ackamoor, Margo Ackamoor and Kimathi Asante -- hooked up with drummer Donald Robinson and began to flesh out their own brand of musical freedom, but it was the subsequent pilgrimage back to Africa that proved to be the young musicians' creative awakening & truly set their brand of spiritual jazz apart from the pack. Cut just months after their return to Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1973 with kindred players jumping in on the session, Lalibela is an urgent, beautiful & massive two track suite of propulsive Afrodelic cosmic earth groove. Exact repro of the ultra-rare private issue LP on the band's Pyramid Records label. Remastered from the original source tapes. 180 gram virgin vinyl pressing."
 
Pyramids: King of Kings LP
'There were spirits in that recording studio! I remember a feeling of spiritual strength while we were recording! Images and sounds reverberating off the walls!' - Idris Ackamoor. Though only a year had passed in the time between the fierce abandon of Lalibela and 1974's King Of Kings, it signaled a monumental shift for the band. By 1974, the core Pyramids continued their musical odyssey with their Lalibela collaborators -- percussionists Hekaptah, Marcel Lytle and saxophonist Masai -- while welcoming drummer-in-exile Donald Robinson back to the Pyramids' Midwestern American family. Inspired, the group set to shape a set of compositions that most fully realized -- in form, feel & reflection -- their African passage. On a spring day in 1974, the Pyramids went into a remote 16-track studio called Appalachia Sound Recording hours from Antioch in Chillicothe, Ohio -- the site of ancient native Indian burial mounds -- and, with no less intensity than before, cut a warm and infectious spiritual jazz masterpiece -- King of Kings -- in a day and headed back to Antioch that night. Exact repro of the ultra-rare private issue LP on the band's Pyramid Records label. Remastered from the original source tapes. 180 gram virgin vinyl pressing.
 
Pyramids: Birth/Speed/Merging LP
A psychedelic Afrojazz stunner that capped off a feverish diaspora from the Midwest to the Bay Area by way of Africa. Cut in 1975, Birth/Speed/Merging was the band's highest end production to date and their final recorded act. The mood was celebratory, carnivalesque and wholly in the groove. Features the burning classic 'Black Man & Woman Of The Nile.' Remastered from the original source tapes. 180 gram virgin vinyl pressing.
 
Herman's Rocket: Space Woman LP
Commissioned by Italian producer Mémé Ibach (Karen Cheryl), Herman's Rocket was created in 1977 by Jean-Pierre Massiera and his half brother Bernard Torelli. The goal was to surf on the space disco trend, using sci-fi themes and intergalactic grooves. 'For Herman's Rocket and Venus Gang, the tracks were composed with mixes of delirious voices and moogs. Musicians and singers improvised totally. Afterward I added 'theme' gimmicks and different mixes keeping it fresh and unplanned.' -- Massiera
 
Topaz Rags: Capricorn Born Again LP
Grey clouds stay grey. Low light situations birth low-lit moods. It's all bummer clockwork. West Coast lurk-jazz triad Topaz Rags return to vinyl with their debut long player, Capricorn Born Again, an eight-song comedown recorded/mixed from spring-to-fall of '09 via a complex 4-track/boombox assemblage method. Everything creaks and hisses, there's smoke in the air, players at the end of their ropes, lyrics washing over faded raga ballads, slinky electric piano bar depressions, shadow gauze cavern pop. The bell jar is half empty, obviously. Slowdive and sink in. Black wax LPs (mastered by Pete Swanson) in jackets designed by Amanda.
 
Steve Reid: Odyssey of the Oblong Square LP
Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing this rarest release of deep heavyweight jazz by Steve Reid and The Master Brotherhood, entitled Odyssey Of The Oblong Square available for the first-time since its original release over thirty years ago on Steve Reid's own Mustevic Sound record label (where it came out in an edition of 1000 copies) and has been a serious collectors album ever since. Steve Reid is now known worldwide for his radical collaborations with Kieren Hebden on Domino Records. Nova, Rhythmatism and Odyssey of The Oblong Square are his amazing first albums recorded in the early 1970s -- all now serious collector's albums! Steve Reid is steeped in musical history and a true pioneer of US deep left-field jazz. He played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer and backed James Brown at the Apollo! He was a Black Panther, imprisoned during the Vietnam war as a conscientious objector and lived in Africa in the early 1970s. Steve Reid has also worked with Freddie Hubbard, Gary Bartz, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Fela Kuti, Leon Thomas, Miles Davis and many more. 'Reflects the spirit of a generation- Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, the Black Artists Group.' -- The Wire. This is the first album to be reissued in a series of super-rare deep jazz releases on Universal Sound, which feature in the book and CD on Soul Jazz Records, Freedom Rhythm & Sound."
 
Wax Poetics: Issue #38 (the Soundtrack issue)
On the covers, front: Curtis Mayfield, back: Ralph Bakshi. Contents: Editor's Letter, Re:Discovery, In Memoriam, Shadows And Phonographs, Brotherman, Can You Dig It?, Adrian Younge, 80 Blocks From Tiffany's, Light On The South Side, David Holmes, Library Music, Iceberg Slim, Ralph Bakshi, Curtis Mayfield, Spike Lee, Scott Sanders, Analog Out.
 
 

USED VINYL:
 
rock:
leonard cohen: songs of
blind faith: self-titled (band cover)
rolling stones: between the buttons (later pressing)
them: the collection (2LP)
ruthann friedman: constant companion
go-betweens: 16 lovers lane
nico: drama of exile
novalis: wer schmetterlinge lachen hort (sky records)
ramses: light fantastic (sky records)
renaissance: illusion (w. keith relf)
bruce springsteen: greetings from asbury park
paul simon: rhythm of the saints
pacheco & alexander: self-titled
noah: peaceman's farm
flying island: self-titled
dusty chaps: domino joe
dd smash: the optimist
skeletal family: futile combat
pierce turner: the sky and the ground
mandalaband: self-titled
bruce mann: the ormstown fair affair
pete kennedy: bound for glory
elliott murphy: affairs
l.a. express: shadow play (joni mitchell's backing band, on brother records)
judy & david: friends
sudden sway: '76 kids forever
yukihiro takahashi: wild & moody (YMO & sadistic mika band)
23 skinner: stretchheads 12" (blast first, 23 skidoo related??)
jeff thornley: locked inside
howdy moon: self-titled (lowell george)
matthew herbert big band: goodbye swingtime
jennifer o'connor: over the mountain, across the valler and back to the stars
tommy roe: it's now winters day (c. boettcher, perfect wintertime album)
pezband: laughing in the dark
ohio express: self-titled
kenny o'dell: beautiful people (sunshine pop on white whale)
crackpot: the wrong party
vitapup: an hour with... (candy-ass records)
three johns: never and always 12" (adrian sherwood)
three johns: brainbox 12"
telex: neurovision
trio: trio and error
slow children: self-titled (w. spring in fialta)
sonny & cher and friends: baby don't go (with the blendells)
kimberley rew: the bible of bob (w. soft boys, dbs, waves)
darkel: self-titled (jb dunckel of air)
apple pie motherhood band: self-titled
elo: out of the blue
holy cow: suggested reading/apocolypse wow
nazz: III (rhino pressing)
jimi hendrix: my best friend (german bootleg)
jimi hendrix: welcom home (german bootleg)
jimi hendrix: early (live from '65)
material: american songs
steve howe: self-titled
brian auger's oblivion express: self-titled
brian auger's oblivion express: reinforcements
brian auger's oblivion express: live oblivion vol. 2
dan hicks: it happened one bite (music from an unreleased ralph bakshi film)
masha qrella: unsolved remained
the third eye foundation: little lost soul
david santo: silver currents

jazz:
herbie hancock: the prisoner (liberty pressing)
ivan boogallo jones: snake rhythm rock (prestige, WLP)
johnny hammond: storm warning
dexter gordon: one flight up (70's pressing)
art pepper: omega man
world saxophone quartet: rhythm & blues
world saxophone quartet: dances & ballads
freddie hubbard: ready for freddie (liberty pressing)
ornette coleman: crisis (impulse)
ornette coleman: dancing in your head
lucky thompson: i offer you
neal creque: creque (cobblestone)
ramsey lewis trio: upendo ni pamoja
mahavishnu orchestra: birds of fire
airto: i'm fine how are you?
pete jolly: give a damn
stanley turrentine: nightwings
paul horn: inside II (he plays flute to a killer whale!)
chuck mangione quartet: self-titled
cannonball adderley: the price you got to pay to be free
joe castro: groove funk soul (mono, atlantic black label)
henry threadgill sextet: you know the number
sil austin: sil and the silver screen

funk/soul/disco:
moe koffman: moe's curried soul
mandrill: just outside
mandrill: solid
andy bey: experience and judgement
dramatics: dramatically yours
harvey mason: marchin'
aretha franklin: live at the fillmore east
delegation: promise of love
various artists: new orleans ladies
marvin gaye: i want you
quazar: self-titled
willie mitchell: hold it!!!
nino tempo & 5th avenue band: come up and see...
lenny white: astral pirates
bloodstone: unreal
temptations: in a mellow mood
stevie wonder: music of my mind
minne riperton: young willing and able/stick together 12"
roy ayers: running away promo 12"
war: all day music
brick: dusic/fun 12"
kelly marie: run to me 12" (vanguard)
marvin hamlisch: bond '77/james bond theme 12"
pete brown: do you wanna get funky with me 12"
lowrell: overdose of love/smooth and wild 12" (avi)
earthquire: self-titled (natural resources)
dennis coffey: back home
space: magic fly
don armando's 2nd ave. rhumba band: self-titled
apollonia 6: self-titled (with poster!)
bt express: greatest hits
instant funk: self-titled
instant funk: looks so fine
various artists: steppin' out (chakachas, bionic boogie, roy ayers, fatback band, trax...)
nikki giovanni: the way i feel
john valenti: anything you want
funk factory: self-titled
meters: cissy strut (super nice copy)
mike nock: magic mansions

world:
joao gilberto: brazil's brilliant... (capitol rainbow)
lloyd chalmers: reggay charm
egberto gismonti & academia de dancas: sanfona
mireille mathieu: self-titled
missa luba: a mass sung in pure congolese style (i love this album)
bob marley & the wailers: legend
luis bonfa: jucaranda
ken boothe: let's get it on

male/female vocalists:
claudine longet: we've only just begun
ray charles: invites you to listen
ray charles: a man and his soul (2LP)
sammy davis and sam butera & the witnesses: when the feeling hits you!
frank sinatra & duke ellington: francis a. & edward k. (3 color label)
bonnie koloc: you're gonna love yourself in the morning
 
folk/blues/country:
cleanliness and godliness skiffle band: greatest hits (vanguard)
william ackerman: turtle's navel
hank williams jr. (golden archive series)
don nix: hobos, heroes and street corner clowns
bb king: better than ever

xian/religous:
the unknown quatity: self-titled
spirit in the flesh: self-titled
lorraine louvat: love is a magic feeling
lorraine louvat: i could have been a bumblebee
blue aquarius: self-titled (sealed)
 
classical/avant-garde:
henry brant: kingdom come
george crumb: ancient voices of children
william bolcom/william albright: new music for organ
milton babbitt/mel powell: a solo requiem/haiku settings

miscellaneous:
how to plan the perfect dinner party
here history began (son et lumiere pyramids and sphinx)
neighborhood rhythms (2LP spoken word/soundscapes with rollins/mike watt/exene/jeffrey lee pierce/kid congo/kim fowley...)

November 13, 2009

new vinyl:
 
real estate: self-titled LP
Real Estate waft in on vibes of hazy summers past. The New Jersey quartet of Martin Courtney IV, Matthew Mondanile III, Etienne Pierre Duguay and Alex Bleeker cut the sleeves short and the pop smooth to shade you from the midday heat. Every song works its way to that part of your consciousness that reveled in the fleeting waves of freedom that eked in once classes broke and the sun lingered a little longer over suburban roofs. And with three quarters of the band holding down Garden State roots it's no surprise that a bit of Jersey indie-pop heritage sneaks its way into their sound, lifting the most sun streaked moments from The Feelies and Yo La Tengo and filtering them through the kaleidoscope of memories aimless drives through parched neighborhood streets. Martin Courtney's songwriting has a way of wrapping up the immediacy of youth with the ennui of age for the perfect shade of bittersweet bliss, mind you though, much heavier on the sweet than the bitter. Add to this Mondanile's (Ducktails/ Predator Vision) shimmering guitar strains full of equal parts sea foam and beer foam, pepper in the boardwalk clatter of Duguay's drums Bleeker's staccato low end and the perfect afternoon is just a lawn chair and boom box away.
 
king khan & bbq show: invisible girl LP
The King Khan & BBQ show's long-awaited third full-length album will not disappoint the band's admirers or their devoted cult following. Invisible Girl marks a return to the trademark doo-wop-laced, anthemic garage rock that earned the band their fame and their infamy. The record exhibits their effortless fluency in rock 'n' roll's tenets and traditions, but as Mark Sultan (otherwise known as BBQ) notes, it also includes "a song so vile that it cannot even be mentioned.
 
wilco: being there 2LP/CD
 
on fillmore: extended vacation LP

http://www.myspace.com/onfillmore
 
bear in heaven: beast rest fourth mouth LP
BEAR IN HEAVEN have trapped echoes, tremors, winds, and fading light. They've redefined time, and folded it. They've unbuttoned sound, and realigned it. Within four walls in Brooklyn, the band mined the democracy of their collaboration, plus the endless hours of stream-of-consciousness recorded documentation of rehearsals over the past years, to conceive the crystalline form of Beast Rest Forth Mouth, their second album, their exaltation. A seed planted in the Southern US years ago (all members hail from Georgia or Alabama), Bear In Heaven began as the musical arm of JON PHILPOT in 1998. Time eventually brought in a slew of players, like rickety scaffolding, that grew the sound and guided the group to morph from a 6-to-5-to-4-piece. As a four-headed organism, Bear In Heaven has now found a sonic stride unlike any in their history. Freely acknowledging the importance of the number four, the album Beast Rest Forth Mouth (think "East West North South") was a conscious product of the four compass points, of the four makers, and of the inevitable confusion that manifests from that crossroad mentality: four directions could lead you anywhere and everywhere.
 
fuck buttons: tarot sport LP
This is the second full-length release by Bristol, UK duo, FUCK BUTTONS. Conceived by ANDREW HUNG and BENJAMIN JOHN POWER in the winter of 2004, the group was initially born as an outlet for their nihilistic-noise tendencies but quickly, the two Fuck Buttons realized they could harness the use of noise as a tool to immerse and evoke. No longer afraid of melody or rhythm, the group started fusing all these elements to the point when drone becomes melody becomes rhythm.
 
best coast: make you mine 7"
Former POCAHAUNTED member BETHANY COSENTINO (aka BEST COAST) embodies California. Her songs are effortlessly ramshackle, layers of fuzzed guitar and a voice with enough heft and soul that it brings to mind 1950s girl soul groups or even a female-centric Beach Boys. There’s also a sense of permanent longing, an inescapable melancholy that can only come from living near the beach, perpetually sunny but a little sad too. Her four-song “Make you Mine” 7-inch was recorded with longtime friend BOBB BRUNO, and is packed with enough hooks and gorgeous melodies to fill an entire album. It is Group Tightener’s first release.
 
gentleman jesse & his men: self-titled LP
The wait is over, ladies and gentlemen. Douchemaster Records is overwhelmed with excitement to offer the debut self-titled album from GENTLEMAN JESSE & HIS MEN. This album features thirteen tracks of pop perfection with slick and warm production that only DAVE RAHN can achieve. If you even kind of liked the "I Don't Wanna Know" single, this record is essential for you.
 
christmas island: blackout summer LP
Hailing from sunny San Diego, California, Christmas Island plays music that on the surface is happy and poppy. There is a dark undercurrent to their brand of lo-fi pop punk--it is joyous and almost twee while secretly depressed and deeply disturbed. Citing Tronics, Urinals, Television Personalities, The Clean, Versatile Newts, and The Fall as influences, Christmas Island is Beach Boys-style, sunny Southern Californian pop by way of the late-'70s / early-'80s UK DIY scene.
 
cococoma: things are not right LP
Things Are Not All Right is the second album on Goner from the Chicago bash-and-crash pop trio CoCoComa. Comprised of husband-and-wife Bill and Lisa Roe on drums and guitar, respectively, plus Mike Fitzpatrick on bass and organ, the band is part garage, part psych pop, and all pure punk energy. Things Are Not All Right takes the catchy, spazzy push of their first album and adds depth and more realized production values without slowing down in the least
 
various artists: forge your own chains 2LP
Subtitled: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968-1974. "This compilation introduces a new direction for Now-Again Records and its owner, Stones Throw Records GM, A&R and producer Egon. With the same detailed, no-stone-unturned approach he used for Deep Funk (The Funky 16 Corners, Cold Heat), he tackles beat-heavy global psychedelia with Forge Your Own Chains. 'Those of us birthed into record collecting by the Hip Hop midwife revered Jimi Hendrix as well as James Brown. We searched for albums by Mulatu Astatke and Power of Zeus with the same fervor,' Egon writes in his introduction to the comp. Forge Your Own Chains showcases music from all corners of the world: Colombia, Nigeria, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand and Iran. The focus -- in keeping with Now-Again's tradition -- is on melody, driving rhythms and accessibility. Not one song is included on this compilation because it is from a 'rare' album. Certainly, many of these songs do spring from albums that exchange hands for many thousands of dollars and many of these songs have never seen reissue. But these songs are all beautiful in their own right and work to form a coherent album. Psychedelic records, long the mainstay of older, grizzled collectors and seemingly quaint, are, in the hands of Egon and those of his generation, giving up new ghosts. And, with comps like Forge Your Own Chains, inspiring new investigations into our not so distant (and still very much alive) musical past." Artists: Top Drawer, Sensational Saints, East Of Underground, D. R. Hooker, Shin Jung Hyun & The Men feat. Jang Hyun, T. Zchiew & The Johnny, The Strangers, Damon, Ellison, Morly Grey, Shadrack Chameleon, Ofege, Ana Y Jaime, Kourosh Yaghmaei, Baby Grandmothers. Includes a 40-page booklet with very extensive notes on all the artists and great pictures.

 
trevor ryan: introducing LP
Wow...we can't seem to figure out the true story of RYAN TREVOR—we're not sure he even knows it! Is he an industry guy who pitched songs to Barry Manilow, wrote songs for Sesame Street, and roadied for infamous germaphobe Robin Trower? Is he a sensitive loner-folker who lived in England and all over the globe? Is he an ex-’60s Indiana garage band kid who rocked in "The Blue Glue?" Or did he simply replace his friend Paul McCartney when he "died" in 1968? It just might be all of the above, though working closely with Trevor has shed remarkably little light on the man—even his exhaustive autobiography ends in the early ‘70s, just before he started recording music! The usually in-depth Acid Archives has a mere one sentence listed about the man. Is this a conspiracy? What we do know is that he produced one incredibly rare and homespun pop LP in 1977, Introducing: Ryan Trevor. It may have been merely a demo for a never-materialized Warner Brothers album, or a definitive concept album statement. A privately-pressed bit of psych-pop perfection, Introducing: Ryan Trevor at last answers the question on ALL of our minds: "What if R. Stevie Moore and Emitt Rhodes recorded an album with Joe Meek's ghost in the late ‘70s?" Whatever the case, what you have in your hands is a near-exact repro of an insanely catchy song cycle of Macca-melodies, subverted by copious amounts of phase, fuzz, and a bedroom production ambience that would certainly make Bob Pollard, Ariel Pink or The Godz jealous.
 
sonny & the sunsets: tomorrow is alright LP
These busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop's otherworldly despair, the kitchen sink savoir fair of the Raincoats and the positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman. THE SUNSETS have featured a revolving door lineup that has included KELLEY STOLTZ and JOHN DWYER, but now features players from CITAY, FRESH & ONLYS and SKYGREEN LEOPARDS in its ranks.
 
pants yell!: recieved pronunciation LP
Pants Yell!, despite their misleadingly emphatic (and eternally mysterious) name, belong to this crucial lineage. Together since 2003, when they formed at a Boston art school, the trio is the vehicle for singer-guitarist Andrew Churchman's modestly proportioned but perfectly realized songs. Abetted by co-founding bassist Sterling Bryant and drummer Casey Keenan (who joined in 2007), his two- and three-minute marvels draw power from restraint and poetry from plainspoken observation--in short, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Not for nothing did Churchman name the band's last album Alison Statton, in honor of the former Young Marble Giants / Weekend singer, who understood better than most that a whisper, dispensed properly, is always more affecting than a scream. Alison Statton, the third Pants Yell! album, brought the band unprecedented critical and popular success internationally. And now they've come to rest at their spiritual home, Slumberland Records, with its remarkable follow-up, Received Pronunciation. In nine songs and 26 minutes, and without ever deploying a distortion pedal, they make a greater emotional impact than an album twice as long and at double the volume. Which isn't to say the album lacks for visceral sonic thrills--hear "Someone Loves You" build to an ecstatic climax that perfectly justifies the song's title, or the elegant guitar solo that launches "Cold Hands" skyward. This is pop that doesn't need to raise its voice or shake its fist; it wins over with its mind and its heart.
 
naam: self-titled LP
We've got something heavy here, man. The incarnation of Brooklyn's NAAM manifests a signature brand of supersonic and ultimately mesmerizing heavy psychedelia. Trancelike and punishing at times, this trio of psychonauts mold elements of classic psychedelia and prog with modern elements of jam-heavy bliss and apocalyptic amplitude. Naam's self-titled debut is more so an aural-intoxicating odyssey than an album. Recorded on a 100-acre farm in upstate New York, Naam manages to capture an elemental sound, surfacing the hidden wisdoms of the forest and the fields while capturing the mysticism of the night sky. In its increasingly dark and sinister progression, the album depicts an unholy spiritual journey in the search for a higher plane of enlightenment. Naam delivers their deafening sermon to bring a new dawn for all civilization. The vast seas cannot drown Them, the darkest caverns cannot conceal Them, They will conquer insurmountable foes. They are war, They are peace, They are time and space, They are infinite, They are Naam.
 
meercaz: self-titled LP
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC DEBUT LP by Muslim Delgado's (Leaders) Meercaz. Here kicking out original but regressive rock that finds itself on the good side of where proto-punk & glam giants can take you. Mastered for vinyl at Chicago Mastering Service, with dee-luxe old school "tip-on" jacket and w/ loaded full color insert & liner notes by Eddie Flowers. Which I'll let you read for yourself here because frankly, Ed sez it the best folks!
 
plankton wat: dawn of the golden eternity LP
Debut solo LP by Dewey Mahood of Portland psych-jammers Eternal Tapestry. Ten songs recorded at the Owl House basement last winter on cassette 4-track. The LP encompasses a vast array of sounds and moods, from blissed-out drone punk rippers to super chill deep space folk. Total late night stoney textures, and radiant sun anthems. Acoustic and electric guitar, drums, banjo, mbira, and some singing, all mega tripped with syrupy analogy delay. Really beautiful heavy zoners. Hand drawn covers and insert by Dewmah.
 
small faces: self-titled LP
Nowadays the Small Faces are criminally overlooked and often thought of as only the preamble to the Faces and, of course, Rod Stewart. At the time of their debut's original release back in 1966 however, they were one of the absolute greatest rock bands in the UK, with the Who and Rolling Stones being their only real competition. And lead vocalist Steve Marriott could sing circles around both Jagger and Daltrey. Reissued here in all its soul-influenced garage-rock glory is the Small Faces masterful debut.
 
small faces: from the beginning LP
The Small Faces' second album, originally released in 1967, is a rock & soul classic from Steve Marriott & Co. that holds up next to the best the Rolling Stones and Who had to offer around the same time. There's garage rock, soul, psychedelia, and dance numbers all represented. A classic release from one of the best, and most criminally underrated bands of the initial British rock explosion.
 
various artists: africa boogaloo: the latinization of west africa 2LP
Honest Jon's presents a collection of music from '60s and '70s West Africa that is heavily influenced by Latin sounds from the era, representing a mutual cultural exchange that would have a permanent impact on the evolution of each region's trademark sound. Much of what makes modern Latin music so irresistible came from Africa in the first place. When the first waves of African rhythms, reconstituted in the Caribbean, returned home on radios and records, Africans -- especially in West and Central Africa -- received them with great enthusiasm. Staid dance bands that replicated European music soon began to swing as Caribbean accents settled in their rhythm sections. By the 1950s, Africa had produced its own Calypsonians, and more than one African musician changed his name to give it a Latin flavor. Some even composed songs in Spanish, while others wrote nonsense lyrics that only sounded like the real thing. No band mixed local and Latin styles more successfully than Orchestre Baobab and its leader Balla Sidibe. The mesmerizing "On Verra Ca" finds Baobab leaning in the direction of the stuttering mbalax sound that Youssou N'Dour carried to great popularity. Other Senegalese bands followed the trend, like the Rio Band, Orchestre N'Guewel, and Laba Sosseh from Gambia (like his compatriot Amara Toure) who styled himself as a salsa singer after his hero Johnny Pacheco. From Benin, Gnonnas Pedro sang in every pop style imaginable, but he seems especially at home in an Afro-Cuban embrace, as you will hear on the 1977 recording "Adigbedoto." The closing track also comes from Benin, a 1976 recording by the celebrated Orchestre Poly Rythmo -- though the singer, Pierre Tchana, hails from Cameroun. "Quiero Wapacha" features another Camerounian singer, Charles Lembe, and also from Cameroun is legendary African Jazz saxophonist, Manu Dibango, who is featured here alongside Le Grand Calle and Cuban flutist Don Gonzalo. Orchestre OK Jazz recorded any number of Afro-Cuban inspired sides: "Micorrason" is one of the band's earliest songs, recorded soon after their formation in 1956. There is no better evidence of the push-me-pull-you, back-and-forthing between two cultures than the Afro-Latin compilation we have here. All the flow from an unparalleled period of exuberance and creativity after World War II had ended and before homegrown tyranny had yet to descend on the land. It was Africa's moment, optimistic and free. You can hear it in the music.
 
the relatives: don't let me fall LP
Heavy Light Records was founded by Charisse Kelly and Revenant Records alum Noel Waggener to present obscure and previously unreleased recordings spanning the 1950s -- '80s. This release features lavish silk screened packaging, detailed historical notes and unpublished photos. Call it gospel funk! In truth, the sound of The Relatives is so much more. Brought together by veteran gospel singer Gean West in 1971, their sound bridges the gap between traditional gospel, soul and psychedelia. Over a span of four years, The Relatives recorded three obscure 45s and a session with legendary North Texas engineer Phil York. These powerful, genre-busting recordings stand up alongside the best group soul and funk recordings of the 1970s -- and give praise to the Lord like you've never heard before! Heavy Light Records is proud to bring together all of The Relatives' singles and five previously unreleased tracks for their first-ever full length release, Don't Let Me Fall.
 
c joynes: revenants, prodigies & the restless dead LP
Immune is proud to present a deluxe and limited edition vinyl version of the brand new album from British guitarist C Joynes. This is the second widely available album from Joynes (after last year's God Feeds The Ravens) and is being released simultaneously on CD by Bo' Weavil Recordings. C Joynes is a musician whose playing has consistently invoked a broad and shifting stream of inspirations. As a guitarist, there is no doubt that Joynes has been influenced by some of the most idiosyncratic finger-pickers of the last 40 years and beyond, but his music goes far beyond simply this. His recordings have always offered many dimensions for the listener to explore, be it through solo acoustic pieces, larger ensemble work, or the intimate use of improvisations and hill recordings. Building on previous albums, Revenants, Prodigies & The Restless Dead is a more expansive affair. Joined on a number of these tunes by an assortment of friends and collaborators, a range of acoustic and vintage electronic instruments all make appearances, gradually fleshing out some of the ideas and direction that Joynes clearly has imprinted in his mind's eye, adding color and hue to some of these beautiful compositions. While Joynes remains at home with English and American forms of folk music, the twelve pieces on this album continue to demonstrate the extent to which other traditions, both eastern and western, have an equal and instinctive pull on his music. Listen to the detuned and prepared guitar of 'Nyambai Sawmill,' which seems equally drawn out of late '60s classical experimentalism as it does to sounds from the Western Sahara.
 
edward williams: life on earth: music from the 1979 BBC tv series LP

 
various artists: panama! 3 calypso panameno, guajira jazz and cumbia tipica on the ithmus 1960-1975 2LP
After two very successful and well-received previous volumes of tropical rarities from Panama, co-compilers Roberto Gyemant and Miles Cleret are joined by Will "Quantic" Holland for the final piece of this unique series. Volume 3 showcases more of the unique tropical music created in Panama in the fertile decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Panama is the thin, tropical bridge that connects North and South America, and is home to three million culturally-diverse people; its music is a soulful blend of Latin American, Caribbean, European and indigenous forms. From bilingual calypsos to guajira jazz, from tropical guarachas to cumbia tamboreras, Panamanian musicians fearlessly combined and brilliantly executed styles that reflected their multicultural environment during a turbulent time in the young country's history. This collection presents more of the golden age of Panamanian music and the music of the combos nacionales on rare recordings that have never been released outside the isthmus until now.
 
anarchist republic of bzzz: self-titled LP

 
javelin: self-titled 12"
Javelin consists of two cousins, Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford. When not performing, Javelin is busy producing. Together they have amassed a vast catalogue of music, varying in its aesthetic range. Songs resemble the record collection from whence they spring, if not literally as when sampling, then figuratively as when past forms are cited and re-contextualized. Sounds range from broken dance jams to relaxed instrumental cut-ups, created with love on their MPCs. Long forgotten samples are chopped and re-assembled with drums, wooden recorders, old keyboards, handmade thumb pianos or whatever instruments are readily at hand. The result is a kind of mix tape fantasy (residing in the mythical 'dollar bins of the future'), where R & B impresarios, amateur booty bass producers and Andean flautists hold equal sway." Each copy comes in a unique, hand-made sleeve. 
 
dao & coh: dzerzhinsk-9 LP
Tourette Records is proud to announce the release of Dzerzhinsk-9 by DAO+COH (Andrej Kolesov and Ivan Pavlov). Originally recorded in 1996, this collection of previously unreleased material showcases COH's trademark audio experimentation, and the collaborative spark shared by both artists. The vinyl LP release, limited to 440 copies (black vinyl). Dzerzhinsk-9 represents some of the earliest work by this duo, and pre- dates Pavlov's first solo release on raster-noton by 2 years. This potent collection of intense and dark experimental material is a result of a live-in-the-studio improvised session recorded during one of Ivan's visits to DAO studio in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. Performed with hand-made digital and analogue equipment, and recorded onto a 4-track cassette deck, this is a gem of curiosity to anyone with interest for COH and electronic music in general. Russian-born Ivan Pavlov is well known for his solo work as COH spanning more than 20 releases, including collaborative projects with the likes of Coil and Cosey Fanni Tutti. He currently works with Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil) in SOISONG. Ivan's university friend, Andrej Kolesov (aka DAO), is a musician who has previously contributed to the album COH: Strings(R-N 085CD), playing saz and oud.
 

used vinyl:
 
rock:
UPP: self-titled (jeff beck's backing band)
indoor life: self-titled
einsturzende neubauten: yu-gung 12"
madhouse: self-titled (fountain of youth records)
plan 9: frustration
the cure: kiss me, kiss me, kiss me
brian eno: ambient 1
brian eno: ambient 4
brian eno/moebius/roedelius: begegnungen II
the smiths: what difference does it make 12" (UK pressing)
james white and the blacks: off-white
yellow magic orchestra: self-titled
punch: self-titled (sunshine pop)
david byrne: catherine wheel
tom tom club: self-titled
vinegar joe: self-titled
jimi hendrix: cry of love
country joe & the fish: electric music for the mind and body (amazing album)
sister kate: self-titled (james taylor's sister, with linda ronstadt, john hartford, memphis horns...)
various artists: super rock (columbia 2LP sampler)
surf punks: my beach
DAF: voulez vous coucher... 12"
DAF: 1st step to heaven
kingbees: self-titled
tom rush: merrimack county
fabulous poodles: think pink
sue saad & the next: self-titled
yello: solid pleasure
tommy boyce & bobby hart: it's all happening on the inside (WLP)
lyres: someone who'll treat you right now 12"
psychedelic furs: self-titled
gary numan: pleasure principle (UK pressing)
anthony more: world service (henry cow, slappy happy member)
rorshach: remain sedate (original on gern blandsten, with inner sleeve)
the turtles: happy together (white whale pressing, vg)
ludovico's technique: self-titled
way of the west: feel the steel 12"
odgen edsl wahalia blues ensemble mondo bizarro band: self-titled
fresh today: self-titled (one sealed copy, one open)
jefferson airplane: crown of creation (orange label)
rubicon: america dreams
jimmy stevens: paid my dues
genya ravan: urban desire
various artists: punk and disorderly: further charges (vg)
chuck berry: golden decade volume 3
young rascals: collections
bruce springsteen: e ticket (german bootleg from 1975)
randy sparks: hazy sunshine
yazoo: the other side of love 12"
focus: 3 (dutch pressing)
focus: ship of memories
jan akkerman & thijs van leer: focus (1985)
rare earth: get ready
fleetwood mac: rumours (sealed)
country joe mcdonald: thinking of woody guthrie
country joe mcdonald: incredible! live!
various artists: 1969 warner/reprise songbook
invaders: test card (UK pressing)
artful dodger: rave on
rip rig & panic: beat the beast
nitty gritty dirt band: ricochet
eddie cochran: memorial album (french pressing)
sylvain sylvain
gary shearston: dingo
lizzy mercier descloux: press color (ZE records)
808 state: utd. state 90
the neighboorhood: debut
the fall: wonderful and frightening world...
the damned: eloise 12"
various artists: young, popular and sexy (factory records comp. with happy mondays, durutti column, a certain ratio...)
section 25: bad news week 12" (factory records)
shark vegas: you hurt me 12" (factory records)
wire: pink flag (US pressing)
grateful dead: anthem of the sun (later pressing)
kinks: lola vs powerman and the moneygoround (really nice copy)
neil young: harvest (original with inner sleeve)
byrds: younger than yesterday (360 stereo, vg)
 
jazz:
clark terry: tread ye lightly
ahmad jamal: portfolio of... (numbered 2LP collection on argo)
stanley turrentine: have you ever seen the rain
stanley turrentine: self-titled (blue note re-issue series)
herbie hancock: traces
don sebesky: the rape of el morro
john handy: live at monterey jazz festival
billie holiday: greatest hits vol. 1 (dutch pressing)
billie holiday: original recordings
billie holiday: lady sings the blues (japanese pressing, no obi)
antonio carlos jobim: tide
lonnie liston smith & cosmic echoes: visions of a new day
egberto gismondi: danca das cabecas
joe beck: self-titled (kudu)
keith jarrett: luminessence
mongo santamaria: at montreux
wayne shorter: phantom navigator
andre previn: the early years
gene krupa & his orchestra: that drummer's band
woody herman big band: hey! heard the herd?
lennie tristano/buddy defranco: crosscurrents
al cohn & zoot sims: either way (zim records)
ray bryant trio: potpourri
stan getz/sonny stitt: echoes of an era
paul horn quintet: here's that rainy day
ahmad jamal: piano scene of...
martha davis & spouse: a tribute to fats waller
billy taylor trio: the more i see you (UK pressing)
various artists: changing face of harlem
duke ellington: '66 (3 color steamboat label)
walfredo de los reyes & louis bellson: ritmos cubanos
ian carr's nucleus: in flagranti delicato
dollar brand duo: good news from africa
morrissey mullen: badness
ornette coleman: shape of jazz to come (original pressing, vg+)
johnny griffin: big soul
mccoy tyner: 13th house
lincoln mayorga & distinguished colleagues: missing linc (sheffield audiophile pressing)
milt jackson with the ray brown big band: memphis jackson (impulse)
brother jack mcduff: down home style (blue note)

funk/soul/disco/rap:
motown instrumentals
motown chartbusters volume 5
bill withers: live at carnegie hall
george clinton: r&b skeletons in the closet
west street mob: self-titled
mtume: in search of the rainbow seekers
labelle: phoenix
hugh masekela: grazing in the grass
emotions: sunshine
percy mayfield: sings percy mayfield
earth wind & fire: that's the way of the world (quad pressing)
molecular beats squadron: coming by storm 12"
dionne warwick: here i am
dinah, joe & sarah: we three
cameo: we all know who we are
kool & the gang: spirit of the boogie
gene chandler: your love looks good on me
aaron neville: like it'tis
james brown: showtime
mary wells: two sides (mono, beautiful copy)
otis redding: live in europe
captain sky: pop goes...
lime II
brother to brother: let your mind be free

folk/country/blues/gospel:
bonnie dobson: at folk city (rare album on prestige, deep groove, excellent shape)
alf edwards: the art of the concertina (rare album on prestige)
joan baez: blessed are... (quad pressing)
fred neil: other side of this life (green label, with gram parsons on one track)
barry mcguire & the doctor: self-titled
tom paxton: morning again (gold label, vg)
charlie king w. paul despinosa: old dreams and new nightmares
newport folk festival 1963, evening concerts vol. 1 (with dylan, jack elliott, miss. john hurt, joan baez...)
malvina reynolds: self-titled (vg, hard to find album with members of the birds, dillards, sunshine company...)
vern gosdin: never my love
clarence "gatemouth" brown: blackjack
clarence "gatemouth" brown: the blues ain't nothing (french pressing)
doc watson: southbound (sealed)
jim kweskin & the jug band: jug band music
gram parsons: self-titled (shilo records)
oscar brand: laughing america (sealed)
angelic gospel singers: i'm bound for mt. zion
johnny cash: songs of our soil (360 stereo)
dave van ronk: no dirty names 
 
world music:
hari prasad chaurasia: flute recital (sealed, indian odeon pressing)
bhavalu/impressions: south indian instrumental music (sealed, nonesuch explorer)
exotissimo vol. 1: jaipur, inde (french pressing)
maloko: soul on fire
incantation: canarios/atahuallpa
music of hungary (capitol, sealed)
sergio mendes: the great arrival
francoise hardy: star
 
miscellaneous:
bessie jones: step it down: games for children
a french monkey story
kronos quartet: white man sleeps
stories of guy de maupassant
ralph shapey: praise (CRI)
the hush of midnight
famous ghost stories with scary sounds
virgo rising: the once and future woman
poems and songs of middle earth
copernicus: deeper
les baxter: the primitive and the passionate (stereo)
ping pong percussion
howard stern: 50 ways to rank your mother
yevtushenko: readings from his new york and san francisco poetry concerts
the poetry of pat parker & judy grahn
john cage/christian wolff: cartridge music/duo for violinist and pianist

October 31, 2009

cold cave: love comes close LP

http://www.myspace.com/coldcave

cold cave: death comes close 12"

limited pressing 12" with three non-LP tracks.

broadcast & the focus group: investigate witch cults of the radio age LP

Blasts of distorted guitar, off-tuned analog keyboards and barreling drums mixed with psychedelic soundscapes and occasional disorientation are hallmarks of the Birmingham, England-based group's sound. As the New York Times put it, 'Broadcast's songs are full of creaks, rumbles, saw-toothed distortion and untamed feedback. Each intrusion (is) plotted, and they let the disruption build and sometimes take over a song in a billowing crescendo. Within the tick-tock riffs and pop melodies, the noise seems to break out like steam through volcanic fissures.' In anticipation of their 2010 full length, this EP is a collaboration between Trish Keenan (vocals), James Cargill (Bass, Keyboards, Atmospherics and Production) and long time friend of the band - Julian House, co-founder of the enigmatic UK indie label Ghost Box Music. House, a visual artist as well as musician and producer created Ghost Box Music and his band The Focus Group in order to release the records and create album art he and his friends love - and as he says, 'the purpose of (Ghost Box Music and The Focus Group) was to create not just a record label, but an imaginary world.

jay bolotin: self-titled LP

cluster: curiosum LP

cluster: grosses wasser LP

Formed in Germany in 1971 when Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius left Conrad Schnitzler's group Kluster, Cluster can be counted among the most important protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, while to others they are firmly embedded in the Krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Although Cluster and "rock music" are seldom mentioned in the same breath, their early works in particular are marked by a lack of structure and futuristic, cold soundscapes typical of the Krautrock variation known as "kosmische." Recorded and released in 1979, Grosses Wasser was Cluster's fifth album as a duo. The cover art is the first indication of minimalist tendencies, reflecting the concentration, transparency and maturity of the content, almost like chamber music. While nothing is left to chance, each of the six Cluster pieces effervesces with a certain joie de vivre, providing ample scope for artistic spontaneity. Grosses Wasser was recorded at Paragon Studio, which had been set up by Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream) not long before. Baumann had set aside plenty of time for the recording sessions, enabling Cluster to experiment with sequencers for the first time and explore some of the most up-to-date (for that period) studio gadgets on offer. Moebius and Roedelius made intelligent, measured use of the latest paraphernalia without being overwhelmed by it. New technology was deployed with an exactness designed to refine their sophisticated and fully-developed musical ideas. More than ever before in Cluster's history, acoustic elements can be heard, with the dulcet tones of Paragon's Steinway grand piano taking center stage. Electric bass, guitar, percussion and voice are all embraced. Consequently, Grosses Wasser is anything but a solely electronic album. It is, however, one of those rare LPs whose musical substance transcends its age, never sounding outdated.

el-g: tout ploie LP
So...a couple years back, one of my favorite French labels -- Le Villain Chien -- released a single by a guy going by the name of él-g. I picked up a few -- record unheard - for our mail order and when they arrived, gave one a spin. The sound was a combination of world-weary French pop and mellow psych. The record lived on the turntable for a few weeks. When the Belgian label Kraak announced it was putting out an él-g album, I said sign me up for some. I got a very small handful and offered them for sale. Of course, one found its way to the record player and what came out of the speakers was one of the best records I'd heard in quite a while. Like the 7" I previously dug, this album strode through French pop styles and dreamy psychedelia, but this thing was much better than the seven inch. It had a classic sound. I wasn't alone in liking it. David Keenan of Volcanic Tongue called it 'Ass-flatteningly great' and said it 'combines the decadent French ballad style of Serge Gainsbourg with warped acid folk settings, industrial electronics and the kinda schizophrenic approach to genre that defines much of Thierry Muller and Philippe Doray's work.' Clive Bell at the Wire said él-g's'freak flag is exhilarating.' And the few people who got the record from me, wrote and asked for more. After spin number 50, I said to myself, 'Damn, there's a whole lotta people on this side of the Atlantic that are gonna miss out on this demon, one of the best records of the last five years, me thinks.' So I wrote él-g and Kraak and asked if I could do an American pressing and they said 'Sure good thing' and here it is. So what you get is all the above -- with guest performances by the lovely Charlene Darling and Ignatz and Phil Todd of Ashtray Navigations.

pontiak: sea voids LP

Pontiak wrote, recorded and mixed Sea Voids in eight evening sessions over the course of three weeks. The brothers sketched out what kind of album they wanted to make while on a two month US tour. It would be visual, it would be expressive, and it would be inspired by what the brothers had seen. When they returned home from tour they had just four weeks to write and record the album before disembarking on a European tour. They spent many long nights, amps blazing into the summer darkness, drums echoing off the surrounding hills, working to finish. They tuned the bass and the guitar down to B, cranked their amps and let the air open up. Hardly any distortion pedals were used. It was just LOUD. Pontiak finished Sea Voids the day they left for Europe. The record benefited greatly from the work of Richard Prince and Chris Burden, and to them the band gives a huge thanks! Sea Voids is limited to 1,000 copies on vinyl only and the jackets are hand screened by Crosshair.

starless & bible black: shape of the shape LP

On their sophomore release, The Shape of the Shape, Manchester, England's Starless & Bible Black have drawn together the sounds of '70s Topanga Canyon country-rock, '80s Mancunian jangle, and space-age psych tinged drones to make a dynamic, warm and woodsy second album. Gone are the dulcimers and banjos of the first record, replaced by an electrifying wall of Telecaster and Moog, and standing in the center of this bold, widescreen sound resides the earthy and husky voice of Hélène Gautier. Recorded at Bryn Derwen within the wilds of the Snowdonian mountains, and during all night sessions in the relative tranquility of their local village hall, Shape Of The Shape is an album of contrasting styles, themes and approaches that coheres beautifully into a seamless entity. We get guided through verses and choruses of swamp rock, gothic bluesy chanson and smoky acoustic ballads, as well as a jazz-folk tinged instrumental -- after all, the band take their name from the classic 1965 Stan Tracey cut -- but the apogee of this collection is the driving drone-choral opus, Les Furies - sung in French, this is a very Gallic observation of after hours culture. And while this album traverses all these different styles, the band never deny the importance of a fine tune and a fine song."

amen dunes: dia LP

A lot of crazy shit can happen to a man when he goes solitary in a ramshackle Catskill Mountain home for an extended stretch of time -- especially for a city kind of guy. But if Amen Dunes's 12 tracker Dia is one possible outcome of the guy alone-in-a-cabin- story, then a little tape saturated brain frying is something we should all live comfortably with because this is a batch of seriously raw & inspired loner psych grit that owes a debt to the DIY soundz of the George Brigmans of the world. That was 2006. These days the lone wolf behind Amen Dunes -- Damon McMahon -- calls a small two room apartment overlooking the Temple of Earth in North-Central Beijing home, where he watches old men fly kites and sing opera every morning. Who knows what'll come out of that.

beauregarde: self titled LP

This album omes from what some may perceive to be the most unlikely of influences: psychedelic rock and professional wrestling. The year was 1970, and the Portland-based wrestler Beauregarde was at the height of his career. Known for his loud entrance music, and the even louder three-wheeled motorcycle that would carry him into the ring, he was one of the most genuinely intimidating and charismatic wrestlers of the time. In early 1970, he entered a Portland, OR recording studio with his band and a then-unknown seventeen year-old guitar player. That seventeen-year old would later become punk rock legend and Wipers frontman, Greg Sage. In one afternoon they recorded what would see a limited release as an album, and would be used for Beauregarde's entrance music for the duration of his career. All lyrics and music were written by Beauregarde and, ironically, never mention wrestling at all. His vocal style is passionate and direct, yet never goes overboard. The music features Hendrix-esque guitar solos over rock rhythms and soul drum beats. After being highly sought-after by collectors, we are proud to release these songs back on the vinyl format. With the help of Beauregarde and Greg Sage, the original master tapes were found and used to re-master this limited vinyl release. This LP serves as an important landmark in the worlds of wrestling, Portland's musical history, and psychedelic rock. We hope that you will come to enjoy and understand the importance of this album as we do.

matias aguayo: ay ay ay 2LP+CD

rock:

tracie: far from the hurting crowd (produced by paul weller)

simple minds: real to real cacophony (original british pressing)

simple minds: life in a day

sonic youth: kill pr idols (original zensor pressing)

lois: infinity plus

king crimson: in the court of the crimson king

jefferson airplane: volunteers (orange label)

the byrds: singles volume 1 1965-67

altered images: collected images

die toten hosen: battle of the bands

new adventures: self-titled

jesse winchester: self-titled (the band)

nektar: remember the future

the cure: never enough 12"

the cure: boys don't cry (canadien pressing on north american records)

elvis costello: armed forces (with 45 in picture sleeve)

elvis costello: my aim is true (portugal pressing)

pink floyd: the wall

pink floyd: dark side of the moon

dead milkmen: big lizard in my backyard

grateful dead: self-titled (later pressing)

doors: l.a. woman (later pressing)

bob dylan: bringing it all back home (360 stereo)

peter gabriel: self-titled (1977)

tones on tail: pop (uk)

the who: tommy

nilsson: the point

nilsson: aerial ballet

dan auerbach: keep it hid

radiohead: street spirits 12"

radiohead: karma police 12"

radiohead: no surprises 12"

radiohead: paranoid android 12"

wilco: yankee hotel foxtrot

guided by voices: under the bushes, under the stars

u2: when love comes to town 12"

u2: desire 12" (uk)

peoples victory orchestra and chorus: weltschmerzen

dictators: manifest destiny

this mortal coil: it'll end in tears

frank zappa: chungas revenge

original mirrors: heart twango & raw beat (cover by peter saville)

rainy day: self-titled (members of mazzy star, opal, bangles... love this record)

fred frith/rene lussier: nous autres

jazz:

sidney bechet: vol. 1 (sealed)

sidney bechet: vol. 2 (sealed

jimmy mcgriff: where the action is (sealed)

willie bobo: feelin' so good (sealed)

modern jazz quartet: plays the classics (prestige)

richard groove holmes: spicy (prestige)

roy ayers: daddy bug (vinyl good, cover a bit funky)

patrice rushen: shout it out

cal tjader: live at the funky quarters

lonnie liston smith: live!

billy bang quintet: rainbow gladiator

annette peacock: perfect release

charles mingus: blues & roots (blue/green label)

jacques loussier: plays bach (2LP box)

funk/soul/disco/rap:

stone disco (disco versions of rolling stones songs)

junie: 5

feelin' james 12" (james brown songs done in a steinski way)

biz markie: biz is goin' off 12"

candi staton: his hands

curtis mayfield: sweet exorcist

stevie wonder: music of my mind

aretha franklin: let me in your life

dramatics: experience

folk/blues/gospel/country:

cisco houston: i ain't got no home

robin hood ballads (folkways 10" with book)

incredible string band: 5000 layers... (gold label, vg)

richard dyer-bennett: archive of folk music

leo kottke: best (2LP)

fairport convention: self-titled

muddy waters: they call me...

dave snaker ray: kid-man

delois barrett campbell & barrett sisters: coming again

howard lemon singers: i am determined

jean ritchie & doc watson: at folk city (folkways with book)

world/classical/everything else:

takemitsu: choral music

ravi shankar: improvisations

lynton kwesi johnson: bass culture

koto music of japan

ali akbar khan: music of india (angel records)

various artists: african museum

chico buarque: mens caros amigos

nazir ali jairazbhoy: classical music of india (folkways with book)

john adams: shaker loops

serge gainsbourg & jane birkin: je t'aime

esquivel: 4 corners (living stereo)

xalam: goree (french celluloid pressing)

October 16, 2009

Mike Stax & Suzy Shaw: Bomp! 2-Born in the Garage Book

A heavyweight celebration of the roots of rock fandom. Eye-popping cover art by the immortal William Stout. This is the ultimate anthology of rock 'n' roll fandom from its inception to its mid/late 1970s heyday. Book includes 300 pages of reproductions from Greg Shaw's pioneering 70s era zines Who Put The Bomp and Bomp! Essays by Jon Savage, Alec Palao, Ken Barnes, Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax; '60s garage and beat, surf music, British invasion, girl groups, rockabilly, acid punk, and psychedelia. Obsessively detailed discographies and label listings, plus reams of readers' letters and never before published material. The sheer volume of historical information is almost mind-boggling. Also included are reprints from Shaw's obscure personal zines, Metanoia and Liquid Love, circulated in 1970-72 to just a handful of friends and fellow writers. Aside from including a huge selection of Shaw's insightful writing, BOMP! 2 also includes rare early work by celebrated rock scribes like Ken Barnes, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh, Mike Saunders, Phast Phreddie and more. Featuring artwork by underground artists like Jay Kinney, William Stout and Tom Kirk." 312 pages.

Cedric Brooks & the Light of Saba: The Magical Light of Saba 2LP

Kompakt Total 10 3LP

The Kompakt label's most-anticipated compilation release of the year reaches the double-digits with number 10. This diverse collection of solid-gold hit favorites is still standing and stronger than ever, coinciding with the Kompakt Total event. Spanning the course of two CDs and three LPs, Kompakt Total 10 features essential tunes from the Kompakt catalog and highlights exclusive, new music from the likes of DJ Koze, Thomas/Mayer, Jürgen Paape, Wassermann aka Wolfgang Voigt, and others. What one immediately will notice in comparison to other editions is the inclusion of remixes -- the likes of Ivan Smagghe & Tim Paris aka It's A Fine Line tackling the likes of Burger/Voigt, Gui Boratto's remix of Sam Taylor-Wood, produced by Pet Shop Boys, Thomas Fehlmann's stunning impression of The Field, and of course, finally available, the lost remix of Gotye's hit "Heart's A Mess" by Supermayer. Expect the unexpected this year, 'cause Kompakt Total 10 promises to be one of the most diverse collections of tracks the label has ever brought forward in their history.

Raincoats: self-titled LP

We all love our secret bands. Kurt Cobain came across a Raincoats album, and found there a bunch of soul mates whose honest emotions affected him so much that he tracked down founding member Ana da Silva somewhere in Notting Hill, persuaded DGC (Nirvana's record label) to re-issue The Raincoats back catalogue and encouraged the band to re-form. In 1977 da Silva and Gina Birch, inspired by the example of the Pistols and the Clash, of course, but also by the women of the Slits and X-Ray Spex, had responded to punk's DIY call to arms and eventually persuaded the Slit's drummer Palmolive to join their ranks. With the addition of the classically trained violinist Vicky Aspinall, The Raincoats were an all female band who owed nothing to male fantasy outfits like The Runaways, and produced a primeval punk-folk sound on original songs like 'Fairytale in the Supermarket' and 'In Love or deconstructing the Kinks' 'Lola' with cheek, fun and a pinch of salt."

Arthur Russell: Sleeping Bag Sessions 2LP

Whether it's hip hop, its face pointed reverentially to the old school, or house stealing disco riffs by the truck load, people are increasingly intrigued by back-in-the-day. And common to both the aforementioned scenes and much more is one person, Arthur Russell, a man some regard as the best songwriter of the 20th century. In 1981 Arthur set up Sleeping Bag Records with Will Socolov. The first release was the album 24-24 Music as Dinosaur L. If you're wondering about the name it would appear Arthur would often use the names of extinct or near-extinct animals. On one production credit he's Killer Whale, whilst the logo for Sleeping Bag is a Koala bear! Will remembers how they came up with the name for their label. 'We were joking about names, and James Brown was on with 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' and I was sleeping in a sleeping bag in my apartment and I kind of made a joke about that, and Arthur said that was a great idea for the name of the company!' The line up was pretty much the same as the Loose Joints sessions, (which boasted the Ingram Brothers rhythm section) and a similar stream-of-conscience approach was taken with the recording itself. Russell arranged the beats so there'd be a change every 24 bars (hence the title) and the band would have to improvise the songs over the top. He also made sure he went into the studio when there was a full moon! The album is again very experimental, and makes occasional uneasy listening but the same magic is very much in evidence. Arthur would continue to be involved in production and mixing duties for the label, but parted company with Socolov in 1985. Arthur sadly died of AIDS in 1992 leaving behind many songs; as one obituary put it, it was though he simply vanished into his music.

Can You Dig It? 2CD

Sun Ra: Heliocentric World Vol. 1 LP

Albert Ayler: Bells LP

Wilco: A.M. LP

Boredoms: Super Roots 10 LP

Long regarded as musical pioneers, Boredoms have continually pushed sonic boundaries and inspired musicians for over 20 years. Their albums and their performances defy categorization, each one a completely unique event. The one commonality is that the members of the Boredoms have amazing technical skills as musicians, limitless imagination and the ability to combine the two -- as no others have. After only being released on CD in Japan, Thrill Jockey is proud to bring Super Roots 10 to the US. The album will only be available as a limited 2 x 12" release. The album is produced by EYE and all the artwork was created and designed by EYE as well. Super Roots 10 features a remix from Norwegian artist Lindstrøm who has released music on the label Smalltown Supersound and has also done remixes for artists as varied as Franz Ferdinand, LCD Soundsystem, and The Juan MacLean. Also featured is a remix from Japanese artist Altz who has recorded albums for Bear Funk and Jet Set Records Japan and previously done remixes for the Boredoms in addition to Tal M. Klein, Cro-Magnon, and Harp On Mouth Sextet." Includes poster.

Atlas Sound: Logos LP

http://www.myspace.com/bradfordcox

Michael Hurley & Ida: Ida Con Snock LP

Michael Hurley is one of the last remaining ramblin' American folk troubadours. Hobo-ing around the country, making music since the days Bob Dylan first set foot in New York City's Gaslight club, Hurley recorded his first album for Moses Ash's legendary Folkways label in 1964 and continued to release albums for both Warner Brothers and Rounder. His mid-'70s Have Moicy album was among the top ten for the decade selected by Rolling Stone magazine. While many of his contemporaries are long past their prime (or deceased), Hurley's muse is still intact. Hurley's songwriting talent hasn't gone unnoticed by a new generation of musicians. In recent years, he was invited to tour with alt-country heroes Son Volt and Lucinda Williams. He's also shared bills with Smog and Palace Brothers, played with the Giant Sand rhythm section, and has of course appeared with (and been covered by) Vetiver and appeared on their records. His songs have also been covered by indie stars Cat Power and Yo La Tengo, among others. So, the matter at hand, a new album of recordings sung and played by Hurley, backed by Ida, appropriately titled Ida Con Snock: Snock himself marvels at this 21st studio album, recorded at Levon Helms' studio in Woodstock, NY. Ida's less-is-more finesse shines on these rich recordings, melding perfectly with Hurley's playing and singing. Many of these songs are already well familiar to Hurley's devotees. There are seven originals and five loving covers of '50s rock 'n' roll, C&W, and vintage folk, each tune capturing Hurley and band at peak performance levels.

Espers: III LP

After what seems to be an interminably long gap and born into an inextricably changed world, Espers III walks among us, finally and finely. It’s not as if ESPERS completely disappeared following their acclaimed first and second albums and tours. They played the odd show here and there — but with time and focus given to MEG BAIRD’s solo album Dear Companion, THE VALERIE PROJECT and HELENA ESPVALL’s collaborations with MASAKI BATOH and others, not to mention the launching and flight of GREG WEEKS’ Language of Stone label, three years passed like a day or two in the life of Espers. Picking up the threads with ease, Espers III was intended to be an aural reversal of the layered sound of II. The goal was to record fewer tracks in order to achieve a stronger, more oxygenated sonic presence. Where II was almost claustrophobic in its density and darkness, III was envisaged as being somehow lighter, effervescent; perhaps even of a cheery disposition at times. Under these auspices, recording started in late 2008 and spilled into the spring and summer of 2009. As more time passed in the recording process, a growing dementia within both song and lyrics emerged, making even the most ethereal songs on III seem oddly unwholesome to all involved.

Unrest: Imperial FFRR LP

A reissue of the classic 1992 indie pop gem from Washington, DC favorites UNREST. Produced by WHARTON TIERS, Imperial F.F.R.R. was the band’s breakthrough album, and is widely considered their best. Includes nine rare bonus tracks from the same sessions and demos, including the previous vinyl-only cut “Electrico.” Pristinely remastered by TREVOR KAMPMANN (HOLLAND, FLIN FLON). Deluxe 180-gram, color vinyl with heavy stock jacket.

Brilliant Colors: Introducing LP

Singer / guitarist Jess Scott started Brilliant Colors in early 2007, and she's been mighty busy since then. After a steady stream of line-up changes, Scott has finally settled on a permanent line-up with the addition of East Coast transplants Diane Anastasio and Michelle Hill (a veteran of a number of Bay Area underground punk outfits, as well as touring guitarist for legendary UK punk / dub group The Slits!), in the meantime sharing bills with fellow Bay Area acts Nodzzz, Grass Widow, and Ty Segall and opening for the likes of The Urinals and The Homosexuals. Following up two sold-out singles (on Make a Mess and Captured Tracks) and mounting fervor from all corners of the pop underground blog-o-world, Brilliant Colors' debut album is as an undeniable contender for best pop record of 2009. Introducing, recorded in Portland, Oregon by Mississippi Records' Alex Yusimov, marks a great leap forward for Brilliant Colors.

Black Devil Disco Club: Strange New World of Bernard Fevre LP

In 1975, before the release of the first Black Devil Disco Club album, Bernard Fevre released an album called The Strange World of Bernard Fevre. Like the first Black Devil album, it was so far ahead of its time that even now, people struggle to believe it was really recorded over 30 years ago. Now Fevre has once again unlocked his magical cabinet and made available new mixes of the original tracks, along with previously unheard compositions. So crisp and inventive are the electronics, so haunting and eternal the melodies, it is as if this music has always existed. Which are new tracks and which come from the same era as the original album, Fevre is no hurry to reveal. For him, there is a single space-time continuum, and where and when individual events occur is of little importance. If Black Devil is all about creating Afro-infused disco grooves that impel the listener to dance, the music of Bernard Fevre transports one to a place where everything is clearer, sharper--an intense hyper-reality, not unlike states glimpsed during those all-too-fleeting moments of successful drug ingestion, and yet much more powerful and lucid. Musically, there are echoes of now-familiar styles, from the romanticism of Air to the electro pulse of Busta Rhymes, the lush tones of Drexciya, the wayward warp of Aphex Twin, and the delicacy of Kraftwerk.

Dock Boggs: Legendary Singer and Banjo Player LP

Elizabeth Cotten: When I'm Gone LP

This is the third volume of work for Folkways by one of the most important acoustic guitarists of the 20th Century, originally released in 1965. Produced by musician ALICE GERRARD and recorded by folklorist/musician MIKE SEEGER, When I’m Gone is the perfect introduction to the queen of folk-blues. An absolute classic lovingly reissued in a perfect replica of the original Folkways jacket and including a reproduction of the original information booklet.

Lucinda Williams: Ramblin' on My Mind LP

Lucinda Williams: Happy Woman Blues LP

Eddy Current Supression Ring: Self-titled LP
In a world where indie pop music has gone murky and mopey, songs by garage bands are used to sell cars on TV, and real punk rock is in hiding, it's nice to find a band that didn't get the memo. Of course, they are from Australia. Eddy Current Suppression Ring is four guys who worked together at a vinyl pressing plant in Melbourne and decided to start a band at the company Christmas bash after-party. Live practice tapes soon developed into sold-out singles and increasingly packed shows, and Eddy Current Suppression Ring grew into a uniquely sincere and simple band that creates increasingly indefinable music. Yes, there are discernible influences: The Stooges, Can, The Fall, or Devo. But they don't sound like any of those bands--or anyone else, for that matter.  In 2008, Goner released Primary Colours, Eddy Current Suppression Ring's second album, in North America to widespread critical acclaim. This is their debut that never made it out of Australia. A perfect companion piece for Primary Colours, their self-titled album is filled with all the elements that made Colours so great: razor-sharp guitar, rumbling bass, rat-a-tat drums, and lead singer Brendan Suppression's heavily accented squawk. Take it for a spin.

Inca Ore: Silver Sea Surf School LP

Eva Saelens’ life quest has taken her from Michigan to Oregon to Oakland back to Portland and back again, with several overseas explorations and inner journey road trips thrown in for good measure. Whatever path she’s on is long and winding and hidden in the shadow of overhanging cherimoya trees. Fortunately she maps her migrations with haunted, exotic breath-and-electricity sphinxes ranging from 2006’s Brute Nature Vs. Wild Magic to last year’s brainwashing Birthday Of Bless You LP. 2009 finds her offering up another psychic harvest unto the world, Silver Sea Surfer School, a new nine-song pipeline ride that floats through a whole new web of voice orbs and tape hiss and keyboard balladry. If anything, Silver Sea is Saelens’ weirdest hour, layered in abstract environments, whispers, distant poetry, free percussion loops, with sudden passages of heart-dissolving ghost-piano beauty (“Shine On From The Heaven Above,” “Adventure In Light”). Heavily impressive, and a brave pearl-dive into even more personal waters for the Inca Ore lifeforce. LPs come in jackets with art by Saelens, plus a full-color insert. Edition of 500

Mantles: Self-titled LP
With two acclaimed seven-inches under their belt, The Mantles answer the call for more with a stunning debut LP sure to please all who cross its path. The Mantles have been dead-on in distilling a contemporary pop / psych concoction that mixes equal parts early Chills with early Dream Syndicate--and really, who among us wouldn't want a bottle of that with which to quietly tipple the day away? Recorded by Greg Ashley, the LP taps said hybrid, and if anything, burrows deeper into the core of rock, extracting essential magma that fuses early SF Ballroom psychedelia, Byrds-ian jangle-pop, and the Velvet Underground's extraordinary ability for serpentine leads and bridges. And yep, that pretty much covers all the bases.

Robedoor: Raiders LP

Following their 2008 East Coast tour with Woods and Pocahaunted the Robedoor agenda has mainly been: hibernating in the City Terrace zone above east LA, adding a drummer/modular synth dealer, and letting the smoke rise. Raiders is the first RBDR LP since 2008’s Endlessly Blazing and is the result of almost six months of slow-burn transformative tape machine meditation helmed by Mr. Ged Gengras. Bummed guitars, loner drone tones, low caverns of reverbed drums and rumble, echo dislocation, and dead voices cascade down into the isolated highways. Song modes are carved out and then left to rot. Features early trio live set staples like “Indo Shadow” and “The Downcast Eye.” You can’t stick your hand in the same black river twice. Change or be changed. LPs in jackets with cover photo by Caitlin C. Mitchell. Edition of 500

USED VINYL:

rock:

neil young: self-titled

neil young: decade

allman brothers: at the fillmore

allman brothers: beginnings

black sabbath: self-titled

rolling stones: flowers

beach boys: surfs up

beach boys: wild honey/20/20 (2LP)

beach boys: summer days...

the beatles: rubber soul

the beatles: let it be

the beatles: love songs (2LP with book)

the beatles: in the beginning

the beatles: rarities

jefferson airplane: takes off (later pressing)

jefferson airplane: surrealistic pillow (later pressing)

dr. john: night tripper

glencoe: spirit of

grand funk railroad: live album (2LP, german pressing)

lou reed: take no prisoners (2LP, live)

bruce springsteen: born to run/the river/born in the usa/greetings from asbury park

rory gallagher: tattoo

family: fearless

family: music in a dolls house

family: entertainment (uk)

the paupers: ellis island (amazing cheap psych album)

leonard cohen: death of a ladies man

chris farlowe: greatest hits (uk, rolling stones related)

dusty springfield: a brand new me

dusty springfield: cameo

dusty springfield: see all her faces (uk)

lesley gore: girl talk

the byrds: untitled

the band: the last waltz

the doors: self-titled (gold label, vg+)

pink floyd: nice pair (piper at the gates of dawn)

pink floyd: atom heart mother

pink floyd: ummagumma

king crimson: discipline/beat/in the court of the crimson king/three of a perfect pair/red/lizard 

del shannon: one thousand six hundred...

joni mitchell: blue

various artists: not so quiet on the eastern front (2LP, with inner sleeve and book)

various artists: rat music for rat people

various artists: eastern front

various artists: permanent wave

black flag: everything went black (2LP, first pressing with band's name airbrushed)

whipping boy: the sound of no hands clapping (rare 1st LP by CA band produced by klaus flouride)

faith: subject to change

jawbreaker: bivouac

shudder to think: get your goat

halfoff: the truth

meat puppets: huevos

bad manners: klass

the smiths: strangeways here we come

let's active: every dog has his day

new model army: ghost of cain

the clash: this is radio clash 12:

the clash: self-titled (us)

the clash: sandinista

the clash: give em' enough rope

depeche mode: broken frame

depeche mode: black celebration

depeche mode: catching up...

kraftwerk: trans-europe express

kraftwerk: autobahn

the specials: more specials

the specials: ghost town 12"

devo: are you experienced 12"

devo: freedom of choice

dead end kids: breakout (with poster!)

cocteau twins: blue bell knoll

cocteau twins: treasure

sex pistols: never mind the bollocks...

blondie: tide is high 12" (german)

specimen: batastrophe

redd kross: neurotica

the replacements: i will dare 12"

the replacements: let it be

the replacements: hootenanny

new york dolls: self-titled

alan vega: saturn strip

insect surfers: sonar safari (local new wave)

calculated x: self-titled (private press new wave)

julee cruise: floating into the night (produced by angelo badlamenti and david lynch)

au pairs: playing with a different sex

rem: dead letter office/green/fables of the reconstruction/document

talking heads: and she was 12"/remain in light/speaking in tongues/naked/little creatures

the police: syncronicity/regatta de blanc/outlandos d'amour

janes addiction: nothings shocking

grateful dead: in the dark

grateful dead: workingman's dead

george harrison: cloud nine

neil young: hawks & doves

blues image: open

sunkilmoon: tiny cities (mark kozelek doing modest mouse)

elvis costello: secret, profane & sugarcane

ryan adams & the cardinals: cardinology

jazz:

billie holiday: broadcast vol. 3 (esp)

jelly roll morton: 1938/1940

david matthews & whirlwind: shoogie wanna boogie

paul humphrey/shelly manne/willie bobo/louie bellson: drum session

gabor szabo: macho

lenny white: venusian summer

k. & j.j.: israel

ramsey lewis: funky serenity/upendo ni pamoja (2LP)

charles kynard: your mama don't dance (mainstream)

larry willis: inner crisis

richard groove holmes: six million dollar man

jimmy smith: black smith

junior mance: touch of

jack mcduff: fourth dimension

ray bryant: in the cut

mike longo: awakening (mainstream)

richard groove holmes: american pie

richard groove holmes: onsaya joy

pete yellin: dance of allegra (mainstream)

night blooming jazzmen: freedom jazz dance (mainstream)

george duke: save the country

eric kloss: essence

lonnie smith: mama wailer

johnny hammond smith: what's going on

funk/soul:

mandre: m3000

free movement: i've found someone

soul children: best of two worlds

purifys: pure sound of...

smokey robinson & miracles: anthology (3LP)

4 tops: best of (2LP)

jackie wilson: story (2LP)

solaris: self-titled

marz: make it right

marvin gaye: what's going on (later pressing)

marvin gaye: here my dear

various artists: lost soul vol. 1

black ivory: baby, won't you...

smokey robinson & miracle: one dozen roses

4 tops: nature planned it

mary wells: greatest hits

peggy scott & jo jo benson: lover's heaven

little anthony & the imperials: on a new street

esquires: get on up and get away

timmy thomas: why can't we live together

isley brothers: very best of (early tracks)

gloria lynne: dynamite!

big j: in 3-D

michael jackson: thriller

michael jackson: off the wall