Author Archives: Mike Newman

I love these dudes. Foxygen‘s Jonathan Rado and Sam France are two of the most interesting songwriting cats I’ve heard in the last few years. Jagjaguwar released their self-produced masterpiece ​Take the Kids Off Broadway ​earlier this year and now they’re set to release their new Richard Swift-produced album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, in January.

Check out Foxygen’s story to catch up: “In May 2011, Foxygen’s Sam France and Jonathan Rado nervously handed off a CD-R of their homemade mini-opus Take the Kids Off Broadway to producer and visionary Richard Swift after his performance in a Lower East Side club.

The duo, who had just mixed and burned the disc that very night, had been devotees of Swift’s outsider-pop oeuvre since high school, when they first began recording their own pubescent forays into oddball rock n’ roll (at least a dozen records were finished before they graduated high school).

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Hey, I just heard a great new album. And I scored an extra one for one of you! The band’s name is Helvetia (not Helvetica, like I kept reading at first) and here’s their deal…

The fantastic folks at Light in the Attic Records are in the midst of their annual Light In The Attic Road Trip, hitting 58 record stores in 10 days and covering 3,000 miles from Seattle to Los Angeles and back.

Each day they post video highlights and the first two episodes just went live, along with a contest to win a seat in the van and $50 a day to spend on wax. Here are the latest two episodes.

Now for those of us on the East Coast who are unable to join the contest to win a seat in the van, well here’s something pretty damn cool! Head to the official Light In The Attic Facebook page and leave a comment on the cover photo telling LITA about your favorite record shop (make sure to tag the store, if you can) and you’ll be entered to win one of three $50 gift certificates to LightInTheAttic.net! The winners will be announced on Friday, October 5th, on LITA’s Facebook page.

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The great folks at RVNG Int’l. are releasing this insanely-killer double vinyl compilation of new mixes and unreleased material from the ’70s Italian psychedelic prog-rock renegades, Sensations’ Fix, who were led by guitarist, keyboardist, singer, composer Franco Falsini. And we have a copy for one of you!

“Music Is Painting In the Air is a collection of new mixes and unheard music from Sensations’ Fix’s prolific output between 1974 and 1977. Revered as one of the great articulations of progressive music, Music Is Painting In the Air offers guide posts to those familiar with Sensations’ Fix’s amorphous catalog and an approachable primer to those just journeying on the sensational trip.”

“Falsini blazed a trail for home recording that has impressed upon inward resourcing and reflecting musicians and DIY enthusiasts in the decades since. A technology stalwart, Falsini employed a floor model MiniMoog and a tricked-out Teac 4-track machine to transform the Virginia basement of his house into a cosmic conduit and launch pad for Sensations’ Fix.”

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TVD’s Record Score is brought to you by TVD NYC’s own Mike Newman, who recently scored some great records and is now intent on sharing them with you. New stuff and old stuff, straight from the vinyl to your ears!

We’ll always provide links in the playlist where you can score the records online, but always remember to hit up your local independent record store!

The playlist for this fifth edition of the Record Score podcast follows after the jump. Hope you dig!

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I’m fucking psyched about the new Neil Young & Crazy Horse joint, Psychedelic Pill, coming out on October 30th. Shit, the first track is 27.5 minutes long!

Following up this year’s single Americana release, Psychedelic Pill looks like it will dig in much further, with 8 songs spread over two CDs. And it will also be available on triple-vinyl. The sour news though is that the vinyl will cost you about $88.

Now, I initially thought that this was due to Warner Brothers price-gauging, knowing that they could count on a certain number of sales from both Neil-fetishists and vinyl-fetishists. But Jeff Conklin from East Village Radio tells me that it’s because Neil insists that the records be cut and mastered at a specific plant in Japan and the stock for the sleeve is from somewhere in Europe. All boosting the costs. I still call some major label shenanigans in there!

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I’ve been awaiting this album since I heard my first Allah-Las song probably back in 2010. I believe it was “Catamaran.” I was hooked by the perfectly laid-back reverb-drenched surf psych. And yes, it’s true, the Allah-Las are a new band. Despite what your ears hear (and your eyes see below), they are not from the ’60s.

KCRW puts it in pretty right-on terms: “Try to conjure up the most quintessential LA sound with a hint of surf, 60s Sunset Strip, downtown city grime, and a trace of Americana desert folk, all mashed together with a healthy dose of wha wha, fuzz and reverb. And then add the pivotal tambourine…and voila!”

After some great 7″ single releases over the last couple years, Innovative Leisure will release the Allah-Las first full-length LP on September 18th. But we have a copy to giveaway to one lucky winner!

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The shimmering siren song of Stealing Sheep has left me sonically shipwrecked…and I like it!

Hailing from Merseyside, England, Stealing Sheep are an entrancing trio of musical wizardesses whose debut album, Into the Diamond Sun, comes out on September 4th via Heavenly Recordings / Cooperative Music. I have it already and I am fully under the spell.

Luckily, we have a vinyl 7″ single of Stealing Sheep’s “Genevieve” to give away to you to bring a bit of their magic to your turntable.

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Legendary Band keyboardist, Garth Hudson, has gathered together some great Canadian musicians who have chosen their favorite tunes from The Band and put them together on this here compilation Chest Fever: A Canadian Tribute to The Band.

It will be released on October 2nd, 2012 but you must crank up this version of “This Wheel’s On Fire” by Neil Young and the Sadies right now.

I just watched this far-out magical Guardian Alien video and just had to share it with you!

First of all, if you don’t know, Guardian Alien is a free wheeling ensemble who have found just the right balance between structured arrangements and wild abandon. Helmed by Greg Fox, who has lent his percussive force to the likes of Teeth Mountain, Dan Deacon, and Liturgy, the ensemble was initially an extension of his solo music. It rapidly took on its own identity and expanded to a core group of Greg (drums, vocals, electronics, arrangements), Alex Drewchin (vocals, synth), Turner Williams Jr. (shahai baaja), Bernard Gann (guitar and also of Liturgy), and Eli Winograd (bass).

Guardian Alien’s Thrill Jockey debut, See the World Given to a One Love Entity, is a 40 minute psychic/psychedelic meditation that is driven by an intensity that is at once expansive, focused, and heavy on multiple levels. The overall arc of the album is transportive and trance inducing.

So now that you’re prepped for the magic, press play, sit back and go on Guardian Alien’s magical journey…

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Dudes, I just picked up this massive book by Joel Freimark (aka The Daily Guru on the internets) and have been geeking out, going through and reading about some of the greatest albums ever made.

It’s encyclopedic but insightful. It jumps around from genre to genre, yet has an inherent unifying thread. And the good news is we’ve got one for you.

Joel Freimark posts brilliant daily Youtube videos about music that he loves and stuff he wants to turn you on to under the moniker, The Daily Guru. Check them out by subscribing to his Youtube channel or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

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Evan Caminiti of Barn Owl has a new solo album, ​Dreamless Sleep​, coming out next week on Thrill Jockey. As the day got darker with rain, I melted into the soft beautiful ambience of the sounds and visions of “Absteigend.”

Sit back and relax and dig the ebb and hiss…

Since we’re all a tight-knit music-lovin’ community, we created this segment so that some of our good friends who are doing good things in the industry of human happiness could share the records that they’ve been diggin’ on lately.

This edition of Grooves Shared features the great NYC shop, Record Grouch. After more than a decade of selling used records in Williamsburg, Doug Pressman launched Record Grouch at the now defunct Monster Island in 2010 and then in a small basement space at 441 Metropolitan Avenue.

In April 2012, Brian Gempp joined Pressman to open the new and improved Record Grouch at 986 Manhattan Avenue in the heart of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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Well, we just announced yesterday new Brooklyn label Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records first band signing, Prince Rupert’s Drops and now we’re giving you the chance to see them live…along with the mighty homegrown Cincinnati band Buffalo Killers and the Chicago soul psychsters The Velcro Lewis Group on Thursday, August 16th at Glasslands.

The show is a soft-launch party for Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records, which will release Prince Rupert’s Drops debut album the Fall.

The festivities kick off at 8:30 and early-arrivers will get free show posters (of the killer artwork above) and/or BBiB Records mixtapes…for those of you that held on to your old cassette decks over the years!

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Brand-new Brooklyn label Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records announces the release of the debut effort from Brooklyn psychedelic garage rock scorchers Prince Rupert’s Drops.

Run Slow, the long-time outfit’s first LP, will be released on November 6th. Take a listen to their killer first tune, “Pillar to Post”:

Prince Rupert’s Drops will be debuting tracks from their upcoming LP at a very special NYC show on August 16 at Glasslands.

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