Hey New Yorkers! This Saturday come on out to Smorgasburg at East River State Park on the water in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for not only the best in food and drink…but also in tasty vinyl platters! And the weather looks like it’s gonna be a perfect day.
Here’s the Facebook event page for more details, and the full listing for DJs and vendors follows:
One of NYC’s premier independent record shops, In Living Stereo (which also doubles as a broker for high-end hi-fi equipment) has a doozy of a day planned for this Saturday, 4/20…also known as Record Store Day.
Of course, RSD offers a lot of goings-on from lots of our favorites indie shops, for which in NYC we are lucky enough to have several, but In Living Stereo has a lineup not to be missed! Of course they will be carrying almost all of the RSD specials along with their usual immaculately curated gems…plus some great DJ and live band action.
Dig the schedule:
12PM – 2PM: DJ Niall Van Dyke from Newtown Radio’s The Continuous Mammal
2PM – 3PM: Alex Bleeker & the Freaks live set
3PM – 4PM: Prince Rupert’s Drops live set
The BBiB Record Club has been going down in NYC / Brooklyn regularly (almost monthly) for the past 3.5 years and we’d like to invite you and a friend to the next one at Masterdisk on 4/20! Yeah, that’s Record Store Day…so, how fitting?
That’s right, the super sonic sultans of Masterdisk are hosting the Record Club in April and we’re totally psyched for it! If you think records sound good listening to them in your living room on a modest hi-fi setup, then you’re gonna be in Sonic Valhalla at Masterdisk.
If you don’t know about Masterdisk, it is one of the most famous independent mastering studios in the world. One of the projects they just finished is the vinyl master for the new Bowie album and they have some of the nicest sounding listening rooms you can find this side of the Ganges. So, yeah.
(Check out TVD’s 6-week series with Masterdisk’s Scott Hull on the fine art of mastering. —Ed.)
New vinyl-centric Brooklyn label, Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records saw its first release in November with the excellent full-length debut from Prince Rupert’s Drops, Run Slow.
Since then, the imprint has released an LP from Finnish psychedelic band Kiki Pau, and this month, a debut EP from LA psych-Kraut jammers JJUUJJUU, and a split 10″ EP between New England psych-folk masters MMOSS and Quilt which comes out April 23rd. Take a look at some of BBiB Records’ sweet vinyl packaging over at their Big Cartel shop.
Four months after its first release, Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records is now officially ready to throw a big label launch party, and what better way to do it then with 3 bands on the label’s roster? I’ll tell you a better way…with 3 roster bands and YOU and your FPO! I just made that up…FPO = Favorite +1.
As we noted last November with our review of Graham Parker & The Rumour’s brand new release, Three Chords Good, “While he experienced much success in the ‘80s and beyond, these days Graham Parker’s best work is widely considered to be the fine run of albums he recorded in the mid/late-‘70s with The Rumour, a group of pub rock vets that helped propel the singer-songwriter into the company of Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and the young Joe Jackson as a direct, classicist (and UK-based) breath of fresh musical air.”
“They’re back together again after a 30-plus year break with Three Chords Good. It’s a solid if modest success, mainly because its attitudes regarding the past and the present are kept in proper balance…
…this isn’t six guys refusing to grow up, but rather out to prove that growing older hasn’t erased their ability to make quality music in the tradition from where they sprang. And maybe the most immediately noticeable difference is in how much Parker’s voice has changed. Where he was once somewhat comparable to Costello, though a stronger natural singer with some of the attributes of the young Van Morrison, on Three Chords Good he’s positively and proudly grizzled, coming off not unlike Vic Chesnutt, a singer that often sounded older than his years, though the attitude and delivery here are still pure Parker.”
The Great GoogaMooga food, drink and music festival is returning to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on May 17th-19th after its rocky inaugural launch last Spring. Brought to you by Superfly Presents, the great festy minds behind the uber-successful Bonnaroo, the Great GoogaMooga can stand to learn from some of last year’s mistakes and has the opportunity to knock it out of the park this year.
Last year’s first GoogaMooga saw some issues with food supply, extremely long lines, and general confusion, which was all mostly a problem on the first day. But by the second day they had already nipped the major issues in the bud and with Hall & Oates closing out the weekend-long affair, the first GoogaMooga came off a relative success.
This year, it looks like the Great GoogaMooga is ready to take the food and drink-centric festival to the next level. Like last year, there will be free tickets for those who register for them during a small window between April 1st and 3rd. And there will also be a purchasable VIP ticket for you high-rollers called the VIP Cocktail Experience, which gains you Main Stage viewing, entrance to cocktail bars and seminars, and access to the VIP-Only entrance lane.
The second release from Brooklyn’s newest and greatest label Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records is a beautiful sprawling modern masterpiece from Finnish psych band Kiki Pau. With four songs over 43 minutes, Pines is a departure from the type of music that Kiki Pau made on their first two albums.
Says Kiki Pau’s Henrik Domingo: “As for influences, lately its been about nuances and finding different ways of making sound, so we’ve listened to a lot of jazz, experimental, electronic, and ‘ethnic’ music etc. I’ve grown a bit tired of rock music and playing loud and so I feel have the other guys as well. We really tried to not to think of any references while making this record, so it was more like ‘hey this next part should sound like a thunderstorm in a desert and the next part a forest full of animals’, just childlike stuff.”
As president of Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records, when I first heard this music in the summer of 2012 via Kiki Pau’s Bandcamp page, I knew I would love to get it pressed to vinyl…the way something so beautiful and amazing should be heard. And now that it’s immortalized in wax, the world is being turned on to Kiki Pau’s Pines…
“…with woodwinds, hand drums, and guitar twang tracing links between pagan rituals under the midnight sun and Indian ashrams half a world away.”
—SPIN
“Pines is their third LP and the first to really make it’s way over to our shores – good thing too, ‘cuz we’re probably gonna be spinning this one a lot! This one is the total package too – beautiful cover art and groovy green vinyl, plus the LP was mixed by Dungen’s Gustav Ejstes so you KNOW it sounds great too. A real surprise and a definite contender for Top Ten lists here at the shop! RECOMMENDED!” – Permanent Records Chicago
Light in the Attic Records has yet again knocked it out of the park in the rare hidden gems department. Of course they do some of the absolute best vinyl reissues by any label these days, but in this case it’s a first edition of a solo album by original Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh’s axeman, Ray Stinnett.
I got the opportunity to chat with Ray via Skype about his journey from Wooly Bully stardom at the young age of 21, to his San Franciscan spiritual awakening, to his friendship with Booker T., to having a family, and to recording what should have been a classic 1971 album on A&M Records. But also luckily for us, we have the opportunity 42 years later to unwrap these brilliantly-crafted, sunny countrified folk-rock soul tunes as if they were virgin ditties. And on virgin vinyl with fantastic packaging by LITA, as always.
So, sit back and take a listen to my interview with Ray. He’s a super-cool cat. Plus there are some great songs interspersed throughout so you can get a taste of the record. AND Ray even performs “Liberty Train” live on-the-spot towards the end. It’s amazing, I tell ya!
