It’s no understatement—we’re hooked on Imperial China’s latest, ‘Phosphenes’ which our friends over at Aural States championed with, “Phosphenes is a testament to Imperial China’s distinct sound, meticulously alloying innumerable flavors of rock and pop into something both fresh and familiar. . .overall the album is a confident, well-developed debut of a unique and vibrant voice in a somewhat stagnant scene. A sign of a fertile future for both artist and label, and if we’re lucky, one of the first major volleys in a bonafide new movement.
No faint praise there, hm?
The band is fresh off the road and ready to rally the locals this Friday night at Velvet Lounge and they’re bringing alongCephalopods, (including Hugh McElroy, Fiona Griffin, and Wells Bennett), Busses, and Lo Moda (from Baltimore).
Now, typically this is where I announce that we’ve got a pair of tickets to give away – and we do. But the band’s also tossed in the new ‘Phosphenes’ CD and your choice of one of the two tee shirts shown below in the:Mother of All Imperial China Giveaways.
You know you want to be there Friday night with the tee shirt on your back and the CD in your pocket. Let us know just how much the Mother of All Imperial China Giveaways would complete your weekend and the most over the top of you with your plea in the comments to this post—with contact email info!—takes it all home.
“Other people write about the bling and the booty. I write about the pus and the gnats. To me, that’s beautiful,” the late Vic Chesnutt told an interviewer in 2005.
Does more need to be said, really?
Vic’s last gorgeous LP is Week 7’sRecord Store Day Vinyl Giveaway…
The rules can’t be any simpler for our RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaways. All you need to do to enter to win is to leave a comment in the comments section to that week’s giveaway letting us know why you deserve to win that week’s LP.
Be creative, funny, incisive—whatever it takes to grab our attention to deem you the winner. Most important however is to leave us a contact email address! You can be brilliant as hell, but if we can’t track ya’ down, you’re out of the running.
All winners will all be notified on Monday (3/29) upon the launch of the next RSD2010 Vinyl Giveaway!
The most cherished band of their generation, Teenage Fanclub return in May 2010 with a brand new album (yes, out on vinyl) entitled ‘Shadows,’ a headline slot at Camden Crawl, and a UK tour.
It has been 5 long years since their last album, ‘Man-Made’, was released to universal acclaim, so it is no overstatement to say the new album is keenly anticipated. While most bands are lucky to have one great songwriter, Teenage Fanclub are blessed with three, hence ‘Shadows’ is overflowing with the kind of gorgeous, harmony driven classics you’d expect to find on a greatest hits album.
…and we’ve got the debut of the first single, ‘Baby Lee.‘
I had Earl Greyhound’s track ‘SOS’ on constant rotation back in early ’06…then after some touring…nothing.
But the band is back indeed with a new drummer and their sophomore release ‘Suspicious Package’ out on April 13th on Hawk Race Records…and ya’know, seemingly primed for peak rotation once more. Earl Greyhound – Ghost and Witness (Mp3)
If there’s one label who are most proud of their vinyl output, it’s Daptone Records. Never mind that they’re responsible for some of the tastiest Soul, Funk, Gospel and Afrobeat discs out there.
I mean, how’s this for a mission statement?
“Hand-made and heart-stirred, our records are manufactured from the highest quality vinyl available. Our limited pressings can be purchased directly from us or from your local distributor at reasonable prices. Each record is carefully recorded and mixed by the illustrious Bosco Mann to ensure only the hardest, truest sound found this side of the Atlantic.”
This week, we’re hanging out with the funky denizens of Daptone—as we have previously with the bands and artists from Sarathan Records and Vanguard Records—to get a beat on their most favorite record stores as we continue to beat the drum for Record Store Day 2010.
“It is mid-March in Austin, and the cacophony known as South by Southwest is in full effect. I take a break from the madness to visit one of my favorite record stores, Friends of Sound Records at 1704 S. Congress Street. This place is not too big but it has a great selection and lots of new inventory coming through all the time.
Walking in, you are greeted by a nice collection of soul, funk, and reggae 45’s. I go through the 45’s first and continue on to a well-categorized LP section. The store deals mostly, if not all, in used records. It’s got a listening station (key when digging for records), the prices are reasonable, and the staff is always kind. The overall vibe in this place is great, not mention the fact that it is around the corner from Guero’s for delicious Tex-Mex and Allen’s Boots for all your western outfitting needs.
Unfortunately, this time around I only have a half hour to dig as I have to get back to 6th street for a show—still enough time to pick up 3 good finds. First off is “Irma Thomas Sings,” a great compilation of Irma Thomas classics released on the Bandy label. It’s hard to find most of these great tunes, so this album is a real gem.
Next is “Pillow Talk” by Sylvia. As the title suggests, this is a record for lovers. Its smooth soul from New Jersey and it doesn’t disappoint. Finally, I got Hank Ballard’s 45, “How You Gonna Get Respect (when you haven’t cut your process yet).” This song is a riff on the James Brown Classic “Licking Stick” with a more political message. I have always loved this song for its quirky arrangement and powerful vocals and I finally found the original 45.
Allow me to just point out that press releases rarely come better written or more – shall we say – intriguing:
“A man once said: “To say that you know what Francis is about without having experienced it face to face is like saying that you’ve had sexual intercourse when you actually only have seen porn”.”
Take that, I say! Here’s another quote:
“Francisare blowing my mind. Swedes rocking big-band and blues like from the back of a speakeasy in the heyest heyday of the Roaring 20s? Yes, please. Driving drums and bold, harsh vocals belie their rock and roll sensibilities. ALSO THEY ARE SWEDISH! God bless globalization, you guys.” – Music For Misanthropes
Suitably intrigued to see what Francis is up to? Well, lucky you. We’ve got two pairs of tickets and their debut CD for two winners for their appearance this coming Monday night (3/22) at the House of Sweden.
Your steamiest analogy or response left in the comments to this post —with a contact email address!—gets the tickets to she show and the CD. We’ll choose two winners by noon on 3/22!
“Pirate Love mixes a delightful refreshing blend of garage, punk, rockabilly and goth, in the veins of The Cramps, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Nirvana and The Stooges.… a primal sound with references to hate, drugs, revenge and violence in a gorgeous package. Sincere sounding, and one can only surmise that the songwriters have had some serious misadventures along the way……”Black Vodoun Space Blues” is an excellent debut from a band that has chosen a path that hasn’t already been trampled to pieces.—ABC News
Hm. Since when did ABC News have its finger on the ‘in-the-know’ button?
But—they’re right. And we’ve got a pair of tickets to put you right up there with the hipsters in the ABC Newsroom.
Pirate Love sails into Silver Spring tomorrow night (3/23) so you have to ask fast! Grab the tracks, check out the vid, and when you come down, hit us up in the comments to this post—with contact email info!—and we’ll get one of you the pair of tickets for Tuesday night’s show.
The idea of making “travelin’ music” is a loaded concept. We all have a “sound” we like to ride to. I created this mix thinking about the journey to Austin ahead.
SXSW has been an annual pastime—not only the music conference itself but for the listening prior. The weeks leading up to SXSW are always filled with intense listening. It’s a time to refresh the palette so to speak, and I challenge my current “pile of records” to either stay or leave. I take in as many new releases as I can and dig back in my crates.
Finally for my muse, I posed myself 2 questions: When it comes to music, what does Texas mean to me and what’s the reason we make the schlep to Austin every year for SXSW?
The simple answer is in this mix…cool bands and great songs. Enjoy…
We’ve had a blast taking over The Vinyl District this week. To leave our mark and part on good terms, we’d like to share some of our recent and upcoming artists with you all…
I grew up in Arkansas, in a town called Malvern, a town of about 9,000 people. We had this one little record shop in town, Paula’s Records. It was the only place you could buy records. The old lady that ran it, Paula, used to chase us out of there because we’d stay all day, just looking at the records. We couldn’t really afford to buy them.
The first record I ever bought was in Paula’s, it was “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles. I bought the 45 and it was the time I’d ever bought anything with my own money. To this day, that record is the thing I credit as being the catalyst for me wanting to be in the entertainment business, particularly in a band.
When we went in there, we’d just look through everything. We would thumb through the 45s in those paper sleeves and look at the pictures. We had these fan magazines in those days, and we’d see the bands and then there we were, looking at their records. Most of the time we couldn’t afford to buy them, so we’d just stare.
I remember every label, and that’s one of the things I miss, even about CDs. CDs are fine, its what we have now, but, in those days the labels were so important to us, to see Vanguard or Columbia or RCA or Capitol or Verve or any of those.
The spirit in that store was so incredible to us. It was like walking into the Magic Kingdom. We didn’t care about going to Disneyland, but we loved to go to the record store.
She sold a few musical instruments, not much stuff, but enough for us to stare at. We’d look through the Dave Clark Five records, the Beatles, the Stones, Tom Jones, and some of the country records, but when I was a kid it was all about the British Invasion and the 60s pop rock records, and we’d stay so long that Paula would chase us out, make us leave. She’d say “If you’re not gonna buy anything, you gotta get outta here.” She was a nice woman, at least when you first got there, but she could be a little cranky. Still, that store, to me, to this day, is just a magical memory. We don’t have those stores much anymore, and the ones that are left are the only remnant of that childhood that was so beautiful.
Hopefully Independent Record Stores will stick around. I hope the corporations don’t obliterate every one of them. I’m a big fan of actual record stores. I wish they’d bring vinyl back, period. I wish we didn’t download songs, but that’s the way it is. Hopefully that spirit’s going to be here from now on no matter what we have. Just don’t close the doors. Don’t close the doors to our history.
If I had any advice for young musicians coming up it’d be to learn the history of music. Study what came before, in the 40s and 50s. If you don’t know that stuff, the foundation of what you’re doing is built on, then you’ve really got no business doing it. Rock and Roll, and music period, were created a long time ago, its not something that just came up yesterday. Music is too attached to fashion now. It always has been, but now it’s mainly the fashion, and a little music. So hopefully people are going to look back and see where it all came from. There was a period in rock and roll from the mid-fifties through about 1973 or 1974 when they did pretty much everything, so don’t try to reinvent something. Have your own mind, but do study where it came from, and the independent record store is where you can do that.
For those of you in Austin, join us tomorrow (it’s free and everyone is welcome – no badges or wristbands required) for our Vanguard/Sugar Hill Records and Paste party at The Belmont sponsored by our good friends at Ful Luggage and Arbor.
Stop by pick up some swag, take advantage of some great drink specials and oh yeah—hear some awesome artists/bands play live. Be sure to RSVP to Stephanie@vanguardrecords.com.Hope to see you there!
1:00 | Bobby Bare Jr. w/ Special Guest: Tribute to Shel Silverstein (Album coming June 8)
…wherein we canvas a few Vanguard Records acts and the folks who actually line the halls for their recommendations:
Eleni Mandell, The Living Sisters | Moby Disc, Los Angeles, CA
I really miss the excitement and anticipation of going to the record store when I was a kid. My dad was a pretty avid collector. He’d go 2-3 times a week to shop. Whenever I asked if he’d take me down the hill to buy a record, he always, remarkably, said “yes”. In my neighborhood the two main stores were Moby Disc and Tower Records. I got my first Tom Waits record at Tower and my first X record at Moby Disc. I guess I wouldn’t be who I am without those experiences. The Living Sisters debut album ‘Love to Live’ is out March 30. Visit the Living Sisters on Myspace.
Stephen Brower, Marketing/A&R Development, Vanguard Records | Record Exchange & School Kids, Chapel Hill, NC
I was very, very fortunate to be in Chapel Hill, NC at a time when the town was served not only by (still thriving) live venues like the Local 506 and Cat’s Cradle, but also by three world class art house movie theaters and two great independent record stores, the Record Exchange and Schoolkids, whose doors were separated by about 100 feet.
These were classic indie record stores. The High Fidelity kind. I’d go in looking for Steve Earle and leave with Townes Van Zandt. I’d go back for more Townes Van Zandt and leave with Kenny Roby, a local artist who, as it turns out, was every bit Townes Van Zandt’s songwriting heir. I bought a Jayhawks record that led me to a Golden Smog record that led me to an Uncle Tupelo record that led me to a Bottle Rockets record. And so on. I found Luna on a homespun listening station. I’d buy $5 tickets for the Local 506’s annual ‘Sleazefest’ and end up seeing the Drive-by Truckers working out songs from what would become the Southern Rock Opera. I’d see local metal band Goatthrower summon the devil himself at a house party and run out to see if I could buy their home recorded EP.
Thanks to these stores, I could.
Trevor Hall | The Sound Garden, Baltimore
I always get a good feeling walking into record stores. I feel like they are the front lines of support for music. I’ve had the pleasure of performing at a bunch of indie stores…but one of my favorites is in Baltimore. It’s called The Sound Garden.
We played an in store there one time before our concert with Matisyahu. It was a great vibe. They had all these good records and products for us to browse through before playing. A lot of people showed up…we were pretty surprised. We had only been there for an hour or so…but it felt like we were in some one’s living room and could’ve stayed the night. Thats the great thing about the indie stores…it is so intimate. Visit Trevor Hall on Myspace.
Fred Jasper, TV & Film Licensing, Vanguard Records | Record Exchange, Roanoke VA
My first love will always be the original Record Exchange in Roanoke, VA, which eventually blossomed into a 15-store chain in towns across Virginia and North Carolina. I can remember happily biking mile after mile, crossing freeways and ducking down back alleys, coasting through residential streets and gliding through business parking lots as a pre-teen to enter the mecca of cool (in my mind, at least) in my hometown, the Record Exchange, and spending all of my weekly allowance on music.
Sadly, the store is no longer around, but I’ve been chasing that indie record store high ever since my formative years. I’m glad to say that I continually find and surpass those experiences with trips to usual suspects like Grimey’s, Waterloo, Music Millennium, Amoeba, Ear X-tacy, etc. to off-the-beaten path and impulse stops at random stores I chance upon when travelling in cities not my own. For me, idle, unplanned time in an indie record store is truly one of life’s most simple pleasures.
Stephen Kellogg | The Record Archive, Rochester NY
What I love about this store is two-fold. First and most important, there is none of that “High Fidelity” sh&t where you feel dumb for not knowing much about the vast ocean of music they have available. Everyone without exception is friendly and glad you’re there…eases my grade school trauma of buying “Deep Purple” shirts before I knew anything the band played and being teased for it (hey a cool shirt is a cool shirt).
Secondly, I love this store because when I go in I end up picking up 10 things I didn’t know I “needed”. It’s a great store and is always innovating what they can do for their customers…I feel proud to be one of their customers. Visit Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers on Myspace.
Ayappa Biddanda | Radio & Promotions, Vanguard Records
As a kid growing up in Knoxville, TN, a fantasy world I dreamt of was building a cool record store with hard-to-find cassettes (I’m old), vinyl, imports, and cds hosting live performances with some of my favorite artists that happened to be nestled on the edge of America looking over the Pacific Ocean. To my amazement, I found just such a store embodied in Fingerprints Music in Long Beach, CA.
Not only have I enjoyed finding some limited edition musical collections there, the live performances they’ve hosted have truly amazed me. Perhaps a standout show in a list of stellar artists including Nellie McKay, Trevor Hall, Peter Case, Greg Laswell, and The Watson Twins may be the in-store performance by Matt Nathanson. Playing to a capacity crowd who found out about the performance thanks to the store’s e-newsletter (illustrating the close connection between store & patrons), the performance captured an artist in the safe cocoon of my realized fantasy world playing not just to the riveted attention of the store patrons, but also to the lingering presence of artists like Smokey Robinson, U2, Nanci Griffith, Oscar Brown Jr., and so many others whose echos could be felt through the records lining every wall and crevice of the building.
Over the course of the next hour, Matt stunned the audience with music that resonated deeply within each of us yet buffered the experience with stories that alternately had us in hysterics or flat out disgust—while still laughin’ out loud. And that what was so special: within this haven of melody was an artist opening himself up and successfully connecting with each of us in the room. He wrapped up by doing an achingly gorgeous version of Springsteen’s “No Surrender.”
Matt stayed to say hello to each and every fan afterward and, at the end of the night, I think I could just about make out Bono in the corner applauding for a job well done. Not only do you get to experience once-in-a-lifetime moments at Fingerprints, but the staff—galvanized by owner Rand Foster—also finds a way to memorialize the experience with the coolest posters printed specifically for each event. Fingerprints creates the type of special womb necessary for true musical discovery to take place and I consider myself lucky to have them in my life…now, if they only carried cassettes…
Note: This Matt Nathanson performance proved to be so good, it was paired with Matt’s performance from Orlando at Park Avenue CDs for the Left & Right EP. A limited edition is now available at www.fingerprintsmusic.com.
Right—there are quite a number of things happening tonight competing for your attention, but can we entice you into one more?
Evan Bliss is one singer-songwriter to watch. His voice, combining effortless soul and smoky blues with undertones of Ray LaMontagne, makes his alt/rock/pop sound unmistakable. Ubiquitous despite not yet being a household name, Evan’s music has been featured in commercials for surf-inspired footwear maker Reef, and he has performed in support of artists as diverse as Wyclef Jean and the Flaming Lips.
Evan is building on the groundswell of popularity he enjoyed with his former band, well-respected East Coast reggae rockers ‘The Low Life’. You will be hearing much more from him with the forthcoming release ‘ShhhPOW’, out this Spring on the philanthropic indie label Holster Records—and the release party is tonight (3/18) at 9:00 at DC’s Hard Rock Cafe.
The Living Sistersmay be the most experienced “new” group you’ve ever heard. Los Angeles-based singer/songwriters Inara George (The Bird and the Bee), Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Eleni Mandell have cumulatively spent decades writing, recording and singing around the world with their respective groups. Now, after years of seed-planting, the accomplished trio has finally recorded their Vanguard debut album ‘Love to Live’ as the Living Sisters.
Produced by the songwriters themselves with co-production by Sheldon Gomberg, the self-titled debut nods to classic country harmony groups like The Louvin Brothers and the Delmore Brothers, but also showcases the singeres’ roots in gospel, soul and doo-wop. Connecting and anchoring these disparate styles are the trio’s harmonies themselves, which, depending on the track, can be subtly suggestive, childishly playful or earnestly heartfelt.
To record the album, each member began writing songs individually, bringing their tracks to group later on to collaborate on harmonies. After much trial and error, the trio recorded each track simultaneously using one collective microphone, adding minor vocals afterwards, and yet ensuring each song retains a raw, immediate quality.
In the little more than three years since she grabbed her acoustic guitar and took the stage for the first time, Chicago-based singer/songwriter Daphne Willis has grown from a feisty neophyte into a self-assured, marvelously expressive artist with a bracingly seductive sound. The 22-year-old’s Vanguard debut album, ‘What to Sa’y documents Willis’ voyage of self-discovery, while also standing as a captivating introduction to a remarkably fresh voice with a distinctive point of view—one that both reflects and scrutinizes the social patterns of her generation.
The album interweaves relationship songs, interior dialogues and pieces inspired by the need for catharsis—her own and, by extension, that of her listeners. These dozen songs also reveal a young woman in firm possession of a supple, hyper-melodic style, writing with a sophistication that belies her age. Because of the silky, disarming ease of her songs, Willis has been described as a female Jack Johnson, but below the surface this introspective yet life-embracing young artist brings a cutting-edge liveliness to the confessional singer/songwriter tradition that recalls the music of Rickie Lee Jones at the same age. Like Jones three decades earlier, Willis is turning the conventional notion of the young woman with an acoustic guitar on its ear.
There’s another aspect of this undertaking that Willis finds especially gratifying. “My favorite part of the whole thing is the interaction,” she says. “I’ve met so many people with the same kind of ideals and interests. I love it that people are connecting through my music. Speaking philosophically, life is short, and I’m just trying to get people to calm down and enjoy these moments together.”
Daphne’s album ‘What to Say’ is available on iTunes and Amazon.
