Monthly Archives: November 2020

TVD Premiere: Kelly Finnigan, “Santa’s Watching You”

Kelly Finnigan has always added classic soul to his sound and does so in his original new Christmas release next month, A Joyful Sound on Colemine Records. But he brings a whole new menace to the holiday with his second single from the set, which amplifies the familiar warning, “You better watch out, you better not cry” into the sizzling “Santa’s Watching You,” which we’re happy to premiere today at The Vinyl District.

“This song came to me like all good ideas, by accident,” Finnigan tells us. “I was deep in making this record and thinking a lot about Christmas music pretty consistently. I was sitting around, hanging out listening to some different records. A great gospel tune by The Sacred Four came on called ‘Somebody’s Watching You.’ In that instant, I realized that somebody else watches people too.” So the jolly North Pole denizen turns into somewhat of an NSA super spy in the hands of the soulful Bay Area singer, producer and songwriter.

If the funky feel of “Santa’s Watching You” has the easy camaraderie of an office Christmas party, it’s because he’s enlisted musicians from the esteemed Ohio label, headquartered upstairs from the Plaid Room Records in downtown Loveland, a shop definitely worth a stop to vinyl lovers in the Cincinnati area.

Backing Finnigan alongside label head Terry Cole is Plaid Room Records employee Henry Allen. It also features Jimmy James, guitarist for the Delvon Lamar Organ Trio, and no less than the Harlem Gospel Travelers on backing vocals. That meant some widespread geographic contributions to the album, Finnigan says, with “drums and bass in Ohio, guitar in Seattle, organ, percussion and vocals at my place with some additional background vocals by the Harlem Gospel Travelers in New York.”

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Ragas Live Festival to
be reimagined as an epic 24-hour live broadcast, 11/21–11/22

PHOTO: KENNY MATHIESON | The world music festival, which began in 2012, is planning an unprecedented global event featuring world music icons Terry Riley, Zakir Hussain, Toumani Diabate (pictured at top), Betsayda Machado and numerous others. Artists in thirteen cities from Mysore to Madagascar will contribute to a celebration of “Community, Unity, and Harmony.” Raga is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent.

In a sense, the festival, which began as a radio event and eventually began producing live shows around the New York area, is returning to its roots on the air. Performances will be live streamed on the site of one of the sponsors, Pioneer Works and on radio station, WKCR-FM 89.9 FM from 7 PM Friday evening until 7 PM Saturday evening (eastern time).

Some of the cutting edge cross-cultural performances include Terry Riley performing raga-based improvisations from Japan preceded by Brooklyn Raga Massive premiering a 24-person performance in homage to Riley. Amir ElSaffar will be collaborating with the Brooklyn Raga Massive as well as with Raga Maqam, a 14 piece ensemble that explores the intersections between maqam, the tonal language of Arab, Turkish, and Persian traditional music, and raga. Andy Statman, the legend of klezmer and bluegrass will be exploring both Jewish doinas and ragas from the 200-year-old synagogue B’nai Jeshurun.

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Graded on a Curve: New in Stores for November 2020, Part Three

Part three of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for November 2020. Part one is here and part two is here.

NEW RELEASE PICKS: Lisa/Liza, Shelter of a Song (Orindal) Lisa/Liza is singer-songwriter Liza (pronounced Lisa) Victoria, who resides in Portland, the one in Maine. This is her third LP for Orindal (she’s also issued a pair of cassette EPs for the label), and after welcoming additional instrumentalists on her prior effort Momentary Glance, she returns to solo mode here with eight tracks recorded live in a kitchen with nary an overdub. Victoria’s sound lands securely in the late night folk zone, with singing that’s pretty but sturdy, delivery that’s emotional but in control, and fingerpicking that is often gentle but with an invigorating tension and flashes of sharpness. Additionally, Victoria has the ability to tackle topics (the suicide of a friend on Momentary Glance, her own chronic illness on this album) that’s stimulating in its seriousness rather than burdensome. Still, it’s difficult to deny this record is a heavy experience, but that’s ultimately to Victoria’s credit. Shelter of a Song is unlikely to get many back-to-back spins, but when it is played it will surely leave an impression. A-

Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band, Fase Liminal (Soul Jazz Records) One of the dangers with spiritually focused music is an overflowing bliss that deflates into insubstantiality. Fase Liminal, which can be succinctly tagged as contemporary spiritual jazz from Chile, doesn’t have this problem, largely because the range of influence is fairly wide, so that an appealing balance is struck between free jazz fire and modal fusion textures, with electric keyboard prevalent. And so, not only does Rodriguez and band avoid getting too airy, but they also avoid faltering into hackneyed vamping or technique-flaunting noodles. Hooray! And while there’s an abundance of percussion across the record, rhythm doesn’t dominate the proceedings, as the horn playing is rich and occasionally raucous. This is true in particular during the closing alt take of “Dónde ?,” which attains levels of collective intensity recalling Sanders’ Karma but with piano that brought to mind LaMont Johnson’s playing on Jackie McLean’s “Hipnosis.” Everything clicks, even the flute and vocals. A-

REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: V/A, CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol.1 (Soul Jazz) This set, issued in 3LP and 2CD editions, arrives in conjunction with the hardcover book CUBA: Music and Revolution: Original Album Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90. Both the book and this collection are the handiwork of Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker, their third such collaboration (the prior two delved into revolutionary jazz and bossa nova), and as these selections play it’s abundantly clear, even without access to the book (which isn’t available in the US until December 11), that the compilers are at the very top of their game. Now, you might’ve noticed that the book tackles a much longer timeframe than the compilation. That’s okay. The compressed focus of Experiments in Latin Music allows for a deep immersion into a transitional period rather than surface-skimming a longer span of years. Furthermore, it’s stated that most everything here was previously unheard outside Cuba, making this a feast for the curious (out 11/27). A

MIYUMI Project, Best of the MIYUMI Project (FPE) Now 20 years strong, the MIYUMI Project is a Chicago-based Asian-American / African-American collaboration founded and led by bassist Tatsu Aoki. Drawn from the group’s sizeable discography, these nine selections span four sides of vinyl (CD is also available) and from all research appears to by MIYUMI Project’s debut on wax. The sound is a synthesis of the Japanese taiko drumming tradition and avant-jazz improvisational firepower, with a sturdy connection to the Windy City’s AACM, including members Ed Wilkerson and Mwata Bowden on reeds and Dushun Mosley on drums. Aoki, who was part of Japan’s experimental scene before moving to the USA in 1977 (Chicago in ’79), brings a steadying maturity (and robust bass) to this fusion, though that’s not to infer that things don’t get wild. They do. Things are also consistently rhythmic, rising to a powerhouse level in the nearly 16-minute “Episode One.” Along with spirited expansive blowing, there is beaucoup string scrape, which only increases the fortitude of the MIYUMI Project’s bedrock. Compilations rarely get any better than this one, which culminates with an unreleased live track.

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In rotation: 11/19/20

Chicago, IL | ‘Dusty Groove’ film sifts through the emotions of giving up your vinyl: Chicago music store owners buy stranger’s collections and hear their stories in the engrossing documentary. Rick Wojcik and J.P. Schauer are the co-founders of the Dusty Groove record store in Wicker Park, and they’ve been at this a long time. If you caught up with John Cusack’s Rob Gordon and Jack Black’s Barry Judd from the fictional Championship Vinyl record store in Wicker Park from “High Fidelity” (2000) some 20 years down the road, well, that’s Wojcik and Schauer in a nutshell. …In Danielle Beverly’s engrossing and warmhearted documentary “Dusty Groove: The Sound of Transition,” the customers aren’t treated as human props for the proprietors, as is often the case on shows such as “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers.” Beverly is clearly as interested in the record lovers as the record store owners, and the result is a verité slice of American life shining a light on a disparate group of individuals who have one thing in common: They love their vinyl.

Kansas City, MO | Best of KC 2020: Every single record store from Topeka to KC is doing amazing, sweetie: Starting out west, and heading east: Time Machine Music, Mother Earth Records & Tapes, the Vinyl Score, Love Garden Sounds, Orange Cat Records, FM Music, Josey Records, Revolution Records, Mills Record Company, Records with Merrit, Brothers Music, Vinyl Heaven the Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven, and Gotwhatulike Records. These stores have been at the forefront of making sure that customers are distanced, masked and, in many cases, gloved during their shopping experiences, thanks to the sheer amount of touchy-feely involved in flipping through the bins. Be it scheduled visits, where customers can browse the shops all by their lonesome like a high-rolling celebrity, curbside pickup, outdoor browsing experiences, or just a copious amount of available hand sanitizer, these record shops have allowed a certain amount of normalcy in our live, while not unnecessarily putting anyone at risk. Given that musical experiences these days are few and far between, it’s a rare opportunity to engage with like-minded music fans.

BBC: Asia’s forgotten musical gems rediscovered on vinyl: As the vinyl market experiences booming demand, crate diggers are spending time and money to re-release forgotten musical gems around Asia and beyond. Fariz Rustam Munaf, a prolific multi-instrumentalist better known as Fariz RM, was a household name in his native Indonesia during the 1980s. Back then, both teenagers and adults grooved to his signature brand of jazz fusion, which incorporates elements of spacey disco and Brazilian samba. Today, contemporary record labels are re-releasing his music for a new generation of listeners, with DJs routinely mixing his hit songs with electronic genres, such as Balearic house, at underground parties from Jakarta to Ibiza. “Being reissued is a great compliment,” says the 61 year-old. “It’s a new period of my career. I feel like I’ve been reborn.”

The 11 Best Vinyl & Record Player Accessories for Every Turntable Setup: From sound tweaks to a record club, gift ideas for every record nerd. Like any kind of collector, record enthusiasts tend to be obsessive about the object of their desire. That’s good news for gift-givers hunting for the best vinyl accessories for their friends and family. While buying records for anyone you don’t know intimately can be a dicey proposition—unless, of course, you have a link to their Discogs wantlist—the list of add-ons, novelties, and vinyl-adjacent doodads is long, with a bounty of possibilities at every price point, from humble anti-static brushes to absurdly pricey record-cleaning systems. So we’ve perused our own crowded shelves to come up with a selection of gifts guaranteed to delight any record aficionado. For still more ideas—or maybe just because you deserve a treat, too—check out our guide to buying the best record player and stereo system for any budget.

Tame Impala announce 10th anniversary InnerSpeaker box set: We kinda had a hunch this was coming… Earlier this year, Kevin Parker commemorated the 10th anniversary of Tame Impala’s debut album InnerSpeaker and hinted that “something very special coming v soon.” That special something is a new vinyl reissue of the album. The 4LP box set features “2020 mixes” of the tracks ‘Alter Ego’ and ‘Runway Houses City Clouds’, instrumentals for ‘Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind’ and ‘It Is Not Meant To Be’, a collection of demos, and a 40-page book. Diehards will get excited at the inclusion of a previously unreleased ‘Wave House Live Jam’ – as in the studio property in WA where InnerSpeaker was made, and that Parker purchased recently. InnerSpeaker won the 2010 J Award for Australian Album of the Year – we praised it as a “spiralling, trippy adventure” at the time. And just a few months back, the album came #3 in Double J’s list of the 50 Best Australian Debut Albums. hailed as a “timeless album that still hits like a mind-melting sonic adventure from another era.”

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TVD Radar: Doin’ My Drugs documentary to debut On-Demand 12/1

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In his directorial debut filmmaker Tyler Q Rosen offers a revealing and inspiring documentary about how a man and his guitar can be the beginning of change for an entire nation, one person at a time.

Doin’ My Drugs is a profound and personal look at the extraordinary life of musician Thomas Muchimba Buttenschøn as he uses music in an effort to wipe out AIDS in his native Zambia and beyond. Born in Zambia in 1985 to a Zambian mother and Danish father, Buttenschøn was diagnosed HIV positive as an infant. After emigrating to Denmark with his family for treatment, Thomas lost both of his parents to AIDs at the age of nine and became deathly ill himself at 13. Upon regaining his health after beginning antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, he threw himself into music, and at 20, became a Danish pop star.

After marrying and fathering two sons, Thomas reconnected with family in Zambia, and was shocked to discover that the country remains trapped in a senseless HIV/AIDS epidemic. While he is able to live a full and healthy life with the virus, a staggering 13% of Zambians who are infected with HIV remain untreated because of the social stigma attached to the virus, and the resulting reluctance to get tested, despite the availability of free treatment from their government. Determined to make a difference, Thomas has dedicated his life to using his music and his own story to raise awareness about HIV and treatment in Zambia. Teaming with an extraordinary group of Zambian musicians, Thomas embarks on a crusade to wipe HIV and AIDS in Zambia, and throughout Africa.

The film is executive produced by longtime HIV/AIDS activist Jake Glaser of The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. EGPAF seeks to end global pediatric HIV/AIDS through prevention and treatment programs, research, and advocacy. Released by Freestyle Digital Media, the film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios.

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TVD Radar: Mary J. Blige, My Life 2LP and 3LP sets in stores 11/20

VIA PRESS RELEASE | UMe’s Urban Legends, the label imprint and cross-platform initiative devoted to the curation and celebration of over three decades of urban catalog music and culture, and Soul In The Horn, an innovative digital movement that seeks to bridge cultural gaps by bringing together a diverse cross-section of creative talents, have teamed up to create an extraordinary one-of-a-kind 3-D experience for ardent Mary J. Blige fans that celebrates the November 29 anniversary of My Life, one of the most critically acclaimed and important R&B albums of all time.

Over the past few days, 500 randomly selected superfans from her newsletter and website, ages 21+, received an invitation to dive into a dynamic online environment full of rare content via mobile or desktop that mirrors virtual reality. Custom-built so fans can interact with one another as well as with digital concierges designed to guide them on-demand throughout the journey, UMe’s Urban Legends and Soul In The Horn provide VIP access to My Life music, performances, visuals and more.

Mary J. Blige, the legendary singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist and honorary Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, will re-release her acclaimed 1994 sophomore album, My Life, on November 20 via Geffen/UMe. The album will be released in three physical forms: a 2CD, a standard weight black double vinyl, and a triple vinyl edition in translucent blue with a lenticular cover, including bonus tracks featuring LL Cool J, and Smif ‘N Wessun. The 3LP edition will also be available digitally which will also feature commentary by Mary J. Blige on the original album tracks. From her No. 57 hit “You Bring Me Joy” to her No. 22 version of Rose Royce’s 1976 soul classic “I’m Going Down,” My Life was one of Blige’s most creatively vital works to date.

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Graded on a Curve:
Gene Clark,
No Other

Celebrating Gene Clark who would have been 76 this week.Ed.

Talk about your impeccable resumes. Not only was Gene Clark a founding member of jangle rock pioneers The Byrds, he was also half of alt-country band Dillard & Clark and a great solo artist to boot. But not even this list of accomplishments could win Clark’s 1974 album No Other—which he considered his masterpiece—an audience. To be blunt, No Other was a flop, mainly because Asylum Records declined to promote the LP, both because they didn’t see any hits on it and because they were appalled by the time and cost it took to produce the record, which featured such notables as Chris Hillman, Jesse Ed Davis, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, and Butch Trucks. Indeed, by 1976 Asylum had deleted No Other from its catalogue altogether.

It even took the critics a long while to realize that No Other—a lush, lovely, and even visionary work—was worth every dime and hour spent to make it. Clark—a psychedelic kinda guy who hung out with the likes of Dennis Hopper and David Carradine—was said to have ceased feeding his head when he composed the songs on No Other, but they’re spiritually deep nonetheless. They’re also disparate in terms of influence: this was no pure country rock LP, but an agglomeration of folk, country, rock, gospel, even R&B and funk. And to think it was initially intended to be a double LP, until Asylum head honcho David Geffen blanched at the $100,000 the project had already cost.

As I noted above, No Other has a deeply spiritual feel to it—it possesses the gravity of a work only possible by an artist who has opened his head and journeyed to the 5th Dimension, ultimately emerging wiser as he returned to our far more prosaic world. Which may sound like hippie bullshit, and may even be hippie bullshit, but I buy it, Clark’s fascination with Carlos Castaneda, Theosophy, and all. Far more ornate than his three previous solo records, due in part to his pairing with “spare no cost” producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye, No Other features lush and unusual arrangements; backup vocals from the likes of Clydie King, Claudia Lennear, Shirley Matthew, and Vanetta Fields, amongst others; and lots of overdubs.

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Me Nd Adam,
The TVD First Date

“We grew up in Austin, a music-obsessed town where respect for vinyl runs deep.”

“Austin is home to one of the most iconic record stores in the world, Waterloo Records, which is where we each bought our first album. I think Vince’s was Kiss’s Double Platinum—he doesn’t like people to forget that—and mine was Willie Nelson’s Stardust, a Texas classic.

We love vinyl. Our forthcoming debut, American Drip Part 1, is available exclusively on vinyl and via your preferred streaming service.”
Adam

“When I was 22, my girlfriend’s sister moved into a fixer-upper where the previous tenants had left all of their collections behind.”

“One of those collections was thousands of records, including some of the greatest orchestral and operatic pieces (think Stravinsky and Beethoven) recorded by the greatest symphonic orchestras in some of the most iconic locations, including the Taj Mahal and Sistine Chapel.

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Graded on a Curve:
Nine from Mute Records

Formed in 1978 by Daniel Miller, Mute Records has prospered in the decades since and continues flourishing right up to the present, as is made clear by the 2020 releases reviewed below by Daniel Avery, Apparat, Nicolas Bougaïeff, HAAi, Pole, and Cabaret Voltaire. With the exception of the digital-only material by Apparat, everything is available on vinyl and CD, and it’s all out now, except for Shadow of Fear by Cabaret Voltaire, which arrives on November 20.

Daniel Avery made his initial splash back in 2013 with his full-length debut Drone Logic, but more recently, as in earlier this year, he issued Illusion of Time, a collab with Alessandro Cortini (he of Nine Inch Nails). Love + Light is described as a surprise release on Mute/Phantasy in the US and Canada and on Phantasy alone throughout the rest of the world. No longer a surprise: the digital has been out since June, but the CD and vinyl have belatedly shipped earlier in November.

While Illusion of Time is notable for the absence of rhythm, Love + Light is drenched in club-thump underscoring its maker’s beginnings in techno. Some might wonder if Avery’s backsliding, but it’s really more a case of his undiminished interest in the style. I’ll add that the record effectively branches out, and right away with a slice of ambient in “London Island.” He also ratchets up the racket in “Searing Light, Forward Motion.” Note that the vinyl offers 12 tracks and the full release features 14 for a total just a smidge over one hour, as Avery’s individual selections are largely concise. B+

Apparat, aka Berlin-based electronic musician Sascha Ring, has also moved away from dancefloor-ready techno, heading toward the ambient but more recently soundtrack works as documented in an aptly named series of digital releases. The first, Soundtracks: Capri-Revolution, was review in TVD’s New in Stores column on May 1. We consider the subsequent three here.

Soundtracks: Stay Still, recorded for a German feature directed by Elisa Mishto, came out in May, and it blends hovering, glistening ambience with melodic touches, but with the synth-poppish “BK LULU,” complete with gal vocals, dropped roughly in the middle. Released in June, Soundtracks: Dämonen provides the music for a theatrical play by Sebastian Hartmann adapting Dostoevsky’s Demons, with an emphasis on chamber strings (at times heavily bowed, very nice), a little spare pluck-strum, and even some cathedral-style organ.

But it’s not like he lost touch with his electronic side. The same is true of Soundtracks: Equals Sessions, which was issued in July as the final entry in the series, featuring work from Ring and Dustin O´Halloran for the 2015 feature by Drake Doremus. As a dystopian sci-fi romance starring Kristen Stewart, Equals the film is a higher-profile and bigger-budget affair than either Stay Still and Dämonen, a reality that’s absorbable as Equals Sessions plays, though there is stylistic unity, including some churchy keyboard and some singing (guy vocals this time out). B+/ A-/ A-

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In rotation: 11/18/20

Portland, OR | Photo Essay: Music Millennium Survived the Advent of Streaming Services. Now It’s Surviving the Pandemic, Too. Each month since reopening, sales have roughly equaled figures from the previous year. Founded in 1969, Music Millennium has survived Napster, smartphones and streaming. When the COVID-19 pandemic came, the store switched to curbside- and online-only service for 10 weeks but returned to limited in-store shopping in June. Now admitting up to 10 customers at a time, there is frequently a line to enter the store. Each month since reopening, sales have roughly equaled figures from the previous year.

Madison, WI | Strictly Discs in Wisconsin, in a Pandemic: New COVID-19 Closures Are ‘Getting Closer.’ In an “eventful week,” store owner Angie Roloff deals with a family tragedy, exploding coronavirus cases and the threat of new closures. In October 1988, Angie Roloff and her husband Ron opened Strictly Discs in Madison, Wisconsin, after Ron left a career in the biomedical research field to pursue his love of music full time. Nearly 31 years later, the couple made the difficult decision to shutter in-store operations due to COVID-19, roughly a week before Gov. Tony Evers forced a mandatory shutdown of all non-essential businesses. Now that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Evers’ stay-at-home order — ruling it “unlawful” and “unenforceable” — the Roloffs and their employees have reopened the store. As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the music industry, we will be speaking with Roloff regularly to chronicle her experience throughout the crisis.

Richmond, VA | Musical Healing: Record Store Day offers a special release of a legendary concert at Plan 9 Records from 14 years ago. In the summer of 2006, the Richmond music scene was still reeling from the tragic murders of the Harvey family. On July 13, Plan 9 Records in Carytown held a rock concert to raise money for the Harvey family memorial endowment – a show that would go down in the history books of that Richmond institution. The sold-out event for just over 200 people started at 10 p.m. and raged on for two and half hours, about an hour longer than the band originally planned. Now others get to hear all its sweaty glory when a four-record vinyl set of the Drive-By Truckers’ “Plan 9 Records July 13, 2006” is released on Record Store Day this Black Friday – an album one national music critic is calling the band’s best live recording. As for its pay that night, the group received a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon and two bottles of whiskey — all of which was consumed by the encore.

AU | Why are vinyl records making a huge comeback? Just when we roll our eyes at the fact that kids these days only listen to Spotify, we see news that the sales of vinyl records surpassed that of CD. Wait, what? Are we back in the 60s? Are vinyl records really back from the dead? Well first of all, vinyl never really died. It decreased in sales when CD became famous in the late 80s but there were still a bunch of people who are vinyl freaks. Vinyl sales dropped fast but it continually increased in sales years after, peaking in 2006 and it never stopped going up since then. Years later, here we are. The Recording Industry Association of America, LP vinyl records accounted for $232.1 million of music sales in the first six months of 2020, whereas CDs have only brought in $129.9 million. This is the first time since 1986 that vinyl has outsold CDs. Today, you don’t have to be a hotshot musician in order to release vinyl because one great benefit of the internet is that you can also find ways to lessen the risk of financial loss. Nowadays, you can make as few as 50 units and just sell it on your website or even do pre-order (they buy before you press vinyl) so you are sure every vinyl you press will get sold. Although vinyl is still relatively expensive to make, there are many tricks and tips for a cheap vinyl record pressing.

Norman Cook: ‘I would go out actively looking for strange old records I could take little tiny bits of.’ “…You know that that beautiful moment in DJing is when the whole room becomes as one like a collective euphoria and a collective abandon, which is a very powerful thing and if you can achieve that at arena level it really is quite an emotional thing to witness that kind of, the togetherness and the community within it… It started that I just had a big record collection so when I discovered a sampler and the fun you could have with it, I started trawling through my record collection. I was always a crate digger and I was always a vinyl junkie and that just kind of fed my habit that I could – when I was DJing abroad, I would always hit record shops in the afternoon and thrift stores and then yeah, so I would go out actively looking for strange old records that I could take little tiny bits of. So again it sort of fed my addiction of being a vinyl junkie but I was calling it my job because this was source material.

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TVD Radar: Newport Folk Festival releases
A Change Is Gonna Come, 2LP in stores early 2021

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Featuring Jon Batiste, Mavis Staples, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr, Valerie June, Brandi Carlile, Maggie Rogers, Rachael Price, Chris Thile, Bermuda Triangle and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band backed up by The Dap-Kings.

Recorded during the finale of the 2018 Newport Folk Festival, A Change Is Gonna Come was a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between some of our very dear friends. Featuring Jon Batiste, Mavis Staples, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr, Valerie June, Brandi Carlile, Maggie Rogers, Rachael Price, Chris Thile, Bermuda Triangle and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band backed up by the inimitable Dap-Kings.

A Change Is Gonna Come is being issued as a limited edition 2-record set pressed at RTI on premium 180-gram vinyl and housed in a genuine old style tip-on gatefold jacket. Limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies, each pre-order comes with an immediate free digital download of the recording. Vinyl will ship in early 2021. Fans can pre-order the album here today. Proceeds will support Newport Festivals Foundation’s ongoing initiatives to support musicians in need and music programs across the country.

“In the Spring of 2018, I was in the famed Studio A of Electric Lady Studios watching Jon Batiste and The Dap-Kings blow the minds of those fortunate to attend one of our first live Newport Festivals Fundraisers. Immediately afterward, sitting with Jon in the control room digesting what we all had just experienced, we both knew this needed to be witnessed by more than just a handful of lucky souls,” says Newport Festivals Executive Producer Jay Sweet. “And so the idea was born to close the 2018 Newport Folk Festival with a set we called ‘A Change Is Going to Come,’ a celebration of the festival’s storied history with the civil rights movement.”

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TVD Radar: The Offspring, Conspiracy
of One
20th anniversary color vinyl reissue in stores 12/11

VIA PRESS RELEASE | To commemorate its 20th anniversary, Conspiracy of One, the sixth album by punk rock trailblazers the Offspring, will once again be available on vinyl—the first time since its release in 2000. On December 11, Round Hill Records/UMe will release a deluxe version of Conspiracy of One pressed to yellow and red splatter vinyl, which includes spot gloss on the cover and a custom turntable slipmat featuring the Offspring’s flaming skull silhouette logo. A non-deluxe, limited-edition canary yellow vinyl variant will be available on uDiscover & The Sound of Vinyl. A standard black vinyl version will be released in early 2021.

All editions will feature the bonus track “Huck It.” The anthemic, sub-three-minute blast was featured on their 2000 VHS/DVD Huck It and used to soundtrack various skateboard stunts, including longtime Offspring drummer Ron Welty doing a successful board-to-board leap over two of his bandmates. “Huck It” will be released as a stand-alone digital single on November 13. A lyric video featuring footage from the Huck It VHS/DVD will also be released on November 13. In addition, the official videos for Conspiracy’s first two singles—”Original Prankster” and “Want You Bad”—will be available on the Offspring’s Official YouTube channel in newly remastered HD.

Conspiracy of One, the first Offspring album of the 21st Century, was the fourth album from the game-changing punk group to be certified Platinum, a feat completed only a month after its release on November 14, 2000. The album is best known for its lead single, “Original Prankster,” a song that broke the Billboard Top 100 and hit Number 2 on the U.S. Alternative Airplay charts. The song and its mischievous video by director Dave Meyers included a funky sample from War’s “Low Rider” and a cameo from hip-hop legend Redman. The album’s follow-up single, “Want You Bad,” could be heard in the film American Pie 2 and the video game Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller.

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UK Artist of the Week: Camden Place

With the pandemic still running wild all over the world, it’s sometimes hard to feel optimistic about when things will be back to normal again. Now, more than ever, we need to look after our mental health and remind ourselves it’s ok to feel low or anxious in these unprecedented times. Collaborative dance project Camden Place remind us of just that on their ambient new single “Will I Make It To Springtime,” out now.

Blending woozy synths, transcendent drum beats, and singer-songwriter Grainne Hunt’s soft, celestial vocal, “Will I Make It To Springtime” is the perfect lo-fi slice of electronica to get you through the winter months. Grainne has teamed up with Irish songwriter Seán Silke, electronic producer Magician’s Assistant, and label Beardfire Music for this release and it certainly seems like the new found collective are onto something good if this debut is anything to go by. Fans of the likes of Bonobo and Four Tet will feel at home here.

“Will I Make It To Springtime” is a song about facing your fears and accepting your anxieties, something that feels extremely relatable at the moment.

“Will I Make It To Springtime” is in stores now via Beardfire Music.

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Graded on a Curve:
Holy Motors,
Horse

Although Holy Motors hails from Tallinn, Estonia, their music is perfectly suited for a road trip in a gas-guzzling boat of a car roaring westward across the expanse of the USA. Featuring songwriter and guitarist Lauri Ruas with vocals by songwriter Eliann Tulve, the band, formed in 2013 when Tulve was just 16 years old, is completed by guitarist Gert Gutmann and drummer Caspar Salo. Their sophomore full-length Horse continues to hone a shoegazing, twangy, Mazzy Star-ish sound to productive result. The record’s out now on vinyl, digipak compact disc, and digital through Wharf Cat Records of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The Bandcamp bio for Holy Motor’s offers that they are a “dark twang & reverb band from a nonexistent movie.” But as others have observed, they share a name with an actual film, specifically the most recent completed feature, from back in 2012, by the great (and very underrated) French auteur Leos Carax. Additionally, Holy Motors list amongst their achievements a gig in the support spot for a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s 1989 film Mystery Train.

Listening to Holy Motors’ latest while contemplating the allusions in their bio to cowboys and cowgirls and the old West, I’d say that double billing them with Mystery Train was a smart move, as Jarmusch sets his film in Memphis, TN but tells a series of stories about foreign visitors to the city. This complements Holy Motors’ adoration and embodiment of bygone American lore; the band furthermore cite Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas as favorites.

Often described as a neo-noir, Badlands is set at the turn of the 1960s in the titular region of the USA and was the first feature from perhaps American cinema’s prime transcendentalist, which is to say that while American by birth, Malick is unconstrained by borders. Paris, Texas, which can be described as the unfolding mystery of how a relationship came to be broken (complete with a child), also features scenes of Harry Dean Stanton walking across dusty landscapes in the Lone Star State.

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In rotation: 11/17/20

Tower Records returns as an online store: 2020 has been a tough year, but one bright spot has surfaced as the year winds down. Onetime record store chain Tower Records has been resurrected as an online store. The new Tower Records, which can be found online here, will have online events, the return of their Tower Pulse! magazine, a merchandise section and a wealth of vinyl, CD and cassette selections. The onetime record store giant has been shuttered since 2006, minus a store in Japan, after filing for bankruptcy. The chain’s rise and fall was documented in the 2015 film All Things Must Pass. Deadline reports that the Tower resurrection was expected to be revealed earlier this year at Austin’s SXSW festival. However, the cancellation of the annual event due to COVID-19 led to the delay of the announcement. The intent was to add a series of pop-up shops as well, which could still happen when the pandemic lessens. Tower Records’ new CEO Danny Zeijdel made a statement about the company’s return. “[The news] has been met with tremendous success, feedback,” Zeijdel said. “A lot of people are so happy taking pictures of when they receive an order from Tower Records, posting it on Instagram.”

Memphis, TN | With Patreon & an Online Variety Show, Goner Records Adapts to the Pandemic: Record stores have been hit hard by the age of quarantine, and in the case of Goner Records, which is also a label and festival promoter, the effect has been tripled. And yet their many innovations, from a “telethon” for Record Store Day, to Goner TV (which debuted in July), to this year’s virtual Gonerfest, reveal their willingness to innovate in order to accommodate the new normal. Now they’ve embraced another approach to both surviving and staying connected with fans and customers, one that is more typically associated with artists: Patreon. I spoke with co-owner Zac Ives to learn more about the reasons behind their latest move, and what kinds of offerings patrons can expect. “…the positive thing about this is, it really allows people to have a more direct impact on things that they care about. And so that’s what this turned into. If you like what we’re doing, there’s a way for you to directly impact our ability to keep doing these things. And at the same time, it lets us be creative with what we can give back to people for their help, for being a patron.”

Toronto, CA | Jason Momoa spotted at Toronto record shop: Jason Momoa was spotted getting his groove on to some soul music at a Toronto record store. The Aquaman star stopped into Cosmos Records, located at 607a Queen St West, on Friday. The shops Instagram account posted a video of the actor dancing along to Syl Johnson’s “Different Strokes” as he looked through the vinyl. Cosmos wrote that the Game of Thrones alumni’s visit was “good vibes only.” Momoa was previously photographed at Ozzy’s Burgers in Kensington Market, and has been seen strolling through Parkdale. According to the City of Toronto’s list of Current Productions, the actor is in the city to film the second season of the dystopian Apple TV+ series See.

Elvis Costello on Turning His 1979 Tour De Force, ‘Armed Forces,’ Into 2020’s Splashiest Boxed Set: In a Variety bonus Q&A, Costello revisits how Bowie and ABBA influenced him four decades ago, why he’s cool with the super-deluxe “Forces” coming out via vinyl, streaming and downloads but not on CD… and drops a new performance of the classic “Party Girl.” Very few music boxed sets aspire beyond being gussied up digital repositories to becoming actual physical pieces of pop art. But opening up the new vinyl set from Elvis Costello, “The Complete Armed Forces,” feels like getting several Christmas mornings all at once, with a suitable-for-fondling nine records, seven paperbacks and various other ephemera intended to bring back the color explosions of 1979 as well as invoke other visual styles from the pulp-fiction ‘50s to the present. At the center of the “super-deluxe” set, enveloped in elaborate, Barney Bubbles-designed origami packaging, is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s fairly undisputed masterpieces, “Armed Forces,” a semi-concept record that reinvented Costello’s style three albums into his career and made “emotional fascism” sound like great, brow-furrowed fun.

Naples, IT | New record shop, Organica, opens in Naples: The store is run by the team behind popular venue Basic Club. Naples has a new record shop. Organica Records, which is run by the team behind popular local spot Basic Club, opened on Friday, November 6th. Located in the city’s historic centre, on Via Vincenzo Bellini, the shop stocks all sorts of music on vinyl, from Latin, soul and jazz to techno, disco and deep house. There are listening decks in-store, plus a selection of beers and soft drinks. Head to Organica’s website for more information, and check out some photos.

Posted in A morning mix of news for the vinyl inclined | Leave a comment
  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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