We’ve closed TVD HQ this week for our annual spring break. While we’re away, why not fire up our free Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores, either online, curbside, or with some sound social distancing?
Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here on Monday, 4/5.
Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
He’s a drug store truck drivin’ man / He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan / When summer rolls around / He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town
Well, he’s got him a house on the hill / He plays country records till you’ve had your fill / He’s a fireman’s friend he’s an all night DJ / But he sure does think different from the records he plays
Last weekend my son and I took a road trip. It was our second such trip in the pandemic. Both were for “kids baseball,” what I like to affectionately refer to as the “baseball bullshit.” Let’s just assume a small group of 12 year old boys and their significant parents felt the dire calling to drive deep into the desert to play baseball.
The epic insanity, nonsense and tribalism resembled a kind of modern Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. How could the Sidel dudes miss out on that? I will spare you of the “play by play,” but my observation is that while our, “Idelic culture” and progressive ideals have been snuggled away in our cozy canyon pads, the rest of the country has been on the road, driving their “loaded” pick-up trucks across the wasteland.
It’s not often we get to throw around the phrase “legend” or “trailblazer” without hyperbole, but that’s exactly what we’ve got on this week’s program. Suzi Quatro is credited as being the first instrument playing female to lead a successful rock and roll band which—when she came upon the male dominated music scene in the early 1970s—was no small feat.
Suzi has done it all: several top ten hits throughout the world, a starring role in Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, and she recently saw the release of an excellent documentary about her life titled, Suzi Q (2019). When she’s not doing that, she’s hosting radio programs on the BBC, writing a book of poetry, or finding some other way to explore her wealth of talents and energy.
After 50 plus years of performing, she has not slowed down as evidenced by her brand new album, The Devil in Me which was written and recorded during the pandemic. In fact, Suzi contracted coronavirus and, because of travel restrictions, was forced to spend several months away from her husband, but, as Suzi often does, she made the most of the extra time on her hands.
The Devil in Me rocks just as hard as her earlier releases and Suzi describes it as “the best album in my career to date.” Helming this production is her son, Richard Tuckey, whose goal was to make sure Suzi’s hard-rocking clarity, power and wild-abandon remained audibly obvious and evident.
So, join Suzi and me as we discuss the last six decades of her career, the turbulent last 12 months, and try to uncover why and how—in many ways—Suzi is at the top of her game right now.
Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Sharp Notes each Saturday evening at 6pm and TVD Radar on Sundays at 5AM on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Memphis is a city with music in its blood. In 1999, when musician and producer Fred Ford, co-founder of the Beale Street Music Festival, was diagnosed with cancer, David Less organized Fredstock, a fundraiser to help with his medical bills. Less contacted Memphis legend Alex Chilton (The Box Tops, Big Star), who was living in New Orleans, to ask him to participate.
Alex said he didn’t have any musicians to play with in Memphis, so Less suggested the Hi Rhythm Section, the band behind classics from artists including Al Green, Ann Peebles, Ike & Tina Turner, O.V. Wright, and Otis Clay. Alex replied, “That will work.”
Available on CD, Digital, and LP, Boogie Shoes: Live on Beale Street was recorded at the New Daisy Theater in Memphis during Fredstock. This previously unissued live set contains versions of hits by the Supremes, Otis Clay, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard; even a cover of the KC & the Sunshine Band’s title track. Street date is May 7, 2021 from Omnivore Recordings.
Packaging contains liner notes from producer David Less, a friend of Chilton and author of the acclaimed Memphis Mayhem: A Story of the Music That Shook Up the World, and features a cover by rock ’n’ roll and folk art painter Lamar Sorrento.
Omnivore will also offer a limited edition bundle that features the LP and a numbered print of the album cover. This special edition is limited to 100 copies, and is only available from the OmnivoreRecordings.com.
Where’s Raid when you need it? Because the scurrying of little feet across the linoleum floor of stupid that’s Papa Roach’s 2000 LP Infest calls for an exterminator. On Infest Papa Roach do the seemingly impossible-namely produce a “step on it before it disappears beneath the refrigerator” species of rap rock that out-sucks anything by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
How is it possible, you ask? It’s not a question of which rap-rock band rocks harder. Papa Roach has the metal in Nu Metal part down flat, even if every song on Infest sounds the same. No, what makes Papa Roach an even more unhygienic musical health hazard than the Red Hots is their complete lack of a sense of humor.
The Red Hots are an insufferable frat rock party band whose main appeal is to essentially good natured ignoranamouses. Papa Roach, on the other hand, are a sullen bunch of pissed-off post-juveniles whose main appeal is to actual juveniles harboring grudges against life, parents, fate, “the system,” and God knows what else. The fact that Papa Roach’s emotional range is limited to enraged apoplexy makes every song on Infest an annoying bummer, and anyone with even a smidgen of joy coursing through their veins will find themselves reaching for the nearest pesticide.
Papa Roach suck for a variety of reasons. I find it appalling that there’s someone out there whose “rapping” is more wooden than Anthony Kiedis’, but Jacoby Shaddix pulls it off. What’s more, Papa Roach’s funk quotient is only slightly higher than that of Rush, and their emo levels are as dangerously high as those of Fall Out Boy. And don’t even get me started on Shaddix’s lyrics. Whether he’s feeling sorry for himself or promising violent revenge, his lyrics aren’t just dumb–they’re an insult to the intelligence of every member of order Blattodea.
Los Angeles, CA | Amoeba Music Is Reopening Next Week After a Year In COVID Hibernation: About 11 months after launching a GoFundMe campaign in a desperate bid to stay financially afloat, Amoeba Music is preparing to open its new Hollywood location. The 21-year-old record-store mainstay just recently announced plans to welcome customers to the new Amoeba Music Hollywood, located at 6200 Hollywood Boulevard. Early last year, Amoeba confirmed (in a video with Tyler, the Creator) that its existing Hollywood store would be demolished to make way for an apartment complex. And while Amoeba noted in the same clip that it intended to return at the aforementioned address by Labor Day (September 7th), the domestic onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (as well as related lockdown measures) disrupted the timetable. Now, Amoeba Hollywood is set to open its doors next Thursday, April 1st, with temporary hours of 11 AM until 8 PM. (The buy counter will close an hour before the store, however.)
Boston, MA | From Comic Book to custom vinyl records: Newbury Comics! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Newbury Comics, you might, you might go “WAIT WHUT?!” because there’s nothing VINYL about Newbury Comics at all. Newbury Comics was originally a comic store that only sells…well, comics. Their first store opened in Boston, New England’s largest city in 1978. The founders, John Brusger and Mike Dreese, both MIT students, started selling Brusger’s preloved comic book collections on Batman, Superman and Spider-Man and later expanded to many other comics with different styles and origins– from American comic books, graphic novels, manga…you name any comic title, they probably have it. But what really elevated their success aren’t the comic books, it’s music! They should probably rename the store to Newbury Music but I guess they don’t need to. Somewhere in the early 1980’s, the comic store shifted into selling CDs and vinyl records. This was all thanks to a box of records Dreese brought back from England and Boston’s booming local music scene. He just put it in their store and BAM, they’re gone. The albums sold fast.
Vancouver, CA | Neptoon Records thrives at 40, the pandemic be damned: The Vancouver vinyl palace has hosted everyone from Tyler the Creator to Jack White. Rob Frith knows exactly where and when his lifelong love affair with vinyl started. From the basement of Neptoon Records, where he sits surrounded by thousands upon thousands of albums, Frith recalls how, when he was four years old, his mother owned an old flip-top record player. The machine could only play 45s, which was just fine with the wee tyke because he revelled in the sound of singles by Elvis Presley and a mix of long-forgotten country acts. “There was a little light in the front that showed that it was on,” he recalls. “And I remember leaning against this counter that it was on and just staring at this light and this music would be playing, and I was just overtaken.” Sixty years later, music still holds a magical power for Frith. And that’s a good thing, because he’s celebrating four decades as the owner of Neptoon, the Main Street record shop that’s been a treasured destination for scores of Vancouverites in search of a music fix.
Santa Rosa, CA | The Last Record Store’s co-owner will retire as shop rebrands: It’s closing time for Michael “Hoyt” Wilhelm, his 38-year journey down the long and winding road of running The Last Record Store about to end as customers pick through the fruits of his labor. Wilhelm is retiring in May from the business he opened downtown on Jan. 15, 1983, with his longtime friend, Doug Jayne. Back in those days, physical LPs and cassettes were the dominant music format and the compact disc was only beginning to emerge. The intervening years brought massive technology changes and innovations such as Napster, iTunes and Spotify that wiped out most physical media sales. But The Last Record Store still stands as a beloved musical mecca for curious Gen Z shoppers to the most hard-core vinylphiles who could easily unpack the references in the first paragraph of this story to lyrics from Semisonic, the Beatles and Lucinda Williams, or even come up with their own. As part of the transition, Jayne and Wilhelm will close the business, which moved to Mendocino Avenue north of the Junior College in 2003. Jayne and longtime store manager Gerry Stumbaugh will reopen a new store called The Next Record Store at the current location.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings is pleased to announce the second title in its one-step series, Small Batch: Yusef Lateef’s 1961 classic, Eastern Sounds. Originally released on Moodsville (an imprint of the legendary jazz label, Prestige Records), the upcoming Small Batch pressing of this groundbreaking album will be limited to 1,000 copies and released exclusively through CraftRecordings.com on April 23rd. The public pre-sale launches this Friday (March 26th) at 2:00 pm PST.
The all-analog, one-step lacquer process series Small Batch, launched in February with a reissue of John Coltrane’s 1961 album, Lush Life—hailed by Analog Planet (1/26/21) as “…flawless and…as close to the original tape as you’re likely to hear,” along with Goldmine (April ’21) proclaiming “…this new reissue treats it [Lush Life] with the respect it deserves…we’re not even going to try and tell you how good it sounds. You just need to listen…”.
In addition, the reissue was named “Vinyl Package of the Month” by UK’s Mojo magazine (April ’21), who described the set as “an appetizing proposition for collectors…this press of Lush Life certainly sounds fantastic.” The response from the community of audiophiles and music lovers was overwhelming, with Lush Life selling out in a matter of hours. While Eastern Sounds will also be limited in nature, due to the lengthy lead time to produce the meticulously crafted pressings, future titles in the series will be produced on a larger scale, in response to demand.
This reissue of Eastern Sounds was mastered from the original stereo tapes by GRAMMY®-Award winning mastering engineer Bernie Grundman and pressed utilizing Neotech’s VR9000 compound on 180-gram vinyl at RTI in a one-step lacquer process—as opposed to the standard three-step process—allowing for the utmost level of musical detail, clarity, and dynamics while reducing the amount of surface noise on the record. The limited nature of the pressing guarantees that each record is a true representation of the original lacquer and is as close as the listener can get to the original recording. New liner notes from the GRAMMY® Award-winning music historian, journalist, and producer, Ashley Kahn complete the package.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Amy Winehouse At The BBC, a 3LP/3CD collection chronicling the many remarkable performances by arguably the greatest and most genuine talent to emerge in British music in decades, will be released on May 7, 2021 through Island/UMe.
For the very first time, this updated release offers audio-only versions of the songs featured on A Tribute To Amy Winehouse by Jools Holland and the BBC One Sessions Live at Porchester Hall, and so a high proportion of these tracks will be completely new to digital music services. “Stronger Than Me,” “Tears Dry On Their Own,” and “You Know I’m No Good” will be available March 24 on streaming services, and the video for “Stronger Than Me” will be available on YouTube. This comprehensive collection captures the strong and enduring relationship that Amy enjoyed with the BBC and is further proof of quite what an extraordinarily talented, completely original, and truly engaging performer Amy was.
Amy Winehouse At The BBC includes Amy’s earliest BBC Radio sessions, music from her first-ever TV performances, as well as unheard gems, rarities, unique covers and live versions of classic songs from Frank and Back To Black. The set also includes a beautifully illustrated 20-page booklet featuring rare photographs.
Disc 1 is a selection of recordings chosen by Later presenter, songwriter and much-loved musician Jools Holland. Disc 2 is a 14-song audio selection dating from 2004 to 2009, while Disc 3 features the performances from Amy’s memorable Porchester Hall sessions.
Celebrating Aretha Franklin on the date of her birth. —Ed.
The recent passing of Aretha Franklin was hardly unexpected, but it still sent many millions of people the world over into flash mourning. Here in America, the Queen of Soul inspired us through the Civil Rights Years with her soaring voice, set our hearts a-beatin’ with her timeless R&B anthems, and sent us to Heaven with her songs of devotion and praise. She was the very definition of “young, gifted and black,” and her immortal voice will roll down the ages like soul thunder.
With a discography that spanned from the late 1950s to 2017, Aretha produced more than enough great music to stock a top-notch jukebox, but most everybody has a favorite Franklin LP. Me, I turned for solace upon learning of her death to 1968’s Lady Soul.
As with most of her albums, Lady Soul demonstrates Franklin’s amazing range; unlike many of her albums, Lady Soul gives Aretha the opportunity to show off her amazing range on a uniformly amazing collection of songs. She cooks up a heady soul stew, gets real funky, reaches for the stars, and sings from the gut about her poor broken down heart, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had one foot planted solidly in her hometown of Detroit and the other one in the Great Beyond.
Franklin got her start at her daddy’s New Bethel Baptist Church in the Motor City, and while she ultimately took the secular route, her gospel beginnings always showed; just listen to her spirit-rousing cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” on which she sings about a heaven-bound train that’s coming and thanks the Lord more times than I can count. I’m not a devout man, but this one makes me want to cry, “Raise me up, Jesus! I wanna ride that glorious soul train!”
A year in quarantine lockdown can be overwhelming, especially for a band that is so used to being on the road as Tower of Power, the mighty soul outfit from out of Oakland, California. “I’ve toured 200 days a year for the last 53 years, so yeah, it’s difficult,” band co-founder Emilio Castillo says.
But they’ve used their time wisely to put finishing touches on their new release 50 Years of Funk & Soul: Live at the Fox Theater, Oakland, CA – June 2018, a three-LP set due out March 26 from Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group that includes versions of its biggest hits from “What is Hip” and “Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)” to “So Very Hard to Go” and “You’re Still a Young Man.”
The Vinyl District caught up with Castillo in his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he’s lived for 26 years but never so much as in the last 12 months.
Has Tower of Power played at all in the past year?
We did one gig in September where it was a drive-in gig. We did two shows with Los Lobos and it was very successful.
How does a drive-in concert even work? Do people have to stay in their cars?
No, they could get out and be in front of their car, and the mix was broadcast on an FM frequency so it went to the radio. We played in Ventura [at the Ventura County Fairgrounds], and got a lot of lowriders up in there so they came in with those big sound systems in their trucks and in their cars, It was sort of like a tailgate party. They’d be in front of their vehicles, booming it really loud, and we were on a stage, and there was an LED [screen] on all four sides of the stage, and they were all around us in a circle, spread out.
It sold out, and it was a huge parking lot, because it was a fairground. The turnout was successful. They were pleased, and two more gigs were booked immediately. It was like, all right! But then as it got closer, three days before the gig they canceled because the pandemic was spiking.
Do you have things on the calendar for this year?
Yeah we do, and then we got all these dates that we’ve got to make up. Every time we have a Zoom meeting with the band, our new manager Ivory Daniel, says, “To start the meeting right off, I want you to know: You’re booked completely all over the world. So as soon as this thing opens up, get ready to go.” So yeah, we’re booked.
There’s people that had gigs on the books that just cancelled, they’re like “We want you.” They’re opening Jazz Alley in Seattle. I’m sure we’re going to be one of the first ones back there. People in Japan, they want it. Europe. It’s going to fly.
It’s hard to know how it’s going to play out. But I know this: People are jonesin’ to get to concerts, man. They’re dying, dying to get out there and go to venues again. I hope it all just opens up completely and we let all this stuff go.
After they hear the live album they’re going to want it more.
I believe so!
Part four of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for March 2021. Part one is here, part two is here, and part three is here.
NEW RELEASE PICK: Xiu Xiu, OH NO (Polyvinyl) This album features Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart in a series of duets with an impressive list of contemporary artists, including Sharon Van Etten, Haley Fohr (Circuits Des Yeux), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Owen Pallet, Chelsea Wolfe, Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater), Alice Bag, and Stewart’s Xiu Xiu bandmate Angela Seo. 15 duets, well, 14, as the very brief “ANTS,” while a delightful finale, sounds like it’s Valerie Diaz all by her lonesome. Now, when a singer shares the mic on a record with a bunch of different folks, my expectations generally lean toward an enjoyable but not especially challenging affair, so I was intrigued by OH NO, as easy listening has never been Xiu Xiu’s specialty. Hey, good news: it still isn’t. The scoop here is that the making of OH NO served as therapeutic for Stewart, or more to the point, helped him to regain some faith in humanity after suffering a few betrayals. Instead of just a pileup of songs, this unwinds like a Xiu Xiu record, but with a handful of surprises, like a Cure cover, and the swank electro-pop of “A Bottle of Rum” with Liz Harris. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: Ali Farka Touré, Red (World Circuit) Released in 1984 by Disques Espérance, a subsidiary of the French Sonodisc label, this wasn’t Touré’s recording debut, but it did substantially raise the Malian guitarist profile and proved enduringly influential, particularly after World Circuit (and Nonesuch in the US) combined it on CD in 2004 with Touré’s ’88 LP, as Red & Green, that name referring to the original eponymous releases’ sleeve colors that have come to stand in as titles that distinguish the two. Growing up in the 1980s, it was stated back then with regularity that World Music was mostly consumed by Yuppies (particularly those who were ex-hippies), but I can’t imagine those cats willingly hanging with the exquisite, barbed rawness of Red’s desert trance blues. Featuring just Touré on a Bulgarian-made acoustic and percussionist Hama Sankare on calibash, this set is pretty much required listening for fans of Tinariwen and for those into the output of the Sahel Sounds label, but it’s also recommended to curious newbies who are partial to the Delta blues and drone music. A
V/A, Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 (World Circuit) Cumbia is the celebrated dance music of Columbia, deep of rhythm and spiked with rich horns, spritely accordions and passionate vocals. I can think of no better primer into the goodness of the style than this set, which combines two albums originally issued by World Circuit in 1989 and ’93, the second one on CD only until they were first offered together in 2012. But more importantly, these four sides are packed with material that was first issued by the Discos Fuentes label, the first album spanning 1960-’88, while the second is a deeper dive into the ’50-’60s. What this means is that, unlike a multitude of other decades-spanning comps that become less vital as they progress forward chronologically, this baby is a certifiable fiesta of swinging throughout. Seriously, “Santo Domingo” by Los Cumbiamberos De Pacheco, sequenced deep into side three, feels like the standout of the record, but then side four delivers a ceaseless succession of gems. If you dig Afro Cuban sounds and salsa but aren’t hip to cumbia, this will hit a sweet spot you didn’t know you had. A
Tower of Power, 50 Years of Funk & Soul – Live at the Fox Theater – Oakland, CA – June 2018 (Mack Avenue) As the title relates, San Francisco’s Tower of Power has been around for a long time, hitting that golden anniversary in 2018 and marking the occasion with a run of shows in their hometown, augmenting the 10-piece core band with more horns and even a (sparingly used) string section. And the generosity of the band’s performance is matched by Mack Avenue’s multiformat documentation, as they offer a 3LP, a 2CD/ DVD combo and a standalone DVD. Drum tight and highly polished, Tower of Power embody the sound of communal celebration that’s comparable to Parliament, though minus George Clinton’s eccentricity. Instead, ToP just combine their incessant James Brown-like grooves with a soulful pop inclination that can occasionally suggest ’70s Philadelphia. And while the musicianship is impeccable, the virtuosity never kneecaps feeling, which is kinda miraculous given the nature of the endeavor. I’ll close by mentioning the coincidental timeliness of “Soul Vaccination.” A-
UK | UK vinyl spending on track to overtake CDs for first time since 1987: Sales surge as music fans indulge in classic LPs during coronavirus lockdown. Record labels are on track to make more money this year from the sale of vinyl records than the once-mighty CD for the first time since the 1980s, as pandemic music buying habits accelerate the revival of the classic LP. UK record labels enjoyed a 30% boost in income from the sale of vinyl records last year to £86.5m, the highest total since 1989, as fans unable to attend live music because of pandemic restrictions spent their spare cash on building up their record collections. The number of vinyl records sold, led by classics such as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours alongside new releases from Harry Styles and Kylie Minogue, also hit a three-decade high of 4.8m last year. UK music industry body the BPI says vinyl income is now on track to overtake CDs for the first time since 1987, when Rick Astley, T’Pau and Pet Shop Boys topped the charts. The pandemic has not halted the inexorable decline of the compact disc. While the format was convenient, it was never a favourite with collectors and sales have continued to fall in the face of the streaming revolution…
AU | ‘It’s the ritual’: vinyl sales look set to break Australian records, so who is still buying CDs? Beneath the black ceiling inside Hum Records on King Street in Newtown, John Salway spots something on the shelf under the letter “C”. “Elvis Costello must have a new album,” he says. He picks up the hard plastic square and he and his friend, Regina Safro, squint to read the fine print on the bottom of the back of the CD case. Safro hasn’t seen the album before either. Salway finds the release date and nods. “2020. I’ll likely buy that on spec.” Salway estimates that he might buy a dozen CD albums a year. Safro thinks she purchases between 10 and 20. The pair are part of an increasingly small cohort of music fans who continue to buy CDs, in a world where most new cars and computers no longer have a way to even play them. Figures to be released this week by the Australian music industry are expected to show CD album sales in Australia fell by more than 15% in 2020. Meanwhile, sales of vinyl have rocketed by more than 30%, as more new artists release on the premium format as an alternative to digital streams, and labels continue releasing collector editions of the classics.
Boulder, CO | With move and rebranding, Bart’s reboots as Paradise Found: The tune might sound familiar, but its name — and venue — have changed. Paradise Found Records & Music, previously Bart’s Record Shop, is moving from its Folsom Street location to Pearl Street and will open April 1. The shop, previously owned by Bart Stinchcomb, was a Pearl Street staple until the move to Folsom Street in 2014. Stinchcomb sold the record store to Will Paradise in February 2016, and it will now head back to Pearl Street. Paradise announced the name and location change on the shop’s social media pages. Paradise always dreamed of working in or owning a record store as he started collecting records at 8 years old, Paradise said. “I talked to him (Bart) about the prospect of buying or partnering with him, and he said he wasn’t ready and then 10 days later he called me and said ‘I’m moving and I want to sell the business.’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, okay good.’ So I just bought it,” Paradise said. Paradise Found Records & Music at 1646 Pearl St. is larger than the shop’s current space, allowing for more inventory and exciting new features.
CT | Remembering the joys of the old neighborhood record store: Here’s a tale that’s been spun countless times for more than three decades: modern technology has made it incredibly easy to listen to our favorite music, anywhere and anytime, with good sound quality and less than a fortune in our pockets. Why, then, do so many of us still crave those old 45- and 33⅓-RPM vinyl records that invariably got scratched and chipped and ended up hissing like a tone-deaf snake? It’s not only the records themselves that Connecticut residents of a certain age miss, but also the artwork on the album covers, the liner notes inside — and those great ol’ record stores where we used to buy them, our own private dens of musical delight, where we made all the decisions, not our parents. We can still find a few places in Connecticut that sell or special-order old vinyl records (along with turntables, headphones, shirts and other items from the aesthetic to the nostalgic). It’s also possible to purchase almost any record online, no matter how wildly popular or downright obscure. But the record stores we remember from days gone by have gone by forever.
Shreveport, LA | ArkLaTex Made: The Little Shop of Music: They say music soothes the soul. You can bet you’ll find a lot of soothing sounds at one Shreveport music store. Wednesday morning, KTBS 3’s Rick Rowe visited The Little Shop of Music for his ArkLaTex Made segment. Scott Auer is fulfilling his dream of creating a shop for music lovers and musicians to gather, filled to the brim with the best stereo equipment, guitars, art and more. The Little Shop of Music is just that: a hang out spot, a record store and a place to connect to local music. The Little Shop of Music is located at 1055 Louisiana Avenue.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | ’70s groove jazz from the distinguished R&B/rock keyboardist who played with legendary Bay Area Bands Tower of Power and Santana. This new reissue part of Real Gone Music’s ongoing Black Jazz reissue series.
With long-standing stints in Tower of Power and Santana, Chester Thompson just might be the most decorated and distinguished keyboardist in all of rock and R&B, let alone of the Bay Area musical scene. It’s little wonder that this 1971 album, then, is one of the rarest and most coveted albums on the highly collectible Black Jazz Records label—it’s Thompson’s debut record, cut a couple of years before he joined Tower of Power, with a smokin’ band featuring fellow Black Jazz recording artist Rudolph Johnson on sax along with ace drummer Raymond Pounds (Pharoah Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Pointer Sisters) and trombonist Al Hall (Johnny Hammond, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris).
And, yes, Powerhouse comes by its title honestly…it’s jazz, all right, but injected with a jolt of electricity courtesy of Thompson’s Hammond B-3, and with just four tunes spread out over two sides, it’s pretty much a nonstop groove. Newly remastered, and with liner notes featuring quotes from fellow Tower of Power member Dave Garibaldi and Bay Area keyboardist Todd Cochran a.k.a. Bayeté that testify as to Chester Thompson’s greatness, this is another long-lost triumph from the Black Jazz label. First-ever vinyl reissue.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Anyone who feels a connection to the best music of the last fifty years—and who doesn’t?—will revel in this uniquely American success story. Even at a young age, Richard Perry knew that his destiny was to bring music into people’s lives.
What he couldn’t have dreamed was that his meteoric rise through the ranks of the music business would result in successful, ground-breaking, and award-winning collaborations. The Winner of a Special Merit Award from the Grammys has produced hits for legendary performers all of whom trusted him to shape the sound that made them great.
Richard’s credits include: Barbra Streisand: Stoney End, Carly Simon: You’re So Vain, The Right Thing to Do, Mockingbird, Haven’t Got Time for the Pain, Nobody Does it Better, Ringo Starr: No No Song, Oh My My, You’re Sixteen, Photograph, Leo Sayer: When I Need Love, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Rod Stewart: Great American Songbook albums, Art Garfunkel: Breakaway album (1975), Some Enchanted Evening (2006), Pointer Sisters: Jump (for My Love), Slow Hand, Neutron Dance, Harry Nilsson: Without You, Coconut, Jump into the Fire, Spaceman, Remember (Christmas).
In this candid and page-turning memoir, Cloud Nine: Memoirs of a Record Producer, Perry transports us through his eventful life, from his childhood in Brooklyn, where he played in bands, starred in musicals, and witnessed the birth of rock ‘n’ roll; through his sometimes rocky but always thrilling climb up the music-business ladder; and finally, into the studios and personal lives of the many superstars who provide our most enduring soundtrack. Throughout his story, Perry remains entertaining and fun-loving company, always awed by his own proximity to greatness and boundlessly enthusiastic about his contributions to the most beloved art form.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | 2020 “Best New Artist” Grammy nominee and beloved slam poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball—of the critically acclaimed band Tank and The Bangas—is set to release her debut poetry book, Vulnerable AF. Slated for release this June, the poetry collection is centered around infatuation, love and heartbreak as Ball recounts her very first romantic relationship. Vulnerable AF can be pre-ordered HERE.
“I wrote this book without any thoughts of them ever seeing the light of day. I was sad, I was happy, I was vulnerable with myself and I wrote every single feeling down. So here it is, my first book of poems, Vulnerable AF,” says Ball.
In November 2020, Tank and The Bangas released their EP “Friend Goals” via Verve Forecast. The new music includes numerous musical contributions from artists such as CHIKA, Duckwrth, and PJ Morton as well as a number of New Orleans-based creatives.
The EP follows the release of the band’s major label debut, Green Balloon, which arrived in 2019 to widespread critical praise including performances on TODAY and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Tank and The Bangas are Ball (frontwoman, lead vocals), Albert Allenback (alto saxophone, flute), Joshua Johnson (drums) and Norman Spence (keys).
