Category Archives: The TVD Storefront

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Forget Black Friday, Franksgiving is the real event as today ushers in the long-awaited release of Alex Winter’s highly acclaimed documentary, Zappa, about the prolific genius composer, free speech activist, cultural ambassador to Czechoslovakia and legendary musician, Frank Zappa, as well as the surprise digital release of the corresponding Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. A perfect complement to the film, the 68-track soundtrack is available to stream and download now via Zappa Records/UMe. Zappa is now available everywhere in the U.S. on demand from Magnolia Pictures.

​Today also sees the launch of pre-orders for several physical releases of the soundtrack including in two deluxe formats: a 3CD edition slated for February 19, 2021 and a 5LP box set planned for May 7, 2021, which will be available on 180-gram black vinyl as well as on limited edition 180-gram smoke vinyl, exclusively via Zappa.com, uDiscover and Sound of Vinyl online stores.

The deluxe physical and digital editions showcase Zappa’s unique sonic brilliance and nearly every song heard in the film, including 12 previously unreleased recordings from The Vault, which include performances from the Whisky A Go-Go in 1968, the Fillmore West in ‘70 and Zappa’s famed performance of “Dancin’ Fool” on Saturday Night Live in ’78. The soundtrack spans Zappa’s expansive catalog with 25 additional songs from across his peerless and influential career, from his seminal 1966 debut double album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, to the final release of his lifetime, 1993’s The Yellow Shark, a live orchestral album performed by the Ensemble Modern in Europe in 1992.

The soundtrack features songs from Zappa’s record labels Straight and Bizarre Records such as “No Longer Umpire” from Alice Cooper’s debut album, Pretties For You, originally released on Straight in 1969; “The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes” by GTO’s, from the all-girl group’s one and only album, Permanent Damage, produced by Zappa. It also includes two classical compositions by Zappa’s lifetime inspirations Edgard Varese and Igor Stravinsky as well as several interview clips. The soundtrack is rounded out with 26 original score cues newly composed by John Frizzell for the documentary.

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When it comes to recordings, I’ve got a simple rule: the rawer, the better. I like records that sound like field recordings of old bluesmen; you know, the kind John A. Lomax and son made on sagging Southern shotgun shack porches using a cheap microphone. Hence my love of The Basement Tapes and Pussy Galore’s version of Exile on Main Street and innumerable other super lo-fi recordings I can’t think of at the moment.

This is the reason I love The Nation of Ulysses’ The Embassy Tapes so much. They sound like they were recorded in a McDonald’s bathroom, with vocalist Ian Svenonius locked in a stall and the microphone plunged head first into a urinal full of tape hiss. They’re raw and feral and murkier than a peat bog—a primitive cacophony that will pick you up the way a tornado picks up a cow, before depositing you, your ears ringing, in the demolished remains of that seedy trailer park at the trashier outskirts of rock and roll.

I saw Washington, D.C.’s Nation of Ulysses back in the day and didn’t like ‘em, although I’ll be damned if I can remember why. They just left me cold. Maybe it was the prominently displayed DC flag. I hate all flags, and what they represent, because I’m a shitty citizen with zero civic pride. It wasn’t until I became more familiar with the, er, unique bent of band front man Ian Svenonius’ mind that I became intrigued. He envisioned The Nation of Ulysses as a political party or revolutionary outfit, and described the band’s sophomore LP (1992’s Play Pretty for Baby) as “a blueprint for the destruction of the Parent Culture. It’s like a zip gun… It’s an instruction pamphlet for kids on how to destroy their home life, you know, their domestic state.”

His simultaneously serious and tongue-and-cheek revolutionary opinions on the U.S.A., teen rebellion, etc., are revealed in NOU’s songs—in one Svenonius talks about the Nation being “seriously unserious, reverently irreverent, amoral moralists.” They were also to be found in a zine (Ulysses Speaks) the band issued at shows. Both the lyrics and the zine demonstrated that Svenonius was working at a high level of intellectual sophistication, and more importantly that he had a sense of humor, something far too many irony-deficient DC bands of that period sorely lacked.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today, Record Store Day organizers announce that the fourteenth annual celebration of the culture of the independent record store is planned for June 12, 2021.

​Normally held on a Saturday in April, the world’s largest single-day music event transformed into RSD Drops in 2020, three socially-distanced days in August, September, and October, giving stores the time and opportunity to regroup and rethink their retail methods and protocols in the midst of the pandemic. The RSD Black Friday event held this past Friday, capped off four months of successful release days and events designed to shine a spotlight on independent record stores and the role they play in their communities.

More information on Record Store Day and status updates on individual store hours and procedures can be found on recordstoreday.com. More information on Record Store Day 2021 will be coming at a later date.

About Record Store Day | Record Store Day, the organization, is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and promotes independent record stores year-round with events, special releases and other fun things.

Record Store Day Sponsors | ADA, Audioengine, Broadtime, Caroline, Crosley Turntables, D’Addario, Dogfish Head Brewery, Furnace Record Pressing, Glowtronics, Ingram Entertainment, InGrooves, Music Business Association, MVD Entertainment, The Orchard, PlayARt, Redeye Distribution, Sony Music, ThinkIndie, Traffic Distribution, URP Distribution, WEA

One of the sharpest bands to have blossomed amid the original Brit indie pop explosion was Talulah Gosh, formed in Oxford in 1986 and burning bright for just two years. Their output was considerable during that period, as collected on Was It Just a Dream?, which gets a fresh edition on December 11 from Damaged Goods Records. It arrives in conjunction with A Bout de Heavenly, the band spanking new singles compilation from Heavenly, the outfit that emerged after Talulah Gosh’s dissolution. Absorbed together, these releases document a journey from the twee side of ’80s guitar pop toward the ’90s indie scene to rub shoulders with Riot Grrl and even burgeoning Britpop. They deliver a helluva ride.

Was It Just a Dream? was first issued in 2013 as an expansion upon Talulah Gosh’s posthumous discographical compilation Backwash, which came out in 1996, fittingly via K Records. Like Backwash, Damaged Goods’ update requires four sides of vinyl (while losing nothing in the process), which should only underscore the prolificacy of the band.

Talulah Gosh commenced as guitarist-vocalist Amelia Fletcher, her drummer brother Mathew, guitarist-vocalist Elizabeth Price, lead guitarist Peter Momtchiloff, and bassist Rob Pursey, who was the first to quickly leave in ’86, replaced in short order by Chris Scott. Price departed the next year, with Eithne Farry stepping in.

It’s important to note that Talulah Gosh thrived as a singles band in the literal sense, as they never released a non-comp full-length album while extant, although 12-inch EPs expanding or combining 45s do figure in their catalog. That means Was It Just a Dream? helps conserve shelf space as it documents all the studio material and two radio sessions for the BBC; the additional cuts are four demos first released by Damaged Goods on a 45 for Record Store Day way back in 2011.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following their acclaimed project with Travis Scott and fashion house Saint Laurent, 12on12 announce their latest collaboration with cultural icons and hip-hop legends RUN DMC. The pioneering New York group have curated an exclusive limited edition 12″ vinyl only compilation with bespoke artwork by rising LA artist Reena Tolentino, aka ‘RT’.

​The 12on12 deluxe, double disc package is limited to 500 hand-numbered editions and embodies the story of RUN-DMC’s legacy within the handpicked iconic track-listing, featuring songs that inspired, affected and changed the ground-breaking group’s music. The first release in celebration of the 35th anniversary of seminal 1986 album Raising Hell, RUN DMC pay tribute to their late bandmate Jam Master Jay and dedicate this project in his honour.

The release offers a fascinating insight into RUN DMC, one of the most influential groups of all time. Alongside tracks by early rap trailblazers The Sugarhill Gang and Afrika Bambaataa, the group have also highlighted songs that helped form the sonic foundations of the nascent hip hop sound as it emerged and evolved in New York in the early 1980s, including the breaks-goldmine of MFSB’s Love Is The Message and Kraftwerk’s game-changing Trans-Europe Express, a song rarely licensed for any compilation.

The unique work of art for the record has been designed by one of the most exciting names on the LA art scene, Reena Tolentino. A visual artist and actor, RT’s work rose to prominence after her acclaimed mural of late basketball icon Kobe Bryant. In addition to providing artwork and portraits of RUN DMC for the project she has also reinterpreted one of the most iconic hip-hop logos of all time with a rework of the classic RUN DMC logo.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Jesse James Films in association with Crew Neck Productions are producing a fully authorized documentary blending music, politics, social commentary and a mystery involving one of the biggest rock bands of the late ’60s/early ’70s: Blood, Sweat & Tears. The film will be written, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary and The Happy Days of Garry Marshall) who is diving deep into the mystery of what actually happened to the band that suddenly fell from grace at the peak of their fame.

​In 1970, Blood, Sweat & Tears was one of the biggest bands in the world. They had exploded on the scene with both daring and promise, selling millions of records, winning multiple Grammy Awards including Album of the Year (beating out The Beatles’ Abbey Road) and one of the headliners at the legendary Woodstock festival. In demand for concert and TV appearances, BS&T was a darling of the mainstream and rock press, icon of the counterculture and inspiration for a generation of horn-based bands. Their future was limitless. And then it all went wrong.

Created with the full cooperation of Blood, Sweat & Tears, the film will overflow with great music, international political intrigue, compelling human moments, humor and fresh insight into this strange never-before-told story.

“John Scheinfeld is a unique combination of filmmaker, historian and detective,” says BS&T’s Bobby Colomby. “He asked me a simple question: ‘What the hell happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?’ My convoluted answer somehow ignited an engine inside of John that was the beginning of an unexpected adventure: creating a documentary film to reveal the answer to this decades old question. This won’t be your typical music doc, in any way, shape or form.”

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Much like the families and groups from which it was bred and sprung, The Allman Betts Band has consistently thrived as a live performance act. But just last year they proved their studio mettle by releasing a debut album Down to the River, and in late August of this year—and what a strange and volatile year it has been for the universe—they released Bless Your Heart, a versatile, expansive, and guitar-driven record that serves as a testament to the band’s studio abilities.

Possessing a penchant for live performance The Allman Betts Band has configured themselves to operate within the newly outlined confines of these strange days. They are in the midst of a socially-distanced live tour—at select venues across the United States that vow to honor safety precautions—to share works from the new album. And what works they are. For those music fans still possessing some interest in the legacy of the guitar, Bless Your Heart does not disappoint.

The band is spearheaded by talented offspring of the legendary Allman Brothers Band: Devon Allman, son of Gregg, and Duane Betts, son of Dickey—not to mention bassist Berry Duane Oakley, son of founding member Berry. Through songwriting, production, and instrumental acumen, both Devon and Duane prove themselves to be worthy of their own independent musical footprint, while—to the probable satisfaction of longtime Allman Brothers fans—still being wise and thoughtful enough to honor the enduring legacy of the Allman Brothers Band.

Bless Your Heart is a modern album that seeks to make the old new again. There’s the authentically collar-grabbing album opener “Pale Horse Rider,” the 1970s-romantically charged epic “The Doctor’s Daughter,” the cross-country road trip of “Much Obliged,” and the scene-stealing, tripped-out yet sophisticated instrumental piece “Savannah’s Dream,” amidst a sea of solid and varied songs to create an album experience. The album proves that the echoes of classic rock are not dead and finished but instead still malleable and up for grabs. Plus, it’s been released as a nice-looking coke bottle clear, 180 gram vinyl double record.

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Now that our Thanksgiving feasts have digested, it’s time to get straight into the holiday swing! This week, we begin to feature the Christmas music that it seems everyone is yearning for lately.

The Goo Goo Dolls have released a very enjoyable new album, It’s Christmas All Over (Warner). You can hear their new track, “This is Christmas” which has that GGD vibe that you know and love. In 1994, the great blues pianist, Charles Brown released Cool Christmas Blues (Craft Recordings) which was nominated for a Grammy, it is just now seeing its first vinyl reissue! Brown was involved with two classic Christmas tunes during his career (“Merry Christmas Baby” and “Please Come Home For Christmas”), you’ll have to tune in to hear which one we play this week. Popular pop princess, Meghan Trainor also comes by to drop some presents under the tree as we explore her latest release, A Very Trainor Christmas (Epic).

This week, we also celebrate many 50th anniversary reissues released in 2020 (that’s 1970 for those of you playing at home). You’ll hear what Jim Morrison really wants for Christmas from the recently reissued Morrison Hotel (Rhino) release and we pick a track from the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty (Rhino) reissue and remaster. Ray Barretto’s Barretto Power (Fania/Craft Latino) salsa classic is also 50 years old this year and it’s been reissued as an all-analog vinyl pressing—let’s take that one out for a spin as well, shall we?

Of course, we wade through other usual eclectic fare: Sturgill Simpson’s new bluegrass release Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1, Sharon Jones’ recent compilation of covers, Just Dropped in to See What Condition my Rendition Was in, and AC/DC’s hotly anticipated new Power Up album. There’s more, but you’ll have to tune in to hear it. Happy December!

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.

To most the backstory of Mott the Hoople goes something like this: nothing much special hard rock led by lead singer with Dylan fixation is on verge of throwing in towel when David Bowie tosses them lifeline in form of “All the Young Dudes.”

There are several problems with this narrative. First, Mott the Hoople were anything but a conventional hard rock band–they were a rock ’n’ roll band fronted by Ian Hunter, a singer/ songwriter with a penchant for ballads. Toss in the oversized presence of eccentric Svengali/ producer/ legendary wrecker of recording studios Guy Stevens, who was more than happy to indulge Hunter’s idiosyncrasies, and what you had was a band that set itself well apart from the hard rock pack.

Seriously, how many hard rock bands could have come up with songs called “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” and “The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception”? Or recorded a brilliant cover of Sonny Bono’s “Laugh at Me”? Or an equally brilliant cover of Dion’s anti-heroin ode “Your Own Backyard”? Or produced as many anthemic ballads as hard rockers for that matter?

All four of Mott’s pre-All the Young Dudes LPs merit high grades, and their 1970 sophomore outing Mad Shadows is no exception. Like the others it splits the difference between heavy and soft, and showcases the mad skills of Hunter, guitarist Mick Ralphs, organ player Verden Allen, bass player Pete “Overend” Watts, and drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffith.

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We’ve closed the office for the Thanksgiving holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our free Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores during Black Friday or Small Business Saturday, 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, 11/30.

Thanksgiving is a little different this year, there’s no denying it. However, even though these are complicated times, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of things to still be very grateful and thankful for. That’s what we celebrate on this week’s episode of Radar and we do it with some help from some of our favorite musicians who share with us an overarching theme of thanks.

You’ll hear Gregory Porter, Sly and the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen and much more; old favorites and new. I don’t know about you, but the holiday season for me is always synonymous with those four Liverpool lads, The Beatles, so they of course stop by as well. We also have a “Thank You” contest between ZZ Top and Sam & Dave, make sure to tune in and see how that one turns out.

All in all, it’s an opportunity to bask in a glow of gratefulness with some of our favorite musicians and performers; we can use their comfort and support now more than ever. So, a Thanksgiving toast to all of our loyal Radar listeners and readers: may you enjoy this special season with your closest of loved ones and may you also recognize that—even during these very weird times—we all still have much to be thankful for.

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 | Discover the extraordinary story of legendary bluesman Joe Bonamassa in the inspirational documentary Guitar Man, arriving on Video-On-Demand and for Digital purchase December 8, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

​From average Joe by day to guitar hero at night, Guitar Man tells the incredible rise of blues-rocker Joe Bonamassa, whose hard work and determination have made him one of today’s top-selling blues artists. With more #1 Blues albums than anyone else in history, Bonamassa pulls back the curtain on his incredible career, allowing us to see his remarkable musical achievements and pioneering style. Featuring behind the scenes interviews and live concert footage showcasing some of the biggest names in music, kick back and enjoy the exhilarating soundtrack of his phenomenal life.

Guitar Man showcases Bonamassa’s astounding talent from his childhood as a “wunderkind” discovered and mentored by Blues legend B.B. King. At the age of only 43, Bonamassa has an illustrious career spanning over three decades. Through highs and lows, Joe persevered, taking his musical journey into his own hands to overcome challenges and reach his goals. In 2009, Bonamassa fulfilled a lifelong dream of playing at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall and was joined on stage by Eric Clapton, marking a pivotal moment that elevated his music to the next level.

Filled with an abundance of music, live concert footage, and interviews with music industry legends, Guitar Man chronicles a musician growing in his craft, traveling the globe, collaborating with top artists from across the world of music, and ascending to the heights of inevitable success.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | To date Matador’s Revisionist History series has set its focus on the hallowed year of 1995 – surfacing critical releases by Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices, and Chavez. Today, however, we whirl the dial on the in-house wayback machine and travel toward the future: the year 2000 and Mary Timony’s debut solo album, Mountains, which will be reissued on January 15.

​Remastered by Bob Weston, Mountains comes back to us as a gold foil-embossed gatefold 2xLP and will include the previously unreleased original takes of “Return to Pirates,” “Poison Moon,” and “Killed by the Telephone,” which were delivered along with the original master tapes 20 years ago, but were omitted from the final album. The record is completed by a newly recorded orchestral version of “Valley of One Thousand Perfumes” produced by composer Joe Wong (Russian Doll, Midnight Gospel) and mixed by Dave Fridmann.

At the turn of the century, Timony (Ex Hex, Wild Flag, Hammered Hulls) was already a celebrated presence in American underground music ­­– a fixture of D.C. and Boston rock ’n’ roll via her work in Autoclave and Helium respectively. By 1998, though, Helium was drawing to a close and Timony was feeling uncertain about the future. “I had never been good at the rock’ n’ roll business, and making a living from being in a band just didn’t seem like it was in the realm of possibility for me,” she writes. “I just knew I wanted to make another record because that was the part of being in a band that I liked the most.”

At the time of its original release, Timony called Mountains, “A Trip to the New Underworld.” “A bunch of hard stuff was happening in my life: family illnesses, people dying, people leaving, relationships ending. I fell into a deep depression,” she explains. “I tried new ways of making music: I tried writing songs without any filter at all, and I purposely didn’t think about what the music would sound like to anyone else. I was only interested in describing what was in my head.”

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“My first date with vinyl followed the arc of a classic ’90s romcom. A series of almosts and missed connections before finally we each turned the corner, caught the other’s eye, and fell in love.”

“Like most folks who have a dad with a garage, I unearthed his high school and college collection of records while exhuming my family’s Christmas decorations. I was a braces-laden eleven year old, and though I theoretically knew what the records were as objects, the band names within bands ‘The Temptations’ and ‘Marvin Gaye’ were entirely alien to me. My family didn’t own a record player, so they stayed in the box, forgotten.

It was many years before vinyl and I crossed paths again. I was in my early twenties and just played a gig with Drew Martin, a local in the Seattle music scene who lived most of the year in Hawaii, but would manage to sell out venues like The Sunset simply by sending out one group text message. He’s a mythic underground figure, to say the least. I don’t drive, so he was carting me to and from the venue.

We were loading my gear into his car and he had some left over merch in his trunk. A home-printed T-shirt, and a deluxe vinyl of his record The Valley, an invaluable object only available in physical form since he hadn’t bothered with streaming sites or digitizing his music at all yet. He offered them, and I happily accepted both proffered gifts. I’d conveniently forgotten that I didn’t own a record player.

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I keep having the same nightmare. In it, Keith Emerson is hitting me over the head with dead classical composers. First he hits me over the head with Johannes Sebastian Bach, then he hits me over the head with Modest Mussorgsky, then he hits me over the head with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, then he hits me over the head with Béla Bartók, then Jerry Lee Lewis bursts into the room and hits Keith Emerson over the head with a piano. Thank God for Jerry Lee Lewis.

Keith Emerson didn’t start bashing me over the head with dead composers when he joined the Evil Triumvirate Emerson, Lake & Palmer. No, it started back in 1968, when the classical blowhard formed the Nice with singer/bass player Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison. The trio quickly set about mixing classical music with rock, creating a tidal wave of bands set upon putting a conductor’s baton in the hand of a popular music form guilty only of minding its own business.

Emerson showed early promise as a live performer, taking a whip to his piano, riding it across the stage like the Lone Ranger, and stabbing it to death with knives. Unfortunately he grew up, quit the shenanigans and went full SymphProg, sealing the fates of those of us who believe that once you’ve buried a classical composer you should have the common decency not to dig him back up again.

On 1970’s live Five Bridges The Nice, aided and abetted by a horn section and the Sinfonia of London, play a classical hash that incorporates the music of Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Jean Sibelius, with a dash of jazz schmaltz tossed in for flavoring. The entire album’s a horror show, but The Nice reach a world historic nadir with “Country Pie”/“Brandenburg Concerto,” which they presumably created by cramming Bob Dylan and J.S. Bach into a prototype of Seth Brundle’s telepod.

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