Part three of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for August, 2020. Part one is here and part two is here.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Guided by Voices, Mirrored Aztec (GBV Inc) The Guided by Voices recipe consists of classic ingredients: hypothetically, that crotchety uncle of yours who hasn’t bought a new record since Steel Wheels should be a huge fan, but you know your uncle; he’s not down with GBV. In the early days, it was exceedingly short songs and lo-fi atmospheres that kept Pollard and crew from being mistaken as neo-trad pop-rock, but as time wore on and something resembling normalcy set in, the appealing eccentricities of the leader’s personal approach set matters apart right up to that long farewell lap in 2004. Post-comeback, much of the discussion has been about Pollard’s freakish prolificacy and consistency of goodness, of which there is really no precedent, except maybe for a while, The Fall. The big diff is Bob’s Warholian quality grip on distilling those classic elements (possibly another reason your uncle doesn’t like GBV) so they’re recognizable, but not the same. So it is with Mirrored Aztec. A-
Erasure, The Neon (Mute) I’m old enough to recall Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, the duo comprising Erasure, bursting onto the ’80s synth-pop scene, and while I enjoyed them back then I’ll confess to not keeping up…well, I really haven’t kept up, as The Neon is their 18th studio album. I can’t say I’ve heard more than six, but I do own the first three, and this tidy set retains, against considerable odds, the inspired, effervescent appeal of their early work. Something I’ve always admired about Clarke, going all the way back to Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell, is his unabashed preference for pop in a classic tradition, dealing lyrically in tried-and-true themes minus angst, while as a singer, he’s a crooner at heart (which works well as maturity sets in). Not only are the songs surprisingly sturdy on this set, they get a little stronger as the finale approaches, with the best two sequenced at the end. Overall, in pure synth-pop terms, The Neon can serve as a tutorial for the style’s endless Johnnies and Janes come lately. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: Tom Tom Club, S/T (Real Gone) The 1981 debut from Chris Franz’s and Tina Weymouth’s side-project in downtime from Talking Heads has been reissued on wax numerous times by Real Gone, so this could be considered a lazy choice for pick status, but this go-round, which is on tropical yellow and red vinyl as a tribute to the recording’s location of Barbados, is already listed as sold out on the label’s website, and the release date isn’t until Aug 21. This obviously underscores the love that’s accrued for the record over the years (which is interesting, as my recollection from the late ’80s is that many at the time, at least out in the ‘burbs, considered it something of a curiosity), but it also reflects its influence. I’ve positively reviewed a slew of releases that are frankly unimaginable without Tom Tom Club’s existence, and I feel like a stupe for not giving it more props. A robust dose of Downtown NYC, with deep cuts that don’t falter. I adore “Under the Boardwalk.” A
Alan Wakeman, The Octet Broadcasts 1969 and 1979 (Gearbox) In rock circles, and specifically the prog sphere, saxophonist Alan Wakeman is recognized for his playing in Soft Machine, appearing on the 1976 album Softs, and for playing on a string of records by his countryman, David “Rock On” Essex. But I’m guessing aficionados of British jazz will know him best for his work in the groups of Mike Westbrook, Graham Collier, Johnny Dankworth, and Barry Guy. However, as this release makes clear, he also led his own band, with these previously unreleased radio broadcasts for the BBC a delightful surprise, featuring two different octets across two discs on LP (and a single CD) with a bunch of notables on hand including reedman Mike Osborne (’69), drummer Paul Lytton (’69), tenor saxophonist Art Theman (’79), and pianist Gordon Beck (’79).
Plus, saxophonist Alan Skidmore and trombonist Paul Rutherford play in both bands, which lends cohesiveness to the collection, though the later broadcast really spotlights Wakeman’s compositional growth over the course of a decade. But this isn’t to diminish the material from ’69, which is a wonderful combination of Ellington, Mingus, and free jazz. The then nascent avant movement isn’t ever-present in either broadcast, but there is a wild blast at the start of ’69’s “Merry-Go-Round” that is reminiscent of an especially out session released on the BYG or FMP label. There are still elements of freedom in the ’79 set, which is an abbreviation (at the point of broadcast, not on the release) of Wakeman’s chess-inspired suite Chaturanga, but it might be better to describe the later work as “advanced.” As it played, Mike Gibbs’ big band crossed my mind, which means I was thinking good thoughts. This release comes with all the radio show intros from both broadcasts, a definite value addition. A terrific archival find. A-
London, UK | Next Door Records Opens In West London: As record shops begin to recover after lockdown… It’s been a tough year so far, whether it be the queues outside Tesco, the endless quizzes on Zoom, Joe Wicks being your new alarm or the zig-zag runs. One of the biggest victims of this pandemic has been businesses, particularly local ones. They’ve had to trudge on with a series of major setbacks, whether it’s forcing their shops to close for safety precautions, or not being able to attract enough footfall to keep running. The impact has been so severe that sadly a lot of these local and independent businesses have been forced to close their doors for good, a sight none of us want to see. One of the worst impacted local businesses were records shops, where the magic of going in and having a dig for your favourite record was simply not viable, placing an immense financial strain on shops around the country. Yet, there has been a recent glimmer of hope for record shop owners, as the Government continues to ease its lockdown restrictions, more and more of the city is opening up for us all to enjoy once again. Record shops, 
Chicago, IL | How Chicago record stores are keeping the music alive and their lights on: Three local record store owners share their approach to reopening and the challenges their businesses face. For a certain type of music fan, nothing beats an afternoon spent digging through albums in a record store—an experience that’s been in short supply since mid-March when non-essential Chicago retailers closed their doors to customers. …Ahead of the first of three Record Store Day Drops that will provide independent shops with exclusive new releases, we spoke with three Chicago record store owners about their differing approaches to resuming business after being partially shut down for several months, from allowing in-person shopping to transitioning to an online-only model. They also touched on some of the challenges that have accompanied the pandemic, like increasingly unreliable shipping, mounting competition from online marketplaces and the real possibility that retailers will have to close their stores 
Blending together the budding Philly soul sound of the era, elements of Motown-ish psychedelia, a decidedly Family Stone-like tendency (a la organ and stinging rock guitar), and as the moniker indicates, a heaping helping of socially inclined themes, the record unwinds enjoyably enough, with the (possibly faux) sitar injections lending distinctiveness and the vocal harmonies strong throughout (Major Harris, later of the Delfonics, was a member).
New York, NY | A drive-by eulogy for New York City’s record stores: Just before lockdown, the indie-rock band Real Estate paid tribute to the now defunct record shops that nurtured its rise by performing a series of guerrilla-style concerts, or “out-stores,” in front of them. …The record store has been eulogized plenty, but, for anyone who came of age before the streaming era, it was a formative and necessary space. Now that music is a digital commodity, it’s easy to dismiss record collecting as a pretentious affectation, but the practice continues to hold a certain kind of outré allure. (“High Fidelity,” Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel about the romantic devastations of an obsessive record-store owner, was made into a film in 2000, and then adapted again this year, as a Hulu TV series, starring Zoë Kravitz.) New York still has excellent record stores—Record Shop, in Red Hook, or Academy Records Annex, in Greenpoint, or 2 Bridges Music Arts, in Chinatown—but they have come to feel like obscure specialty markets. Record Store Day, a holiday devised to celebrate brick-and-mortar shops, was postponed this spring, owing to covid-19, and is now being held on three dates, beginning on August 29th. One hopes that there will still be 
Lund, SE | A miniature record store for mice has popped up in Sweden: Ricotta Records is the latest work by art collective Anonymouse to turn heads in the city of Lund: Destiny’s Cheese. Rats Against the Machine. Lady Gouda. Rodents can stock up on all their favourites at the diminutive Ricotta Records, which is drawing many a quizzical look in the southern Swedish city of Lund. It’s the latest mouse-themed artwork by Swedish collective Anonymouse and follows the opening of the ‘Cicada Pharmacy’ on another street in the city in July. Of their latest work, which has records by the likes of Johnny Cashew and Minor Enemy in the window, the collective said: ‘We would like to thank the municipality of Lund for inviting us and encouraging really small business owners.’ Their first installation, the super-scaled-down façades of a French deli and an Italian restaurant, appeared in Malmö back in 2016, and since then they’ve produced everything from a gas station in the city of Borås to a jazz club in Bayonne, France. Because it’s actually quite hard to spot these things IRL (and they’re all very much temporary), here are some of Anonymouse’s most 
San Francisco, CA | Comic Shop Silver Sprocket Takes Over San Francisco Record Store: SFGate reported the closure of central San Francisco vinyl record store 1-2-3-4 Go! Records on Valencia Street, as a result of shutdowns, lockdowns and the general economic downturn that followed. …Silver Sprocket is a former record label-turned comic book publisher and comic book shop. Silver Sprocket has already had a presence in the record store, after renovations at their former store had forced them out. Now they have taken over the new location, replacing vinyl with comic books across the store. …SFGate reports that currently, Silver Sprocket is operating on weekends only, social distancing is observed, windows are left open and owner Avi Ehrlich isn’t forcing employees to return yet. “This is great for me, since I get to run my dream indie comic shop with the laziest commute, but it’s quite stressful to not know if or when we will be able to open or what’s safe. That could change at any time as case numbers change or new safety guidelines get announced. It still feels 
St. Cloud, MN | Vinyl is back: Vinyl swap in Sauk Rapids next Saturday: I remember being a kid, and the only thing available were vinyl records and cassette tapes. It was after the time of 8 tracks (never knew anyone with those) and before CDs. That came around in the mid-80s and I remember asking a friend “what is that?” And he, very matter-of-fact said “that… is a compact disc”. A few years later, vinyl disappeared. I thought it was a move in the right direction because vinyl was such a pain in the a**. And you could take the CDs with you and play them in your car, or on a disc-man or whatever device you had and it would sound as good as the vinyl without all of the pops. A few years later, everyone was downloading their music. I actually had an intern ask how I listen to music if I didn’t have some music app. Uhh… I listen to the radio. Now, in recent years, it seems that vinyl is making a comeback. And it’s easier to find a turntable to buy than it is to find a CD player to buy. A lot of people have some pretty amazing collections of vinyl albums. And this coming weekend, there is 
UFO’s 1977 Lights Out was certainly an odd choice for something to ask for, seeing as how I never much dug hard rock or metal and didn’t even like Led Zeppelin. The snooty teenage me looked down on metal, thought it was dumb, but my good taste has gone to shit over the years and good thing, seeing as how good taste (and this has been scientifically proven!) takes all the fun out of life. Shit, I didn’t even like Foghat, and what kinda way is that for a person to live?
