Backstreet Records

This week's second chances

2012-02-02T11:47:00.002-04:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Against Me! - New Wave
Bad Brains - Quickness
Badawi - Clones & False Prophets
Boston Spaceships - Let it Beard
Cults - S/T
Dropkick Murphys - Gangs
Dub Trio - Cool Out Live
Sage Francis - Still Sick
Biz Markie - Goin' Off
Joanna Newsom - Ys
OST - Woodstock
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Down at the Khyber
Robert Pollard - Standard Gargoyle
Roxy Music - Siren
Six Organs of Admittance - School of the Flower
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Spiritualized - Songs in A & E
Spoon - Transference
Wilco - S/T
Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Top 50: 2011

2012-01-01T11:33:00.002-04:00

For this year, 2011, I initially balked at the idea of making a top 50 list. It was the first calendar year I can remember where keeping up with and listening to new music as it arrived seemed just too daunting. I occasionally retreated into old favourites or my bulging folder of ambient music that helped calm the waters at the edge of the world. Eventually, and as usually occurs, I took December to reflect upon the year and it's individual moments... to listen to some of the 2011 albums that I'd been curious about or had generated glowing reviews... and to isolate the albums that stayed in heavy rotation all year long.

So below is a slightly different list: 27 albums and 3 live shows that, for very different reasons, earned spots in my listening life... then a more conventional top 20 list of the ones that rose to the top of my playlist pile. I encourage you to check all these out if you haven't already.

Old Favourites that had good but not perfect albums:
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Woods - Sun and Shade
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
Stephen Malkmus + The Jicks - Mirror Traffic
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town
Vetiver - The Errant Charm
Low - C'Mon
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch

Newbies / New to Me-bies / Artists I'd kinda ignored with great albums
Girls - Father Son, Holy Ghost
Say Hi - Um, Uh Oh
Little Scream - The Golden Record
Wavves - Life Sux
PS I Love You - Figure it Out
Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

Great Dreamy Pop Artists that I'm still figuring out how to rate:
Gold-Bears - Are You Falling in Love?
Washed Out - Within and Without You
Maria Minerva - Cabaret Cixous
M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming
Banjo or Freakout - S/T

The "Other" Stuff: Avant Garde artists I loved:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
M. Ostermeier - The Rules of Another Small World
Clams Casino - Rainforest
Ezekiel Honig - Folding In On Itself
Walls - Coracle
A Winged Victory For The Sullen - S/T
Barn Owl - Lost in the Glare

Three Favourite Live Shows of 2011:
Pixies - Doolittle Tour, Moncton Casino
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Reunion Tour Montreal
Evan Parker solo show - Gallery Connexion Fredericton

Top 20

01 Crooked Fingers - Breaks In The Armor

02 Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts

03 James Blake - S/T

04 Destroyer - Kaputt

05 Dog Day - Deformer

06 Telekinesis! - 12 Desperate Straight Lines

07 J Mascis - Several Shades of Why

08 13 & God - Own Your Ghost

09 Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

10 Siskiyou - Keep Away the Dead

11 Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister

12 Nils Frahm - Felt

13 Bon Iver - S/T

14 The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

15 Bry Webb - Provider

16 Grouper - A I A: Alien Observer / Dream Loss

17 Real Estate - Days

18 Atlas Sound - Parallax

19 The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

20 Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer

Black Friday Record Store Day Titles

2011-11-02T18:09:00.000-03:00

As some of you know there is a mini-Record Store Day event slated for Friday November 25th (Black Friday). Below is a rough list of the titles available to us for order. I've split them into ones we plan on getting in and the others we haven't ordered. The latter because the titles might not be of interest or the projected sale price seemed a little (or in some cases waaaay too) steep. If there are any items on the list that you hoped to get contact us by either dropping in, or e-mail us at backstreetrecords@gmail.com with your request. In some case we might require a small deposit to reserve you requests. Please get these into us by Saturday November 6th to get best results. Thanks.

Titles we are planning on getting in:

Black Keys -Lonely Boy/Run Right Back 12"EP $16.98

Davis, Miles - Miles Davis Quartet (10"blue vinyl) $10.98

Dr. Dog - Control Yourself 7” $7.98

Finn, Craig - Honolulu Blues 7” $10.98

Warren Haynes - River's Gonna Rise 12"EP $7.98

Iron & Wine - Morning Becomes Eclectic (LP& bonus CD) $27.98

Kings of Leon -Holy Roller Novacaine (10") $19.98

Nirvana - Nevermind: Singles (4x10" box) $59.98

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Suger Sex Magik (red 2LP) $41.98

Rolling Stones - No Spare Parts/Before They Make Me Run7” $7.98

Soundgarden - Before The Doors: Live On I-5soundchecks 10" $19.98

Townshend, Pete - Quadrophenia: The Directors Cut Vol. 110” $19.98

Wilco - Speak Into The Rose (10"red) $16.98

Yardbirds - Ten Little Indians $11.98

Yardbirds - Ha Ha Said The Clown $11.98

Titles we can get in but haven't ordered:

Adams, Ryan - Do I Wait/Darkness 7” $7.98

Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two CD Box $62.98

Benson, Brendan - Upstairs At United Vol. 1 (EP) LP $17.98

Byrds - TheTimes They Are A-Changin' 7”$11.98

Byrds -Eight Miles High (mono) 7” $11.98

Chisel, Cory - Upstairs At United Vol. 2 (EP) LP $17.98

Cornell, Chris -Songbook (180 gram) LP $49.98

Doors - LA Woman (3x7"box) $58.98

Fear - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas $11.98

Gorillaz - Singles Collection 2001-2011 (8x7in) $109.98

Jimi Hendrix - Fire/Touch $12.98

John Lennon -Imagine (40th anniversatry ed) BOX LP +12” $59.98

Lovin' Spoonful - Alley Oop 7” $10.98

Petty, Tom - Kiss My Amps Live (7 tracks from Mojo tour) LP $26.98

Pink Floyd - The Wall (3x7in) $59.98

Sea Wolf - Song Of The Magpie 7” $13.98

Silversun Pickups – Seasick 10” $18.98

Type O Negative Type O Negative Vinyl Box Set (6LPcolour) $141.98

Oh, hello!

2011-10-29T13:32:00.000-03:00

Thought we'd check up on you all after an unintentionally long silence on the ol' blog. Hope your Roctober has proven itself musically fruitful.

The big movers for us over the last while have been the new Wilco and Tom Waits albums. We are still stocked on both, though we are very low on the lower priced Wilco vinyl. Only a couple left at $25.98, next batch jumps up to regular retail at $29.98.

Here are a few suggested titles that you may not have been previously aware of:

(1) Crooked Fingers - Breaks in the Armor

Eric Bachmann has had a good year so far. Between reuniting with his mid-90s compadres Archers of Loaf for some regional touring and the reissue of that awesome band's debut album he could have rested on those nostalgic laurels. Instead he's returned to Merge with a new Crooked Fingers album that as solid and upliftingly rifftacular as anything in his catalogue.

(2) Siskiyou - Keep Away the Dead

Second outing from this Great Lake Swimmers splinter cell has them playing nervy rural folk that rubs up against weekend big city invasions. Their paranoid cover of Neil Young's "Revolution Blues" best sets the tone, but they excel at early morning confessionals too.

(3) Dog Day - Deformer

Paring back to a guitar/drum two piece has brought out the best in these Haligonians. All warm and fuzzy guitars over snare bashing propulsion plus enough sweet melodic hooks to form the chewy center. It's a great start-to-finisher.

September 27: Box Mania

2011-09-01T14:53:00.000-03:00

There are three notable deluxe releases making their way to stores on Tuesday, September 27th. Here are the overviews of all the various versions and formats. Some of these are limited so if you're interested in getting them please let us know either by dropping by the store or emailing us at the addresses in the sidebar. Deposits may be required for some of the bigger ticket items.

(1) The Smiths

Versions: (prices recently revised)
(1) 8 CDs remastered in vinyl replica sleeves $76.98
(2) 8 LPs (5 singles, 3 doubles, 180g vinyl) $297.98
(3) Deluxe version: 11 vinyl, 8 CD, 25 7" singles, DVD + various art work $664.98

Release Date: September 27, 2011

(2) Dark Side of the Moon

Versions:
(1) Discovery Version: 2011 CD remaster $18.98
(2) Experience Version: 2011 CD remaster, Bonus CD 1974 Live @Wembley $27.98
(3) Vinyl Version: 2011 Single LP remaster $29.98
(4) Immersion Edition: 2CDs (as "Experience Version"), 1 DVD Audio (5.1 mix, Quadrophonic mix, PCM stereo mix), 1 DVD Audio/Video (Live Brighton 1972 [two non-Dark Side tracks], 2003 Dark Side of the Moon documentary, 3 Concert Screen Films [60 min total], all both stereo and 5.1 mixes) 1 Blu-Ray A/V (more or less the same content as DVD2 with different resolutions) 3rd CD of studio outtakes and different cuts + a variety of artwork and ephemera $147.98

Release Date: September 27, 2011

(3) Nevermind

Versions:
(1) Basic 2011 Remaster CD $11.98
(2) Deluxe CD Version: 2CD including B-sides,Smart Studios demo sessions, BBC sessions and boombox rehearsals $28.98
(3) Deluxe Vinyl Version: 4LP including same tracks as Deluxe CD version $74.98
(4) Super Deluxe Version: 4CD + 1DVD including Deluxe version + new album mix by Butch Vig. BBC Live Recordings, DVD of 1991 Seattle live performance, 96 page bound book. $185.98

Release Date: September 27, 2011

Lou Reed + Metallica = "Lulu"

2011-08-30T13:24:00.000-03:00

"borrowed" from Uncut

Metallica and Lou Reed have spoken about their collaboration album 'Lulu', which is set for release on October 31.

'Lulu' was originally set to be Reed's musical adaptation of German playwright Frank Wedekind's 1913 play about the life of an abused dancer, but has now become a joint project with Metallica.

The San Francisco metal titans have revealed that the original plan for the joint album was to re-record some of the former Velvet Underground man's "lost jewels", before Reed proposed they record music to 'Lulu' instead.

Speaking about the project, Metallica frontman James Hetfield said: "We were very interested in working with Lou. I had these giant question marks: 'What's it going to be like?' 'What's going to happen?' So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the Lulu body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp Metallica on it. And that's what we did."

Reed himself said of the project: "We had to bring Lulu to life in a sophisticated way, using rock and the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality."

Four titles from the album have also been named, with 'Pumping Blood', 'Little Dog', 'Mistress Dread' and 'Junior Dad' all set to be part of the 10-track LP.

This week's second chances

2011-08-25T12:33:00.000-03:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Arcade Fire - Funeral
Atlas Sound - Logos
The Band - Music from Big Pink
The Beatles - Revolver
Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Dennis Brown - Live at Montreux
Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Metallica - Kill Em All
Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff (Deluxe)
Retribution Gospel Choir - S/T
Skinny Puppy - Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse
Elliott Smith - Roman Candle
Joe Strummer - Rock Art and the X-Ray Style
Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
Townes Van Zandt - High Low and In Between
Various - The Trojan Story (2CD)
Yardbirds - Smokestack Lightning (2CD)

10 experiments you can try at home

2011-07-26T12:51:00.000-03:00

The Alps - Easy Action
Some of you might remember the San Francisco group Tarentel? They sprang up in the first wave of post-rock that followed Godspeed, Mogwai and Sigur Ros, and played music that was like a slightly colder and more minimalist Explosions in the Sky. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma from that group has been active in several concurrent projects and The Alps is one of the more accomplished of these. Another instrumental trio, they take their cues primarily from 70s Italian western and horror soundtracks with a blend of atmosphere and aggression that's sure to catch your ear. This particular (vinyl) version is in a specially sleeve that folds out into a pyramid. How cool is that? Sample track click here.

Black Swan - The Quiet Divide
Boomkat review: 'The Quiet Divide' condenses intimately precious space/time over two sides of uniquely textured ambient drone, recalling the works of The Caretaker, Philip Jeck or Svarte Greiner to a large degree, yet with a misanthropy and mid-winter bleakness unique to its formless silhouette." Sample track click here.

The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Most recent alias for Jim Kirby whose previously best know project was V/VM. As The Caretaker he digs through the dusty pre-WWII sounds of the UK from 78s of time-worn ballroom music and other similar sources. Rendered even more ghostly, the music he creates engages with the spaces where memory, nostalgia and history overlap and often decay. Sample track click here.

Emanuele Errante - Time Elapsing Handheld
This Italian artist is one of a growing wave of composers who've been bridging gaps between ambient electronic and classical music. On his third effort the balance is just about right as the organic themes of piano and strings overlay a wash of sound that effectively helps describe the joys and sadnesses that sometimes chords can't quite touch. Review and sample track click here.

Rene Hell - The Terminal Symphony
Jeff Witscher aka Rene Hell is more restless and complex in his approach to composition, often looking back to cut and paste strategies such as Faust's 70s work combined with hints of Japanese noise and more conservative classical practices. This second "official" release illustrates what is possible when times collide. Streaming tracks click here.

Johann Johannsson - Virdulegu Forsetar
This Icelandic composer recently released The Miners' Hymn, a soundtrack for an experimental film by Bill Morrison. The irony is that these recent compositions are the least "soundtracky" of his output, and his best since Virdulegu Forsetar first was released by Touch in 2004. This 2011 reissue reminds us of the power of minimalism... simple fanfares that echo and stretch and linger at reappear at irregular intervals to create anticipation and tension. More info + samples click here.

Marsen Jules - Yara Remastered
More electronic play with acoustic samples. Martin Juhls (the artist's real name) creates themes that are all about the fluid swell and flow of chamber music as overheard around corners and across distances, or from the dip and rise of a lazy river's surface. Warm and languid and utterly charming. Streaming tracks click here.

Minamo - Duree
Led by Fourcolor (artist Keiichi Sugimoto), this Japanese quartet is an improvising unit that then brings their recorded guitars, drums, bells, etc. into the studio for polishing and editing. The results are a deliberate, minimalist text that nonetheless retains the spontaneity and liveliness of the group's interaction. For those who like their computer music to start somewhere other than the computer. More info + samples click here.

Pan.American - S/T
Taking a break from Labradford, Mark Nelson began the Pan.American project as a solo exercise in stark keyboard, guitar and drum machine minimalism. Like a Tangerine Dream born of the dark American night, Nelson's music is a blend of quiet contemplation, somnambulism, and vague wariness of what might be approaching. Info plus samples click here.

Scott Tuma - Dandelion
A member of the Boxhead Ensemble, Tuma takes a few steps away from that group's home classical leanings and explores the guitar from a very John Fahey vantage point. Not so much early blues folk Fahey as the latter City of Refuge with its blend of deconstructed acoustic themes and incidental/industrial sounds that creep into the mix. Like the titular flower it is a sound that blooms brightly then quickly disappears into ghostly propagation. Info plus samples click here.

Available instore:

Alps - Easy Action vinyl $25.98 + hst
Black Swan - The Quiet Divide vinyl $20.98 + hst
The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World CD $16.98 + hst
Emanuele Errante - Time Elapsing Handheld vinyl $22.98 + hst
Rene Hell - The Terminal Symphony CD $16.98 + hst
Johann Johannsson - Virdelegu Forsetar vinyl $25.98 + hst
Marsen Jules - Yara Remastered CD $17.98 + hst
Minamo - Duree CD $16.98 + hst
Pan.American - S/T vinyl $16.98 + hst
Scott Tuma - Dandelion CD $19.98 + hst

Bon Iver :: "Holocene" :: Jimmy Fallon

2011-06-22T14:12:00.000-03:00

Phosphorescent; 60 Seconds Left

2011-06-21T12:18:00.003-03:00

Polaris Long List

2011-06-18T11:33:00.000-03:00

The 2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Austra - Feel It Break

Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

Braids - Native Speaker

Buck 65 - 20 Odd Years

Louise Burns - Mellow Drama

D-Sisive - Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye

The Dears - Degeneration Street

Destroyer - Kaputt

Diamond Rings - Special Affections

Dirty Beaches - Badlands

Luke Doucet and The White Falcon - Steel City Trawler

Eternia & MoSS - At Last

Galaxie - Tigre et Diesel

Jenn Grant - Honeymoon Punch

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

Hey Rosetta! - Seeds

Hooded Fang - Album

Imaginary Cities - Temporary Resident

Land Of Talk - Cloak and Cipher

Little Scream - The Golden Record

The Luyas - Too Beautiful To Work

Malajube - La Caverne

Miracle Fortress - Was I The Wave?

One Hundred Dollars - Songs Of Man

Doug Paisley - Constant Companion

PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station

Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath the Willow

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer

Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister

Sloan - The Double Cross

Frederick Squire - March 12

Stars - The Five Ghosts

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On

The Weeknd - House Of Balloons

Women - Public Strain

Neil Young - Le Noise

Young Galaxy - Shapeshifting

Backstreet Recommends: Barn Owl

2011-06-17T13:33:00.000-03:00

It's been a while since we've offered up a new band for consideration so here we are:

Barn Owl is out of San Francisco centered around the duo of guitarists Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras (also of Elm). They've been recording for about five years, beginning with a CD-R release in 2007 on the UK label Foxglove. Their instrumental work recalls the creeping unease and isolation of bands like Sunn O))) and Earth. but with a slightly lighter touch and more briefer duration. Essentially it's great mood music to enjoy walks in the desert or for checking out that sound you heard out in the woodshed. You know, the one with the burnt out lightbulb you've been meaning to replace for a while now.

Currently we have three of their releases in stock:

From Our Mouths a Perpetual Light (Not Not Fun Records, 2008) Vinyl $20.98

The Conjurer (Root Strata, 2009) CD $18.98

Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey, 2010) CD $17.98 Vinyl $19.98

Their next album is also on Thrill Jockey, due in September of 2011 and titled Lost in the Glare. It will be preceded by the e.p. Shadowland, also on Thrill Jockey.

Barn Owl - Light from the Mesa from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

This week's second chances

2011-06-15T16:18:00.001-03:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

!!! - S/T
Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Beck - Sea Change
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Deadmau5 - For Lack of a Better Name
Ani DiFranco - Dialate
Dave Gahan - Hourglass
P.J. Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Islands - Arm's Way
Muzsikas - Blues for Transyvania
My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
National - Boxer
Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs
Radiohead - Com.Lag
Sheep Dogs - Big Stand
Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Tom Fun Orchestra - You Will Land With a Thud
Stevie Wonder - Talking Book

14 from the front of 2011

2011-06-09T12:53:00.000-03:00

Hard to believe the year is approaching it's midway mark already. It seemed like time to cough up a short list of recommendations of the high points so far.

13 & God - Own Your Ghost
---Members of Themselves and The Notwist reconvene half a decade after their self-titled debut to confront mortality over a hip-hop/electro/acoustic beat that's as captivating as it is edgy and unsetlling.

James Blake - S/T
---UK dubstep producer takes a crack at minimalist RnB. Like the irradiated skeleton of TV on the Radio.

Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
---third release under his given name for the former Smog leader. It's another moody and cryptic meditation on America, nature, history and, of course, horses.

Destroyer - Kaputt
---a front runner for this year's Polaris, Destroyer steps up the production and explores an 80s-tinged sound that's long on atmosphere and short on retro-embarrassment. Bejar is at his lyrical best too.

The Dodos - No Color
---after a fairly lackluster second album this San Francisco outfit comes out hammering all the cylinders with a hyperspeed collection of pop featuring great harmony backup from Neko Case.

Little Scream - The Golden Record
---Laurel Sprengelmeyer is an Iowa-born transplant to Montreal. After adding her input to that scene's luminary outfits (Bell Orchestre, Arcade Fire, Stars) they return favour by backing her on this debut that rivals their best.

Low - C'Mon
---after experimenting with heavy guitars and electronics this long-running Minnesotan couple has gotten back to basics with an album of slow burning majesty that holds up next to their early best.

J. Mascis - Several Shades of Why
---in the midst of a Dinosaur Jr. rebirth including a Bug tour this summer, J. took a little time to make a solo acoustic album with guestwork from Kurt Vile, Ben Bridwell and others that should please both longtime fans and those looking for a quieter, deeper time.

Thurston Moore - Destroyed Thoughts
---like his buddy Mascis, Sonic Youth's leader seems an unlikely candidate for an acoustic + strings solo album (produced by Beck no less), but it works... and works well. Like a slightly more nervous Nick Drake masterpiece.

Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
---after the high water mark of Black Sheep Boy Okkervil seemed to be somewhat on autopilot. Nice to see this rager pull them back on track. It's the precise storytelling couple with a more angst, energy and production that we've seen before.

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
--- this Danish duo have been on a "not broken / don't fix it" trajectory over their last few albums. Overshadowed a little by The Kills, perhaps, they still outperform and on this release, out-grunge their competition.

Telekinesis! - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
---Michael Lerner's self-titled debut had a few brilliant moments amidst the ok-to-great flow. But on this follow-up a livelier crunchy sound props up twelve killer power pop tracks that never ever fail to win.

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
---recorded in the gothic depth of his Queen St. Toronto bachelor pad. Taylor Kirk delivers another slab of moody voodoo. With help on foghorn sax by Colin Stetson Creep On is a horror show that shivers and rattles the bones.

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
---rather than re-hashing the all-too-excellent Childish Prodigy, Vile comes back with a collection of tracks that are twistier and briefer, but no less driving in their Midwestern weary ways.

Sony's Vinyl Reissue "Sale"

2011-06-03T15:49:00.000-03:00

Was putting together an order from our major label distributor and noticed they had a sale on newly reissued vinyl from Sony. Here is a short list of titles plus their projected retail prices. It's a little depressing in places. If anyone is interested in a full list get ahold of me at backstreetrecords@gmail.com

AEROSMITH NINE LIVES (180G) R SON $44.98
AFGHAN WHIGS 1965 (180G) (7 BONUS TRACKS) SON $47.98
ALICE IN CHAINS DIRT (RM) (180G) R SON $35.98
ALICE IN CHAINS JAR OF FLIES/SAP (180G) R SON $44.98
ALICE IN CHAINS MTV UNPLUGGED (180G) R SON $44.98
AUDIOSLAVE AUDIOSLAVE (180G) R SON $44.98
AYERS*KEVIN UNFAIRGROUND (180G) R SON $35.98
BECK*JEFF BLOW BY BLOW (180G) R SON $35.98
BECK*JEFF WIRED (180G) R SON $35.98
BOSTON BOSTON (RM) (180G) R SON $35.98
BRUBECK*DAVE QRT TIME OUT (180G) R SON $35.98
BUCKLEY*JEFF MYSTERY WHITE BOY R SON $44.98
BUCKLEY*JEFF GRACE (RM) (180G) R SON $35.98
BUCKLEY*JEFF GRACE EPS (180G) R SON $89.98
BUCKLEY*JEFF SKETCHES FOR MY SWEET R SON $56.98
BYRDS (UNTITLED) (UNISSUED) (180G) R SON $56.98
BYRDS SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO (180G) R SON $35.98
CASH*JOHNNY 16 BIGGEST HITS (180G) R SON $35.98
CASH*JOHNNY 1969: AT SAN QUENTIN R SON $35.98
CASH*JOHNNY AMERICAN III: SOLITARY R SON $35.98
CHEAP TRICK 1978: AT BUDOKAN: LIVE R SON $37.98
CLASH CLASH (U.S. VERS) (180G) R SON $37.98
CLASH LONDON CALLING (30TH ANN. ED) R SON $44.98
COHEN*LEONARD GREATEST HITS (180G) R SON $35.98

This week's second chances

2011-05-11T13:59:00.000-03:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Aswad - Roots Revival
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light
Burning Spear - Resistance
CocoRosie - Grey Oceans
CCR - Green River
Death from Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Duke Ellington - Carnegie Hall
Ben Harper - White Lies for Dark Times
Mouse on Mars - Iaora Tahiti
New Pornographers - Challengers
NOFX - S&M Airlines
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
Platinum Blonde - Seven Year Itch
Primus - Fizzle Fry
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Sonic Youth - Goo
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Thievery Corp. - Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi
Ween - White Pepper

This week's second chances

2011-04-25T12:49:00.000-03:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
Clash - Combat Rock
Mikey Dread - African Anthem Dubwise
Peter Gabriel - Security
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Jefferson Airplane - Bless Their Pointed Little Heads
Salif Keita - "Folon" ...The Past
Stephen Malkmus - Pig Lib
Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Lou Reed - New York
Patti Smith - Gung Ho
Spirit - The Family That Plays Together
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Richard Thompson - Rumor & Sigh
Ali Farka Toure - Radio Mali
Hawksley Workman - Milk
Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

Decemberists Live on Oregon Public Broadcasting

2011-04-15T01:13:00.002-03:00

IMHO

2011-04-13T21:01:00.003-03:00

This week's second chances

2011-04-07T13:08:00.001-03:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Baronness - Red Album
Black Lips - Let it Bloom
Black Mold - S/T
David Bowie - Stages
Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Cursed - Two
Ani DiFranco- Imperfectly
Kenny Dorham - Afro-Cuban
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Sarah Harmer - I'm a Mountain
Derrick Harriott - For a Fistful of Dollars
Juliana Hatfield Three - Become What You Are
King Jammy - Roots & Harmony
rachel's - The Sea and the Bells
Slackers - Live at Ernestos
Soundtrack - The Breakfast Club
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Violent Femmes - Very Best

WNYC Soundcheck April 6: Low

2011-04-06T21:21:00.001-03:00

WNYC

RSD warm up [Fredericton]

2011-04-06T20:21:00.000-03:00

As hinted at earlier we're having a bit of a pre-Record Store Day sale this Saturday. Below is a list of the vinyl (plus a few CDs) that we are putting out at attractively reduced prices. These prices will be in effect for Saturday April 9th only and revert to their regular prices come Monday the 11th. So ya gotta make it down if ya wants ta save.

As an added bonus we will be playing all Pixies all the time to prep for the show the next day in Moncton. How can you beat that? You can't. Come on down.

Avi Buffalo - S/T /$12.98

Meg Baird - Dear Company /$12.98

Bishop Morocco - S/T /$14.98

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle /$16.98

CocoRosie - Grey Oceans /$12.98

Diamond Rings - Special Affections /$16.98

Fly Pan Am - S/T /$9.98

Sage Francis - Life /$16.98

Futureheads - The Chaos /$10.98

Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back /$11.98

Gonjasufi - Caliph's Tea Party (remixes) /$14.98

Happy Birthday - S/T /$12.98

The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever /$15.98

Hot Rats - Turn Ons /$16.98

Kestrels - Primary Colours /$15.98

[@THE CAPITAL!]

Magnetic Fields - Realism /$18.98

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts /$12.98

MIA - Maya /$19.98

Morning Benders - Big Echo /$19.98

These New Puritains - Hidden /$16.98

Warpaint - The Fool /$19.98

Wovenhand - Ten Stones /$13.98

Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself /$13.98

Wilco - Kicking Television (4LP Box) $50.98

And for those more digitally inclined we have these:

Bright Eyes - The People's Key (Ltd Ed packaging) /$13.98

Gonjasufi - The Caliph's Tea Party /$12.98

The Extra Lens - Undercard /$12.98

Dinosaur Jr. Playing 'Bug' In Its Entirety On Summer Tour

2011-04-04T19:15:00.000-03:00

"Borrowed" from Prefix magazine

We already know that two members of Dinosaur Jr. are busy with side projects at the moment. J Mascis just released his proper solo debut, Several Shades of Why, and he is touring through the first week of May. And Lou Barlow is wrapping up a jaunt with Sebadoh this week before he begins working on new material for both Sebadoh and Dino Jr.

Amidst all that, they have announced yet another tour. This time, though, the focus is on Dino Jr. and their classic third album, 1988's Bug. The only downside is that the tour is pretty limited as they will only be playing six shows. But hey, maybe it will give some of you a reason to check out the East Coast.

View the dates below.

06.21 Northampton, MA: Calvin Theatre *@$
06.22 Boston, MA: The Paradise *^%
06.23 New York, NY: Terminal 5 *^#%
06.24 Philadelphia, PA: Electric Factory *^%
06.25 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club *^%
07.01 London, England: Alexandra Palace *&

* performing Bug in its entirety
^ with Off!
# with Fucked Up
& with the Flaming Lips and Deerhoof
@ with Thurston Moore
$ with Henry Rollins talking show
% with Henry Rollins interviewing

Record Store Day Gettables [Backstreet Fredericton]

2011-03-28T00:26:00.001-03:00

Hey folks,

I've been asked (and asked) what titles we will be getting in for Record Store Day (April 16, 2011), so I've taken the time... on my day off, no less... to compile a somewhat comprehensive list.

It is broken down into the titles we've ordered and then others that are available but not ordered. If last year was any indication then most but not all of these will be shipped in time for the actual day... but there's obviously no way of knowing that until then.

The "already ordered" titles will be first come first serve that Saturday (that is to say if anyone asks to have something held... that just won't be happening). On the other hand, for things from the "not ordered but available" list I will try to do special orders, but on these conditions:

(1) Any and all of these special orders are placed no later than this coming Saturday April 2nd, 2011 either in-store or via e-mail at backstreetrecords@gmail.com.

(2) A deposit of half of the sale price must be made at the time of in-store ordering, or in the case of e-mail orders no later than Wednesday April 6th, 2011. Orders w/o the deposit will not be honoured.

(3) The deposit will be deducted from the special ordered items on Record Store Day and the balance owed will be paid then.

(4) Should the special ordered item not be available the deposit may be used as credit against any other items in store, either on RSD or at a later date.

(5) Should the special ordered item arrive and the person not on hand to purchase the title(s) it will be held until Satuday April 23rd. At this point if the orderer has not picked it up or made some arrangements to do so the item(s) will be put out for sale and the deposit will be forfeit.

These measures are only in place to assure that we aren't stuck with any big ticket items (and some of them are doozies) that we can't return to suppliers for credit. OK? OKAY!!

The prices below are based on the current info we have on the titles and are subject to slight changes by the day of. Thanks for your enthusiasms.

On order

Antony And The Johnsons - Swanlights 10” $16.98

Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This LP $13.99

Bad Brains – Pay to Cum (gold vinyl) 7” $10.98

Bad Brains – God of Love LP+7” $28.98

Syd Barrett – Introduction to Syd Barrett $28.98

Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (DBL 10” 78rpm) $15.98

Black Angels – Another Nice Pair LP $25.98

Black Angels - Phosgene Nightmare 10” $19.98

Blitzen Trapper – Maybe Baybe 7” $7.98

Broken Bells – Merryn Fields EP LP $16.98

Built to Spill – Ripple 7” $10.98

Busdriver – ATM 7” (blue vinyl) $8.98

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love EP 10” $20.98

Caribou – Swim 12” (remixes) $14.98

Daft Punk – Translucence 10” $14.98

Death Cab for Cutie – In Living Stereo 7” $10.98

Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity LP $20.98

Deerhoof/Xiu Xiu – Split 7” $8.98

Deerhunter – Memory Boy 7” $6.98

Discordance Axis - Inalienable Dreamless LP $29.98

Bob Dylan – Live at Brandeis 1963 LP $24.98

Earth - Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light LP $37.98

Roky Erickson & The Black Angels - Night Of The Vampire DVD $22.98

Esben and the Witch – Chorea 12” $13.98

Foo Fighters – Medium Rare LP $28.98

Franz Ferdinand – Record Store Day 12” $12.98

Fucked Up – Town Comp LP $25.98

Charlotte Gainsbourg/Villagers – Memoir 7” $9.98

Gorillaz – The Fall LP $22.98

Grateful Dead – S/T LP (mono) $28.98

Green Day/Husker Du – Split 7” $10.98

Grinderman – Palaces of Montezuma 12” $13.98

Grinderman – Evil 12” $13.98

Iggy & Stooges – Raw Power Live $25.98

Jesus Lizard – Lash (3x7”) $15.98

Joan Jett – I Love Rock n Roll LP (clear vinyl) $28.98

Joan On Arc - Presents Don’t Mind Control LP $19.98

Glenn Jones /Black Twig Pickers - Even To Win Is To Fail LP $22.98

KILLS, THE - Satellite 10" $15.98

Kings of Leon – Holy Roller Novocaine 10” $19.98

Kode9/Space Ape – Otherman 12” $16.98

Ray Lamontagne – Live 2010 LP $28.98

Mastodon / ZZ Top – Just Got Paid 7” $10.98

Mates of State – Team Boo LP (red vinyl) $19.98

Midlake – Am I Going Insane 12” $15.98

Mumford & Sons – Dharohar Project 10” $13.98

Neurosis – Sovereign LP $25.98

Nirvana – Hoarmoaning LP $19.98

Of Montreal – The Past is a Grotesque Animal 12” $16.98

Oval/Liturgy – split LP $22.98

Owen – Oh, Evelyn 7” $7.98

Panda Bear – Tomboy LP + Tshirt (L only) $31.98

Polvo – Celebrate the New Dark Age LP (autographed) $19.98

RHCP/Ramones – Havana Affair 7” $10.98

Arthur Russell – World of Echo 2LP $25.98

Seeds – Evil Hoodoo 10” $15.98

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Broom LP (white vinyl) $19.98

Sonic Youth – Whores Moanin’ LP $19.98

Bruce Springsteen – Gotta Get the Feeling 10” $14.98

Superchunk – Here’s Where the Strings Come In LP $24.98

Therapies Son - Over The Sea 10” $19.98

Various – GBV Tribute (Sing for your Meat) 2LP $40.98

Various - Kill Rock Stars LP $25.98

Various – A Reckord Reckords Record 10” $10.98

Vivian Girls – I Heard You Say 7” $7.98

Warpaint - Undertow 7” $7.98

Wavves/Trash Talk – Thorns 7” $10.98

Hank Williams III – Damn Right Rebel Proud LP $28.98

Hank Williams III – Risin Outlaw LP $28.98

Hank Williams III – Straight to Hell LP $28.98

Hank Williams III – Rebel Within LP $27.98

Hank Williams III – Lovesick Broke & Driftin LP $27.98

Yeasayer - End Blood 7” $8.98

Not ordered

Bouncing Souls – Live LP $22.98

City & Colour – Sometimes LP $28.98

Eric Clapton – Unplugged (2LP) LP $48.98

Clouds - B Chuggas May Be Logging LP $25.98

Deftones – Covers LP $27.98

William Fitzsimmons – Gold in the Shadow LP $19.98

Flaming Lips – Heady Nugz 5LP $149.98

Fleetwood Mac – Rumors 2LP 45rpm $61.98

Fleetwood Mac – Rumors LP $34.98

Glassjaw – Worship and Tribute LP $32.98

Mike Gordon – Inside In LP $29.98

Human Egg – S/T LP $25.98

International Submarine Band – Safe at Home LP(mono)+7” $32.98

Machine Head – Black Procession 10” $16.98

Mastodon – Live at Aragon LP+DVD $52.98

Menzingers – Chamberlain Watts LP (blue vinyl) $19.98

Mighty Clouds – S/T LP $30.98

Oxbow - King Of The Jews LP $35.98

Tom Petty – You’re Gonna Get it LP (blue) $27.98

Tom Petty – S/T LP (white) $27.98

R.E.M. – Three (3x7”) $29.99

Rancid – Let the Dominoes Fall CD/DVD/2LP/Book $45.98

Rise Against – Endgame LP (clear vinyl/die cut cover) $29.98

Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Telesterion 4LP $83.98

Roll the Dice – Live in Gothenberg 12” $16.98

Submarines – Love Notes 12” $19.98

Television – Live at the Old Waldorf LP $42.98

Touch Amore – To the Beat of a Dead Horse LP $20.98

Frank Turner – Rock n Roll 10” $16.98

Muddy Waters – Rough Guide to… LP $28.98

White Mystery – Blood & Venon LP $22.98

Wiz Khalifa – Rollin’ Papers LP $32.98

Not ordered 7”s

A Day to Remember – All I Want $7.98

AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill/War Machine $13.98

Ryan Adams - Class Mythology Dbl 7” $25.98

Bad Brains – Pay to Cum $7.98

Beady Eye – 3x7” Box $59.98

British Sea Power – This is Control $6.98

Civil Wars – Dance Me to the Ends of Love $9.98

Dennis Coffey – Ubiquitous $11.98

Cults – Abducted/Do Outside $13.98

Derek & Dominoes – Got to Get Better $7.98

Dodos – So Cold $12.98

Doors – Riders on the Storm $10.98

Fistful of Mercy – S/T $7.98

Frustrators – Griller $5.98

Mike Gordon – Moss Remixes $7.98

Jimi Hendrix – Fire/Touch You $12.98

Michael Jackson – Hollywood Tonight $12.98

Freddie King – Wash Out $9.98

Kort – Please Don’t Touch $9.98

Fela Kuti – Monday Morning in Lagos $12.98

Manchester Orchestra – Simple Math $12.98

John Mayall/Eric Clapton – Lonely Years $9.98

My Chemical Romance – Na Na Na $10.98

Opeth – The Throat of Winter $10.98

Roy Orbison – Only the Lonely $12.98

Ozzy Osbourne – Flying High Again $12.98

Pearl Jam – Immortality $12.98

Peter, Bjorn & John – Dig a Little Deeper $12.98

Phish – Two Soundchecks $8.98

Queen – Keep Yourself Alive $9.98

Right Now – If I Wanted To $7.98

Rise Against – Join the Ranks $9.98

Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar $7.98

Rolling Stones – Plundered My Soul $7.98

Roxy Music – Virgin Plain $9.98

Rush – Caravan $10.98

Raphael Sadiq – Radio $10.98

Silverstein – Support Your Local Record Store $9.98

Skysaw – No One Can Tell $10.98

Smoke Fairies – Strange Moon Rising $10.98

Regina Spektor – Four From Far $10.98

Peter Tosh – Legalize it $11.98

Urge Overkill – Effigy $10.98

Vivian Girls – I Heard You Say $8.98

Yardbirds – Goodnight Sweet Josephine $9.98

Young the Giant – Apartment $10.98

Zeus – Permanent Scar $8.98

This week's second chances

2011-03-11T13:25:00.000-04:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Adrian Belew - Side One
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Boris - Akuma No Uta
Various - Channel One "Hit Bound"
CocoRosie - La Maison de mon Reve
Rob Crow - Living Well
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Bob Dylan/The Band - Basement Tapes
Figurines - When the Deer Wore Blue
Ghostkeeper - S/T
Hayden - Field & Town
Incredible String Band - I Looked Up
Led Zeppelin - S/T
Bob Marley & Wailers - Survival
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Various - Trojan Singles Collection
Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
The Who - The Kids Are Alright

Thurston Moore Announces New Solo Album

2011-03-11T12:58:00.001-04:00

"Borrowed" from Pitchfork

Sonic Youth frontman's new one produced by Beck

A while back, we reported that Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore was hard at work on a new

Beck-produced solo album. Demolished Thoughts is due out May 24 on Matador (it'll come out in Europe a day before). That's the hand-drawn-looking cover art above.

According to Matador's announcement, the LP was recorded in Los Angeles and Massachusetts this past autumn and winter; besides Beck, Demolished Thoughts also features contributions from violinist Samara Lubelski, harpist Mary Lattimore, bassist Bram Inscore, and drummer Joey Waronker.

This week's second chances

2011-02-24T12:54:00.000-04:00

Twenty titles in our Used CD New Arrivals that should be in your collection. (If they aren't already).

Air - 10 000 Hz Legend
Art Ensemble of Soweto - America/South Africa
Bar-Kays - Best of
The Beatles - Love
Bright Eyes - Lifted
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
John Holt - Very Best of
I Roy - Touting I Self
The Jayhawks - Tomorrow the Green Grass
Elton John - S/T (deluxe edition)
Ray Lamontagne - Til the Sun Turns Black
The Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence & Despair
Massive Attack - Heligoland
Microphones - Don't Wake Me Up
Sigur Ros - Med Sud i Eyrum vid Spilum Endalaust
Steeleye Span - Original Masters
Sunn O))) - Black One
The Who - Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation

Upcoming Vinyl Releases

2011-02-19T15:09:00.001-04:00

A partial list of what's coming up over the next few months. If anything catches your eye get ahold of us to order it at backstreetrecords@gmail.com... not everything on this list will be brought in for stock. Also, however unlikely, prices are subject to change.

Feb22: Nirvana - Incesticide $42.98
Feb22: James Blake - S/T $29.99
Feb22: Six Organs of Admittance - Asleep on the Floodplain $24.98
Feb22: Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine $20.98
Feb22: Cave Singers - No Witch $21.98
Feb22: Colin Stetson - New History Warfare $27.98
Feb22: Chain and the Gang - Music's Not for... $28.98
Feb22: Books - Lemon of Pink (reissue) $25.98
Feb22: Baronness - Blue Record (reissue) $39.98
Mar01: Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing $21.98
Mar08: Starfucker - Reptilian $20.98
Mar08: Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip $20.98
Mar08: Parts & Labor - Constant Future $21.98
Mar08: Curious Mystery - We Creeling $24.98
Mar08: Strippers Union - The Deuce $25.98
Mar15: Matthew Friedberger - Meet Me in Miramas... $21.98
Mar15: Rise Against - Endgame $19.98 or
Mar15: Rise Against - Endgame (Ltd. Clear vinyl) $29.98
Mar15: Funkadelic - Let's Take it to the Stage (reissue) $24.98
Mar15: Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd (reissue) $24.98
Mar15: Jimmy Scott - Falling in Love is Wonderful (reissue) $28.98
Mar22: Soundgarden - Live on I-5 $29.98
Mar22: Adventure - Lesser Known $20.98
Mar22: Cheap Trick - In Color (reissue) $32.98
Apr12: Howe Gelb & A Band of Gypsies - Alegrias $29.98
Apr12: Panda Bear - Tomboy $22.98
Apr12: Thursday - No Devolucion $24.98

Tickets @ Backstreet

2011-02-19T11:57:00.001-04:00

Ticket Updates (Backstreet Fredericton):

Rich Aucoin / Feb 25 / Capital / $11
Arthur Bull + Eric Hill / Feb 26 / Connexion / $7
Jimmy Swift Band / March 4 / Capital / $13
The Creepshow / March 10 / Capital / $13
Amelia Curran + Melissa Ferrick / March 11 / Wilmot / $21
Matt Mays / March 11 / Capital / $26
The Sadies / March 15 / Capital / $16
Yukon Blonde / March 17 / Capital / $11
Born Ruffians / April 5 / Capital / $11
Dan Mangan / April 21 / Charlotte St. / $21

Q&A With East River Pipe

2011-02-17T21:05:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from Magnet

Stoutly refusing to record his passionate songs under anything less than his own terms (in his New Jersey home on a TASCAM MiniStudio), F.M. Cornog, under the name East River Pipe, has released seven albums since 1994 that can stand toe-to-toe with anything by your favorite indie rockers over the past 20 years. Although working full-time at the local Home Depot and raising a daughter with his wife may have curtailed Cornog’s recording time somewhat, the quality of the finished product remains unchanged. ERP’s latest, We Live In Rented Rooms (Merge), is further testimony to a man who refuses to play the rock-star game (form a band, tour, do photo shoots, etc.) and has come out the other side with a brilliant body of work—and with his soul intact. MAGNET recently caught up with Cornog by phone. Cornog will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
“Cold Ground” (download):

MAGNET: Your daughter was just a baby last time we did this, in 2003 for the Garbageheads On Endless Stun album. She must be old enough now to have developed her own musical tastes.
Cornog: Oh yeah. She’s eight now, and she’s listening to the usual suspects: Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas. It’s her music, and I let her indulge herself as long as it’s the relatively clean version.
How is fatherhood treating you?
It’s good. But this is why it’s taken so, so long to put out a record. When you have a kid, you can’t do whatever you used to do. I don’t want to feel guilty or have her harbor any resentment against me. Like, “Dad was always doing music up there in his room with his stupid mini studio. That was always more important than I was.” So I’ve kind of pulled a John Lennon house-husband thing. Although I’m still working at Home Depot, it’s turned the music thing into kinda like a guerilla-war operation. I kinda peck, peck, and then I run away. Then I come back and peck, peck, peck again. Plant a few explosives on the railway, blow ‘em up, then retreat into the woods.
Well, at least the Nazis haven’t found you yet.
I used to have hours and hours and hours of uninterrupted time when I was in Queens and in the early years when I came out here, around the time of Gasoline Age. But ever since then I haven’t had those long, long periods of time. You know, I like to be present for my family, my wife and my daughter, and spend time with them. I still love doing the music, but it really comes, I would say, second or third now. Maybe when she gets older and gets sick of me and doesn’t want me around I can get back into it again.
I don’t want to scare you off, so I won’t bring up the specter of the teenage years with a daughter. I’ve been through that.
I look at it like we’re all caught up in this big river. You can control certain things, but people believe they have more control than they really have. I think you have to let it take you down the stream and see what happens. Maybe paddle furiously when certain things come up, but mostly I just go with it.
What does your daughter think of your music?
It’s funny what appeals to her. You think she’s not really listening. But she hears “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones and says, “Wow, that’s great.” She doesn’t know what it means, at least yet. She also loves the song “Rise” by Public Image Ltd. So, you never know what a kid will like.
My daughter has gotten a lot of mileage with the time I introduced her to Joey Ramone at an instore in San Jose in 1978 when they were signing copies of Ramones Leave Home. The import of shaking Joey’s hand was not lost upon her. He was very nice.
People may not know this about me, but the Ramones still remain the band I saw the most live. People probably think, “OK, East River Pipe, you probably saw … ” I don’t know that they think. Maybe Joy Division or some dreamy group, not too acidic. But the Ramones, they were constantly out there.
I usually think of them as the Beach Boys of their day. Terrific, melodic, rocking, short tunes. If you don’t like that one, try this one two minutes later.
Yeah, and I kinda dug their work ethic. If I was gonna be in a band … I’ve seen the documentaries, and it seems like they didn’t like each other very much. They weren’t the greatest musicians in the world, obviously, but they were very serious about what they were doing. It had a very Andy Kaufman-esque feeling to it. They only did one thing, but you knew you were gonna get it. When you buy a Big Mac in Manhattan, it’s gonna be the same as it is in Brazil.
Do you still have an aversion to playing live? You told me before you tried it a few times, didn’t like it. Even Jandek eventually succumbed to the urge to play live after decades of secrecy.
I was talking to this guy at work at Home Depot. And he’s always like, “Why can’t I meet the right girl?” I don’t know. Life pushes us from side to side. Sometimes, in a way, it’s kinda like roulette. You fire the gun enough, and maybe it’ll go off someday. Maybe it won’t. Maybe you’re shooting blanks. And that’s the way it’s always been with me and collaborators, or band people. I’d get a few practices under my belt, and it was always something like the drummer had a girlfriend and he had to leave practice. I’m like Johnny Ramone in that respect. I mean, you can’t do that. It’s almost like a church to me at that point. This thing has to be more important than your girlfriend.
Sure, the band’s gotta come first.
If it’s serious, I can understand. But if it’s just someone you met the other night at Kenny’s Castaways, that’s a whole another thing. So it’s partly that and it’s partly just my personality. I’ve always liked solitude. I’ve never rushed to be in a crowd or a gang of people. It’s the other way around. Gangs of people always made me walk the other way. My wife used to go to CMJ, and all these musicians seemed to think they’re different. Then you go to CMJ, and everybody looks the same: the same hair and accessories. I guess substance abuse played a role in that, back then. I’ve gotten so used to the way I operate now that I got fed up with waiting around for something to happen. The guitar player can’t practice that week.
You were the perfect customer for TASCAM.
The MiniStudio came about in the early ’80s. I kinda knew my ship had come in. “I’m gonna get one of those damn things and work in my room.” And it’s always been like that. It’s a combination of not really meeting the right person to spark off a nice collaborative thing, then getting used to working for years and years with this MiniStudio.
I really like the new record. Then again, I’ve liked all your records.
Thank you. It’s kind of a quiet little thing. I really can’t expect much from this record. It’s not really a big statement. It was like trying to keep the sharks from devouring all of your soul. Cutting your life clean from the general culture out there.
Do you still have any contact with Kurt Wagner of Lambchop? You guys were a nice fit, I thought.
Yeah, I ran into them when the Merge fest happened, the 20th anniversary of Merge Records. I didn’t play. I almost introduced Lambchop. My daughter actually got up onstage with the band Guv’ner and clapped a little. She has that drive to be out in the spotlight. I don’t know where she got that from. So yeah, I talked to Kurt for a long time down there. And we always have something out there, like, “Let’s maybe do a Lambchop/East River Pipe thing.” I’ll use Lambchop kinda like a backup band, and we’ll go out there. But of course, it’s me that’s backing out of that type of arrangement. Kurt couldn’t be more generous with the way he throws out invitations to me.
If you and Kurt and the boys played live, I would certainly fly out there to see it.
Well, if I was gonna have a backing band—and I hate to even call it a backing band—we’d have to rev it up a notch, I think. They would probably like it, because they’d have to get a little louder and a little more abrasive. They’d have to bring back that thing they had back in ’97, where there was this floating, menacing little rain cloud of dissonance behind everything they did, which I love.
Do you still have the same drive you had 20 years ago?
I’ve always had a drive to write good songs and record them here at home. And not in a way that was half-assed and “lo-fi.” It was not a drive to become famous or bang 17-year-old girls or to be adored. It was just a guy trying to write good songs. That was my drive in the beginning, and it still remains my main drive now. My father always said, “You have no ambition. Sooner or later, life’s gonna kick you in the ass. You’re like a Buddhist monk. You should move to Nepal and sit there and chant all day, bang a gong. Or play one note on a sitar.” He was frustrated by that. But you know the words you say to a kid kind of stay with you. In a way, he was right. These guys at work, they go on the internet and say, “Wow, there’s a lot of stuff here about East River Pipe. Why don’t you don’t you go out on the road and be a rock star?” You know, I’m lugging around tiles, lifting bags of grout and stocking shelves, talking to people about wood floors. I believe we all do the best with what we have. I’ve never had the type of personality that can get up onstage and sell myself from town to town. I’ve always used music as this thing that’s very private, in a way. I like to share it with people, but on my terms.
Jason Lytle of Grandaddy told me about European press-only tours he had to do, where he didn’t play a note, just went from stop to stop to do interviews, where they’d ask the same questions day after day. He said he got so tired of the process, sometimes he would just make stuff up.
Yeah, Kurt had to do that, too. It’s weird because you get into music to write music, to be creative. And talking about music isn’t doing music. My daughter’s always fascinated: “Wow, a guy’s gonna call you up today and you’re gonna talk about your music.” It always depends who’s calling you up. I just talked to a person on BBC4 who was screening me to see if I was worth talking to.
Wow, a pre-interview!
Yeah, and they didn’t know anything about me, not one thing. Not that they should know anything. But you could at least look it up on Wikipedia. I guess she’d read the press release for We Live In Rented Rooms, that Cornog writes about the dark side of American life, the lower rungs of American society, which I do. But that’s all she wanted to talk about. She wanted me to take a big bear-shit on top of American society. She wanted to push me in that direction, corral me into saying something. And I just wasn’t into it. I’m not particularly patriotic, but I’m not one of these anti-government survivalists who’s living in Idaho, either.
Did you have a little family party when the album was finally finished?
No. [Laughs] I was at work that day. This was a really difficult album because I could never get up a head of steam. It was peck, peck, peck, retreat. It was like Chinese water torture, a woodpecker trying to bring down a gigantic oak. It’s a quiet little record. I’m expecting it, in some quarters, to get completely ragged on. It isn’t anything more than a guy recording these little songs without any gigantic themes.
Do you read your own press?
My wife kinda shields me. I try not to, because if it’s good, you go, “Wow, that guy really got it.” But if it’s bad, you go, “Wow, that guy’s really an asshole.” Even though he, too, might have gotten it. If you swallow the good, you have to swallow the bad. I believe you should not seal yourself off from life itself. You should just do your thing and see what happens. In my whole if you want to call it a career, it’s about trying to stay clear of all that crap. For years after I put out my first couple of records, when these major labels were coming at me … and I eventually signed with EMI, however briefly.
Yeah, I recall you got a five-album lump-sum settlement when EMI America went out of business.
Yeah, pretty good, huh? Bought a house. These record people were telling me, “You’ve gotta go into a real studio. You have to tour. And if you’re really going to stay in your TASCAM MiniStudio environment, you’ve gotta get a new mic, and it has to be at least a Shure SM57.” They were always dictating to me what I could do, should do. And I said, “Fuck this.” The only reason I took the EMI deal was because they said, “Do whatever you want to do. Just drop a master recording through our door every year and a half, and we’re cool with that. Here’s this money. You don’t have to tour, you don’t have to do any photo shoots, any interviews. You don’t have to do anything.” I didn’t even have to get a day job. If I had that situation now, I could put out an album every six months, like Elton John in the ’70s.
Since we last talked, one of your songs has been covered by David Byrne. How did that come about, any idea?
Yeah, David Byrne did a tune from my most maligned record, Garbageheads On Endless Stun. He ended up recording a song called “Girls On The Freeway” in a semi-country way. I mean, David Byrne—I listened to this guy’s records all the time! That was amazing. I shook Kurt down, because David Byrne has also covered a Lambchop song. Because Kurt sometimes talks to David Byrne, I asked Kurt if he turned him on to the song. I mean, how could David Byrne find anything that I do? And Kurt said, “Look this is David Byrne. He can do whatever the fuck he wants to. I had nothing to do with it.” When the guys at Home Depot ask if somebody has done one of my songs, and I mention David Byrne, that’s something they understand. I made a best-of list in the New York Times a few years ago, and my father went, “Wow, the New York Times.” Up until then, nothing meant anything. With David Byrne, a lot of Home Depot people have heard of the Talking Heads. “OK, this guy must be half decent if David Byrne covered one of his songs.” Mention Lambchop to somebody at Home Depot, and they’d think it was a sock puppet.

—Jud Cost

So you wanna be a rock and roll star...

2011-02-16T20:02:00.001-04:00

Backstreet is now just that much lighter. We've just completed our newest round of consignment house cleaning: a process that involves going through the unsold under-the-shelf items that local and touring bands have entrusted to us, counting them, then e-mailing the previously mentioned bands to tell them nothing has sold and asking them what we should do with them now. There are more than a hundred CDs in "giveaway" piles out in the hall.

It's not impossible to make, market and sell your own music in this post-space-age society. At least the "making" part is actually a little too easy, given the relative affordability and simplicity of most digital recording software that many aspiring artists have on their home computers. It's the other steps, post making, mastering and packaging, where either a better plan or slightly less lofty expectations are key. Here are a few hints, tips and suggestions to help you avoid pitfalls.

(1) Do you need a CD/vinyl/cassette in the first place?

You've been a band for a few months... you've played three or four shows at art galleries, regional showcases, maybe opened for a touring band at a local bar. You have a MySpace page that gets a couple dozen hits a week. You know someone who's a photographer or graphic designer who has been making your posters, so pretty packaging is no problem. There are three possibilities here: (a) NO. No, you don't need anything to sell until you start getting regular shows in more than two venues in one city. (b) OK, yes... you could use something to sell at the next craft sale you're providing background music for... so burn off a few CD-Rs from the best songs in your iTunes playlist, get your graphic design friend to make a pretty-but-cheap sleeve to tuck them in and either give them away or sell them for a couple of bucks to people browsing the felting projects. (c) YES..., of course. In fact you need to shell out for three days in a studio, a professional mastering job, full press run of 1000 non-CD-R copies shrink wrapped with the artwork you commissioned from the semi-prominent regional painter. And next week, when the stress and bickering about the expenese results in you breaking up you'll each have a couple hundred reminders of your time together.

But seriously... doing things on the cheap for the first little while is the best policy. Realistically the first several dozen copies of anything you make will be either bought by or given away to someone you know and/or are related to. These people don't care about shrink-wrapping and the brick-wall limiter the engineer used to compress the drum sound. They like you. They'd like something more personal that reminds them of you... and they're more likely not to donate it to the library six months later when they are cleaning their living rooms.

(2) You're in a band that regularly tours but is unsigned and has produced an album to sell at shows.

Even in this case you might not necessarily need to go full production on anything you are dragging from town to town to shill at your merch table. But assuming you did... other than the handful you offload on the alcohol-elated after each gig... what should you be doing with the rest of your stock? (a) Compile a database of radio stations that might play independent recordings in the towns you are planning to visit. (b) Likewise research those towns' local newspapers and send copies (or better CD-R copies) to the staff arts writers with bios, press releases and details of when and where you'll be playing when you arrive. (c) Though it's a crapshoot whether they will actually get into the hands of someone that will give it the time, you should probably still send them to national publications for possible review. You never know.

(3) Other than shows and promos how should you go about selling your recordings?

There are quite a few variables to consider here. How are things selling off the stage? Have stores in certain cities been contacting you to find out how to get your recording for their customers? Even if you're not on a label per se, are you in some sort of collective of groups that form a kind of unified identity? If you're at the point where you are "buzzing" a little... playing a circuit that takes you to venues/cities more than a couple of times each year... building a nice little folder of press clippings... now is the time where you might have to take those next steps:

(a) Getting someone to handle your distribution. This could be someone in the band, but even the most organized go-getter (you know the one who remembers to bring his/her instrument to practice and put gas in the van and book the hotel) can get cranky when taking on too much of the business end of things. Better it be someone you trust who can spare the time to make phone calls and write e-mails all afternoon. This person will be responsible for: (b) Getting your records into the right hands. What we're talking about here is the point where it actually makes sense to put your album in stores rather than just sell them off a website or off the stage... but before the point where you approach actual distributors to take on your business.

Now a lot of bands simply play a town, track down the indie store in that town, drop five or ten copies of the album on consignment and then drive off. If you'll recall the introductory paragraph of this piece we know how that turns out: bitter indie record store managers putting unsold CDs on a staircase railing to give away. But... if you have the above mentioned someone to handle your distribution, it should be one of their tasks to keep up a database of what stores have your albums, how many of them they have, what the terms of each place are [i.e. what's been agreed upon for payment, when payments are made, how long they'll keep the albums before putting them on a staircase railing to give away, etc]. If they're especially astute they can also suss out what stores actually have a hope of selling your album vs. the ones that will rack it out of politeness [sidenote: more and more I try to dissuade artists from mailing me their album to sell if they don't have any plans to play Fredericton. No matter how much "campus radio airplay" or "MySpace friends" or "YouTube hits" a band has, it is exceedingly rare for someone to buy a consignment album by a band they haven't seen play live]. If the city doesn't have an indie store or you aren't sure the local store warrants carrying the album you can always leave contact handbills at the venue you played at, or even the store, that lists where folks can buy the album (or digital download... blah) online.

So now your album is in a bunch of stores across the country. Now your only job is sitting back and waiting for the money to roll in, right? Well... no. In fact it's still your job to: (c) Make sure the records will actually sell, as much as that's within your power to do. Your trusty distro helper can make regular calls to each seller to see how things are going... not too much or it's badgering and will have a negative result. But there are a few basic things you can try to give the record a better chance to sell. City-specific promo posters... make up album release posters that either the band can leave / put up around town with info about availability [e.g. Hammer of Gord's new album "This Van Stinks" is now available at Backstreet Records]. Make sure that the band's website/MySpace/whatever has an up-to-date list of places the album is on sale. Provide the store with a play copy, posters, stickers and whatever other swag you have kicking around. The very best case scenario you can hope for is if the person working at the store actually likes your album... as unlikely as that seems... in which case they will play it, form an opinion about it and maybe even recommend it to their customers. Stranger things have happened.

Now you've read this and you are thinking to yourselves, "well, of course... that just makes sense," right? Remarkably this is seldom the case. The usual scenario seems to be: (1) Form a band (2) Play some shows (3) Borrow a buttload of money to make a recording (4) Give a bunch away to everyone you know (5) Put a bunch more in stores that you never go back to (6) Never mention where people can get them (7) Play a few more shows (8) Get the bills from production / touring / etc. (9) Break up. Don't let this be you!!!

Books By Covers: #1 Kranky

2011-02-10T21:23:00.000-04:00

After a decade of internet literacy and the steady rise of digital music distribution it sometimes confounds and confuses to hear that artists like Fergie or Maroon 5 are at the top of year end sales, given the broader and better possibilities that wait out there. But there's a variation on one main theme we keep hearing here at Backstreet: Too MUCH!!! It's either passive frustration ("I try to keep up with new music but there are so many new genres and scenes that pop up, I just don't have the time") or active ignorance ("There hasn't been any good music out since [insert 70s, 80s, 90s here depending on the person's age]"). And it is certainly true that it's an impossibility of time to follow each and every brand new development in music up to the minute, I fail at staying completely current and it's part of my job, over the years there have been little signposts that have been useful to narrow down the scope of investigation. One of those, unsurprisingly, has been the label as stamp of quality. Over the next little while I'll profile certain mid-to-large sized indie labels that have proven themselves to be reliable and worthy of taking chances on even when the artist is new or unfamiliar.

First up Kranky.

The label started in Chicago in 1993, and their initial sound was a blend of rock and electronics that drew influences from late 70s / early 80s ambient and post-punk by artists like Brian Eno, pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd, Durutti Column and so on, as well as contemporaries like Aphex Twin, Stereolab and Pram; with bits and bytes grabbed form modern composition and electro-acoustic practices.

For the first few years it stuck close to the space rock / ambient electronic end of the spectrum with a string of compelling releases from Labradford, Stars of the Lid and Bowery Electric. The addition of the Minnesotan outfit Low in 1997 marked a slight move towards a more mainstream rock (though only very slight given that trio's slowcore leanings barely rippled the label's still surface). ''

Arguably the label's breakout moment came in 98/99 when it became the American home for Montreal's Godspeed You Black Emperor! The group's ascension from outsider favourites to darlings of the burgeoning post-rock movement (Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky) was bonded to the label's profile. To their credit they didn't go a hiring spree to find another large chamber-rock cabal, assuming there was one to find. They instead maintained a good relationship with their existing roster, adding new sympathetic members (Loscil, Charalambides) and branching out in slightly more upbeat, even danceable, directions (Out Hud, Fontanelle).

In recent years the label has continued to diversify and become harder to summarize when outlining styles and sounds. On one spiral arm you'll find proto-intellectual sound experiments (Keith Fullerton Whitman, Christopher Bissonette, Tim Hecker), on another there are amtomospheric acoustic alchemists (Boduf Songs, Autistic Daughters, Bird Show) and not least of all some notable pop and rock releases (Deerhunter, Benoit Pioulard, To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie). While you may prefer one of these forms more than the others, there's no disputing that Kranky maintains an aesthetic that suffuses all of its releases.

Recommendations to start you off:

Labradford - Labradford (1996)

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of... (2001)

Autistic Daughters - Jealousy and Diamond (2004)

Boduf Songs - Lion Devours the Sun (2006)

Lichens - Omns (2007)

Benoit Pioulard - Temper (2008)

Deerhunter - Microcastle (2008)

Julie Doiron w/ Will Kidman at Horseshoe

2011-02-05T10:44:00.000-04:00

from Morning Noon Night blog

Shivering Songs / Don't Dial Drunk (or Dumb)

2011-01-26T13:40:00.000-04:00

You likely already know this, but we are selling tickets to this weekend's Shivering Songs Festival
Full Passes are $40
Olympic Symphonium (w/Isaac & Blewett + Catherine MacLennan) $30
Songwriter Circle $12.00

These prices included all taxes and service charges and are cash only / in-store. NO HOLDS.

I mention the last little bit thanks to the all-too-familiar but still worth repeating phone conversation we just had:

Caller: Do you guys still uhh... are you selling uhh... tickets for that Shivering Shows thing?
Backstreet: Yes we are still selling those.
Caller: Do you think the show will, like, uhh... sell out?
Backstreet: That's always a good assumption to make. You should get your tickets early.
Caller: But you still have tickets now?
Backstreet: Yes.
Caller: About how many do you have left?
Backstreet: Do you mean the passes or the individual shows?
Caller: I don't know... the thing with David Myles... and that girl...
Backstreet: The Songwriters Circle?
Caller: I guess so.
Backstreet: Well we have quite a few right now... but I could have a run on them this afternoon and be sold out by the weekend. I can't predict that. The sooner you get your tickets the better in any case.
Caller: Can you guys... if I uhh...
Backstreet: I should say that we only take cash for tickets, you have to be in store to get them, we don't do holds.
Caller: Uhh... you don't do holds? Right... but if I asked you to put two aside and I came in tomorrow...
Backstreet: We... don't do holds. It's not our money, we are only vendors... that's the policy.
Caller: OK. Do you guys take debit?
Backstreet: Cash only for tickets.
Caller: Cash only right.. uhh...
Backstreet: OK?
Caller: OK. Uhhhhh... [this uhhh is still audible as I hang up the phone].

New Arrivals this week

2011-01-26T12:19:00.000-04:00

THE OLYMPIC SYMPHONIUM - No Bad Habits from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

Olympic Symphonium - The City Won't Have Time to Fight (Forward)
Destroyer - Kaputt (Merge)
Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs Evil (Polyvinyl)
Death - Spiritual, Metal, Physical (Drag City)
Sic Alps - Napa Asylum (Drag City)
Apex Manor - The Year of Magical Drinking (Merge)
Wire - Red Barked Tree (PF)
Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes (Epitaph)
Monotonix - Not Yet (Drag City)
Thank You - Golden Worry (Thrill Jockey)
Lia Ices - Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar)

Upcoming Vinyl Releases

2011-01-15T11:56:00.000-04:00

pre-order or send inquiries to backstreetrecords@gmail.com (Fredericton Store)

Now-- Guided by Voices - Live in Dayton 3LP $64.98
Now-- Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon II $22.98
Now-- Madlib - Medicine Show V.11 $52.98
Jan 18 White Lies - Ritual $25.98
Jan 18 Wino - Adrift $21.98
Jan 25 Deerhoof - vs. Evil $22.98
Jan 25 Aloha - Great Communicators $16.98
Jan 25 John Vanderslice - White Wilderness $22.98
Jan 25 Lia Ices - Grown Unknown $22.98
Jan 25 Matthew Friedberger - Napoleonette $22.98
Jan 25 Harvey Milk - A Small Turn of... $34.98
Jan 25 The Books - Thought For Food (reissue) $25.98
Feb 01 Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts $23.98
Feb 01 Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follys $19.98
Feb 01 Matadors - Get Down (reissue) $34.98
Feb 01 Deltron 3030- S/T (reissue) $27.98
Feb 08 Wild Nothing - Gemini (red vinyl/bonus track) $22.98
Feb 15 Bright Eyes - The People's Key $29.98
Feb 15 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die... $22.98
Feb 15 Hawk and a Hacksaw - Cervantine $21.98
Feb 15 Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps $19.98
Feb 15 Beans - End it All $23.98
Feb 15 PJ Harvey - Let England Shake $24.98
Feb 22 Adele - 21 $22.98
Mar 01 Lucinda Williams - Blessed 2LP $29.98

Prices are subject to change at distributor.

PJ Harvey on "Let England Shake"

2011-01-06T13:38:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from Stereogum

When she’s not actually on stage performing or talking about her music, it’s almost impossible to imagine what PJ Harvey actually does with her time. Since wowing the universe back in her Rid Of Me days, Harvey’s work has become increasingly esoteric — and much more interesting — with each successive release, and Harvey herself has become increasingly inscrutable. One of rock music’s most private people, she seems content to follow her own increasingly thorny musical path and mostly stay out the spotlight, much to the delight and (sometimes) chagrin of her fans. Having already documented so much of her own private world on albums like Uh Huh Her and 2007’s White Chalk, the ever unpredictable PJ Harvey returns next month with Let England Shake — an album that appears equally inspired by poetry and politics.
“I found writing the words for this record very difficult,” says Harvey, calling from her home in Dorset, England. “I’ve always found it hard to write the words, but particularly this time — given the different subject matter — I found it especially hard. I spent a good year and a half only writing words. I didn’t write any music at all until I had words that could be read on a page, almost like poems. After that, the music came together relatively quickly. The recording of the songs was a fairly easy and enjoyable process. We recorded the album in less than five weeks.”

The subject matter in question on Harvey’s new record happens to be her English homeland. While the record contains many songs that are fairly overt criticisms of England (“I live and die / through England / it leaves / sadness / it leaves a taste / a bitter one” she sings on “England”), the record is, in it’s own weird way, a kind of swooning melancholic portrait of her home. Despite making a powerful and direct statement on the state of England and an admonishment on the horrors of war, Let England Shake is, ironically, the most gorgeously upbeat record Harvey has made in years. Recorded in Dorset in a 19th century church on a cliff overlooking the sea, the album captures the sound of an artist coming to terms — for better or worse — with the place that has created them.
“I like that you said ‘upbeat,’” she concurs, “I knew I wanted it to have this very uplifting, communal feeling to it. I wanted it to be full of energy, music to get the blood running. I wanted the music to be almost indefinable — swirling and moving continually. Those were the things that were in the forefront of my mind when we began to record.”
“To be honest, I never had the confidence to try and address topics like these before” she says, “I’ve always wanted to talk about these things that have affected me profoundly and these feelings that I’ve always felt, but I never felt like I really had the right language to do so. My writing in the past has been more about emotions and less about political subjects. I hope people can relate to it regardless of their nationality. It isn’t just about England. It really touches upon these feelings I think we all have about our respective countries — love and hate, attraction and revulsion, terrible disappointment and also great hope.”
Let England Shake represents an interesting artistic leap for Harvey, which she attributes to focusing attention on the literary aspect of her work and not solely only on the music. “As the years have gone by, my approach to writing to writing has changed,” she says. “Words have become more important to me as I’ve become more and more interested in poetry as an art form in its own right. I’ve become very disciplined in my writing and I work on my poetry every day, just trying to get somewhere with it. That’s how it is to be a writer. You hope for the best but all you can really do is keep working at it. I’ve become more and more interested in writing as a vessel of great beauty and power. I’ve actually joined a couple of classes to study form and meter, but I feel like I got started quite late in the game. I wish now I’d gone to school and studied poetry.”
Despite the fact that Harvey’s musical output continues to become more meticulous and erudite as she grows older, there are those fans that will always yearn for PJ Harvey’s early power-trio days, back when she always played guitar and incendiary rock was the order of the day. The desire that she might one day return to her garage-rocky past is one that Harvey understands, but a notion that she’s quick to dismiss.
“I know what you’re talking about and I definitely felt that,” says Harvey. “I just don’t understand that train of thought. I’ve always just been interested in moving forward. It’s been very natural in me to keep pushing and trying to find a new way and a new voice with which to say things. I always like to make a record and have it feel as if people were somehow hearing me for the first time. I know that there are those people who really love a certain type of music and only want to hear that one thing … but I’m not one of those people. All I can really do is follow my own heart. With every record I’ve tried to do that. I’m sure I’ll just continue to do so.”
“There were times in the past — when I was much younger — when I wasn’t sure what my path was going to be in life and what might be the best thing for me to be,” she admits. “I always had doubts as to whether or not I was on the right path. But ever since the late ’90s, I’ve totally embraced it. I realized that this was the path for me and the place where I could give my best as an artist. I feel very lucky to still be here and still doing the thing I care most about in the world. I feel lucky to be able to try and make something meaningful with words and music. I feel so fortunate to be able to do that and I’m sure I’ll keep doing so as long as there are people who are interested in hearing what I come up with.”
While she is eager to play live again in 2011 (“I love playing for people. I love that moment of connection. I love the vitality of sharing a room with people and making music. It’s always been very important to me.”), Harvey seems happy with the creative and quiet life she leads at home in Dorset. When asked how she keeps busy when not making music, she only laughs.
“I work all the time and I write every day,” she explains. “I work very hard. You know, I work as anybody who has a nine to five job might, except my job is creating words and music. It’s quite a normal life in that respect. I keep to myself and work, really. That’s what I’ve always done.

Top 50 of 2010

2010-12-29T14:19:00.059-04:00

I actually contemplated not doing a top 50 this year. The last half of 2010 was a bit of a mess for me, and these disruptions had some effect on my listening pattern. Reasons for listening to music obviously change over time... and some of the choices below reflect both a long term sea change and a short term mind set. That said, good music is good music n'est-ce pas?

Some caveats: The Postdata record that made it to #1 below came out some time in 2009 (I think) although release info is pretty spotty. I only heard it a couple of months into 2010 and loved its low key atmosphere and open mic / room sound recording. When I began re-listening to it in late summer early fall it was the songs' focus that really hit home. There were days I'd play it in the store 4-5 times back to back (which isn't hard given it's brief duration).

There are at least two albums that might have made it in to the list (and I'd thought about wedging them in somewhere on principle) and those were Joanna Newsom's Have One On Me and Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz. The former sat like a brick in my iTunes all year long, constantly in that "I'll give it a good listen when I have the time" pile. Apparently I never had the time because I've yet to listen to it all the way through. The Sufjan album did get a few spins post release and initially I was really happy with it. He seemed to have found a way to meld the quiet singer/songwriter side of his discography with the orchestral and ambitious side of things. And the he added weird heavy keyboard to the mix on top of it all. But with each new listen I got less and less certain about my feelings towards the album. It had moments of pop hook nirvana that made me very happy... but they came a little gummed up by the blobular synthesizer sections that surrounded them. I started asking the question to myself, "Are these songs actually good?" That's the point I was at while making the list... so I decided to just leave it off until I'd answered that question to my satisfaction.

The rest of the list is the usual mix of long time favourites (Damien Jurado, Will Oldham, John Darnielle), new weird and daring directions that caught my ear (Emeralds, oOoOO, Oneohtrix Point Never). There were good but not great albums by other favourites (Antony and the Johnsons, The National) and surprises by others that were better than expected (Superchunk, Arcade Fire). I'm sure there are titles that some of you will argue for that I missed, that always happens, and some that might seem overly obscure and put on for their cool points... I hope this isn't true... but I can neither confirm nor deny.

I welcome debate, questions, insights... here in the comments, over on our Facebook page or live in person (even better)>

01 Postdata - S/T (Silly Old Songs)

02 Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)

03 Sam Amidon - I See the Sign (Bedroom Community)

04 Beach House - Teen Dream (Sub Pop)

05 Extra Lens - The Undercard (Merge)

06 John Grant - The Queen of Denmark (Bella Union)

07 Superchunk - Majesty Shredding (Merge)

08 Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt (Dead Oceans)

09 Mice Parade - What it Means to Be Left Handed (FatCat)

10 Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett (Secretly Canadian)

11 Arcade Fire - Suburbs (Merge)

12 Woods - At Echo Lake (Woodsist)

13 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and the Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World (Drag City)

14 Oval - O (Thrill Jockey)

15 Gayngs - Relayted (Jagjaguwar)

16 Perfume Genius - Learning (Matador)

17 S. Carey - All We Grow (Jagjaguwar)

18 Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts (Sub Pop)

19 Megafaun - Heretofore (Hometapes)

20 Emeralds - Does it Look Like I'm Here? (eMego)

21 Tame Impala - Innerspeaker (Modular)

22 Scout Niblett - The Calcination of… (Drag City)

23 ANBB - Mimikry (Raster-Noton)

24 Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)

25 Warpaint- The Fool (Rough Trade)

26 Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises (Caldo Verde)

27 The Books - The Way Out (Temporary Residence)

28 Black Angels - Phosphene Dream (Blue Horizon)

29 CocoRosie - Grey Oceans (Sub Pop)

30 Halves - It Goes, It Goes [Forever and Ever] (Hate is the Enemy)

31 A Silver Mt. Zion - Kollaps Tradixionales (Constellation)

32 Sylvain Chauveau - Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) (Type)

33 The National - High Violet (4AD)

34 Felix - You Are the One I Pick (Kranky)

35 Women - Public Strain (Flemish Eye)

36 Walkmen - Lisbon (Fat Possum)

37 Sightings - City of Straw (Jagjaguwar)

38 Barn Owl - Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey)

39 Local Natives - Gorilla Mansion (French Kiss)

40 Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM (Elektra)

41 Three Mile Pilot - The Inevitable Past is the Future Forgotten (Temporary Residence)

42 oOoOO - oOoOO (Tri-Angle)

43 Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (eMego)

44 Adam Franklin and Bolts of Melody - I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years (Second Motion)

45 Ghostkeeper - S/T (Flemish Eye)

46 Laurie Anderson - Homeland (Nonesuch)

47 The Lower Dens - Twin Hand Movement (Gnomosong)

48 Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights (Secretly Canadian)

49 Efterklang - Magic Chairs (4AD)

50 Play Guitar - S/T (Youth Club)

Trip-hop god Tricky stranded near Sarnia, Ont.

2010-12-14T18:31:00.000-04:00

"borrowed" from CBC.ca

The weather in eastern Canada has been nutso, to put it mildly. Buckets of snow have blanketed southeastern Ontario, with the Sarnia area getting the worst of it. As this site has been reporting all day, about 300 motorists were stranded on Highway 402, unable to circumvent the great gobs of the white stuff.

The Toronto Star is reporting that one of those marooned travellers is British musician Tricky, whose tour bus was en route to a show in Chicago. The gravel-voiced trip-hop legend and his crew apparently found hospitality in the home of John Prins, a generous chap who has apparently put up 29 stranded people in his house. Prins also had no idea who Tricky was.

In case you're reading this site, John, we thought we'd showcase a couple of Tricky's classic cuts. And for you, Tricky: stay safe!

'sup

2010-12-01T13:25:00.001-04:00

I was just putting another 20 CDs in our much-imitated "New Arrivals / Used CDs" section... and as I was alphabetizing the stuff it struck me: GAWLDURN IT we have a super sexy / filler free bunch of titles in just now. I mean... if all you had in your collection were these 50 CDs then guests in your home would look at you with a respect usually reserved for crossing guards and Canadian news anchors. I mean... CHEGGIT OUT:

Chet Baker - Jazz Essentials (Verve)
Beck - Guero (Interscope)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them on Your Own (Virgin)
James Brown - In the Jungle Groove (Sony)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor (Mint)
John Coltrane - Stellar Regions (Impulse)
John Coltrane - Sun Ship (Impulse)
Elvis Costello - My Aim is True (Ryko)
Deep Purple - Best of / Smoke on the Water (Universal)
Bob Dylan - Good as I Been to You (Columbia)
Eels - Souljacker (Universal)
Evangelicals - The Evening Descends (Dead Oceans)
Faith No More - Introduce Yourself (Slash)
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man... (Rhino)
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain (Westbound)
The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart (Yep Roc)
Half-Handed Cloud - Stowaways (Asthmatic Kitty)
PJ Harvey - Uh-Huh, Her (Island)
John Lee Hooker - Best of (MCA)
Led Zeppelin - IV (Atlantic)
Modest Mouse - Good News for People... (Epic)
Monster Magnet - Powertrip (A&M)
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (Sire)
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms (Lefse)
Pearl Jam - Vs. (Epic)
Various - The Pentangle Family (Castle)
Tom Petty - Mojo (Reprise)
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace... (Island)
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely (WB)
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (V2)
REM - Dead Letter Office (IRS)
The Replacements - Tim (Sire)
The Roots - Rising Point (Def Jam)
The Roots - Phrenology (MCA)
Paul Simon - Concert in the Park (WB)
Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity (Impulse)
Slint - Spiderland (Touch and Go)
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (Asthmatic Kitty)
T.Rex - Electric Warrior (Reprise)
Rufus Thomas - Best of (Rhino)
Toots and the Maytals - Best of (Island)
U2 - Best of 1980-1990 (Universal)
Van Halen - II (WB)
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (Island)
Tom Waits - Mule Variations (Anti-)
White Stripes - Elephant (V2)
Wilco - A Ghost is Born (Nonesuch)
Frank Zappa - Over-nite Sensation (Ryko)
Frank Zappa - Mothers, Filmore East June 1971 (Ryko)

WHUT? I KNOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!

Stereogum’s 50 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2011

2010-11-25T13:04:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from Stereogum

To tackle the cliché head-on, if you’re a big music fan, every year is a good year for music. People (and their Droids) seem more cynical than ever, but only a true curmudgeon could make it through any given 12 months without liking anything (well, the mid ’90s had a couple grim moments). That said, 2011 appears to have more than enough to keep even the angriest amongst you smiling amid the steady unemployment, nostalgia-act reunions, oil spills and explosions, celebrity sickness/divorce/death, chillwave, and even Glee.
Kanye West and his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy owned the latter part of 2010 — with the news of his five-song 2011 Watch The Throne collaboration with Jay-Z, he may very well own a chunk of next year, too. Speaking of owning: 2010 — also known as the year post-Merriweather Post Pavilion — was a somewhat quiet one for Animal Collective outside of ODDSAC and Avey Tare’s Down There. The next one brings us the next best thing to a new AC collection, Tomboy, Panda Bear’s much anticipated followup to 2007’s Person Pitch. We’ll also have the first proper Aphex Twin full-length since 2001’s Drukqs. In the time after Richard D. James paused, guitars have definitely taken a bit of a backseat in many corners of underground music and for the general listener — think chillwave, witch house, death disco, homemade GarageBand mashes, the sampled guitar-rock of Girl Talk, etc. With this landscape as his backdrop, it’ll be interesting to see how much further James, a popular electronic musician even non-electronic music fans have always liked, can spread his reach. (He’s said he’s recorded six albums worth of material since we last heard from him, so it’ll also be interesting to see how much these outside shifts have influenced his own output.) As far as other long waits, it seems Strokes IV will see the light of day in 2011, or at least that’s what the @band says. All in all, the old guard is well represented in the following list: The Cars, Beastie Boys, U2, Foo Fighters, etc. (What year is this again?)
Speaking of our list: We chose the 50 most important or enticing. And while it’s limited primarily to releases that have been confirmed, we have made a few assumptions (e.g., that the Wrens and Avalanches will finish their Chinese Democracies).
Click on an artist name for recent news, and in some cases MP3s, from these forthcoming LPs.

01 Aphex Twin – TBA
02 Fiona Apple – TBA
03 The Avalanches – TBA (via Modular)
04 Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee, Vol. 2 (via Capitol)
05 James Blake – James Blake (2/07 via Atlas/A&M)
06 The Cars – TBA
07 The Cave Singers – No Witch (2/22 via Jagjaguwar)
08 Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings (1/24 via Carpark)
09 Cut Copy – Zonoscope (2/08 via Modular)
10 Death Cab For Cutie – TBA (via Atlantic)
11 The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (1/18 via Capitol)
12 Destroyer – Kaputt (1/25 via Merge)
13 Dr. Dre – Detox (February via Aftermath/Interscope)
14 Fleet Foxes – TBA
15 Foo Fighters – TBA
16 The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts (2/14 via Memphis Industries)
17 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2/15 via Island)
18 Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean (1/25 via Warner Bros.)
19 Krallice – TBA (April via Profound Lore)
20 La Sera – La Sera (Early 2011 via Hardly Art)
21 Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Interscope)
22 Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (3/1 via LL Recordings)
23 Lil Wayne – TBA
24 Liturgy – TBA (Thrill Jockey)
25 The Lonely Island – TBA
26 M83 – TBA
27 Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me (2/8 via Nonesuch)
28 MINKS – By The Hedge (1/12 via Captured Tracks)
29 Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. (2/15 via Sub Pop)
30 My Morning Jacket – TBA (ATO)
31 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – TBA
32 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong (March via Slumberland)
33 Panda Bear – Tomboy
34 R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (2/07 via Warner Bros.)
35 Radiohead – TBA (via Teh Internetz)
36 Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo (2/14)
37 The Rome (Danger Mouse & Daniele Lupi) – The Rome
38 Santigold – TBA
39 The Shins – TBA
40 Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What
41 Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (1/18 via Fat Possum)
42 The Streets – Computers And Blues
43 The Strokes – TBA
44 Tennis – Cape Dory (1/18 via Fat Possum)
45 Shugo Tokumaru – Port Entropy (2/15 via Polyvinyl.)
46 Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine (2/22 via Car Park)
47 The Twilight Singers – Dynamite Steps (2/15 via Subpop)
48 Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne (via Def Jam)
49 The Wrens – TBA
50 U2 – Songs Of Ascent

HONORABLE MENTIONS & SPECULATIONS:

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Tao of the Dead Part I: Tao of the Dead (2/4 via Richter Scale)
Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT (2/8 via Dead Oceans)
Damon Albarn/Flea/Tony Allen Project – TBA
Asobi Seksu – Fluoresence (2/15 via Polyvinyl)
Banjo Or Freakout – TBA (via Rare Book Room)
Battles – TBA
Beady Eye – TBA
Beck – TBA
Black Lips – TBA
Bon Iver – TBA
BRAIDS – Native Speaker (1/18 via Kanine Records)
British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall (via Rough Trade)
Burial – TBA
Cake – Showroom Of Compassion (1/11 via Upbeat)
Coldplay – TBA
Cornershop – Cornershop & The Double ‘O’ Groove Of>
Crystal Stilts – TBA
Danielson – Best of Gloucester County (2/22 via Sounds Familyre)
The Death Set – Michel Poiccard (via Ninjatune)
Deerhoof – Deerhoof Vs. Evil (1/25 via Polyvinyl)
DeVotchKa – 100 Lovers (2/15 via ANTI-)
Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots (2/15 via ATO)
Ducktails – Ductails III: Arcade Dynamics (1/10 via Woodsist)
East River Pipe – We Live In Rented Rooms (2/15 via Merge)
Esben & The Witch – Violet Cries (2/8 via Matador)
Explosions In The Sky – TBA
Matthew Friedberger – Solos (Jan, March, May, July, Sept, Nov via Thrill Jockey)
The Feelies – TBA (Spring via Bar/None)
Lupe Fiasco – Lasers (2/14 via Atlantic)
The Forms – Derealization (2/15 via Threespheres/Ernest Jenning)
Peter Gabriel – New Blood
The Get Up Kids – There Are Rules (via Quality Hill Records)
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen – TBA
Gorillaz – TBA
Islands – TBA
Jane’s Addiction – TBA
Talib Kweli – Gutter Rainbows (1/25 via Talibra)
Jens Lekman – TBA
Low – TBA
The Luyas – Too Beautiful To Work (2/22 via Dead Oceans)
MEN – Talk About Body (2/1 via IAMSOUND)
Mister Heavnely – TBA
Neon Indian – TBA
Noah & The Whale – TBA (via Lost Club/Mercury Records)
Beth Orton – TBA
Red Hot Chili Peppers – TBA
Sic Alps – Napa Asylum (1/25 via Drag City)
Tape Deck Mountain – Secret Serf EP
John Vanderslice – White Wilderness (1/25 via Dead Oceans)
VEGA – TBA
White Lies – Ritual (1/18 via Fiction)
Wild Flag – TBA
Win Win – Win Win (Vice
Patrick Wolf – TBA (via Hideout)

The Big Little Profile: John Darnielle

2010-11-24T15:32:00.002-04:00

Despite an unnecessarily large record collection there are actually very few artists / bands that I can say I've stuck with unfailingly over the last 30 years of serious listening. I thought doing a few (relatively shallow) in depth profiles of these choice folk might serve to broaden their appeal. First up John Darnielle.

First exposure

I think the first release was Nine Black Poppies on Emperor Jones ... followed quickly by Sweden on Shrimper records, both in 1995. This was the heyday of the micro-indie label and lo-fi production... and the Mountain Goats had that in spades. Most of the tracks on these two releases were recorded live to two track on a recorder whose condenser mic also picked up the sound of the tape motor whirring. This whir was always loud on the intro and extro of the tracks. The key track for me on these releases had to be "Cubs in Five" on Nine Black Poppies. It's lyrics were all about the massively improbable coming to pass, like "Bill Gates will single-handedly spearhead / The Heaven 17 revival," with the chorus being a big, sappy "And I will love you again / I will love you like I used to." This couplet was the topic of debate between an ex and me on whether the line was meant as sarcasm or magical affirmation. I'll let you guess who sided with what. The other stand out track that I still love on Sweden is the atypical Casio keyboard track "California Song," another lovesick ditty with the lines like "I know that in California the waves break on the beach / and I know that the foam on the breaking waves is as white as household bleach" and "You treat me badly / I love you madly / You really got a hold on me." Damn.

Cementing the Deal

Darnielle obviously had a geyser of songs coming out of him with 5 albums between '95-'97 plus enough cassettes, 7" inches, magazine compilaton tracks etc. to later fill up three compilations of early songs (Protein Source of the Future Now, Bitter Melon Farm and Ghana came out on 3 Beads of Sweat in 2002 with a combined total of 81 songs). But the album that cemented the deal for me from this early period was Full Force Galesburg on Emperor Jones. Its more focussed, still a mixed bag of lo & hi fi recording styles but with a heart-on-the-sleeve truth coupled with acerbic wit that carried Mountain Goats torch from here on out.

4AD

After another small handful of lo-fi releases spread across a few labels Mountain Goats joined the venerable 4AD and got a boost to their production as a result. First out of the gates was Tallahassee, Darnielle's ruminations of love gone wrong through a variety of lenses, including a hyper-dysfunctional couple he long ago invented as both muses and mouthpieces for his malaise. The revelation for many fans came with 2005's Sunset Tree. For the first time Danielle came out from behind his characters and travelogue songwriting and wrote in his own voice, or rather in the voice of his teenage self suffering through a destabilizing relationship with his abusive step-father. It revealed very clearly his ability to turn the emotionally complex and harrowing into hook-loaded pop tunes.

Extra Credit

Most recently, besides a form-confirming late 2009 release on 4AD called Life of the World to Come, an album about death with biblical quotes for titles (not as heavy as that sounds), Darnielle revisited a partnership began in 2002. Then called The Extra Glenns, he and Nothing Painted Blue's Franklin Bruno released a great album called Martial Arts Weekend. This year they've appended the band name to The Extra Lens and put out an even better effort called Undercard. After TMG's conceptually grounded efforts this topic-hopping free for all is a welcome sight. Though the topics are mostly grim [abandoned suicide attempts ("Some Other Way"), evangelical hypocrisy ("How I Left the Ministry") and financial collapse ("Rockin' Rockin' Twilight of the Gods"), for example] their handling is again played for uptempo satire by and large. A super-subdued cover of Randy Newman's "In Germany Before the War" is the album's spirit animal and keynote.

In Summation

There's no bad point to start your own consideration of the Darnielle oeuvre... but here is a short list of recommendation that shine a little more brightly:

Full Force Galesburg (1997)
All Hail West Texas (2002)
Tallahassee (2002)
The Sunset Tree (2005)
Life of the World to Come (2009)
Undercard (The Extra Lens) (2010)

Rough Trade Shops list of Top Albums of 2010

2010-11-18T15:16:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from Artrocker

Here's the Rough Trade Shops list of Top Albums of 2010

1. Caribou - Swim
2. Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here
3. These New Puritans - Hidden
4. Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now
5. Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking It Easy
6. Darkstar - North
7. Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
8. Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner
9. Wild Nothing - Gemini
10. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
11. Broken Bells - Broken Bells
12. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
13. The National - High Violet
14. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
15. Beach House - Teen Dream
16. Voice Of The Seven Thunders - Voice Of The Seven Thunders
17. Perfume Genius - Learning
18. Crocodiles - Sleep Forever
19. The Black Keys - Brothers
20. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
21. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
22. Salem - King Night
23. Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea
24. Dylan Leblanc - Paupers Field
25. Joanna Newson - Have One On Me
26. Matthew Dear - Black City
27. Warpaint - The Fool
28. Liars - Sisterworld
29. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
30. John Grant - Queen Of Denmark
31. Konono No 1 - Assume Crash Position
32. Smoke Fairies - Through Low Light And Trees
33. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
34. Villagers - Becoming A Jackal
35. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
36. Mount Kimbie - Crooks And Lovers
37. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
38. Best Coast - Crazy For You
39. PVT - Church With No Magic
40. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
41. Vampire Weekend - Contra
42. Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
43. Yeasayer - Odd Blood
44. Midlake - The Courage Of Others
45. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
46. Sleigh Bells - Treats
47. O Children - O Children
48. Glasser - Ring
49. Zola Jesus - Stridulum 2
50. Holly Miranda - The Magician’s Private Library
51. Sea Of Bees - Songs For The Ravens
52. JJ - No3
53. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
54. Twin Shadow - Forget
55. Gonjasufi - A Sufi And A Killer
56. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
57. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
58. Cours Lapin - Cours Lapin
59. Darwin Deez - Darwin Deez
60. School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
61. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
62. Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Rave
63. Jonsi - Go
64. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be
65. Belle And Sebastian - Belle And Sebastian Write About Love
66. Chilly Gonzales - Ivory Tower
67. Connan Mokasin - Please Turn Me Into The Snat
68. Holy Fuck - Latin
69. The School - Loveless Unbeliever
70. Tobacco - Maniac Meat
71. Dios - We Are Dios
72. Allo Darlin’ - Allo Darlin’
73. Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
74. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
75. El Guincho - Pop Negro
76. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
77. Kort (Kurt Wagner And Cortney Tidwell) - Invariable Heartache
78. Solar Bears - She Was Coloured In
79. Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing
80. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz
81. Kings Go Forth - The Outsiders Are Back
82. Grinderman - Grinderman 2
83. Dan Michaelson And The Coastguards - Shakes
84. Stornoway - Beachcomber’s Windowsill
85. Tamaryn - The Waves
86. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
87. Four Tet - There Is Love In You
88. Magic Kids - Memphis
89. Marina And The Diamonds -Family Jewels
90. Mystery Jets - Serotonin
91. Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
92. Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse - Dark Night Of The Soul
93. Fool’s Gold - Fool’s Gold
94. Frankie Rose And The Outs - Frankie Rose And The Outs
95. Aloe Blacc - Good Things
96. Drums Of Death - Generation Hexed
97. Am - Future Sons And Daughters
98. Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
99. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
100. Time And Spacemachine - Set Phazer To Stun

The Fredericton 100

2010-11-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

There's an element of archeology / anthropology to stocking a used vinyl store. I often find myself looking at a layer of petroleum-based materials, most of which were deposited in the basements and hobby sheds of Southern NB about 25-30 years ago. A couple of things are abundantly clear: Sam the Record Man and A&A and whomever else did their vinyl vending back then... apparently didn't have to worry about variety. This is proven in the seemingly endless supply of certain records that have been troubling our 99cent bin (and our regular shelves) over the last 20+ years. While it would be great to have a flow of Led Zeppelin and Beatles and Pink Floyd (or conversely Velvet Underground, P.I.L., Cure, Ramones, Iron Maiden, etc.) titles streaming through the door... it just isn't the case. To whit, I present to you THE FREDERICTON 100. Unscientifically generated, these are the one hundred most common titles... ones that almost every collection containing more than 50 records seems to require at least a handful... and some collections over 100 that seem to contain almost all. Enjoy... and check see if your collection is THE FREDERICTON COLLECTION. (By the way... we do still take most of these titles for stock... just don't expect to get rich off of them).

01 Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
02 Supertramp - Breakfast in America
03 Bob Seger - Against the Wind
04 Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
05 Elton John - Grt Hits Vol II
06 Police - Synchronicity
07 Genesis - Duke
08 Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
09 Eagles - The Long Run
10 Cars - Candy-O
11 Various - Secret Policeman's Ball
12 Kenny Rogers - Greatest Hits
13 Carol King - Tapestry
14 James Taylor - Greatest Hits
15 Joe Walsh - But Seriously Folks
16 Roger Hodgson - Eye of the Storm
17 Aldo Nova - S/T
18 The Romantics - In Heat
19 Rough Trade - Avoid Freud
20 Santana - Greatest Hits
21 Cat Stevens - Greatest Hits
22 UB40 - Labour of Love
23 Jon and Vangelis - Short Stories
24 Styx - Pieces of Eight
25 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
26 Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door
27 Simple Minds - Once Upon a Time
28 Human League - Dare
29 Roxy Music - Avalon
30 Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest Hits
31 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
32 Loverboy - Get Lucky
33 Bryan Adams - Cuts Like a Knife
34 Prism - Armageddon
35 Payolas - Hammer on a Drum
36 Boomtown Rats - Fine Art of Surfacing
37 Big Country - The Crossing
38 GTR - S/T
39 Honeydrippers - Vol. 1
40 U2 - Unforgettable Fire
41 John Cougar - Uh-Huh
42 Rod Stewart - Blondes Have More Fun
43 The Doobie Brothers - Greatest Hits
44 Foghat - Fool in the City
45 Toronto - Girls Night Out
46 Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
47 Eric Clapton - Slowhand
48 Bruce Cockburn - Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws
49 Hall & Oates - H20
50 Steppenwolf - Greatest Hits
51 The Who - Tommy
52 Heart - Dreamboat Annie
53 Cheap Trick - At Budokan
54 Jackson Browne - The Pretender
55 Peter Frampton - Frampton comes Alive
56 Three Dog Night - Hard Labor
57 Wings - Wings Over America
58 Boston - S/T
59 Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
60 Nazareth - Greatest Hits
61 Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow
62 Def Leppard - Pyromania
63 Rick Wakeman - The Six Wives of Henry VIII
64 Steely Dan - Aja
65 OST - Saturday Night Fever
66 Jefferson Starship - Earth
67 ELO - Greatest Hits
68 Commodores - Greatest Hits
69 Joe Jackson - Look Sharp
70 Seals and Croft - Greatest Hits
71 Chicago - Greatest Hits
72 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gold and Platinum
73 10 CC - How Dare You?
74 The Pretenders - S/T
75 Bob Dylan - Slow Traing Coming
76 Alan Parsons Project - I Robot
77 America - Greatest Hits
78 Moody Blues - The Other Side of Life
79 Burton Cummings - Woman Love
80 BTO - Four Wheel Drive
81 Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger
82 David Bowie - Let's Dance
83 Gerry Rafferty - City to City
84 Michael Jackson - Thriller
85 ABBA - Arrival
86 Grand Funk - We're an American Band
87 Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits
88 Gino Vanelli - Brother to Brother
89 Beach Boys - Endless Summer
90 Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
91 Kinks - State of Confusion
92 Quiet Riot - Metal Health
93 Jethro Tull - Aqualung
94 Bad Company - Straight Shooter
95 Bryan Ferry - Bete Noire
96 Harry Chapin - Sequel
97 The Bells - Stay Awhile
98 Box of Frogs - S/T
99 Charlie Daniels Band - Million Mile Reflections
100 Emerson Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

Waking up the slept on... Vinyl Recommendations

2010-11-04T12:23:00.000-03:00

Here are a couple of titles that have been snoozing in the sealed vinyl bins for a short while. Both come with the Backstreet seal of approval:

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday Temporary Residence)

This Portland outfit started out on Neurot records, though their sound was as much steeped in Eastern European gypsy folk acoustics as it was Western hard rock modes. On their fifth full length they reach into the darkness for their inner Sabbath and pull out a creepy blues n raga beast that lives up to it's menacing title.

Listen to "Reincarnation Blues"
It retails for $22.98 +hst at Backstreet in Fredericton

Pan.American - Quiet City (Kranky)

As leader of Labradford Mark Nelson explored the shadowy fissure of avant rock previously etched by folks like Popul Vuh to Brian Eno. His side project, Pan.American, concentrated mainly on minimalist electronics, but this fourth full length saw him enlisting a tastefully austere ensemble of acoustic sidemen to accompany his bleeps and ticks. It's moody late night music for sodium flare and closed circuit television surveillance.

Watch "Quiet City":

The album retails for $16.98+hst at Backstreet Fredericton.

I Have Nothing "On Michael Jackson."

2010-10-16T12:39:00.001-03:00

Saturdays are weird. To whit, we just had in three young people in the 14-18 year old range, who collectively bought about 25-30 records, spending a total of $54. Many were from our 99 cent or 5/$1 bin, obviously. A sampling of what they bought:

Styx - II
George Thorogood - Bad to the Bone
OST - Fame
Air Supply - Greatest Hits
Alan Parsons Project - I, Robot
Hall and Oates - H2O
Wham - Make it Big
etc.

...and now I have 60 year olds wondering what a CocoRosie is, and if we "have anything on Michael Jackson," (which I diplomatically do not respond to sarcastically). Saturday.

2010-10-13T19:28:00.002-03:00

Watch Ariel Pink Play a Glowing Sewer Mutant

2010-10-13T13:38:00.001-03:00

"Borrowed" from Pitchfork

Earlier in the year, we reported that bedroom-pop kingpin Ariel Pink would make a cameo in an episode of "The Multinauts", a new internet sci-fi television series. The first episode of the series, titled "Flashback", features the Pink cameo and is now online. Pink actually plays two characters and gets a significant chunk of camera time in the episode.

"The Multinauts" is an affectionate parody of old zero-budget, amiably ludicrous sci-fi shows like "Doctor Who". It comes soaked in VHS fuzz and packed with knowingly awful special effects. There's also a mohawked, fetish-gear-bedecked villain named Oysters Rockafeller, which should give you some idea of what you're in for here.

Pink plays a glowing sewer mutant, delivering lines like, "The vibes are burning my cortex." He also dons some stupendously ridiculous headgear and performs his song "Flashback" with Haunted Graffiti at an interstellar dance party. I have to commend the band's professionalism; they keep playing even as a bloody lizard-monster attack kills most of the guests at the party. A character on the show calls them a "saga-wave" band, which, as genre descriptors go, isn't bad. As an actor, Pink is about on par with the rest of the show's cast, which means he probably won't step to an Oscar podium anytime soon.

You can watch the full episode below. Be warned: It could be considered NSFW, especially if you work in an office that frowns upon unbelievably fake-looking gore.

Posted by Tom Breihan on October 13, 2010 at 11:25 a.m.

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding

2010-10-09T13:14:00.001-03:00

"Borrowed" from Cokemachineglow

Superchunk

Majesty Shredding
(Merge; 2010)

The members of Superchunk are getting older, yet their music hasn’t really aged since 1990. It’s still, impressively, music brimming with the urgency of youth. Majesty Shredding, their first album since 2001, represents a return to their classic sound following a period of experimentation in the late ’90s. It helps that they haven’t been collecting dust: Majesty Shredding is unbelievably fresh for a band whose members could conceivably have parented many of today’s young indie rockers. However, Superchunk’s seasoned professionalism manages to sneak through in the form of carefully controlled, airtight arrangements. The album is irresistibly catchy indie rock through and through, but a bit more chaos and less control could make it something great.
Majesty Shredding starts off with a bang and barely comes up for air throughout its full forty minutes. It’s relentlessly bouncy, from “Digging for Something”’s chorus of “Oh-oh-oh!” to the excellent, tightly wound “Crossed Wires.” The guitars are crunchy but clean, the leads stringently melodic, and lead singer Mac MaCaughan still projects a breathless, powerful wail. This may seem by the numbers, but Majesty Shredding is at its heart the sound of a band having fun, and loving what they do. There’s passion here, and it’s why the album holds up so well on repeat listens.
The best songs on the record are less pure pogo-ing pleasure and more anxious. “Fractures in Plaster” is a classic angst anthem, and “Learned to Surf,” with its two short and sweet verses, manages to turn a looping, repeated chorus into something interesting, changing emphasis and melody. “When I learned to walk,” MaCaughan sings, “you know humans roamed the earth / I can’t hold my breath anymore / I stopped sinking and learned to surf.” It’s these kind of slightly off-kilter generalities that Superchunk specializes in. While late-career reunion albums are often pigeonholed as reflections on aging, settling down, etc., the beauty of Superchunk is that it’s only as personal as it needs to be. These melodies and lyrics could be the soundtrack to anyone’s problems, and we’d all like to think they suit ours the best.
Majesty Shredding is an energetic return to form for Superchunk, and they’ve retained the sound that made them indie stars on records like No Pocky For Kitty (1991) and Foolish (1994). The band is less lo-fi and noisy, perhaps a little bit too precisely packaged. They’ve lost some of their rougher edges, but it doesn’t do as much damage as you might think. The passion is still there, surging through MaCaughan’s voice and Jack McCook’s guitar. And that’s what will keep listeners coming back to these indie rock survivors time and again.
:: myspace.com/superchunkmusic

Belle and Sebastian contest

2010-10-06T21:42:00.002-03:00

Do you know how to write about love ? Are you a huge Belle & Sebastian fan ? Well, Think Indie and Matador records has a contest for you. The first 10 people to buy the new Belle & Sebastian download “Write About Love” out Oct 12 (Link will go live on that date) from Think Indie will get a code that allows them to enter a special contest. The code will be emailed to you after your purchase (not immediately, we aren’t NASA). The contest is a 300 word essay contest about love. The band will judge the entries. The winner will have Stuart Murdoch fly into your town. He will hang with you for the afternoon and then write a song about you. That song will be featured on a limited edition seven inch.

To recap, buy download, get code, click banner below and follow instructions. Good luck and good writing.

An oddly (ir)regular occurence:

2010-08-13T12:52:00.000-03:00

When someone new comes into the store, after they get the initial geographical derangement and visual overload reactions out of the way, they settle into either browsing or specific searching. The specific searchers usually beeline for a specific letter in whatever section they choose and commence flipping.

Now the browsers usually get a "was there anything special you were looking for?" whereas I let the specific searchers come up empty before I ask the same question. What's surprising is the variety of branches off of this seemingly simple query:

(1) They answer "no" despite the fact they were clearly scouring through "C," came up empty, and then were standing their with a puzzled/dissatisfied look on their face.

(2) They answer "yes" and tell me the title... and we do have it but in a different section, i.e. they were looking in Rock and it's a Jazz title, or a Local Artist release... or they were looking in the New stock and we have it used.

(3) They answer "yes," tell me the title and we don't have it in, but we agree to special order it for them.

(4) They answer "yes," tell me the title and we don't have it in, but we agree to special order it for them, only to find out they need it for a wedding/birthday/bar mitzvah in three days time. Not possible.

(5) They answer "yes," tell me the title and we don't have it in, and when we offer to special order it for them they say no... don't bother.

(6) They answer "yes," tell me the title, I tell them it may be in the used section, they look through and don't find it, I'm pretty sure it is there so I look through and do find it, they look sheepish and buy it.

(7) They answer "yes," tell me the title, I tell them it may be in the used section, they look through and don't find it, the two friends with them look through and don't find it... I'm busy with a customer at the counter and they leave before I'm done, but after the store clears I check out the section (which isn't huge) and sure enough, there it is.

(8) They answer "yes," tell me the title... and I point it out to them in the New CDs they just looked through, but then they say they were looking for a used copy (despite the fact they looked through the new stuff for it), and when I find we also have that they say, well really it was a vinyl copy they hoped to find (which is even more dubious since they were nowhere near the vinyl)... so when I produce THAT they are forced to fall back on something like, "well, if it's still here when I get paid next week..." or "I'm not sure that's the one my boyfriend was looking for... he might have that one."

(9) They answer "yes," tell me the title and I kill them.

DEAR VICE - TEA BAGGIN’ WITH SKYNYRD

2010-08-12T16:44:00.000-03:00

"Borrowed" from Vice

While I stood in line to piss at Six Flags New Jersey–taking a break from the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert this weekend–I witnessed the following: A brown-skinned kid (probably Indian, maaybe Arab) got behind me to use the bathroom. Behind him, two grizzled guys with bandannas tied around their heads, sporting beards freshly bought “Freedom Tour” t-shirts, started talking very loudly to each other.

“Little Obama Osama better not take long–I gotta piss!” said the first, loud enough for the kid’s father to hear, who yanked his son up by the arm and dragged him to (presumably) another bathroom. The guys laughed smugly as the brown kid was carted off.   For all the claims that the current wave of populist anger is primarily just repurposed racism, this was the only first-hand evidence I witnessed. Aside from that, I got a heaping dose of “American Exceptionalism” and a really sweet Ronnie Van Zandt t-shirt that cost me $30.  

Tea baggers are big into t-shirts. People wore a lot of anti-Obama, anti-big government, anti-immigration t-shirts. My favorite said “Yo quiero papers?” and had a picture of the Taco Bell dog on it. I asked the guy wearing it where it was from, and he told me he made it himself, and that I could buy them on his website. He gave me his card, but I lost it.

There was an official merchandise table with a large sign that read “Freedom Gear.” Freedom gear includes $35 jerseys, $23 polos, and the $50 “Freedom Package,” which comes with a hat, shirt, and autographed Sean Hannity book. When I made a joke, the person selling merchandise yelped that “freedom certainly isn’t free” (echoing the sentiment of a button I saw worn by many in attendance), and then when I tried to buy something he ignored me and asked for the next in line. Owch.

I also missed opener Charlie Daniels (bummer), but contemporary Christian pop megastar Michael W. Smith was a huge hit. He stood alone onstage playing his keyboard, and people were genuinely moved by his banter, especially when he talked about hanging out with the president–not the current president, obviously–his 200-acre farm, his wife, and how much he loves this country. He sang an incredibly schmaltzy song that he dedicated to all the troops, dead and alive, and as he hit the song’s high note, like a sign from the heavens, a flock of Canadian geese flew majestically overhead. People went absolutely apeshit.

Smith then led us in a stirring rendition of “America the Beautiful” that I was too afraid not to sing. I did however forget to remove my hat (which I’m still not sure is customary for this song), and the old woman next to me elbowed me and advised me to do so.    After Smith played, I walked outside to get a bottle of water and looked at all the black families having a great time while the white people were busy being visibly and audibly angry at whatever the hell they are angry about (taxes, guns, having to pay for parking).

I have never been to a show that made me feel like as much of a cracker. Even though I was there as a spectator, I knew I was part of the problem.    I walked back into Sean Hannity, standing in front of two big American flags and tossing tiny footballs to the crowd.

Of all the big mouthed conservative pundits, I think that Sean Hannity is probably the worst. Glenn Beck is a flaccid little man, but at least he’s entertaining. Rush is funny (plus the pills!), and Bill O’Reilly is probably a total pussycat in real life. Hannity just seems like a goon, and he doesn’t care about hiding that part of himself, which makes it all the more goony.   During the show, he came on stage to babble about how he doesn’t need “tax funded teleprompters” like Obama, and that real change is coming soon. He also thanked God for Fox News, which got an uproarious standing ovation, second only to the geese.     

Hannity finished yakking and introduced a group of children who had parents killed in the line of duty. It was really sad, but also pretty exploitative. Some dude who had been yelling “Freebird” the entire evening waited until the kids were all finished being introduced, and then yelled it again as soon as they were off the stage.
Finally Hannity asked if we were ready to hear “Sweet Home Alabama.” People cheered and he then told us to get on our feet for Lynyrd Skynyrd. The one dude yelled “Freebird” again.

I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Skynyrd. I think that in terms of great 70s rock, there aren’t many bands that can hold a candle to them. I could wax on about how awesome bands like Ram Jam and Cactus are, but honestly, they all suck a fat one compared to Skynyrd. We all grew up screaming “Freebird” at concerts for a reason: because there was a time when Skynyrd was fucking untouchable.

But that was a band from a different era–with all due respect to Lynyrd Skynyrd 2010, they probably shouldn’t be calling themselves Lynyrd Skynyrd. As far as I can tell, there are no original members playing with the band and Johnny Van Zandt, little brother of Ronnie, looks and sounds like a guy who has been doing blow and drinking straight Jack for about 30 years without break. Which, to be honest, I wouldn’t really fault him for.   

They opened with “Workin’ for MCA,” and people kind of looked at each other and shrugged. My calculations tell me most casual Skynyrd fans know Sweet Home, the ‘Bird, and pretty much nothing else. People danced for the first few seconds, and then it was a tranquil sea of bored-looking white folks. A lot of them started to leave. Many of them were old.

It occurred to me than that regardless of how sour I felt toward the evening, the audience, my country, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, that the band had at least achieved one truly rock n’ roll thing: they pissed off the seniors. I guess certain things never really change, and I’m glad that the Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band taught me this valuable lesson the night I hung out with the Tea Baggers.
JASON DIAMOND

Read the rest at Vice Magazine: DEAR VICE - TEA BAGGIN’ WITH SKYNYRD - Viceland Today

2010-08-12T16:24:00.002-03:00

Listeners Pick 2010's Best Music (So Far)

2010-08-11T14:01:00.000-03:00

"Borrowed" from NPR All Things Considered

1. Plastic Beach

Artist: Gorillaz
Album: Plastic Beach [Deluxe Edition] [CD/DVD]
Song: On Melancholy Hill

2. High Violet

Artist: The National
Album: High Violet
Song: Bloodbuzz Ohio

3. Brothers

Artist: The Black Keys
Album: Brothers
Song: Everlasting Light

4. Broken Bells

Artist: Broken Bells
Album: Broken Bells
Song: The High Road

5. This Is Happening

Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Album: This Is Happening
Song: All I Want

6. Contra

Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Contra
Song: Taxi Cab

7. Teen Dream

Artist: Beach House
Album: Teen Dream
Song: Zebra

8. Sigh No More

Artist: Mumford & Sons
Album: Sigh No More
Song: The Cave

9. Transference

Artist: Spoon
Album: Transference
Song: I Saw the Light

10. Treats

Artist: Sleigh Bells
Album: Treats
Song: Rill Rill

11. Gorilla Manor

Artist: Local Natives
Album: Gorilla Manor
Song: Camera Talk

12. Odd Blood

Artist: Yeasayer
Album: Odd Blood
Song: Ambling Alp

13. Together

Artist: The New Pornographers
Album: Together
Song: Moves

14. Cosmogramma

Artist: Flying Lotus
Album: Cosmogramma
Song: Do the Astral Plane

15. Volume Two

Artist: She & Him
Album: Volume Two
Song: Ridin' In My Car

16. Infinite Arms

Artist: Band of Horses
Album: Infinite Arms
Song: Older

17. Go

Artist: Jónsi
Album: Go
Song: Animal Arithmetic

18. Tomorrow, In A Year

Artist: The Knife
Album: Tomorrow, In A Year
Song: Annie's Box (Alt. Vocal)

19. Forgiveness Rock Record

Artist: Broken Social Scene
Album: Forgiveness Rock Record
Song: World Sick

20. I Learned the Hard Way

Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Album: I Learned the Hard Way
Song: Money

7 best lines from Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love

2010-06-01T15:32:00.000-03:00

Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love

And there is no love / in the unerring - "Say Valley Maker"

Oh do I feel like the mother of the world / with two children fighting - "I Feel Like the Mother of the World"

Skin mags in the brambles / for the first part of my life / I thought women had orange skin - "Drinking at the Dam"

It was the first part of my life / the second is the rest - "Drinking at the Dam"

All we need is here on earth / about every other day - "Running the Loping"

Oh to live in the country / with a chicken and those other things - "Running the Loping"

Having you been drinking / no, nor sleeping - "Let Me See the colts"

Bad day for fans of bad music

2010-05-24T20:26:00.002-03:00

from Onion AV Club:
Limp Bizkit cancels summer tour, cites insufficient "bananas" factor

by Sean O'Neal May 24, 2010

If you were hoping to see the Limp Bizkit reunion tour this summer, then the person who's reading this article aloud to you is about to say something very upsetting: The rap-metal troubadours have canceled all their upcoming dates out of dissatisfaction with the venues they picked, which are apparently ill-suited for losing your shit in. “Basically, Limp is not an amphitheatre band,” Fred Durst, always the most visionary of Bizkits, mused in between aphorisms on his Twitter feed. “We like to see less seats in front of the stage and more floor filled with fans going bananas. It's just more fun for all of us that way. Some bands are meant to be seen mainly sitting down, but definitely not Limp Bizkit.”
He elaborated further on the band’s official website, saying they hoped to find venues that would allow for more “jumping, dancing, and moshing directly in front of the stage, instead of on a grassy knoll a hundred yards away,” while adding that they also hoped to find a setup where “those of you who want to sit down during our show,” abstain from such terpsichorean delights, and simply drink in the euphonious collusion of melody and yelling about breaking stuff could be sated as well. The band hopes to release its rerouted concert schedule soon.

From The Guardian:
Slipknot bassist Paul Gray found dead

Paul Gray (right), performing with Cris Fehn as Slipknot in Ohio last year. Photograph: Steve C Mitchell/EPA

The bassist of the cult US metal group Slipknot was found dead in a hotel room today, police said.
Paul Gray, 38, was found by a hotel employee at the Town Plaza hotel in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. An autopsy is planned for tomorrow. The death is not being treated as suspicious.
Slipknot, recognisable for the grotesque home-made Halloween masks sported by band members, formed in 1995. Gray, who was raised in Des Moines, was one of the band's founding members.
Last year they celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their eponymous first album, which sold more than one million copies. The band won a Grammy in 2006 for best metal performance for Before I Forget, and their 2008 album All Hope is Gone topped the US album chart.
Prior to his death, Gray had been working on an album with Hail!, a metal supergroup featuring past or present members of Judas Priest and Sepultura.
Tributes to Gray were paid by Slipknot fans, known as maggots, on social networking sites.
On Gray's Facebook page, Matt Wagner quoted the band's single Left Behind: "As I close my eyes. I feel it all slipping away. We all got left behind. We let it all slip away. Rest in Peace Paul Gray."
Aanshikseth tweeted: "The only bass player Slipknot ever had. R.I.P Paul Gray. Tragic."
In 2003, Gray was arrested on drugs and drink-driving charges after the car he was driving crashed into another vehicle when he went through a red light.
He was arrested for possession of marijuana, cocaine and drug paraphernalia, as well as drink-driving. The incident led to Gray's mugshot being leaked to a website, causing a stir among fans as, at the time, most of the group had avoided being photographed without their masks.

Backstreet Recommends: The Blue Depths

2010-05-21T11:40:00.000-03:00

Likened to everyone from Neil Young to OMD to the Beach Boys, Isaac Edwards and Michael Tapscott are Odawas. When critics cast their nets this wide to draw back comparisons you know they must be onto something more than a little special. Their third album, and first as a duo with their producer/engineer Brad Cash filling in on drums when called for, The Blue Depths is a subtle wash of synthesizers, strings and free floating psychedelia well described by the cover art. It's very much a "production" record, taking advantage of careful placement of instruments and vocal enhancements to craft a mood that oscillates between chilled happiness and narcotized melancholy. Not a party album, it still works well both in full outdoors sunlight or on rainy days in the kitchen.

Odawas - The Blue Depths is available at Backstreet in Fredericton on vinyl for $19.98

This is what happens every Thursday, Friday, Saturday...

2010-05-13T11:07:00.001-03:00

Phone: Do you have tickets for the show tonight at the Charlotte St. Art Centre?
Me: As of this moment we do. But the organizers sometimes pick up the tickets early on the day of the show, and the show's tonight.

Phone: Oh I know, but I don't have a ticket. Can I purchase a ticket?
Me: Well... if you can get here before the organizers pick up the tickets, then of course.

Phone: Oh... yes, I see... and you still have tickets?
Me: ...yes.

Phone: Oh, good. So if I pay for the ticket by Mastercard my partner could...
Me: I'm afraid we can only take cash for tickets. We have to give the organizers the cash FOR the tickets when they pick them up... the day of the show.

Phone: Oh... yes... I see... well, then you're saying I would have to come in there and pick up the tickets?
Me: ...yes.

Phone: And could I pay for them by debit, or does it have to be cash?
Me:... cash, yes.

Phone: And I would have to get there before the organizers pick up the tickets?
Me: ...yes.

Phone: But you do have tickets left?
Me: ...as of this minute... yes....

Backstreet Recommends: Sunset / Sunrise

2010-05-05T16:36:00.001-03:00

While She & Him are perennial front runners in the roots cute couple sweepstakes I will take this moment to sing the praises of not-so-dark horses The Dutchess and the Duke. Jesse Loritz and Kimberly Morrison come from a little Pacific, NW town called Seattle and Sunset / Sunrise is their second release for the Hardly Art label, little sister to big brother Sub Pop. Gritty but not grizzled, sweet but not saccharine the duo manage to find breathable oxygen in a indie/folk/country genre that's too often all smoke and stale air. It's that pocket right between Black Mountain and The Sadies... you can stand in the prairies and see the peaks off in the distance. Take a second. Look around. Listen.

The Dutchess & The Duke - Sunset/Sunrise is available at Backstreet in Fredericton on vinyl for $18.98 and CD for $17.98... +hst, of course.

Looking back at Emo from a safe distance

2010-04-29T15:45:00.000-03:00

"Stolen Wholesale" from The Onion.

Sunny Day Real Estate

by Kyle Ryan April 29, 2010

Why it’s daunting: Can you say “emo” without wincing? In 2010, the word has become associated with so many things that it’s become practically meaningless, and whatever connotations it does have are overwhelmingly negative. To defend it is to invite the most withering of scorn. And why not? If all you knew of the word was dudes in eyeliner with stupid haircuts, what would you think? It doesn’t help that the bands that self-identify as emo are generally terrible—and often too young to know any better themselves. Ask them about Rites Of Spring, and chances are they’ll tilt their heads like confused puppies.
More confusingly, virtually every good band associated with emo never identified with the label, not only because few artists like to identify with subgenres (especially ones with silly names—see also: chillwave), but also because emo’s sonic attributes have changed since the mid-’80s. What began closely aligned with melodic hardcore and punk morphed into more removed and moody sounds, then gradually grew poppier to the point that its only association with punk was power chords.
So, to recap: Emo as a descriptor has been misappropriated into meaninglessness; no good bands ever associate themselves with it; and the ones that do are generally awful. Why dig through all of that dirt to find the diamonds? Well, because they’re diamonds—even a genre as maligned as emo has produced its share.
Possible gateway: Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary

Why: What the first Ramones record was to a legion of kids who started punk bands, Diary was to a group of bands that would cohere into the second wave of emo. Although Sunny Day hailed from Seattle, it drew heavily from the post-punk sound that developed in Washington, D.C., in the late ’80s and early ’90s around Dischord Records. Bands like Jawbox, Shudder To Think, and most notably, Fugazi, had popularized a more cerebral strain of punk that experimented with dynamics—part of the loud/quiet revolution also incited by Pixies and Nirvana. What Fugazi harnessed better than any other was the power of restraint. Hardcore had been all about balls-out intensity, but Fugazi’s twisty rhythms and patient calculation made the louder, more intense parts of songs that much more powerful.
That dynamic plays out plainly—but magnificently—on Diary’s first two tracks, “Seven” and “In Circles.” “Seven” in particular shifts dramatically between loud and quiet. “Sew it on,” sings singer-guitarist Jeremy Enigk, just his vocals and a chord progression on his guitar. Then the rest of the band launches in for just a measure, each beat emphasized by drummer William Goldsmith and Enigk and guitarist Dan Hoerner’s dramatic melody. Enigk’s voice and guitar by themselves again: “Face the fool.” BA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-BUM, then into the verse, and the kind of oblique yet intensely personal lyrics that would inspire thousands of copycats:

December’s tragic drive
When time is poetry and
Stolen the world outside
The waiting could crush my heart

Then a bridge that alternates an exhaling guitar solo and the gut-punching breakdown from the intro, another verse, then the bridge, which gives way to a simple but brilliantly anthemic chorus:

You’ll taste it
You’ll taste it
In time

“In Circles” boasts a similarly majestic chorus, a more pronounced loud-quiet dynamic, and lyrics even more heart-bleedingly emo:

Meet me there, in the blue
Where words are not and feeling
Remains sincerity
Trust me to throw myself into your door
I go in circles running down
I dream to heal your wounds
But I bleed myself

When people like Chris Simpson of Mineral would later squeal “I wanted to taste that victory, but my mouth was dry, MY MOUTH WAS DRYY-YYYY,” or Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World sang “I really want to care when you say: ‘I'll change that.’ / I just don't feel a thing when you say, ‘We'll get there...,’” it was easy to trace the lineage of such bald sentiment back to Sunny Day Real Estate. (The album was called Diary, for crissakes.)
Enigk’s lyrics are so unflinchingly sincere and guileless, it’s almost uncomfortable. They reflect the powerful longing that fuels Diary, but it never feels overly saccharine. SDRE owes much of that to the execution of the material—the music never wilts. Hoerner and Enigk’s guitar theatrics bear more than a passing resemblance to Treepeople, who were tearing up Seattle indie label C/Z Records around the time SDRE formed. Diary veers into dreamy atmospherics (like the piano and bass of “Pheurton Skeurto”), but it never wusses out. That sounds simplistic, but a little oomph goes a long way. When Enigk opens “Shadows” with his voice over a dreamy guitar singing “In the shadows buried in me lies a child’s toy,” it’s not long before the rest of the band kicks in, propelled by Goldsmith’s busy beats. (He is Sunny Day Real Estate’s secret weapon.)
Diary hovers in a difficult-to-find sweet spot, alternately contemplative and cathartic, an engrossing mix of melody, power, and atmosphere. For so many bands that came after Sunny Day Real Estate—who would essentially break up (for the first time) just months after the album’s release—Diary was the blueprint.

Next steps: If it’s historical perspective you seek, check out End On End by Rites Of Spring. (Really, you should get it regardless, if for no other reason than to hear the fantastic “For Want Of.”) While you’re ordering from the Dischord store, pick up the self-titled debut from Embrace. After the end of seminal hardcore outfit Minor Threat, frontman Ian MacKaye took an introspective turn in Embrace, a shocking move for a guy who’d formerly been known for his hoarse-throated polemics. Although even in 1986, the “emocore” label chafed:

Emo as a style really didn’t catch on until the early ’90s and the beginning of its second wave. Diary represents the apotheosis of that sound, though several bands were mining similar territory around that time. Colorado’s Christie Front Drive played a particularly contemplative music prone to long buildups with Eric Richter’s vocals buried in the mix. Its so-called “Anthology” record from 1995 is a classic, though emo completists may want to check out the band’s split album with the similarly minded Boys Life (a perfect moniker for the generally female-less emo scene—only "White Boys Life" would be more apt). It doesn’t really get more emo than calling your album The Power Of Failing, and Mineral couldn’t really be more emo. The band’s brooding style favored slow tempos and big releases, but Mineral was at its best when it rocked out.
A trio of other albums really helped define the second wave: Do You Know Who You Are? By Texas Is The Reason, Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring, and Frame And Canvas by Braid. The guys in Texas came from the New York hardcore scene, and the band’s guitar-heavy sound reflected that. The Promise Ring was the poppiest band of the second wave, a clear influence on The Get Up Kids, who would sell a ton of records a few years later. Braid had the most ambitious sound, heavily indebted to the twisty, jerky time signatures of the D.C. bands on Dischord Records. (Jawbox frontman J. Robbins produced the album.)
But the two biggest records that arrived after Diary came in 1999: Clarity by Jimmy Eat World and Something To Write Home About by The Get Up Kids. Where Sunny Day Real Estate held its punk roots close, both of these bands were more interested in pop hooks. Jimmy Eat World began its life as a pop-punk band years before, then added the formidable Static Prevails to the canon of second-wave emo, but by Clarity, the group’s transformation to an outright pop band was nearly complete. Still, Clarity retained a few of the sonic signifiers of the second wave, and the lyrics sent thousands of hearts a-flutter with lines like the aptly titled “Crush,” “Take in restraint like a breath / My lungs are so numb from holding back.” Where Jimmy Eat World favored rock songs (many with gigantic guitars, like “Your New Aesthetic,” “Crush,” “Blister,” “Clarity”) and only a couple of ballads, The Get Up Kids punctuated practically every other track of Something To Write Home About with a ballad (“Valentine,” which is about exactly what you’d think, “Out Of Reach,” “Long Goodnight,” “I’ll Catch You”). And thus emo’s third wave was born, producing a lot of bands you should avoid.
A few from that era stick out as worthy: Motion City Soundtrack owes more than a little to The Get Up Kids in its keyboard-heavy pop songs. The hallmark of emo’s third wave was the emphasis of pop over punk, though Motion City balances the two better than most. 2005’s Commit This To Memory is probably the best place to start, though last year’s excellent My Dinosaur Life works as well. Although it hasn’t aged particularly well, and the band’s subsequent albums have faltered considerably, Taking Back Sunday’s 2002 debut, Tell All Your Friends, qualifies as one of the better entries into the generally dreadful “screamo” subgenre. (If nothing else, “Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)” is really catchy.)
Speaking of catchy, Fall Out Boy’s sensitive-boy pop-punk earned the emo association early on, and 2003’s Take This To Your Grave finds the band at its most guileless. It’s almost maddeningly catchy and full of the kind of lovelorn lyrics that would typify the third wave, for better or worse. (When it comes to the bands that emulated Fall Out Boy, it’s definitely for the worse.)
Where not to start: Take your pick, as chances are you’ll find the bad stuff before the good. Although Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional has experimented with a more rocking sound (relatively speaking) made with a full band, and he’s long been an easy target of anti-emo zealots, the acoustic mope-rock of his breakthrough, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, should be avoided. Emblematic of the full dissociation of emo from punk is a band like Boys Like Girls, who cite Dashboard as an influence but are as vapid as any hair-metal cock-rock band from the ’80s, which is precisely the kind of music they’d be playing if they were alive in those days.

Backstreet Recommends: Lost Wisdom

2010-04-14T13:31:00.001-03:00

Back in 1999 when Phil Elvrum was still Phil Elevrum and Mt. Eerie was still called The Microphones there was no mistaking his big love for Eric's Trip. Don't Wake Me Up, the first Microphones album, had many overt Trip references musically and even in the b&w drawing + photocollage sleeve art. As Mt. Eerie Elvrum has continuously refined his odd elliptical songwriting and developed a style that maintains a long-standing home-made sound but also embraces starker moods of haunted folk and (very distant) hints of black metal.

On 2008's Lost Wisdom the Microphones/Eric's Trip circle neatly closes as Mt. Eerie is joined by Julie Doiron (and Fred Squire). What initially sounds like a very minimalist Julie Doiron album eventually reveals itself to be something far more peculiar and idiosyncratic. Elvrum's lyrics are little word/sound games and often drift off into surreal terrain: "thunder lightning tidal wave / the wind blew down the door / lost wisdom / the river goes through the room" (fr the title track). It's an album that grows with repeated listening.

The vinyl version of Lost Wisdom is available at Backstreet in Fredericton for $24.98 + hst. CD version is available on special order.

News.

2010-04-10T16:00:00.002-03:00

Record Store Day.

2010-04-09T11:42:00.008-03:00

It's almost that time again. Next Saturday is Record Store Day!!!

Started back in 2007 by a few enterprising gentlemen who wanted to embrace the independent spirit of the local record store and link arms with the 700+ indies across the USA. Since then it's expanded around the globe. This year it's better than every for we Canadians... previously we were unable to secure access to most of the special releases labels and bands were putting together for RSD. But not 2010. Both Backstreet locations are expecting to offer exclusive and ltd. ed. vinyl from groups like:

Omar Rodriguez. Yeasayer, The Album Leaf , Beach House, Cocorosie, Deerhoof, Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding, Happy Birthday, Rodriguez, Soundgarden, The Thermals/The Cribs, Neil Young, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wilco, Them Crooked Vultures, Superchunk, Joe Strummer, Sonic Youth, Arthur Russell, Rolling Stones, Ramones, R.E.M., Queens of the Stone Age, Pavement, Muse, Mountain Goats, Mastodon, John Lennon, Hold Steady, Peter Gabriel & Stephin Merritt, Fucked Up, Flaming Lips, Roky Erickson, Devo, Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Black Keys.

Both locations will also have live music all afternoon.

BACKSTREET SAINT JOHN WILL FEATURE:

Rose Cousins
Riot River
The Telecast
The Wooden Wives
and The Haunted Hearts
+ more guests TBC

BACKSTREET FREDERICTON WILL FEATURE:

Sleepy Driver
Piper Perabo
Pat Breen
Stef Loukes
Ross Neilsen
The Westerberg Suicides
+ more guests TBC

So come out and support local music, independent stores and good times.

Backstreet Recommends: Viva Last Blues

2010-03-25T15:43:00.002-03:00

Regular readers will not be surprised by this but I have a fairly big heart on for Will Oldham. For the uninitiated Mr. Oldham is a Louisville, KY fellow who started his art working life as an actor then quickly became disillusioned with that profession and fell into songcraft in an odd offhand manner. The earliest iterations of his works were released under the evolving Palace Brothers/Palace Music/Palace moniker. After a couple of releases under his given name he adopted the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy handle, around 1999 to be exact, and that has been his nom de plume ever since.

So the album recommendation I have for you is Palace Music - Viva Last Blues.

Released in 1995 it took the bare bone and introspective frame of the previous Days in the Wake and gave it muscle and an electrical charge. Sebadoh's Jason Loewenstein sits in on drums and Oldham's brother Ned provides bass on tracks that describe a kind of romantic/brutal alternate frontier landscape that you could find in Cormac McCarthy's novels. Lyrics like "If I could fuck a mountain / Lord, I would fuck a mountain / and I'd do it with a woman in the valley" ("The Mountain Low") are the kind of twisted love notes Oldham continues to refine even today. "New Partner", "The Brute Choir" and others are songs that, in 1995, sounded like they were drawn from a long dormant and finally discovered canon of folk blues and their strength remains undiminished.

Viva Last Blues is available currently on CD @ Backstreet Fredericton for $16.98

(It is still in print on vinyl and available for order.

MMM...

2010-03-17T18:32:00.002-03:00

"Borrowed" from Tiny Mix Tapes.

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music comes back to vinyl to annoy a whole new generation of fans

by Kid Midnight

Metal Machine Music is a truly interesting listen and, of course, a record with its fare share of controversy. Some people love it and credit it as the earliest roots of noise rock and industrial, while some people hate it and count it as the one, albeit massive, blemish on Lou Reed's musical career. However, a record like Metal Machine Music surely merits at least one listen so that the variety of opinions can be understood fully. And you might as well listen to it if you ever want to hear the majesty of "feedback forever."
Love it or hate it, Metal Machine Music is coming back to vinyl (and audio DVD and Blu-ray). The remastered album, which is actually the finally-back-in-print quadrophonic vinyl edition (which is just mumbo-jumbo to let you know that it sounds real fucking good) is set for release on April 19 (in the UK) but is available for purchase on Lou's personal website.

Oh! I almost forgot, if you live in Europe you can watch Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio throughout next month.

• Lou Reed: http://www.loureed.com

Mark Linkous RIP

2010-03-09T21:01:00.000-04:00

Sadly "borrowed" from Chicago Sun Times:

By Jim DeRogatis

on March 9, 2010

The last time I interviewed Mark Linkous, the singer-songwriter better known to a generation of underground music fans as Sparklehorse, he spoke emotionally and directly about how his battle with depression had delayed his 2007 album "Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain" for nearly five years. At the time, he was feeling better and proud that the album had finally come out.

"I'm not saying I'm safe now--that I might never be depressed again--but it's not as dangerous as it was," Linkous told me. "You know, there's a great line in that show 'Deadwood,' where Calamity Jane says, 'Every day, you have to figure out how to live all over again.' Well, that's how I feel."

Tragically, Linkous shot himself in the heart on March 6 in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47 years old.
Born and raised in Virginia, Linkous signed to Capitol Records in the mid-'90s on the strength of a demo. He released the critically acclaimed Sparklehorse debut "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" in 1996, scoring a modern-rock hit with "Someday I Will Treat You Good," and landing high-profile tours opening for Radiohead and R.E.M. While on tour, he passed out after mixing Valium with prescription antidepressants, and wound up partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for several months.

Linkous chronicled his surgeries and his recovery on the 1998 album "Good Morning Spider," and followed that with another strong effort in 2001's "It's a Wonderful Life." Often described as Southern Gothic or the darkest strain of alternative country, his distinctive sounds prompted a series of collaborations with other accomplished musicians, including one of his heroes, Tom Waits; Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips, and Danger Mouse, the superstar producer who is half of Gnarls Barkley.

Linkous reportedly was working on a new Sparklehorse album and was moving to Knoxville to set up a studio to finish it. And his collaboration with Burton/Danger Mouse and director David Lynch, a multi-media project called "Dark Night of the Soul," finally was cleared after a year of legal delays causes by Burton's record label to come out some time later this year.

Though he always suffered self-doubts, in 2007, Linkous described making music as the lifeline that lifted him up. "It hauled me out of the hole," he told me, adding that he hoped it could keep him "from slipping down into the vortex again and not being able to keep my head above water." Sadly, it was not enough.

Thalia Zedek

2010-03-03T15:49:00.003-04:00

Today's recommendation:

Thalia Zedek - Trust Not Those In Whom Without Some Touch Of Madness (Thrill Jockey 2004)

If you're looking for a female artist that hits the sweet spot between Patti Smith and Cat Power then Thalia Zedek is your gal. She got her start w/ noise rock/punk outfit Live Skull in the 80s before starting a kind of estrogen infused Blues Explosion project called Come with Codeine drummer Chris Brokaw.

Her first solo album, Been and Gone, was released on Matador in 2001. It was a more downbeat, late night Leonard Cohen affair, but Trust Not Those... has a more energetic aspect, notable especially for the cello work by Michael Curry, on loan from Willard Grant Conspiracy.

You can hear a streaming version of the album http://www.thrilljockey.com/catalog/index.html?id=100176.

It is available for the low low price of $7.96 at Backstreet Records in Fredericton

Julie Doiron Joins Lou Reed, Elvis Costello at Olympics Neil Young Tribute

2010-02-18T19:52:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" From Spinner:
When Julie Doiron walks onstage at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre tonight to perform as part of Hal Willner's Neil Young Project -- arguably the most anticipated musical event of the Cultural Olympiad -- her mom back home in the Maritimes is going to be bursting at the seams.

"My mom is very excited," Doiron tells Spinner. "Everyone she talks to about it is saying it's a huge thing and a really big deal, and anytime something big happens, your parents get very excited."

While the Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter, who currently resides in Sackville, New Brunswick, is honoured to be involved in the Cultural Olympiad, she admits she's only just starting to wrap her mind around the opportunity. "I haven't thought about it very much because I've been on tour since early January," she says. "Lately, with my mom telling me what a big deal it is to be chosen to play the Olympics, I've started to give it some more thought."

As for her plan of attack for the star-studded tribute tonight and her subsequent shows next week in celebration of the Games, Doiron says: "I have to show up and do what I normally do: my best show ever."

Music producer Hal Willner has orchestrated an impressive lineup for the two-night tribute to the iconic Young: Doiron will perform alongside legendary artists such as Lou Reed and Elvis Costello, and an all-star band led by members of Broken Social Scene. There's been no word on whether Young himself will attend, which has only served to fuel buzz around the event.

Doiron is hoping to take advantage of the high-profile exposure that tonight's tribute and the Games in general afford -- something that has surely crossed the mind of the 400-plus performers participating in the cultural component of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"If we are going to be playing in front of an international crowd of people who are just going to be there hanging out, it would be great if I could win over some people who normally wouldn't have heard of me," she says. "That's a wonderful opportunity."

Gordon Lightfoot 1938 - [not] 2010

2010-02-18T19:45:00.000-04:00

Around 2:00 pm EST There was this:

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has died
National Post (blog) - Peter J. Thompson - ‎4 hours ago‎

Ontario-born singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has died, according to sources close to the singer. Lightfoot was in the middle of a North American tour: He ...

Lightfoot later in the day was quoted thusly:
"I was driving to T.O. to see my dentist, listening to the radio and heard that I died."

Who's in Toronto watching The Antlers tonight?

2010-02-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

If you wait until June you can see them w/ The National too!!!

"Borrowed" from Pitchfork.

Brooklyn indie kingpins the National have already announced that they'll play a run of North American dates this spring. But if you go to some of those shows, the National won't be the only emotionally-wracked Brooklyn indie band belting out big choruses onstage. The Antlers will open several June shows.
Before their dates with the National, though, the Antlers still have a ton of shows to play. They're currently touring North America with Editors. After that, they're scheduled for a European tour, then a headlining North American trip with Phantogram opening. Then it's back to Europe. Check below for all the Antlers' dates.

The Antlers:
02-16 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
02-17 Montreal, Quebec - Il Motore
===
6-08 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall ^
06-09 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall ^

^ with the National

Drummers: Heart of the Band...Or Butt of the Joke?

2010-02-09T19:30:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from WYNC.

The drum kit has its fair share of esteemed idols: Neil Peart of Rush, Dave Grohl of Nirvana, ?uestlove of the Roots and many more. Yet drummers have always had a reputation for being unreliable and misanthropic. On today’s Soundcheck Smackdown, we debate whether the skin-bashers of the world deserve all that bashing. Guests include Janet Weiss, former drummer of Sleater-Kinney and currently of Quasi and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks; and Will Layman, an NPR contributor and jazz critic for PopMatters.com.
More about Janet Weiss
Blog: John Schaefer on drummers

Download MP3 | Embed HTML

This is new: Bikini Kill Blog

2010-02-08T18:24:00.000-04:00

New Bikini Kill Blog: http://bikinikillarchive.wordpress.com/

Please add your Bikini Kill story to this blog! It can be totally off the top of your head and doesn’t need to be fancy. Maybe it’s your reaction to a song we wrote, something weird that happened at one of our shows, a personal anecdote or just WHATEVER. Feel free to send images too!
Send yr story to bkillarchive@gmail.com and we will post it or just leave a comment somewhere on the site. Thanks!

I am also trying to collect videos of our shows so if you have one you wanna send me please do!
Kathleen Hanna
51 MacDougal Street #227
NYC NY 10012

Milli Vanilli Biopic Coming

2010-02-02T18:23:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from CHARTattack"

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

We're all for the idea of a Milli Vanilli movie being made, but we think if it's done the actors need to lip-synch the entire thing, just, you know, to be authentic.

After all, former Milli Vanilli frontman Fabrice Morvan recently gave an interview in which he seemed to be saying lip-synching is more accepted in society now, so we really feel there's really no reason the upcoming as-yet-untitled Milli Vanilli biopic shouldn't be entirely over-dubbed.

Morvan is acting as a consultant on the picture, so he can give the best recommendations about how to do it.

"It's not about being authentic anymore, it's about entertaining," Morvan told USA Today.

Of course, lip-synching is widely used in music videos, and artists like Britney Spears have been called out for not actually singing at concerts. That said, lip-synching on record isn't... um... really accepted. At all.

In case you're unfamiliar, Milli Vanilli, who also included Rob Pilatus, were notorious in the '80s and early '90s after it was discovered they weren't actually singing on their albums and had used studio stand-ins instead.

Their Girl You Know It's True album went six times platinum and won a Grammy Award, but that trophy was revoked after the lip-synching scandal broke. Their manager, Frank Farian, had hired them to front the band, but they refused to record another album unless he let them actually sing. He said no, and told everyone the truth.

Pilatus died of a drug overdose in 1998.

Lovecats, Lions and Kings

2010-02-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

Here is your three song mix for 01/02/10

01 Hot Rats - "Love Cats" fr. Turn Ons (Fat Possum)
02 Chavez- "Lions" fr. Ride the Fader (Matador)
03 Scout Niblett - "Kings" fr. The Calcination of Scout Niblett (Drag City)

ThreeTracker01 by )))Surgery(((

Turn Ons is available now
Ride the Fader is a personal favourite and available by request
The Calcination of Scout Niblett will be in very soon.

Morning Noon Night: Julie Doiron with Gentleman Reg

2010-01-26T18:16:00.002-04:00

She & Him New Album Details, Tour Dates

2010-01-25T19:04:00.000-04:00

"Borrowed" from Chartattack

Folk-pop duo She & Him, a.k.a actress/singer Zooey Deschanel and indie golden boy M. Ward, have released the track listing for their highly-anticipated follow-up to 2008's Volume One.

Their appropriately titled Volume Two sophomore album will be released March 23 through Merge. It contains 11 original tracks along with covers of NRBQ's "Ridin' In My Car" and Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You." The record was written by Deschanel and produced by Ward.

The duo are scheduled to play a handful of American dates, including a set at the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in April.

Ward released a new solo album called Hold Time last February and also spent 2009 touring with folk supergroup Monsters Of Folk, rounded out by My Morning Jacket singer/guitarist Jim James, Conor Oberst and producer Mike Mogis.

Deschanel married Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and starred in the flick (500) Days Of Summer alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock From The Sun, 10 Things I Hate About You).
You can see She & Him here:

March 15 Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
March 25 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
March 27 Savannah, GA @ Trustees Theatre
March 29-30 New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom
April 15 Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
April 16 Indio, CA @ Empire Polo Field (Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival)

Here's the track listing for Volume Two:

"Thieves"
"In The Sun"
"Don't Look Back"
"Ridin' In My Car"
"Lingering Still"
"Me And You"
"Gonna Get Along With You Now"
"Home"?
"I'm Gonna Make It Better"
"Sing"
"Over It Over Again"
"Brand New Shoes"
"If You Can't Sleep"

Peter Gabriel Covers Arcade Fire and More.

2010-01-21T21:17:00.002-04:00

"Borrowed" from Stereogum.

The concept behind Peter Gabriel's forthcoming indie rock covers project is an intriguing one: it's a song swap, Peter singing over orchestral reinterpretations of songs from a staggering list of artists -- Bon Iver, Lou Reed, the Mag Fields, Radiohead, Bowie, Talking Heads, etc. -- with the intention of creating "a dialogue with the writers," paving the way for a companion piece in which a string of artists would return the favor. The first installment is Scratch My Back, which Peter put together with Bob Ezrin and John Metcalfe. Our first full listen is this take on Arcade Fire's "My Body Is A Cage," and unsurprisingly, its gothic bombast is a fine foil for Metcalfe's symphonic arrangement. It's the only song from the collection to feature a choir. Gabriel spoke in depth about the cover in this podcast, calling Arcade Fire a "self-contained" universe, and explaining both his take on the song and intention in reworking it. Here it is in Peter's words, along with the song itself in Peter's voice, which is something you should listen to fairly immediately:

It took me awhile to really get what [Arcade Fire] were doing, and I think sometimes that's a sign of quality ... I love this [song] title. I have no idea what Win was writing about here. Whatever they were talking about, for me, I got this picture of The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, and it also made me think about relationship moments when you feel totally unable to go into your body properly, and you feel trapped inside and you can't communicate the way you need to....

It was a big opportunity for John to throw a lot of paint on the canvas, and I was encouraging him to extend some of the big instrumental sections and add some of these crazy triplets, just really push it to the extreme. It's the only use of the choir on the record, but I think it's quite a moody color coming in at the end. But it's a great piece of writing, and I am now a firm Arcade Fire fan, and this was a great way to get to know their work.

Listen:

The podcast where Peter discusses the project in depth is located here (.xml). Also, you can watch a video trailer for the record featuring select moments from the podcast , an interview with John Metcalfe, and footage from the sessions by clicking this link.
Tracklist aka yes, please:
01 "Heroes" (David Bowie)
02 "The Boy in the Bubble" (Paul Simon)
03 "Mirrorball" (Elbow)
04 "Flume" (Bon Iver)
05 "Listening Wind" (Talking Heads)
06 "The Power of the Heart" (Lou Reed)
07 "My Body Is a Cage" (Arcade Fire)
08 "The Book of Love" (The Magnetic Fields)
09 "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (Randy Newman)
10 "Après moi" (Regina Spektor)
11 "Philadelphia" (Neil Young)
12 "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Radiohead)

Backstreet will have the album in on (or around) February 16th (pre-ordering w/ us is a good idea)

Another nail in punk's coffin.

2010-01-20T22:03:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Nick Stillwell for bringing this to our attention.

Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Police Drummers Band Together for Peace in Sudan

2010-01-20T21:42:00.001-04:00

"Borrowed" from Paste Magazine.

Drummers, placed at the back of the stage, typically get the least glory of all the band members. But with Sudan365 Beat for Peace campaign, drummers are stepping into center stage to highlight the perilous situation in Sudan. They’re calling on world leaders to spend the next year working to prevent civil war from being unleashed there again.

Drummers from Pink Floyd, Elbow, Radiohead, The Police and Faithless appear in a YouTube video alongside beatmakers from 18 countries, exemplifying myriad styles and musical traditions.
The film was organized by Faithless drummer Jamie Catto, who told the BBC, "The drum is the oldest communication and music device. It’s something anyone can join in with. Anyone can add a beat to show that everybody in humanity feels that making sure horrific atrocities and millions of murders don’t kick off again in Sudan – to make sure it is a priority.”

Despite the recently-passed five-year anniversary of the signing of a peace deal in Sudan, where civil war raged for 22 years, millions are still displaced in camps in the western region of Darfur, and conflict is on the rise as next January’s referendum on southern Sudanese independence approaches.
In addition to calling on world leaders to take action, Sudan365 has invited concerned members of the citizenry to upload videos of their beats for peace, allowing anyone with a computer to show solidarity with the people of Sudan.

R.I.P. Kate McGarrigle

2010-01-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

The descriptors "Canadian icon" and "national treasure" are often used as lazy shorthand to refer to those artists who've made some sort of impact on our country's music scene. But Kate McGarrigle was one of the awe-inspiring few who truly deserved those epithets -- and then some. McGarrigle, who passed away Monday after a drawn-out battle with clear cell sarcoma (she was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer in 2006), was one of Canada's legendary voices, a woman who celebrated and elevated the rich history of our country's musical traditions throughout a career that spanned more than three decades.

Read rest of article at CBC.ca arts/

From the desk of Magnet Magazine

2010-01-18T19:57:00.002-04:00

MP3 At 3PM: Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard has yet another amazingly prolific year planned. While his ’90s indie-rock peers are busy cashing in on the reunion circuit, Pollard continues to record and release new music at an astonishing clip. First up is the “Silk Rotor” seven-inch with two exclusive b-sides (January 26), and then the fun begins. There’s solo album We All Got Out Of The Army (February 23), Circus Devils’ Mother Skinny (March 30) and a Boston Spaceships’ EP (Camera Found The Ray Gun; April) and LP (Our Cubehouse Still Rocks; May). Pollard is currently working on another solo album (Moses On A Snail) as well as collaborations with Gary Waleik of Big Dipper (Mars Classroom) and ex-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard (ESP Ohio). MAGNET is proud to premiere “Talking Dogs” from We All Got Out Of The Army below.
“Talking Dogs” (download):

More @Magnet

Pavement and Broken Social Scene to Co-Headline Toronto Island Concert; Indie Minds Blown Around the World

2010-01-14T20:13:00.000-04:00

If the Toronto Island Concert were a person, they'd probably be clad in tight pants, a snug flannel, thick-rimmed glasses, a beard, Nietzsche in their back pocket, and plenty of advice for the best ways to get around NYC's pesky no-smoking-in-bars ban. But seriously, all rotten stereotypes aside, this is some exciting news. Press releases have been a-flowin', chock full o' news about the Toronto Island Concert's latest lineup. This year, you can expect to see Toronto's very own alt-popsters, Broken Social Scene (the atom from which all Toronto indie bands divide), PAVEMENT (girlish squeal!!), and the ever-dependable indie rockers Band of Horses.

More at TinyMixTapes

Download the best mashups of 2009 for free!

2010-01-05T21:18:00.001-04:00

Mashups are the next best thing to puppy snuggies and they're just as omnipresent. Thanks to the kids on "Glee" and YouTube addicts, we're all rocking our favorite pureed pop stars. The adorable DJ-couple over at San Francisco-based Bottieand PopWrap pal Sheena Beaston have both made my iPod 22 songs fatter, fulfilling my appetite for new jams. From a Miley vs. Notorious B.I.G. mix that swept me off my tween feet to an amazing Titus Jones chop-up featuring Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and M.I.A., this one is a must click, and more importantly absolutely free. <img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/object_element.gif" style="height: 28px; width: 600px; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="BLOGGER_object_14" /> Download Album - Best of Bootie 2009 Tracklist 1. A Plus D - Bootie Intro 2. Mad Mix Mustang - I Got More Than A Feeling (Boston vs. Black Eyed Peas) 3. Titus Jones - Good Girls Burn Miami (Sean Kingston vs. Cobra Starship vs. Lady Gaga vs. Shakira vs. LMFAO) 4. Hathbanger - Party & Bullshit (In The USA) (Notorious B.I.G. vs. Miley Cyrus) 5. DJ Schmolli - Bulletproof Radar (La Roux vs. Britney Spears) 6. DJ Lobsterdust - NirGaga (Nirvana vs. Lady Gaga) 7. A Plus D - Don't You Want My Bad Romance (Lady Gaga vs. Human League) 8. CjR - Call Me Uprising (Blondie vs. Muse) 9. A Plus D - Stardust Kids (David Bowie vs. MGMT) 10. Rhythm Scholar - Any Way You Want It (Syntax Error Remix) (Journey vs. Rhythm Scholar) 11. LeeDM101 - Womanizer On Fire (Kings Of Leon vs. Britney Spears vs. Jason Nevins) 12. Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - My Life On The Crazy Train Sucks (So What?) (Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk) 13. Titus Jones - A Circus of Heartbreakin' Divas (Pat Benatar vs. Beyoncé vs. 3Oh!3 vs. Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera vs. M.I.A.) 14. The Kleptones - Voodoo Sabotage (Beastie Boys vs. The Prodigy vs. Pendulum) 15. DJ Y Alias JY - Shut Up And Take Me Out (The Ting Tings vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. Aretha Franklin vs. M/A/R/R/S) 16. Party Ben - Single Ladies (In Mayberry) (Beyoncé vs. The Andy Griffith Show) 17. Glee Cast - It's My Life Confessions, Pt. II (A+D Bootie Edit) (Bon Jovi vs. Usher cover) 18. Dunproofin' - Groove Is In The Girls (Deee-Lite vs. The Prodigy) 19. A Plus D - Krazy Day N Nite (Pitbull vs. Lil Jon vs. Kid Cudi vs. Crookers) 20. DJ Tripp - Just Stop Believin' (Lady Gaga vs. Journey) 21. Mighty Mike - Use The Same Old Song (The Four Tops vs. Kings Of Leon) 22. Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - Chasing Cars That Way (Backstreet Boys vs. Snow Patrol) Photos: Getty Images

Mashups are the next best thing to puppy snuggies and they're just as omnipresent. Thanks to the kids on "Glee" and YouTube addicts, we're all rocking our favorite pureed pop stars.
The adorable DJ-couple over at San Francisco-based Bottie and PopWrap pal Sheena Beaston have both made my iPod 22 songs fatter, fulfilling my appetite for new jams. From a Miley vs. Notorious B.I.G. mix that swept me off my tween feet to an amazing Titus Jones chop-up featuring Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and M.I.A., this one is a must click, and more importantly absolutely free.

Download Album - Best of Bootie 2009

Tracklist
1. A Plus D - Bootie Intro
2. Mad Mix Mustang - I Got More Than A Feeling (Boston vs. Black Eyed Peas)
3. Titus Jones - Good Girls Burn Miami (Sean Kingston vs. Cobra Starship vs. Lady Gaga vs. Shakira vs. LMFAO)
4. Hathbanger - Party & Bullshit (In The USA) (Notorious B.I.G. vs. Miley Cyrus)
5. DJ Schmolli - Bulletproof Radar (La Roux vs. Britney Spears)
6. DJ Lobsterdust - NirGaga (Nirvana vs. Lady Gaga)
7. A Plus D - Don't You Want My Bad Romance (Lady Gaga vs. Human League)
8. CjR - Call Me Uprising (Blondie vs. Muse)
9. A Plus D - Stardust Kids (David Bowie vs. MGMT)
10. Rhythm Scholar - Any Way You Want It (Syntax Error Remix) (Journey vs. Rhythm Scholar)
11. LeeDM101 - Womanizer On Fire (Kings Of Leon vs. Britney Spears vs. Jason Nevins)
12. Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - My Life On The Crazy Train Sucks (So What?) (Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk)
13. Titus Jones - A Circus of Heartbreakin' Divas (Pat Benatar vs. Beyoncé vs. 3Oh!3 vs. Britney Spears vs. Christina Aguilera vs. M.I.A.)
14. The Kleptones - Voodoo Sabotage (Beastie Boys vs. The Prodigy vs. Pendulum)
15. DJ Y Alias JY - Shut Up And Take Me Out (The Ting Tings vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. Aretha Franklin vs. M/A/R/R/S)
16. Party Ben - Single Ladies (In Mayberry) (Beyoncé vs. The Andy Griffith Show)
17. Glee Cast - It's My Life Confessions, Pt. II (A+D Bootie Edit) (Bon Jovi vs. Usher cover)
18. Dunproofin' - Groove Is In The Girls (Deee-Lite vs. The Prodigy)
19. A Plus D - Krazy Day N Nite (Pitbull vs. Lil Jon vs. Kid Cudi vs. Crookers)
20. DJ Tripp - Just Stop Believin' (Lady Gaga vs. Journey)
21. Mighty Mike - Use The Same Old Song (The Four Tops vs. Kings Of Leon)
22. Dan Mei & Marc Johnce - Chasing Cars That Way (Backstreet Boys vs. Snow Patrol)

"Borrowed" from NY Post

Free Mixtape : DFA Records : Holy Ghost! The Remixes Vol.1

2010-01-05T20:11:00.000-04:00

DFA Records offered up a free mixtape to ring in the New Year. Download both sides of Holy Ghost! The Remixes Vol.1 below...
MP3 : SIDE A
MP3 : SIDE B

"Borrowed" From My Old Kentucky Blog.

Best of 2009

2009-12-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

Rather than write out the whys and explanations this year I've included auditory proof. At the bottom find two downloads featuring one track from each of these top 50 albums. The tracks are in reverse order... from 50 to 01.

But really you can trust me. These are the best albums of 2009. Or you can debate it... I welcome the challenge.

-Eric
Backstreet Fredericton

01 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

02 Antony and The Johnsons - The Crying Light

03 The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love

04 The Fiery Furnaces - I'm Going Away

05 Iron and Wine - Around The Well

06 Castanets - Texas Rose the Thaw and the Beasts

07 Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

08 Hallelujah The Hills - Colonial Drones

09 Megafaun - Gather, Form and Fly

10 Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
11 Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
12 Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
13 The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
14 Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
15 Atlas Sound - Logos
16 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
17 Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy
18 Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project
19 The Antlers - Hospice
20 The Dutchess and the Duke - Sunrise / Sunset
21 Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre
22 Zak Sally - Fear Of Song
23 Tiny Vipers - Life on Earth
24 Slaraffenland - We're on Your Side
25 The Pastels / Tenniscoats - Two Sunsets
26 Alec Ounsworth - Mo Beauty
27 Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
28 Throw Me the Statue - Creaturesque
29 Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster
30 The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
31 Japandroids - Post-Nothing
32 The Curious Mystery - Rotting Slowly
33 Vic Chesnutt - At The Cut
34 To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - Marlone
35 Simone White - Yakiimo
36 Girls - Album
37 Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
38 Bowerbirds - Upper Air
39 BLK JKS - After Robots
40 Sonic Youth - The Eternal
41 Rick White - 137
42 David Sylvian - Manafon
43 Helado Negro - Awe Owe
44 Six Organs of Admittance - Luminous Night
45 Why? - Eskimo Snow
46 Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic
47 Taken By Trees - East of Eden
48 Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware
49 Le Loup - Family
50 Nurses - Apples Acres

Part one:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/iz5zn2njwtq/best of 2009 - 50to26.mp3
Part two:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zwycwmlqm1o/best of 2009 - 25to01.mp3

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'sup

Stereogum’s 50 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2011

01 Aphex Twin – TBA

02 Fiona Apple – TBA

03 The Avalanches – TBA (via Modular)

04 Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee, Vol. 2 (via Capitol)

05 James Blake – James Blake (2/07 via Atlas/A&M)

06 The Cars – TBA

07 The Cave Singers – No Witch (2/22 via Jagjaguwar)

08 Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings (1/24 via Carpark)

09 Cut Copy – Zonoscope (2/08 via Modular)

10 Death Cab For Cutie – TBA (via Atlantic)

11 The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (1/18 via Capitol)

12 Destroyer – Kaputt (1/25 via Merge)

13 Dr. Dre – Detox (February via Aftermath/Interscope)

14 Fleet Foxes – TBA

15 Foo Fighters – TBA

16 The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts (2/14 via Memphis Industries)

17 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2/15 via Island)

18 Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean (1/25 via Warner Bros.)

19 Krallice – TBA (April via Profound Lore)

20 La Sera – La Sera (Early 2011 via Hardly Art)

21 Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Interscope)

22 Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (3/1 via LL Recordings)

23 Lil Wayne – TBA

24 Liturgy – TBA (Thrill Jockey)

25 The Lonely Island – TBA

26 M83 – TBA

27 Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me (2/8 via Nonesuch)

28 MINKS – By The Hedge (1/12 via Captured Tracks)

29 Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. (2/15 via Sub Pop)

30 My Morning Jacket – TBA (ATO)

31 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – TBA

32 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong (March via Slumberland)

33 Panda Bear – Tomboy

34 R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (2/07 via Warner Bros.)

35 Radiohead – TBA (via Teh Internetz)

36 Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo (2/14)

37 The Rome (Danger Mouse & Daniele Lupi) – The Rome

38 Santigold – TBA