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“Have song, will travel” as the saying almost goes. Yet, it’s never revealed how far one will indeed go with said talents.
In Gary Clark’s case--principal songwriter behind one-hit-wonders Danny Wilson and author of their global hit “Mary’s Prayer”--that distance would be ...well, a worldwide hit, “reaching number 3 in the UK, and the top 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100, earning him a BMI award, and a nomination for an Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically,” Wiki informs me.
So, that’s pretty damn far to be honest. But after a less than successful follow up release to the LP that spawned that monster single...a solo release...and a handful of one-off projects, Gary's settled into a wildly successful career in LA behind the mixing board and writing for a host of varying talent as occasional member of The Matrix, the ubiquitous hit machine.
And that’s a damn shame, as Gary is not JUST a fine songwriter and producer, but also happens to be one of TVD’s favorite vocalists--quite deserving of a victory lap in his own right to carry this week’s theme just a bit farther.
So, 15 tracks lovingly selected and ordered for your listening pleasure from Gary’s splendid oeuvre. And while you literally may count 14 on that list, I’d stick around through the silence on that last one right there.
We’ll see you back here next week with some more victory laps and will happily take suggestions for YOUR must-see sprinters. All about wish-fulfillment here at ol’ TVD...
If there’s one guy who may have undermined his own victory lap, it’s Chet. Smooth as silk, West Coast ace of face, made a career of self-destruction and self-immolation. Yet, the tone his recordings evoke are peerless--and just perfect for your coming weekend’s very hazy late nights...
Although you think I'm sleeping as you get set to leave I can see your shadow packing from underneath my sleeve I swore I'd never live without your constant company Tomorrow's empty bedroom would be the death of me
Times you tried to tell me, today was not our day Would see me in a fury, or begging you to stay When you told me there was someone else, self pity filled my mind Mocking my assurance and leaving sense behind
I'll keep the changes to myself, no chance that you'll respond So clear was my reflection, I couldn't see beyond And now you'll go and maybe so, I'll always be the same Well thanks for looking in on me, I'm really glad you came
Now there's both sets of keys on the dresser and only one pair of shoes on the floor Of the cases on top of the cupboard - there's two where there used to be four Some sizable gaps in the bathroom and your presence is felt all the more
Although you think I'm sleeping as you get ready to leave I can see your shadow packing from underneath my sleeve And there you go and yes I know, I'll always be the same Well thanks for looking in on me - I'm really glad you came 'Cos it was good, wasn't it?
Akron/Family - 7″ - “Everyone Is Guilty” b/w “Total Destruction”
Blitzen Trapper - 7″
Leonard Cohen - 7″
Elvis Costello/Jenny Lewis split 7″
Graham Coxon - 10″ (Etched) - “In The Morning” b/w Etched Side
The Decemberists - 7″
Def Jam Records “History of Def Jam” 4xLP
Domino Records Blood on the Tracks compilation LP Eugene McGuinness - “Fonz” / The Kills - “Night Train” / Franz Ferdinand - “Katherine Hit Me” (Blood Version) / Junior Boys - “Hazel” (Radio Edit) / Max Tundra - “Playboy” (Hot Chip) / John Hopkins - “The Wider Sun” / Juana Molina, Devendra Banhart & Vetiver - “Hay Que Ver Se Voy” / Benjy Ferree - “Grand Canyon” (Magnetic Fields) / Cass McCombs - “One Way To Go” / King Creosote - “Curtain Craft”
Bob Dylan - 7″
El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Cryptomnesia LP (not exclusive, but 3000 copies available for RSD in advance of 5/5 street date)
Flaming Lips/Black Keys split 7″
Flight Of The Conchords - 7″
Guided By Voices - Hold On Hope reissue + 3 bonus tracks
Iron & Wine - Live CD
Jane’s Addiction - 7″ - “Mountain Song” b/w “Standing In The Shower Thinking”
Jesus Lizard - 7″ Box Set
Booker T Jones - 7″ - “Warped Sister” b/w “Reunion Time”
Magnolia Electric Co. - 7″ (1000 copies) - “It’s Made Me Cry Again/Rock of Ages” b/w “The Compass, The Candle,The Bell/Protection Spell”
MC5 - 7″ - “Kick Out The Jams” b/w “Motor City Is Burning”
Mastodon - Crack the Skye 180g vinyl + 7″
My Morning Jacket - Celebración De La Ciudad Natal (Live at Ear X-Tacy & Louisville Waterfront) 2×10″ / CD Evil Urges / Highly Suspicious / Gideon / Where To Begin / Librarian / Phone Went West / Dondante
New Order - 7″ - “Temptation” b/w “Hurt” Numero Group This LP Crashes Hard Drives compilation LP Los Destellos - “Guajira Sicodelica” / PE Hewitt Jazz Ensemble - “Bad Que Bash” / Group Doueh - “Way Waya” / Noor Jehan - “I Am Very Sorry” / Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - “Marcus Garvey” / Pisces ft. Linda Brunner - “Sam” / The Monks - “Pretty Suzanne” / Myron & the Soul Investigators - “Cold Game” / John Heartsman & Circles - “Talking About My Baby” / Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens”
Obits - 7″
Pavement - “Live in Cologne 1997″ LP (2500 copies)
Radiohead - “Series of vinyl EPs”
Russian Circles/These Arms Are Snakes Split 12” (1000 copies) - “Camera Shy” / “Trix” b/w “Philios” Sargent House compilation CD Bygones – “Click On That, Smash The Plastic Death” / RX Bandits – No Chorizo - (Live From Glasshouse) / Red Fang – “Good To Die” / These Arms Are Snakes – “Camera Shy” / Cast Spells – “Glamorous Glowing” / This Town Needs Guns – “Rabbit” / Good Old War – “Window” (Live Acoustic) / Native – “What Are You Dylan In My House?” / Tera Melos - “Last Smile For Jaron” / Maps & Atlases -“Ted Zancha” / Love You Moon – “Screams In A Vacuum” (Live From Fingerprints) / Red Sparowes – “The Fear Is Excruiating, But Therein Lies the Answer”
The Smiths - 7″ - “The Headmaster’s Ritual” b/w “Oscillate Wildly”
Sonic Youth/Beck split 7″ (2500 copies) - “Pay No Mind” (SY covering Beck) b/w “Green Light” (Beck Covering SY)
Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard split 7″ (2500 copies) - “Hang Them All” (JR) b/w “No Garage” (SY)
Bruce Springsteen - 7″
The Stooges - 7″ - “1969″ b/w “Real Cool Time”
The Thermals/Thao split 7″ (1000 copies) - “When I Died” (Demo) / “You Dissolve” (Demo) b/w “Cool Yourself You Are Flush Red” / “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind” (Lovin’ Spoonful)
Thrill Jockey Records Toreism compilation LP (900 copies) - Mountains - “Windows” / Tortoise - “High Class Stim Came Floating In” / Double Dagger - “Stagger Lee” / White Hills - “Eye To Eye” / Trans Am - “Wounded Monkey”
Tom Waits/Lucinda Williams split 7″ - “Ain’t Goin’ Down To The Well” (Live) b/w “Bottom Of The World” (Live)
Vetiver - 7″
Wilco - Ashes of American Flags DVD (non-exclusive; just 2 weeks earlier than mass release)
Wooden Ships - Mix CD + New LP (LP is non-exclusive; just 2 weeks earlier than mass release) (Thanks to MBV for list compilation!)
Washington, DC (by way of Mexico City, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Cuba, and Venezuela) experimental/indie, singer/songwriter Peter Maybarduk releases his second CD "No Hay Pueblo Vencido" this month with a CD release party March 19 at Dahlak. Joining Maybarduk that night is an eclectic pool of talent culled from his travels both here in the States and abroad.
Yet, it seems that throughout his varied global excursions, one thing has remained a constant—his appreciation for...well, why not have him tell you?
"Music reconstructed the life inside my mind around the time I turned fourteen. In our town, those of us whose complete attention could not be held by school, religion or athletics were left to shuffle in the adolescent wilderness in a vague directionless search for meaning. We were considered, after all, too young to be entrusted with any real responsibilities. Music became the medium connecting my unquiet mind to the world around me, lending stability to and communicating with my creative and erratic thoughts.
Independent record stores were among the most tangible expressions of this world of ideas. They gave me a place to go to; a place to interact with music with all my senses. I could see artists’ visual interpretations of music on album covers and posters, I could talk with knowledgeable fans who worked in the shops and invariably played in local bands, I could smell vinyl and cardboard and leather and hair dye, and I could hold a disc or a record in my hand, bearing the art and music of a great band, and touch the otherwise intangible sounds that were coming to define me.
I think perhaps this is what a purely digital music world has trouble supplanting. The tactile. I can see album art on screens, but it’s far less satisfying – hard on the eyes, small, transient and set in just two dimensions. An online search is not the same memorable adventure as a trip to the record store, and our soul knows we have not equally earned the pleasure of music we discover online as we might have if we’d traveled to an independent shop and walked its aisles. Even for someone who might not appreciate vinyl’s unique sound, purely digital music cannot satisfy the other senses. And the senses do not work in pure isolation. Our experiences are deeper, richer, more rewarding, more informative, when they involve sound, sight, touch, conversation, physical exertion, memory. These experiences deepen our investment in music, and inevitably, lead us to give more back to the art in turn.
Similarly, there is, by definition, little creative interaction in the chain store. That’s not to criticize the individuals working in each store. And there is creativity somewhere in each chain’s corporate design template. But that creative process may have occurred hundreds of miles away and years in the past; there is likely no daily unique remaking of the individual store in which you’re standing. No personal creative link between the listener, the store, and the world of music, each remaking themselves with every day, considering music not only as commercial product, but as a very personal identity and art, that needs interaction to retain its meaning. This is what the independent stores offer. Each interacts with music on its own terms, through constant evolution, and hence, is a living part of the development of the art.
The musicians, the shows, the labels, the fans, the scenes, the zines, the shops, all interacting to make a rich world of ideas. That’s where I found meaning and bridged the unsteady period between childhood and adulthood. As music and technology evolve to offer new possibilities, and we make choices as listeners that will influence their course, let’s keep in mind the complete context – the creative and sensory experiences that have combined to help make music so powerful for us thus far."
Before we begin this morning, a few words to 99% of the audience at last night’s Fleetwood Mac concert at the Verizon Center:
Please. Just. Stop. (Thank you.)
...Steel Pulse!
“In the mid-'70s, this young British sextet from Birmingham — inspired into existence by Bob Marley's Catch a Fire — found an affinity with the righteous rebellion of white new wavers and built its early reputation largely by touring punk venues (as documented on live anthology records from Manchester's Electric Circus and London's Hope and Anchor). Steel Pulse's crossover appeal derives in large part from its young, modern thoughtfulness, but even more so from the group's incredible strength as one of the world's very best self-contained reggae units.
Steel Pulse's virtues include a gorgeous, multi-textured musical palette (especially on the first album and much of Caught You), intelligent lyrics (most notably on Handsworth Revolution, but also on Tribute to the Martyrs), a wondrous, sinuously propulsive beat and sweet lead vocals by (David Hinds), who also has a nice quasi-scat style."
Couldn’t have said it any better than the Trouser Press quotes above. Oh, wait—maybe I can: outside of The (original) Wailers — best reggae band ...ever?
Here’s an easy excuse to hit the record store tonight—a free show! The Points are doing an in-store at Crooked Beat Records. As soon as I think about The Points I see trails, police dogs are barking at me and my shoes are stuck to the floor from all the spilled (and thrown) beer cans.
They’re back home after another tour and probably will have a few good stories to share. It's early so check it out if you can. First person to tap me on the shoulder and mention TVD will win a prize. (NOTE: Prize may cause dizziness, nausea, and an insatiable desire to eat human brains)
From Crooked Beat’s website: “Tuesday, 3/10: The Points DC-based loudfastandreckless basement punk band The Points will be playing some songs from their self-titled album debut. Released last fall, the album has been one of our top selling Dc area artists over the last few months.
Performances usually start 7-7:30, and are FREE and ALL AGES.”
I’d been reading Bob Lefsetz the other day when he pontificated, “Can we bring Todd Rundgren back for a victory lap?”
Fine by me, I thought at the time--the guy really needs to be given his due. (Ever see the (overly long) flash intro to his site displaying the records upon records he’s produced? One word: amazing.)
But at the same time I thought, “Well, there are quite a few others who are due a victory lap...” and just like that I was off on a theme and a graphic. Yes, sometimes these things just write themselves.
XTC! Oh, how long did it take me to embrace your full charms? How long did I wander alone out in the cold purposefully eschewing the warmth of your poppy/hooky/catchy hearth? F’n long I tell you.
Why, I may have even had a disparaging word or seven...’navel-gazing’, ‘too clever by half’, ‘fussy and tiresome’. Wrong I was however--and now in possession of the entire catalog (Thanks Rick!) those years out in the ether have ended.
Yet, MY XTC-switch aside, the band clearly has not garnered the acclaim they’re due. Oh sure, Trouser Press editors and be-specticle’d fan boys have swooned for ages, but today we’re righting a wrong SO wrong that we’re kicking off this week’s series of shout-outs and underscores with the best of the lot.
Neil Strauss, rock journalist for Rolling Stone and The New York Times, will be in DC this Thursday, March 12th, at Borders 1801K St NW from 6:30 to 8pm to sign and present his forthcoming book "Emergency", about surviving social meltdowns. TVD readers are invited to meet the author, see the book, and join the conversation.
Neil is the co-author of New York Times bestsellers "The Dirt", with Mötley Crüe, "The Long Hard Road Out of Hell", with Marilyn Manson, and LA Times bestseller "Don't Try This At Home" with Dave Navarro. He has written cover stories for RS on Kurt Cobain, the Wu-Tang Clan, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and other musicians.
Emergency traces Neil's observations of ordinary and out of the ordinary Americans prepared to stay alive & afloat by all means in the face of impending social, political & economic collapse. Part of the book takes place in DC and deals with recent media events.
Once more, straight from the source: "ORPHEUS RECORDS WILL BE OPEN ALL FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS IN MARCH EXCEPT FRIDAY THE 27th...Noon til 9pm...March 6 & 7...13 & 14...20 & 21...and Saturday the 28th...Stay tuned........Orpheus Records as we've known it is gone, over, kaput. If you shopped here in the 70's, 80's, 90's or up through 2007 you knew a store that had more records than any sane retailer would stock. Then, our lease ended. Our landlord informed us that our lease would not be renewed and that we had until April 1, 2008 to vacate the premises. SO, January 1, 2008 we commenced our "Going Out of Business" sale. The first week was modest, probably because the only notice was a small sign on our door. THEN, we put up a huge banner. A banner so large that people saw it a block a way. A banner so large that the county inspectors saw it. It turns out you need a permit for said banner, who knew? We paid our bux, but it was WELL worth it because the response was immediate and overwhelming. People I hadn't seen in the store in years came in to tell me how much they would miss the place. While here, most would buy a stack of lps. I'll never know how many were buying because they wanted the albums and how many were simply nostalgic, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that the lps were disappearing much more quickly than I ever imagined. The only thing more amazing than how many records we were selling was how many more we still had. Then as luck would have it , the Washington Post ran a story about the closing of the store. A big piece, with a Bigger picture. Again the response was immediate and, you guessed it, overwhelming. I spent the better part of this past year overwhelmed. As April approached, I enquired of the landlord whether the new tenant was ready, and let him know I was interested in staying, for as long as possible. As many of you know that was LAST April. Now, as a new April approaches, I'm still asking the same question every month. And SO FAR every month the same answer comes back. "You can stay another month". If I try to push for more, I'm gently reminded that I have no lease and am free to go. Most of you reading this, are, probably, the same people, that are still coming in the store, and have lived the entire experience with me. So here we are. We will be here to enjoy out tenth anniversary in Clarendon. An anniversary that I have joked about, but never really expected to see. I told the landlord I didn't want to be one of those retailers who got tossed out, only to drive by the space a year or more later and see it sitting empty. To his credit, and my perseverance, we're still here. Merely a shadow of our former selves, but, still here. The liquidation sale was a resounding success. I was interviewed by City Papers' Jason Cherkis the other day, and we agreed, "going out of business" is a great business plan. I just want to reassure every one, this wasn't a contrived plan. It's just the way it happened...and I've got the letters from the landlord to prove it. I'm now paying my rent to the new tenants, that, similarly to the buildings owner, are allowing me to stay ONE MONTH AT A TIME. Astonishingly, I still have enough merchandise to remain in business, albeit in a truncated fashion. so, for now, I'll open the store a couple of days a week and persevere until it just doesn't make any sense to do it...anymore. Thank you for your support, thank you for your patience and most importantly, thank you for getting all those damn records out of here!!! (Read the rest here.)
"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us." —Kurt Vonnegut
Since I couldn’t think of anything new to say, I tried to write this show review on the Red Line as I headed to meet Vivian, and missed the damn stop. (Unrelated note: Now I have the flu.) Later in the park, Vivian and I discussed the previous night's events. This is a rough translation as my handwriting has devolved into something like chicken scratch, but much more ghetto. It was also written in Sharpie on both sides of the paper. I apologize in advance for its lack of clarity and rudeness.
TVD. You’re an idiot if you didn’t go to this show. I’m an idiot and I went. So what does that make us?
Worst opening line ever. No more joke attempts. (Vivian nods and decides not to smoke her last cigarette until after dinner.) Gentlemen Jesse played an amazing powerpop punk energetic set…. (Insert better description later) to a mixed crowd of comatose hipsters, old men, college girls in leggings, kids, and punks heavy on the Vice-style.
“They were pretty good,” Vivian says, as she nonchalantly scans the area for threats. “But it was weird. The people watching them up front had no enthusiasm. It’s not an open casket.”
Maybe you are familiar with viceland.com’s DO’s and DON’Ts section. (Describing anything that comes with a link is a waste of space.) I decided to do my own version of this, but without pictures. Because the Black Lips completely killed it. They were very exciting for me and many others.
DO… Dance your ass off, sing along, jump around, give a band you enjoy some respect. They are working for you. At least have the decency to clap.
DON’T… Start a moshpit only to abruptly abandon it when the going gets rough.
DO… Help the guy up who gave you a nosebleed with his elbow two minutes prior. It’s nothing personal.
DON’T… Crowd surf at the Black Cat. You have been warned.
DON’T… Let others pick you up and force you into a head-walking situation, only to be dropped pretty hard on your ass. It wasn’t worth the pain. Learn to say No! You’re too old for this shit.
DO… Act humbly and with respect as security escorts you out. Own up to your bad behavior. Apologize. You are the asshole in this situation.
DON’T… Walk out on your tab, even if you are being escorted from the property. A willingness to endure public, pathetic humiliation may earn you that second chance.
DO… Continue to party in the Red Room after the show. Watch out for Commies.
DON’T… Punch the really nice guy in the face for letting your friends stay and party at his house, for no reason. Especially in the face. Not even cool. See above DO regarding security escorts, revise to personal situation. You should have probably left anyway, even if he let you stay.
DO… Make out with a crazy Russian just to break the language barrier. You can search his wallet for the card later.
DON’T… Forget what you did last night. There is a reason to exist, and remembering that is important. (There are some more personal notes here that may not be suitable for our readers.)
Grundy: Well keep going chief, keep going. Go on. You've got another five seconds. Say something outrageous.
Jones: You dirty bastard.
Grundy: Go on, again.
Jones: You dirty fucker.
Grundy: What a clever boy.
Jones: What a fucking rotter.
(...Classic discourse, eh?)
And a classic disc, of course, for Week 6 of TVD's Eleven Weeks of Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaways--it's "Never Mind the Bollocks" in 180-gram glory! And if that isn't enough we're tossing in a bit of what that classic LP hath wrought generations on with Foxboro Hottub's "Stop Drop And Roll." (And it's no secret that the 'Tubs are actually...well wait, we'll let you guess in the comments.)
Think you just might need these LPs to kick some life into your vinyl collection? Grab our attention in the comments WITH your email address (important!) so we can contact you about your triumphant win. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We're not picky.) And remember - each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!
Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/9) when we'll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #7...)
A lot of people really seem to be digging on Neko Case lately. While I by no means think she's talentless, in fact it's quite the opposite, I much prefer her mentor and New Pornographers' bandmate A.C. (as he has dubbed himself for his solo career) Newman. Maybe it's the way he sings even his most passionate songs with a slight feeling of detachment-like there's a wall between him and the listener that one just can't seem to get through. Maybe it's the fact that I can listen to his songs over and over again and find something different to like about them each and every time. Or, maybe it's the fact that I love Canadians. Whatever the reason may be, I love me some A.C. Newman. I find his songs to be catchy but also to contain a haunting brilliance that proves he has the ability to create music that is more complex, sincere, and sapient than it appears to be at first listen.
Newman released his second solo album, "Get Guilty," in January of this year and seems to be a nice supplement to the NP's most recent album, "Challenger." "Get Guilty" is a nice followup to his first solo album, "The Slow Wonder," which just reinforces how great he is- how many musicians are able to balance solo and group careers and put out great pieces of art? Answer: not many. Few and far between. Etc.
A.C. Newman is playing at the Black Cat on March 18th (you know I must think he's good if I'm recommending you see him instead of the Pogues that night) and if you didn't get tickets to Neko Case before both of her shows sold out, like the New Pornographers, or simply think that any recommendation I give should be followed without question, I suggest you pick up a ticket.
First Party At Ken Kesey's With Hell's Angels Cool black night thru redwoods cars parked outside in shade behind the gate, stars dim above the ravine, a fire burning by the side porch and a few tired souls hunched over in black leather jackets. In the huge wooden house, a yellow chandelier at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths dancing to the vibration thru the floor, a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlet tights, one muscular smooth skinned man sweating dancing for hours, beer cans bent littering the yard, a hanged man sculpture dangling from a high creek branch, children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks. And 4 police cars parked outside the painted gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.
It could be that These United States' singular mission is to dispel the notion that Washington, DC has no character, nor soul, or grit amidst the starched white underbelly of its marbled column malaise. And if you've been paying attention, they're making waves all over the place with their much-hyphenated psych-folk-lit-pop-rock.
After releasing 2 albums and playing 200 shows in 2008 (!), These United States have a new release in the queue and head south to SXSW (selected via ye olde EPK at Sonicbids) for four days of showcases.
TVD dialed up (the sleep-deprived) Jesse Elliott (vocals, guitar) for a few bits, not on bitrates, but on that analog medium just before the boys hit the road for a tour that begins in Kentucky on 3/3 and ends in Kentucky on 4/11--with 29 dates in between...
"The past is not the past - it's never dead, you never forget it, you never can afford to, never should want to, not too badly, critical as it is to the present, and the present to the future. Vinyl has nothing to do with Sound for me - I'm a deaf shit, have been ever since I was a tiny kid with way too many ear infections in the first 2 years of his life. And my family always had bad speakers anyway. But my dad also had Disraeli Gears and Aqualung and a whole bunch of other works I'd never really fully understand til years later. Mom had Bookends, The Natch'l Blues, the other half of who I'd become. I didn't know anything about blues. I didn't know what young people were supposed to like, and weren't, who white people were supposed to be, and weren't, what I was supposed to think of Jethro Tull, and wasn't. Vinyls, early on, were the least mediated of all media experiences I'd had. There was no context, and that was magical, and that itself would become the context. They didn't come automatically attached to a website, and with them there was no feeling of keeping up, let alone getting ahead of the curve. Just getting lost. Just the infinite maze of the past, which, you know, who can do anything but just surrender to it? Some tracks I loved (still love), some bored me to tears, all of them I played, all the way through, because they were all connected. Not artistically, figuratively, conceptually - but literally, physically, temporally connected. Side one. Side two. Only two choices there - no skipping ahead or back - I couldn't stand the sound of a bad needle drop, so I rarely even tried. Don't like this song? Another one will be on in 4 minutes - relax, see the present through to its logical, if not necessarily yr own personal favorite, conclusion. By then, you prolly came back around to the sound you were cringing at originally anyway. The context became yr own life, and gradually, maybe months or years later, you saw how that connected to the larger musical community, the people you'd eventually discover who'd dropped the same needles on the same sides. Yr patience was rewarded, very viscerally, often in/with the face of another human being. This is the same old nostalgia everyone has about this listening experience, yeah? But that nostalgia has served a function now - artistically, commercially, communally. That collective vinyl-doting has brought something back, it seems - at least in a quiet way. That big collective silly sloppy dreamy-eyed siiiiigh has now served as not just a yearning, but as a very real Decision about who we were, who we still are, how we want the world. We just dragged the past right back into the present, where it should be, looking forward. I'm gonna give my kids a stack of vinyl - the good, the bad, the confusing - prolly not a huge stack, and with few essentials - I'm as broke as my parents were, and already half as deaf. But you don't need a lot with vinyl - there's so much in every Side. The future'll be theirs to get lost in." These United States - Honor Amongst Thieves (Mp3)
Rhino readies Jane's Addiction RSD09 Reissues Rhino has announced that it will release 180-gram vinyl versions of Jane's Addiction's landmark albums 1988's 'Nothing's Shocking' and 1990's 'Ritual De Lo Habitual' to celebrate Record Store Day on April 18. (Read more here.)
Jesus Lizard Mark Record Store Day with Boxed Set The band, which recently announced plans to reunite for British shows, will drop a Record Store Day exclusive through Touch and Go Records, collecting out of print 7-inch releases for a boxed set. The tracks, all remastered by Bob Weston, are collected in fancy clear packaging.
The boxed set will be available at independent music retailers as part of this year's Record Store Day April 18. (Read more here.) Taking Back Sunday ready RSD09 7" Taking Back Sunday will announce a US/Canada tour and the release date for their upcoming New Again soon. You want webisodes? A fresh new batch of them will debut with the band's new website, which you will see soon. A new 7" will be released for National Record Store day in April. Follow up their conversation in the replies with your own snarky comments. (Read more here.)
Wilco plans album, tours on Ashes of American Flags DVD As promised, Wilco will be hitting the road this March for an international tour in support of the band's forthcoming concert DVD Ashes of American Flags. The excursion will see Jeff Tweedy and his band of merrymakers getting folked up across the Midwest and points South before hopping across the Atlantic for a string of shows in Spain.
Ashes of American Flags is out April 18 (Record Store Day!) at select independent record stores, and April 20 everywhere else. (Read more here.)
Domino signs up for Record Store Day exclusive Organisers of Record Store Day in the UK have announced a fresh load of exclusive releases, which will be offered for sale by participating retailers at the event.
Following the news last week of two exclusive seven-inch releases from the Beggars stable to mark the day, which intended to celebrate independently-owned music retailers across the globe, Rough Trade East store manager Spencer Hickman has revealed details of five new exclusives. (Read more here.)
Def Jam Launches 25th Anniversary Celebration With Record Store Day Release Of Double Vinyl Set The greatest names in the history of hip-hop, rap and R&B - from LL Cool J and Slick Rick to Rihanna and Kanye West, from Public Enemy and 3rd Bass to Ludacris, Redman and Rick Ross, from Jay-Z to Young Jeezy and dozens more - have made Def Jam Recordings the destination for Urban artists over the past quarter century. Now Island Def Jam Music Group is set to turn up the heat in honor of Def Jam's 25th anniversary in 2009, starting with the launch of DEF JAM 25.
To help with the celebration of Record Store Day, Def Jam will release a limited edition 4 LP deluxe set. (Read more here.)
“Have song, will travel” as the saying almost goes. Yet, it’s never revealed how far one will indeed go with said talents. 
