National Record Store Day

Lorin Stein - Editor, The Paris Review:

Chris King, the "aural archaeologist" behind Angry Mom Records, is known for his blues and Cajun archive, but at a recent Paris Review party he brought out some rare 78s of northwestern Greek shepherd music—a genre with which none of our guests were familiar, and which blew us all away. One track in particular lingered in the air, the shiver-inducing "Epirotika Mirologi," by the violinist Alexis Zoumbas. I can't wait to hear it again this April when King releases his vinyl LP of Zoumbas recordings, "A Lament For Epirus 1926-1928." ~ Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2014

Alexis Zoumbas was the "Robert Johnson" of Greek Epirotika, the hypnotic mountain music of Northern Greece, an expression that is just as raw and emotive as the Delta Blues. This record captures the sublime beauty and sadness of these powerful, otherworldly instrumentals by what was Greece’s and New York City’s finest traditional violinist of the 1920s. The LP will be released on April 19th (a Record Store Day Exclusive) on the Angry Mom label. A CD version will be available later this year. Artwork by Robert Crumb.

― dow, Thursday, April 17, 2014 9:42 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The link expires in two days but you can download this from the website of the guy who's putting it out. It's pretty great:

http://longgonesound.com/current-travails/2014/1/18/alexis-zoumbas-a-lament-for-epirus-1926-1928-original-artwork-by-robert-crumb-10-recordings-with-deluxe-gatefold-lp

this "exclusive" shit they put out is 90% worthless in any artistic/aesthetic sense, it's practically designed for folks to buy and then flip to some asshole who wants to pay $200 for their 85th-favorite record on puke-colored vinyl.

otm, also p sure I said something similar last year itt

thanks for that link, kind of obviates the remaining desire i had to attend RSD. have funk, folks!

also, scott, you've been kind of needlessly cruel to me on ILX at times and you kind of hurt my feelings but i love you for that FB post and your general opting out of RSD. if was in town I'd go to your shop and pick up a bunch of that ragtime piano stuff.

xpost

also, i didn't mean to write "have funk" but i kind of like it.

the weirdest most pointless shit IMO is the thing where they take a proper album and divide it among 10 or 12 7" 45rpm discs. i mean, vinyl died and came back* for THIS?!

*note: vinyl did not actually die and come back. it never died, and it hasn't really come back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaOgZwk9rN8

It's 8:26 a.m. and the Rough Trade line is literally around the block.

cwiii - thanks for that link to the zoumbas!!

'Is Record Store Day In Crisis? A Quietus Investigation' -

http://thequietus.com/articles/15031-record-store-day-2014-problems-distribution-vinyl

xp No problem!!

Coulda done that but didn't know if it was kosher (guess the label guy knew it might get around, though). Have a happy NRD; no stores around here, but think I might go to the Book Fair.

NRSD, even.

Got shoved by a huge dude clutching a Death Cab for Cutie record

http://fastnbulbous.com/happy-record-store-day/

Will my suggested rebrand, "Just Buy A Fucking Album Day" take?

omg lolololol @ UMS
that's hilarious! i live for moments like that

i have secured the one thing i really wanted (thanks d@ve!), and if i'm feeling fresh and motivated, i'll go to reckless to lurk all day waiting for kim and kelley deal to show up so i can run over, introduce myself, and say thank you. and also listen to their set if i can handle the throng, which depends on my sight line. if it is an impenetrable wall of pits, depart.

i waited in line for an hour at Rough Trade and didn't get my Death Waltz vinyl :(

None of the other stores even got it, apparantly

RECORD STORE DAY IS RUINED

i didn't even bother; maybe i'll drop by and rifle through the dregs tonight.

Well got the Glenn Jones thing I wanted. Struck out on Solar Motel Band. Picked up the Numbers Band reissue which is better than most RSD things anyway

All I'd like afaik is the REM unplugged thing, which I can prob buy for too much online one day, I guess

i would have liked to get moles, cardinal, alvarius b. the first two i'm probably SOL (if they would have even had them at local stores), the last I can probably pick up two weeks from now.

Popped into my nearest RSD shop for the Songs:Ohia box and Gil Scott Heron LP on the off-chance they still had them but no joy. Couldn't believe how expensive some of the stuff was - £10 7" singles!

yeah. supposedly that cardinal LP was $30.

what was the GSH one?

GSH: http://xlrecordings.com/news/nothingnewouttoday

my pal ted's store. we are kinda cranky around here at times.

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/10246422_10200936905225339_344628976323630788_n.jpg

Record Store Day is like tax season for the pressing plants, btw, not surprising there are some did-not-arrives

adamrl got the best records so far today in my store.

Only one store in Philly seems to have gotten the Harry Dean Stanton 7", and it sold out, to quote the gentleman manning the RSD shelves at Repo, "instantly."

I can neither confirm nor deny using part of my tax refund to impulse-buy a box set of ZTT 7"s.

so I am officially looking for the Alvarius B/Sir Richard Bishop split if anyone sees an extra lying around. my sister got me the Armand Schaubroeck record which was the only other thing on my list, makes it easy.

Re: Death Waltz I'm just glad I was able to come to my senses before blowing $$$ on a bunch of obscure giallo soundtracks sight unseen (sound unheard, whatever) and kept myself to the Clint Mansell 12". AKA did have a lovely vinyl copy of Morricone's 4 Flies on Grey Velvet soundtrack, though- a non-RSD reissue licensed through Cinevox, I think.

colour me miffed.

why on earth was the ztt boxset only released in the USA !!?

unless the label people thought they have milked the uk market enough in recent times ..

From New West Records: first, a couple of NRSD Exclusives (caveat! the finished Townes, like Amelita and the non-Exclusive Tarpaper Sky, is pretty decent, but I'm not a big fan of the unadorned Steve Earle---still, hey hey eBay)
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p40/timnewwest/SE-Townes_zpsd2481af5.jpg

Steve Earle: Townes - The Basics
180 gram 12" vinyl. Limited to 2000 hand-numbered copies.

In 2009 Steve Earle released an album of Townes Van Zandt songs. It began as solo guitar and vocal tracks recorded in October 2008 in New York City. Other instruments were added later in subsequent sessions for the album in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. Those original recordings - The Basics - were released on a limited edition bonus CD with the Townes album and are available here for the first time on vinyl. Includes digital download card.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p40/timnewwest/CYH-Amelita_zps10d1e8ee.jpg
Court Yard Hounds: Amelita
180 gram 12" vinyl gatefold + bonus 2-sided 7". Limited to 500 copies.

Court Yard Hounds' sophomore LP, Amelita, available on vinyl for the first time. Each copy of the album by Emily Robison and Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks will come in a gatefold package with a 2-sided 7" featuring 2 bonus tracks.

JUST RELEASED ALBUMS TO PICK UP ON RSD

http://press.newwestrecords.com/rodney-crowell/rodneycrowell-tarpapersky-72dpi.jpg
Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky
180 gram 12" vinyl, CD, digital

While you are hunting for the exclusives, don't forget to pick up a copy of Rodney Crowell's just released Tarpaper Sky. The new album, which sees him reuniting with the crew that played on his breakthrough record Diamonds & Dirt, has been called his finest in a decade and has received rave reviews from USA Today, Associated Press, American Songwriter, Chicago Tribune and Uncut to name but a few.

RECORD STORE DAY IN-STORE PERFORMANCES

Nikki Lane @ The Groove in Nashville - 6:30 pm
Nikki Lane will showcase songs from her Dan Auerbach-produced album, All Or Nothin', due May 6. Snag a copy of the album early!

Listen to "Right Time" via Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/outlaw-country-singer-nikki-lane-goes-all-or-nothin-on-new-album-20140305

The Whigs @ Criminal Records in Atlanta - 12 pm

The Whigs will kick off Criminal Records' all day RSD festivities with a few songs from their raw and rocking new album, Modern Creation, out this Tuesday, April 22 and available early at the gig. Stream Modern Creation in full at Esquire.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/the-whigs-modern-creation
Head over to Team Coco to check out their video for "Hit Me," a hilarious homage to the "The Old Grey Whistle Test" http://teamcoco.com/video/web-exclusive-the-whigs-hit-me

Thing I Learned Today: Mobile Fidelity is doing audiophile vinyls again. Among their titles are both "The Green Album" (!?) & Make Believe (!?!?) from Weezer, available at the price point of $41.99 apiece (or, as I like to say, "Are you fucking kidding me? Dollars").

Did you guys know there was a Mazzy Star single of two *NEW* songs coming out today?

Lucky for me, my buddy brought in some extras at his shop because he knew I'd be interested, despite all my protests about RSD.

(of course, it's on colored vinyl and sounds shit, but hey, new Mazzy Star, amiright?)

that's the only thing I went out to get! and succeeded. also got a cut copy 10", and saw some interesting stuff but it was mostly too expensive. liked to go and walk around in the minor chaos at usually-empty stores though. and there were lots of free koozies!

i bought some stuff (Omar Souleyman, Pinback, Lydia Loveless 7" + some non-RSD records) but the one thing I really wanted - Robotic Empire's tribute to In Utero w/ Jay Reatard, Thou, Young Widows, etc - was nowhere to be found.

Oh, except on eBay, where last time I looked there were six copies listed.

there is a record store about a mile or two away from me that is the worst record store ever, basically. they no longer get new stock (CDs or vinyl) because they are cash poor and have no cred with distributors anymore. their vinyl is beat to shit and priced "by the book" (ugh). but somehow the guy who runs it manages to get some RSD stock and more people come in his store on that one day than have probably visited the store in the past full year. i was tempted to go, but it would have just depressed me.

oh that gil scott-heron thing is outtakes from his last crap album. never mind.

If you bought I'm New Here on vinyl when it was new, you got a few of those songs from the session that they've now released as its own LP. Not sure if any of the songs are repeated, but it's just Gil doing new vocal and piano versions of old songs. Meh.

They came with the digital download of I'm New Here is what I meant to say.

I was walking around Chicago today in Belmont and I passed a hi-fi store - small storefront on Belmont, couple guys in their mid-late fifties in there - maybe both of them working there, maybe one's a customer. both in old-dude slacks and button-downs with the sleeves rolled at the cuff. super I-will-never-be-able-to-afford-this gear in a very basic window display - heavy glass turntable, amp with all the tubes exposed and shiny, etc. looking through the window, I see three crates of records on a table - small crates, no more than 100 records between the three of them, and a laser-jet printed sign taped to the middle crate. the sign read:

Records Day
10% off

I will be happy about this forever.

The tame impala is a winner

Wkiw those Records Day dudes

Alright so I had FUN, OK? Friends and I wandering around BK.

My haul:

Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band - Solar Live 11.15.13
Todd Terje - It's Album Time
Marisa Anderson - The Golden Hour
Life Without Buildings - Any Other City
The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
Glenn Jones - Welcomed Wherever I Go
School of Seven Bells - Put Your Sad Down

That is a good selection. I only went to one place today to try and find those Life Without Buildings and Field albums but they didn't have either. They didn't really seem to have much RSD stock at all. Hope I can still find them later on, don't think either are limited editions.

I have a feeling the Life Without Buildings that includes the 7" might be limited? I only saw The Field at the first store I went to, though.

It looks like The Field album is already selling for $40 on Ebay and one copy of the Life Without Buildings album currently at $75. Great! I wasn't bothered about getting the 7" as well, just want a regular copy but not sure that exists.

The Field wasn't too far below that honestly... it was super pricey.

And yeah I'm not too sure whether a regular copy exists either...

It's just frustrating as I kept checking all the lists before today and they never said anything about it being limited. Anyway, will see if I can track down a copy somewhere.