New Widespread Panic Single “Up All Night” Free mp3 Download

Widespread Panic has a new album that will be out in Spring 2008. The as-yet-untitled album was recorded earlier this year and “Up All Night” is the first single released to radio and available as a juicy 320Kbps mp3 for the fans to download.

I’m not very familiar with Panic’s massive body of work– 15 CD’s and 5 DVDs since their inception in 1986! But, I was familiar with their Band tribute track “Chest Fever” which I liked a lot. “Up All Night” has the same familiar classic rock vibe as many of their other songs. Still, the song is worth a download.

Up All Night (right-click to save MP3)

Upcoming Show: Tortoise and Umphrey’s McGee 12/30/07 in Chicago

In what seems to be an interesting and slightly headscratcher lineup, Tortoise will be opening for ChiTown Jamband Umphrey’s McGee on Sunday, 12/30/07 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. This show will be part of a three-night stint at the Aragon culminating in a very special 10th Anniversary New Year’s show.

I guess it might make some sense– both bands are “Chicago Bands Done OK” so they’d be playing for local crowds. And, although Tortoise fits in the Post Rock genre, they’ve been flirting with the jam scene a bit by playing Bonnaroo two years. Umphrey’s is a band that likes to toy with progrock and jazz so in some respects is a band in kindred spirit. It would be interesting to see if they collaborate on anything. Certainly both bands can improvise in a live setting.

Umphrey’s is giving away mp3’s of their show in Georgia on 10/14/07. I guess they weren’t able to use their live engineer to record it and clean it up for sale on their site so they are giving it away. It includes a new song-in-progress “Jazz Odyssey” and a cover of “Young Lust” by Pink Floyd. It comes in two zip files. Click Here for the post on their Facebook page which includes links to download.

Fender Frontline in Home #2 Arrived…

I came home today to the new Fender Frontline in Home– the second issue! The cover and inside cover are promoting the new Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Strat and Twin with the line art logos for Crossroads Antigua which is a charity that supports a treatment center for chemically dependent people and their families. There will be 100 guitars with 50 matched to amps. These guitars are going to be handcrafted at the Custom Shop to Clapton’s specifications and each with the smiling sun logo that he designed. The guitar is $20000 and the guitar/amp combination will be $30000.

Other new and interesting items in this catalog include the Joe Strummer Tribute page. I got to see one of these up close in King of Prussia, PA at Sam Ash. While I really like the idea of this tribute guitar, I have a hard time justifying over $800 for a Mexican telecaster. Plus, it doesn’t look as good up close. It is one thing to be relic’d, but the matte black finish makes it look kind of fake. Just my opinion, of course!

This issue also includes the new California Series Sonoran SCE Custom Acoustics. These are kind of cool looking– coming in some vintage “surfy” colors with painted headstocks. I’d consider one of these. It certainly would look nice hanging next to my other Fenders since it has a CBS Strat-looking headstock on it.

Another free T-shirt!! Again, you need to do a “test drive” at an authorized Fender dealer. This time you don’t need to test drive something in the catalog– which is an improvement. Test drive any Fender product. Last time I went to Guitar Center and the only thing they had was the “VG” Stratocaster from the catalog. This T-Shirt looks much nicer than the last Test Drive– this one has a ’52-ish Telecaster leaning against a classic Twin amp with a simple Fender logo under it. Still on a black Tee. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend!

A focus on the Squier Artist Series with the Avril Lavigne Telecaster with the nifty Cheap Trickish black and white checkered pickguard. Basses from Pete Wentz, Mike Dirnt and Frank Bello. I guess it is cool to bring the Artist Series into the budget line. Also a Rockband ad showing the new Stratocaster controller for Rockband. That’s cool. Much cooler than the Rockstar SG’s.

New Super and Vibro Champ XD amps that are hybrid Tube with digital effects. Seems cool, but if you end up doing digital effects aren’t you killing why you have tubes to begin with? Plus, they say “tube powered” does that mean they use tubes in the power stage only and not part of the tone stack? I’m sure tube purists everywhere have made their decisions…

I see a new Mexican Telecaster called the Blackout Tele. A Standard Mexican Telecaster with maple neck, dressed in black with a three-layer black pickguard and 6-saddle bridge. Has a third chrome “lipstick” style pickup between the neck and bridge. Seems pretty unique and really sharp. I may need to try one of these to see what interesting sounds come with the extra pickup. The Power Teles have the extra single-coil, so maybe they sound like that.

If you haven’t signed up for Frontliine in Home– you should if you’re into Fender products. Click Here to find the signup page.

B-Sides in the Bins #18 – Cedar Rapids 11/07

I made a couple of trips to HalfPriceBooks this month. One trip was because I had a 50% off One Item coupon and the second trip was because I had a bunch of books to sell. Nothing crazy rare, but some collection builders.

What I bought:

Hard Promises – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (LP, Backstreet BSR-5160, 1981) ($2.99) This was with the 50% coupon. I got the incredible “Running Down A Dream” documentary DVD/CD set for my birthday in October and it got me thinking I should try to get more Tom Petty vinyl. My daughter bought me Southern Accents last year for one of the gift-giving holidays so I already had a start. There were copies of Damn the Torpedos in the bin, too, but this was in better condition than those. This is the second of the three albums produced by Jimmy Iovine starting with Torpedos and ending with Long After Dark. A pretty good album that shows Petty at the peak of his 80’s game. Of course, “The Waiting” is still a classic, but other standout tracks are “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)” and “Insider.” “Insider” is a duet with Stevie Nicks and one of my favorite songs from Petty’s catalog. I especially like the live version on Pack Up the Plantation.

Go Insane – Lindsey Buckingham (LP, Elektra E1-60363, 1984) ($1.00) Unfortunately, this is a Columbia House repressing, but it is really clean and for a buck I can’t complain. It is missing the record sleeve (I think). It has a plain white sleeve. I would have expected other artwork or something. Go Insane was Lindsey’s second solo release. This record was met with mixed reviews due to it’s odd use of sampled sounds like splashes and metal clangs. When Fleetwood Mac reconvened for 1987’s Tango In The Night, Buckingham produced the record and gave it the same sampled textures. When this record came out I listened to it a lot on my Walkman I remember. My family was and are still big fans of Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham so when this record came out we bought it right away and it became part of family trips in the car stereo. The finale track– a celtic “D.W. Suite” is a tribute to the late Beach Boys drummer and vocalist Dennis Wilson. There is a sample of Ed Sullivan saying “Ladies and Gentlemen– The Beach Boys!” in it.

Gold – Ryan Adams (CD, Lost Highway P2 70256, 2001) ($5.98) Another one for the Ryan Adams collection. There isn’t much more I can add to what’s been said about Gold. It is probably the most consistent record in Adams’s catalog and likely most accessible. Brilliant and classic tracks like “New York, New York,” “Answering Bell,” “La Cienega Just Smiled,” “Rescue Blues,” and “When the Stars Go Blue” anchor the album and show Adams at the top of his songwriting.

Lyrics Born Live in Minneapolis 10/25/07

Lyrics Born on Stage

As kind of a belated-birthday present to me, Sherry and I went to Minneapolis to see Lyrics Born live at The Foundation. It was almost a year to the date from last year’s show. This show was pretty much halfway through the Auto Reverse Tour. One pleasant difference from last year’s show was that the temperature was much milder so hanging outside waiting for the venue to open wasn’t as bad.

The Foundation made some changes since last year’s show. They added a stage and DJ Booth opposite of where the band performed. This stage took up a lot of the old dance floor. I guess that where the band was set up isn’t really a stage. You can see in some of the pictures below that the band is pretty much at the same level as the crowd who is behind a metal fence. As much as I like to see acts at the Foundation, it’s a bit odd and difficult to get a good view of the band without being up against the barrier. We learned something from last year’s show– order bottle service! This gives you a dedicated place to sit and you have a guaranteed waitress. Bottle service for hard liquor is a lot more expensive than wine– which is what we ordered. We got a Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz, which happily was pretty good and is available cheaply at our favorite grocery store. The waitress sat us up on the stage opposite the band on a plush leather couch all by ourselves. The VIP area and access to this stage were roped off, so we were only sharing the area with the VIP folks and some other photographers.

LB and P-Dub

There was no opening act, so the Foundation DJ who plays most of the Saturday shows (I guess) spun a really nice set of hiphop, triphop, Quannum/Solesides and some 80’s r&b. A nice set that was a crowd pleaser and a good warm-up to LB and Crew. While that was going on, I got to meet Justin Berger who currently manages Lyrics Born’s website and MySpace page in addition to documenting the tour in progress by videotaping and creating the LBTV content. Justin is a really cool guy and hung out with us on the “stage” filming the whole show with a mini-DV cam.

Joyo Velarde

The show was in a lot of respects very similar to last year’s show and the same as the Overnite Encore CD. The band lineup was different from last time– The ever-present Joy was still there, as well as Uber-funker Uriah Duffy on bass and B’Nai Rebelfront on guitars. Mike Blankenship (aka Cap’n Patches according to on LBTV episode) replaced Kat Ounao on keys and P-Dub replaced Darius Minaee. This band was just as tight as last year’s lineup.

Uriah Duffy wows the girls in the front row.

Ultimately, I thought the show was great– the interplay between Joy and LB is great and a real crowd-pleaser especially during the “Love Me So Bad” duet. Uriah Duffy provides some great showmanship during his bass solos. The new songs that we heard from this show– “2 Hott 2 Cold” and “Hot 2 Deff”– both fit in with the older songs. The songs from Later That Day at this point are considered “classics” after having been toured constantly since the album’s release in 2003. I was pleased to hear th e new tracks brought out as it gave us some different moments in the show. Some of the “skits” were the same as last time and the album like the crowd teaser before “Callin’ Out” where LB threatens to go home. He does it well and gets the crowd going, but I hope to see some different stuff next time. I’m sure that Lyrics Born is already thinking about how he’s going to tour after the new album drops in March of ’08. The move from a samples and turntables show to a live band show was a huge deal at the time and I really think takes his show to the next level performance-wise. I hope he continues with this idea into the next tour.

I thought a really nice shoutout/props to Minneapolis was that during one of the early songs in the set (maybe “Stop Complaining?”) the band broke it down and they all started doing “The Bird” popularized by Prince proteges Morris Day and the Time seen in the movie “Purple Rain.” Very cool, although I don’t know how many people in the audience were old enough to remember The Time!

LB and Joy during

Here is the setlist from this show:

1. Hello
2. Shake It Off
3. I Like It, I Love It
4. Stop Complaining / Jam
5. Aim for the Flickering Flame
CAN YOU FEEL It (intro into pack up remix)
6. Pack Up Remix / Rich Boy (2nd verse had a Rich Boy sample added in to the song)
7. Knock Knock
8. 2 Hott 2 Cold *new song
9. Hot 2 Deff *new song
BAND INTROS
10. Callin’ Out
11. I Changed My Mind
12. Bad Dreams
13. Love Me So Bad
14. Do That There

Visit Lyrics Born’s MySpace Page to hear a live version of “Hot 2 Deff” with guest Chali 2na from the forthcoming Everywhere at Once dropping March 18, 2008 on Anti- Records.

Here is my flickr Photoset of the show with extra shots.

Here are pictures taken by BBGunBilly hosted on the Foundation website.

Don’t Sleep on This– Thrill Jockey Online Exclusives: Plum, Mega Massive Mix, and Prekop Book

As previously mentioned (here, here and here), Thrill Jockey has three items that any fan of the label needs in their collection– and they are mucho limited editions so you should jump on these while they are available. I checked, and as of today these are still available. I’m not going to tell you again!

Super Epic Thrill Jockey Mega Massive Mix by Trey Told ‘Em — This is a mega mix of almost all of the Thrill Jockey artists and is available to anyone who went to either of the 15th Anniversary shows in London on November 12th or coming up in Chicago on December 14th. However, they aren’t denying this to folks who can’t make it to either show so for a limited time you can order this directly from Thrill Jockey. Trey Told ‘Em is a project of Gregg Gillis aka blog-darlings Girl Talk and Frank Musarra from Hearts of Darkness. At $12 this is a deal! I’m sure it will be worth 5x that on eBay later. Available as a pre-order. Will ship after 12/18 following the Chicago show.

Plum 7 Inches Box Set — This is a set of ten 7″ singles of Thrill Jockey artists covering each other. These are 180mg records. Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Califone, Howe Gelb, Zincs, Pullman Pit Er Pat, David Byrne, Mouse on Mars, and the list goes on. Will not be available as a download or on CD. Available as a pre-order. Will ship after 12/4.

If you pre-order these together you get a $2 discount on the order. However, it will hold the shipment until 12/18 when the Mega Mix is released.

“Photographs” book by Sam Prekop – As mentioned earlier, this is a book of black and white photographs by Sam Prekop that he has had in exhibits. Nice hardback book published by Presspop Gallery and is available from Thrill Jockey mailorder. This book comes with a CD of instrumentals by Prekop that are inspired by the pictures. I ordered this one separate from the Box set and megamix last week so I have it. The CD is relatively short (20 minutes) and is comprised of mellow electronic music. Good stuff.

BTW: I am going to the Chicago Anniversary show. Apparently in addition to the surprise guests, there will be some “Rare Merchandise” available. I can see this is going to be an expensive trip! Maybe I can get TNT on vinyl for less than 50 freakin’ dollars!

“I’m Not There” Concert Streaming at Wolfgang’s Vault

The curious biopic of Bob Dylan “I’m Not There” has spawned an incredible soundtrack packed with interpretations of Dylan’s catalog by an all-star lineup– one of the great releases of 2007. On November 7th, a number of the artists who performed on the album including Calexico, Joe Henry, Mark Lanegan, My Morning Jacket and others participated in a concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. One of the sponsors of the show was Wolfgang’s Vault who is hosting a streaming version of the show. You need to sign up for the site to listen, but it costs nothing other than some infrequent spam. While you’re there listen to some of the other shows. They are adding content all the time.

Wolfgang’s Vault is notable as the holder of the rights to the classic syndicated radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour as well as a vast collection of shows Bill Graham (aka Wolfgang) recorded at the Fillmores East and West. These shows are free to listen to from the Wolfgang’s Vault and some of them are available for purchase and download.

I sent the Vault an e-mail to see if this show will be available for purchase. I sure hope so! It is a great show. Calexico is on hand doing their instrumental “Billy (Main Theme)” which was an iTunes bonus track. Joe Henry performs with Calexico on “Senior” which was sung by Willie Nelson on the album. Calexico also does a great job backing Mark Lanegan on “Man in the Long Black Coat.

PERFORMERS (in order of appearance):
Marcus Carl Franklin
Calexico
Jim James
Joe Henry
Mark Lanegan
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Mira Billotte with Lee Ranaldo
The Million Dollar Bashers
Gomez
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks
Terry Adams
Yo La Tengo and Friends
My Morning Jacket
Mason Jennings
John Doe
Jimmy LaFave
Tift Merritt
Lee Ranaldo
J Mascis
The Roots

Click Here to visit the “I’m Not There” Concert at Wolfgang’s Vault.

Upcoming Show: Thrill Jockey 15-Year Anniversary Show in Chicago 12/14 and 12/15

Thrill Jockey 15 Poster Per the fine folks at Pitchfork, Thrill Jockey, The Empty Bottle, and Time Out Chicago have announced the details of the US version of the Thrill Jockey Birthday Bash in the UK on November 11th and 12th.

$50 will get partygoers two nights of Thrill Jockey Post-Fun at the Logan Square Auditorium on Friday, December 14th and Saturday, December 15th. The shows will include long-time label acts including Eleventh Dream Day, Brokeback, The Sea and Cake, Califone, Trans Am, Freakwater as well as newer acts School of Language, Thalia Zedek, Frequency, Archer Prewitt, Pit Er Pat and others.

Suspiciously missing from the roster is Tortoise, but maybe the promise of “guaranteed surprises” will get us some kind of appearance.

The sequence of the acts is unknown– so we don’t know which night a particular band might play, and as such the $50 gets you both nights. A deal anyway you look at it, really. Especially when you consider that you will be getting the very cool and very rare Super Epic Thrill Jockey Mega Massive Mix done by Girl Talk side project Trey Told ‘Em. 70-minutes of mashed Thrill Jockey.

According to the PF article, the mix will be available in very limited quantities through Thrill Jockey or Trey Told ‘Em’s online orders.

The PF article also gave us the official name for Thrill 200Plum. Available 12/4 in the US and 12/3 in the UK.

Click Here to download the Trans Am excerpt from the Super Epic, etc. (hosted by Timeout Chicago).

Visit the Trey Told ‘Em MySpace Page to hear the very cool over-seven-minute Tortoise Mix!

B-Sides in the Bins #17 – Chicago 10/29/07

After the Minneapolis trip where Sherry and I saw Lyrics Born, we drove to Chicago so she could attend a class related to her aesthetician profession. While she was in class on Monday I decided to visit some record stores in the area around Lincoln Avenue.

Laurie's Planet of Sound

The first record store I hit was Laurie’s Planet of Sound (4639 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago). Laurie’s is located in the area known as “Lincoln Square” which is a neat little shop area. They opened at 10AM so they were the first place I hit.

In this area parking on the main streets are $.25 per hour with a 1-hour minimum. Either bring your quarters or park on a side street where the parking– albeit rare– is free. According to the guys in the store you could park for free under the El Train tracks, too. I managed to find a meter with an hour and a half still in it.

The store is pretty typical record store in appearance– bins, posters, table-style CD racks. The store sells both new and used records and CD’s as well as DVDs and video cassettes. The CD racks are at the front of the store and are organized by artist name as expected. The used CD’s are interspersed with the new CD’s. The used CD’s are in thin cards that hold the cover art of the CD. The jewel cases are behind the counter. Most of the used CD’s are bunched together in their general areas. The recent arrivals are in the first row and are easy to find. This is pretty convenient and similar to the racks organized by day that Cheapo’s in the Twin Cities does. So, if you are a regular, you might only need to visit that section. The last set of CD racks are the $2.99-and-up clearance CD’s. These are CD’s that they want to get rid of for various reasons and are clearance priced. This might be because the CD’s are slightly blemished or maybe it is a promo title. I picked up my Michael Brook CD from this section. Below some of the CD racks are the dollar bins. This is kind of a grab-bag of titles that the store is looking to dump. I picked up a couple of CD’s out of these bins. I saw some gems in there that I already had, too. Most of it is questionable, but there are a lot of promotional items in there, too.

The vinyl section is at the back of the store and there are two tables of new vinyl– priced fairly. Behind that is the used section with a “recent arrivals” section like the CD section does.

I found the store staff to be friendly, conversational and generally very helpful. I plan to come back.

What I bought:

Heard It On The X – Los Super 7 (CD, Telarc CD-83623, 2005)($6.99) This is the third of this series. The first self-titled Los Super Seven album on RCA was “hosted” by Los Lobos as the band as a tribute to Border Radio songs of the Tex-Mex variety. Heard It On The X has Calexico playing a similar role with some of the same performers including Freddy Fender, Rick Tervino, and Ruben Ramos from the first session. This CD adds Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt, Raul Mao, Rodney Crowell, Joe Ely and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. This CD features the Doug Sahm classic “The Song of Everything” which I heard Calexico do with members of Oakley Hall in Iowa City. One to add to my expanding Calexico collection.

What’s Wrong With This Picture? – Van Morrison (CD, Blue Note 90167, 2003) ($6.99) On the drive into Chicago XRT played one of Van Morrison’s new albums and Sherry commented that she liked this mellow jazzy version of Van the Man. So, when I ran across this used, I thought I’d pick it up. Very decent CD. I’ll be ripping this one for the in-home mp3 server. I think that Van Morrison on Blue Note is a pretty classy combination. I hope he’s able to continue down this path.

RockPaperScissors – Michael Brook (CD, Canadian Rational CRBHE002, 2006)($2.99) This one was a SCORE! I found this in the $2.99 and up bins in the back. It was still sealed. I didn’t even know that Michael Brook had a new CD. I used to listen to his 1992 release Cobalt Blue all the time. I originally found out about Brook because I was heavily into artists on 4AD (Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Xymox, Throwing Muses, Lush). Brook is mostly an ambient instrumental artist and really a guitarist. He toured with David Sylvian and Robert Fripp as a supporting musician. As I was looking into his career while writing this up, I found out that he was the composer and performer for the film “An Inconvenient Truth!” He has a companion album to this one called BellCurve that is only available through Barnes & Noble. Includes 4AD labelmate Lisa Germano as well as the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on vocals. Recommended if you like Brian Eno’s ambient work, Robert Fripp’s ambient work, Daniel Lanois’ ambient work, and hate global warming.

The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder? – Fatboy Slim (CD-R, Astralwerks Promo, 2006)($2.99) This was a CD-R promo for this album which is probably the only thing anyone needs to own from the frequently spotty album releases from Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim. I bought his first album Better Living Through Chemistry because of the breakout track “Rockafeller Skank” in 1997. I also bought the follow on You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby in 1998. Thanks to “Praise You” everyone heard waaay too much of Mr. Slim. I pretty much avoided the next couple of albums as he was sounding a lot like he was imitating Moby and the Chemical Brothers. This collection has all of the tracks anyone cares about or likely will care about. This CD adds two more collaborations with Lateef the Truth Speaker bringing the total to three– “Wonderful Night” (used in a Target commercial last Christmas), “Champion Sound” and the funky “That Old Pair of Jeans.” I wish Lateef would book some solo studio time. I love his collaborations, but he’s due for a solo rekkid. Lyrics Born is doing it and so is the Gift of Gab!

Happy Holidays from EMI Music Marketing – Various Artists (CD, EMI Promo, unknown year) ($1.99) Another score. This time from the bins on the floor. This is a 13-track Christmas compilation from EMI-related labels including Capitol and Blue Note. It came in a nifty metal tin box with gift wrapping graphics on stickers. Includes a lot of tracks I already have in other places, but I couldn’t pass this one up! Nat King Cole on “Christmas Song,” Deano Martin slurring “Silver Bells,” Frank on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Peggy Lee on “Winter Wonderland,” “Little Saint Nick” by the Beach Boys, Bing Crosby sans David Bowie on “The Little Drummer Boy,” a sultry “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by the Rev. Al Green. Includes an unnecessarily stiff reading of “Merry Xmas (War is Over) by the Vienna Boys Choir.

Oceans Apart – The Go-Betweens (CD, YepRock Promo for YEP-2105, 2005) ($1.99) Another one from the floor. A promo for the Oceans Apart album and conveniently includes the 6-tracks from the bonus CD appended to the back of the release. The Go-Betweens were one of those rare bands that transcended genre placement. They sprung onto the scene in the New Wave early 80’s and continued to record albums up until Grant McLennan’s unexpected passing in 2006. Oceans Apart was the critically acclaimed last formal release from the Go-Betweens. I managed to not follow their career, so when I saw this for 2 bones, I figured I’d pick it up. Upon first listen, it seems pretty decent. The bonus tracks are from a concert recorded in 2004 at the Barbican Concert Hall in London.

Radium – Railroad Earth (CD, RRE001 (self-released), 1995)($1.99) One from the floor bins… NOT the jamband Railroad Earth from New Jersey who is on SCIFidelity Records! I picked this up because I thought it might be related. It is not. This is a grunge-y band from the Wilmington, NC area. For some reason there are resellers on GEMM who have this listed for a lot of money ($35?!?!). I suppose being a self-released CD from a fledgling band from NC it is pretty rare. I will probably stick this out on eBay to see what happens. Overall not a bad CD, really. Just kind of dated.

Everybody – Sea and Cake (LP, Thrill Jockey thrill 186, 2007) ($11.99) I finally broke down and bought this on vinyl. I had been debating this, but since TJ vinyl goes up in price as titles go out of print I figured I’d snag one. Very heavy vinyl– possibly 180g? Includes a 16-page booklet of what appears to be lyrics and charts and other scribblings and notes done on graph paper. This is one of my favorite releases from 2007, and I never get tired of listening to it. Their best release so far.

Between the Incident and the Event – Adam Fitz (CD, Is What You Make iwym 001, 2007)($0) Adam Fitz is one of the employees at Laurie’s. He was working while I was there. We talked about a lot of stuff music-related while I was shopping and I mentioned my blog. He asked me if I’d review his CD. I’ve given it a quick listen– not enough for a full-review– a couple of standout tracks. Decent production. He said it was singer/songwriter, which I guess it technically is, but it seems a bit more eclectic (for lack of a better word) than I would define singer/songwriter. Soulful like Adam Durvitz on a good day. Is not like Jackson Browne or James Taylor. Stay tuned for a real review.

What I didn’t Buy:

A whole bunch of Neil Young vinyl.

I asked the guys from Laurie’s what record store I should hit next and they suggested I try Deadwax which is also on Lincoln (3819 N Lincoln Ave). Unfortunately when I got there it was closed. They are closed on Mondays. Instead, I hit Hard Boiled Records in Roscoe Village.

Hard Boiled Records

Hard Boiled Records (2010 W. Roscoe, Chicago) is not on the corner of Lincoln and Roscoe as Google Maps would have you believe– it’s in the middle of the block. With the trees in full foliage you might miss it. It is next to a bicycle store. I figured out the secret to free parking– park on a side street (duh). After a dozen laps around Roscoe Village, I found a spot. A nice little store, limited inventory, but very selectively chosen it appears. Much more esoteric than Laurie’s is. In fact, much more esoteric than any record store I’ve seen that didn’t specialize in a genre. Mark Ferguson, the owner, seems to have quite a few musical tastes in common with me, which makes this kind of a dangerous store. I’m looking for Thrill Jockey stuff and he had some. He also had a great selection of Post-Rock related titles. Mark was celebrating 11 years in business with an 11% off sale, which was cool. One thing I thought was interesting was his approach with me as soon as I came in. He asked me directly what I was looking for– a bold move if the customer wants to browse without being hassled. I told him I was looking for Thrill Jockey on vinyl. So, he came out and pulled everything he had– which he was admittedly low on at the moment, but we started talking about the bands on Thrill Jockey and he made some other recommendations and also started playing some CD’s that were from local acts that he knew where similar to the Thrill Jockey sound. Very cool. If I had hit this store before Laurie’s I might have had to stop shopping for the day! Mark has a really good selection of underground Hip-Hop and Electronica as well. According to online reviews, he has one of the best import film selections around as well.

What I bought:

Hoshi No Koe – Nobukazu Takemura (LP, Thrill Jockey thrill 094, 2001)($9.99) Nobukazu Takemura is an renowned electronic musician and a mainstay on the Thrill Jockey. I’ve never really dug into his catalog, so I thought I’d start with this. Amazingly, still in print.

2 – KTL (2 LP, Thrill Jockey thrill 188, 2007)($19.99) Very out-of-print– limited to 1500 copies with intricate sleeve art. 180g vinyl. Thrill Jockey only released the vinyl and mp3 versions of this album. The compact disc release is under the Editions Mego label. KTL is a collaboration between Death Metal SUNN O))) member Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg. Very very dark ambient electronic music.

Stopsmiling Issue 31 : Ode To The South ($5.95) Stopsmiling is a magazine I hadn’t heard of before this trip. Very lushly printed vivid color and nice paper. Pretty much a literary arts magazine. This issue had a tribute to the Stax Records 50th Anniversary. So there were articles on the history of the label and some of the artists on the label including a lengthy one which had excerpts of a larger interview used in the “Respect Yourself” documentary. I’m bummed to find out that this issue should have had a 10-track sampler of Stax artists with it. It looks like for $8 I can get a back issue that includes that disc.

Stopsmiling Issue 26 : The U.K. Issue ($5.95) This one I bought because it came with an exclusive Thrill Jockey sampler of eight Thrill Jockey artists covering or reinterpreting a British standard “Underneath the Arches.” Pretty cool. I think the standout versions are from Sam Prekop and Howe Gelb.

It seems like almost every issue of Stopsmiling comes with a bonus something-or-other. There are usually multiple covers available as well.

What I Didn’t Buy:

Shaolin Series “C.R.E.A.M” b/w “Glaciers of Ice” – El Michels Affair (7″ TS008, 2007) Okay, I’m *really* stupid for not buying this!!!! Sigh. This is tasty funk ala the Meters or Booker T and the MG’s covering Wu Tang Clan tracks. This is the first release of two releases. These guys toured behind Raekwon, adding old school live instrumentals to his show. Mark? Do you still have this one?? Hello?
So, at the end of the day, it was a successful run even though I only hit two stores. I came back with some interesting stuff including things to read, which always makes me happy.

I was talking with Mark from Hard Boiled about how surprising it is that there are so many record stores in a small geography. He said that is by design, really. The best way to do business is to compete, and to compete you need to be where the business is– namely around other stores. He said that if you can’t compete you shouldn’t be in business. He said that his old location in Hyde Park didn’t do very well and that forced him to move. I guess I’d never though about how the economics of record retail work. It always just seemed to me that a record store needed to bring value beyond what a Big Box retailer did or provide more service than the Internet can in having a personal expert on hand.

When I look at the varied shopping experience I got just from two stores not even five miles from each other. It really seems that neither of these store are redundant– they both serve different purposes and sometimes different shoppers.

Make sure to visit these store and others in this area if you happen to be in this area. These stores are what independent retail is about.

iTunes Version of Dylan Biopic Soundtrack Includes Bonus Tracks: Joe Henry, Calexico

As reported on The Playlist who has been watching the developments on this soundtrack closely– the iTunes version of the I’m Not There : Original Soundtrack includes three bonus tracks. The three bonus tracks are Calexico doing the instrumental “Title Theme (Billy),” Joe Henry does “One Too Many Mornings,” and Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo do “What Kind of Friend Is This.” The Calexico song is from the soundtrack to the Dylan film “Pat Garett and Billy the Kid” and “What Kind of Friend Is This” is an outtake from “Eat the Document.”

Bob Dylan - I'm Not There (Music from the Motion Picture) [Bonus Track Version] Click Here to Get the iTunes version of the Soundtrack