August 9, 2009

CD SALE!!! Stock up on these classic titles...

Agent Orange Living In Darkness REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Aphex Twin Drukqs REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Bad Religion Recipe for Hate REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Bad Religion Stranger Than Fiction REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Bjork Vespertine REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Black Sabbath Black Sabbath REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Black Sabbath Master of Reality REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Black Sabbath Paranoid REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Black Sabbath Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Black Sabbath Sabotage REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Black Sabbath Volume 4 REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Breeders, The Last Splash REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Built to Spill Keep it Like a Secret REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Built to Spill Perfect From Now On REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Circle Jerks Golden Shower of Hits REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Cure, The Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Cure, The Pornography REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Depeche Mode Some Great Reward REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Depeche Mode Music For the Masses REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Depeche Mode Violator REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Devo Q: Are We Not Men REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Dinosaur Jr. Ear-Bleeding Country REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Dinosaur Jr. Where You Been REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Echo and the Bunnymen Ocean Rain REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Echo and the Bunnymen Songs to Learn and Sing REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Fear The Record REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Flaming Lips Hit to Death In the Future REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Flaming Lips Soft Bulletin REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Flaming Lips Transmissions From the… REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Flaming Lips, The Zaireeka REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
Jesus and Mary Chain 21 Singles REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Joy Division Unknown Pleasures REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
Kinks, The Aurthur REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Kinks, The Lola Vs. Powerman… REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Kinks, The Village Green Preservation REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Love Best Of REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Love Forever Changes REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
MC5 Greatest Hits REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Melvins Houdini REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Misfits, The Walk Among Us REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Morrison, Van Astral Weeks REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Morrissey Best of Morrissey REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
My Bloody Valentine Loveless REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
My Bloody Valentine Isn't Anything REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
New Order The Best of New Order REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
New Order Singles (2CD) REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
New Order Substance REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
Pogues, The Hell's Ditch REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Pogues, The If I Should Fall From Grace REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Pogues, The Peace & Love REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Pogues, The Red Roses For Me REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Pogues, The Rum, Sodomy & the Lash REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Raconteurs, The Broken Boy Soldiers REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
Ramones Leave Home REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Ramones Road to Ruin REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Ramones Greatest Hits REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Ramones Ramones Mania REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
Ramones Hey! Ho! Let's Go! REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
Rancid Indestructible REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Replacements, The Tim REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Sex Pistols, The Nevermind the Bollocks REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Smiths, The Strangeways, Here We Come REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Smiths, The Hatful of Hollow REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Smiths, The Louder Than Bombs REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Smiths, The Meat Is Murder REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Smiths, The The Queen is Dead REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Smiths, The The Smiths REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Stooges, The The Stooges REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Talking Heads Fear of Music REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Talking Heads Little Creature REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Talking Heads Speaking In Tongues REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Talking Heads True Stories REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Talking Heads Talking Heads '77 REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Talking Heads The Best of REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Talking Heads Stop Making Sense REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
Talking Heads The Name of This Band… REG: 24.99 SALE: 17.99
Television Marquee Moon REG: 18.99 SALE: 11.99
The Kinks Something Else REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Velvet Underground Loaded REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Violent Femmes Violent Femmes REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Waits, Tom Closing Time REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
Waits, Tom Heart Of Saturday Night REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Waits, Tom On Heartattack and Vine REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Waits, Tom Small Change REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Ween Chocolate and Cheese REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
White Stripes, The The White Stripes REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
White Stripes, The Elephant REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
White Stripes, The Get Behind Me Satan REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
White Stripes, The White Blood Cells REG: 13.99 SALE: 10.99
X Under the Big Black Sun REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
X Wild Gift REG: 9.99 SALE: 6.99
X Los Angeles REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Comes a Time REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Harvest Moon REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Live Rust REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil On the Beach REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Rust Never Sleeps REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Tonight's the Night REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99
Young, Neil Unplugged REG: 11.99 SALE: 8.99

February 5, 2009

Customer Picks No. 3

This is Jake. We love him...

The Hold Steady, Stay Positive. Dudes have been awesome pretty much since jump and yet missing their shows always seems like a good idea at first ($28 at the Electric Factory?). This jawn makes me feel consistently stupid for doing so. Seriously, Craig Finn should get shot outside Hot 97 for spitting lyrics like these. They've always been conspicuously aware of their place in the rock matrix, making sure to give props to their forebears and influences, but on this album they've made steps toward diversification by incorporating punk rock into their world view. By repping HC dudes like Husker Du and 7 Seconds they're trying to move beyond all that "world's greatest bar-band" half-praise and demonstrate their full commitment to rocking people's faces off. In Finn's almost obsessive referencing of the past he's like a Midwestern Nas, minus the whole imaginary-drug-kingpin thing but with better beats. And solos! Sweet, sweet guitar solos arching heavenward to ball-tap Jesus. I don't think I'll ever get tired of listening to this. And hopefully they'll start a heavy "in '88 you was gettin' chased in your building" beef with with like Vampire Weekend or something.


EROC, EROC 1-4. Though not the harshest Krautrock releases, these are probably the strangest in terms of stylistic variety. Covers the distance between "Peking O" freakout stuff and the more deliberate, heavy keyboard Michael Rother post-NEU! stuff. All four of these albums rule so hard. They also have funny liner note pictures. And sometimes sound like a German Swell Maps. Really silly, unexpected and forehead-smacking. Accordion jams, reverb experiments, glass-breaking noises, uncomfortable orgasm noises, children singing... all awesome! The fourth album is the best album I got in all of 2008, especially the unholy quartet of songs coming in the middle of its second half; "Detleft Ist Weg", "Die Kinder Zeihen Fort", "Der Prophet" and "Sonntagsfahrt" gracefully transition from dorky proto-hip-hop to dorky big drum "Owner of a Lonely Heart"-kinda thing to the undisputed champion of minimalist funk to a tune perfect for a jaunty ride on the sun, respectively. Breathless! Seriously, "Der Prophet" is so smooth it's illegal. I heard some jerk on the train say that he had "the most diverse musical taste ever... from Carrie Underwood to Atreyu". These EROC albums were probably made to hospitalize that kid. Buy them!

Endless Boogie, Focus Level. Non-stop post-ZZ Top-rock. These guys are pretty old, which is cool, and rock on each riff for a really long time. Like Circle's extension of Priest/Motorhead biker-rock on Sunrise, dusty Billy Gibbons-isms are expanded to incredible lengths and effect. Probably the only record whose FFO recommendation lists both Mogwai and George Thorogood. But they're freaking zillions times better than each. Best part: "Gimme the Awesome". Song circles around amiably but with definite purpose until bursting out with great volume. One of the best builds since Electric Wizard's "Funeralopolis", which is totally crazy because that song is the greatest.

Kreator, Pleasure to Kill. This didn't get reissued this year or anything but I didn't get it until around October or so so I'll count it anyway. It basically puts together most of the coolest aspects of thrash and early black metal, so you can have the imprecise, wind-tunnel blastbeats and unearthly vocals of the black stuff but with the low end of thrash! Like if you could hear the bass on a Bathory record! Kreator rocks super hard. Playing "Under Pressure", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and the title cut from this album at the same time is a very worthwhile experience.

Om Shanti Om. Probably the funniest and funnest movie I've seen in the last seven months. If you don't know your Prem Chopra from your Johnny Lever most of the jokes won't really seem very funny but the film has such a chillin' attitude that it's easy to overlook the barrage of in-jokes and cameos. Plus, Shah Rukh Khan, the king of '90s Indian cinema, is back in action and ready to rock to a ridiculous extreme in this movie. The dude is ripped like Hulk Hogan's shirt. It's insane. Aaaaaand, the film features an incredible song called "Dard-E Disco", meaning "the pain of disco". Or maybe "the disco of pain". Either way it's the best. Somewhat like a slicker Lindstrom.

Steinski, What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006. Given that this is predominantly a samples and scratching record it could follow that his jams succeed or fail solely on than the sum of their parts. And since he's dropping in samples of super-sweet stuff like Rufus Thomas, Gilbert Gottfried, "Stop in the Name of Love" and, best of all, "Break Dance Electric Boogie" it's easy to get down with this jawn from a parts-to-whole standpoint. Yet when we engage this comp more holistically it totally holds up, qualitatively speaking. Like the best modern mash-up stuff, shit's got a really smooth internal flow, avoiding the feeling that he's just artlessly clumping samples, no matter how neat, into a piecemeal ball. I told my dad about this record and he said, "Oh, so it's like that Girl Talk guy?" Go my dad! The stuff on the first disc that Steinski rocked without Double D has a couple embarrassing moments, most notably a track with Chuck D that sounds like the trailer music for a late '90s rave movie. But the first tracks are so sweet that who cares?

February 2, 2009

RECORD STORE DAY




Celebrate RECORD STORE DAY on April 18th, 2009 with Repo Records.

Exclusive CDs, 7" singles, and posters...get 'em while they last...only on April 18th!

Including:

Matador Record Store Day Limited Edition Vinyl:

Pavement: Live in Germany [Cologne, 1997]

Pay No Mind 7"

A1: Sonic Youth: "Pay No Mind" (Beck cover)
B1: Beck: "Green Light" (Sonic Youth cover)

Hang Them All 7"

A1: Jay Reatard: "Hang Them All"
B1: Sonic Youth: "No Garage"