Thursday, March 11, 2010

Music News & Notes

4AD and Sub Pop Announce Record Store Day Releases Featuring Blonde Redhead, Gang Gang Dance, Dum Dum Girls and Soundgarden

Each year since 2008, music retailers have celebrated Record Store Day with special in-store performances and limited-edition releases from some of music's biggest names. This year, Record Store Day will fall on April 17, and it's shaping up to be a good one: we've already heard about Beach House's Zebra EP and Deerhoof's vinyl reissues.

Now, influential British label 4AD has jumped on board the Record Store Day bandwagon, announcing a new twelve-inch EP that compiles unheard songs from five artists on its roster. Entitled Fragments from a "Work in Progress, "it showcases unheard demos and teaser tracks from upcoming 4AD releases. This included new 4AD signings Ariel Pink and Gang Gang Dance, as well as Tune-Yards and the Big Pink.

Perhaps the most intriguing track on the EP is the Blonde Redhead demo "Not Getting There," which is the first recording the eclectic outfit ever made.

This compilation is only one of many releases the Seattle-based label is preparing for Record Store Day. Sub Pop will also be issuing:

* CocoRosie's "Lemonade" seven-inch, featuring a song from their upcoming album plus a cover of the Beach Boys' 1963 classic "Surfer Girl."

* The Album Leaf's There Is a Wind twelve-inch, brining together two new songs with two alternate takes of songs from this year's A Chorus of Storytellers.

* A split seven-inch with one song apiece from Dum Dum Girls and Male Bonding (both of whom will be playing at L.A.'s Origami Records).

* A seven-inch with two unreleased tracks by garage pop newcomers Happy Birthday.

* A reissue of Soundgarden's 1987 debut single "Hunted Down"/"Nothing to Say" on translucent orange vinyl.

Additionally, two vinyl 7" singles from the Peter Gabriel Scratch My Back project will be made available at retailers for Record Store Day on April 17. The first has Gabriel singing the Magnetic Field's Book of Love backed with Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Field's cover of Peter's Not One of Us. The second will have Peter's version of Bon Iver's Flume while Iver covers Gabriel's Come Talk to Me.

Perhaps the most intriguing of Sub Pop's Record Store Day releases is the live compilation Casual Nostalgia Fest. In 2008, the label celebrated its 20th anniversary with SP20, a festival in Seattle featuring performances from Sub Pop bands past and present. Casual Nostalgia Fest collects 19 songs taped live at the festival, including joints from Iron & Wine, Green River, Low, Flight of the Conchords, the Vaselines, Wolf Parade, and Blitzen Trapper. Proceeds from the CD go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Check the tracklist below.

Casual Nostalgia Fest:

01 Green River: "Leech"
02 Wolf Parade: "Fine Young Cannibals"
03 The Vaselines: "Dying for It"
04 Obits: "Run"
05 Les Thugs: "Dirty White Race"
06 Eric's Trip: "Smother"
07 Beachwood Sparks: "You Take the Gold"
08 Blitzen Trapper: "Furr"
09 Flight of the Conchords: "Carol Brown"
10 Iron & Wine: "Woman King"
11 Constantines: "Why I Didn't Like August '93"
12 Seaweed "Baggage"
13 Grand Archives: "Dig That Crazy Grave"
14 Low: "Silver Rider"
15 The Helio Sequence: "Lately"
16 Kinski: "The Wives of Artie Shaw"
17 Pissed Jeans: "Caught Licking Leather"
18 Mudhoney: "The Open Mind"
19 Comets on Fire: "Dogwood Rust"

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Braid To Reissue First Two Albums On Vinyl

The emo godfathers in Braid are finally getting the reissue treatment they deserve. Polyvinyl Records has just announced the April 13 reissue of Braid's first two albums on vinyl. The reissue campaign comes in celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the release of their 1995 debut, the 26 song Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five, whose song titles each start with a different letter of the alphabet. Braid's sophomore album, The Age of Octeen, as well as the posthumous two-volume odds-and-sods collection, Movie Music, will also be reissued. All of the releases will be available on black 180-gram vinyl as well as limited edition colored vinyl.

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Neu! Catalog Collected in Vinyl Box Set

Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger formed the Düsseldorf duo Neu! in 1971, after both musicians left Kraftwerk.

On May 10, Gronland will release a limited edition Neu! vinyl box set, offering a retrospective of the band's influential catalogue. The box includes all three of the duo's studio albums-- Neu!, Neu! 2, and Neu! '75-- as well as the previously unreleased LP Neu! '86, originally recorded in 1985 and 1986 and recently reworked by Rother, augmented by Rother and Dinger's most recent studio recordings. You'll also get Neu! '72, a previously unreleased 18-minute live maxi-single. There will also be a download code, so you'll get to listen to all this stuff on your morning commute.

A 36-page book includes Neu! photos from Anton Corbijn and Peter Lindbergh. And rounding out the package: A Neu! T-shirt and a stencil of the Neu! logo.

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Abcess LP and Cover Art

California's extreme death metal outfit, Abscess, have unleashed their latest spawn of punk infused metal, Dawn Of Inhumanity, in the US today, courtesy of Peaceville Records. Dawn Of Inhumanity is the band's sixth full-length studio album, since recording their first demos in 1994.

"Bursting through the boundaries of brutality, Abscess surpasses all previous efforts and presents a death metal masterpiece filled with insanity, violence, and mind blowing savagery," states Abscess drummer/vocalist, Chris Reifert.

Featuring former members of legendary bands Autopsy and Death, Abscess hail from Oakland California, joining together in 1994. They released their first studio album, Seminal Vampires And Maggot Men, in 1996.

Dawn Of Inhumanity was recorded at the famous Fantasy Studios, CA in October 2009, with experienced engineer Adam Munoz helping to produce this latest effort. The result is an unrivalled nightmare of raw experimental extremity. Including special guest vocal appearances by the Darkthrone duo, Nocturne Culto & Fenriz, this is twisted, dirty punk death without limits.

The cover art for Dawn Of Inhumanity was produced by top artist, Dennis Dread (Darkthrone, Autopsy), with booklet art courtesy of Abscess's own Chris Reifert (drums, vocals).

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Vintage vinyl sale to help library

The Friends of the Tippecanoe County Public Library will hold an LP record sale Saturday and Sunday at the downtown branch, 627 South St. More than 10,000 LPs, some dating to 1908, will be on sale. Many of the record albums come from the collection of the late Frank Arganbright, a former music columnist for the Journal & Courier.

The sale is the largest LP sale ever held at the library. There will be no advance sale.

Proceeds will go to the library.

THE HOURS
The LP sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday.

SALE HIGHLIGHTS
LPs are sorted in three categories: Rock 'n' roll, classical and "everything else," including big bands, jazz, children's music, and country and western. Many albums have been cleaned and placed in protective sleeves.

About 3,000 of the vinyl records are in mint condition. There are more than 1,000 rock 'n' roll albums, including many from the '60s. More than 3,000 classical records will be on sale. There also are about 1,000 45 rpm records and about 1,000 78 rpm albums.

Prices start at 50 cents. Most items are priced at $2 or less.

On Sunday, all records will be half-price.

SILENT AUCTION
On Saturday, a progressive silent auction will be held on selected records.

Noteworthy albums include an autographed Dizzy Gillespie LP, the first U.S. and first Capitol albums from the Beatles, and two rare Glenn Miller big band sets.

There also are two 78 rpm records of famous Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley from the 1910s.

Featured will be a Carnegie Hall Library Classical Music collection, which includes 150 LPs.

Sounds like a great time, if you live in the area, make a point of stopping by!