Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes


selected pre-orders from our friends at SoundStageDirect

MTV Unplugged, 1991 (Pre-Order) by R.E.M.

R.E.M. Unplugged, 1991 shares the band's set for MTV's "MTV Unplugged" acoustic performance. The release draws largely from 1991's Out of Time and five albums in total, as well as a cover of the Troggs' "Love Is All Around".

R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.

Pre-Order at SoundStageDirect



Onslaught VI - (Pre-Order) by Onslaught

Initially active from 1983 to 1991, Onslaught reformed in 2004. The band initially drew influence from second wave punk rock bands such as Discharge and The Exploited, and then adopted a straight forward thrash metal sound. To date, Onslaught have released five studio albums, one compilation, four singles and two live recordings: a live album and a DVD. Sixth studio album by the UK‑based Thrash Metal Legends! Mixed & mastered by Thomas ‘Plec’ Johansson (Tiamat, Scar Symmetry) at the award winning ‘Panic Room’ studios Sweden. Onslaught have been on tour with bands like Anthrax, Motorhead, and Annihilator.

On Military Green Vinyl

Pre-Order at SoundStageDirect



Bulletproof Picasso (Pre-Order) by Train

Three-time Grammy®-winning band Train will release their much anticipated 7th studio album, Bulletproof Picasso, on September 16th. Train has sold more than ten million albums worldwide, thirty million tracks worldwide, with numerous platinum/gold citations on their mantle, 3 Grammy® Awards, 2 Billboard Music Awards and dozens of other honors and nominations.

The album’s first single, “Angel In Blue Jeans,” has soared to the Top 15 of Triple A and Adult Top 40 radio in only a month, joining the band’s successful arsenal of other radio-embraced singles throughout their two-decade career.  Other songs on the new album include the combustible title track, “Bulletproof Picasso,” “Cadillac, Cadillac,” “Just A Memory,” “Give It All,” and “The Bridge,” among others.

Pre-Order at SoundStageDirect


This Week's Bestselling Vinyl Records at SoundStageDirect

1. A Picture of Nectar (Deluxe Vinyl) (Pre-Order) - Phish
2. Led Zeppelin IV (Deluxe Edition) (On Sale) (Pre-Order) - Led Zeppelin
3. Led Zeppelin IV (On Sale) (Pre-Order) - Led Zeppelin
4. Houses Of The Holy (Deluxe Edition) (On Sale) (Pre-Order) - Led Zeppelin
5. Houses Of The Holy (On Sale) (Pre-Order) - Led Zeppelin
6. Feels Like The First Time (On Sale) - Nirvana
7. Led Zeppelin IV (Super Deluxe Edition Box) (On Sale) (Pre-Order) - Led Zeppelin
8. Houses Of The Holy (Super Deluxe Edition Box) (On Sale) - Led Zeppelin

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classic vinyl available from our friends at Sundazed

The Byrds - The Columbia Singles '65-'67 2-LP Set 

When “Mr. Tambourine Man” first rumbled out of car radio speakers in 1965, it was a pivotal moment in pop history. With its jangling 12-string and epic sweep, it was the dawn of a new day: the birth of folk-rock. And the Byrds were just getting started. The next two years saw one hit after another, from the Biblical prophesies of “Turn, Turn, Turn” to the raga-rock of “Eight Miles High,” from the exotic orchestration of “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” to the Byrds bringing it all back home with “My Back Pages.” Here they are again, 30 landmark recordings in their perfectly constructed, radio-friendly mono mixes: the forgotten rarities, withdrawn singles and, of course, all the original A and B-sides. No one has ever had a stronger run of singles than did the Byrds in their prime. No one.

Order at Sundazed



Canned Heat - Canned Heat MONO Edition LP

Of all the American rock bands that embraced the blues in the 1960s, none took their musical mission more seriously than Canned Heat. The California quintet, led by vocalists Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite and featuring the brilliant guitarist Henry Vestine, combined fiery instrumental chops with a vast knowledge of blues history. Canned Heat quickly carved out a unique niche in that heady era, making high-profile appearances at Woodstock and other notable rock festivals, and managing to break into the pop singles charts without diluting their sound.

Canned Heat’s eponymous 1967 debut LP, released shortly after their attention-getting performance at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, introduced the band’s audacious synthesis of blues tradition and electrified boogie. The 11-song album features raw, fiercely soulful interpretations of material by such blues masters as Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson, powered by Wilson and Hite’s contrasting vocal styles and Vestine’s explosive fretwork. The result is one of the most distinctive and dynamic blues-rock recordings of the ’60s, and the album that launched Canned Heat’s five-decade musical journey.

This new vinyl edition of this landmark debut effort has been sourced from the original mono masters and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and features a meticulous reproduction of the LP’s original cover art.

Order at Sundazed

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Hail to the King - Avenged Sevenfold 

Hail to the King is their sixth studio album and was released on August 23, 2013 in New Zealand and Australia, and was released on iTunes on August 27, 2013 and in North America on the same day. The album was produced by Mike Elizondo. This marks the first album with new drummer Arin Ilejay, who joined the band as a touring drummer in 2011 before becoming an official member in 2013. This is also the first Avenged Sevenfold album without any musical contributions from the band's late drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan.

The album was a commercial and critical success, reaching #1 on the Billboard 200.

2-LP set in a gatefold jacket featuring an alternative cover artwork designed by artist Cam Rackam.

Order at BecauseSoundMatters

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The Stereo State - Crossing Canyons 10"

The East Coast's most genuine and promising punk rock band is back with an EP's worth of their best material to date! Produced and engineered by Jay Mass (No Trigger, Defeater), "Crossing Canyons" features 6 brand new tracks of the melodic and heartfelt punk goodness that fans of the band have come to know and love. THE STEREO STATE have truly continued to progress and evolve as a group of best friends and musicians, and that chemistry surfaces on "Crossing Canyons" like never before. Get stoked, you'll be singing along in no time.

(Red and Yellow w/ Orange Splatter)

Order HERE

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The Ruby Suns- The Ruby Suns Album Bundle

A bundle collecting all 3 Sub Pop-released Ruby Suns albums. These include Sea Lion, Fight Softy, and Christopher. When purchasing all 3 albums together in this bundle, you save off the price of ordering each individually!

Order at SubPop




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About A Girl - Winter Gloves

Winter Gloves began as one guy’s way of figuring out how to plug himself into life in the big city. It was a single microphone and minimal equipment gathered into Charles F’s downtown Montreal apartment to piece together all the distances he’d covered since growing up in rural Quebec. The jarring shift of such a transition seemed to peek through every chance it could, a constant inspiration as much as frustration that was drafted in the band’s self-released Let Me Drive EP of mainly demo tracks.

Today, Winter Gloves is Charles F (lead singer/songwriter/wurlitzer), Pat Sayers (drums), Vincent Chalifour (synth) and Jean-Michel Pigeon (guitar/glockenspiel). With only a handful of live shows behind them at the beginning of the 2008, Winter Gloves was already receiving invitations to join bands like Tokyo Police Club on a series of sold-out tour dates. Such well-attended shows helped spread what was becoming the wildfire of the earlier EP demo tracks that spiked on top 10 lists with record downloads after being made available on iTunes, and lead to top pick coverage at both major annual music festivals in Canada, Canadian Music Week and NXNE.

After the Canadian release of the band’s full length in the Fall of 2008, the band continued on the same foot as things had started with dates alongside Tokyo Police Club and a slot at Toronto’s Virgin Festival before hitting the road across Canada with Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! and Quebec’s Beast. Reactions to the album and these shows immediately secured showcase opportunities at International conferences, invitations for further touring and secured spots on “Best of 2008” yearend lists including “Best New Artist” from iTunes Canada.

The about a girl LP is ten songs driven by the sounds of keyboards and drums, all wrapped up in a constant buzz of bass and gritty synths. Pitchfork Media premiered the band’s recently completed video for the album’s leadoff track, “Let Me Drive”, which received an incredible 11,000 views in its first week of online posting as people tried to figure out the method behind the flipbook madness of the video!

Order at PaperBagRecords

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from our friends at SlyVinyl


Taking Back Sunday / The Used – Split // Limited to 300 Black & Dark Blue Split 10″ Vinyl LP





Girlsondrugs – Washd // Limited to 100 Clear w/ Blue Haze & 150 Hot Pink 7″






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Oasis Detail Upcoming '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' Reissue











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Deadbeat Launches Fundraiser to Reissue Out-of-Print Albums as 6LP Box Set







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fantastic article, well worth the time to check out!


From User to Dealer: A Vinyl Junkie Goes Pro... Sort of




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The 25 Best Music Documentaries Streaming on Netflix






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we can ask why, but this is kinda cool:


Smoke Signals: A Collection of Famous Album Covers Painted on Empty Gitanes Cigarette Packs







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Amazon's Top Ten Best Selling Music

1. Eric Clapton & Friends - The Breeze (An Appreciation of JJ Cale)
2. Hypnotic Eye ~ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
3. Essential ~ N-Sync
4. Mandatory Fun ~ Weird Al Yankovic
5. The Voyager ~ Jenny Lewis
6. Led Zeppelin IV (Super Deluxe Edition) ~ Led Zeppelin
7. Houses Of The Holy (Super Deluxe Edition) (Pre-Order) ~ Led Zeppelin
8. CSNY 1974 (3 CD + DVD) ~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young
9. Venus and Mars (Deluxe Book) (Pre-Order) ~ Paul McCartney
10. Wings at the Speed of Sound (Deluxe Book) (Pre-Order) ~ Paul McCartney and Wings

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GRIMEY'S BEST SELLERS 7/21 - 7/27, 2014

Vinyl Top 25
1. Colony House - When I Was Younger
2. Widespread Panic - Space Wrangler
3. Jack White - Lazaretto
4. White Fence - For The Recently Found Innocent
5. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
6. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
7. Jason Isbell - Southeastern
8. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
9. Trampled By Turtles - Wild Animals
10. Mastodon - Once More Round The Sun
11. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
12. Various - Ghost Woman Blues
13. Ed Sheeran - X
14. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
15. Shovels & Rope - O Be Joyful
16. Madvillain - Madvillainy
17. Morrissey - World Peace Is None Of Your Business
18. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
19. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
20. Bleachers - Strange Desire
21. Rx Bandits - Gemini, Her Majesty
22. Duran Duran - Rio
23. Neil Young - A Letter Home
24. La Roux - Trouble In Paradise
25. Sam Cooke - Portrait Of A Legend