Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes


from our friends at SoundStageDirect

The Beatles 1962-1966 (Pre-Order) (On Sale) by The Beatles

Assembling a compilation of the Beatles is a difficult task, not only because they had an enormous number of hits, but also because singles didn't tell the full story; many of their album tracks were as important as the singles, if not more so. The double-album 1962-1966, commonly called The Red Album, does the job surprisingly well, hitting most of the group's major early hits and adding important album tracks like "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Drive My Car," "Norwegian Wood," and "In My Life." Naturally, there are many great songs missing from the 26-track 1962-1966, and perhaps it would have made more sense to include the Revolver cuts on its companion volume, 1967-1970, yet The Red Album captures the essence of the Beatles' pre-Sgt. Pepper records."

Pre-Order at SoundStageDirect



Don't Worry About Me by Joey Ramone

In the wake of the sad passing of Joey Ramone, Don't Worry About Me is the first posthumous release to come from his estate. Consisting of pop-punk anthems along the lines of '60s garage rock and very early punk, Don't Worry About Me is a sad reminder of how good Ramone really was. With a brilliant ear for melody, a songwriting skill based in simplicity, and the most unpretentious lyrics this side of Chubby Checker, Ramone didn't care about making groundbreaking music when he had mastered the art of pop-punk to a degree most of his disciples will never understand. "What a Wonderful World" and "1969" are excellent covers that do their source material justice, although Louis Armstrong probably never expected his torch song to be rocked out à la Sid Vicious' "My Way." But the two best tracks are "Searching for Something," his Beatlesque tribute to a girl, and "Mr. Punchy," a gorgeous pop song that features a guest appearance from the Damned's Captain Sensible. The anti-cancer anthem "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" is a heartbreaking stance on his condition that is pure punk rock all the way ("I want my life/I want my life/It really sucks/It really sucks") that only goes to show how even toward the end, he refused to give into sentimentality. Nothing new to see here, and that's a good thing, as Ramone's trademark whine never sounded so sincere as it did in his last studio recordings. - Bradley Torreano (All Music Guide)

Colored Vinyl Reissue Of The Out Of Print Debut Album From The Late, Legendary Joey Ramone

Order at SoundStageDirect


This Week's Bestselling Vinyl Records at SoundStageDirect

1. Led Zeppelin IV (On Sale)
2. Pink Floyd - The Endless River (Pre-Order) (On Sale)
3. Led Zeppelin IV (Deluxe Edition) (On Sale)
4. Allman Brothers Band - Brothers And Sisters
5. Houses Of The Holy (On Sale) (Awaiting Repress)
6. MFSL Original Master Record Sleeves (50)
7. Houses Of The Holy (Deluxe Edition) (On Sale) (Pre-Order)
8. Led Zeppelin III

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from our friends at Spacelab9

BREAKING BAD: Original Score From The Television Series VOL.2 DOUBLE LP – PRE-SALE BEGINS NOVEMBER 11th

The “BREAKING BAD (Original Score From The Television Series) Volume 2” double LP, featuring selections from across the series with a focus on the fifth and final season, will be available at fine retailers throughout North America on November 25, 2014, and in the U.K. and Europe on December 5, 2014.

Previously released as a limited edition double picture disc LP, SpaceLab9 will be giving this second half of the complete Breaking Bad score by composer Dave Porter the deluxe double LP vinyl treatment.

The “BREAKING BAD (Original Score From The Television Series) Volume 2” Deluxe Double LP package includes a full color gatefold jacket, two full color heavy stock inner bags and an 18” x 24” full color poster featuring exclusive variant art by artist Tom Whalen. The deluxe Double LP packaging features copious images from the epic series, right up to the unforgettable final scene of the final episode.

Record collectors and vinyl hounds will rejoice as “BREAKING BAD (Original Score From The Television Series) Volume 2” will be made available in two limited edition variants, “HAZMAT Yellow” vinyl and “CASH MONEY Green” vinyl. Both limited edition colored vinyl variants will be available while supplies last exclusively at SPACELAB9.COM.

Pre-sale begins on November 11, 2014.

Join the SL9 mailing list at SPACELAB9 to receive up-to-the-minute information on pre-sale start times and other news.

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Pre-Order José González New LP On Vinyl

VESTIGES & CLAWS OUT FEBRUARY 17TH, 2015

Mute is excited to announce the release of José González’s new record, Vestiges & Claws. The album, his first in seven years, is out on February 17, 2015 and was produced by González in his home as well as Svenska Grammofonstudion, both in Gothenburg, Sweden. It contains years’ worth of musical sketches that in other hands might naturally sprawl wildly in sound and style, but on Vestiges & Claws González has created a collection of songs that cohere just about perfectly, ensuring his position as one of the most important artists of his generation.

Pre-Order at Mute

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Andrew Liles 'Wanton wives, Monstrous Maindens & Wicked Witches' Available On Vinyl From DeathWaltz

Andrew Liles’ ‘Wanton Wives…’ follows on from where his ‘Maleficent Monster’ left off in June and also follows on from his recent Equestrian Vortex soundtrack 10″ on Death Waltz. This, the second LP of horror inspired nastiness in his series for Blackest Rainbow, features creeping giallo jazz with sultry spoken vocals, synth heavy monsters, cannibal lunacy, and a track called ‘Wild Boar’, wait until you hear that one. This is the sound of someone who has spent too many late nights watching any horror films they can get their hands on.

Legendary UK artist Graham Humphreys returns to create new art, this time featuring Liles bursting from his poor wives chest whilst she grasps a skull and a decapitated head of a voodoo priestess version of herself. She endures a lot…

ROTTING ZOMBIE BRAINS EDITION! 350 copies on 180 gram pink vinyl with red and green splatter from Blackest Rainbow records.

Order at DeathWaltzRecordingCompany


Blue Ruin 'Brooke Blair & Will Blair' Vinyl Pre-Order From DeathWaltz

Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin premiered at 2013 Cannes Film Festival to great critical acclaim and won the FIPRESCI Prize. It gained distribution and opened in the US to April 2014 to a great response from critics and audiences.

This revenge thriller focuses largely on the consequences of revenge, and the main act of revenge you expect will be the focus of the film happens early on and it spirals progressively into even darker and grim territory, dramatically enhanced by the score by brothers, Brooke and Will Blair. The relationship between composers and director has been long standing, having all known each other since they were kids, with Jeremy and the film’s Macon Blair, who plays lead protagonist Dwight, working on films for quite sometime. Macon, also happens to be the elder sibling to Brooke and Will. Brooke and Will composed music to most Jeremy’s previous work, and Macon also starred in some of this output.

Being so familiar with one another personally, Jeremy’s horror and 80s inspired early work, and his love of Carpenter’s music, the brothers settled a synth based score, which feels remarkably organic, and at times even almost classical. Minimal tones gliding through one another, with the tense and melancholic themes of the film, percussion seemed like it would detract from the tone of the film. However at times there is a slight percussion sound, which was created from a sample of Macon’s heartbeat, that was unexpectedly captured on set by his lavalier mic on set. Editor Julia Bloch sent them a short file, which was manipulated into a “drum”. It seemed appropriate to incorporate Dwights’ actual life force, his heartbeat into the score. The intensity of this picture is driven home through the power of this score.

Includes a download which features a selection of additional cues not included on the LP. LTD edition of only 250 with a rust splatter effect. Released on Blackest Rainbow records. Release December 28th 2014

Pre-Order at DeathWaltzRecordingCompany

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Pre-Order HIM 'The Diehard' Vinyl Bundle 

Features a collection of the four essential early HIM studio albums encompassing the group's trailblazing early catalog, on heavy weight 180 gram virgin Black vinyl, as well as the band's debut 1996 EP '666 Ways To Love: Prologue" on 180 gram heavy weight Black vinyl for the first time ever.

Includes an exclusive Heartagram Logo slipmat, and a USB drive with 37 bonus tracks, 80 tracks all together, all Re-Mastered.  Limited to 2000 units worldwide!

The End Records and The Omega Order is proud to announce an amazing FREE addition to the Diehard HIM Bundle! The first 1000 preorders will receive an additional 12"x12" poster of the boxset artwork, signed by all 5 members of HIM!

Release date: December 23 2014

Pre-Order at TheOmegaOrder

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Mariachi El Bronx ‘III’ Out Now!

The new album III from Mariachi El Bronx, the alter ego of acclaimed Los Angeles punk outfit The Bronx, is out today for download, on CD, or on day-glo orange vinyl! Not content to simply excel within the confines of the mariachi genre, they ditched the rulebook and dusted off old sequencers, synths, and an ARP. The ten striking songs that resulted fuse traditional melodies with modern ambience

Order HERE


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Pre-Order Drive-By Truckers 'English Oceans' 

On February 12th, 2014, we planned an intimate private 'dress rehearsal' show to premiere the songs from our brand new album "English Oceans" in front of a small live audience of friends. The plan was to film and record the performance for use in promoting the album. It turned out to be the day of an ice storm that essentially shut down the Southeast for a couple of days and the roads were unpassable from the combination of black ice and the South's lack of snow plows and ice related services. We played the album in its entirety and had a pretty swell time. This DVD contains the performance and is a pretty nifty document of that moment in time for our band.   We hope that you enjoy it. - Patterson Hood

PLEASE NOTE: These items are available for pre-order and will ship on or around November 14, 2014.

Pre-Oder HERE

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Rancid 'Let's Go 20th Anniversary' Vinyl LP

Epitaph Records is proud to present this deluxe 20th Anniversary edition of Rancid’s Let’s Go. Released on the cresting wave of second generation punk bands that brought the Offspring, and NOFX (alongside Green Day and Nirvana) to massive success, this LP is finally receiving the treatment it deserves, remastered and pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with beautiful heavy-stock embossed sleeves. This limited edition won’t be around for long (maybe in another 20 years?), so order now and enjoy!

Order at KingsRoadMerch


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The Decemberists 'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World' Vinyl Pre-Order

What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, is the Decemberists 7th album. It’s the band’s most varied and dynamic work, both musically and emotionally.

Since their last album, The King is Dead, which went to No.1 in the US, the band have contributed a song to the Hunger Games soundtrack and appeared in The Simpsons. Colin Meloy, the band’s frontman, has also been working on the Wildwood series – a narrative saga about two seventh-graders drawn into a hidden, magical forest, illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis.

Many songs on the new record represent the more personal side of Colin Meloy’s songwriting, a change from the strong narrative thrust that characterized much of the Decemberists’ work. “Writing books as this raw, fantastic narrator has been the outlet for that part of my brain,” he says. “Having a family, having kids, having this career, getting older—all of these things have made me look more inward. So some of these songs are among the more intimately personal songs I’ve ever written.”

Perhaps most notable is “12-17-12,” a song named for, and inspired by, the date that President Obama addressed the nation following the Newtown school shootings, and read the names of the victims. “I watched that speech and was hit by a sense of helplessness, but also the message of ‘Hold your family close.’” This bewildering, conflicted feeling came out in a phrase near the end of the song—“what a terrible world, what a beautiful world”—that gave the album its title.   Release Date: 19th January 2015 Formats: 2 x LP, CD, MP3 and Super Deluxe Box Set (details below)

All pre-orders will receive an instant download of ‘Make You Better’ in your my account area.

LIMITED-EDITION DELUXE BOX SET AVAILABLE

A deluxe package (pictured above) is available via MyPlay Direct in the USA for £52.99.  Contents include:

180G Vinyl album, Autographed by the band. 
3 art prints designed by Carson Ellis 
14x20 inch Masonic banner 
Patch kit with 5 patches
Digital copy of the album
Instant download of "Make You Better"

Pre-Order at RoughTradeRecords

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Then It All Came Down by Wrekmeister Harmonies 

Then It All Came Down features J.R. Robinson joined by members of Indian, Corrections House, Twilight, Yakuza, Anatomy of Habit, Come, Mind Over Mirrors, Bloodiest, as well as Wrest (Leviathan) and Ryley Walker.

First 666 copies pressed on limited green vinyl. LP packaged with artworked inner sleeve and free download card.

J.R. Robinson perceives life as a long, gradual process of decay. Lightness fades into darkness, while innocence succumbs to the evils of modern society. His music reflects not only this worldview but his emotional response to it. Then It All Came Down, his second long-form composition as Wrekmeister Harmonies, is an exploration of that existential deterioration and an attempt at attaining a deeper understanding of its process. Wrekmeister Harmonies’ pastoral doom has earned praise from Pitchfork, SPIN, Decibel, and Invisible Oranges as a new form of metal composition and performance involving a wide variety of instrumentation. Employing an enormous ensemble of some of Chicago’s best talents in the metal and experimental communities, including Sanford Parker (Corrections House, Twilight), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), Ryley Walker, Chanel Pease (Pulse Programming), Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come), members of Indian and Leviathan and more, Robinson has created a work that is equally gorgeous and menacing. Few artists have perfected the nuances of beauty as well as annihilation, and Robinson’s mastery of both sides of the spectrum makes his a unique voice in the field of doom.

Then It All Came Down opens with a low, soft drone, creeping in almost imperceptibly. Bells chime as more tonal voices emerge from the ether, Walker’s acoustic guitar echoing in the abyssal soundscape.

Get it at ThrillJockey

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Coheed and Cambria’s Travis Stever Discusses ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3′ Special Vinyl Edition







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Lnrdcroy’s stunning Much Less Normal cassette gets a vinyl pressing from Firecracker











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Opinion: Vinyl format carries sentiment, history











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from the great state of new york:


For one week, WHRW takes vinyl for a spin - Campus radio station goes back to a different era, before MP3s and newfangled CD things






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from the great state of louisiana:


New record store to open on Perkins







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from the great state of missouri


Chuck Haddix's Tips For Collecting Records In Kansas City








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from the great state of tennessee:


Hot Horse record store combines vinyl, charm











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from north of the border:


Top 5 Reasons ‘High Fidelity’ is Still Culturally Relevant






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Amazon Best Sellers in CDs & Vinyl

1. 1989 ~ Taylor Swift
2.  Beyonce (The Platinum Edition) ~ Beyonce
3.  The Endless River (Deluxe CD\ Blu-ray) ~ Pink Floyd
4.  It's The Girls ~ Bette Midler
5.  Partners ~ Barbra Streisand
6.  The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11(Deluxe Edition) ~ Bob Dylan
7.  Sonic Highways ~ Foo Fighters
8.  Christmas at Downton Abbey (2CD) ~ Christmas At Downton Abbey
9.  The Endless River ~ Pink Floyd
10. Storytone (Standard + Solo 2-CD Set) ~ Neil Young

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album cover art of the day:


Details On Fifth Album "Thunder Knows No Mercy" Posted By Renegade