Author Archives: mike

B-Sides in the Bins #32 – Mad City Music – Madison, WI 9/27/08

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The Tortoise show at Snake on the Lake started at 3PM in Madison, but Erik, Shawn and I weren’t interested in all of the opening acts, so we decided to hit a record store before meeting up with Tom, our taper friend. We stopped at Mad City Music which I’ve been to a couple of times. The first time Erik and I went there it was for a small Camper Van Beethoven in-store which was really cool.

This was a pretty fruitful trip in that I picked up some amazingly pristine copies of Tom Petty albums. Like freakishly mint, really. No ringwear or sleeve wear of any sort. They looked like they just shipped from the plant and were taken out of the cellophane! In addition to the four records, I bought plastic sleeves for them.

Tom Petty is one of my long-time favorite artists. Of course, this means that I need to keep an eye out for other Tom Petty vinyl… Two of the records were upgrades. I gave the replaced copies to Erik.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes (LP, MCA 5105, 1979)($3.00) The third album. First Top-40 record for the band, includes “Refugee” and “Don’t Do Me Like That.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Hard Promises (LP, Backstreet BSR 5160, 1981)($3.00) This was an upgrade for me. First record to hit Top-10 for Petty.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Long After Dark (LP, Backstreet BSR 5360, 1982)($3.00) First record with the late Howie Epstein on bass. The record was an attempt to repeat the formula of success by using Jimmy Iovine as producer. Sadly, it would not pan out. “You Got Lucky” was an MTV favorite, though.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Southern Accents (LP, MCA 5486, 1985)($4.00) Another upgrade for me. Rae got me my first copy for my birthday in 2006– that one was a corner-cut cutout record. The vinyl was immaculate, though. This was really the record that started my interest in Tom Petty, and probably the song “Rebel.” I started listening to this about the same time I got into the Del Fuegos, which would make sense. Lots of radio and video airplay for this one– “Rebel” and “Don’t Come Round Here No More.” Three songs were co-written with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.

What I didn’t buy: Carried to Dust by Calexico on used CD (I got this one on vinyl through Amazon), and two Dumptruck albums For the Country, and Positively Dumptruck on vinyl, and a Love Tractor LP on DBRecs. Jethro Tull’s Crest of a Knave (the album they won a Grammy in 1989 for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance against Metallica!). If I get back to Mad City and the Dumptruck records are there, I will buy them. Based on the price stickers they’ve been there for a couple of years.

B-Sides in the Bins #31 – Zzz Records – Des Moines, IA 9/23/08

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Sherry was attending a skin care conference in Des Moines, so I took the day off and drove her there. While she was in the class I visted Zzz Records (424 E. Locust Street, Downtown Des Moines), I’d been meaning to get to that store for a while, so I was pleased to have the opportunity. Zzz Records has been in existence since 2000 and is in its second location. Apparently it will be moving again on November 1st to 2200 Ingersoll. Zzz Records, also hosts a record show that I’ve been meaning to get to. The next one is December 7th, so mark your calendars.

As far as record stores go, Zzz is one of the better ones I’ve been to. They have a decent-sized used CD area at the front of the store that unfortunately on a warm afternoon seems like a greenhouse. They carry a good selection of new CD’s and LP’s as well. The used selection is pretty amazing. They split the record bins into sections by genre, with a very impressive New Wave/Alternative/Punk section towards the back of the store. I spent two hours there and came out with some cool pieces. Not as much used as I had expected, but I was keeping myself to a budget and the new LP’s ate into my ability to load up on used.

The Tourists – Luminous Basement (LP, Epic NJE 36757, 1980)($4.00) Promo-stamped by CBS. This one kind of took me by surprise. They also had Reality Effect which was a compilation of the Tourists’ first two albums. The Tourists are notable as being the pre-Eurythmics band for Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. My friend Michelle’s brother Lynn had this LP as well as the posthumous Should Have Been Greatest Hits. A cassette of these two records used to be a staple in my car in high school. The Tourists existed from 1977 – 1980 and had a number of minor hits in the UK and a very low charting (#83) single of their cover of “I Only Want To Be With You” originally recorded by Dusty Springfield. Luminous Basement was their last proper album and shows Lennox and Stewart stepping into writing their own material. Lennox’s “One Step Nearer the Edge” is one of the best tracks on the record. The Stewart-penned “Let’s Take A Walk” and the Lennox/Stewart “From the Middle Room” are pretty good as well. Amazon has some really questionable pricing on this from some resellers starting at $48 and going to $72.95 for one that still has the cellophane on it. A cool record that reminds me of hanging out at Michelle’s listening to records.

Simple Minds – “Promised You A Miracle”/”The Miracle (Dub Version)”/”The American” 3 Tune EP (12″, A&M SP-12057, 1982)($3.00) I’ve sort of become a collector of Simple Minds vinyl from this period. BJ’s Music World in Dubuque had a bunch of import Simple Minds in a closeout bin that I purchased one day in the 80’s that included a number of 12″es. Ever since then when I spot a really nice piece, I buy it. Last December I picked up New Gold Dream at Reckless in Chicago, which I consider to pretty much be their pinnacle release. I know that 1985’s Once Upon A Time was really the one that pushed them into the charts with the singles “All The Things She Said,” “Alive and Kicking,” and “Sanctify Yourself,” but I really like the stripped down version of Simple Minds on this album (minus the female member of the band). This record is the A&M pressing of the “Promised You A Miracle” 12″ from Virgin. Super clean copy.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Easy Tiger (LP, Lost Highway 34410, 2007)($11.34) When I saw the price on this one, I needed to buy it. I’d seen this at other record stores for over $15. This is the interesting orange vinyl record in the plastic sleeve with the picture of Ryan in a lion mask. Cool pressing, great album. Much more focused than the three releases from the previous year, in my opinion. The vinyl pressing– which came out after the CD release– credits the album to Ryan Adams & The Cardinals rather than just Ryan Adams. I’m not sure why the CD release ended up not crediting the rest of the band.

Ryan Adams – Rock N Roll (LP, Lost Highway 61004, 2003) ($11.34) Another one that seemed like a good price. This is really the album that got me into Ryan Adams to begin with. I know that most of the Ryan Adams fans don’t like this album– and there’s the whole Courtney Love accusing Ryan of stealing money from Frances Bean to make the album and the whole drug use. Apparently he was influenced by the Strokes and he even has a song called “This Is It” on it (which might be a flip on the Strokes album Is This It). Apparently, he has in recent years said that he made the worst record he could in Rock N Roll. Well, I really like it, and it seems to be the only Ryan Adams album my wife will listen to other than parts of Love is Hell (which was recorded around the same time. I guess this is the beginning of my Ryan Adams on vinyl collection.

Zzz Records also sells record flats for $1 apiece. I picked up a record flat for Beck’s Modern Guilt. (actually, I picked up two of them). I also bought some LP mailers.

What I didn’t buy: I almost picked up a fricken MINT copy Suitcase Full of Blues by the Blues Brothers. In fact, I’m still kind of kicking myself for not picking this up. I also considered the Smithereens rare Live EP that is on Enigma on CD.

Lyrics Born Cancels Fall Tour to Campaign For Obama

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Yesterday Lyrics Born announced via his website, MySpace Page and Facebook yesterday that he is canceling the previously announced tour dates for this Fall, that I reported on to focus on assisting with the Presidential campaign for Barack Obama. Lyrics Born posts from his website,

Get up, get into it, get involved.

It’s no secret that the world is in a state of crisis right now. Due to the past 8 years of political blunder, unbridled greed, and international insensitivity, we have created a grab-bag of inexcusable local and global catastrophes.

We have the opportunity to change that this November. Hands-down, I see this as the most important election of my lifetime thus far. For that reason, I have decided to postpone my tour and do what I can to help people focus on the upcoming election and voting for Barack Obama.

I have always been grateful for my supporters who make the effort to come see me, and as much as I love touring, traveling, and performing, this is far more important right now. I apologize if I have caused you any inconvenience and I would humbly ask that whatever you would, or already have spent in money and/or time, please donate to the Obama campaign. On my end, I will be lending my time, talent, and support by playing benefits, and participating in other grass roots events in an effort to ensure his presidency.

Again, as I thank you and express my appreciation for your loyal support through the years, I do not want anything I do to distract people from the importance of voting in the upcoming election. We all need to be focused on change from here on out, and this is how I choose to take aim. Once again, ride with me peoples.

LB

I confirmed with Lyrics Born’s managment that all announced dates have been postponed until next year.

It’s pretty clear that this election is an important one with what seems to be more outpouring of activism than any I’ve seen in my lifetime. Whatever the political affiliation, it’s heartening to hear of the individual sacrifices that people are making to support what they believe in.

New Pieta Brown Self-Released EP Flight Time

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For about two minutes today there was a blog post on Pieta Brown’s MySpace page about a new self-released 7-song EP called Flight Time and is reported to be available starting 10/10 via Pieta’s website as a download or eventually by iTunes. The album was produced and played on by Bo Ramsey and includes Sliders luminaries Marty Christensen and Steve Hayes.

The physical media– which will be available at her shows– is in bio-degradable packaging and is designed by Pieta’s sister Zoe Brown.

Tracklist:
Sunrise, Highway 44 (Click Here to visit Pieta’s MySpace Page which has this track streaming)
Still Runnin’
Just
The Lion’s Dream
Bad News
I Thought I Heard You Call My Name
Even When

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals “Fix It” Available on iTunes

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As promised, “Fix It” the first single from Cardinology is available from iTunes today. The iTunes version of Cardinology has a bonus track “The Color of Pain.” If you pre-order Cardinology, you will be billed for and able to download “Fix It” today ($.99) and the remainder of the album’s cost will be charged separately when it becomes available it on 10/28.

Download it here:
Ryan Adams - Fix It - Single

Click Here to view the nifty illustrated lyrics to “Fix It” done by Leah Hayes who provided the artwork for the vinyl version of Cardinology, which is available for pre-order today.

Free Download: DJ Z-Trip “Party For Change”

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Turntablist and producer DJ Z-Trip has made a 1-hour samplefest in tribute to Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. It is currently a free download from his site– until all of the record labels come knocking. Lots of speech samples interspersed with many song samples from rock classics, reggae, and hip-hop. Download it while you can! He provides an original mix and a “clean” radio mix and encourages public performances of this mix. The artwork is provided by Shepard “Obey” Fairey, who also worked with Z-Trip buddy DJ Shadow and provided the special artwork included with the Fender Joe Strummer Telecaster.

Click Here to visit the site and download

Free Download: Lyrics Born – “Make It Good” and other news

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Our favorite ‘Yay Area MC has partnered with LG to help promote their new Chocolate 3 phone by recording a “three” themed tune to be used in commercials and available for free from LG’s Chocolate 3 Site.

The site is heavy-Flash content, but once the page loads click to play Lyrics Born, wait for some more bloaty Flash content to load (srsly– sitting using the free wireless at the airport, this is taking minutes to load!), change the category to “Music”, and then you can choose “Download the Tracks” where you can pick free downloads from LB, Goapele, and Bitter:Sweet.

LB mentioned the track in a recent edition of LBTV and he said that he was very happy with it. It is trademark LB, but it does sound a bit like the topic came before the inspiration a bit as he exclaims “Three is my favorite number!” He saves it a bit by giving it a romantic spin– and frankly his enthusiasm is infectious and it’s pretty catchy.

I love the irony of loading this song on my iPhone…

Click Here to get to the LG Chocolate 3 Site

In other LB news, he has been tapped to be the voiceover announcer of a new Cartoon Network franchise on Friday nights called You Are Here. Pretty much a cartoon character himself, I hope that they take advantage of his sense of humor. The first airing is this Friday night, October 3rd.

Update: 10/12/08: Lyrics Born has canceled his Fall tour to help with the campaign for Barack Obama. Click Here to read my article on this.

As if that wasn’t enough, Lyrics Born is kicking off a Fall tour of the U.S. If you’ve been following this blog that long you’ve read the 2006 and 2007 reviews of his stops in Minneapolis at the Foundation. I’m not sure what the deal is with the Foundation in oh-eight, but he is coming to the fantastic Fine Line on November 8th, which is a great venue although my wife isn’t sure it is condusive to the obligatory ass-shaking that occurs with his show. I guess we’ll find out, as we will be returning for a threepeat. With Joyo’s album hitting in January I’m sure we can count on a couple of solo songs!

Elbee, if you’re reading this– what’s up with hitting the Snowy Apple in frigging November the last three years? I’m happy you stop, but it’s pretty cold…

Fall Tour Dates (lifted from MySpace)

Oct 16 2008 8:00P
SF Weekly Show – Ruby Skye San Francisco, California
Oct 27 2008 9:00P
Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, Massachusetts
Oct 28 2008 8:00P
The Trocadero Theatre Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 29 2008 9:00P
Highline Ballroom New York, New York
Oct 31 2008 8:00P
Rex Theatre Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nov 1 2008 9:00P
Sonar Baltimore, Maryland
Nov 4 2008 8:00P
Agora Theater Cleveland, Ohio
Nov 5 2008 8:00P
The Eagle Theater Pontiac, Michigan
Nov 7 2008 8:00P
Majestic Theater Madison, Wisconsin
Nov 8 2008 8:00P
Double Door Chicago, Illinois
Nov 9 2008 8:00P
Fine Line Music Cafe Minneapolis, Minnesota

Click Here for Lyrics Born’s MySpace Page

Click Here for Lyrics Born’s Official Page

Click Here for Lyrics Born’s Blog

More Tortoise Vinyl Back in Print!

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While I was in Madison, WI yesterday for the Snake on the Lake Festival at UW Madison I stopped at a couple of record stores– Mad City Music and B-Side Records. I’ll be providing a B-Sides in the Bins article soon, but while I was in these stores I was shocked to find NEW, SEALED copies of Tortoise’s TNT and It’s All Around You! Notably they had the new red sticker that says that there is a coupon for free mp3 downloads inside– which wouldn’t have been on them originally. They also had copies of the new red-vinyl version of Standards previously reported on here as well.

TNT was $16.99 for a 2-LP at Mad City, and It’s All Around You was $12.99 at B-Side. If you go to Thrill Jockey’s page for It’s All Around You, sure enough there are copies of it on vinyl available for purchase for $11.00. On the TNT page, they mention that there are a limited supply of these back in print, however at this moment, there isn’t a working link to order one.

I’m happy to see that these are available, I’m hoping that it will help lend some sanity to the current used pricing for OOP Tortoise vinyl. It will be interesting to see if Millions Now Living and the first album get re-pressed.

New Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology Live Previews

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On the 17th it was announced by Lost Highway that Ryan Adams and the Cardinals will be releasing a new album on October 28th titled Cardinology. As expected, Ryan and Co. are already pulling the songs out on their Fall tour. Yours truly will be seeing Ryan again this year and shooting pix for a review at the Ames show on October 7th. The songs I’ve heard so far are pretty good and certainly on par with Easy Tiger. Since Archive.org has a pretty good collection of Ryan shows, I thought I’d provide links to individual mp3’s so you can listen to a live version of the album before its release. All of the tracks from the album aren’t represented by shows on archive.org, yet, but as shows are recorded and shared there, I’ll update the links here until the release of the album.

BTW: We are going to be able to download “Fix It” on Tuesday. I’m not sure which sites, yet, but I’ll update this when I find out. According to some folks on the ryanadamsarchive.com forum, “Fix It” was released to radio today. The single will be available for download on October 7th.

Update: Ryan is providing a streamed sample of “Fix It” from his blog site:

Check out the beautiful cover art for the vinyl version of Cardinology by Adam’s chum Leah Hayes— author of the graphic novel Funeral of the Heart. According to a poster-in-the-know on the ryanadamsarchive forum this limited vinyl release will have colored vinyl, artwork by Leah Hayes including illustrated lyric book and the exclusive 7″ of “Orange” b/w “Asteroid” and will also include an mp3 download! I’ll have to try to score some record flats of this!!

Click here to read the post and to play the sample (requires Flash)

Here is the track list for Cardinology:

“Born Into a Light” (10-16-2008)
“Go Easy” (9-26-2008)
“Fix It” (9-4-2008)(9-7-2008)(9-25-2008)(9-26-2008)
“Magick” (9-4-2008)(9-7-2008)(9-25-2008)(9-26-2008)
“Cobwebs” (9-7-2008)(9-25-2008)
“Let Us Down Easy”
“Crossed Out Name” (9-4-2008)(9-25-2008)(9-26-2008)
“Natural Ghost” (9-25-2008)
“Sink Ships” (9-7-2008)(9-25-2008)
“Evergreen” (9-30-2008)
“Like Yesterday” (9-25-2008)
“Stop” (10-16-2008)

B-Sides in the Bins #30 – Chicago – 9/12/08

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Jazz Record Mart, Chicago

My wife and a friend of hers wanted to go to Chicago for a Gluten-Free Cooking Conference. This left her friend Sharon’s husband Bob and I with lots of time on our hands. Bob Najouks is one of the Sunday morning jocks on Kirkwood College’s Jazz and Blues station KCCK, so I thought a trip to the infamous Jazz Record Mart was in order. I hadn’t been to JRM in over two years so it was time for me to come back and Bob had never been there!

This weekend was wet. Lots of rain dumping on Chicagoland from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ike pulled out of the Gulf of Mexico. Friday was blessed with small spots of light-to-no rain so hoofing it around downtown was an okay proposition. Our plans after breakfast was to hit Jazz Record Mart, lunch, and then to hit the Art Institute of Chicago then call it a day.

Bob teaches sketching classes at Kirkwood currently, but– in addition to his radio gig– also is a freelance artist. In the early 60’s he did some cover art for Franz Jackson who passed away in May. JRM had a number of still-sealed copies of Good Old Days by Franz Jackson and the Original Jass All-Stars (Pinnacle Recordings: PLP 109) that Bob did the cover art for, which was a neat dose of kismet. Bob picked up a copy to play– he still had the original 1965 pressing of the album at home.

Gorilla – Deal With It (CD, Thrill Jockey, Thrill 003-2, 1993)($5.99) Interesting find. Not Jazz-related at all. The third release on Thrill Jockey from back in the day. The mailing address was New York, so this is before Bettina moved to her current Chicago digs. Seattle Grunge band, I guess. Sounds very early-Nineties. Kind of punk, kind of retro 60’s sound with organ. Not great, but not horrible, really. Mostly a collector piece for me. It would appear that while the CD for this is very much out-of-print, the LP is still available?

George Freeman – Birth Sign (CD, Delmark, DD-424, 1993)($13.99) My first non-Thrill Jockey related Delmark purchase. This was playing on the stereo in the store while I was checking out and I impulse-purchased. George Freeman is the guitar-playing brother of tenor sax player Von Freeman (apparently the more famous of the two). Birth Sign is his debut album. Great album of Hammond-B3 fueled jazz typical of the late 60’s.

John Coltrane – Blue Train (LP, Blue Note, BST-91577, 1993)($11.99) This is the CEMA/Capitol Special Products pressing of the seminal Blue Note release. I own this on CD as well. In fact, my CD pressing of this is on 24-karat gold UltraDisc II from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. This is the album that broke open the gates of jazz for me.

Jeff Parker – The Relatives (LP, Thrill Jockey, Thrill 129, 2005) ($12.99) Wow, a really cool and rare find! The vinyl for this release has been out-of-print for a while, as is usually the case from Thrill Jockey vinyl. According to the price sticker, this has been in the bin since its release. Jazz Record Mart carries most of the Thrill Jockey releases, but it seems that a lot of the clientèle there don’t follow this label, which accounts for the fact that this release is still in the bins. I saw a couple of other rare TJ releases as well. Maybe I’ll come for them later.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Jazz: Red Hot and Cool (LP, Columbia, CL 699, 1954) ($3.99) This is an upgrade for me. My first copy was in pretty good shape, but this one is in much better shape and comes with the original Columbia paper inner-sleeve! The record is in immaculate shape and the cover is also very beautiful. I had never noticed before today that the vivid photograph of a young Brubeck entertaining a young, smoking (literally) woman leaning on his piano was taken by none other than Richard Avedon! Avedon, who died in 2004, took some famous shots of the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe as well as the well-known picture of Nastassja Kinski with a python.

All-in-all a good trip and it was cool to be there with a jazz afficianado. Bob and I will be back, I think.