Category Archives: Vinyl

(Upcoming Release) New Calexico Tour-Only Release : Anceinne Belgique Vol 2

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John Convertino of Calexico holding the vinyl LP of the new Ancienne Belgique Volume 2

John Convertino of Calexico holding the vinyl LP of the new Ancienne Belgique Vol 2

This morning via their Facebook Page, Calexico announced that they will be selling CD’s and vinyl of a new tour-only live release titled Anceinne Belgique Vol 2. 

Hey Everyone we have a new tour only album for sale. It’s a live recording from the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels this past September 2012 featuring new songs off of the album “Algiers” as well as some old songs too. Mixed by Craig Schumacher and mastered by Jim Blackwood, it is available on CD and as a double LP on vinyl. Here’s John with a copy hot off the press. We have copies on tour.

This is volume 2, because Calexico released the first album back in 2009 of their October 2008 show, which was also a tour-only release. I wrote about it here. The first volume also got a vinyl treatment in the amazing Road Atlas Box Set of their previously CD-only tour releases. That box is out-of-print and really scarce. I wrote about the Road Atlas Box here, and made a nifty 32-minute mix of tracks from it as a freely-downloadable mp3.

The band will have copies with them on tour— currently underway in Europe and running until March 3rd. In response to all of the people commenting on the post that they wanted to buy it and couldn’t see them on their current tour of Europe, they said that they will have copies in the band’s website store “hopefully soon.” The band helpfully provided me with the tracklisting:

01. Epic
02. Splitter
03. Para
04. Dead Moon
05. El Picador
06. Sinner in the Sea
07. No Te Vayas
08. Maybe on Monday
09. Corona
10. Hush
11. Close Behind
12. Puerto
13. The Vanishing Mind
14. Güero Canelo

 

Releases I’m Looking Forward to in 2013

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The month of January was named after the Roman goddess Janus who had two faces.  Like the goddess, January is the month of the year when we both look back on the previous year that is over as well as ahead to the year coming up. I just posted my favorite releases for 2012— here is a list of releases that I’m looking forward to in 2013.

Mountains – Centralia (January 22) The Brooklyn duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp is back with another couple of slabs of acoustic/electronic experimental ambient music (a couple of slabs in the vinyl version anyway). I’ve been a big fan since Choral and can’t wait to get this on the turntable.

Camper Van Beethoven – La Costa Perdida (January 22) David Lowery’s non-Cracker concern is back with its first release since New Roman Times in 2004.

Arbouretum – Coming Out of the Fog (January 22) David Heumann is back with another slab of his folk-inspired distortion. If you are one of the early orders at Thrill Jockey, the vinyl comes in “Fog White” – I have one and it is beautiful.

Brokeback – Brokeback and the Black Rock (January 22) – Doug McCombs of Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day returns with his solo project, Brokeback. Started in 1997, Brokeback had two 7″es and three albums, with the last one out in 2003. Ten years later, Brokeback is resurrected in a new lineup which includes Pete Croke and Chris Hansen of Head of Skulls! (emphasis theirs) and James Elkington of The Zincs, The Horses Ha and Freakwater. The album is typical atmospheric reverbby guitar instrumentals.

Local Natives – Hummingbird (January 29) – The Local Natives are back with their sophomore release. I loved their first album Gorilla Manor, and got to see them during the first Daytrotter Barnstormer tour. They managed to tour for two years on that album. If the first track “Breakers” is any indication, Hummingbird is a strong followup.

Jacob Jones – Good Timin’ In Waynetown (January 29) – Just in time for the hubbub over Nashville due to the ABC TV series of the same name, Jacob Jones is releasing his first album in two years. Instead of his typical roadworn acoustic folk country, he hit the studio with an album inspired by the classic R&B of Ray Charles and the “Keep On Movin'” parties on Monday nights at The 5 Spot.

Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw (April 2) – MC Taylor and Scott Hirsch are on a roll. After a very polished release of Poor Moon in 2011 which was followed by a collection of odds and sods in 2012 called Lord, I Love the Rain they are done with another release Haw, which is due to come out on April 2nd and has members of Megafaun on it. Look for a review by me soon.

Golden Gunn – TBD (April) – As if a Hiss Golden Messenger release isn’t enough, Scott and MC are collaborating with Steve Gunn on an album which, from the sounds of the little bit I heard, will be more jamming and more stripped down (if that is possible).

Dawes – Stories Don’t End (April 9)- The mighty Dawes return for a third album. This time they are releasing the album themselves through their management Q Prime— their first two albums were released by Dave Matthews’ label ATO. I’ve heard a couple songs from the new album live already, and it’s sounding like a great one. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor Goldsmith said, “Obviously we have our influences, and I know that some of what we do as a band is of another time, even simple aspects like guitar solos. So I get it, I’m not mad at it, but at the same time, we just wanted to make sure people saw us as a modern band as well. With this album, thanks to what [producer] Jacquire [King] is really good at, we’re able to stay a rock & roll band and maintain classic qualities, but at the same time, it makes sense that this record is coming out in 2013.”

Jack Logan & Scott Baxendale – Bones in the Desert (TBD) – Jack Logan is back with his first release since 2006 or so. This time he’s partnered up with Athens, GA master guitar luthier Scott Baxendale. Joining them on the record are members of Drive By Truckers.

The Right Now – EP (First Half of 2013) In an interview with Chicagoverse, Brendan O’Connell says that the Chicago R&B band has demos collected that they can draw from to make an EP!

Dick Prall – Dick is releasing a song-per month, which he kicked off in October of 2012. The plan is to make the songs freely downloadable with a full-album of the tracks plus some bonuses available at the end of 2013.

Horses Ha – TBD – Carried over from last year’s list. The album is pretty much complete and a continuation of the first album Of The Cathmawr Yards. Here’s hoping that Janet and James, coming off the recent Freakwater tour will be energized and ready to release this.

History – (First half of 2013) The remains of the Iowa City band The Wandering Bears have formed a new band called History.

Har-di-Har – Third EP/LP – I loved the first two EP’s released by the Cedar Falls husband/wife duo Har-di-Har. The third EP in the series is supposed to come out pretty soon. Andrew Thoreen told me that the plan is to bundle the three EP’s together into a physical release (possibly vinyl!).

It Feels Like the Third Time Again as Freakwater Reunites for a 20th Anniversary Tour

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Freakwater

2012 was a year marked with vinyl re-releases from the seminal Thrill Jockey catalog in celebration of 20 years– Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Fiery Furnaces, Califone. In among the releases was a a reissue of a record that many consider to be the beginnings of what we know to be the Americana movement today– Feels Like the Third Time by Freakwater. Thrill Jockey reissued Freakwater’s 1993 third album (and first for the label) on Record Store Day and in 2013 it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

In celebration of this landmark occasion, Janet Beveridge Bean, Catherine Irwin and Dave Gay will be doing a whirlwind tour of shows. Joining them will be James Elkington of The Zincs and Horses Ha (that he is in with Bean). Regarding this tour in support of a 20 year old album Bean said, “We have found a lot of our fans were having babies round the time the record came out and those babies were forced to listen to Freakwater more than any baby should. It turns out those babies, now the record buying public, have some sort of DNA thing going where they gotta hear the Freakwater. So really we’re doing this for the kids.”

It seems that everyone is talking about this upcoming “reunion” tour of Fleetwood Mac (why is it a reunion tour?? Didn’t they just tour?), but the real reunion tour to catch in 2013 is Freakwater. Oh, and bring your kids.

FREAKWATER TOUR DATES 2013
FEELS LIKE THE THIRD TIME 20th ANNIVERSARY TOUR
January 11 The Ninth Ward, Buffalo NY
January 12 The Haunt, Ithaca NY
January 13 Johnny D’s, Somerville MA
January 14 Narrows Center for the Arts, Falls River MA
January 15 The Bell House, Brooklyn NY
January 16 DC9 Washington DC
January 17 Club Cafe, Pittsburgh PA
January 18 Beachland Tavern, Cleveland OH
January 19 Stuart’s Opera House, Nelsonville OH
January 21 The Hideout, Chicago IL
January 23 Private House Party
January 24 Headliners, Louisville KY
Freakwater Fan Page
Freakwater Facebook Page (the real one– you should really click “Like”)
Freakwater Thrill Jockey Page

 

Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell Vinyl Release on Mobile Fidelity in 2013

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Paging through the gorgeous Music Direct Catalog for 2013, I was taken aback by the appearance of the Ryan Adams album Love Is Hell on the Mobile Fidelity Labs “Silver Label” release section.

Love Is Hell is one of many chapters in the story of Adams’s dealings with his record label. Adams had recorded this Smiths-y follow up to Gold and turned it in to Lost Highway, who decided that it wasn’t commercial enough and sent him back to the studio where he cranked out the Strokes-influenced Rock N Roll in two weeks. Lost Highway agreed to release Love Is Hell in the form of two CD’s and a very rare 2 10″ records version. Eventually, Lost Highway created a full-length CD version encapsulating the two EP’s and adding a bonus track (an unedited version of “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home” which ended up on Rock N Roll with a fade out and in).

These days, copies of the original 2 10″ record version of Love Is Hell goes for many hundreds of dollars, and if you are a collector of Ryan Adams on vinyl (as I am), the omission of this release in your collection is a painful one. We had a glimmer of hope back in 2011, when Lost Highway announced as part of their 10th Anniversary that they were doing some special vinyl releases— some of which hadn’t been available on vinyl before. In the initial announcement, Lost Highway listed a 2 LP Gold (which restored the “side 4” tracks making it the original vision of Adams) as well as Love Is Hell, Rock N Roll and Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia among other releases. Of these releases, only the 2 LP Gold saw the light of day from the Ryan-related releases. As you can see from the first link in this paragraph, only Gold is listed in the Anniversary releases. No reason was given as to why Lost Highway pulled the others, but I think it might be the very public dismissal of any vinyl releases on Lost Highway by Adams– he is kind of a purist when it comes to vinyl, and none of the vinyl releases have been mastered from analog.

That’s why I was so shocked to see Love Is Hell in the Music Direct catalog, with the Silver Label strip emblazoned across the cover. MoFi’s Silver Label line is apparently their discount line. In the catalog, they say, “Pressed on standard-weight audiophile-quality vinyl at RTI”– so this means it isn’t 180g. The other question is what the release comprises. The catalog mentions that the release used to be two EP’s suggesting that they are rolling the two releases together. Wikipedia lists the running time of the 1 CD version as being 68:01. That would make this release at least 2 LP’s.

At this time, Mobile Fidelity is not listing the release on their website, so this catalog is the only reference to this release. There is a thread over in the Kevin Hoffman forums about the titles announced in this catalog that I’ve contributed to and I’ll keep an eye on. If any other information develops about the release, I’ll update this article.

11/21 Update: I received a response from MoFi on their Facebook account, and the provided the tracklist and some other details! This release will be three LPs, with the third LP made up of the Japanese bonus tracks! They don’t have a release date, yet. But, what an amazing compilation! I’d love to see a Mobile Fidelity release of Rock N Roll with all of the import B-Sides.

Mofi 3-040
Ryan Adams / Love Is Hell

SIDE A
Political Scientist – 4:33
Afraid Not Scared – 4:13
This House Is Not for Sale – 3:53
Anybody Wanna Take Me Home – 5:31
Love Is Hell – 3:19

SIDE B
Wonderwall – 4:09
The Shadowlands – 5:18
World War 24 – 4:17
Avalanche – 5:09

SIDE C
My Blue Manhattan – 2:23
Please Do Not Let Me Go – 3:37
City Rain, City Streets – 3:49
I See Monsters – 3:57

SIDE D
English Girls Approximately – 5:42
Thank You – 2:52
Hotel Chelsea Nights – 5:10

SIDE E
17 Halloween – 3:52
18 Caterwaul – 5:42
19 Fuck the Universe – 7:29

SIDE F
20 Twice As Bad As Love – 4:15
21 Father’s Son – 3:37
22 Gimme Sunshine – 3:55
23 Black Clouds – 4:48

Music Direct has the release listed on their site with date TBA, but lists the price as $64.99.

Power Pop Descends Upon CSPS in the Form of Chicago Rocker Dick Prall

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Well, it’s been a pretty great week for acts at CSPS! The Duncan Sheik show on Thursday night was pretty damn amazing, and I found a couple of acts I want to keep an eye on– that new Alpha Rev album coming out next year will be one that I’m looking forward to.

Tonight the big stage at CSPS will be graced by Dick Prall who used to live in Iowa, but now crafts his Brit Pop-influenced Midwestern Rock from the Windy City. He’s put out a solid run of pop rock masterpieces since his first release Somewhere About Here in 1998.

This year he is kicking off a new project that is a little different than his standard album releases. He is working with Pat Sansone of Wilco and The Autumn Defense to release a series of digital singles which will culminate in a full release with bonus material next year. In an e-mail exchange with Prall he said, “We’re trying a different methodology this time around to hopefully keep folks interested and engaged on a monthly basis – that’s the theory, anyway. All the songs are being done with Pat Sansone, who digs the idea, so I’m in good company.”

If the first single “Wanted Blue” is any indication, it will be one for the “Best of” list for 2013! Prall also said that they are considering vinyl for this release! Listen for yourself and download:

Dick is bringing a band with him tonight that he describes as “drums, bass, violin, & hollow-bodied guitar put together in a sort of laid-back Buddy Holly & the Crickets meets Elvis Costello backed by Spoon sort of way.” Sounds like my kind of lineup!

The show is at 8PM at CSPS, and tickets are $17 in advance and $21 at the door. The opener is Stolen Silver. Details at the LegionArts.org site.

Listen to Dick Prall’s acoustic session on Daytrotter.com (it’s a free trial if you don’t have a subscription)

Here are upcoming shows (from dickprall.com)

New Hiss Golden Messenger Album “Lord I Love The Rain” Expands on Bonus EP – Out 10/28

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I wasn’t expecting a new release from Hiss Golden Messenger so soon after the release of the brilliant Poor Moon. Though I guess it has already almost been a year since it’s limited vinyl release on Paradise of Bachelors, but in that year Poor Moon received a reissue of sorts in April as a CD on Thompkins Square giving it the distinction of being one of the few contemporary releases on the label.

For the pre-order campaign for Poor Moon, MC Taylor tried a kind of Indiegogo/Kickstarter approach by providing tiered bonuses, which included a digital download of a live recording, and a 6-track EP called Lord I Love The Rain that was made up of solo acoustic tracks from Bad Debt, and a “conceptual soundtrack” called He Wore Rings on Every Finger. It was a welcomed, if a bit uneven collection of songs serving as bonus content.

This week it was announced that Lord I Love The Rain would get an expanded and improved treatment to serve as a bridge to the “proper” follow up to Poor Moon titled Haw to come out March 2013 on Paradise of Bachelors. This release will be produced by the German label Jellyfant in a limited run of 600 with only 240 making their way to our shores. The LP is mixed by Scott Hirsch of HGM and mastered by Anthony Puglisi who has done an amazing job with a few of the last vinyl releases in the HGM catalog. The cover will be Folkways-style paste-on jackets designed by Brendan Greaves, with liner notes by folklorist, curator and guitarist Nathan Salsburg. Brendan also designed the LP jacket for Poor Moon.

In addition to remixing the songs from the EP for this release, it also gains some additional tracks, loses a track and gets re-sequenced into an album where one side is made up of the Bad Debt lo-fi recordings, and the second side is made up of full-band songs in a kind of Rust Never Sleepsfashion. The new songs are a couple of covers– “The Revenant” from Michael Hurley, and “Tell Everyone” by Ronnie Lane, plus an instrumental “War” on the full band side, and “Karen’s Blues,” “He Wrote The Book,” “Roll River Roll” on the solo acoustic side. On the changes made for this release Taylor said, “We weren’t satisfied with the original version [of the EP], especially “Bright Phoebus” which was just flat and dumb. So it’s really nice to get another crack at it. I think the whole collection hangs together nicely. It’s nice to have the physical divide of sides A and B to separate the lo-fi from the higher fidelity [songs.]” Having listened to the collection a few times, I completely agree. The collection goes from being a kind of odds-and-sods to a release that works as a whole.

Side A
Karen’s Blues
He Wrote the Book
Roll River Roll
Father Sky
Westering
Fox and His Friends

Side B
Born on a Crescent Moon
The Revenant (Michael Hurley)
War
You Never Know
Tell Everyone (Ronnie Lane)

To get in on this rare release, you can pre-order from Taylor and Hirsch’s label Heaven and Earth Magic for $20 plus shipping, which is a pretty good deal. Plus, you get a copy of the split 7″ with Elephant Micah for freebies! You also get three songs you can download right away, and will get a link to download the rest of the release when it comes out on October 28th.

You can listen to three of the tracks here:

While you’re at it, you should check out the Hiss Golden Messenger Daytrotter session!

The Pines at CSPS Tonight! New Video for “All The While” (Friday, 9/7/2012)

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IMG_8117
I think Cedar Rapids is getting a little spoiled! Red House Records band The Pines is back at CSPS tonight for the third time since it reopened in 2011!  For the show in February the audience was graced with a surprise guest– Benson Ramsey’s dad Bo Ramsey!
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Whether or not Bo will make a surprise visit again tonight remains to be seen, but either way The Pines are a band not to be missed and the beautifully remodeled CSPS are the perfect location to see them. Be sure to grab the Pines’ latest album Dark So Gold which was recently pressed in vinyl!

The show will be at 8PM at CSPS with the doors probably at 7PM. Tickets are $14 in advance and $17 at the door. For more information visit CSPS website.

The Pines also recently released their second video from Dark So Gold. Produced by Jonathan Chapman.

Also– you should check out the latest Daytrotter.com session from The Pines–

Click Here

Gayngs Related Minneapolis Band Poliça to Play Voices Warehouse in Dubuque 9/25

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What does one do when Ryan Olson, the mastermind behind the Minneapolis Supergroup Gayngs suggests that you start your own band? Well, if you are Channy Leanagh (née Casselle) formerly of Minneapolis folk band Roma di Luna and one of the vocalists in Gayngs– you take the suggestion and help. Olson took some of the songs that Channy had been writing and added some of his own electronic wizardry– a process similar to how he grew the Gayngs album. Olson then called in some other musicians he had worked with the vision of creating not just a solo Leanagh project but a complete band.

The unique formula of Poliça (pronounced POE-LISA) takes the vocoder fetish from Gayngs (and Bon Iver for that matter) and layers it over a no-guitars lineup of electronics (mostly handled by Leanagh in a live settng), insane bass guitar by Chris Bierden of Twin Cities Indie Psych band Vampire Hands, and twin drummers Drew Christopherson (of Olson’s bands Digitata and Blunts) and Ben Ivascu (of Olson’s bands Building Better Bombs and Marijuana Deathsquads). Mike Noyce of Gayngs and Bon Iver guests on a couple of tracks, too. Poliça brings a significant pedigree to the table and the results are impressive– a very trip-hop electronica sound reminiscent of Portishead in my opinion.

Since Poliça released their debut album Give You The Ghost on February 14th on Olson’s Totally Gross National Product label (on CD and LP) they’ve been touring seemingly non-stop in the US and Europe. They played Iowa City in February as part of their album release shows, so it’s pretty interesting that they will be back in Eastern Iowa playing the Voices Warehouse Gallery on September 25th. Voices is a really special venue down in the Warehouse district of Dubuque. Beautiful exposed brick and pipes with a well-worn wood floor housing interesting sculptures, prints and paintings. I’ve seen a couple of shows there– Tortoise and Bo Ramsey and both were cozy personal shows.

Poliça played “Dark Star” on Jimmy Kimmel last week, and it was announced that they have signed to Mom + Pop Music (home of Andrew Bird, An Horse, Sleigh Bells) who will reissue the album and have already released a remix EP for “Dark Star.” All really great news for the band who will be opening for Bon Iver’s upcoming four-night run at Radio City Music Hall, which is just before the Dubuque show.

Opening the show will be Canon Blue, aka Daniel James. James’ new album Rumspringa is a orchestral/chamber pop album that was recorded while on tour with Efterklang. Check the audio out on his site– beautiful stuff.

Tickets for Poliça and Canon Blue are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. The show starts at 8PM. For more information check out the Voices Warehouse website.

Check out Polica’s Daytrotter Session Here.

The Pines – Dark So Gold Released on Vinyl 7/17

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Red House Records officially announced this week that they have pressed The Pines’ latest album Dark So Gold on vinyl, available Tuesday, July 17th.

This is the second vinyl release from Red House Records since they decided to get back into the vinyl game with Pieta Brown’s One and All release. That release was a beautiful 180g pressing with a variation on the CD cover art. I was concerned that they weren’t going to continue doing vinyl when Brown’s Mercury album didn’t get the same treatment. Though there has never been an official statement about it, I suspect that the One and All vinyl didn’t sell as many as they’d planned.

When I talked to the mailorder folks at Red House, I expressed how happy I was that this album was getting a vinyl release, they commented that they felt this was a good one to release on vinyl. I also learned that the cover art matches the CD, and the center label has a black and white photo of the band.

Dark So Gold is easily one of my favorite releases for 2012, and my favorite Pines release to date. I wrote a review for Little Village Magazine in February.

For The Pines latest release, Dark So Gold, they’ve broken out the box of the same paints and brushes as before and laid to canvas landscapes made of soft-focused, almost half-remembered dreams. To the observer, only the smallest details of the picture are revealed—a conversation perhaps, a late-night glance to the sky, a heartfelt emotion lingering. As we reach for meaning we fill in little bits of ourselves.

You can read the full review here.

CLICK HERE to order your copy of Dark So Gold from Red House Records for $15 plus shipping and includes a digital download card. The record will be available at Pines shows as well.

More Daytrotter Vinyl Goodness! Daytrotter Presents No. 1: The Civil Wars & The Lumineers

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Though obviously not the first foray into vinyl releases by the gem in the crown of Rock Island, IL known as Daytrotter.com, it is the first of what I hope will be a long-running series of split releases of Daytrotter Sessions. There have been a few releases that have sported Daytrotter lineage– notably the 2011 Nathaniel Rateliff Live 10″ (still in the store!), the Iron and Wine/Low Anthem split plus some 7″es that included a track here and there.

The most recent release was announced this week, and is a split of Grammy Winners The Civil Wars backed with The Lumineers. This release is being touted as “Daytrotter Presents No. 1” and is available for pre-sale right now. The really nice aspect of this is although the ordering window is until July 3rd, Daytrotter is going to press as many as are ordered! Talk about a really nice way to accommodate collectors while also preserving limitedness! The vinyl will be pressed in 180g vinyl and will bear the trademark Johnnie Cluney representations of the two groups.

The album will be $35 plus shipping or $26.25 plus shipping for folks who support Daytrotter by subscribing as I do. Between this discount and the discount for the Barn on the Fourth of July Counting Crows show tickets, I’ve already paid for my year of subscription. But, if you are still on the fence about subscribing– if you buy a 1 year subscription for yourself of a friend, you get this record for free (well, you have to pay for shipping)! In fact, this is the cheaper route anyway, since the subscription is $24, you effectively save $2.25 off of the regular member price!

I’ve listened to both the Civil Wars session and the Lumineers session, and both are simpatico– beautiful acoustic folk sessions. A delightful way to kick off this series.

What sessions would you like to see in future installments of Daytrotter Presents? I’d like to see Gary Clark Jr., The Pines, Pieta Brown, Umphrey’s McGee, Moby (that version of “Ring of Fire” is fantastic!), Cowboy Junkies, a Dawes double!… The list goes on… Your votes in the comments!

Click Here to buy a subscription to Daytrotter and get the free Daytrotter Presents No. 1 (by July 3rd)

Click Here to buy Daytrotter Presents No. 1 without a membership purchase.