Sorry our update is later than usual (we try to hit Thursday afternoons), it’s been a busy time here at June.  Here’s some updates as we melt into another summer weekend.

NEW RELEASES / NEW RE-ISSUES
Lavern Baker: La Vern
Baroness: Yellow and Green
The Clean: Oddities
Spencer Davis Group: Their First LP (Import LP w/ Bonus tracks)
Spencer Davis Group: The 2nd Album (Import LP w/ Bonus tracks)
Donnie & Joe Emerson: Dreamin’ Wild
Icarus: The Marvel World of Icarus
Justice: New Lands (12”)
Ondatropica: s/t (3LP + 7”)
Rhythm Machine: s/t (LP + 12”)
Sonic Boom: Spectrum (Re-issue)
Spectrum: Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) (Re-issue)
Thin Lizzy: s/t (Re-issue)
Tortoise: s/t (Thrill Jockey 20th Anniversary Re-issue)
V/A: The Inner Flame: A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek

NEW ARRIVALS / RE-STOCKS
Francis Bebey: African Electronic Music (2LP)
Beck: Odelay (Deluxe Edition 10th Anniversary 4LP Box Set)
Bumps: s/t (Stones Throw LP feat. drummers from Tortoise)
Cannibal Corpse: The Bleeding
Serge Chaloff: Blue Serge
Digitalism: DJ-Kicks (2LP Germany)
Bob Dylan: Greatest Hits (Mono)
The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms
The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sin
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma
Aretha Franklin: Sparkle
Friends: Manifest
Funkees: Dancing Time
Billie Holiday: Commodore Days
Billie Holiday: Rare West Coast Recordings
Norah Jones: Little Broken Hearts (White Vinyl)
Paul and Linda McCartney: Ram (180g Mono Re-issue)
Paul McCartney: Band on the Run (2LP Re-issue)
Paul McCartney: McCartney (180g 2LP Re-issue)
Paul McCartney: McCartney II (180g 2LP Re-issue)
The Mummies: Play Their Own Records
Possessed: Seven Churches
Santigold: Master of My Make-Believe
Shangri-Las: I Can Never Go Home Anymore
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock
Testament: The New Order
Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Americana
V/A: BIPPP - French Synth Wave 1979-85
*and dozens more…

FEATURED VINTAGE ARRIVALS
The Abyssinians: Forward to Zion
Roy Ayers: Baby Doll (12”, France)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: No More Shall We Part (Limited Edition 2LP)
Beck: Sexx Laws (12”, Promo)
Bob Dylan: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (4LP Box Set)
Can: I Want More 12” (Ltd. Numbered, Orange vinyl, UK)
Feist: Inside & Out (12” Promo, France)
Funk Inc.: Priced to Sell (Prestige)
Grav: Down to Earth
John Holt: Holt (1971)
Jaga Jazzist: The Stix
Kiss: s/t
Kraftwerk: The Man Machine
Kraftwerk: Trans Europe Express
Lil ½ Dead: The Dead Has Arisen
Lone Catalysts: Good Music
Mad Skillz: From Where???
May Blitz: s/t
Mighty Diamonds: Right Time
Rush: Caress of Steel
Simtec & Wylie: Gettin’ Over the Hump
V/A: Disco, Funk & Philly Anthems from Germany 1975-1980
V/A: Ghetto Soul
V/A: Pebbles Presents Highs in the Mid Sixties Vol. 10: Wisconsin
V/A: Sensacional Soul (Spanish Vampi Soul Comp 2LP)
*plus many more

NEW / RE-STOCKED GEAR
Music Hall USB-1 Turntable
Audioengine Mini Bookshelf Amplified Speakers

COMING SOON… (RE-STOCKS AND RELEASES)
Animal Hospital: Memory
David Axelrod: Songs of Experience
Sylvester Anfang II: s/t (2LP)
Bathory: Under The Sign of the Black Mark
Bird Show: Untitled
Breakbot: One Out of Two (12”)
Can: Out of Reach
Willie Colon: Cosa Nuestra
Dead Raven Choir: My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind
Emperor: Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Jim Ford: Harlan County
The Fun Years: God Was Like, No
Juju: A Message from Mozambique
MC5: The Best Of
Motorhead: Another Perfect Day
Lee Hazlewood: The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes, & Backsides (1968-71) (2LP)
Pausal: Forms
Phil Ochs: I Ain’t Marching Anymore
Pyramids With Wraiths: Magpie & Raven
The Residents: Animal Lover (2LP)
Rockets: s/t
Laetitia Sadier: Silencio
Taragana Pyjarama: Tipped Bowls (2x10” + CD)
Tyrannosaurus Rex: My People Were Fair and Had Sky in their Hair…
Wipers: Is This Real?
Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree: Hourglass (12” EP)

*plus many more

STAFF PICKS OF THE WEEK: NEW RELEASES / NEW ARRIVALS

Paul McCartney: Reissues on Hear Music

So it’s really unfair for me to pick something for the week with McCartney vinyl reissues hitting the store.  I mean anybody that knows me, “knows” that McCartney is a weakness of mine.  I’m like a fat kid in a candy store times a googolplex, totally defenceless…

So let me re-start by saying I’m biased about Paul (when I say “Paul” I refer to only one man) but I’m picking his re-issues anyway.  To keep it reasonable I’ve only chosen three titles.

A selection of McCartney’s solo work, Paul & Linda McCartney, and The Wings material has/is being remastered at Abbey Road Studios.  They are re-releasing albums one after the other on vinyl (and CD) with “previously unreleased” material and formats (i.e. mono).

McCartney: RAM has been re-issued on 180 gram vinyl in limited edition mono, MONO!  It also comes in a double LP 180 gram audiophile package with disc 2 containing bonus material, and a digital download code.

McCartney & Wings: Band On The Run is likely Paul’s crowning post-Beatles pop achievement.  It comes in another double LP 180 gram audiophile package with the original remastered album, bonus material and download code.

McCartney II is my current favorite of the three LP’s mentioned.  Similar to the prior package it’s also a double LP 180 gram audiophile package with bonus material and download code.

The packaging for all these releases is beautiful (except maybe the mono version of RAM which purposely looks like a plain white label boot, but to me that’s super cool and appropriate).

Imagine owning 180 gram (remastered) virgin vinyl of all your favorite McCartney (with Linda and Wings) records?  Well now you don’t have to.  Get it while it lasts!

Godspeed and good hunting,

Ian

Icarus: The Marvel World of Icarus (Acme - UK)
On first glance, the Marvel World of Icarus is a hilarious lost novelty worth its weight in the cover alone. Thankfully, Icarus are actually a pretty killer prog/psych band from the early ‘70s. Upon discovering the album at it’s release, Marvel Comics demanded 50% of the royalties prompting the band to shelve the album. Newly in print thanks to UK-based label ACME, The Marvel World of Icarus is an awesome exploration into the world of comic book superpowers. Each track shares its title with a Marvel character, while each band member adopts a Marvel persona on the back cover (my personal favourite is Norrie “Daredevil” Devine, the sax/flute/clarinet player). Hilarity aside, Icarus can throw down with the likes of Jethro Tull and Thin Lizzy, but with just enough psychedelic studio tricks to keep things interesting.

Dig it,
Dennis

FEATURED NEW ARRIVALS / RE-STOCKS
Spencer Davis Group: Their First LP (Klimt - France)
In July 1965, when Their First LP was originally released, the Spencer Davis Group - the band that launched Steve Winwood’s career - was just one of the many aspiring young groups on the British beat scene. But that would soon change when their single - a version of Jamaican singer Jackie Edwards’ ‘Keep On Running’ - shot to the No. 1 spot on the British charts. Featuring 5 bonus tracks, including Otis Redding’s ‘She Put The Hurt On Me’, Etta James’ ‘I’ll Drown In My Own Tears’, ‘I’m Getting Better’ and ‘Goodbye Stevie’, all from their 1965 EP, plus ‘Stevie’s Blues’, the B side to their 1966 single ‘Somebody Help Me’.

Sonic Boom: Spectrum (Vinilisssimo - Spain)
Reissue of Sonic Boom’s first solo album, recorded between 1988 and 1989 while Spacemen 3 were still active and with the participation of its band members. A captivating, gentle space-rock masterpiece, which includes amazing covers of Doc Pomus’ “Lonely Avenue” and Suicide’s “Rock’n’Roll Is Killing My Life.” Reissued on vinyl for the first time. The beautiful gatefold sleeve is an op-art wonder with two swirly plastic discs. Limited edition of 1,000 copies.

Ondatropica: Ondatropica (Soundway - UK)
Ondatrópica brings together an iconic group of top Colombian musicians representing both the classic and more modern styles of la musica Colombiana. Artists such as Fruko, Anibal Velasquez, Michi Sarmiento, Alfredito Linares, Pedro Ramaya Beltran, Markitos Mikolta and Wilson Viveros joined a group of younger Colombian musicians, members of both Mario’s band Frente Cumbeiro and Quantic’s Combo Barbaro, to (re)generate the excitement that positioned Colombian music as one of the most influential in South America. Ondatrópica came together over 3 weeks in January 2012 in the legendary Discos Fuentes studios in Medellin with one of Colombia’s most celebrated engineers and producers, Mario Rincon, who is responsible for some of Discos Fuentes best recordings of the 1970s.   

Rhythm Machine: Rhythm Machine (Now-Again)
The funk and soul of Indianapolis, Indiana’s Rhythm Machine has run through twelve years’ worth of Egon’s archival work at both Now-Again and Stones Throw Records: the band, and their previous incarnation, The Highlighters, were featured on the lauded Funky 16 Corners anthology, Jukebox 45s, a Madlib mix album, the recently issued Soul-Cal anthology, and will appear the forthcoming Loving On The Flip Side compendium. Fitting time, then, for an expanded version of the Rhythm Machine’s magnum opus, their self-titled 1976 album.

*write-ups from June staff and various web sources.