NEW RELEASES / NEW RE-ISSUES
Bill Fay: Life is People
Limblifter: Limblifter (Re-issue of their 1996 LP)

NEW ARRIVALS / BACK IN STOCK
The Books: The Lemon of Pink
DIIV: Oshin
Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump
Health: Get Colour
Sandro Perri: Tiny Mirrors
Okkervil River: The Stage Names
Polmo Polpo: Like Hearts Swelling
Bry Webb: Provider
Tortoise: Millions Now Living Will Never Die (Thrill Jockey 20th Anniversary)
Women: Public Strain
V/A: Message from the Tribe (An Anthology of Tribe Records - Souljazz)

+ Just Arrived Today!

Ali Birra: Ammalele
John Cage: John Cage Shock (2LP)
Roky Erickson and the Explosives: Halloween: Recorded Live 1979-81 (2LP)
Flamin’ Groovies: Slow Death
Ben Frost: Theory of Machines
Lee Hazlewood: A House Safe for Tigers
Skip James: Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers
Howlin’ Wolf: The Back Door Wolf
Felix Kubin: Teenage Tapes
Mars: Live at Irving Plaza
Pye Corner Audio: Black Mill Tapes Vol 1 & 2
Brenda Ray: D’Ya Hear Me!: Naffi Years 1979-83
Pierre Schaeffer: Le Triedre fertile
Six Organs of Admittance: Ascent
Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Second Stop is Jupiter

*plus many more

FEATURED VINTAGE ARRIVALS
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Prabhupada: Krsna Meditation
Ben Harper: Whipping Boy (12”)
Doors: s/t (EKS-74007, VG+ 1971 press)
Lars Gullin: The Great Lars Gullin Vol. 1 (w/ Chet Baker & Dick Twardzik)
Lou Reed: s/t
The Love Generation: s/t
Mobb Deep: Survival of the Fittest (12”)
Television Personalities: Made in Japan (w/ original 7”!)
The White Stripes: De Stijl (13” Limited Edition - Unplayed)
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (13” Limited Edition - Unplayed)
2000 Dirty Squatters: Squat the Lot
V/A: What It Is! - Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (25x7” Box Set - Sealed!)
Zwan: Mary Star Of The Sea

*plus many more

NEW CANADIAN / DIY ARRIVALS
Electric Voice Records
U.S. Girls: Rosemary / Sed Knife (7”)
V/A: Electric Voice Compilation (2LP)

Mag Wheel Records
The Handsome Family: My Beautiful Bride (7”)
Hardship Post: Sugarcane / Canopy (7”)
Irving Klaw Trio: Love = High (7”)
Jeremy Potter & the Tucos: Night on the Town (7”)
Spoon: Anticipation / Headz (7”)
Tricky Woo: s/t (10”)

COMING SOON… (RE-STOCKS AND RELEASES)

Animal Collective: Centipede Hz
Bohren And Der Club Of Gore: Dolores (2LP)
Charles Bradley: No Time For Dreaming (LP)
Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love (180g LP)
Bill Callahan (Smog): Apocalypse (LP)
Divine Fits (Spoon): A Thing Called Divine Fits (LP)
Germs: GI (LP)
Eddie Hazel: Games Dames And Guitar Thanks (180g LP)
Iron Maiden: Somewhere Back In Time: The Best of 1980-1989 (2LP)
Jeru The Damaja: Wrath Of The Math (LP)
Michael Kiwanuka: Home Again (LP)
Murder Construct: Results (LP)
Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine (LP)
Outkast: Stankonia (2LP)
Wilson Pickett: The Exciting Wilson Pickett (180g LP)
Primate: Draw Back A Stump
Queen: Flash Gordon (LP)
Nina Simone: Sings The Blues (180g LP)
Smiths: Hatful Of Hollow (180g LP)
Swans: Seer (Ltd. 3LP)
Thin Lizzy: S/T (180g LP)

STAFF PICKS OF THE WEEK

Electric Voice Compilation 2012 (limited to 500 copies)

Electric Voice Records is a Canadian label out of Truro, Nova Scotia.  It was started in 2009 by Matthew Samways specializing in Minimal Synth/ Industrial/ Post-Punk/ Punk.  The Electric Voice Compilation 2012 is a 2LP package with 18 hand picked eccentric gems from all over the world.  It’s a great introduction to the ears and hearts of Electric Voice.

Godspeed and good hunting,
Ian

Bill Fay: Life is People (Dead Oceans)

I first heard about Bill Fay in the 2004 Wilco documentary “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” wherein Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy performs the Fay song “Be Not So Fearful”. It is a quiet, restrained and endearing song, not unlike Tweedy’s own material. Fay, however, was a songwriter long before, having released two records in 1970 and 1971, respectively. Now, with “Life is People”, Fay returns with his first original album in over forty years. The front cover looks nearly exactly as the record sounds - Fay, leans over a piano as his shaky voice breathes into the microphone. Though his new songs are flush with modern production and a great backing band, the strength of the compositions have no trouble shining through. Fay also nails an unbelievable cover of Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” on this record.

Dig it,
Dennis

FEATURED NEW ARRIVALS / RE-STOCKS
Tortoise: Millions Now Living Will Never Die (Thrill Jockey 20th Anniversary Re-Issue)
Tortoise’s production expertise hit an early peak with Millions Now Living Will Never Die, a work that not only references studio-centric forms like dub and electronica, but actively welds them to the group’s aesthetic of sturdily constructed indie rock. The centerpiece is the 21-minute opener “Djed,” a multi-part track which brought Tortoise’s already impressive compositional abilities to a grand scale. It’s almost a history of influences in miniature, first referencing tape music and dub for several minutes, then moving on to Krautrock with a chugging section incorporating wheezing organ and understated guitar chords. Halfway through, the band takes on minimalism with repeating figures of organ and vibes, then return to the green fields of their debut with a final few minutes of moody indie rock (though even this is spiced with a scratchy rhythm and various noise effects). With “Djed,” Tortoise made experimental rock do double duty as evocative, beautiful music. The other songs on Millions Now Living are hardly afterthoughts, though; highlights “Glass Museum” and “The Taut and Tame” display the band quickly growing out of the angular indie rock ghetto with exquisite music, constructed with more thought and played with more emotion, than any of their peers.

The Books: The Lemon of Pink (Tomlab)
Like 2002’s Thought for Food, The Lemon of Pink combines experimental collage technique with an organic, folky mixture of banjo, guitar, violin, simple vocal melodies, and snippets of conversation. The title track’s straightforward, melancholic phrasing and subtle string accompaniment are not unlike Cat Power’s work with the Dirty Three, mostly due to Anne Doerner’s lovely vocals, or the more ambitiously pop elements of Chicago post-rock. The song sprawls into a low-intensity instrumental collage where silence and elements of timbre cut through the melody to create glitches in an otherwise tranquil environment. The sample for sample’s sake kitsch that has dragged down quite a few artists is not a problem here — wonderfully wrought clips like the welcoming voice on “Tokyo” make the rhythm of speaking into a fetish, toying with it, breaking it, and building it back. This is also used, less effectively, on tracks like “Take Time,” where a simple phrase becomes an unphased minimalist backdrop for experimentation. It isn’t often that one finds an American artist with such a mastery of collage technique and a desire to incorporate traditional folk instruments and melodies.

Polmo Polpo: Like Hearts Swelling (Constellation)
Built on foundations of multi-layered full-spectrum drones and loops, the music of Polmo Polpo is distinguished by slide guitar motifs that are more naive pop pastoral than spaghetti western. Opening track “Romeo Heart” builds inexorably from silence to jet-engine pink noise squall, coaxed along by descending bass and guitar lines — an excellent introduction to a record that gains emotional resonance and structural complexity with every song. “Requiem For A Fox” introduces the techno-inflected, underwater heartbeat pulse that marks much of Sandro’s earlier work, with whirring ring tones, detuned filters and a sardonic melody gradually giving way to the jauntier acoustic guitar groove and exuberant slide solo at song’s end. “Farewell” is a darker interlude rounding out side one, worked up on bowed bass, cello and timpani-sized drum samples. “Sky Histoire” has the most overt rhythmic foundation of any Polmo Polpo track to date, anchored by brilliant interweaving bass and string lines while leaving plenty of room for guitars and keyboards to soar. The juxtaposition of melodic figures as the song hits maximum density is glorious, fittingly giving way to a reprise complete with celebratory bells and chimes.

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