Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
Death Cab For Cutie – We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes
Animal Collective – Feels
Masters Of The Hemisphere – Protest a Dark Anniversary
The Helio Sequence – Young Effectuals
The Shins – Oh, Inverted World
Spoon – Kill the Moonlight
Slowreader – Self-Titled
The Decemberists – Picaresque
Bright Eyes – Fevers and Mirrors
Previous SOME (SMORKIN’) BUNNY LOVES YOU IN THE RECORD EXCHANGE GIFT SHOP
RECORD EXCHANGE STAFF PICKS OF THE DECADE: SPECIAL GUEST BEN WILSON
March 31, 2010
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RECORD EXCHANGE BEST OF THE DECADE SALE COMES TO A CLOSE
March 30, 2010
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The Record Exchange’s Best of the Decade Sale comes to a close on March 31. If you’ve already taken advantage of this special sale, good on you; if you haven’t, the big ball is about to drop Dick Clark style on these killer deals, and we won’t have a sale like this for another decade.
Two dozen albums from the Aughts are on sale at The Record Exchange through the 31st, sale-priced for rediscovery, playing catch-up or buying for a friend who needs to be turned on to a recent classic they’ve yet to hear.
Sale albums include favorites from Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Strokes, Arcade Fire, Beck, Jay-Z, Flaming Lips, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Neko Case, Kanye and others.
If you’ve been paying attention to our social media, you already know that we’ve been sharing our individual staff picks (plus some special guests from the community) from the past decade. We have a few more to post, then we’re moving on to the next decade — all three months of it.
THE VINYL WORD: AFRO-ROCK VOLUME ONE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON WAX!
March 30, 2010
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Afro Rock Volume One is one of the most important compilations of heavy original ’70s Afro funk and soul to be released in recent years. Originally surfacing on Duncan Brooker’s indie Kona label in early 2001, the album single-handedly kick-started the thirst among jazz, funk and soul fans and diggers to rediscover lost music from Africa made during the ’60s and ’70s from a time when many countries were gaining independence and celebrating a Pan-African identity within their music.
The album was one of the first to reach a far different audience in the traditional world music market and spawned many further projects and labels in its wake. A year later, the Nigeria 70 compilation surfaced on Strut, and labels like Soundway and Analog Africa would continue to unearth amazing lost gems from the Motherland. Out of print since 2002, the album is being reissued on Strut in its original form with an extra bonus track, a dynamite unreleased psychedelic cut by Kenya’s Ishmael Jingo.
BUY THE VINYL HERE
OTHER VINYL RECOMMENDATIONS:
Holly Golightly Medicine County
Beirut Lon Gisland
Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Steps Ahead
Manassas Pieces
Various Artists Up in the Air OST
Graham Parker Imaginary Television
Stephen Stills Manassas
DUM DUM GIRLS AND OTHER NEW RECOMMENDATIONS
“For those dissenters who accused LA’s Dum Dum Girls of riding on the coat-tails of similarly suffixed gal-pals Vivian Girls, it’s time to eat your words. It may have been a long time coming, but the debut album from this West Coast four-piece proves that despite sharing an obsession with fuzz, the Mary Chain and Shangri-Las melodies with their contemporaries, Dum Dum Girls are very much their own women. With I Will Be (Sub Pop), they unfurl a sound far more intricate and subtle than their Brooklyn rivals.” – Ash Dosanjh, NME
BUY THE CD HERE
OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:
Holly Golightly Medicine County
Erykah Badu New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh
Ghostface/Meth/Raekwon Wu Massacre
Jedi Mind Tricks Army of the Pharaohs
Barenaked Ladies All in Good Time
The Living Sisters Love to Live
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Dirty Shirt Rock ‘n’ Roll: The First Ten Years
Usher Raymond v Raymond
Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Steps Ahead
E-40 Revenue Retrievin’: Day Shift and Night Shift
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Various Reissues
Mae (A)fternoon
RECORD EXCHANGE STAFF PICKS OF THE DECADE: JOHN O’NEIL
March 29, 2010
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1. Mike Johnson – What Would You Do?
2. Joel RL Phelps & The Downer Trio – Customs
3. The Clipse – Lord Willin’
4. Ratatat – Classics
5. Hillfolk Noir – Diggin’ Songs
6. Buddy & Julie Miller – S/T
7. Sarah Harmer – You Were Here
8. Finn Riggins – A Soldier, A Saint, An Ocean Explorer
9. Danger Mouse – The Grey Album
10. Melissa Auf Der Maur – S/T
11. Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
12. The Universal – Everything Is Everywhere
Ok. So I cheated. 12 instead of 10. Boo. But I am not kidding. And I stand by the order as well. I have made top ten lists for this store for a long time, and I think all of these albums stand up really well to repeated listening. And they were all on top tens of the past. Look it up!
The top two albums go back and forth, and are interchangeable in my heart. All of their albums are indispensable to me, but What Would You Do is so solemn and heartfelt, it’s gravitas is timeless. His musings on the themes of loss and heartbreak are monumental and timeless. Customs is not easy listening, although very listenable to me. His songs are about external pressures, duty and tasks. Joel is a genius.
Even though the subject matter contained in rap CDs makes me physically ill, The Clipse and Atmosphere got a lot of play throughout the decade, and still are enjoyable listening. The Danger Mouse mash up of the White Album and Jay-Z increased my appreciation of both of those albums, although I still prefer The Grey Album to both of its sources, as well as anything Brian Burton has released since then.
The Hillfolk Noir, Finn Riggins and Universal albums are on this list because I believe them to be worthy of inclusion, not because of my high regard for them personally. Their CDs deserve to be heard. So, listen to them, go see them live, they really deliver.