The Record Exchange has a monumental birthday this year, and Idaho’s largest independent record store is celebrating our 33 1/3 Anniversary all month long with in-store concerts, giveaways and eight days of special 33% off sales.
But first things first: Why 33 1/3? If you’re into records, you already know the answer — 33 1/3 is the speed at which a 12-inch vinyl record typically plays. But the number also is relevant to the store’s history, as we first opened our doors in 1977 and have remained a Downtown Boise cultural hub ever since.
Purchase a Record Exchange 33 1/3 Anniversary commemorative T-shirt (pictured above) designed by our contest winner Angelina Briggs! (We liked her design so much we commissioned her to create our 33 1/3 Anniversary poster.)
Tune in to 94.9 FM The River for special Record Exchange 33 1/3 Anniversary programming all week long!
The 33 1/3 Anniversary celebration reaches its climax Sept. 22-29, when The Record Exchange will offer customers daily giveaways and a special 33% off sale* for eight straight days:
Wednesday, Sept. 22: 33% off anything in the store
Thursday, Sept. 23: 33% off used CDs
Friday, Sept. 24: 33% off used DVD/Blu-ray
Saturday, Sept. 25: 33% off used vinyl under $50
Sunday, Sept. 26: 33% off gift items in the RX Gift Shop
Monday, Sept. 27: 33% off apparel
Tuesday, Sept. 28: 33% off music accessories (including turntables)
Wednesday, Sept. 29: 33% off new CDs
* Discount will be honored on up to three items each day; excludes sale and clearance.
33 1/3 ANNIVERSARY IN-STORE CONCERTS AND EVENTS:
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Wednesday, Sept. 22 (6 p.m.)
Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social, Saturday, Sept. 25 (4 p.m.)
Alive After Five Record Exchange Party featuring BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Wednesday, Sept. 29 (5 p.m.), The Grove Plaza
Ned Evett and Dan Costello, Sunday, Oct. 3 (4 p.m.)
The Devil Makes Three, Wednesday, Oct. 6 (6 p.m.)
Blitzen Trapper, Wednesday, Oct. 20 (6 p.m.)
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band will perform live at The Record Exchange at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22. As always, this Record Exchange in-store concert is free and all ages. We’re giving away a pair of tickets to the Promenade Music Festival during the in-store!
There aren’t a lot of Warped Tour vets who can claim proficiency in the use of washboards, bottleneck slides and five-gallon buckets. Most didn’t spend their teens playing along to Charlie Patton and Bukka White albums. And just about none are fronted by a commissioned member of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels.
But the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, who appeared on the 2009 and 2010 Warped Tours, are all that and more. With wild sing-a-longs and flaming washboards, their live shows have been converting skeptics left and right.
With the release of The Wages, the soulful, swinging country-blues trio proves they’re more than just a world class live band. Their second album for SideOneDummy Records, it was produced by Paul Mahern (Zero Boys, John Mellencamp) and recorded in the band’s Big Damn Tradition: live in the studio with no overdubs on honest-to-goodness analog tape.
Appropriate to our times, The Wages is thematically rooted in the blues tradition of hard-bitten reality matched with enduring optimism.
There are songs that deal with crystal meth abuse and the disappearance of the American family farm (“In a Holler Over There”), the cost of living (“Everything’s Raising”), unrequited love (“Sure Feels Like Rain”) and, of course, murder (“Lick Creek Road”).
But the Reverend’s brood also celebrates rural life on “Born Bred Corn Fed,” serves up danceable sing-a-longs like “Clap Your Hands,” and offers renewed hope for hard times in “Just Getting By.”
The Big Damn Band is very much a family affair, with the good reverend on finger-style resonator guitar and lead vocals, his wife “Washboard” Breezy Peyton on washboard and vocals, and distant cousin Aaron “Cuz” Persinger on drums and bucket. The band’s home base is deep in the hills of Southern Indiana’s Brown County, which boasts a population of 14,957. (Or 14,954 when the band’s out on the road playing close to 250 gigs a year, including appearances at the Austin City Limits festival and tours with Flogging Molly, Derek Trucks and Clutch.)
“I grew up in the country, and rural life and rural culture has shaped me and my music,” says Reverend Peyton, who really is a Kentucky Colonel, just like Elvis Presley, Roy Rogers and Tiger Woods. “I have been playing music since I was a little kid. I am pretty sure we are on to something now.”
That combination of authenticity and originality is evident throughout The Wages, driven by the trio’s big damn vocals and melodies, gutbucket guitar playing, and foot-stomping rhythms, all in service of songs that are honest and moving, devoid of irony or artifice.
“We may be few in numbers, but we sound big,” says Washboard Breezy. “And I think we stand for something big, too. Even if sometimes it’s just that it is okay to be a regular person.”
Atmosphere will visit The Record Exchange for a meet and greet at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19. As always, this Record Exchange in-store event is free and all-ages!
The underground hip-hop heavyweights, in town for a Sept. 20 show at the Knitting Factory, will meet with fans and sign autographs. You’ll also have an exclusive opportunity to purchase the band’s tour-only EP, To All My Friends: Blood Makes the Blade Holy, featuring all-new material recorded in early 2010!
The Record Exchange and Knitting Factory also will be giving away a pair of tickets to the show and offering a wicked awesome Rhymesayers tote bag (filled with stickers and patches) to the first 10 people to purchase tickets at the meet and greet. To get the tote, give your helpful Record Exchange clerk the password “friends” whilst purchasing your ticket.
Twelve years after becoming the first hip-hop act to put the Twin Cities on the map, Atmosphere has grown into one of the most accomplished MC/producer duos around. Between Slug and Ant, they’ve released seven albums, 13 Sad Clown tour albums and various side-projects like Felt — amounting in well over a million units sold. And along the way have performed to sold-out crowds everywhere from modest sized venues in their hometown to colossal festivals in Japan.
Since releasing their 1997 debut, Overcast!, Ant’s ASR-born melodic beats and Slug’s open book and observational style of rapping continues to evolve into hip-hop that’s more honest — more textured. And the praise for these Rhymesayers pioneers hasn’t stopped flowing in. As Rolling Stone once gushed about Slug, “This Minneapolis indie rap hero has potential to spare, delivering taut, complex rhyme narratives with everyman earnestness.” Or as the Village Voice once wrote of Ant, “His dusty grooves are hooky and R&B-informed, and even when they back up Slug’s most maniacally depressed rhymes, they never feel heavy-handed.”
While Slug’s name has become synonymous with introspective rap, the new revelatory recording process with Ant inspired the MC to open up his subject matter well beyond his own life. In fact, their latest release When Life Gives You Lemons… is entirely based around fictional narratives that deal with societal issues — many that revolve around the theme of parenthood. To accompany the release, the album was issued with a limited 40-page hard cover book that includes a children’s story by Slug in addition to all of the lyrics. And this was done in part to celebrate Slug’s growth as a writer. ”This time around I really did force myself to try and write these stories as if I was writing a book or short stories and just trying to figure out how to put them into music,” says Slug.
September is here, and so is The Record Exchange 33 1/3 Anniversary! This month-long celebration includes tons of in-store events, giveaways, sales and merry mirth-making.
To start, we have tons of in-store concerts and events scheduled and more to announce shortly. Here’s what on tap thus far: (more…)
The first person to send an email with the subject “Chemical Brothers”