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GIVE THE GIFT OF MUSIC AT THE RX: HUNDREDS OF TITLES $9.99 OR LESS THROUGH JAN. 31; GREAT V-DAY GIFTS!

January 12, 2011 - On Sale , Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

Yes, Christmas is over. But it’s not too late to Give the Gift of Music at The Record Exchange — if you act fast, in fact, you could get your Valentine’s Day shopping done early and save mad bank.

Now through Jan. 31, The Record Exchange has hundreds of new CDs, including dozens of 2010 best sellers, sale-priced at $9.99 or less. See, 10 bucks still does go a long way.

Here’s a partial list of Record Exchange Give the Gift of Music titles:

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Avi Buffalo – Avi Buffalo
Bobby Bare Jr. – A Storm, A Tree, My Mother’s Head
Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked for the Holidays
Beach House – Teen Dream
Best Coast – Crazy For You
The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
The Black Keys – Brothers
Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
The Books – The Way Out
Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova – One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Swim
Caribou – Swim
Charlatans UK – Who We Touch
!!! (Chk Chk Chk) – Strange Weather, Isn’t It?
Colour Revolt – Cradle
The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards
Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Devo – Something for Everybody
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
Dungen – Skit I Allt
Everest – On Approach
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Merle Haggard – I Am What I Am
Hey Marseilles – To Travels and Trunks
Ingram Hill – Look Your Best
Sarah Jaffe – Suburban Nature
Jenny and Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – Greatest Hits
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – I Learned the Hard Way
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – Naturally
Jonsi – Go
Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin
The Living Sisters – Love to Live
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
Maps & Atlas – Perch Patchwork
Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
The National – High Violet
Of Montreal – False Priest
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Josh Ritter – So Runs the World Away
She & Him – Volume 2
Spoon – Transference
Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
The Sword – Warp Riders
The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
Trampled By Turtles – Palomino
Underworld – Barking
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Various Artists – Daptone Gold
Versus – On the Ones and Threes
Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation
Wolf Parade – Expo 86
The xx – XX

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CAKE AND OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE RECORD EXCHANGE!

January 11, 2011 - On Sale , Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

BUY THE CD HERE
BUY THE VINYL HERE

Only Cake’s John McCrea could coax a song with the fuddy-duddy title “Federal Funding” into such witty existence. The opening track to their sixth studio album starts with some crud-covered guitar and the deadpan lyric, “You’ll receive the federal funding; you can add another wing.” It’s a cocky strut made for those thankless academics lobbying for grant money. University proles, congrats! Cake has elevated your career to the same status as the swaggering pimp in gangsta rap.

Its first album since 2004, Showroom of Compassion finds the Northern Californian outfit in toned condition, turning out polished compositions that could fit in with its classic catalog (strong with hits like “Short Skirt Long Jacket”) but updated with a few new twists. Also, the same notion of edginess that blessed and cursed other ‘90s bands like Soul Coughing (ahem: the semi-spoken vocals thing) has been nicely mellowed out. As ever before, Cake romps with whatever genre — pickled ska, roughshod country, even a rare snippet of Chopin-like classical piano — in its indie folk mash.

Recorded in the band’s own solar-powered studio in Sacramento over a period of some two years, each song on Showroom of Compassion sounds nurtured into its ideal state. The positive-minded “What’s Now Is Now,” with its chirping birds, strings and synth burbles, has almost a utopian, ‘70s AM rock glisten to it. Could a song developed off the city’s energy grid, literally soaked in sunshine, sound any other way?— Los Angeles Times

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

Tapes ‘N Tapes Outside
British Sea Power Valhalla Dancehall
Lynyrd Skynyrd Skynyrd Nation
Abigail Washburn City of Refuge
N.E.R.D. The Best of N.E.R.D.
Louis C.K. Hilarious
Alter Bridge Live from Amsterdam
Lee Dorsey Absolutely the Best
Shackleton Fabric 55
Zyklon Storm Manifesto

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GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS RECORD EXCHANGE IN-STORE JAN. 22!

January 11, 2011 - Live Shows , Live@RX , On Sale , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments
94.9 FM The River presents Grace Potter and the Nocturnals live at The Record Exchange (1105 W. Idaho St., Downtown Boise) at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22. As always, this Record Exchange in-store performance is free and all ages.

Listen to River Mornings with Ken and Tim for a chance to win tickets to Grace Potter’s Jan. 22 concert at The Knitting Factory, plus VIP passes to the RX in-store! VIP in-store guests will have access to an exclusive viewing area in front of the stage, first-in-line privileges for the post-performance CD signing with Grace and a beverage from the RX espresso and soda bar!

If you buy Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ latest album Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at the in-store (on sale for $9.99), we’ll give you a FREE TICKET (while supplies last) to the Knitting Factory show courtesy of your friends at The Record Exchange and The Knitting Factory!

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (gracepotter.com) are like a modern-day version of Tina Turner stroking the microphone in a spangled mini-dress while fronting the Rolling Stones circa Sticky Fingers. The proof is there for all to hear on the band’s third album for Hollywood Records, which marks an artistic breakthrough for a vital young band caught in the act of fulfilling its immense promise. Little wonder that Grace and her cohorts have chosen to title it, directly and emphatically, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

“This record is the first time it’s really been us — the first time we’ve all found each other and ourselves,” says Potter with obvious excitement. “Everybody was totally comfortable, everything we had was sitting right in front of us, and it just poured out of us. The whole thing was fluid and effortless. In my mind, an album shouldn’t be self-titled unless it feels that way.

Produced by Mark Batson (Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Dave Matthews Band), who also co-wrote six of the 13 songs with Potter, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals introduces the Vermont-based band’s new five-piece configuration, in which keyboard specialist Potter, lead guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr are joined by bassist Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Hem) and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, who also plays with Tournet and Burr in the GPN side project Blues & Lasers.

“We had a stylistic epiphany,” Potter says of her band’s exponential leap. “We realized we’re not the kind of band that’s ever gonna fit neatly in one genre, and this time we just let the songs be the songs. We just naturally wound up playing them in a certain way — they all have that beat to them, a physicality and a mood. You have to either want to dance to it or cry to it. But there’s also a feistiness to these songs that’s completely unapologetic.”

Though GPN initially made a name for themselves — and became a self-sufficient touring unit — on the jam-band circuit, the group’s sound was deeply rooted in the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll; they cite Little Feat and J.J. Cale as huge influences early on. Burr and Potter formed the earliest version of the Nocturnals while both were students at St. Lawrence University after he introduced her to the myriad joys of The Last Waltz. So it was that the two soon-to-be bandmates and soulmates formed their bond while in the thrall of The Band, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. All in all, not a bad place to start.

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NEW RELEASE OF THE WEEK: CAGE THE ELEPHANT’S ‘SOLID SECOND STEP’

January 11, 2011 - On Sale , Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

BUY THE CD HERE
BUY THE VINYL HERE
FREE LIMITED-EDITION COLOR LITHOGRAPH WITH PURCHASE!

It’s not that Cage the Elephant has “grown up” since their first album and followed it with a sophomore effort that’s just a stronger extension of the first, because in some ways, Thank You Happy Birthday is the lyrical antithesis of their debut. The self-titled first recording, rife with hit singles, harbored some very general frustrations with the ways of the world, while Thank You scrubs off a lot of youthful angst, turns the pointing finger around, and examines problems more personal to the songwriter. Matt Shultz sings about music industry tricks, TV ad poison and stereotypical hipster self-aware B.S. in a punk-funk mash-up that, on this album, leans more towards punk with occasional glimpses of their southern roots, and an obvious appreciation for the Pixies.

Shultz alternates a scratchy, expressive yowl, much like The Whigs’ Parker Gispert, with aggressive Frank Black vocals, and the instrumentation similarly juggles abrasive with soft. While the fuzzy, foreboding opener “Always Something” is intense and has a vague dance vibe, “Aberdeen” loosens up with a hooky melody and chipper bass line. Unsteady highs and lows are found in the grungy Beatles-like single “Shake Me Down,” in which the guitars create a sorrowful tick tock amidst a rolling drum cascade (drummer Jared Champion implemented a toy drum for this one).

Even traces of post-hardcore sneak in like on the bruising, adrenaline-pumped “Sell Yourself,” which is countered by the reeling 3/4 time strumming of “Rubber Ball.” More Pixies influence is found in “Sabertooth Tiger,” though its angry, buzzing riffs could also belong to The White Stripes. It’s “Paper Cut (Walk Around My Head)” that sounds as if it could have slipped right off of Doolittle, and it’s also one of the best on the album, along with the wiry plucking and layered percussion of “Flow.” It all seems more diverse than it actually sounds, and true, the band borrows plenty, including some room to play around with the sound, but Thank You Happy Birthday transcends its genres, and would be better simply labeled as a solid second step. — American Songwriter

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RECORD EXCHANGE TOP 25 SELLERS (WEEK ENDING JAN. 9)

January 10, 2011 - The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

1. Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons
2. God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise, Ray LaMontagne
3. Brothers, The Black Keys
4. Lungs, Florence and the Machine
5. Live at Grimey’s, Metallica
6. Tron: Legacy Soundtrack, Daft Punk
7. Junky Star, Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses
8. Contra, Vampire Weekend
9. Phosphene Dream, The Black Angels
10. Le Noise, Neil Young
11. Live at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, Hillfolk Noir
12. Light You Up, Shawn Mullins
13. Back in the Fire, Robin Rogers
14. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
15. Come Around Sundown, Kings of Leon
16. This is Happening, LCD Soundsystem
17. Endlessly, Duffy
18. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West
19. Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj
20. Ragged But Right, The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band
21. Born Free, Kid Rock
22. The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Loreena McKennitt
23. Vintage Vinos, Keith Richards
24. Speak Now, Taylor Swift
25. 1962-1966 (The Red Album), The Beatles

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