1. I’m With You, Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Remember, Trans Atlantic Crush
3. Ready for Confetti, Robert Earl Keen
4. Seeds We Sow, Lindsey Buckingham
5. The Rip Tide, Beirut
6. The Future Will Destroy You, Viva Voce
7. Queen of the Minor Key, Eilen Jewell
8. Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, Ry Cooder
9. Watch the Throne, Kanye West and Jay-Z
10. The Muppets Green Album, Various Artists
11. Torches, Foster the People
12. Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town, Hank Williams III
13. In the Grace of Your Love, The Rapture
14. A Treasure, Neil Young
15. 21, Adele
16. Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns, John Hiatt
17. Major/Minor, Thrice
18. Slovo, Arkona
19. Good Bad Not Evil, Black Lips
20. Proud to Be Here, Trace Adkins
SCENES FROM THE RX SIDEWALK SALE
September 9, 2011
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Gift Shop , On Sale , The Record Exchange Blog -
by The Record Exchange
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SONIA LEIGH (ZAC BROWN OPENER) IN-STORE THURSDAY, SEPT. 15 (5 P.M.)
September 8, 2011
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Live Shows , Live@RX , The Record Exchange Blog -
by The Record Exchange
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Sonia Leigh will perform live at The Record Exchange (1105 W. Idaho St., Downtown Boise) at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15. As always, this Record Exchange in-store performance is free and all ages. Sonia Leigh is opening for the Zac Brown Band at Taco Bell Arena later that night (7 p.m.).
Record Exchange customers will have an exclusive opportunity to purchase Sonia Leigh’s new album 1978 December at the in-store 12 DAYS BEFORE RELEASE DATE!
ABOUT SONIA LEIGH
Loretta Lynn certainly didn’t know she was seeing a future opening act when she spotted a five-year-old girl in the crowd at an Alabama concert. As the story goes, during a quiet moment the enraptured child exclaimed, “now that’s country, dad!” The crowd stirred and the coal miner’s daughter herself spotted little Sonia Leigh (sonialeigh.com), then bowed and waved, laughing, before moving on to the next song.
But nearly 30 years later, that little girl opened for Lynn, winning over audiences with her gritty vocal delivery and bold, disarmingly honest songwriting. Between her childhood concerts and her rising career today as a Southern troubadour were many hard days, battle scars and dues paid. Sonia Leigh has earned every bit of soulful, lived-in authenticity her songs and performances portray.
The songs on 1978 December, Leigh’s Southern Ground debut, range from the boozy barroom sing-along of “Bar”—a throwback redolent of the less well-behaved Nashville of yesteryear—to the soulful Muscle Shoals shuffle of “I Just Might,” the acoustic groove of “Virginia” (featuring Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls) and the keenly observed country-rockin’ “My Name Is Money.”
Categorization is futile. Is it country, blues, soul or rock? The answer is yes. Is it Southern? Add an exclamation point to the prior answer.
In this Leigh has a lot in common with one of her mentors, Zac Brown, who recently signed her to his Southern Ground Artists label. Leigh has been a part of Brown’s musical family for seven years now, having met the singer/songwriter in Atlanta musical circles. Brown’s right-hand-man John Hopkins served as producer for Leigh’s independent outing Run or Surrender.
Like everything else she’s done, 1978 December is the sound of Leigh expressing her soul. It’s not calculated, focus-grouped or target-marketed. In fact, Leigh wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to do that. “It’s hard for me to just sit down and write and try to write a hit,” she says. “That’s just not me as a writer. I write about what’s happening and what I see.”
BANG YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE HEADBANGER’S WALL AT THE RX!
Do you like it hard and heavy? Then come to The Record Exchange and visit The Headbanger’s Wall, a listening station devoted to some of today’s best bands pummeling you with raw power and raw emotion.
The Headbanger’s Wall currently features Devil Wears Prada, Architects UK, All Shall Perish, ICS Vortex, Diamond Plate, Arch Enemy, Sleeping Giant, Krum Bums, We Came As Romans and Revocation. Come melt your face with us.
Purchase Headbanger’s Wall titles HERE.
CIMS HANDPICKED: TYLER THE CREATOR, VIVA VOCE AND THE HORRIBLE CROWES
TYLER, THE CREATOR
Goblin
To those who don’t follow underground hip hop, Tyler, The Creator (ringleader of the rap collective known as Odd Future) seemingly appeared fully formed in a dervish of hype and nasty tweets when, in fact, this laboriously titled group of hip hop deviants had been releasing crazy-ass mixtapes on their own for a couple of years. So now we arrive at Goblin. The album’s production came almost entirely from Tyler himself, along with contributions from fellow OFWGKTA member Left Brain. Without a doubt Goblin is meant to shock, but have no doubt that it’s the work of a mad genius. If you can separate yourself from the hype then it’s easy to see what all the uproar is about.
VIVA VOCE
The Future Will Destroy You
There are a handful of things about Viva Voce that lend themselves to a just-the-facts presentation: This songwriting team —Kevin and Anita Robinson – met and married in rural Alabama over a decade ago and made their first four-track demo as Viva Voce in 1998. As for describing the music the Robinsons make—Says Anita, “Basically, with each record we’re just trying to find a way to create the music that’s been living in our heads since the last one.” Written, performed, produced and mixed entirely by the duo at their Portland home studio, The Future Will Destroy You unquestionably serves as a showcase for Anita’s post-psychedelic guitar heroics—check out “Analog Woodland Song” and “The Wondering Soul” for some of the finest quiet-loud eruptions since the Pixies’ heyday. But the disc also emphasizes the Robinsons’ sense of songcraft like never before: You might not hear a ballad this year lovelier (or spookier) than “No Ship Coming In,” in which Anita’s vocals glide over a pool of shimmering space-roots atmospherics. And the apocalyptic title track? Let’s just say nobody’s ever made the end of civilization sound like such an appealing prospect.
THE HORRIBLE CROWES
Elsie
Most of us know Brian Fallon as the frontman for the Gaslight Anthem, an act who started out in Jersey basements and slowly built their way up to headlining New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Despite the success Fallon has had with his main band he’s always loved darker acts like the Afghan Whigs and Tom Waits. The Horrible Crowes — his new side-project alongside longtime friend Ian Perkins — is his tip of the hat to the acts who have shaped another side of his musical vision. Sonically Elsie sees Fallon stretching out musically in ways that might surprise longtime fans of his writing. Elsie is also the most personal release of Fallon’s career, and while the Gaslight Anthem’s music is loaded with characters and iconography, this album sees Fallon stripping back the metaphors to put it all on the line. “There’s only one character here and it’s about me.” While drug addictions, ex-girlfriends and religion all creep their way into these songs, Elsie isn’t a linear album as much as it is a catalog of experiences that are conveyed in a way that was equally as cathartic for Fallon to create as it will inevitably be for his listeners to hear.