RECORD EXCHANGE STAFF PICK: MATT THE INTERN ON WILD NOTHING’S ‘GEMINI’

Wild Nothing‘s Gemini — you may have heard about it in the blogosphere — has been on heavy rotation at The Record Exchange, and Matt the Intern is here to tell you why:

So far 2010 has been a big year for bedroom pop, yet nothing has been quite as magical as Wild Nothing’s Gemini.

Meet Jack Tatum, the early twenty-year-old behind Wild Nothing who draws influences from his daydreams and the time of the ’80s. Tatum centers around his dreams, which tend to be gloomy, singing of love, loss, and escape. Musically, Wild Nothing’s sound is ethereal, dreamy guitar pop, hinting back to the styles of My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins and Johnny Marr.

Tatum’s congenital songcrafting could be the greatest element about Wild Nothing. From the first listen, it’s striking to hear such wonderful arrangements, and soon the songs make their way into everyday life. Gemini is an instant classic. It’s an album for the hopeful and the sad. Though this record is usually found in my daily rotation, I find it best on a drive through the rain or on a night walk in the pleasant summer air.

The Record Exchange has Gemini available in the store on CD and vinyl, or you can download it from our ThinkIndie Digital Store HERE.

THE VINYL WORD: GOGOL BORDELLO AND A HANDFUL OF NOTABLE RELEASES

Trans-Continental Hustle, the fifth studio album from the alt-rock outfit Gogol Bordello, is now available on vinyl. Produced by Grammy award-winning producer Rick Rubin, Trans-Continental Hustle combines the band’s radical invocations of positive primal energy and planetary consciousness with music infused with punk, ska, soul, rap, dub and intimations of indigenous Brazilian sounds to produce a party maelstrom of electrifying proportions. Led by revolutionary change agent and provocateur Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello, a nine-piece juggernaut of gypsy rebel soul, has become an international force to be reckoned with.

BUY THE VINYL HERE

OTHER NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Devo Something for Everybody
Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty
The Books The Way Out
Sleigh Bells Treats
The National Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
Herbie Hancock Imagine Project
Cornelius Gum

THE VINYL WORD: R.E.M.’S CLASSIC REMASTERED ON 180 GRAM VINYL

Fables of Reconstruction finds R.E.M.‘s star rising fast. With major label world domination still comfortably off in the future, the band was still experimenting; their jangly frenetic sound was deepening by fathoms, and Michael Stipe’s formless rants were solidifying (his diction was improving, too, which only served to clarify his prodigious poetic gift). The album featured some of the group’s most solid pop songcraft to date, as well as some pretty heady meandering (“Feeling Gravity’s Pull”).

Fables of Reconstruction produced some important hits for the group at this crucial juncture of its career. Radio staples like “Driver 8” kept them popular with the increasingly important college crowd (heretofore their bread and butter), while the crisp, jumpy and irresistibly catchy “Can’t Get There From Here” brought them to a new level on the now-essential music video playlists. Diehard fans, however, were drawn to some quintessential R.E.M. moments–the overlapping vocals of “Maps And Legends” and the wistful, soaring “Wendel Gee,” the album’s real gem, a disarming, dreamy, instant classic.

BUY THE 24-BIT DIGITALLY REMASTERED 180 GRAM VINYL HERE

OTHER NEW NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul
M.I.A. Maya
Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hitek Revolutions Per Minute
Sonic Youth Confusion Is Sex
Walkmen You & Me (Re-Issue)
Kansas Leftoverture
Deep Purple Made In Japan
Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants

NEW RELEASE OF THE WEEK: DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE’S DEBUT!

Dark Night of the Soul, written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse: At one point faced the possibility of NEVER being released due do a dispute with record label EMI. Today, the album is making it’s much anticipated/celebrated debut! In 2006 Sparklehorse wrote a number of songs he wasn’t comfortable singing. The solution, bring in an all-star cast including:

James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.

BUY THE CD HERE
BUY THE VINYL HERE

RX INDIE STORE EXCLUSIVES: VINYL HALF-SPEED MASTERS AND MORE!

What is a Record Exchange exclusive? It’s a CD, vinyl LP, 7-inch, DVD or other product you can only find at the RX — no big box, corporate record store chain or uncle’s basement will have it. Well, unless your uncle’s cool and bought it at The Record Exchange.

We have tons of new exclusives this week, including a huge stock of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab half-speed master vinyl LPs! See The Vinyl Word for more info.

NEW EXCLUSIVES:

Beck Sea Change half-speed master vinyl LP
Cowboy Junkies Whites Off Earth Now! half-speed master vinyl LP
Elvis Costello My Aim Is True half-speed master vinyl LP
Faith No More Angel Dust half-speed master vinyl LP
Megadeth Countdown to Extinction half-speed master vinyl LP
Pixies Surfer Rosa half-speed master vinyl LP
Pixies Doolittle half-speed master vinyl LP
Bad Brains Live at CBGB 1982 vinyl LP
Builders and the Butchers Where the Roots All Grow CD
Earl Greyhound Soft Targets CD
Filter Inevitable Relapse 7-inch
Junip (Jose Gonzalez) Rope and Summit vinyl LP
Matthew Ryan Dear Lover Acoustic Version CD
Via Audio Animalore CD and vinyl LP

OTHER RECENT EXCLUSIVES:

William Fitzsimmons Derivatives CD
Donavon Frankenreiter Revisited CD
Guggenheim Grotto Universe is Laughing CD
Hurricane Bells Tonight is the Ghost CD
I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business The World We Know CD
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds The Mercy Seat 12-inch (limited edition white vinyl!)
STS9 Ad Explorata vinyl LP
The Glitch Mob Drink the Sea CD
Mz Streamz It’s Alive CD
Shannon McNally Coldwater CD
Snow and Voices Anything That Moves CD
Toots and the Maytals Flip and Twist CD
Record Store Day exclusives. We still have limited quantities left of select titles!
Nirvana In Utero 180-gram yellow colored vinyl LP
Nirvana MTV Unplugged 180-gram red colored vinyl LP
Nirvana Nevermind colored vinyl LP
Slacktone Warning: Reverb Instrumentals CD
Randall Bramlett The Meantime CD
Lou Reed Satellite Of Love 7-inch
The Replacements I’ll Be You 7-inch
The Ramones California Sun 7-inch
Kate Nash My Best Friend is You Indie Store Version with bonus track.
The Ravenna Colt Slight Spell CD and vinyl LP.
Vampire Weekend Contra indie-store version bundled with a limited-edition bonus CD featuring three exclusive tracks!
BlakRoc BlakRoc CD and vinyl LP, ONLY VERSION WITH LUDACRIS/ODB TRACK “COOCHIE” and it’s going quickly! Get it while you can — very limited quantities remaining of this first pressing!
Old Crow Medicine Show Greetings From Wawa limited-edition CD reissue.
DJ Shadow In L.A. 10-31-09 CD
Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales limited-edition CD
Josh Ritter Hello Starling vinyl/double CD reissue
The Beatles Abbey Road vinyl box (w/ t-shirt and poster)
Zac Brown Band Live From Bonnaroo CD EP