2010 is going to start off right, with some highly-anticipated releases – here’s a taste of what you can expect in January… (obviously, all release dates are subject to change…)

Animal Collective – Campfire Songs CD re-issue (01/26)

Beach House – Teen Dream CD/DVD, LP (01/26)

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee – Into The Wild CD, LP (01/26)

The Black Keys – Rubber Factory LP re-issue (01/19)

Blockhead – The Music Scene CD, LP (01/12)

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Road CD (01/12)

Chicago Underground Duo – Boca Negra CD, LP (01/26)

Citay – Dream Get Together CD, LP (01/26)

Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself EP CD, LP (01/19)

Keb Darge & Paul Weller – Lost and Found: Real R&B and Soul CD, LP (01/19)

Doom – Gazzillion Ear LP (01/12)

The Editors – In This Light and On This Evening CD (01/19)

Eels – End Times CD (01/19)

Final Fantasy – Heartland CD, LP (01/12)

Four Tet – There Is Love In You CD, LP (01/26)

Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM CD, LP (01/26)

Gang Gang Dance – God’s Money LP (01/26)

Patty Griffin – Downtown Church CD (01/26)

Harvey Milk – Harvey Milk CD (01/26)

Heartless Bastards – Stairs and Elevators LP (01/19)

Etienne Jaumet – Night Music LP (01/12)

Jeff The Brotherhood – Heavy Days CD (01/05)

Fela Kuti – Music Is The Weapon DVD (01/19)

Lindstrom and Christabelle – Real Life Is No Cool CD, LP (01/19)

Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring CD, LP (01/26)

The Magnetic Fields – Realism CD, LP (01/26)

Major Stars – Return To Form CD, LP (01/19)

Scout Niblett – Calcination Of Scout Niblett CD, LP (01/19)

Pit Er Pat – The Flexible Entertainer CD, LP (01/26)

Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea CD (01/26)

Jay Reatard – Blood Visions LP (01/19)

Red Krayola – Five American Portraits CD, LP (01/19)

Retribution Gospel Choir – 2 CD, LP (01/26)

Max Richter – Memoryhouse LP (01/26)

The Rolling Stones CD re-issues (01/31)

Matthew Shipp – 4D CD (01/26)

Spoon -  Transference CD, LP (01/19)

Ringo Starr – Y Not CD, LP (01/19)

Vampire Weekend – Contra CD, LP (01/12)

Various Artists – Good God!: Born Again Funk CD, LP (01/26)

OLIVIA

Favorite Albums of ‘09:

Gossip – Music for Men
Mirah – (a)spera
St. Vincent – Actor
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
Those Darlins – Those Darlins
Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light
Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
PJ Harvey and John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By

Favorite Shows of ‘09:

Leonard Cohen @ TPAC
Joan Baez @ TPAC
Mirah @ Mercy Lounge
St. Vincent @ Mercy Lounge
Sonic Youth @ War Memorial

LOUIS

Favorite Albums of ‘09:

Little Dragon – Machine Dreams
Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue
The XX – XX
Tortoise – Beacons Of Ancestorship
Atlas Sound – Logos
St. Vincent – Actor
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Life On Earth – A Space Water Loop
Courtney Tidwell – Boys
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – S/T
The Horrors – Primary Colours
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Soul
The Clonious – Behind The Dots
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
Washed Out – Life Of Leisure EP
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Best Re-issues of ‘09:

Morphine – Yes (Rhino)
Jesus Lizard catalog (Touch & Go)
M83 catalog (Mute)
Pavement re-issues (Matador)
Pulp – This Is Hardcore (Plain)

Favorite Shows of ‘09:

The Jesus Lizard @ Exit/IN
Black Moth Super Rainbow & School Of Seven Bells @ Exit/IN
Tallest Man On Earth @ Exit/IN
De La Soul w/ Nomo @ Mercy Lounge
Sonic Youth @ War Memorial

MATT

Favorite Albums of ‘09:

Isis – Wavering Radiant
Big Business – Mind the Drift
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
Soulsavers – Broken
Earth – Radio Live
Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom: Live
Melvins – Chicken Switch
Mars Volta – Octahedron
Pelican – What We All Come to Need
Black Math Horseman – Wyllt

Favorite Shows of ‘09:

Jesus Lizard @ Exit/In
Them Crooked Vultures @ War Memorial
Jandek @ The Basement
Mouth Of The Architect @ The End
Jucifer @ Exit/In

ANDREW

Favorite Albums of ‘09:

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
St. Vincent – Actor
Tortoise – Beacons Of Ancestorship
Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
The XX – XX
Cotton Jones – Paranoid Cocoon
Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Tom Waits – Glitter And Doom: Live
Atlas Sound – Logos
Beirut – March Of The Zapotec
Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins – Fascinating Fingers
Doom – Born Like This
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Cass McCombs – Catacombs
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Best Re-issues of ‘09:

24-Carat Black -Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday (Numero Group)
Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson (Light In The Attic)

Favorite Shows of ‘09:

David Byrne @ Bonnaroo
Al Green @ Bonnaroo
Black Moth Super Rainbow & School Of Seven Bells @ Exit/In
Andrew Bird & St. Vincent @ Ryman Auditorium
Cotton Jones @ Sky House
Tallest Man On Earth @ Exit/In

CHRIS

Favorite Albums of ‘09:

Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
Built To Spill – There Is No Enemy
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
The Black Crowes – Before The Frost/Until The Freeze
St. Vincent – Actor
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
The Features – Some Kind Of Salvation
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
MV & EE – Drone Trailer
Circulatory System – Signal Morning
Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Favorite Shows of ‘09:

The Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Exit/In
St. Vincent @ Mercy Lounge
Built To Spill @ Southgate House (Newport, KY)
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros @ 3rd & Lindsely
Gwar @ Exit/In

This friday, get a head start on your holiday shopping (or just treat yourself) and stop by The Groove for savings on tons of items throughout the store:

**10% off all new CDs + LPs

**15% off all used CDs + LPs

**Books: buy one, get one* 50% off
*(of equal or lesser value)

**sale does not include already discounted items

VINYL RELEASES:

Baroness – Blue Record (2x LP)

The Black Diamond Heavies – Alive As F*ck: Masonic Lodge, Covington, KY
Recorded live on a hot-ass night of July the 24th 2009 at Dr. Johnny Walker’s (Soledad Brothers/Cut In the Hill Gang) flat in Covington, Kentucky, this is the BLACK DIAMOND HEAVIES absolutely live and kicking out the jam Southern style. The album is a vinyl only release pressed on BLUE VINYL and LIMITED to 1000 copies

Blakroc – Blakroc (11/27 release)
Only available at indie record stores (with a Black Friday release date) this project was organized by hip-hop mogul Damon Dash and pairs The Black Keys with some of hip-hop’s biggest names – including Q-Tip, Mos Def, Ludacris, RZA, Jim Jones and Pharoahe Monch…

Boris – Japanese Heavy Rock Hits #3
This all new 7″, along with the rest of the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Series are gonna be must haves for all fans of Boris, Southern Lord, and all tings heavy! This is the final chapter in the 7″ trilogy to be released by Boris before year’s end. Features all new Boris recordings

Brimstone Howl – Big Deal (What’s He Done Lately?)

Bob Dylan – Christmas In The Heart (180g)
Christmas In The Heart, his 47th album and first Christmas release. In a commitment to ending hunger, all of Bob Dylan’s U.S. current and future royalties from sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated in perpetuity to Feeding America (http://www.feedingamerica.org), guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to over 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season. 15 classic Christmas songs done only as Dylan can do

Matt & Kim – Matt & Kim

Paramore – Brand New Eyes
Over 2 million records sold, three gold and one platinum single, a gold DVD release, countless sold out tour dates and numerous awards and nominations including the 2008 Grammy Nomination For “Best New Artist” Award, you can say that Paramore has reached mainstream stardom. Arguably one of the most anticipated releases of 2009, “brand new eyes” is by far the band’s most personal album. Produced by Grammy Award-winner Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Kid Rock, My Chemical Romance) and co-produced by the band, the long-awaited follow-up to 2007’s platinum certified second album, “Riot!” The 11-track collection is unquestionably Paramore’s best and brightest album to date

Primus – Frizzle Fry

Various Artists – Daptone Gold (2x LP)
Daptone compilation featuring rarities, classics and previously unreleased tracks from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Budos Band, Binky Griptite, Lee Fields, Antibalas and many more in gold digipak packaging. Liner notes by Douglas Wolk.

Yacht – Psychic City 7″
Limited edition picture disc single! YACHT returns with a special limited-edition product and the first picture-disc DFA has ever made. The single compiles two remixes of “Psychic City” never before released on vinyl! First, Los Angeles superstars Classixx effortlessly transform the song into a slo-mo electro-dancefloor steamroller. Joe Godard (member of the band Hot Chip and head of forward-thinking Greco Roman Records) then flips the track into a lost mid-80s classic, as if OMD were trying new ideas for a John Hughes film

Neil Young LP reissues
Eveybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young, After The Gold Rush and Harvest

CD RELEASES:

The Beatles limited edition Box Sets
Magical Mystery Tour, Help and Hard Day’s Night all get the limited edition treament, with deluxe packaging including new liner notes, a t-shirt, previously unseen photos, and a mini-documentary on the making of each album

The Black Diamond Heavies – Alive As F*ck: Masonic Lodge, Covington, KY

Blakroc – Blakroc (11/27 release)

Brimstone Howl – Big Deal (What’s He Done Lately?)
LIMITED EDITION of 800 on ORANGE VINYL. Brand new album by Lincoln’s favorite garage sons. This time the gang went to Costa Mesa, CA, to record “Big Deal (What’s He Done Lately?)”- (the title references a quote from Johnny Ramone about Phil Spector) – at the Distillery under the guidance of engineer/producer Mike McHugh (Black Lips, Andre Williams, Jon Spencer, etc). The result is considerably more fuzzed than their previous work with Jim Diamond but still pummels. In fact it’s a blast from start to finish!

Fever Ray – Fever Ray (deluxe 2-CD + DVD)

Holopaw – Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness

Lateef The Truth Speaker – Truth Is Love

Moby – Wait For Me (deluxe 2-CD + DVD)
Collectors edition of June ‘09 release, disc 1 is the main album with the 2 bonus tracks ‘One Time We Lived’ and ‘Mistake’ (French Version), disc 2 is an ambient version of the album, dvd (Pal RC-0) has 17 live tracks and all the videos from the last album

Rihanna – Rated R

Townes Van Zandt – In The Beginning
Fat Possum is proud to reissue In the Beginning, a collection of ten recordings produced by Jack Clement (Johnny Cash, U2, Waylon Jennings) in 1966. Recorded almost two years before the original release of For Sake of the Song, this is Townes in his original element and already writing about drifters, losers, and gamblers

Various Artists – Daptone Gold

Various Artists – Ghostly International presents: Moongadget
Ghostly affiliate Moodgadget Records exclusively releases music by up-and-coming artists; with the Nocturnal Suite, Moodgadget not only “exposes the diversity in electronic music,” it unites dazzlingly talented, like-minded artists working in wildly divergent stylistic fields into a grand, unified whole. Like its predecessor, the Moodgadget-curated Rorschach Suite & Synchronicity Suite, the Nocturnal Suite plays like a lovingly assembled mixture, compiling brief, catchy, electronic-minded pop songs built for obsessive repeat listening. The Nocturnal Suite encompasses dance music, indie rock, synth-pop, experimental instrumentals – and, yes, electronic music – but its emotional core is its biggest asset

Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom: Live (2-CD)

DVD RELEASES:

The Black Crowes – Cabin Fever
Cabin Fever was an innovative recording session where Before The Frost…Until The Freeze was recorded over a series of five nights at Levon Helm Studios. The sessions were filmed in front of an intimate live audience and allows the viewer into the recording studio with the band. Songwriting sessions are revealed and lots of never before seen banter and behind the scenes footage is shown

VINYL RELEASES:

• Bibio – The Apple And The Tooth (Ltd. to 1k copies)
• Dashboard Confessional – Alter The Ending
• Lusine – Certain Distance (2x LP)
• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Higher Than The Stars remixes 12″
• Radian – Chimeric
• Saint Vitus – Born Too Late
  
• Saint Vitus – Mournful Cries
  
• Themselves – Crowns Down (2x LP)
• Wilco – Being There (2x LP + CD)

CD RELEASES:

• Bibio – The Apple And The Tooth
• Dashboard Confessional – Alter The Ending
• Doom – Unexpected Guests
• Echo & The Bunnymen – The Fountain
  
• Robyn Hitchcock – I Often Dream Of Trains In New York (live CD/DVD)
  
• The Killers – Live From The Royal Albert Hall (2-disc CD + DVD)
• Radian – Chimeric
• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – Xenophanes
• Snow Patrol – Up To Now (2-CD)
• Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane
• Various Artists – Warp: Unheard
• Wale – Attention Deficit
• Wu-Tang Clan – Meets Indie Culture V2: Enter The Dubstep

DVD RELEASES:

• Kings Of Leon – Live At The 02: London, England
• Rolling Stones – Live At The Max
  

That’s right folks -tons of things throughout the store will be on sale ALL weekend!!  Be a pro-active shopper and beat the holiday rush; stop by anytime this Friday (Nov. 6th) through Sunday (Nov. 8th) and take advantage of the following deals:

**ALL New Vinyl 15% off!!

**ALL Used CDs 25% off!!

**ALL New CDs 10% off!!

**ALL Used Books 50% off!!

**.99 Cent Records – Buy One, Get One Free!!

VINYL RELEASES:

Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be (180g 2x LP + MP3)
What Will We Be was recorded in a sleepy Northern California town throughout the Spring of 2009, and was co-produced by Paul Butler (from UK outfit Band Of Bees). This is the second album Devendra’s recorded with the same crew of players: Noah Georgeson (producer of Banhart’s last two albums, Little Joy, Bert Jansch and Joanna Newsome) on guitar and backing vocals, Greg Rogove (Priestbird) on drums and backing vocals; Luckey Remington (The Pleased) on bass and vocals and Rodrigo Amarante (Los Hermanos, Little Joy) on guitar and backing vocals. All the musicians involved played a part in arranging the songs recorded

Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young
The debut solo record from Strokes member Julian Casablancas. Eight songs recorded in NYC, LA, and Nebraska, with production by Jason Lander and Mike Mogis

Citay – Remixes
Citay’s 2007 album Little Kingdom made reference to everything from Thin Lizzy and acoustic Led Zeppelin, to Popul Vuh and early Mike Oldfield. So, when the band started asking remixers to rework tracks from Little Kingdom, we were more than a little surprised. As it turns out, the world needs Citay’s Remixes. From the ambient textures of White Rainbows’ “Eye on Dollar” remix to Cornershop’s Anthony Saffery adding sitar and percussion to “First Fantasy,” these are anything but typical remix rave-ups

Cold Cave – Love Comes Close

Devo – Freedom Of Choice (red vinyl)

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (yellow vinyl)

Efterklang & The Danish Nation – Performing Parades (2x LP + DVD)

Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits (2x LP)

Green Day – American Idiot (2x LP)

JJ Grey & Mofro – The Choice Cuts

Etienne Jaumet – Night Music
Etienne Jaumet is one half of the French duo, Zombie Zombie. They make this sort of improvisational krautrock/Goblin/John Carpenter-influenced horror soundtrack electronic tracks. While the drummer is off doing his thing as half of Herman Dune, Etienne, who works as an engineer in a studio in Paris, set to work on Night Music. As with Zombie Zombie, Etienne made this record pretty much on his own on vintage analog equipment. A big part of this album is Carl Craig’s production and mixing of the album. They worked together to morph analog machines into modern psychedelic instruments

King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl
The King Kahn & BBQ Show’s long-awaited third full-length album will not disappoint the band’s admirers of their devoted cult following. Invisible Girl marks a return to the trademark doo-wop-laced, anthemic garage rock that earned the band their fame and their infamy

Kings Of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence

Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights (2xLP + etching on side 4)

Little Dragon – Machine Dreams
A pulsating electro pop epic, Machine Dreams is the sophomore release of Gothenburg based Little Dragon. The album is full of dynamic and organically soulful pop sounds; an undeniable swing and lightness of touch, braced with bass heaviness, borne from the intuitive connection between the band members that epitomizes Little Dragon’s music

The Melvins – Nude With Boots (2x LP, red vinyl)

Molina & Johnson – Molina & Johnson
Consider the collective catalogs of these two prolific masters of the new American folk songcraft: Magnolia Electric Co., Centro-matic, Songs: Ohia, South San Gabriel. Now, let’s just be honest. A little bit of artistic ego and one-upsmanship can serve a greater purpose. In this collaboration between Jason Molina and Will Johnson, each seem to hold the other’s talents to the fire and elevate both performance and creativity. In the friendly sharing of ideas, Molina and Johnson become two poets’ poets in a workshop to craft a singular, searing elegy

Mum – Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know (2x LP)
Two years (almost to the day) after their previous release, Iceland’s eccentric pop maestros múm have returned with their fifth studio album, Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know. Sing Along… recalls sand running through fingers or ripples on a lake; it’s an ode to the light in its different shapes, from a fading bulb to the blinding sun. Alternately sunny and melancholy, Sing Along… flows like the tides: now ebullient, now brooding, cacophony resolving into tight melody

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (180g + MP3)

Neutral Milk Hotel – On Avery Island (180g + MP3)

Nirvana – Nevermind
This reissue from Original Recordings Group is on 180g vinyl and remastered from the original analog recordings

Nirvana – Bleach (2x LP Deluxe Edition)
Marking the 20th Anniversary of Nirvana’s debut album, Sub Pop will re-issue the Platinum Certified Bleach on November 3, 2009. This expanded CD/double-LP will include a never-before-released live performance, special packaging and the first run of the double-LP will be on 180g white vinyl

Alec Ounsworth – Mo Beauty
(of ‘Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’ )

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Higher Than The Stars 12″
This 12-inch features the incredible Balearic dub-disco remix from ace UK producers Saint Etienne, plus an exclusive Skanfrom Mix. Spacey yet totally danceable, it’s certain to burn up the dancefloor

Pastels/Tenniscoats – Two Sunsets

Slayer – World Painted Blood (180g)

Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions (2x LP)

Various Artists – Light: On The South Side (2x LP + Book)
Light: On The South Side gathers for the first time over 100 of Michael Abramson’s photos taken on Chicago’s south side in the late 70s. The 132-page hard back book features photos, an ephemera section, and an essay by Nick Hornby. Housed in a gorgeous slipcase with the 12X12 book is Pepper’s Jukebox, a seventeen track compilation of the kind of funky Chicago blues heard from the stage and the Wurlitizer. The deluxe 2LP set is packaged in a sharp gatefold jacket with two inner sleeves crammed to the gills with label scans and stories from the bar stool

Weezer – Raditude

CD RELEASES:

Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young

Cold Cave – Love Comes Close

Devo – Freedom Of Choice (Deluxe Remastered Edition)
With Freedom of Choice, Devo completed their transition into a full-fledged synth-pop group, producing a musically cohesive album spawning hits like the breakthrough hit “Whip It,” “Girl U Want,” and “Gates Of Steel.” Synthesizers were fully integrated into the band’s sound, frequently dominating the arrangements sharing equal time with the guitars. Everything is played with a cool, polished precision that mirrors the stylized uniformity of the band’s visuals; the dissonance is more subdued than in the past, and the rhythms lock the band into a rigidly even keel. Jewelcase. Content includes the 12 tracks from original album plus 6 live bonus tracks, all on one disc

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Deluxe Remastered Edition)
Produced by Brian Eno, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave. It was one of the first pop albums to use synthesizers as an important textural element, an innovation that began to lay the groundwork for the synth-pop explosion that would follow very shortly. Q: Are We Not Men also revived the absurdist social satire of the Mothers of Invention, claiming punk rock’s outsider alienation as a home for freaks and geeks. While Devo’s appeal was certainly broader, their sound was tailored well enough to that sensibility that it still resonates with a rabid cult following. The album featured some of Devo’s most memorable work with “Uncontrollable Urge,” the incredible cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Mongoloid” and “Jocko Homo.” Jewlecase packaging. Content featues the 11 tracks from the original album plus 11 live bonus tracks, all on one disc

Efterklang & The Danish Nation – Performing Parades (+ DVD)

Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits (CD/DVD also available)

Gift Of Gab – Escape To Mars
The Gift of Gab is a Hip Hop institution. From the breakout success of Blackalicious in the late 1990s and beyond as well as an impressive and lauded solo debut, he has built one of the most enduring coalitions of discerning music fans of most in the world of thinking man’s Hip Hop. Escape To Mars is Gab’s second fully realized solo record of his illustrious career. Guests include Brother Ali and Del The Funky Homosapien, and the record contains another progressive step in groundbreaking lyrical and structural delivery

Mike Gordon – Inside In

Guided By Voices – Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now
Up We Go Now is the third in the Suitcase series of unreleased Robert Pollard / Guided By Voices tracks excavated from a suitcase of cassettes in his closet. Like the previous two volumes, Suitcase 3 includes 100 songs on four compact discs in a box. Disc 4 is an acoustic jam session by Pollard, Tobin Sprout, and Greg Demos in 1994-1995 (the period between GBV classics Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes)

King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl

Lymbic System – Shutter Release
With a touring schedule that keeps them on the road seemingly more than it gives them time at home, Lymbyc Systym have miraculously completed their second full-length album, entitled Shutter Release. Magnifying the already giant sounds of Love Your Abuser was not an easy task, but with Jeff Zeigler behind the boards recording the album and John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Explosions In The Sky) shaping the mixdowns, they’ve managed to do just that. Instrumentation has become broader, arrangements more grandiose, and melodies more focused, resulting in a sublime second album

Molina & Johnson – Molina & Johnson

Nirvana – Live At Reading (CD/DVD also available)

Nirvana – Bleach (2x CD Deluxe Edition)

The Residents – Ten Little Piggies
Ten Little Piggies is a futurist compilation. Simply put, this means that it is a collection of music by The Residents that will most likely be part of projects coming out during the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010. The projects – CD’s, digital downloads, performance concepts, and soundtrack scoring – are all still in the works so no one really knows what will come to exist and what may merely evaporate over time

The Residents – The Ughs!
The Residents christened this conceptual alterego as The Ughs! Utilizing this new persona, The Ughs quickly became the perfect vehicle for exploring the conflicted emotions of Nate, the Voice of Midnight’s tormented protagonist. The group then fashioned “written music” from the raw, impulsive ideas created by The Ughs!, building the musical structure of The Voice of Midnight on these pieces. Two years later these original Ughs! recordings were rediscovered; freed from its previous role supporting The Voice of Midnight’s narrative, the music suddenly sounded as fresh as when it was first recorded

Max Richter – Memoryhouse
Originally released in 2002 but long out of print, Max Richter’s gorgeous debut album will finally see a much-awaited reissue. Recorded by Richter with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and critically lauded on its original release, Memoryhouse is quite deservedly held very dear to the broad-reaching “post-classical” field

Slayer – World Painted Blood

Weezer – Raditude
(2x CD Deluxe Edition also available)

VINYL RELEASES:

Akron/Family – River 7″

Atlas Sound – Logos

The prolific Bradford Cox delivers yet again, with his second solo album under the Atlas Sound moniker. Eleven delectable pop delights served up to tantalize & tickle your taste buds. Guest appearances by Noah Lennox (Animal Collective) & Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab)

Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of  Fire – The Swimming Hour

Never before released on Vinyl, the third album from Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, The Swimming Hour, gets the double-LP treatment on 140 Gram vinyl (45rpm).  Now newly remastered under the watchful eyes of Bird himself, this album was produced by Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon, the Neville Brothers, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers) and is the final album to feature Bird’s backing band, Bowl of Fire.

Black Devil Disco Club – The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre

In 1975, before the release of the first Black Devil Disco Club album, Bernard Fevre released an album called The Strange World of Bernard Fevre. Like the first Black Devil album, it was so far ahead of its time that even now, people struggle to believe it was really recorded over 30 years ago. Now Fevre has once again unlocked his magical cabinet and made available new mixes of the original tracks, along with previously unheard compositions. So crisp and inventive are the electronics, so haunting and eternal the melodies, it is as if this music has always existed. Which are new tracks and which come from the same era as the original album, Fevre is no hurry to reveal. For him, there is a single space-time continuum, and where and when individual events occur is of little importance.

Black Heart Procession – Six

Cage The Elephant – Cage The Elephant

Rosanne Cash – The List

Dark Meat – Truce Opium

Athens Georgia’s multifarious psychedelic road warriors Dark Meat have geared up for another get-go of pillage-and-freakout in the name of their newest offering, Truce Opium. A long period of lineup changes, label complications and heavy touring across North America and Europe has focused the band into a diamond-hard and trans formative experience: they’ve trimmed their lineup to a highly-effective and barely-anemic 9-piece, and, in the process, have organically developed an intense and diverse instrumental chemistry

The Depreciation Guild – In Her Gentle Jaws

El Perro Del Mar – Love Is Not Pop

Limited one time 500 pressing only. Comes on clear vinyl! In Her Gentle Jaws is the debut full-length from The Depreciation Guild, available on vinyl for the first time! (Originally self-released in December ‘07 as a free download, In Her Gentle Jaws has already found its way to over 90,000 hard drives. The stir across the internet, as well as in their own backyard, is testament to some breathtaking songwriting and arranging. A musical piece to be heard as a whole saturated in color, and drifting into dream

Fight Of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky

The F*ck Buttons  -Tarot Sport

Islands – Vapours

Jonsi & Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

Known primarily for his haunting falsetto and other-worldly presence in Sigur Ros, Jon Thor Birgisson has – together with his partner Alex Somers – been exhibiting artwork and staging exhibitions under the name Riceboy Sleeps for two or three years now. The album Riceboy Sleeps is human in a profound and verging on spiritual way. It says nothing, literally, and yet living through its 68-minutes you emerge feeling much has been revealed. Its slowly evolving abstract landscapes are both edifying and life-affirming. The record works as a whole, and exists in a contemplative dream-state, unconstrained and mesmeric, seemingly outside time

Nouvelle Vague – 3

OOIOO – Armonico Hewa

Armonico Hewa is OOIOO’s sixth full-length album and first record in over three years! Armonico Hewa is a mind-melting combination of stylistic reference points that can only be described as some kind of tribal psychedelia that is oddly spiritual and alarmingly urgent. OOIOO is an all-female outfit headed by Yoshimi, a founding member of Japanese experimental psych innovators Boredoms. The band will be touring the US in support of this release. OOIOO is one of the most enthralling, adventurous and unique bands in modern music

Rain Machine – Rain Machine

Rain Machine is a startling new musical venture from Kyp Malone, known to many as guitarist-singer for soulful art rockers TV On The Radio. For Rain Machine, Malone takes the roots influences that have always bubbled beneath the surface in TVOR – blues, gospel, even African music – and brings them to the fore. Performing all the parts himself (with the addition of some soulful female vocals), Malone has fashioned a deeply personal journey through modern life, looking back, as TVOTR so often does, on the weight of the history behind us. The result is a communique from the soul – if the Rolling Stones stripped away the glitz to find their emotional core on Exile on Main Street, then Malone has performed the same rite here, in all its murky, mercurial glory. Rain Machine will surprise some TVOTR fans and stun others, but all will be transported by this dense, spiritual music

RJD2 – 2002 – 2010  (3 LP Box)

Spiral Stairs – The Real Feel

After a five-year absence, Pavement guitarist and Preston School of Industry mainman Spiral Stairs (Scott Kannberg) returns with a heart-on-sleeve (but occasionally tongue-in-cheek) song-cycle about his complicated personal life. Spiral maintains his trademark melodic whoops and Flying Nun guitar licks, but overlays a layer of melancholy and wisdom, as well as a touch of Peter Green blues

Sufjan Stevens – The BQE

The XX – XX

The Xx unique make-up is an inadvertent second nature marriage of 2009’s urban/guitar tribes, in one corner fluttering new wave indebted reverberation, in the other, plumes of post-dubstep sub-bass and figuratively, their defining core of rich R&B vocal textures. The enveloping vocal partnership of Romy and Oliver is one that would’ve dropped-jaws in any decade this century, and set amidst a shivering soundscape of beats and plucks, their bedroom-reared concrete-soul is being justly heralded as the UK’s most original and treasured alt. pop artifact of late

Richard Youngs – Under Stellar Stream

CD RELEASES:

Atlas Sound – Logos

Bauhaus – Mask (Omnibus edition)

Bauhaus – In  The Flat Field (Omnibus edition)

These re-mastered Bauhaus sets include the full-length albums, a second disc of the non-album singles, previously unreleased demos and alternative versions plus a newly mixed 1981 live show on the third disc. This Omnibus Edition is presented as a limited edition box set with the three CD’s in Japanese-style papersleeves, reproducing the original (gatefold) vinyl cover art, accompanied by a 48 page book that traces the development of the album with rare memorabilia and photographs and contains the complete lyrics

Converge – Axe To Fall

Dark Meat – Truce Opium

Doveman – The Conformist

Doveman is Thomas Bartlett and a select group of collaborators. On his latest album, The Conformist, those players include Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly, Glen Hansard, Norah Jones, Beth Orton, Martha Wainwright and members of The National. The Conformist marks his 3rd proper album as Doveman. A progression from previous efforts, The Conformist retains the melancholy, whisper quiet, night time music feel of his previous records, while adding a more upbeat undercurrents like sing along choruses, drum machines and synths and the arranging and playing prowess of close friends Nico Muhly and The National

El Perro Del Mar – Love Is Not Pop

Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard – One Fast Move Or I’m Gone (Deluxe CD/DVD also available)

Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans. He was called the avatar of the Beat Movement, a new voice of his generation. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling. The new film, One Fast Move or I’m Gone – Kerouac’s Big Sur, takes us back to the cabin he retreated to in the Big Sur woods, the Beat haunts of San Francisco and New York City for an unflinching look at the compelling events his book is based on. The story unfolds through Kerouac’s prose, first-hand recollections from Kerouac’s contemporaries, as well as writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by Kerouac’s unique gifts.Appearing in the film are Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, S.E. Hinton, Donal Logue, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Hunter and many more. The stunning, High Definition visual imagery is set to original music composed and performed by recording artists Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie

Fight Of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky

The Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

Get Back Guinozzi! – Carpet Madness

Kings Of Convenience  -Declaration Of Dependence

Declaration of Dependence is a wonderful record for a lot of reasons. For one, Eirik Boe is equally comfortable talking about the record’s “serious ideas” and laughing about its “hi-brow Bossa Nova” moments, while his partner Erlend Oye is clearly thrilled by making “the most rhythmical pop record ever that features no percussion or drums.” A captivating listen from start to finish, Declaration of Dependence is the Norwegian duo’s most mature record yet, a summer breeze of a record tinged with wistful lyricism and intimate grandeur

Maps – Turning The Mind

Nouvelle Vague – 3

OOIOO – Armonico Hewa

Alec Ounsworth – Mo Beauty

debut solo release from celebrated singer/songwriter Alec Ounsworth, who earned acclaim with his band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The album was produced by veteran musician/producer and fellow Philadelphian Steve Berlin, who initially suggested a New Orleans setting for recording. Working with some of that city’s most storied musicians, including George Porter of The Meters on bass, Ounsworth has crafted a collection of songs that pick up where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah leave off

Elvis Perkins In Dearland – The Doomsday EP

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Summer Of Fear

As acclaimed as Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s debut was when it finally received a proper pressing in 2008, the effort was meant to be a glorified demo. Summer of Fear is what happened six months later, as life alternated between darkness and light, and spare bedroom songs blossomed into speaker-popping arrangements of sweeping strings, honking horns, and chords that cut so deeply they’re bound to leave a mark. Produced by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone.

Russian Circles – Geneva

Spiral Stairs – The Real Feel

Sufjan Stevens – The BQE

The Veils – Nux Vomica

White Denim – Fits

Richard Youngs – Under Stellar Stream

Richard Youngs’ latest solo work for Jagjaguwar is a collection of neodruid hymns and chants for the minutiae of homelife and fatherhood – poetic transcendance through repetition and a focus on the (seemingly) micro. Once again proving himself a master of minimalist composition, Youngs also takes leaps forward as a lyricist on Under Stellar Stream, reminiscent of the list incantations of Allen Ginsberg. With this comes a change in Youngs’ voice, now less pleading, deeper and more assured. In these atonal, spatial arrangements, each phrase is granted the room to work into the cerebral cortex

VINYL RELEASES:

The Clonious – Between The Dots
Somewhere between the past and the distant future, sparked by dusty old jazz records and beat generation hip hop, at the sonic cross-roads of Detroit and Vienna, lies a series of sound stories steeping in the head of 23 year old beat navigator Paul Movahedi, also known as The Clonious. The Adroit Adventures EP, released on Ubiquity in June, was the first of those tales to exit his dome and hit limited edition wax.On Between The Dots his debut album, Movehadi continues his development of sounds that are at once new and classic, soulful and striking, organic and electronic

Keegan Dewitt – Islands (+MP3 card)

Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities & Rarities (180g)
Eleven years after releasing their first album and eight years after redefining themselves with SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA, the rare concept album whose execution was just as impressive as its ambitions, the Drive-By Truckers have gained a richly deserved reputation as one of the hardest-working and most rewarding rock bands at work today. Having cranked out five great albums in seven years, they presumably felt bad about not having a new studio effort for 2009, so they’ve offered fans not one but two time-honored stopgaps–a live album (actually an installment in New West’s LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX series of live discs drawn from the archives of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS), and a collection of outtakes and rare tracks. THE FINE PRINT: A COLLECTION OF OUTTAKES AND RARITIES brings together a dozen songs that, for a variety of reasons, didn’t appear on one of the DBTs’ albums, including four covers, alternate versions of two tracks, and a few numbers that didn’t fit the pattern of the sets for which they were intended. While the collection doesn’t match the consistent quality of the Drive-By Truckers’ usual work, nearly all the tracks are too genuinely good to have been left to gather dust, and even the DBTs’ scraps can make for a pretty satisfying meal

Ghostface Killah – Ghostdini: Wizard Of Poetry

James Pants – All The Hits

Monsters Of Folk – Monsters Of Folk
(Limited Edition 2xLP w/ 20-page book + MP3 card)
Monsters of Folk is a collaboration between Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward, and producer Mike Mogis, four of this generation’s most critically acclaimed artists. Conor Oberst is Bright Eyes, Jim James leads My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter (both solo and as part of the indie-pop duo She & Him). Together, they truly are the ‘Monsters of Folk.’ This is their much talked about and highly-anticipated debut release

Mission Of Burma – The Sound The Speed The Light (+ MP3 card)
Mission of Burma’s fourth album is a departure from the pinned-needles roar of 2006’s The Obliterati. Far more spacious and dynamic, it blasts off with the anthemic, catch ‘1,2,3, Partyy!’, a classic Burma rocker on a level with ‘This Is Not a Photography’ or ‘Certain Fate.’ Other tracks, such as ‘Feed,’ ‘Forget Yourself,’ and ‘Slow Faucet,’ are slow, hypnotic builders. ‘Good Cheer’ is a burst of almost uncontainable joy that literally explodes from the speakers.

Of course, all the Burma trademarks are also present: the military snare drum, the melodic basslines high up on the neck, and the furiously dissonant guitarwork, refracted back into the songs via tape loops – all punctuated by the hoarse shouts of drummer Peter Prescott. This controlled chaos, this disciplined letting go, is at the heart of what they do and it remains as exhilarating and fulfilling as ever.

Grant Lee Phillips – Little Moon (180g + MP3 card)

Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins – Fascinating Fingers

Imaad Wasif – The Voidist (+ MP3 card)
Wasif’s newalbum features guests Dale Crover (Melvins) and Greg Burns (Red Sparowes), and was recorded by Chad Bamford (Weezer) with additional recordings by Mathias Schneeberger (The Obsessed, Gutter Twins). Having gained a reputation for his intense live shows while opening for RTX, The Raconteurs and Neko Case, Wasif has plans for an extensive tour in the fall of 2009. He can also be found playing guitar on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ latest album It’s Blitz!, and Lou Barlow’s forthcoming solo album, Goodnight Unknown

CD RELEASES:

The Clonious – Between The Dots

Crooked Fingers – Forfeit/Fortune (Deluxe Edition w/ DVD)

The Flaming Lips -Embryonic
(Limited Edition 2xCD/DVD Hard Covered version also available)
For the past two decades, The Flaming Lips has remained one of the world’s most influential experimental creative forces in rock music. Each new release has been greeted with ecclesiastical anticipation and embraced by both critics and a loyal, ever-growing/evolving universal fan mass. It is with great pleasure that The Flaming Lips present their brand new double-album entitled, Embryonic. This marks their first full studio set in three years following their Grammy Award-winning At War With the Mystics. Embryonic, The Lips 12th album, was recorded in Fredonia, NY and Oklahoma City, OK, with studio whiz and general co-conspirator Dave Fridmann and just may be their most sonically adventurous and compositionally vernal form of musical expression ever!

Shawn Lee &Clutchy Hopkins – Fascinating Fingers

The Melvins & Brian Walsby – Manchild 4: Ridin’ Them Coattails
Once again Brian Walsby and the Melvins have teamed up to produce a uniquely collectable, rare, and limited book/ CD release. In MANCHILD 4 (Brian’s 4th book) Walsby inks his legendary comic satire, wit, and illustrative skill over 100 pages. Brian’s comics have been published in major publications for over 25 years. His work has appeared in magazines ranging from Maximumrocknroll and Flipside toHustler and Chunklet. Brian’s art has graced the cover of many an album. From Seven Seconds’ “Walk Together Rock Together” and the classic Nardcore compilation to current bands like the Melvins and Agoraphobic Nosebleed; Brian Walsby’s illustrations continue to rile people up, make them laugh, and keep them wanting more

People Under The Stairs – Carried Away

Grant Lee Phillips – Little Moon
With golden voice and silver-dipped pen Grant-Lee Phillips presents another milestone in a career brimming with the like. Little Moon, his first album since 2007’s “Strangelet”, is track after track of well-anchored classic American music – rock and folk swirl under clouds of cinematic strings for a primer on the art of the timeless tune. His legendary well of melody is in full display on Little Moon, with even the most lilting piano ballad standing comfortably on a thick, powerful trunk (‘Older Now’)

Snoop Doggy Dogg – Death Row – The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1

Sole & The Skyrider Band – Plastique
Sole, known as one of the godfathers of abstract hip hop and founding member of the Anticon label, has recorded one of his most ambitious yet accessible albums to date with 2009’s Plastique. Backed by The Skyrider Band, Sole’s brand of wit packed, radical and dense lyricism is perfectly accompanied by The Skyrider Band’s subtle, layered post-rock-hop compositions. Guest vocalist Markus Acher of The Notwist even lends a hand to make this one of the most vital left field hip hop releases of 2009

Imaad Wasif – The Voidist

ZEEP – People & Things
ZEEP, aka London-based duo Nina Miranda & Chris Franck (Smoke City, Da Lata) bring us a fresh, immediate pop album that dips its elegant toes into many musical pools, as well as venturing into new musical waters. Features catchy escapades, space-age downtempo rock, reflective atmospheres, playful spaghetti western disco and a daring Brazilian folk rewiring of ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials