We see clearer than most, sat here contented with this cheese on toast…
Welcome to the new week of not new sounds.
Already the week’s most played is Big Star’s Radio City, the 1974 follow up to the band’s iconic #1 Record debut. Man is it ever good. Big singles like O My Soul and September Gurls are just all time radio gold, but the album is so much about its weirder meandering moments too. It's another one that every record collection would benefit gratefully from including.
+ Pressed on limited Red Slushie colour vinyl.
+ Pressed on limited Red vinyl and we have some super-limited zines to give away too.
Pure colossus from Big Dada this week with new 2024 pressings of Brand New Second Hand and Run Come Save Me from the one man institution, Roots Manuva. Both editions look fantastic on limited colour vinyl, but more importantly they sound so wildly fresh still too. There has never been a moment in my life when listening to Witness hasn’t made everything much better. Essential listening.
Two jazz corkers for the racks this week. Firstly, Donald Byrd leads an amazing rhythm section on his 1961 smoothie, Royal Flush. Hard bop with a real nice swing. The album is reissued as part of the Blue Note Classic Vinyl series in stereo, all-analog mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
A Night In Tunisia is a simply incendiary set from Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. It was actually studio recorded in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey, but they really get that hot hot heat going. Fast and furious, this one is a trip. Also lavishly pressed under the Blue Note Classic Vinyl banner.
The esteemed team behind live promoters par excellence - Eat Your Own Ears - present their first compilation this week. Volume 1 brings together the diverse sounds that have defined Eat Your Own Ears over the past two decades, featuring Ride, Four Tet, Caribou, Falle Nioke, Cranes and more. Great vibes.
Ella Fitzgerald’s absolutely iconic and utterly resplendent Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas is repressed this week, but we can’t really talk about it yet. We’ll keep her in stock and on ice ready for a little closer to December.
We have a double gold vinyl pressing of Caroline Polachek’s Pang to celebrate its 5th anniversary. Still sounds mighty.
We have an incredibly limited Panda Bear 7” called Defense that is in the shop now. You have to come and see us for it! We did also receive Fate & Alcohol, the new and final Japandroids album. Bittersweet, but has us on repeat.
Lastly today, we have a slightly different version of an icon. Alternate Loaded is a set of early versions, demos, and alternate mixes of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded album. You can hear the early version really gathering pace as they unfold, it's pretty exciting stuff. We actually wrote a longer read about it a few months back for Sunday Classic as we absolutely love it. You can read that again here. Man, what a record!
