New and recent:

TOM PETTY
BLITZEN TRAPPER CD/LP
COWBOY JUNKIES
STEVE CROPPER/FELIX CAVALIERE
JACK JOHNSON CD/LP
MELVINS
TIFT MERRITT
SHEL SILVERSTEIN Tribute
MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW Vol. 6
DEVO
FOALS CD/LP
RATATAT CD/LP
SARAH McLACHLAN
STEVE MILLER
GRACE POTTER & NOCTURNALS
PUNCH BROTHERS
STEVE TIBBETTS
JACK ROSE/CHARLES SPEER CD/LP
ELVIN BISHOP
BEYOND BERKELEY GUITAR
WARREN HAYNES BENEFIT CONCERT 3
DELTA SPIRIT
CHERRYHOLMES
DOYLE LAWSON
DAILEY & VINCENT
STEVE HACKETT
JEWEL
KAISER CARTEL
TEENAGE FAN CLUB
YO LA TENGO CD/LP
WYE OAK CD/LP
SAMANTHA CRAIN
PINETOP PERKINS
BORN RIFFIANS CD/LP
FUTUREHEADS CD/LP
PAUL WELLER CD/LP
STEVE KILBEY

A few of the Re-issue Tsunami:

O.V. WRIGHT
SYL JOHNSON
GABOR SZABO
VIC CHESNUTT
DREAM SYNDICATE
CURE CD/LP
MISSISSIPPI FRED McDOWELL
ROLAND WHITE

AMAZING DVD SET:

TIMELESS: LIVE PERFORMANCES and tributes
3 DVD limited Edition set -
MULATU ASTATKE
SUITE FOR MA DUKES – Music of J-DILLA
ARTHUR VEROCAI

VINYL extras:

DAVID BAZAN LP
BEATLES 7” Paperback Writer
SUN RA 7″ set
CAN x 3
ECENTRIC BREAKS & BEATS
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON 1968-72
ANTENA-CAMINO DEL SOL

NEWSLETTER FEATURES

GENE PICK: BEYOND BERKELY GUITAR – A COLLECTION OF SOME OF THE BAY AREA’S FINEST ACOUSTIC GUITARISTS

Star gazing or sun rising – BEYOND BERKELEY GUITAR does the trick. Shimmering, spacey, instrumental folk guitar compilations by a slew of amazing acoustic guitar magicians you’ve probably never heard of. American primitive folk masterpieces from the left coast. We are happily in bliss over this second volume of instrumental acoustic guitar magic just released from one of our favorite record labels. Long live the acoustic guitar tradition in all it’s forms. Long live these amazing artists offering their music in an often uncaring, pop culture obsessed world and long live dedicated small record labels curating and offering this kind of music to all of us who get to enjoy it!

RECENT STUFF PICK 1: TOM PETTY & HEARTBREAKERS – Mojo

Mojo is the sound of a band playing together in a room — facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time. Mojo showcases a wide variety of music from rock ‘n’ roll to country and electric and acoustic blues. Mojo has juice and guts but it also has sweet balladry and even a wacked-out reggae number that is unlike anything that Heartbreakers have done before. It’s the kind of album nobody’s supposed to be able to make anymore. It got here just in time.

RECENT STUFF PICK 2: FOALS – Total Life Forever

On “Antidotes,” Foals’ 2008 Sub Pop debut, the Oxford, England, quintet banked on obscure influences to invent a clanging post-punk dance machine. Almost by necessity, its follow-up, “Total Life Forever,” breaks less ground, and is a stronger, deeper album because of it. Nods to pop touchstones — booming drum machine beats of ’80s R&B superproducers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, in-vogue West African-style guitar — coalesce into a dense, restless swirl. This is booty music re-imagined by the arch, dweebish sons of Radiohead. Yannis Philippakis barks less and croons more, a budding soul man caught in a jittery young Brit’s body. Several songs parade past the six-minute mark, more textural than hook-driven, epic compositions with reach equal to their grasp.

When the album’s second half settles into a prog-rocking rut, it does so via shifting movements and major reverb, ambition caught in its own sonic eddy. “Total Life Forever” is the first true enigma of 2010. It never volunteers its rich mysteries, instead demanding listeners pluck them on their own, all the more potent in its defiance. —Jonathan Zwickel, Seattle Times staff reporter

RECENT STUFF PICK 3: ELVIN BISHOP – Red Dog Speaks

Right out of the gate, Bishop leaves no doubt where his heart is, cleverly introducing his long-time cohort – a 1959 Gibson ES-345 that lovingly answers to the name of “Red Dog”, with a gritty slow blues calculated to set the pace for what’s to come. Along the way he smoothly steers the way from strutting blues and R&B, to a good dose of good-time rock & roll, and even an occasional detour through doo-wop, zydeco and gospel.All of it adds up to an amalgam that can only be called “Elvin Bishop music.”

Remembered by many these days as a founding member of the groundbreaking Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Elvin Bishop has also tasted pop success with his 1976 smash hit “Fooled Around and Fell In Love.” Bishop’s long and varied career has included other musical stops along the way as well, from deep down gutbucket blues played in smoky South Side Chicago taverns, to raucous roadhouse R&B, to rollicking good time rock & roll. And at every stage along the way, he’s imbued all of his music with deep passion, a uniquely creative spirit, and more than a little bit of sly humor.

He arrived in Chicago in 1959, and before long crossed paths with a kindred spirit in Paul Butterfield. Together, they explored the ghetto blues clubs in the black neighborhoods surrounding the university campus at a time when blues giants like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and Howlin’ Wolf could be found playing in neighborhood joints on a weeknight. Elvin soaked it all up, gaining impromptu lessons and invaluable stage time in front of discerning audiences, and forging a fluid yet powerful guitar style of his own.

RECENT STUFF PICK 4: RATATAT – LP3

Ratatat’s new album LP4 is the next step forward on the work that Evan Mast and Mike Stroud began on LP3. It was conceived during the creative streak that began during the LP3 sessions at Old Soul studios, in rural Upstate New York. Since then the band have toured relentlessly; visiting countries such as Vietnam, China and Cambodia on the one hand, and selling out bigger venues than ever before on the other. Their last US tour ended with two sold out nights at New York’s Terminal 5, playing to over 6,000 people.

The band describe LP4 as a ‘weirder’ album than LP3, with a much braver approach to the arrangements. There are more instruments featured on the record than ever before, and for the first time a full string section.

RECENT STUFF PICK 5: GAYNGS – Relayted

When Ryan Olson decided to make a record with Solid Gold members Zack Coulter and Adam Hurlburt, it was clear to them what the result would be: a collection of drugged-up keyboards and slick bedroom production almost exclusively inspired by 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love.” To be fair, they weren’t entirely off. What they didn’t know was that it would spiral into a project of epic proportions, enlisting the talents of over 25 musicians from various scenes around the country. To most of the players involved, this genre of music was quite foreign yet entirely familiar. Olson knew this, and began calling upon an eclectic cast of contributors whom he thought would share his vision, and relish in the idea of exploring uncharted musical territory within them. The first people to join the cause were North Carolina’s Megafaun, and with them came Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds), and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Mike Noyce. In Minneapolis, Olson brought in Rhymesayers rapper P.O.S and his fellow Doomtree artist Dessa, psych-rockers Jake Luck and Nick Ryan (Leisure Birds), song-birds Channy Moon-Casselle and Katy Morley, jazz-saxophonist Michael Lewis (Happy Apple, Andrew Bird), retro-pop duo Maggie Morrison and Grant Cutler (Lookbook), and slide-guitarist Shön Troth (Solid Gold). Fans of Bon Iver will recognize Vernon’s familiar falsetto, but will flip when they hear his Bone Thug’s-style R&B. Ivan Howard sounds right at home with his sensual and breathy leads, while P.O.S. abandons his genre entirely for a soul inspired tenor. With over a dozen people contributing vocals, its incredible how cohesive the album sounds. With each song written at 69 BPM’s, and tripped-out transitions from song to song, it is truly an audio experience from start to finish.

RECENT STUFF PICK 6: GRACE POTTER & The Nocturnals

The group’s third disc, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (out in June), finds a sweet spot between rowdy, blues-driven live sound and tight, classic-rock songcraft.” –– Rolling Stone, Best new bands of 2010
(Grace) comes across on stage as a woman possessed — Lucinda Williams fronting the Black Crowes, or Janis Joplin if she’d cut a few albums with The Band..” ––The Daily Times

RECENT STUFF PICK 7: WARREN HAYNES PRESENTS The Benefit Concert Vol. 3

This double live CD was recorded at the 13th Annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam at The Asheville Civic Center in 2001. Just like the Christmas Jam itself all proceeds from the sale and distribution of this CD go to Habitat for Humanity.