A nice batch of blues should hit the floor Tuesday afternoon. Here's a list of some of the titles; in actuality, there's about twice this amount:

Elmore James - Complete Fire-Enjoy Sessions (3 CDs, Japanese Import)
Lightnin' Hopkins - Gold Star Sessions Vol 1 and 2 (two separate CDs)
Robert Lee McCoy - Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (Austrian import)
Little Walter - The Blues World Of...
Lightnin' Hopkins - Free Form Patterns
Various Artists - Play My Juke Box, 1943 - 1954 (UK Import)
Charley Patton - Complete Recorded Works (3 CD; Japanese Import w/ 70 page bilingual booklet)
Bobby Bland - I Pity the Fool / Duke Recordings Vol 1 (2 cd with 24 page booklet)
Lightnin' Slim - Blue Lightning (UK Import)
Percy Mayfield - Best of (Japanese Import)
Little Joe Blue - Boss of the Blues Guitar (US Import)
Junior Wells - On Tap
Sonny Boy Williamson - Clownin' With the World

In addition, I've reorganized the Blues / Gospel section slightly. Since we alphabetized the sections six months or so ago, Blues has been selling faster, so we now have more space there. So, I shifted the content and we will put New Arrival blues titles on the top shelf of blues so those who check frequently can easily see what's new and not have to flick through non-blues content.

A short order came in yesterday consisting of:

- Restock of the Cecil Barfield on Mississippi (probably the last batch we'll get of this title as it's almost out of print)

- the 2LP gatefold of The Secret Museum of Mankind Vol.1 - Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. Here's a description from the Village Voice:

"Compiled here are many of the greatest performances of world and ethnic music ever recorded. This volume represents a trip around the world, stopping at each port to sample one of that country's finest recordings of its indigenous music. Each of these recordings was captured at a period during the golden age of recording when traditional styles were at their peak of power and emotion. Included inside are extensive notes and beautiful period photographs that work together with the music to communicate an exciting sense of discovery." "One of the most consistently rewarding world music compilations in years, the cuts range from Macedonian fiddle jaunts to Puerto Rican Christmas tunes, from Abyssinian religious chants to ominous Japanese court music. The instruments include Ukrainian sleigh bells, Sardinian triple pipes, Vietnamese moon lutes and Ethiopian one-string violins...a profound artistry lurks beneath the alien vernaculars."

- the 4 X 10" of Black Man's Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti on Now Again. One of these sold before I even had a chance to put it on the floor. Since I bought one, that leaves one left.

- Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island as an import from France. It contains two bonus tracks and is 180g.

- a 10" split between Bardo Pond and Pre. Limited and numbered to 500.

- Two LPs each by Lali Puna and Kammerflimmer Kollecktief.

- the Herbie Hancock and Grachan Moncur III LPs on Heavenly Sweetness (180g, analog, Import from France).

- One CD each from Jasper TX and Rafael Anton Irisarri

We also received restock on a bunch of Soul Jazz CDs as well as some great soul collections.

We've several Japanese Beatles LPs on the wall at the moment and there's a ton of CDs in the new arrivals now--most came in yesterday. Some fantastic jazz, including a copy of Bill Evans' Secret Sessions box set. Here's just a small taste of some of the non-jazz:

Various Artists - A Field Guide to the Table of Elements
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Albert King - Saturday Night in San Francisco
Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
Robert Pete Williams - Free Again
Ken Boothe - All I Own
Garland Green - Jealous Kind of Fella
James Carr - A Man Needs a Woman (Japanese Import)
Memphis Slim - Parisian Blues
Soul Children - The Singles / Open Door Policy
Robbie Basho - Bonnist Supreme
Akrobakkus - Afenginn
Cocoon - From Panda Mountain
310 - After All
Christian Kleine - Beyond Repair
Knocker Jungle - s/t
Los Flechazos - Haciendo Astillas El Reloj
Tarentel - From Bone to Satellite
Ike and Tina Turner - Proud Mary (Best of)
Barrington Levy - Best of
Constantines - The Modern Sinner Nervous Man
Brian McBride - When the Detail Lost its Freedom
Volcano Choir - Unmap
Ohbijou - Beacons
Taylor Dupree and Kenneth Kirschner - Post Piano 2
Meredith Monk - Beginnings
Brian Eno - Discreet Music
Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
M. Ward - Amnesia
Richard Swift - The Novelist
Merzbow - about 5 different CDs
Godflesh - 3CD set
Many Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co CDs and EPs, including some tough to find ones
And dozens of other treats I can't remember off the top of my head

We've also got a copy of the 10CD spoken word set, The Best of the Moth, featuring stories by Thomas Dolby, Joe Jackson, Jerry Stahl, Kimya Dawson, Joyce Maynard, Dominick Dunne, Lewis Lapham, Adam Gopnik, Meg Wolitzer, Jonathan Ames, and many others. This is a fantastic set and a steal at $35.

And for the person who read to the bottom... be the first one to walk in the door on Saturday, March 20th and tell me I'm looking even more dapper than usual and you'll get a ticket for two to the Neil Young Trunk Show at the Royal. And yes, I only have one ticket to give away. The screening is next week, starting March 26, and the ticket is good any night the film plays.

Earlier I posted that we received a bunch of stuff on Constellation Records. Unfortunately, the box hasn't arrived yet so I pulled that post down and will repost it when it's actually true.

Today we received the new Yeasayer on both LP and CD. Here's an article/interview with the band at Tiny Mix Tapes--and here's a review at Allmusic. Four stars outta five.

We finally also got Budos Band's II on CD. It's sealed and behind the counter. The rest of the Daptone CD order still hasn't arrived and we're now down to one lone copy of Budos' fist EP on vinyl.

We also received some other catalog vinyl titles:

The Band - Music From Big Pink
The National - Alligator
The National - Boxer
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freakey Styley and Uplift Mojo...
Pixies - Doolittle
Stuart Staples - Leaving Songs (one of my favorite albums)
Vampire Weekend - Contra and s/t
Animal Collective's most recent 12"
Radiohead - Kid A (2 x 10") and OK Computer
Iron & Wine - Endless Numbered Days
Elliott Smith - Either / Or

And as mentioned before, there is an absolute heap of great stuff on vinyl, DVD, and CD at the moment. Crazy goodness.

I haven't been feeling particularly well lately so there's not been much action here on the site. Apologies for that.

Some quick store news:

The Daptone vinyl has been selling extremely well. I think we're down to one copy left of each item so if you were planning on picking some up, now's the time. Not sure I'll be able to swing this price again (though of course, I'll try!). I still haven't received CDs of this stuff (it's coming from a different supplier), but hopefully real soon.

Same goes for the Digitalis stuff. I think there's at most one copy left of anything that's not already sold out. I absolutely will not be putting the next batch out at that low of a price. Snatch 'em up!

Root Strata has finally confirmed that they've shipped us our order... unfortunately, it's not complete so will be missing a few items I was quite looking forward to. Arggh. However, there will be some Grouper in there.

In the next I'm not sure, we'll have some CD copies of what is probably my favorite country album of the past quarter century: The Star Room Boys - Why Do Lonely Men and Women Want to Break Each Others' Hearts? I play it all the time and every time I do, people want to buy it. Unfortunately, it's not once come into the store used and bringing in new copies has been unbelievably difficult. Assuming my source comes through, we should have 10 copies on hand to sell before spring arrives. I'll of course announce it here when I find out more.

I took a scoot through the used stock today and we've got a bunch of great stuff in at the moment. I didn't write anything down, but here's a few things off the top of my pounding head:

CDs

- The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles Vol. 3, 1972 - 1975 (10 discs)
- The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 3, 1963 (5 discs)
- Terry Reid - Super Lungs - Complete Studio Recordings 66 - 69, and Silver White Light
- Robert Wyatt - Theatre Royal Drury Lane
- Pizzicato 5 (two diff CDs)
- Tindersticks - Donkeys
- Beck - Stereopathetic Soul Manure
- Celexico - three diff CDs
- Health - s/t
- Wild Thing - Songs of Chip Taylor
- George Jones - Don't Stop the Music (my fave Jones compilation)
- Alan Lomax's Southern Journey 6 - Delta Country Blues


Some great Japanese CD imports:

- Massive Attack - Blue Lines and Protection
- New York Dolls - s/t
- a heap of jazz, including: Charlie Parker, Milford Graves, Barry Guy, Dave Holland, Enrico Rava, Terje Rypdal, Alan Skidmore, Elton Dean, Globe Unity Orchestra, Baden-Baden Free Jazz Orchestra

Vinyl

There was also a bunch of new used vinyl but my head's starting to hurt again so I'm-a gonna step away from the computer. The biggie that jumps to mind is the Ltd Edition version of Radiohead's In Rainbows. It's 2 CDs, a 12" booklet of photos, and two 45 RPM 12" records in a slip case. Far as I can recall this was only available through the Radiohead website as a pre-order item so it's outta print.