Thanks to all who came out to the Annual Summer Sale. Sorry if you had to wait in line too long. Sorry if you tried to sneak in after 8pm yesterday and were tossed out.

In other news... some new vinyl coming in in the next week or so:

Sonic Youth - Goo
Tracey Thorn - Love and Its Opposite
Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune
Fennesz - Transition 7"
Doris Duke - I'm a Loser

And two acoustic gems:

Jack Rose - Kensington Blues
"An inventive and self-taught player on acoustic six-string, 12-string, and lap steel guitar, Jack Rose was considered part of the so-called Takoma revivalist movement that echoes the often Eastern-tinged acoustic guitar experiments of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and others..." -- Allmusic

Glenn Jones - Barbecue Bob in Fishtown
"The third full solo release by Glenn Jones finds the scholarly, carefully elegant performer continuing to stake out his own style on not only acoustic guitar, but banjo... the focus on shorter pieces and immediate, joyful thrills helps situate the release as both a showcase for his abilities and a way to introduce a new listener to possibilities of experimental acoustic performance on the instruments." -- Allmusic (4 stars)

and restocks of:

Bob Dylan - Another Side Of, Bringing It All Back Home, and Highway 61 Revisited
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
James Carr - A Man Needs a Woman and You Got My Mind Messed Up
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Tina Brooks - True Blue
Captain Beefheart - Safe as Milk
Tool - 2LP Picture Disc

First off, we will have the new Joanna Newsom triple record, Have One on Me, on the floor today about 2:30 pm. (It has arrived and is awaiting my processing--I start at 2). Today, Pitchfork gave it a 9.2 outta 10 and categorized it as "best new music". We have it on CD and LP.

I believe the box will also contain ONE copy of Susumu Yokota's Grinning Cat on 2LP. This album has been a bitch to bring in. I've only managed to find 3 copies in almost a year as it's technically out of print and was limited to 2500 copies. I bought one of the three, sold the other, and now the third'll be on the floor later today. If you like electronic music, this is a masterpiece of the genre. And I'm not alone in thinking that:

"Ambient genius." - MOJO

"One of the most gifted producers on the planet... the early works of Eno and Aphex Twin have been joined on their pedestal." -- Wax

"God-like genius." - Sleazenation

"Blissfully enchanting music...Fantastic sounds to immerse yourself in completely." - DJ

"Yokota exists on a different plane to most of his contemporaries." - NME

I should just take this copy and give it to a friend. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone worthy. You can hear a track in the left column.

I believe the box will also have some restock of some catalog titles (Beatles, Husker Du, Soundgarden, Bad Brains, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, AC/DC, yadda yadda yadda).

Next... one of the touchstone releases of my generation, The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs is being issued in April on vinyl for the first time. It'll be a 6 x 10" box set and is limited to just 3000 copies. I don't have exact pricing yet but expect it to be around $95. We'll do our best to beat Amazon and other big box shops, just as we did with the Tom Waits and Numero box sets.

If this is something you're keen on, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) so we order enough copies. Here's the Allmusic review. Here it is on PFM. The Onion AV Club gave it a 10, as did Entertainment Weekly and The Village Voice. It was #1 on many 1999 year end lists as well as in the top slot for best of the 90s. Hell, it even has an unofficial wiki. To me, the only record that maybe held more significance for me in that decade was Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. As I said, touchstone. You've no doubt heard a bunch of songs from the release, even if you don't know it. Hopefully you didn't have to suffer through Peter Gabriel's dreadful cover of The Book of Love. The original is below.

I've been threatening for a while to bring in a bunch of new ambient / drone / experimental / folk. Many of you have tried to stop me. Anyone visiting the store from here on out will be a testament to your failure.

As I've done in the past when bringing a new batch from a new supplier, I've put them at quote unquote introductory prices, so gobble them up. I've seen one or two of the titles at other shops but no one stocks this many and we've got them at absolutely the cheapest price I've seen them for anywhere in town. These are almost all limited edition CDs. Available today:

Valerio Cosi - Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock
"What Valerio Cosi coaxes from his saxophone on Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock is unparalleled. ... Cosi's captivating sonics sit alongside the greats of experimental music … it's so fresh that calling it ‘free’ limits its potential and blemishes the sound … genres bend to the will of Cosi and his feverish imagination" - Tiny Mix Tapes

Black to Comm - Charlemagne & Pippin
“Starting with a microcosm of a drone, the piece largely develops itself as an extended crescendo, continuously moving steadily forward into ever deeper waters … an intoxicating and immersive experience akin to the very MC5 song it is named after. Not in sound perhaps, but certainly in attitude and scope.” - Brainwashed

Barn Owl - From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light
"Some might label this as garden variety stoner rock, but it transcends those genre misgivings. Barn Owl's ultimate value lies within the subtlety of their approach, reminiscent almost of Indian classical music." - Cokemachineglow
"It's as though the first layer of American settlers has been reactivated through the music and Barn Owl are transmitters." - Julian Cope

Ilyas Ahmed - The Vertigo of Dawn
“Heavy, jamming, acoustic guitar licks, eastern grooving hand percussions, stoned backwards or fuzzed-out electric guitar splatters, and subtle creaky drones. The vocals are nearly unintelligible but swirl beautifully through the songs like floating, smoky ripples. Woozy, head-bobbing, and completely there.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies / Towards The Night
"These primitive recordings house some remarkably beautiful sounds, largely focussed on Ahmed's solo guitar playing and mournfully howling voice." - Boomkat
"Call it abandon, a facility for letting go, for moving on; either way Ahmed's music is gone. And all we have are the recordings, scattered notes to prove that he once existed and felt it all as deeply and miraculously as any of us. And right now, from where I'm calling from, I wouldn't ask for anything more." - David Keenan, from the liner notes

Evan Caminiti - Psychic Mud Shrine (Caminiti is one half of Avant Metal band Barn Owl)
“Four towering guitar pieces that move beyond the pursuit of drone and sludge and take on a more slippery, mystical quality.” - Boomkat

Elm - Nemcatacoa - (Jon Porras (Elm) is one half of Barn Owl)
“Achingly beautiful album fusing elements of everything from Earth to Windy & Carl, Stephen O'Malley, My Bloody Valentine, Fennesz, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Emeralds. … Incredible.” – Boomkat

Turner Cody - Buds of May (Turner is the bassist for Herman Dune.)
“I think he's a really gifted songwriter. Whatever it is, I think he has it … If you can track down his Buds of May, that's where it's at!” – Wooden Wand “Cody is pre-war, Old Testament & A Confederate General from Big Sur.” - Glenn Donaldson (Jewelled Antler / Skygreen Leopards)

Concern – Truth & Distance
“Despite the heavily processed sound of this material, the three long tracks here were constructed almost entirely out of acoustic instrumentation … almost unspeakably beautiful.” - Boomkat

Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (Scott is Ex-Boxhead Ensemble & a member of Zelienople)
“This album is too good to be true. It captures some of the finest elements of music and places these notes and passages in contexts that are at once instantly familiar and yet new. A truly unique work.” – Boomkat

Taiga Remains – Wax Canopy
“Neither sedate enough to fall into the ambient category nor ferocious enough to sit alongside Yellow Swans and the like, Wax Canopy resides somewhere in the blurry betweenness, at times bringing to mind Lichens, Birdshow and perhaps even the rainforest collages of Francisco Lopez.” – Boomkat

Cursillistas – Wasp Stings the Last Bitter Flavor
“…sounds like an intimate secret whispered in the listener's ear.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)
“…sweet, abstract narratives in a lowest-ever-fi setting… otherworldly folk and esoteric song warping, with one foot in the outsider undergrowth and the other firmly rooted in more traditional soils.” - Boomkat

Chriss Sutherland – Me in a Field (Chriss is a founding member of Cerberus Shoal)
“Fans of Sufjan Stevens, Akron/Family or just good 'ole fashioned American Primitive folk music would do well to check this without any further ado - I'm off to grab a bottle of moonshine, last week's Sunday paper and a rockin' chair.” – Boomkat

Ensemble Economique – At the Foot of Nameless Roads (Brian Pyle (ee) is in Starving Weirdos and RV Paintings)
“This is vivid, haunting music that leaves a trail of gold in its wake. – Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) / Mariska Baars (soccer Committee) / Wouter Van Veldhoven – Zeeg
“A glorious forty-minute epic of a track … melts into gut-churning bass drones and a dense brick-wall of hissing, reverberating sound. All this is slowly piped through the tape machine again and again before the calmer elements start to wade through the fog and calm is restored. Highly Recommended.” – Boomkat

The Green Blossoms - Whiskey Leaves
“Aiko Koga’s voice is the real focal point of the album. Soft and restrained, even when you can't understand her words (some of the lyrics are in Japanese), you are hooked from the get-go. Hours later, you find yourself humming her melodies while her ghostly incantations are stuck in the back of your mind. … Beautiful.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Theo Angell & the Tabernacle Hillside Singers - Auraplinth (Theo Angell has worked with Hall of Fame & Jackie-O Motherfucker.)
“There's a feel to this album perhaps best described as Manson-esque.” – Boomkat

(VxPxC) - Porchmass
“These guys are a three-man scene, and a joy to follow.” – Dusted Magazine
“The wordless vocals flicker like volcanic ash falling from a sunkissed sky. There's so many things at odds with each other throughout these pieces that the resulting dichotomies and trichotomies create an entirely new sound.” - Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Milton Cross - Light in the West (Cross is in Tarentel, Dial Square, & Party of Doom)
“Cross does his best work when he's playing his violin or harmonium. He's classically trained and his skill is immediately apparent. Both instruments permeate the album, adding a thick layer of glowing warmth to the songs which they haunt.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Jeremy Kelly - s/t
“A hypnotic Middle-Eastern jam that feels baked in the scorching desert sand. Add in some blues-infused acoustic ragas that throw a nod to Ben Chasny's Six Organs of Admittance and glazed walls of analog noise, and you're somewhere in the ballpark of this album.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)

Fabio Orsi & Gianluca Becuzzi - The Stones Know Everything
“Crafting something this immense puts these two musicians into the realm of Stars of the Lid, Birchville Cat Motel and Growing, creating several intense worlds of ambient splendor, juxtaposing the sounds of everyday life with jetstreams of microtones and pulses of audible light.” – Brad Rose (Digitalis)