So, we got some more limited run vinyl titles in. Here's the breakdown:

Fiery Furnaces - Remember. This is a triple LP of live material that's limited to 2000 copies.

Exploding Star Orchestra - We Are All From Somewhere Else. According to the official press release for this album Chicago Underground Trio cornetist Rob Mazurek was "approached by The Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute to put together a group that would represent the more contemporary / avant-garde side of sound in Chicago for a concert in Millennium Park’s Frank Gehry-designed concert hall. The music was conceptualized/composed in Manaus Brazil, Fontevraud, France and Chicago, and developed over more than a dozen performances of the Orchestra before it was recorded by John McEntire at his Soma Studio in Chicago." This double LP is stunning. Limited to just 500 hand-numbered copies.

Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Color. Limited to 500 copies. Allmusic says, "This may be Richter's shortest album, but it's also his most eclectic and emotional work, a mosaic of brief but beautiful wishes for contact and a powerfully inspiring way of making what could be mundane into something artful, even if it's just for a moment". Read AMG's bio of the German composer.

David Daniell and Douglas McCombs - Sycamore. Daniell is an experimental, improvisational guitarist who has worked with heaps of folks, including Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Loren Connors, and minimalist composer Rhys Chatham. On this album, he teams up with Doug McCombs, well known for being a member of a tonne of great bands including Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, Brokeback, and The For Carnation. Limited to 1000 copies.

Tape - Luminarium. Tape is an electroacoustic trio from Sweden. Luminarium is their 4th release and the first to come out on vinyl. Limited to 500 copies world-wide, it's gotten some terrific reviews. For instance, Boomkat says, "The only really useful comparisons to make would be to other Tape albums, and Luminarum finds this unique Swedish troupe at least equalling, if not bettering the genre-defying work they've made their name with. Amazing stuff - Highly Recommended."

Mono - Gone. So I brought in another copy of this triple LP. I think it's the sixth we've had. It's limited to 3000 copies. Mono played in Toronto last night and the two copies we had left of their Hymn to the Immortal World sold today as a result.

I also brought in a few things that aren't limited runs: Phosphorescent's To Willie and The Drift's Nuomena.

The Drift's Nuomena is a favorite of mine and I play it at the store often. Double vinyl. Allmusic says, "focused and tight, patient enough to know when a composition should dive in full force and when to tease and gently unfold by itself. In a genre that often recycles its own ideas and eats its young, this is potent and fresh." Here's the first 6 or so minutes of the album's second track, Invisible Cities.

Phosphorescent is Matt Houck. To Willie is his album of Willie Nelson covers. It is fantastic. Really. Unfortunately I can't share any of its tracks with you, but here's an MP3 of a track from Phosphorescent's previous album, Pride: Torn Up Praise. And here's video of Phosphorescent playing Wolves, which is also from Pride and which also isn't a Willie Nelson cover:

Technically, I'm still on vacation but I popped by the store tonight and processed a few new LPs: Susumu Yokota's 2LP ambient electronic masterpiece Grinning Cat, and some jazz: Sonny Rollins' Way Out West and Lee Morgan's The Cooker, which Allmusic Guide calls "an essential acquisition".

We also received Nigeria Rock Special - Psychedelic Afro-Rock and Fuzz Funk from 1970 (2LP- Allmusic Guide says, "this is dangerously addictive, one of those pleasures that you'll repeat often!").

Tyrone Davis' 1969 LP, Can I Change My Mind also came in, as did Colleen's debut, Everyone Alive Wants Answers ("One of those rare, truly evocative abstract pieces of art where every observer takes away their own interpretation, and is left feeling a little more special about their experience as a result," says Pitchfork. They gave it an 8.4 outta 10).

Some nice postrock (hate that term) and other things came in on vinyl today. Two Mono (Japan) LPs: One More Step and You Die (2LP) and Gone (3LP); Mum's Yesterday Was Dramatic...; The Books' Lost and Safe ($3 cheaper than I saw it at our competitor's the other day); and some Sunn0))). The Books' Lemon of Pink is also in the new arrivals on CD right now--not an item we see used too often.

We also got a heap of blues CDs in on Tuesday. The New Arrivals bin is pretty kickass at the moment, actually. There's also three new nice box sets: an Okeh set, a Roots & Blues set (both of those are terrific) and an 11 disc Massive Attack (scratch that, it sold)!

In the next week or so I'll also have some super nice vinyl pieces come in from other countries: in addition to the Candi Staton and Bettye Swanns (mentioned in a previous post and which are finally confirmed as shipped), there's some Elmore Judd, two fantastic Steve Reid LPs (Rhythmatism and Nova, one of my all-time favorite jazz albums), the ridiculously difficult to find for the longest time James Blackshaw LP The Cloud of Unknowing, Triple Burner's lovely album, and some very limited titles on SMTG: Anduin/Jasper TX's Bending the Light and Svarte Greiner's Man Bird Dress, each limited to just 300 copies. If you like ambient or drone and electronic music, these are terrific. Man Bird Dress's gorgeous silkscreened cover is pictured, above.

We got a heap of Jazz CDs in yesterday--I'm not gonna list 'em all as they're used which means when they're gone they're gone.

Tomorrow someone's also supposed to come in with some Coltrane and Miles box sets. Fearless Leader and Interplay were mentioned; I can't remember what the Davis set was.

As for the vinyl, here's what I processed today:

Rachel's - Handwriting (lovely 20th century classical)
Cecil Barfield - South Georgia Blues (wonderful country blues from 1976 - ltd to 1000 copies - audio sample below)
Growing - Lateral (guitar/electronic duo)
Junior Wells and Buddy Guy - Hoodoo Man Blues (one of the greatest blues albums of all time; "absolutely mesmerizing" says Allmusic; audio sample below)
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Schoner Flussengel ("Highly recommended" says Boomkat - vinyl only. Limited to 1000 copies; sample edited clips: 1 2)
Jeff Beck - Truth (mono mix)
Sonny Rollins - The Bridge and Saxophone Colossus

Here's the first track from the Wells album:



And here's Cecil Barfield, billed under his psuedonym, William Robertson:

It's been a while since I've updated because I moved apartments and have been busy with that nonsense. Things should be back to normal now.

As mentioned in previous posts, we have a ton of great stock in at the moment: vinyl, cd, dvd, blu-ray, Criterions. This week we brought in a heap of opera cds as well.

As for new vinyl, I received a shipment today with some nice jazz (Sonnies Rollins and Criss, and Tina Brooks), more Sundazed titles (Paul Butterfield), the new Jay Reatard, the new Lhasa (ltd 2LP), and some indie rock staples (NMH, Nick Drake, Slint, Interpol).

Of course they're all at our kick-ass low prices.

I've been getting comments from people that they'd appreciate some... context regarding some of the more obscure titles I've been bringing in. Anyone who's talked to me at length knows that I hate talking about music, though I don't mind talking about musicians. I've never been very good at describing music--I'd much rather just play it and let you judge for yourself. This is mostly because I find terms like "electronic" and "ambient" mean different things to different people.