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.

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.

So, we got our first batch of new (as in sealed) CDs in today, as well as a small batch of interesting vinyl. Most of the CDs we only brought one copy in, so we've opened them and stuck a NEW sticker on them and put the cases out and kept the discs behind the counter, same way we always do. Items we received more than one of have sealed counterparts behind the counter and the opened case on the floor.

I've made a section on the wall above the new arrivals (as in used) bin. Here's a breakdown of what's there right now, as well as the new records we received. More should be in by week's end.

Compact Disc:

- Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion (2CD; Hospital Productions)
- Hildur Gudnadottir - Without Sinking (Touch; UK Import) - "... a captivating, often unsettled release..." (Allmusic)
- Ilyas Ahmed - The Vertigo of Dawn (Time Lag)
- Grouper / Inca Ore - Split (Acuarela; Spanish Import) - "These two artists complement each other brilliantly ... Highly Recommended." (Boomkat)
- Spoon - Transference (Merge) - "... smarts, wit, hooks ..." (Allmusic)
- Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (3CD, HAFTW) "Truly life affirming sounds, and without doubt one of the most important, substantial releases of the year." (Boomkat) - This release also made many year end top 10 lists; we sold out instantly on vinyl (6LP).
- My Morning Jacket - At Dawn, original pressing (2CD; Darla; Limited to 2000 copies in 2001; Out of print)
- Jasper TX - Singing Stones (Fang Bomb; Swedish Import) "Singing Stones is an exceptional album, artfully constructed and sequenced in a way that preserves its enigmatic feel, continually shifting between coy tunefulness and glorious abstraction. Superb." (Boomkat)
- Julie Doiron / Okkervil River - Split (Acuarela; Spanish Import) "[Doiron's] five songs are short, spare, heart-wrenching, and bedroom recorded." (Allmusic)
- His Name Is Alive - Firefly Dragonfly (Acuarela; Spanish Import)
- Lou Barlow - Mirror the Eye (Acuarela; Spanish Import)
- Damien Jurado - Holding His Breath (Acuarela; Spanish Import) "... a tense twenty minutes inside Jurado's world." (Allmusic)

Vinyl:

- Richard Skelton - Landings (2LP+CD) "Richard Skelton proves himself to be more than just a modern-classical outsider and consolidates his status as an auteur with a singular vision... Amazing Music." (Boomkat)
- Spoon - Transference (Merge) 7.8 outta 10 (Pitchfork)
- Coil / The New Blockaders / Vortex Campaign - The Melancholy Mad Tennant (Important; Ltd to 500 copies; 180g)
- Black to Comm - Rückwärts Backwards (Dekorder; Ltd. to 222 Copies; Out of print) - "... recalling Fennesz or Tim Hecker's crumbly, floury vapournoise ... the lines between organic and digital are invisible..." (The Wire)
- Black to Comm - Fractal Hair Geometry (Dekorder; Ltd. to 500 Copies) - "With a sound built on Krautrock-style keyboard oscillations, fluttering electronics and processed vocal moans, his songs play out as textural pieces with a closed-in, near claustrophobic feel." (The Wire)
- Animal Hospital - Memory (2LP; Barge; Ltd to 350 Hand-Numbered copies; white vinyl) - "Memory is a record that engages with familiar techniques and proceeds to completely fuck with the programme.... Just awesome." (Boomkat)
- Charley Patton - You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die: The Recorded Works (4LP; Monk Records; Ltd. to 275 Copies; 4 different colored vinyls)
- Reverend Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones - Jesus Christ From A To Z (Parlotone; Ltd Edition; Culled from recordings Johnny made for his own private use -- over 1,000 tapes going back to 1957 -- assembled for the very first time.)
- Faust - IV (Virgin; UK Import; Exact replica, officially reissued by EMI. 180 gram audiophile pressing with printed inner sleeve.)

And restocks of these Mississippi Records titles:

- Reverend Louis Overstreet
- Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long
- Mortika
- Mississippi Fred McDowell
- Clara Rockmore

I'm too tired to organize my thoughts this morning (very busy yesterday) so here's how it's pouring out of my head:

1. As mentioned previously, we will be starting to bring in a small qty of new CDs (as in sealed). As I did with the new vinyl when we started that seven months ago, I'll be concentrating for the most part on smaller labels and lesser-known artists. We'll also stock the latest releases from the hip bands that the kids are listening to these days.

For instance, in the next few days, weeks, we expect the latest releases on both vinyl and CD by Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Ben Frost, Tindersticks, Leyland Kirby, Them Crooked Vultures, Grouper, Black to Comm, and a few others. As the weeks and months pass I'll try to stay on top of these titles so we have them on their first day of release.

In addition, we'll be stocking some older titles that are out of print or harder to find in Toronto. One such title will be My Morning Jacket's second, and, in my opinion, best album: At Dawn. I've managed to get my hands on just 8 copies of this title in its original edition, which was as a double and limited to a pressing of just 2000. The regular CD is nice enough on its own but the bonus disc of demos is also a delight. I'm pretty comfortable saying it's unlikely anyone else in the city or country will have these as they've been out of print for close to a decade. To my recollection, we've never even had a used copy come into the store in the years I've been there. I've spoken directly with the label and they've assured me it's not going to be repressed.

We will be pricing these titles as reasonably as possible and should be competitive with the downtown shops. For instance, the new Spoon will be $14.99 on CD and $19.99 on vinyl. I don't know what the other indie shops will be pricing it at yet as it doesn't come out until next Tuesday, but Amazon and HMV are at least a buck or two higher than that.

Now, because of the set up of our store and the lack of a security buzzer at the door, I obviously don't want to put sealed product on the floor. As a result, we will open one copy of each title for display purposes and keep sealed copies behind the counter. When we're down to our last copy of a title or when the title doesn't warrant me stocking more than one, the CD will be open, but it will still be new and unplayed. Such is the nature of the beast.

I will appropriate a section of the wall directly above the New Arrivals, between Compilations and Folk, and place this new product there. New vinyl will go in the new arrivals where it always is.

If there are titles in particular you'd like to see, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I'll see what I can do.

2. I've been catching hell from a number of customers because I've been playing the excellent second release from Budos Band without having any on hand to sell. I finally found a source for their stuff, but on vinyl only. I placed an order yesterday so we should have them in a week or so. I'll be bringing in all their titles as well as other artists on Daptone Records: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Daktaris, Antibalas, and Sugarman 3 (with Lou Donaldson). We also have access to their 45s, but I'll only be bringing those in on a special order basis.

3. A heap of ambient/drone/modern classical is on its way. Most of it is very small run stuff, limited to 300 or so copies each, all on CD. Artists will include Richard Skelton, Concern, Scott Tuma, Evan Caminiti, Elm, and many others. These aren't well known artists but they're turning out quality stuff. Click the links to read Boomkat reviews. As you'll see, they don't even have stock on most of them anymore. Again, not sure who else in the city carries this stuff.

One of the choicest finds in this haul will be the last copies I could find of Black to Comm's first release, Ruckwarts Backwards on vinyl. Limited to just 222 copies. BtC's Fractal Hair Geometry is also on its way on vinyl. Limited to 500 copies. Given the high praise the artist's received for his latest release, Alphabet 1968, which made a number of year end top 10 lists, and which we sold out of promptly (it is limited to 500), these should be nice treats for those who dig Richter's particular take on electronic.

4. I've got another copy of Charley Patton's 4LP set coming in next week. We sold out once already and this will probably be my last order of it as it's limited to 275 copies world-wide. $125. That's $25 cheaper than the competition sells it for downtown.

5. Another heap of Numero Group titles will probably be in in about 2 weeks. For the first time, we'll also be bringing some of their titles on CD. Should happen around first week in February.

6. Restock of some Mississippi Records titles are on the way: Clara Rockmore and Reverend Overstreet in particular.

7. I added the ability to sample some audio to the site. This entry features a track from the above mentioned My Morning Jacket release. You should see the option in the left hand column under Listen To. If you experience problems with the audio player, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

That's all I got at the moment. Back to bed with me.

Today will be a heavy day for new vinyl stock. A large list of what's expected is below.

In addition, yesterday saw the arrival of the following CD and Blu-Ray box sets:

- Waylon Jennings - The Journey: Destiny's Child (6 CDs; Bear Family)
- Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Sam Butera - The Capital Years (8 CDs; Bear Family)
- Various Artists - A Shot in the Dark: Nashville Jumps: Blues & Rhythm on Nashville Indepedent Labels (8 CDs; Bear Family)
- Various Artists - Motown: The Complete Singles, Vols. 2: 1962 (Limited to 8000 copies), 6: 1966 (Limited to 6000 copies; out of print), and 10: 1970 (Limited to 8000 copies) (5 CDs and 1x7" each; Hip-O Select)
- Miles Davis - Complete In A Silent Way Sessions
- Rolling Stones - Singles, 1963 - 1965, Singles, 1965 - 1967, and Singles, 1968 - 1971

- Star Trek, The Original Series, Season 1 (Blu-ray)
- Star Trek, The Original Series, Season 2 (Blu-ray)

Some interesting used CDs came in as well (you know, in addition to the hundreds of interesting things we see every week):

The Nigeria '70 3 disc set--two CDs and a DVD which has a documentary on the country's music. As far as I can make out, the two disc version is still in print but this 3 disc one is not. It's on Strut, so is a UK import as well.

Three volumes of the Verve France: Free America series came in. Here's an article on the series in Jazz Times and another in All About Jazz. The titles we received were Art Ensemble of Chicago's Certain Blacks, and one title each from Clifford Thornton and Frank Wright. These CDs were obviously released in France and are numbered, limited to 3500 numbered copies. We've put a premium price on these; they're in perfect shape.

As for the vinyl, I think the following will be in boxes that arrive today:

- Devendra Banhart - Oh Me Oh My The Day Goes By
- Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day (LP + 7")
- Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson (180g)
- Girl Talk - Night Ripper (2LP, limited ed)
- Simon Joyner - Songs for the New Year
- The Knife - Silent Shout
- Lady Gaga - The Fame
- Pelican - March Into the Sea
- Set Fire to Flames - Telegraphs In Negative / Mouths Trapped in Static (2LP)
- Velvet Underground - Loaded (180g), VU and Nico (180g), VU and Nico (Mono)
- Scott Walker - Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, and Scott 4
- Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
- Deep Listening Band - Then & Now Now & Then (2LP, Ltd to 500)
- Tim Buckley - Greetings From L.A.
- Budos Band - s/t
- Elmore James - The Sky is Crying
- Johnny Cash - The Sun Singles (6 x 7" box set)
- Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits (Ltd. ed. 7")

As well as restocks of:

- Them Crooked Vultures - s/t
- Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
- Husker Du - Zen Arcade
- Soundgarden - Badmotofinger
- Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of The Decline (2LP), Avec Laudenum, The Tired Sounds Of... (2LP)
- Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted (180g)
- Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced (2LP), Band of Gypsies (140g), and Axis: Bold As Love
- John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

We also managed to find one more copy of Nadja's out of print 2LP 180g Radiance of Shadows. Limited to 750 copies.

These are also in the wind and may arrive today but could be as late as next week:

- Cinematic Orchestra - Everyday
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freakey Styley and Uplift Mojo...
- Radiohead - The Bends
- Radiohead - Kid A

Some nice blues:

- Mississippi Fred McDowell - Mama Said I'm Crazy
- Joe Callicott - Ain't A Gonna Lie to You
- Scott Dunbar - From Lake Mary
- Heartless Bastards - Stairs and Elevators
- Sweet Tea - s/t
- Elmo Williams - Takes One to Know One

And restocks of:

- MF Doom - MM Food
- Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
- Kraftwerk - Autobhan
- Kraftwerk - Radio Activity
- Kraftwerk - Man Machine
- Kraftwerk - Tour De France
- Kraftwerk - Europe Express