Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Halcyon Digest is a record about the joy of music discovery, the thrill of listening for the first time to a potential future favorite, and that sense of boundless possibility when you’re still innocent of indie-mainstream politics and your personal canon is far from set. In revisiting that youthful enthusiasm, Deerhunter brilliantly rekindle it, and the result meets Microcastle/Weird Era (Cont.) as the band’s most exhilarating work to date. Whether those halcyon days were real or just idealized doesn’t matter. With producer Ben Allen, who lent a bass-heavy sheen to Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, these four guys– lead singer Bradford Cox, singer/guitarist Lockett Pundt, bass player Josh Fauver, and drummer Moses Archuleta– have created a seamless album of startling emotional clarity. Read the full Pitchfork review

Neil Young – Le Noise
Your interest might be piqued further not so much by Lanois’s sonic approach – which largely sets Young’s singing against the sound of his own ferociously distorted electric guitar, occasionally looping his voice to unsettling effect – but by the circumstances surrounding the album. While you don’t want to wish the old guy any ill, contentment doesn’t suit Neil Young, at least artistically. His best work – from 1974′s On the Beach to 1995′s Sleeps With Angels – has been born out of turmoil, and Le Noise arrives haunted. Filmmaker Larry Johnson, who collaborated with Young for four decades, died suddenly in January, while longstanding sideman Ben Keith died of a heart attack at Young’s home in July. Judging by Le Noise’s contents, their deaths seem to have simultaneously rattled and re-energised him. Read the full Guardian UK Review

Bad Religion – Dissent of Man
Well, I can proudly say that “Dissent” does not disappoint. Comparing it to “New Maps of Hell” would be unfair and quite frankly a little ignorant for me to attempt as every Bad Religion release has always stood on its own as a separate work of art. Lead singer Greg Graffin’s lyrics have always been able to transcend the time period in which they were written and remain relevant through the decades.

Picking out my favorite songs from the album would be like a mother choosing her favorite child; sure, she could do it, but not out loud. In any event, every fan of the band will find a certain kinship with different songs. Do not look at some lowly reviewer to tell you what songs to enjoy, just sit back and decide for yourself. So here goes, your daily dose of salt to be taken lightly and without prejudice. Read the full SB Independent review

Also:
Free 7″ with the new Women release “Public Strain”
Free T-shirt with the new Bowie Deluxe “Station to Station”

Here is our third and final installment of Pure Pop’s Intro to Witch House.  We’ve discussed the origins of the genre, the top labels, and now we get to what’s really important–the music.  In this section, we’ll review some essential Witch House releases, as well as discuss some recent/soon-to-be-released albums that are likely to become major works of the genre.

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ESSENTIAL RELEASES

While the genre is still incredibly young, and the majority of Witch House releases have been online singles/remixes, there are still a handful of key releases that have helped to define its sound:

SALEM – “Yes I Smoke Crack” & “Water” EPs (2008, Acephale/2009, Merok)

Arguably the albums that started it all)

V/A – “Dark as Night” (2009, Bathetic)

Introduced acts such oOoOO, SLEEP ∞ OVER, TERMINAL TWILIGHT & S U R V I V E). Originally released in 2009, repressed in 2010 and immediately sold out.

White Ring /oOoOO – “Split 7” (2010, Emotion)

While both acts had solo EPs of their own earlier this year (White Ring’s “Suffocation” on Hi-Score and oOoOO’s “No Summr4u” CDR on Disaro), this 7” split release garnered the most attention, containing one standout track from each artist per side.

///▲▲▲\\\ (aka “Void”, aka ///HORSE MACGUYVER\\\) –“///▲▲▲\\\” CD-R (2010, Disaro). Definitely one of the more bizarre offerings from the Witch House scene this year, this EP is an eclectic mix of weird, pitch shifted noise combined with tape loops, industrial percussive effects, haunting effected vocal samples and warped synth riffs. Definitely will appeal more to the avant-garde/noise crowd than some of the other albums listed.

▲ (aka “Black Pyramid”) – “Pyramid/Sphinx” (2010, self-released). The two tracks that make up this vague EP were pulled from MySpace downloads offered up by the artist and became one of the more popular non-release releases of 2010. A very atmospheric and dark sound, even for this genre, heavy with digital synthesizers reminiscent of early Oneohtrix Point Never.

V/A – “Let Me Shine For You” (2010, Tri Angle)

This free online album is actually a mixtape of remixes of Lindsay Lohan songs by artists Babe Rainbow, Laurel Halo, Autre Ne Veut, oOoOO, Stalker and Oneohtrix Point Never. As bizarre as the concept sounds, it’s one of my favorite albums of the year. It also further highlights Witch House’s bizarre, not-so-ironic love affair with highly-produced, glossy pop music.

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2010 UPCOMING RELEASES

2010 is shaping up to be a big year for Witch House. The wealth of attention that has been lavished on the genre has put big pressure on artists and labels to live up to their hyped promise. For the most part, from what I’ve heard thus far, I’d say they’re not only living up to the hype but exceeding it.

1) Balam Acab – “See Birds” (Tri Angle; released August 31st, sold out immediately; repress happening now)

One of the breakout artists of 2010 is undoubtably Balam Acab, aka Alec Koone, a 19 year old (!) college student from Ithaca, NY. He released his first single, “See Birds”, on his MySpace page earlier this year and it immediately caught fire, becoming one of the top underground jams of the summer.

Released to near universal acclaim last month, his EP of the same is one the most heartbreakingly beautiful albums of the year. Featuring heavily-effected vocal samples (reportedly mainly appropriated from YouTube clips) layered over staccato guitar riffs and atmospheric synths, the album shows a huge range of influences, from screwed hip-hop to freak folk to eastern drone. I was completely blown away by this EP (as were reviewers across the globe) and expect huge things out of the full-length that is sure to follow.

2) SALEM – “King Night” (IAMSOUND, due out September 28th)

While this crew is arguably the granddaddies of the genre, they are just now releasing their first full length album entitled “King Night”. While I have been impressed by nearly everything I heard from this band (including the eponymous pre-release single), I have to admit I was incredibly nervous about whether this album would live up to expectations, especially after their disastrous performance at this year’s SXSW festival, where they were reportedly booed off the stage (link to YouTube videos)

However, as is the case in this wonderful technological age, the entire “King Night” album was leaked on the internet shortly after the first part of this feature was written….and it is incredible. The album captures the band at their best, in every aspect of what they do, whether it’s floaty dreamscapes like “Frost”, “Traxx” or the Sonic Youth-esque album closer “Killer”, demented chopped-and-screwed hip hop tracks like “Sick”, “Trapdoor” or “Tair”, or epic genre-bending symphonic compositions like “King Night” or “Hound”. Truly a masterpiece that is not to be missed.

3) oOoOO – “oOoOO” (Tri Angle, due October 4th)

This self-titled album is the first full-length from another one of the founders of the Witch House scene. Many of the tracks listed to on the album already exist on other EPs or as online singles, so time will tell if this is simply a collection of existing tracks or if they have been re-recorded and reinvented (as Salem did with “Redlights” for “King Night”)

4) Modern Witch – “Disaro” (Disaro, released March 2010)

This full-length from the otherwise impressive Modern Witch was a let-down for me. Seeing as it was one of the first Witch House LPs released this year, they unfortunately didn’t see the competition that would be coming in the next six months, and the other albums listed just leave this one in the dust. While the tracks show a lot of promise, they really just sound like incomplete demos, the skeletons of what could have been otherwise great songs had they been given a bit more production value and development.

Well, that will do it for our spotlight on the wonderful world of Witch House. If the genre and artists sound interesting to you, I highly recommend that you stop into Pure Pop to pick up these new albums when they are officially released on CD (or even better, vinyl. Mmmmm…….witch house vinyl……..)

(Jay Blanchard is the founder of MARS PYRAMID Records, an experimental record label run out of Burlington, VT. He also performs as VIKOMT).

Michael Franti & Spearhead – The Sound of Sunshine
The Sound of Sunshine is the seventh studio album from Franti and his crew, and he sites his time spent recovering from a serious medical condition as the inspiration for many of Sunshine’s songs. Franti explains, “I almost died…I really took a moment to prioritize what’s really important…it’s really about the people I love. Even in that hospital, I could laugh with the people I love, cry with them, and start to find the sun again.” This live for the moment, “take care of the people around you” vibe, clearly shines through in both the up-tempo, pop/reggae beats and feel-good lyrics. Read more at Suite101

John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up!
For all their talent, the band will always simply and conveniently be known as a live hip-hop band. Perhaps in a way to demolish that apt yet restrictive label, the focus of this effort is less about rap and more about ’60s soul covers built on tight instrumentation. “Compared To What” could have been a soul classic, the kind of funk-tacular, loose-played jam of an everyday narrator looking in on his world and painting a picture of degradation and hope for change while evoking a rhythmic, free-flowing indignation. While not a soul classic, the cover of “Hard Times”, originally by Baby Huey & The Babysitters, is just as much about injustice but more to the tune of the band’s often rigid yet inspired playing, newly adorned with an army of flutes. Beyond these songs, the strength of the album lies in Legend’s voice, that of an old soul who understands mainstream black music sensibilities, and The Roots’ ability to blend in and let the spotlight shine not on big beats or singular feats of musical greatness but on the construct as a whole. Read the full review at Consequence of Sound

Matt Costa – Mobile Chateau
His natural approach to melody is heightened here, more than ever. There are no tracks contained that aren’t instantly ‘hum-able.’ There’s more than a slight flavor of ’60s guitar pop, with the catchiest of hooks married with bass drum and tambourine crashes. As usual, Costa’s voice is a charming vehicle, delivering pithy lyrics that assert a modernism that leave his influences behind. It’s obvious, when holding Mobile Chateau against his previous two albums, that the artist’s voice has found its own character, rather than relying on mere characteristics. Everything feels decidedly more adult here, more assertive, more substantial. Read the full review on Buzzline

Serj Tankian – Imperfect Hamonies
With Chinese Democracy now a reality, hard rock fans can look to a System Of A Down reunion as their new great lost cause. Since its hiatus began in 2006, the band has essentially split in two: Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan have formed the lamentable Scars On Broadway, while Serj Tankian has undertaken an unpredictable, yet often rewarding, solo career. His newest album, the sprawling, almost painfully eclectic Imperfect Harmonies, is ambitious to a fault: It seems like there’s nothing Tankian doesn’t want to accomplish in the space of a single album (except, unfortunately for his old-school fans, a return to anything resembling metal). Read the full review on the AV Club

1.Of Montreal-False Priest

Only a couple days more to take advantage of our first week low price of $9.99. Vinyl is $19.97.

Favorite tracks:  Enemy Game , Like a Tourist, You Do Mutilate?

2.Black Angels-Phosphene Dream

Also, have special first week price of $9.99.  Vinyl is $19.97.   I have listened to this 3 or 4 times, very good.

Free lithograph of image above  with purchase.

Favorite tracks:  Haunting at 1300 McKinley, River of Blood, True Believers

3.The Sword-Warp Riders cd $10.99 lp $19.97.

One of the foundations of the metal revival of the past ten years.  Austin TX’s The Sword have released two flawless slabs of vintage heaviness on Kemado Records.  Warp Riders, their 3rd full-length and their most ambitious to date is a the band’s first concept album.  It is fittingly grand in scope both lyrically and in terms of musical craftsmanship.

Favorite tracks:

Tres Brujas, The Chronomancer 1: Hubris, Night City

4.The Weepies-Be My Thrill cd $8.99.

After some time off after the birth of their son.  The indie duo are back with Be My Thrill, which is a great showcase for their powerhouse songwriting and unique harmonies, ranging from the Cole Porter-esque “They’re in Love” to the Dusty Springfield-like “When You Go Away”.  Check this out in our CIMS Homegrown listening station.

Title track:  Be My Thrill

I’m not going to say much about these two videos by South African outfit Die Antwoord (The Answer). I’m going to let them speak for themselves and let you, the intrepid Pure Pop music lovers figure out what it all means. Is this just another low-brow (no-brow?) calculated ploy at grabbing headlines through Harmony-Korinesque caricatures of empty pop culture. Or is this, more shockingly so – the real (and still vapid) deal?


Or maybe it’s something else altogether. You decide. Their major label debut comes out soon. Oh yeah, Not Safe For Work.

One of the most exciting upcoming releases this year is a little thing out of Brooklyn, NY that’s probably slipped by the radar of most people with all the huge (and great) records we’ve been experiencing and anticipating in 2010. How To Dress Well‘s debut LP, Love Remains, is set to release the 21st of this month. Listen to the track above, “Ready For the World,” and you’ll know if you’re into it. The whole album captures a familiar feeling of ambient isolation with minimal rhythms and an R&B vocal sense buried beneath a haze of samples and reverb. Imagine a whole album of Burial‘s “Endorphin” with a live vocalist and you’ll land somewhere close to what this is.

Welcome to part deux of our Witch House 101 seminar! In the first part of this article, we looked at Witch House (aka “Drag”, aka “Ghost Drone”, aka “Whothehellcares”) from the 10,000ft level, discussing the general sonic philosophy and various influences behind the Witch House sound, as well as exploring the genre’s bipolar relationship with the internet that helped spawn its success.

In this second part of the series, we are going to look a bit more closely at the various labels and artists that actually make up the loosely-defined genre, list some of its “essential releases”, and discuss some of the highly anticipated new releases coming in 2010.

LABELS

1) Acephale Records

While I wouldn’t go so far as to call Acephale a “witch house” label, they did, in a way, help introduce the world to the genre. The label’s very first release in 2008 was the now-classic SALEM EP “Yes I Smoke Crack”. SALEM is often looked at as the “founders” of the Witch House sound (or at least one of the key influences for many of the newer artists entering the genre), and this was their first physical offering to the outside world. While the sounds on this EP are very far from the SALEM we know today, the key elements of chopped-and-screwed beats, highly effected vocals and creepy atmospheric synthesizers are all there. Also, it introduced the earliest version of the song that is pretty much a Witch House anthem, “Redlights”.

2) TRI ANGLE

Tri Angle was started in early 2010 by Robin Carolan, a writer for the 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog (which has recently gained a great deal of attention as a crucial partner in Pitchfork’s “Altered Zones” collective). While Tri Angle has released very few albums and has a pretty minimalist web presence (its website is about as barebones as it gets, with just links to artist MySpace pages and distributors), it has quickly become one of the hottest labels in Witch House and one of the most discussed labels in all of underground music in 2010. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that their releases are distributed by famous German minimalist techno label Kompakt.

Carolan is one of the more outspoken folks in the Witch House scene. Many have seemed desperate to avoid defining or promoting the music altogether, preferring to keep it as an anarchist, underground movement. This dream probably jumped the shark when Pitchfork profiled the genre in a recent article called “Ghosts In the Machine”.

Preferring the moniker “drag” over “witch house” to define the sound, Carolan describes it as “a witching-hour vision of Cocteau Twins dream pop, meshed with the soundtrack to a particularly angsty Gregg Araki film full of Gen X shoegazer atmospherics and industrial beats, brought bang up to the date by the influence of raw hip hop mutations like chopped and screwed and juke.” Pretty astute and accurate, if you ask me.

Tri Angle currently boasts the most impressive roster of up-and-coming witch house artists, including Balam Acab (aka Alec Koone) of Ithaca, NY and oOoOO (aka Dexter Greenspan) of San Francisco, each of whom are releasing two of the most widely anticipated albums this year.

3) DISARO

Another key witch house label is DISARO, started in 2007 by a Houston, TX based DJ named Robert Disaro. While the label has been around for a few years, it didn’t start releasing witch house artists until early 2010, with a string of key releases by key genre artists like Mater Suspiria Vision, GR†LLGR†LL, oOoOO, Modern Witch and /// ▲▲▲ \\\ .

Mostly due to Disaro, Houston has become a surprising hub of activity for live performance by Witch House artists, and like-minded industrial/dance musicians who lie just outside the genre (i.e. White Car, //TENSE//, etc.)

Walkmen – Lisbon
In that elegantly disheveled mutter-wail thing of his, frontman Hamilton Leithauser starts new album Lisbon off by singing: “You’re with someone else tomorrow night/ Doesn’t matter to me/ ‘Cause as the sun dies into the hill/ You got all I need.” He’s sad and pathetic and needy and yet somehow still smooth, which is sort of the central animating paradox at the heart of the Walkmen. They make these wounded, anxious songs, but they make them so confidently, with such unearthly rich-guy assurance. The band’s specific style of indie rock is very rooted in a scrappy, scratchy New York tradition that dates back to the Velvet Underground or Bob Dylan, but their take on it is theirs and theirs alone. You know one of their songs right away when those winding, circular guitars and surging drums and gargling vocals kick in. They’re so performative in their sadness, but that stuff never rankles or comes off tantrumy, since the band is just so good at this stuff. There’s a song on Lisbon called “Woe Is Me”, and it’s not even remotely a joke. Great song, too. Read the full review

Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
Opener ‘Bad Vibrations’ is every bit the song its title suggests, a wobbling and ebbing intro of throbbing guitar barely making space for Alex Maas’s strained vocals, which throughout the record sound like they’re coming from somewhere down the hall, spreadeagled against a corner, deep inside some personal void. The sting, in this case, is very much in the tail, as eerily picked lonesome guitar segues into a brisk up-tempo motorik for the final quarter of the track. Granted, it’s neither rocket science nor re-inventing the wheel, but the best moments of Phosphene Dream categorically prove that The Black Angels are at their best when they just let things roll on by. Read the full review

Of Montreal – False Priest
False Priest is a generally enjoyable record. In all honesty when I started listening I hated it, hearing it as nothing more than a silly and pointless indulgence without any sort of consistency or narrative to keep me engaged. After a few listens though I realised that yes, it is silly (the opening two songs in particular) but it can also be unashamedly enjoyable for the listener too. It’s easy to try seek meaning from this record and at times it shows itself: there are a few references to Barnes’s childhood, letting us delve a little deeper into his mind while there are also songs that could be interpreted as continuations of “Touched Something’s Hollow” where Barnes explores what having an alter ego can do to his mind. For a record with a title like False Priest you might even expect Barnes to explore the nature of religion and its effects or even the effect it had on him more deeply (he grew up in a Catholic household). Instead at the end of the record he seems to take up the role of preacher, dismissing the idea of having faith in a God. For a free spirit like Barnes it seems odd to have him judging us for once. Read the full review

Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle
Despite its deliberate evolution on each previous album — a habit kept up since 1995 — Penny Sparkle marks Blonde Redhead’s most dramatic shift yet, a record that eschews organic instrumentation for synthesizers and drum machines on a near-total scale. Penny Sparkle is a dense, textural affair that Makino likely knew would be lost on a portion of the band’s post-punk die-hards, and perhaps the shift initially evaded her, too. Regardless, the band emerged from Scandinavia with a fantastic document of their modern electronic taste, a record that, while not their best work, serves as a rewarding continuation of the band’s trademark pop elegance, sensuality, and otherworldliness. Read the full review

Just as dubstep seemed to be getting started as a form of music recognized by the scene lords of the online and offline music landscape, the someone who decides the science of genre ethics declared the genre dead, it seems. We now live in a post-dubstep world and 2010 does feel pretty good, to be honest. However, I personally never really figured the dubstep sound out. I was never really able to boil it down to its particulars. The elements that varied from one artist of the style to another. Of course there’s the mathematics laid out by BPM measurement and a focus on the ones and  threes, but someone could have told me I was listening to dubby trip-hop and I would have been fine to move on with my life.

Of course, I can’t pretend to be an expert regarding the subtleties and constant iterative evolution of the UK electronic scene. Dubstep was born out of 2-step garage remixes that featured (what do you know) dub style production. If I knew what 2-step was, I guess that’d lead to some sense, but “dubstep” has become ubiquitous. I’ve heard it thrown around in regard to Robyn’s newest Body Talk releases as well as one American J-Dilla disciple, Flying Lotus, who was featured on Hyperdub’s dubstep 2009 compilation, 5: Five Years Of Hyperdub (as good a place to start researching the genre as any). It’s a common enough term in 2010, which seems to be the point of its demise, as if the addition of “post” is a broad enough distinction.

Also not a point of agreed upon lore in the epic dubstep chronology, but the closest the style has come to giving the world a household name to lean upon came after Burial’s 2007 Untrue, which it seems, almost everything under the genre banner hinges upon. I guess, once upon a time, you were supposed to be able to dance to dubstep, and if Burial wasn’t the first to employ non-danceable ambience, he more or less shifted the style’s venue from clubs to headphones. Maybe that’s the “post” seperation. Maybe not.

Anyway, with dubstep now on the lips of the most casual of music listeners, the style still seems to be destined to a vacuum of underground releases, which makes sense to me on some level. Burial’s legacy, not just within the genre, but apart of electronic music as a whole, is an intangible sense of isolation and (if artists do it right) an intimate relationship to the beat-maker’s psyche, and in the landscape of a scene (which is really all dubstep is) a lot of releases get left in their own little universes. The unique nature of each artist is dubstep’s simultaneous strength and curse. The legacy of the genre isn’t going to be what made it so special in the first place.

2010 has been a pretty good for the “post” side of things. James Blake’s CMYK and, the above-mentioned, Mount Kimbie’s Crooks & Lovers have both received some noteworthy press, all things considered, but there are a few overlooked gems more than worthy of attention. My pick is Scuba’s Triangulation.

Scuba is the first dubstep stamped artist I’ve come across that’s able to capture that Burial style isolation like a barren commute home through a sleeping city, while simultaneously infusing some danceable hooks into the mix. The album doesn’t belong in clubs by any means, or if it does, it inspires imagery of more than intimate interaction. But Scuba knows exactly what he sounds like. The sounds feel like they came from the empty subway tunnel on the record’s cover. And if a dance party is going to take place it’d be by yourself and in that very tunnel.

Scuba leaves a lot of space for his samples to breath and flex their way through submerged reverberations. Little synth grooves bounce through the space, held together by the intricate layered drum programming. There’s an extreme sense of atmosphere behind the bass hooks and synth washes that give the sound an addicting colorful contrast. Scuba does a fantastic job at creating a place that just feels great to occupy for an hour, and it’s almost incidental that he happens to be an extremely capable producer. One of dubstep’s more abstracted aspects, which also adds to the feel that every artist likes to wear his or her process on his or her sleeve, is almost every move made is a point of focus. Scuba, however, is pure grace and it’s possible to take everything in as a whole, though there’s enough for nerdier types to feast upon. The record almost flows like a dance mix with little ambient breaks here and there to alert the listener of that lonely tension, but there’s enough to just float on as there is to step back and forth.

My personal standout track, “Three Sided Shape,” is a perfect example of what Scuba does best. His game is addition and subtraction as well as variation on a theme. He’s able to surprise while giving listeners enough to hold onto. In said track, a busy pitch shifting lead keyboard sample drives the groove while tiny pseudo-rhythms cascade in and out of the stereo field and an offbeat double kick grounds the beat. Everything is stripped out near the middle while the keys wind down, only to slowly return with each loop one by one until the bottom comes back, the double kick exchanged for an “oh my god” single bass boom hook. It’s one of many “oh shit” moments on Triangulation. The take away/return pattern is one Scuba employs and varies enough to make interesting on the more academic side of things. A side that’s truly not needed for enjoyment, by any means.

I’ve personally come to terms with the arbitrariness of dubstep, which will probably birth nothing but frustration for future genraologists and those who need some definition before they step into a new musical realm. In the mean time, I suggest this overlooked gem of a record from the aptly named Scuba.

(Will Ryan is a local Burlington musician, notably of the recently deceased Neon Magus)

Brand New Stuff:
!!!  “Strange Weather, Isn’t It”  $21.97

Acorn  “No Ghost”  $18.97

Autolux  “Transit Transit”  $16.97

Sara Bareilles  “Kaleidoscope Heart” $24.97

James Blackshaw  “All is Falling” $17.97

Brenda  “Silver Tower”  $17.97

Carl Broemel  “All Birds Say” $16.97

S Carey  “All We Grow”  $14.97

Coil Sea  “Coil Sea”  $17.97

Cotton Jones  “Tall Hours in the Glowstream”  $14.97

Daedelus  “Righteous Fists of Harmony”  $12.97

Devil’s Brigade  “Devil’s Brigade”  $15.97

Fitz & the Tantrums  “Pickin Up the Pieces” $20.97

Gate  “Republic of Sadness”  $15.97

Interpol  “Interpol”  dlx lp $19.97 reg. $15.97

Jenny & Johnny  “I’m Having Fun Now” $21.97

Kaskade  “Dynasty”  $24.97

Lali Puna  “Our Inventions” $16.97

Ray Lamontagne   “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise”  $21.97

Land of Talk  “Cloak & Cipher”  $21.97

Brad Laner  “Natural Selections” $14.97

Jon Langford  “Old Devils”  $16.97

Matthew Dear  “Black City” $17.97

Miniature Tigers  “Fortress”  $19.97

NOFX   “Longest EP” $16.97

Sam Prekop  “Old Punch Card”  $17.97

Quest For Fire  “Fights From Paradise”  $16.97

Ra Ra Riot  “Orchard”  $16.97

Max Richter  “Infra”  $14.97

Scott Pilgrim vs the World  “Soundtrack”  $19.97

Philip Selway  “Familial”  $22.97

Skream  “Outside the Box” $24.97

Stornoway “Beachcomber’s Windowsill” $14.97

Street Dogs  “Street Dogs”  $17.97

Sword  “Warp Riders”  $19.97

Terror Danjah  “Powergrid” $19.97

Thermals  “Personal Life”  $16.97

Kompact/VA  “Total 11″  $20.97

Venetian Snares  “My So-Called Life”  $18.97

Weepies  “Be My Thrill”  $19.97

Brian Wilson  “Re-Imagines  Gershwin”  $19.97

Reissues or stuff we finally got in:

AC/DC  “Who Made Who” $17.97

Bad Brains “Live at CBGB”  $15.97

Borknagar  “Olden Domain” $24.97

Kate Bush  “Hounds of Love”  $29.97

Jerry Cole  “Hot Rod Dance Party”  $17.97

Elvis Costello  “My Aim is True”  $26.97

Son House  “Son House & other Great Delta Blues”  $30.97

Mississippi John Hurt  “Blessed Be Thy Name”  $22.97

Interpol  “Antics”  $11.97

Interpol  “Turn on the Bright Lights” $11.97

Blind Lemon Jefferson  “See That My Grave’s Kept” $22.97

Jelly Roll Morton  “Chant”  $22.97

National  “National”  $18.97

Pixies   “Pixies”  $21.97

Charlie Poole  “I’m the Man That Rode Round”  $22.97

Primus  “Sailing the Seas of Cheese”  $17.97

Raconteurs  “Broken Boy Soldiers”  $22.97

Red Hot Chili Peppers  “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” $29.97

Boz Scaggs  “Boz Scaggs” $24.97

Sonny Sharrock  “Black Woman”  $17.97

Superchunk  “No Pocky for Kitty”  $19.97

Superchunk  “On the Mouth” $19.97

Tobacco  “Fucked Up Friends” $14.97

Tom Waits  “Closing Time”  $24.97

2010 releases finally hitting shelves:

Black Crowes  “Croweology”  $29.97

Mountain Man  “Made the Harbor” $13.97

Corinne Bailey Rae  “The Sea”  $21.97

7″ singles:

Deerhunter “Revival” $4.97

No Age  “Glitter” $5.97

Vampire Weekend  “Holiday”  $4.97

Vaselines  “Sex With An X”  $5.97