Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care
Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, the band’s fifth ‘proper’ album (and first since 2007′s All Of A Sudden…) makes a mockery of claims that the band are mere peddlers of music that has been done better before, either by others or themselves. Suggestions that the band basically deal in the same sonic material served up by, say, Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor are both lazy and misleading. Sure, there are elements that connect these (and many more) groups, relationships that can be usefully mapped out, but they all have their own distinctive voices. “Voice” is the right word to use here because it is largely the absence of voice (i.e., of “songs” or “lyrics”) that prompts the comparisons in the first place. But to say that one instrumental rock-informed group drawn to lengthy mood pieces is the equivalent of another is like saying that one jazz group is like another, or that composers of classical music are somehow all the same. Read the full review on Tiny Mix Tapes

Emmylou Harris – Hard Bargain
Because Hard Bargain contains enough uptempo material for contrast, the album’s ballads don’t blur together as they have on some of Harris’s recent records, which makes it easier to appreciate them on their own merits. “Lonely Girl” is a stunning mood piece, while “Dear Kate” pays homage to the late Kate McGarrigle, Harris’s longtime friend and collaborator. Though she’s always been known first and foremost as a song interpreter, Harris’s songwriting here is especially sharp. The gently rollicking “Home Sweet Home” boasts an unconventional melody that heightens the song’s overall sense of displacement, while the ballad “My Name is Emmett Till” finds Harris singing from the point of view of the young African American boy killed for violating the unspoken laws of the Jim Crow-era South. It’s the empathy in Harris’s writing and her intuitive, sensitive phrasing that keep the song from becoming maudlin or cloying. Read the full review on Slant

Prefuse 73 – The Only She Sounds
The Only She Chapters sounds inebriated. Each snare hit has a tail of diminishing echoes, and each ping of a sample is followed by a ripple of overtones. The diversity of rhythms is on par, but each one is unfurled at a snail’s pace. Melodies peak around the usual backdrop pastiche, but they are swaying amidst the drowsily nodding tempos. “The Only Valentine’s Day Failure” sounds like a King Tubby 45 at 33 RPMs. The eddying vocal samples of “The Only Serenidad” must have been created with the audio equivalent of a slowly rotating Paint ’n’ Swirl. During “The Only Trial of 9000 Suns”, the late Trish Keenan (R.I.P.) sounds less like the aloof retro-pop princess she was than that confusing final conversation you had leaving the bar with the pretty girl in the tangerine dress. Read the full review on Dusted

Prefuse 73

Autechre – EP’s 1991 – 2002
So there’s plenty of pleasure here, but plenty of difficulty as well. As the years went on, Autechre became masters of bright melodies that they then drowned in distortion– their own abstract variation on “noise pop.” 1999′s EP7 might be their most beautiful release, but it’s also one of their most disorienting, built from what seems like several hundred gigs worth of glittering little chunks of sound. From then on, Autechre’s music would be about things endlessly falling apart and rebuilding themselves and falling apart again in spectacular fashion. On “Gantz Graf”, one of their most convoluted beat-and-riff creations becomes subjected to so much abuse that it collapses into screaming noise, as if the track itself is pleading for relief. There’s a lot more to listen to in Autechre’s later music, and a lot less to hang onto. The music constantly mutates, so it’s hard to get bored, but if your attention drifts, it becomes ever harder to figure out how you got from one minute to the next. It’s no wonder they were embraced as much by the free improv community around the turn of the millennium. It’s music that invites a listener to boggle at its moment-to-moment inventiveness or tune it out entirely. Read the full review on Pitchfork

Atmosphere – The Family Sign
The Family Sign is a heavy, moody album. There’s not nearly as much humor here as with Atmosphere’s previous two releases, but that doesn’t make it any less of a quality addition to the group’s catalogue. Slug and Ant are, once again, in near-perfect concert with regard to their vision for what the album should sound like, and what sort of thoughts and emotions it should convey and evoke. Further, it’s fascinating to see Slug settling completely into his role of narrator—one that will assuredly continue to inspire awe for albums to come. Read the full review on Hip Hop Dx

Gorillaz – The Fall
Each track on The Fall hails from a different American city, and unlike on past Gorillaz records, the guest stars are kept to a minimum. An exception comes with perhaps the album’s best song, “Bobby In Phoenix,” a positively enchanting mix of Bobby Womack’s larger-than-life soul-man crooning and a spare, modern bed of Dirty Projectors-inspired acoustic R&B licks and synthetic textures. But the effect isn’t that different on “Revolving Doors,” where Albarn sings a Kerouac-style travelogue over a bluesy jangle and a simple hip-hop beat. The Fall’s overarching mellowness sometimes makes it difficult to sink in, but the end result is more than a tour diary. It’s as eclectic as any Gorillaz record, and nearly as rewarding over repeated listens. Read the full review on The AV Club

My Morning Jacket Evil Urges picture LP

My Morning Jacket  Z picture LP

Paul Simon  So Beautiful or So What LP

Robbie Roberts How to Become Clairvoyant LP

Dengue Fever  Cannibal Courtship LP

Duff McKagen  Loaded LP

Matt Costa  Songs we Sing LP

Fistful of Mercy 7″

Freelance Whales/Foals split 7″

A Day to Remember 7″

Red Fang (colored LP)

The Kills 10″

Rhymesayers label comp picture LP

Deerhoof Friend Opportunity  Dlx LP

Ubiquity 12″ #1

Ubiquity 12″ #3

Rancid  Let the Dominoes Fall Dlx LP Box

Tribute to Guided by Voices CD

Crowded House Live CD & LP

Lindstrom Remix/Bear in Heaven 12″

Akron/Family 2LP

Syd Barrett Introduction LP

Off! 7″

Vanguard Lost Psychedelic LP

Beth Ditto LP

Beach Boys mono EP

Adele 10″

Bruce Springsteen 10″

Decemberists Live CD

Jimi Hendrix Fire 7″

Parlophone 7′ Box Set

AC/DC 7″

Ozzy Osbourne 7″

Jimi Hendrix tribute cd single

Peter Tosh (7′Jamaican colors)

In this Moment cd single

Michael Jackson 7″

Raphael Saadiq 7″

Roy Orbison 7″

Cults 7″

Manchester Orchestra 7″

All right.  I think that is it.  Small forest of cardboard in our back room.

Twilight Sad Demos Cassette

Wavves /Trash Talk split 7″

Superchunk/Coliseum split 7′

Skysaw 7″

Ryan Adams double 7″

Civil Wars  Dance Me 7″

Pinback 7″

Tres Mts LP

Ate some food.  Ready to go thru boxes.

Matt & Kim 7″

Deerhunter 7″

New Pornographers 7″

David’s Town (various) Lp

Esben & the Witch -Ep

Arthur Russell World of Echo (Lp reissue)

Anberlin-Cities Lp

Kode 9 & Scapeape 12″

Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Oz (Lp reissue)

Ozzy Osbourne Diary of a Madman (Lp reissue)

John Hammond So Many Roads (Lp reissue)

Nickel Creek  This Side Lp

Dom 10″

Nickel Creek self titled Lp

Nickel Creek  Why Should the Fire Die Lp

Bob Dylan Live Brandeis Lp

Pearl Jam  Vs Lp reissue

Pearl Jam Vitalogy Lp reissue

Foo Fighters  Medium Rare Lp

Sonic Youth Whores Moaning Lp

Rolling Stones -Brown Sugar 7″

Queen -Keep Yourself Alive 7″

New York Dolls 7″

Toadies 7″

Duran Duran 7″

Nathaniel Rateliff 7″

Derek & The Dominos 7″

Tron/Daft Punk Picture 10″

New York Dolls – Dancing backward in high heels Lp

Lady Gaga Picture 12”

Hollywood Undead Picture Lp

Nirvana Hormoaning Lp

James Blake S/T Lp

Peter,Bjorn & John 7″

Steve Earle 7″

Flogging Molly 7″

Fela Kuti 7″

Dennis Coffey 7″

Rise Against 7″

Laura Marling Dharohar Project & Mumford & Sons 10″

My Morning Jacket -It Still Moves Picture Lp

Dio – Killing the Dragon Picture Lp

Ray Lamontagne – Live Ep

Between the Buried and Me Lp

Kill Rockstars Live 1991 Comp. Lp

Growlers  7″

ARP 12″

Black Angels 10″

Black Angels 12″

Red Hot Chili Peppers/Ramones-Havana Affair(red 7″)

Antony & the Johnsons (clear 10″)

Tres Mts. cd

DBs 7″

Twin Sister/Luyas 7″

Yeasayer 7″

Joan Jett-I Love RocknRoll(clear lp)

Devotchka -How it Ends lp

Damien Jurado live lp

ST Ives comp lp

Record Store Day is upon us – we’ve been getting emails galore from all of you asking if we’ll have copies the many various RSD exclusives. The long short of it is yes, we’ll probably have what you’re looking for, but we’ll probably only have a few copies and they’ll go fast. In order to give everyone a fair shot, we’re going to institute a raffle for those who get here when we open at 10AM.

If you are here at 10AM, when we open our doors tomorrow, you’ll draw a number out of a hat, and in that order have a go at 1 copy of 2 different record store day titles. So sayeth the record store owner, and so be-ith, it. See you all at 10AM!

Opened some more boxes.

Freddy King-Wash Out(7″ reissue)

Red Crayola-Hurricane Fighter Plane (sonic boom remix) 7″

13th Floor Elevators  -Wait for my Love (green 7″)

Yardbirds -Goodnight Sweet Jospephine (7″reissue)

Mayall/Clapton-Lonely Years(7″reissue)

Velvet Underground-Foggy Notion(7″reissue)

Bad Brains-Pay to Cum(7″reissue)

Pink Floyd-London 66/67 (LP)

Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger-La Carotte Bleue (LP)

Neko Case T-Shirts

Panda Bear-Tomboy (LP/T-shirt combo)

Mike Gordon -Moss Remixes

My Chemical Romance – Na Na Na (picture 7″)

Jenny & Johnny/Parsons&Harris -Love Hurts (blue 7″)

Green Day/Husker Du-Don’t Want to Know if You are Lonely (orange 7′)

R.E.M. triple 7″

Regina Spektor-Four From Far (light blue 7″)

Mastodon/ZZ Top-Just got Paid (yellow 7″)

Young the Giant 7″

The Republic Tigers 7″

Rival Schools 7″

Rush -Caravan 7″

Death Cab for Cutie 7″

Joy Formidable 7″

Doors -Riders on the Storm 7″ reissue

Busdriver 7″

Vivian Girls 7″

Villagers/Charlotte Gainsbourg 7″

Xiu Xiu/Deerhoof 7″

Justin Townes Earle 7″

Silverstein 7″

Built to Spill -Ripple ( picture 7″)

Phish-Two Soundchecks (7″)

Wild Flag 7″

Lower Dens 7″

Blitzen Trapper 7″

More to come, in a couple of hours.

Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
In many ways, the album represents the band in a midlife crisis: the return of Pat Smear, the use of analog tape, and recording in a garage. It comes across as a general effort to get rid of the excesses of 2007′s Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace and 2005′s In Your Honor. So much of this story begins to sound a bit gimmicky: a return to the band’s roots in a DIY fashion with appearances from old friends, while quietly keeping the record label in the background. But really, it isn’t a gimmick at all. Foo Fighters are at the top of their game and got there in a no-bullshit way, so there wouldn’t be a point or need for that kind of facade. How do we know? Because even at the top, Dave Grohl really just wants to scream his balls off. Read the Full review on consequence of sound

TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
However, as Nine Types of Light suggests, perhaps they just needed to get out of Brooklyn. The new album marks two significant changes in TVOTR’s methodology: It was made in the wake of a one-year hiatus following six years of non-stop recording and touring; and it was recorded in Los Angeles, where Sitek has been steadily building his celebrity clientele list over the past few years. Both factors seem to have influenced the sound and feel of the album: Nine Types of Light is unquestionably TV on the Radio’s most patient, positive recording to date, taking its cues as much from Dear Science’s serene ballads (“Family Tree”, “Love Dog”) as its brassy workouts. Each of the band’s albums has opted for a tone-setting opening salvo, and mission statements don’t come more concise and clear-headed than Tunde Adebimpe’s ecstatic, falsettoed hook on Nine Types’ first song, “Second Song”: “Every lover on a mission/ Shift your known position/ Into the light.” Read the full review on Pitchfork

Bob Dylan Live at Brandeis 1963
It’s the music that matters most. Alongside “John Birch” is the even more powerful and equally scathing “Masters of War.” A still-shocking commentary on the arms race set to a traditional folk melody (originating in the English folk song “Nottamun Town”), “Masters” was so plain-spoken in its venom that anyone could understand it. Like four of the concert’s seven songs, it would appear on Dylan’s second LP, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, released just a couple of weeks after the Brandeis concert. In that LP’s liner notes, Nat Hentoff recounted Dylan’s confession that “I don’t sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn’t help it with this one.” “Masters” was Dylan at his most startling as he attacked proponents of the miltary/industrial complex. Even listening this many years later, it’s no surprise that the song attracted so much attention with plainly-intoned lines like “even Jesus would never forgive what you do.” “Masters” makes the bile of “Positively 4th Street” seem quaint by comparison: “I hope that you’ll die, and your death’ll come soon/I’ll follow your casket in the pale afternoon/And I’ll watch while you’re lowered/Down to your deathbed/And I’ll stand over your grave/Till I’m sure that you’re dead.” The Brandeis performance is expectedly hair-raising. Read the full review on The Second Disc

Here we go.

These are some of the items that have arrived at the store & will be available as soon as 10am Saturday.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez- Telesterion (CD & LP)

Jill Sobule & John Doe- A Day At The Pass (CD)

Javelin (7″)

Javelin- Canyon Candy (10″)

Flying Lotus- Cosmogramma Outtakes (LP)

Nada Surf- The Moon Is Calling (7″)

Discordance Axis- The Inalienable Dreamless (LP)

Bibio/Clark (Split 12″)

Neurosis- Sovereign (LP)

Urge Overkill (7″)

Liturgy/Oval (Split LP)

Os Mutantes- Best Of (LP Reissue)

Daedelus- Tailor-Made (12″)

Midlake-Am I Going Insane (12″)

Bad Brains- God Of Love (LP)

Mastadon- Live At The Aragon (LP)

Tom Petty- You’re Gonna Get It (LP Reissue, blue vinyl)

Tom Petty- Tom Petty (LP Reissue, white vinyl)

Fleetwood Mac- Rumors (LP Reissue)

Clapton Unplugged (LP Reissue)

Glassjaw- Worship And Tribute (Picture LP)

Machine Head- Black Procession (Live 10″)

Of Montreal- The Past Is A Grotesque Animal (12″)

Circa Survive- Apendage EP (LP and CD)

Hank III- Damn Right, Rebel Proud (Colored LP)

Hank III- Strait to Hell (Colored LP)

Hank III- Lovesick, Broke And Driftin’ (Colored LP)

Television- Live At The Waldorf ’78 (White LP)

Grateful Dead- Grateful Dead (Mono LP Reissue)

Transit- Promise Nothing (7″)

Franz Ferdinand- Covers EP (LP)

Mike Gordon- Inside In (LP Reissue)

Rough Guide- Desert Blues (LP)

Rough Guide- African Guitar Legends (LP)

William Fitzimmions- Golden Shadow (LP)

Rekords Rekords (10″)

Superchunk- Here’s Where The Strings Come In (LP and CD)

Mighty Clouds (LP)

Mates Of State- Team Boo (LP)

Broom- Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (LP)

Architecture In Helsinki- Places Like This (LP Reissue, pink vinyl)

The Submarines- Lovenotes, Letterbombs (LP)

Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American (DLX 3 LPs)

Deftones- Covers (LP)

Flaming Lips (LP Boxset, 5 LPs)

Brett Dennen- b  side to the d side (7″)

Owen- O, Evelyn (7″)

Polvo- Celebrate The New Dark Age (Signed LP)

Grinderman- Evil (LP)

Grinderman- Palaces Of Montezuma (12″)

Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues (12″)

Caribou- Swims Remixes (LP)

Ubiquity 12″ #2 (LP)

Piebald (3 Vinyl Box Set)

Ubiquity Compilation (CD)

Bloodshot- 15th Anniversary Concert (CD)

The Republic Tigers- No Lands Man (CD)

Stay tuned, more to come!!!

You may be aware that Record Store Day is just around the corner – and with it comes a cornucopia of special events, prizes and limited edition releases from some of the industries biggest and best!

You may also be aware of (and judging from the amount of inquiries we’ve been getting, you are) a limited edition release from a local college rock n roll band… Phish (pronounced Puh-hish.) If you’re one of these self professed “Phish heads” here’s the info straight from the fish’s gill:

On Record Store Day, Phish will release TWO SOUNDCHECKS, a Limited Edition 7-inch vinyl record that will be available exclusively at participating independently owned record stores across the country. ‘Two Soundchecks’ marks the band’s first ever live vinyl release and their first release in conjunction with Record Store Day.

This 7-inch is limited to 2,000 hand-numbered copies, and once they are gone they are gone. The A-Side is an instrumental jam culled from the soundcheck of Phish’s third show of a sold out three-night stand at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The B-Side is an especially exotic soundcheck from Hartford, CT in 2009, featuring Trey on Bass, and Fish on drums. This Limited Edition 7-inch was created exclusively for Record Store Day.

Pure Pop will be opening at 10AM record store day, and because we’ll only have TWENTY of those copies, we’ve decided to institute some kind of raffle to give everyone who wants a copy a fighting chance. Namely because we’re going to make people fight for them. Just kidding.

Keep your eyes on our facebook page and this blog for more info on on the raffle and for more info on our record store day exclusives.