A Guide to Record Store Day 2012

Big names, big crowds and big spending are all set to combine once more for 2012′s Record Store Day on Saturday April 21^st. With somewhere in the region of four hundred ‘exclusive’ titles being foisted on the potentially music-buying public, it’s hard to imagine anyone not finding something they might like. Provided they like vinyl, of course. But then why wouldn’t they? Last year, I spoke to a number of record shops around the UK for a piece primarily concerned with allocation of stock, the quantities produced and the effect of the day on their shops and their customers. Having proved to be one of the most read things I’ve ever written on this here site, I thought I should offer some sort of shameless follow up. So, incorporating some of the various search terms which have guided people to the site in the last few weeks, allow me to present my guide to surviving Record Store Day:

Should I make the effort to get to an independent record shop for RSD?

Without a doubt. In fact, you should make an effort to get to an independent record shop full stop. You clearly like your music if you’re loitering on a site like this and where better to get recommendations, bargains and all round musical bonhomie than your local record shop? Many of the UK’s finest indies are putting on all kinds of entertainment for the day, be it live performances, discounted regular stock or alcohol. This is a day primarily about celebrating the shops which have kept us in decent tunes for many years and will hopefully continue to do so for many more, rather than focusing on how many times you can sell catalogue titles by pressing them on 10” or tartan vinyl.

I had wanted to ask about the records being released. What should I be looking out for?

Well, unless you’re an obsessive collector of a certain band, multi-coloured vinyl reissues are best avoided. Yes, they’re labelled as ‘limited’, but don’t let that word fool you into thinking that it also means ‘essential’. £27 for a Kinks album is not what this is all about and I’d imagine you can track down a pretty decent original with that kind of money from one of the UK’s many splendid second hand vinyl shops. Check out the full list of items before you venture out next week and be absolutely certain about what you want and what you think you really need. It’s easy to get swept up in the mania in the store when the last copy of Viva Batshit’s see-through, poster-bag, first time on vinyl of a poor demo version of an old b-side special release is batting its eyelids at you, only for you to get home and realise you bought a turkey. Just ask everyone who bought the Death Cab For Cutie album sampler 7” last year. There is some great stuff out this year, but the sheer number of items is ludicrous. On the plus side, it should ensure that eBay scalpers should get shafted on plenty of records this time out.

Ah, yes. Imagine I’m a shameless music-hating, money-grabbing bastard. Is it worth my while getting my camping chairs out next week and taking a flask of bovril and a graphic novel down to my local store at 4am?

Ultimately, a few things will sell for shitloads, but there seem to be fewer GLARINGLY OBVIOUS EASY MONEY items this year, unlike the Blur, Beatles, Stones and Radiohead singles of the past. Anyone who overpays for Elbow and Marling bonus tracks, pressed on vinyl from a digital file, deserves what they’re getting in my book. Just ask any scalpers who fell for the Black Friday nonsense in November. Aping a similar event in the US, UK stores were encouraged to stock all kinds of steaming shite at super-inflated prices. Oddly enough, it didn’t sell that well. Nirvana ‘Nevermind‘ singles 10” boxset? Still, very much, available. Pink Floyd triple 7” boxset with jigsaw? Actually being sold off at a reduced price. Ludicrously marked up Lennon ‘Imagine‘ box? You get the picture. I actually saw The Doors‘ ‘LA Woman’ 7” box, which retailed around £50, being sold off by a dealer at a record fair last week for £25. With so many titles available, there will be easy money to be made due to ridiculously limited runs on certain key items – the Gorillaz 10” picture disc springs to mind, along with the rabid Beatles fans who’ll snap up the overpriced 7” box – but you pays your money, you takes your chance with all of this stuff. Frankly, as long as the thoroughly splendid people who run our independent record shops make their money on it all, I find it hard to get too angry about it. However, when limited numbers bring out the quick-buck-brigade and leave empty-handed those tempted out for the first time in ages, it does tarnish the event a little. The scalpers will be there – the best approach is not to buy stuff from them on eBay until the price drops below what it cost in the shop.

Ok, ok. I’m not a scalper. I’m just a fan. When should I start queuing for Record Store Day?

Speaking from past experience, I was eighth (although curiously eleventh by the time the doors opened and the camping-chair-bovril-wanker chums had turned up) in the queue at Rise in Bristol last year by arriving a little after 6am. The first twenty were let in to get initial dibs and I got everything I wanted. This varies from city to city and based on access to indies. I know that Rockaboom in Leicester had early hours queues for 2010 and 2011, but the East Midlands is a barren wasteland for indie stores. There were some fairly eye-watering photos of the queue at Rough Trade East posted on Twitter last year and the message is pretty clear: if you’re after one of the really rare items, get there as early as you can. Between 5 and 6am should ensure you’re ok, but don’t hold me to that.

5am? Really?

Or, rock up at noon, pick up the odd overpriced 7”, grab some decent new music from the normal racks and catch a live performance from a band. Your choice. Remember, we’re celebrating independent record stores here, not major labels and their capacity to make money by endlessly reissuing records you already have.

Alright then, grumpy. Let me try again: what should I actually be looking out for?

Well, it depends on your taste, but Bella Union have some lovely looking stuff coming out, including a gorgeously retro Jonathan Wilson 12” featuring three covers and a belated vinyl pressing for The Czars‘ (John Grant‘s old band) final album, ‘Sorry I Made You Cry‘. Field Music are offering up two Pet Shop Boys covers, wrapped in a charming sleeve, while Richard Hawley is launching his 10” single club. The wondrous Erased Tapes folks are issuing a 10” featuring a collaboration between Olafur Arnalds and the truly brilliant Nils Frahm, entitled ‘Stare‘. It’s gorgeously sparse, floaty, electronic ambient music and well worth a listen if you’ve previously enjoyed the work of either artist. Here are some tracks to whet your appetite.

Any last tips then?

Set yourself a financial limit. It’s very easy to get lured in by limited, exclusive, one-off, today only style gubbins but far harder to find the willpower to actually play the bloody thing three months down the line. Don’t take it too seriously – there’s every chance that some of the stuff you want will have sold out by the time you get to the racks. Is it the end of the world? Probably not. Very few items were impossible to get hold of over the last few years, and many remain available today. Hot Chip and Slow Club vinyl album pressings from RSD 2010 were remainder for £7 a year later, while the Flaming Lips box from RSD 2011 can still be found in numerous shops for a £100 to this day. Remember, it’s about the places selling these items. Take them a cake, a smile and an interesting conversational nugget and you’ll have a wonderful day. But, most importantly, make sure you go back again before Record Store Day 2013. 

February and March Reviews – Magnetic Fields, Michael Kiwanuka, Leonard Cohen, Field Music, Tindersticks, Mark Lanegan and more

FIELD MUSIC – ‘Plumb’ (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES)

After the extravagant sprawl of 2010′s double album ‘Measure‘, ‘Plumb‘ lasts for half the time, despite seeming to contain at least as many ideas and melodies across its thirty-five minute run time. Mere moments after tracks have got going they segue effortlessly into others, and while not as safe as Sir Thumbsaloft can sometimes be, it evokes at times the creative schizophrenia of early McCartney solo albums. ‘Choosing Sides‘, itself several songs in one, wails pleadingly: “I want a different idea of love which doesn’t involve treating somebody else like shit,” while ‘A Prelude To Pilgrim Street’ has a glorious drum workout, accompanied by Who-esque shimmering keys, which offers an affectionate nod to Keith Moon.

‘Plumb‘ cements Field Music’s reputation for truly magnificently crafted classic pop-rock, with an unashamed love of the grandiose soundscapes of the Seventies and a taste for adorning songs with neatly selected sounds from real life. The highly strung plastic-funk of ‘Is This The Picture?‘, all runaway drums and falsetto screech, serves an unlikely precursor to the string-laden, percussive swoon of ‘From Hide And Seek To Heartache‘. This paves the way for the a cappella burst of ‘How Many More Times?’ and near-instrumental orchestral flourish ‘Ce Soir‘. ‘Plumb‘ genuinely doesn’t sound like anything else being released right now, partly because it doesn’t even sound like itself for more than a few songs at a time. An exhilarating and ambitious collection, it should bring Field Music a deservedly larger audience at last.

It seems so very long ago now that I was playing this on repeat over the Christmas break, but it still very much holds up and I’d even consider being more effusive in my praise for this title, several months along. The purple vinyl pressing is an absolute delight, mastered to perfection, and the music is wondrous. The early solo Macca comparison is one I maintain rings true, and entirely topical with the imminent reissue of ‘Ram’.

LEONARD COHEN – ‘Old Ideas’ (COLUMBIA)

Eight years in the making, one might uncharitably say ‘Old Ideas’ is aptly titled, as little will surprise. However, that’s not to damn this gloriously produced and charmingly performed album. Mid-paced, soulful meditations are what we’ve come to expect from late-period Len and that is what we get, ‘The Darkness‘ and ‘Show Me The Place‘ as good as anything he’s done in several decades. ‘Amen’ isn’t far off being Tom Waits after a hot bath and a sit down, until the trademark syrupy backing vocals appear, while the thin, drum machine traits of old creep back in on ‘Lullaby‘. Still, plenty to get excited about.

New Cohen release and I get all of 105 words. Ah, what do you do? If you care about Len and don’t already know what this sounds like then I can’t imagine a pithy paragraph such as the one above is likely to change that state of affairs. I’ve not listened to it for a while, if I’m being brutally honest, but the vinyl pressing is cracking. It’s largely splendid and the tinny affectations of old are now almost out of his system.

MARK LANEGAN BAND – ‘Blues Funeral’ (4AD)

Possessing the finest album opener of recent times in the shudderingly malevolent ‘The Gravedigger’s Song‘, it would seem that the eight years since Lanegan last flew solo have provided the inspiration for songs of an astonishing calibre. This is a confident, bold and captivating record, and one which is dominated by that beguilingly ragged voice. Musical accompaniment includes turns from Josh Homme and Greg Dulli, with whom Lanegan previously worked as part of The Twilight Singers.

‘Gray Goes Black‘ picks up the electro touches from the opener and belies a penchant for Krautrock which puts in another appearance on the splendidly titled ‘Ode To Sad Disco‘. Having worked up some of these songs using keyboards and a drum machine rather than the guitar, ‘Blues Funeral’ possesses the fullest and most varied sound of his career to date.

When the guitars are foregrounded, Lanegan can still strut like the best: ‘Riot In My House‘ a particularly fine burst of energy. ‘Harborview Hospital’ is a curious collection of synth swirls and plodding drum loops, whilst tucked sombrely amongst the album’s louder moments is the melancholic ‘Phantasmagoria Blues‘.

‘Leviathan’, a squawly waltz, takes an unexpected turn towards the end when the repeated lyric “every day a prayer for what I never knew, this is one I said for you,” suddenly gains ‘Pet Sounds’ style harmonies, conjuring a sense of what Brian Wilson‘s more troubling moments may have sounded like in his head. In a good way, of course.

BUY THIS RECORD. Seriously. I still adore it. It’s a real headphones album and yet also one which will serve you well cranked up on the main system. Sharp writing and stunning delivery.

OF MONTREAL – ‘Paralytic Stalks’ (POLYVINYL)

After the studio pomp of 2010′s ‘False Priest’, Kevin Barnes retreated to his home once more and lost the gloss which raised eyebrows amongst some long-term fans.The results are largely excellent, with the usual explosion of restless melody at the fore. ‘Spiteful Intervention‘ sounds like a doo-wop Suede at the mercy of chronic moodswings, lyrically grim enough to warm the heart of every Magnetic Fields fan: “I made the one I love start crying tonight, and it felt good.” Squelchy-pop dominates, although the spun out fairground-gone-evil moments remain, most notably on closer ‘Authentic Pyrrhic Remission‘, leaving you wondering if your headphones have turned on you.

I think I like the idea of Of Montreal more than actually listening to the music. Which is not to say the music isn’t good, even intermittently excellent, but it does require a little…patience and a suspension of disbelief.

TINDERSTICKS – ‘The Something Rain’ (LUCKY DOG)

Opening with a nine-minute spoken word piece, with a neat sting in its tail, it’s immediately clear that this isn’t going to be a desperate stab for populism and huge sales. ‘Chocolate‘ has been described as a sequel to ‘My Sister‘, one of many highlights on their second album. And it’s somewhere between the passionate intensity of that classic record and the languid soul of their fifth studio outing, ‘Can Our Love…‘, that ‘The Something Rain‘ sits. Self-produced and with a grandiose sound borne out of recent performances of their many film scores, this represents their finest work since their return in 2008. Understated majesty.

Again, not an awful lot you can do with 105 words and an album like this. ‘The Something Rain’ has continued to grow on me in the intervening months and it really does stand up there with T2 as one of their finest efforts. Whereas ‘Falling Down A Mountain’ lost its charms over time, this latest effort feels truly substantial. It doesn’t give a toss what anybody else thinks and doesn’t expect to sell thousands upon thousands of copies. It’s there for you, dear Tindersticks fan. Don’t be rude, now.

MICHAEL KIWANUKA – ‘Home Again’ (MERCURY)

It’s rare that the hype surrounding an artist translates to genuinely wonderful music. Rare, but not impossible, as ‘Home Again’ proves. Warm, beautifully recorded vintage soul is the unashamed goal here and there are no weak links. The Bill Withers comparisons may seem a little grandiose but Kiwanuka possesses a quite phenomenal voice, which he flexes and curls around joyous moments such as ‘Tell Me A Tale‘ and ‘I’ll Get Along‘. With an acoustic undercurrent and sympathetic production from Paul Butler of The Bees, this is an absolute treat for fans of rootsy vintage soul and a remarkable statement of intent for a debut release.

You know how I generally come out in hives as a result of excessive hype? Well, that’s still largely the case – Alabama Shakes, anyone? – but on this occasion I was truly seduced. I love beautifully produced soul music. Sure, I adore my Motown boxsets and the like but that floral, intricate sound of Seventies soul is just about as euphoric as music can get. And, let me tell you, ‘Home Again’ deserves to be talked of in such circles. The novelty has not worn off. I haven’t found myself sobbing myself to sleep at night muttering “it should have been a six” and I’m still playing it regularly. Really regularly. The vinyl pressing is alright, though not as good as this album deserves. Just give yourself a chance to hear it. Several times. Then let me know how you get on.

CHOIR OF YOUNG BELIEVERS – ‘Rhine Gold’ (GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL)

Haunting folk vocals with tricksy production and enormous ambition is not what you might call a revolutionary new idea for the music scene in early 2012. The cautious, unsettling way in which sounds seem to leak out of the speakers on album opener ‘The Third Time‘ is an effective way to draw the listener in, even if what follows is a little hit and miss. Studio gloss and sanitised drums too often leave things sounding a little safe, not least when compared with the truly wonderful glistening Krautrock chug of ten minute long album centrepiece ‘Paralyse‘. An album of that and they’d have me sold.

Honestly, ‘Paralyse’ shits on a lot of the new music released each week but also, sadly, a lot of the rest of its parent album. Worth seeking out that one, mind you.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – ‘Love At The Bottom Of The Sea’ (DOMINO)

After the dainty delights of 2010′s ‘Realism’ provoked a distinctly mixed response, ‘Love At The Bottom Of The Sea‘ finds The Magnetic Fields returning to their synth-pop roots. The lyrics are as sharp and malevolent as they’ve been in ages. Album opener ‘Your Girlfriend’s Face‘, concerning the hiring of a hitman, is blessed with the couplet “he will do his best to do his worst, after he’s messed up your girlfriend first.” ‘Andrew In Drag‘, meanwhile, has a radio smash chorus if not a radio smash title. The album’s fifteen songs all clock in under three minutes and the emphasis is on punchy, wonkily-melodic nuggets.

Ah, the electropop with moodswings and chronic flatulence is back and Stephin Merritt is beloved of the indie masses once more. ‘Andrew In Drag’ is still tremendous but there is much to love across this whole album. If you’ve ever loved them before then it’s time to give them another go and for those who’ve been there throughout the journey since ‘i’, I would imagine this will feel like a welcoming hug after a long, though largely enjoyable, walk on rough terrain.

DR. DOG – ‘Be The Void’ (ANTI)

Having pursued a smooth and soulful sound on 2010′s ‘Shame, Shame’ , the 2012 incarnation of Dr. Dog returns to their more customary shambling psychedelic pop approach, with hooks aplenty and a fondness for brash enthusiasm over studio polish. It’s largely endearing stuff and ‘Lonesome’ produces the instantly memorable hooky refrain “what does it take to be lonesome? Nothing at all,” which will serve as your new earworm for at least a week after initial exposure. ‘Do The Trick’ is a bouncy piano anthem, all swooning backing vocals and gentle lyrical clichés: “I count the days as they pass me by”, while ‘Over Here, Over There’ has a frenetic pop-punk pulse which could perfectly soundtrack the slightly inadequate walk of a hipster with their jeans half-way down their arse, but probably won’t win any song of the year awards. This slightly throwaway quality is what hinders ‘Be The Void’. While the impulsive nature of the recording undoubtedly leads to some fine moments of euphoric pop, the rough around the edges feel results in moments of filler, where a little more precision would have gone a long way. The diluted glam of ‘Warrior Man’ is crying out for a moment to send it into orbit, while album closer ‘Turning The Century’ comes across like an early Gomez b side, all muffled vocals and wanky sitar noodling. When they’re good, they are glorious and their enthusiasm is infectious, but there’s a little too much mediocre padding filling the, er, void.

Meh.

 

Stereophonic Sound – Podcast #3 and The Return of Lone Wolf

Somebody needs to design some blogging software for Mac which is the equal of Live Writer for Windows. Seriously. It’s almost entirely that which has stopped me from communicating with you lovely people over recent weeks. Still, I must press on and see how we go. Plenty to come over the next couple of weeks, but let’s get things underway with a double-header.

Firstly, the rather tremendous Lone Wolf has unleashed a new track upon the world as something of a taster for his upcoming second album under that name. ‘The Swan Of Meander’ is rather more synthy and electronic than the last one – 2010′s ‘The Devil & I‘, a Just Played favourite – but still utterly lovely. The singing of the lyric “when you see the sun, your skin will burn, your skin will crawl and swim like the swans of the south” is one of those magic moments in music where goosebumps rise, hairs stand on end and you reach that indefinable state that only certain songs can deliver. It’s why we all frequent blogs like this and spend so much on records. It is truly adorable and worthy of dozens of replays. Luckily, the whole song is suitably up to scratch too! Why not then visit his blog to find out more – he’s over at thisislonewolf.blogspot.co.uk Listen here:

Or, and this is the neat link to the second part of this post, you can hear it as part of the Just Played Podcast #3. This fifty minute deluge of splendid tunes is occasionally spoilt by my voice, but it’s an otherwise twelve-track burst of delight. Why not listen? If you like it, let me know, either here or on Twitter. Then it might not take me five months to make another one. Click on the link below and enjoy! (I’m sure there’s some nifty way to embed this but I’m buggered if I can get it to work – see what I mean about blogging software??)

Podcast #3