Panda Bear Exclusive a-Comin'

New Year, New Music!  It never stops coming.  January 13 will bring the new release from PANDA BEAR and indie record stores (like us!) will have a limited-edition Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper as a deluxe 2-cd or 3-lp edition (w/digital download).

Panda Bear is the fifth studio album from Animal Collective founding member Noah Lennox. 

Hooray!

Here's Why You Should Buy CDs....Now.

Hello all,

2014 will go down as the year of the resurgence of the vinyl record and as the owner of record stores I am very happy. If vinyl hadn’t made its comeback there would definitely be fewer record stores. In fact, maybe there are too many records; records in coffee shops, in clothing stores, in lifestyle shops, and even at Target and Best Buy. Records are all over advertising and in movies. Records, Records, Records!! (Please don’t call them vinyls.)

So, will 2015 mark the end of CD and DVD? I doubt it and I hope not.

In 1995, people were dumping records. Remember, they were too bulky, too much trouble to care for, and nobody read liner notes or noticed cover art anymore. And we were buying ‘em …. thousands of ‘em. Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, we bought everything and everyone thought we were nuts. Who would ever buy vinyl again? Nobody even had a turntable so what was the point.

It was a golden time for the vinyl shopper. You could find pristine copies of 70s and 80s analog recordings for a few bucks. If you weren’t so picky about condition they could be had for nickels and dimes. Compact discs were too expensive and records were a bargain.

Our warehouse filled up with pallets of boxes of records. We had hundreds of copies of Fleetwood Mac / Rumours and Hall & Oates / H2O and Frampton Comes Alive and Supertramp / Breakfast In America and  …. on and on.

For twenty years, we couldn’t give them away until 2014 and now all of our Fleetwood Mac / Rumours LPs are gone and sold and Supertramp and Hall & Oates. (We still have lots of Frampton).

And the CDs and DVDs are piling up; thousands and thousands of them. And they are priced to sell. New CDs of older catalog titles can be had for $5.00. Used CDs are selling for a few bucks. We recently starting selling Green-Tag CDs and DVDs for 50 cents.

Here’s why you should start buying compact discs and I know it’s sacrilegious to say it:

1. They are bargains! Tom Waits vinyl, if you can find it, is expensive. The CDs are a fraction of the price and we have overstock. You can find a used copy of  a CD for less than the cost of a digital download.

2. A CD with slight scratches (we call them skufs) will play like a new copy. It takes a lot of abuse to affect playback of a CD, but a record with slight scratches will have noticeable background noise. I guess that’s part of the charm.

3. Compact discs sound better than MP3 files. I know we’ve been programmed to believe that all digital is equally bad, but it’s simply not true. If you’re listening to an MP3 through a mediocre ear bud you are not hearing all the music… Period!

4.  A vinyl re-issue copy of a digitally mastered record does not necessarily sound better than a CD. This would be true if you have an expensive turntable, a great amp and fantastic speakers. If you’re playing those expensive records on a cheap USB platter through a crappy wireless speaker system … probably not. If you want the vinyl, pay more for a very good copy of an original analog recording.

5. They are bargains! History doesn’t always repeat itself (but I do) --- just look at the      8-Track and cassette tape --- but 8-tracks and cassettes are sonically inferior to CDs and vinyl. I have CDs in my collection that I bought 30 years ago and the sound quality has not diminished.
6.  Corporate spies: Do you really want a corporation/cloud spying on your every purchase? Analyzing you, using you?  And your laptop crashes, you haven't done a backup, and so long music collection.  Have fun re-installing everything. 

In closing, I am ecstatic that people are buying vinyl again. I love records. When I started working in a record store in 1978(!) it was all records. I sold my first record collection to buy a house and I will never find some of those records again, but I have replaced some of them with CDs and that’s good enough. 

~Yours, 

Scott Kuzma, Everyday Music curmudgeon

Johnny Marr and Arctic Monkeys!

You love both, right?  We'll have indie exclusives on vinyl from Arctic Monkeys, Johnny Marr and Zola Jesus!  All out on October 7. 

Here's the deets:
Arctic Monkeys-Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys limited-edition 10" & includes digital download. 

Johnny Marr--Playland Only 1500 copies will be blue vinyl!  Includes digital download as well.

Zola Jesus--Taiga on marbled vinyl and includes digital download.  Only 1,000 pressed so come in Oct 7 bright & early to get yours.

Lookout! Indie exclusives coming your way: Interpol, New Pornographers & more

New Pornographers will release a limited color splatter vinyl of their release Brill Bruisers. New Pornographers is one of my favorites because it's AC Newman, Neko Case & Dan Bejar (Destroyer)!  Out 8/25/14.

 Interpol is back!  Just put Turn on the Bright Lights to remind yourself how much you love that band.  Their new release, El Pintor will be available to indie stores in a limited-edition white vinyl that includes a digital download.  Due 9.9.14

GRMLN's Soon Away will be available on blue vinyl.  Only 250 copies will be pressed this way!  Out 8/20/14.

My Brightest Diamond This Is My Hand will have a limited-edition red vinyl available 8.20.14

Seattle in-store Saturday July 19 -- BLOOPER!

Come hang with Blooper Saturday July 19 @ 6 p.m.! They'll be playing at our Seattle store 1520 10th Ave.

 Here's what Emily Nokes said about them in a recent Stranger issue:

"Blooper reminds me of the first gulp of catchy rock n' roll someone's way cool older brother played when summers were suddenly about complicated social interactions and discovering what makes the opposite-sex tick."

Their most recent release is an ep called So Very Small.

Come on down! 

In-Store Performance Seattle = NO

 NO
Performing in-store at the Seattle Everyday Music 
1520 10th Ave
Saturday June 14 @ 3 p.m.!


After a spate of personal misadventures in 2010, NO was born through the chance encounter of Bradley Hanan Carter and Sean Daniel Stentz at a local LA diner. Bonding over stories of disastrous relationships as well as their mutual admiration for storytelling artists like Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan, Johnny Cash and Lou Reed, the two decided to unite and build something for themselves. 

Native New Zealander Carter states, “We wanted something to believe in. It sounds kind of dramatic, but there was really nothing to wake up for at the time.” This came at a stage when he found himself divorced, bankrupt and experiencing a new kind of alone after deciding to walk away from the lifelong religious beliefs of many friends and family back home. “I think for some of us, we’ve been so worried about where we’ll go when we die, that we’ve never really thought about where we should go while we’re still alive.”
Fast forward a few months, add in more like-minded band members and NO was on the way to being fully formed.

NO quickly gained recognition with the local Echo Park crowds, and both NME and the LA Times tipped them as an act to keep a close eye on. 2012 saw them wrack up over 100 live shows, including supports for Best Coast and Electric Guest, and a European tour with Father John Misty. 

  The six piece are now looking forward. Newly signed to tastemaker record label Arts &
Crafts, NO have just finished their self-produced debut album “El Prado," mixed by Billy Bush (Tegan & Sara, Foster The People, Jake Bugg) and mastered by Joe LaPorta (Beach House, Foo Fighters, Vampire Weekend).

NO is Bradley Hanan Carter (Vocals), Sean Daniel Stentz (bass), Reese Richardson (guitar), Ryan Lallier (guitar/keys), Simon Oscroft (guitar) and Michael Walker (drums) 

In-Store performance Seattle

6/8 Hightek Lowlives + Gabriel Teodros Live at Everyday Music

Sunday at 4:00pm

Everyday Music, Seattle 

1520 10th Ave 
Check out Hightek Lowlives video: 

Indie Exclusives - Parquet Courts & Passenger

Parquet Courts' Sunbathing Animal comes out June 3 with a limited edition LP w/bonus 7".

PASSENGER has a new album out June 10 called Whispers.  There's a limited 2-cd deluxe version available that includes an acoustic disc.

Check stores for availability!

Upcoming Indie Exclusives! Sharon van Etten, Ben Frost, Popstrangers

May 27 will see some indie-store only, limited-edition vinyl:
Ben Frost "A U R O R A" colored vinyl with bonus cd. Limited pressing of 500

Popstrangers Fortuna on clear colored vinyl w/digital download.  Limited to 200 pressings

Sharon Van Etten Are We There

Clear colored vinyl, limited to 300!

Survival Knife in-store in Seattle!

 Survival Knife in-store performance May 17 @ 3 p.m.!  Loose Power out April 19 on cd & lp.

When Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandeno began work on what would become their incredibly influential band Unwound, they were young punks making noise in basements in Olympia at the cusp of the grunge age of the early '90s. 

Their legacy of feedback, ennui, and all-ages shows would inspire fervor and joy for the band's entire lifespan, and echoes of their angular basement punk would be heard in the ripples of independent music for years following their disbandment. Though Sandeno's involvement in Unwound came just at the beginning and end of the band, he and Trosper stayed friends and collaborators on different projects throughout, and Survival Knife see the two founding members of Unwound continuing to the next phase of creative work together. Now a good decade after the last Unwound studio album, Survival Knife don't aim to recapture the urgent squall of those mid-'90s days, but instead approach debut album Loose Power with a compositional lens more muscular and pushy than tormented or inward-looking. For one, Sandeno, who began as Unwound's drummer, instead joins Trosper on second guitar, leaving the rhythm section to Kris and Meg Cunningham. 

 There are some apparent subtleties that amount more to being Trosper's signature sounds than aiming for the sounds of the past. Still, the airy guitar blasts that make up the chorus to "Cut the Quick" and the edgy dynamics that find the songs moving from muted, mumbled lyrics into full-on howling all call back to Unwound's best moments. The songs here, however, are harder, more direct, and less interested in dreamy guitar breakdowns or youthful screaming. The grizzled howls and fantastical dual-guitar intro of "Roman Fever" has more of a hard rock approach than anything resembling '90s punk, and album closer "Heaven Has No Eyes" stretches out in a sprawl of almost proggy proto-metal chunkiness and time-signature shifts. The song, much like the album, only hints at its creators' musical histories. Loose Power sees some of the better minds in the heavier side of indie rock's legacy branching out into grittier, gnarlier territory and turning in some inspired, crushing tunes in the process. ~ Fred Thomas, Allmusic

COLDPLAY indie exclusive 7"

Parlophone is releasing a limited-edition Coldplay 7" single with etched b-side on May 6.  The A-side is the song "Midnight," from the upcoming May 19 release Ghost Stories. 

  

Indie Store Exclusives! tUnE-YaRdS!!

You can get special limited-edition vinyl releases throughout the year...not just on Record Store Day!

• tUnE-YaRdS' new release "Nikki-Nack" will be released May 6 on clear red vinyl with only 1,000 pressings.  
• The Horrors have a limited 2LP 180-gram vinyl (only 200 pressed!) due May 6 as well.  

Check stores for availability!

Dap-Kings in-store DJ Set

Who: Dap-Kings--the fabulous back up band for Sharon Jones
What: In-store DJ set
When: April 1 @ 5:30
Where: 1313 W Burnside Portland Everyday Music!
Why: Because they're so damn funky

Stop by after work and hear the Dap-Kings spin some funky favorites on vinyl. Then head over to the Sharon Jones & Dap-Kings show at the Crystal Ballroom after!  Don't forget to have a beer or two at McMenamins beforehand.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have come a long way since their humble beginnings nearly a decade ago. Steeped within the gilded and gritty sounds of gospel, soul and funk, this nine-piece Brooklyn collective has continued to electrify fans, disc jockeys, critics, record collectors, and bloggers the world-over with their authentic, heart-felt sound. The authenticity is clearly demonstrated on the band's latest Give The People What They Want - released by the independent Daptone Records. All their albums recall an analog era led by iconic studios like those at Motown and Stax Records, and have thrust the fifty-three-year-old Augusta, GA native and crew into the multimedia limelight.

Pick up their latest Give The People What They Want on cd or lp today!

Limited-edition vinyl from Black Lips & War On Drugs

Limited-edition (1500 pressing) of the Black Lips vinyl on 180 gr. marble vinyl due March 18 at indie records stores only.  Check stores for availability! 

Underneath the Rainbow, set to release March 18th. Making this the band’s fourth album it is a whole new direction from their 2011 polished release. Underneath the Rainbow was partially recorded in Nashville and also in New York’s Dunham Studio. The album’s sound is described as, “oozing with classic rock’n’roll tones, lickety-split blues riffs, and low-burning country jangle.” It took the band a long time to finish up this album because they were writing while on tour. BLACK LIPS states, “we always fly by the seat of our pants, though, and things have a way of working themselves out for us.”  

Black Lips play at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland March 29 and Neumos March 28 in Seattle

The War On Drugs is set to release a limited-edition purple 2-lp.  Only 400 pressings.

90s punkers rejoice! Colored vinyl limited-editions coming your way.

Achtung 90s punkers! Epitaph is reissuing limited-edition Millencolin, NOFX, Pennywise and Rancid on colored vinyls! They are due March 25 and are super limited.

Millencolin Pennybridge Pioneers on red vinyl.  limited to 430 pressings
NOFX Heavy Petting Zoo blue vinyl, limited pressing of 700
NOFX So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes  on pink vinyl, limited to 700 pressings.
Pennywise About Time on red vinyl, limited pressing of 440
Pennywise Unknown Road on white vinyl, pressing of 400
Rancid Rancid Limited-edition red vinyl, 700 pressing.

They'll run about $20 each.  Please call store(s) for availability on March 25!  Punk lives.

Peter Gabriel Limited-Edition Litho--while supplies last

Get a limited-edition lithograph at the downtown Portland store with purchase of Peter Gabriel's And I'll Scratch Yours--Gabriel's release of others' interpretations of his songs.   Artists include Regina Spektor, Brian Eno, the late great Lou Reed, David Byrne & others. 

The litho looks like THIS:

Cool, abstract.  Just like Peter Gabriel! 

Special vinyl - Sharon Jones Out January 14

Daptone Records is releasing an indie-only exclusive of the new Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings Give The People What They Want.  It's a mono version limited to 1000 copies!--so come in on street date, January 14, to get yours.

Sharon & the Dap-Kings play the Crystal Ballroom April 1.  No foolin'.

You can see them in Seattle April 2 & 3 at The Showbox.