Black Friday Record Store Day roundups

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KC’s record shops were a busy delight Friday morning and afternoon. The Black Friday installment of Record Store Day might not inspire the sort of fervent capitalistic enthusiasm of its better-known April counterpart, but this particular cold gray morning seemed to keep people at home drinking coffee a little longer than usual.

Read a round-up of the goings-on at various KC record shops at the Pitch. Published 11/28/16

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With Black Friday just around the corner, we know you’ll find yourself beginning to seek out cool and interesting gifts for friends and family. Rather than buying another iTunes gift card for that stocking stuffer, we suggest you head out to one of the many excellent local record shops to buy an actual physical release from a local act. Whether it’s a benefit album, pop, metal, or lo-fi punk, there should be something for all tastes in this roundup of the latest local releases.

Read a round-up of the best local releases to snag on Black Friday, also at the Pitch. Published 11/22/16

Graham Jones’ “Last Shop Standing” a friendly tour of the UK record shops

book cover - last shop standingGraham Jones, the man behind Proper Records — makers of some of my favorite box sets and compilations — has the sixth edition of his Last Shop Standing coming out just in time for this year’s Record Store Day. It’s appropriate, as last year, the documentary based on the book was the official RSD movie.

The book is combination memoir and tour of the record shops of the UK. It’s like taking a tour with your favorite uncle, as he introduces you to all his pals and shares their best stories. Granted, the story-telling is pretty bog-standard: there’s a bit of a sense that these stories are much funnier in person.
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Lemuria’s Alex Kerns on their forthcoming LP, recording with J. Robbins, and more

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Buffalo trio Lemuria have been purveying a strain of rocking indie pop for almost a decade now. With a slew of singles behind them, it’s surprising that they’ve only recently finished recording their third full-length. As yet untitled, the LP will be released later this year on Bridge 9 Records, following their second, Pebbles (also on Bridge 9) and their debut, Get Better, on Asian Man. We harrassed the hell out of drummer and vocalist Alex Kerns via Twitter and e-mail, and he was surprisingly willing to answer some questions for us.
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Death Waltz Records announces their Record Store Day releases

Death-WaltzSome of you may have recently become acquainted with the UK’s Death Waltz Records via their profile in Spin. Well, the fine purveyors of horror and sci-fi vinyl announced their releases for Record Store Day 2013. They’re fucking choice. While the soundtracks to Horror Business and the short film Yellow will have a lot of the folks out there most excited, I’m pretty jazzed about the series of three split 7-inches of TV themes.

There’s Star Trek / Lost In Space on black and glitter vinyl, The Twilight Zone / The Outer Limits on clear and black vinyl, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents / The Munsters on white and black vinyl. They’re all in exlusive Death Waltz die cut retro disco bag sleeves (300gsm card with matte varnish and black paper inner sleeve), include a free 7 x 7 artprint, and are limited to a one-time pressing of 1000.

WANT. HARD. Somebody in the UK needs to figure out a way to get me one of each, please. Check the art below.

A drunken ramble through my Record Store Day purchases

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Obviously, I have too much free time, because after I got done going for a walk on Saturday afternoon, I came home and worked my way through a bunch of beer while I listened to all of my Record Store Day acquisitions. This marks the first year I didn’t have the day off, so I stayed in Lawrence and grabbed what I could after I got off work. Here are my increasingly honest and incomprehensible live rankings of what I purchased.
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Lemuria announce Record Store Day single on Bridge 9

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Indie-popsters Lemuria have been tweeting about their recent recording session with producer J. Robbins, and it seems that the songs tracked last week will see release on April 21, as a Record Store Day 7-inch. The two-song single, entitled “Varoom Allure,” comes out via the band’s label, Bridge 9. Says drummer Alex Kerns, “We are very excited about them, I think they are the two best songs we have ever written and recorded.”

Honestly, I’m happy that the trio’s next release will be a 7-inch. Their best tunes as of late (“Ozzy,” “Chautauqua County,” “Lemons”) have all been on singles, whereas the full-lengths tend to drag a bit. I’m hoping for a short, punchy, pop blast. Robbins’ production on the Rooftop Vigilantes’ Real Pony Glue makes me think that he could give Lemuria a slight edge they’ve been sorely lacking.

Podcast #44, “Day of the Record Stores”

recordstoreday2009Many of the songs in this week’s podcast come from either Record Store Day releases or releases found on Record Store Day while hitting up various and diverse stores in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas. Much love to Vinyl Renaissance’s new store on 39th Street in KCMO, as well as the store down the street, Zebedee’s RPM, for providing scads of entertainment and helping me to find some much-wanted releases. Love Garden Sounds in Lawrence ought to go without saying, as it is my hometown record shop, but I always plugs it when I can.

Hopefully, this week’s podcast ends up entertaining you as much as it did me. These new tracks certainly manage to provide a diverse cross section of rock ‘n’ roll.

Oh, and last-minute update: this marks the one-year anniversary of the podcast. The first episode was posted on April 15, 2010. This means we’ve had 44 episodes, which is pretty damned good for something ran on beer, caffeine, and sheer willpower out of a basement in Kansas. Yay us.

Podcast #44, “Day of the Record Stores”
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