It’s Lady Wray New Vinyl Thursday at The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven. Check out this week’s list of new vinyl arrivals:
Adele- 30
Bad Suns – Apocalypse Whenever (Pink Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Beastie Boys – Root Down (Extended Play, Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl, Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Beastie Boys – To The 5 Boroughs
Beck – Guero
Black Francis – Golem (140 Gram Vinyl, Gray Colored Vinyl)
Black Francis – Nonstoperotik (140 Gram Vinyl, Red Colored Vinyl)
The Beatles – Revolver
Blackberry Smoke- You Hear Georgia
Bonobo – Fragments (Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl, 140 Gram Vinyl, Indie Exclusive, Digital Download Card)
Bad Brains- Bad Brains
Weekly Review:
Armed with the motivation to play faster than their heroes, and the technical ability to do so from their background in jazz fusion, Bad Brains began writing a batch of groundbreaking songs that took shape just a year or two after the punk boom of ’77 but sounded lightyears ahead of their forebears. To them, it was just punk rock, but to the rest of the world, it was the dawn of a harder, faster, louder new punk subgenre: hardcore. Their early repertoire was laid to tape a few times during the late ’70s and early ’80s, but they didn’t get around to finally releasing an album until 1982 If the songs on Bad Brains don’t sound revolutionary today, it’s only because of the countless bands that took after their sound. When you listen to the raw fury immortalized in songs like “Sailin’ On,” “Don’t Need It,” “Attitude,” “The Regulator,” “Banned In D.C.,” “Supertouch/Shitfit,” “Big Take Over,” and “Pay to Cum,” you’re not just hearing one of the greatest punk bands of all time firing on all cylinders; you’re hearing the seeds being sewn for the past 40 years of punk rock. The self titled album finds the group at the peaks of their powers, and at their most purely punk rock. Bad Brains did great stuff later on (I Against I, Quickness, etc), but nothing gets the blood rushing like the self-titled record and listening to it never feels like homework. These songs just feel so alive, so in-the-moment, and they make you feel the same. -Albert Schmurr
Cactus – The Birth Of Cactus – 1970 (Purple Colored Vinyl)
Dokken – Breaking The Chains (180 Gram Vinyl, Red Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition)
Don Cherry – Where Is Brooklyn?
Weekly Review:
As a key member in Ornette Coleman’s pioneering ensembles, trumpeter Don Cherry helped invent and
establish free jazz, an improvised style of playing without time signatures or musical keys. This anarchic
nature makes free jazz a challenging but very rewarding and invigorating listening experience.
Recorded in late 1966, but not released until 1969, Where is Brooklyn? is Cherry’s third and final album
for Blue Note. The backbone of these three albums is the rhythm section of Ed Blackwell on drums and
bassist Henry Grimes. Rounding out the quartet for Where is Brooklyn? is saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.
At the time of this recording, Sanders was a member of John Coltrane’s ensemble. Sanders was very
much at the vanguard of jazz, aggressively expanding the boundaries of music.
Because of the nature of the music, Where Is Brooklyn? doesn’t contain many melodies that will linger
in the listener’s head afterward and there aren’t any sections that will get one’s toes tapping. Across
these five songs and 42 minutes, however, are the sounds of some of the best players of all time driving
and riding each other to new heights, letting the music and the performances of their bandmates drive
them to literally uncharted places. -Joel Francis
Doris Duke – Im a Looser
Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots (With CD, Bonus Track, 180 Gram Vinyl)
Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South
David Byrne – Grown Backwards
David Byrne & Brian Eno – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (180 Gram Vinyl, Remastered)
David Bowie – Low (Orange Colored Vinyl, Brick & Mortar Exclusive, Remastered)
Weekly Review #2:
In 1977, David Bowie was just a decade removed from his debut album, but had already undergone
more transformations than most artists accomplish in a career. Bowie’s latest guise wasn’t as theatrical
as Ziggy Stardust or the Thin White Duke, but would have the greatest artistic impact.
Low, the album that kicked off Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, found Bowie obsessing over experimental German
Krautrock bands and incorporating their minimalist electronic experiments into his own music. Helping
Bowie achieve this new ideal was longtime producer Tony Visconti, veteran guitarist Carlos Alomar and,
most importantly, a newcomer to Bowie’s world, Brian Eno.
As a pioneer in ambient and experimental electronic music, Eno helped Bowie create a series of
soundscapes that comprise the second side of Low. Eno’s fingerprints can also be found in the deep
harsh drum sound and jagged guitars on the more straightforward rock songs on the first side.
Although Bowie’s record label initially balked at releasing Low, it eventually relented. Initial criticism was
divided, the album grew in both critical estimation and sales over the years. The single “Sound and
Vision” has become one of Bowie’s defining songs, despite never being a hit in the United States. “Be
My Wife” and “Breaking Glass” remained in Bowie’s setlists through his final tour.
The instrumental side has proven equally influential. It’s not hard to draw a straight line from the
desolate landscape of “Art Decade” to sound of Joy Division. Similarly, it’s easy to hear how a song like
“Subterraneans” has influenced Arcade Fire. Low may not have single-handedly given birth to the New
Wave movement of the 1980s, but it played a big role. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and the Cure are but a
few of the other bands who either wouldn’t exist or would sound radically different without the
inspiration Low and the rest of the Berlin Trilogy created. Nearly 45 years after its release, Low sounds
as innovative and relevant as ever. -Joel Francis
Drive By Truckers – Live from Austin Tx [180 gram Vinyl]
Drive-By Truckers – Dirty South (Gatefold LP Jacket, 180 Gram Vinyl, Limited Edition, Clear Blue Vinyl)
Ed Sheeran – = (White Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Earthless – Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons (Gold Standard Edition)
Eels – Eels : Extreme Witchcraft (Yellow) (Limited Deluxe 2LP + CD Boxset) (Yellow Colored Vinyl, With CD, Limited Edition)
Fruit Bats – Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021) (Pink, Violet, Colored Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Digital Download Card)
Gorillaz – D-Sides
Gorillaz – Song Machine, Season One – Deluxe LP (Deluxe Edition)
The Grateful Dead – Fillmore West, San Francisco, Ca 3/1/1969 (Indie Exclusive)
Jon Batiste – Hollywood Africans
Jamiroquai- Return Of The Space Cowboy
Jackie McLean – Destination … Out!
Weekly Review:
The cover of 1963’s Destination … Out! bears the name Jackie McLean, but there’s a strong case to be
made that the album should be credited to Grachan Moncur III. The trombonist wrote three of the
album’s four songs and plays a key role in establishing the album’s textures. Moncur’s angular playing
provides a counterpoint to McLean’s bop-based saxophone lines, creating an undeniable chemistry.
Destination … Out! opens with “Love and Hate,” a patient ballad that takes its time drawing the best
from everyone in the ensemble, which also included Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, drummer Roy Haynes
and Larry Ridley on bass.
The second number, “Esoteric,” finds McLean and Moncur tackling the complex melody in unison for the
first minute, before McLean breaks off and starts soloing. A unique rhythm pattern makes the soloist
playing stand out even more. “Khalil the Prophet,” McLean’s lone original on his album, is a
straightforward bop number that makes full use of the combination of alto saxophone and trombone.
The closing number, “Riff Raff,” may be the album’s least adventurous track, but pairing Hutcherson’s
vibes with Ridley’s bass opens up Haynes’ drumming and provides a fascinating rhythmic bed for
McLean and Moncur’s solos. -Joel Francis
Jason Boland & the Stragglers – The Light Saw Me
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene (White Vinyl, Limited Edition, Deluxe Edition, With CD, With Blu-ray)
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene (With CD, Black, Gatefold LP Jacket, With Booklet)
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Fishing For Fishies (Green Colored Vinyl)
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Oddments
Kanye West – College Dropout
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
Lady Wray – Piece of Me (Deep Emerald Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
LP – Churches
Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul
Lucinda Williams – Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 6: You Are Cordially Invited….A Tribute To The Rolling Stones
Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started [Sliver LP + 7″ Single] (180 Gram Vinyl, Colored Vinyl, Silver, With Bonus 7″)
Michael Jackson – Dangerous (Picture Disc Vinyl LP)
Mourning a Blkstar – Reckoning
Miles Davis – The Essential Miles Davis
Mr Bungle- California
Weekly Review:
Mr. Bungle is definitely a grower band. Every single album of theres has grown on me with every relisten. Somehow this band makes both their most diverse album while also making their most accessible. This seems impossible on paper but they somehow pull it off. Most of this stuff keeps reminding me of their earlier stuff but none of it feels so hard to listen to. Even though I still prefer self titled I have to admit this is their best album and for most people I heavily reccomend this for a Bungle album and also just a Patton album in general.
Pink Cigarette – Probably the biggest Mr. Bungle song, if not Retrovertigo, and for good reason too. This is such a beautiful song and truly shows the diversity of this band. I’m pretty sure this was also my first Mr. Bungle song which did kinda give me the wrong impression of the band as being somewhat normal.
California is the swan song for the Bungle project, but it is their best and complete work. Enjoy! – Albert Schmurr
Nerija – Blume
Nerija – Nerija
Olivia Rodrigo- Sour
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pinegrove – 11:11 (Red Clear Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – More (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – Ummagumma (Gatefold LP Jacket)
Pink Floyd – The Wall (180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket)
Prince – Purple Rain (Picture Disc Vinyl LP)
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon
Queen – Queen Greatest Hits II
Quincy Jones – $ (Music From The Original Motion Picture Sound Track)
Weekly Review:
Prior to his earning a reputation as producer du jour through his work with Michael Jackson in the
1980s, Qunicy Jones was an extremely prolific jazz composer, arranger and producer. Between 1965 and
1971, Jones composed and released 18 soundtrack albums.
The soundtrack to 1971’s $ contains many of the hallmarks of its time, mixing jazz, funk and soul. Little
Richard sings on the opening track, “Money Is” and pops up later on “Do It – To It.” It’s interesting to
hear Richard’s voice in a funk setting and it almost works. The performance on “Do It – To It” comes off
better than “Money Is,” where it feels like the music is holding back Richard’s voice.
Roberta Flack, the album’s other guest vocalist, fares better on her cover of the jazz standard “When
You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You).” Although there is some instrumentation down in
the mix, Flack’s voice is supported by the wordless harmonies of the Don Elliott Voices.
While the singers get special billing on the cover, most of the album belongs to Jones. His songs are
instrumentals between one and three minutes long. They are fine, but not particularly noteworthy.
Most of them sound like the aural padding they are mean to be on the big screen. The most interesting
piece is the closing nine-minute number, “Brooks’ 50 Cent Tour (Main Title Collage).” As the title states,
this is a collage of the movie’s themes, including a brief reprise of Richard and Flack’s vocals. For
soundtrack or Jones fanatics, this cliff-notes performance is the way to go. Everything else is interesting
but hardly essential. -Joel Francis
Reuben Wilson – Love Bug
The Ramones – Rocket To Russia
The Replacements – Let It Be
St Paul & the Broken Bones – Alien Coast (Limited Edition, Gold Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Trees Speak – Vertigo of Flaws: Emancipation of the Dissonance and Temperaments in Irrational
Waveforms
Weekly Review:
With a title that contains a dozen words and a tracklist that sprawls across 31 numbers, the fifth album
from Arizona electronic duo is not an exercise in restraint.
With an average track length of about three minutes, the instrumental, electronic music that makes up
Vertigo of Flaws casts a wide net. “Halide Crystals” could pass for an outtake from a John Carpenter
score, while “Cybernetic Dream” sounds like something Tangerine Dream would have contributed to a
1980s movie soundtrack.
Other tracks draw on Krautrock, post-punk, Brian Eno’s collaborations with David Bowie and Eno’s
partnership with the German duo Cluster.
Vertigo of Flaws continues an incredible run of creativity from Trees Speak. The group’s fourth – and
most ambitious – album in the past two years plays like pieces of soundtracks to films that never
existed. Fans of both movie scores and electronic music will find plenty to exhume and exalt. -Joel Francis
Tom Petty – Greatest Hits
Taylor Swift- Red (Taylor’s Version)
Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (180 Gram Vinyl)
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Tori Amos – Ocean To Ocean
U2 – Achtung Baby (30th Anniversary) (Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl, With Booklet & Poster)
Whitney Houston- I Will Always Love You – The Best Of Whitney Houston
The Whitmore Sisters – Ghost Stories (White & Purple Swirl, 140 Gram Vinyl)
Weekly Review:
While Ghost Sisters is the first album from the Whitmore Sisters, neither sibling is a stranger to the
studio. Eleanor Whitmore is busy as a member of Steve Earle’s Dukes and with the Mastersons,
Whitmore’s long-running group with her husband. Bonnie Whitmore has released four albums as a solo
artist.
Perhaps this is why the vocals feel so effortless and comfortable. The beauty of these voices hit
immediately, on opening song “Learn to Fly.” An ode to their father, an Air Force veteran, the sisters’
voices dip, swoop and glide.
It doesn’t take long for Ghost Stories to live up to its name. The third song, “Friends We Left Behind,” is
a mesmerizing, if haunting, memorial to departed friends. A cover of the Everly Brothers’ “On the Wings
of a Nightingale” is an ode to hope sung over plucked strings. On album closer “Greek Tragedy,” the
sisters’ voices soar over a beautiful string arrangement, sounding like spirits stuck in the past.
The pair traverse the nexus of Americana, country, bluegrass and folk across these 11 songs, adding a
dash of fiddle to “The Ballad of Sissy and Porter,” a classic country guitar line to “Hurtin’ for a Letdown”
and big drums and a pop chorus to the upbeat “Ricky.” As enjoyable as these touches may be, they all
wind up being window dressing to that glorious singing. -Joel Francis
Youngboy Never Broke Again – Top
FLASH SALE!
50% OFF ALL Red Tag Clearance Vinyl – Thursday, January 27th ONLY!
Shuttlecock Music:
Click HERE to watch.
Which records, tapes, and CDs are your favorite local artists buying? On this episode of Record Shopping with Shuttlecock, we head to The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven with recently reunited alt-rockers Frogpond to do some digging. Tune in to find out what they copped. Follow @ShuttlecockMag on social media and visit www.ShuttlecockMusic.com. Grab a t-shirt, button, or magazine from www.ShuttlecockMag.BigCartel.com to support the channel. Make sure to like, subscribe, and share.
Turntables! We got ’em. From starter tables to audiophile, and everything in between, we have you covered. We are honored to once again be carrying a full line up of the award winning, top of their class, made in America, U-turn Orbits! We have all the colors- including the high performance walnut and maple. Get here fast for best selection. Get yours today!
We have official Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven shirts in all sizes again- small to 3XL! Come in today and pick one up.
Not sure what to get the vinyl lover in your life? The Vinyl Underground has gift certificates in every denomination.
Please follow our very active Facebook and Instagram accounts to stay up on all the vinyl news.
Thanks for reading this week’s Lady Wray New Vinyl Thursday post! Mention that you did before you check out and we will take 20% off of ANY one item in the store! Offer good through 02/02/22.
Enjoy the music and we will see you soon. Your loving Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven staff:
Sherman, Gordon, Cat, Matt, Dylan, Doyle, Heather, Dave and Lain