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Richard Thompson New Vinyl Thursday

  • Vinyl Underground
  • VU Newsletter
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March 23, 2022

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By ll_7th_heaven

It’s Richard Thompson New Vinyl Thursday at The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven. Check out this week’s list of new vinyl arrivals:

2Pac- 2pacalypse Now

2 Chainz – Collegrove

Accept – Too Mean To Die (Silver Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)

Adam Ant – Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter

Aldous Harding – Warm Chris (Gatefold LP Jacket)

A Place To Bury Strangers – See Through You

Weekly Review:

Since 2003 the, New York City based, indie noise band A Place To Bury Strangers has been carrying the torch for fans of a loud, blown out,  distorted, guitar sound made popular by bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Suicide.

APTBS has gone through a lot of line up changes through the years. The one consistent factor has been guitar/vocals, bass, Oliver Ackermann.  Ackerman is also known for being the founder of the Brooklyn-based effects pedal company Death By Audio.
Once touted as the loudest band in New York City, their 6th studio effort, displays some of the band’s most varied and, dare I say, accessible  songwriting to date. Rhythm section duties for “See Through You” are handled by couple  Sandra Fedowitz (drums /vocals) and bassist John Fedowitz (both of Ceremony East Coast).
The album begins with a strong nod to that long lost genre Electroclash with the track “Nice Of You To Be There For Me.” Driving techno beats accompany melting guitar tones that resemble the sound of a swerving ambulance driving off a cliff in slow motion.
Track two, “I’m Hurt” settles into more Jesus and Mary Chain territory, clearly a blueprint for most of Ackerman’s vocal  stylings, while “Let’s See Each Other” lives somewhere between Wire’s 154 album and early Stone Roses in a blender.
The hybrid mixing of your favorite post punk/ goth/ shoe gaze bands continues with the Joy Division meets Sisters Of Mercy aura of “Ringing Bells” or the or dare I say bordering on poppy “Anyone But You,”  a track that would be out of place on the last Wipers album.
On side two the pace and energy picks up to an almost Smithsian level with the track “Broken.”
Even though there’s still plenty of blown out noisey  guitars and plate driven, reverb drenched vocals. APTBS seemed to have really found there place by adding just enough melody and warmth to the mix to create something familiar and new.  l’ve been following this band from the beginning and I think this is their best album to date. – Major Matt

Armed – Ultrapop (Orange Colored Vinyl, Digital Download Card)

Art Blakey & Jazz Messengers – Chippin In (Clear Vinyl, Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl)

Bud Powell – Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell

Weekly Review:

Jazz pianist Bud Powell sadly gets overlooked behind his contemporary Thelonious Monk and the next
generation of keyboardists he influenced, such as McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver. A new reissue of
Powell’s 1958 release for Blue Note, Time Waits, should make jazz aficionados take a second look at
Powell and celebrate his music.
Recorded in a single day, the seven cuts on Time Waits find Powell backed by bass player Sam Jones and
drummer Philly Joe Jones, who was a member of the Miles Davis quintet at this time. The threesome
play well off each other, but just as impressive as the performance is the sound engineer Rudy Van
Gelder captured. The playing is so immediately and immaculate it sounds you are in the room with the
trio. Powell’s off-mic vocal responses to the playing makes the listening experience even more intimate.
Powell wrote all of the songs here and several numbers, including the title track, went on to become
standards. There isn’t a bad tune among the bunch, making Time Waits the perfect album to put on
pour a drink and imagine you’re in the club. -Joel Francis

Bill Evans – Village Vanguard Sessions (Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl)

Binker and Moses – Feeding The Machine

Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Branko Mataja – Over Fields And Mountains (White Colored Vinyl)

Beyoncé – Homecoming: The Live Album (140 Gram Vinyl, With Booklet)

Beastie Boys – To the 5 Boroughs

Weekly Review:

The Twin Towers had been down for nearly three years when the Beastie Boys released their sixth
album during the summer of 2004, but they figure prominently in the album’s cover art.
The towers loom large over the message of To the 5 Boroughs as well. Time and again, the three MCs
drop loving references to their hometown: names of subway lines and neighborhood restaurants and
landmarks. This valentine to the Big Apple culminates deep on side two on “An Open Letter to NYC.”
“Dear New York I hope you’re doing well/I know a lot’s happened and you’ve been through hell,” Adam
“MCA” Yauch rhymes through a husky growl. “So, we give thanks for providing a home/Through your
gates at Ellis Island we passed in droves.”
The specter of 9/11 also informs the album’s politics. There’s no disguising MCA’s reference to the
Columbine shooting and call for gun control on “Right Right Now Now.” The request to “impeach Tex”
on “It Takes Time to Build” seems a bit more oblique, but contextual rhymes about he Kyoto treaty,
OPEC leave no doubt.
Political lyrics aren’t the only place the Beasties show maturity. Unlike previous releases, To the 5
Boroughs isn’t concerned with pushing the boundaries of what modern music should sound like.
Instead, the three MCs, who produced the album themselves, rely on nostalgic samples from Cleveland
punkers the Dead Boys to Kool and the Gang. The sound of the album is also more focused – there
aren’t any random instrumentals or hardcore numbers, just straight-up old-school hip hop.
It wouldn’t be a Beastie Boys album without some humor, and while it seems a little more forced, the
three still deliver some laughs. Adam “Adrock” Horovitz’ line on “Rhyme the Rhyme Well” about buying
his grandma a brand-new broach (he rhymes it with roach) always cracks me up. The sampled bridge on
“Hey F-k You” commands “So put a quarter in your ass, & cause you played yourself.”
Hearing the Beasties as elder statesmen takes some adjustment, but once the listener is able to accept
this new paradigm To the 5 Boroughs is an enjoyable – if not top-tier – listen. -Joel Francis

Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Colored Vinyl)

Billy F Gibbons – Hardware

Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There (Boxed Set, 140 Gram Vinyl, With Booklet, Deluxe Edition)

Beach House – Once Twice Melody

Weekly Review:

It’s difficult to avoid words like cinematic, panoramic, and sprawling to describe the new Beach
House record. But it’s true, and the band continues to expand its sound. And at 84 minutes in
length, the new double album Once Twice Melody gives the group plenty of space to do so.

In some ways, the band keeps doing what it’s always done on the new record. Some dreampop
bands are quite referential, but Beach House is a band that sounds like it’s absorbed many
disparate influences. It’s easy to assume Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally probably listen to
Cocteau Twins, M83, Stereolab, The Cure, America, Rocketship, and maybe even Judee Sill, but
it’s hard to pinpoint a moment where the band is specifically tipping its proverbial hat to any of
them.

What’s “new” on this record are the tweaks in the sound. The occasional real strings add a
flourish that contributes to the album’s soundtrack-like impression. While the organ beats and
pitch-shifted drum machines hold down much of the rhythms, James Barone lays down some
live drum tracks to add dynamics. The drumming feels more intentionally open, as Barone
almost entirely avoids cymbals. Alan Moulder’s mix feels heavier yet more pristine than the
previous record.

Double albums can symbolize excess, and the 85-minute run time of Once Twice Melody
requires a commitment. But then again, it’s hard to think of what songs the band would have left
off the album! To make the listening process a little easier, the band arranged the pieces into a
set of four EPs—Pink Funeral, New Romance, Masquerade, and Modern Love Stories—one for
each side of the record.

Once Twice Melody features some great Beach House songs. It’s not hard to imagine “Pink
Funeral” being a staple of their live shows for years to come. “The Bells” feels like it could
almost be a George Harrison song, with a slide part reminiscent of “Behind That Locked Door.”
The album is well mixed. Sometimes, it feels sparse when there’s quite a bit going on, or
sometimes songs feel ginormous when the arrangements are sparse. And it’s hard not to overlook
the artwork. Even the standard, non-deluxe edition is intended to feel like a book with a textured
cover and pull-out poster. The album is quite an artifact that fans, both old and new, will revisit
for years to come. -Jonathon Smith

Cigarettes After Sex – Cigarettes After Sex

Cardi B – Invasion Of Privacy

Chet Baker – Cool Cat (Clear Vinyl)

Chi Lites – Too Good To Be Forgotten: Best Of (140 Gram Vinyl)

Carl Perkins – The King of Rockabilly

Weekly Review:

Music legend Carl Perkins joined the Sun Records roster in the wake of Elvis Presley’s massive success
for the label. Perkins was only with Sun for a handful of years, but during this brief time, Perkins and his
label-mates Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis created a new style of music known as
rockabilly. Their playing combined the rhythms of country music with the energy and abandon of rock
and roll.
Despite working from a modest one-room studio in a small storefront on Union Avenue in Memphis,
Tenn., the world was paying attention to Sun Records. That Presley, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath all
made Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” part of their repertoire speaks to the reach and influence of Perkins’
music.
“Blue Suede Shoes” and 13 other numbers appear on the new Perkins collection that celebrates his 70th
anniversary with Sun Records. The Beatles recorded no less than three songs from this set and Paul
McCartney cut one more on his own. Although these celebrated covers might be more familiar, Perkins’
originals cannot be denied. Perkins was a masterful guitarist and you can feel him putting his soul into
these performances.
There is a joy in Perkins’ music that never fades, no matter how many times one hears his songs.
Whether Perkins singing about riding a horse to the movies so he can hold his girlfriend’s hand (on
“Movie Magg”), getting dressed to the nines for a night on the town (on “Get Your Cat Clothes On”) or
sarcastically comparing his lack of a love life to a movie role (on “Act Naturally”) Perkins delivers
everything with a broad smile.
If there is any flaw in The King of Rockabilly, it’s that this easily could have been a double-LP set with
twice as many songs without sacrificing any quality. Fortunately, there are enough other Perkins albums
available that this can be easily rectified. -Joel Francis

Darius Jones – Raw Demoon Alchemy (a Lone Operation) (Pink Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive, Digital Download Card)

Destroyer – LABYRINTHITIS (Green, White Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive, Digital Download Card)

David Bowie – Lodger

Drake – Take Care

Earthless – From The Ages (Clear w/ Dark Red Splatter, Indie Exclusive, Remastered)

Ghost – Opus Eponymous(Turquoise Colored Vinyl)

Gang of Youths – Angel In Realtime (Pink Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)

Goliath – Hot Rock & Thunder

Giant Dog – Pile (Digital Download Card)

Giant Dog – Toy (Digital Download Card)

Guerilla Toss – Famously Alive (Purple Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition)

Harold Johnson – House On Elm Street

Ibibio Sound Machine – Electricity (Yellow, Black Colored Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Indie Exclusive)

John Carpenter – Halloween Kills (Original Soundtrack) (Orange Vinyl)

The Jam – This Is the Modern World (Clear Vinyl)

The Jacka – Jack of All Trades

Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back

Juice Wrld – Fighting Demons

Juice Wrld- Legends Never Die

Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City

King Hannah – Tell Me Your Mind And I’ll Tell You Mine (Green Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition, Indie Exclusive, Digital Download Card)

Leslie West – Legacy: A Tribute To Leslie West (Silver Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition, 140 Gram Vinyl)

The Lumineers – Brightside (Oceania Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)

The Lemonheads – Varshons 2

Maren Morris – Humble Quest

Melanie Charles – Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women

Muslims – Gentrifried Chicken (Indie Exclusive)

Michael Jackson – BAD (Picture Disc)

Mammoth WVH- Mammoth WVH

Mac Miller – Swimming In Circles (Deluxe Box Set)

Nas – King’s Disease II

Nico Gomez – Soul Of Samba

Orville Peck – Pony

Orville Peck- Show Pony (Purple Colored Vinyl, Sticker, Extended Play, Poster)

Oingo Boingo – Only A Lad (Green, White Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition)

Porcupine Tree – On The Sunday Of Life

Pink Floyd – The Wall (180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket)

PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
Weekly Review:
PJ Harvey’s 2016 album “The Hope Six Demolition Project” was created in sessions open to the public as part of a London museum exhibition in a place called Somerset House just off the river Thames in Central London.
While writing the songs for the album  (and her book of poetry The Hollow of the Hand), Harvey visited Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington D.C. with photographer/filmmaker Seamus Murphy.
If her previous album (2011’s “Let England Shake”) was heralded as a scathing commentary on England’s role in the global conflicts of the 20th century, “The Hope Six…” appears to have taken the same approach but shifted the focus to the US.
Harvey’s portraits were not void of pushback. In the opening track “The Community Of Hope” her somewhat simplistic portrait of the D.C. neighborhood Anacostia, describing  the local school as a “shithole” and people experiencing  homelessness  as “zombies” garnered criticism from residents of the neighborhood. Though making it clear that the lyrics were taken verbatim from a tour guide, the simplistic view for dramatic affect seemed slightly over simplistic.
Regardless, of the success of the content, the way in which “The Hope Six…” was produced was her most conceptual approach to date. The sessions lasted just four weeks and were conducted behind a glass wall, where paying customers observed the process unfold.
To some degree the album is a return to a style more akin to her last States/ NY inspired album “Stories From the City…” But where that album was lined with a gritty brand of romanticism, “The Hope Six…” seems to convey a more nostalgic vibe of populism and idealism.
Much of the albums driving rhythms slide seamlessly between plodding militaristic marches and Native American inspired shamanistic trances.
Harvey is also back to using the full range of her voice. On songs like “Minister of Defense” and “A Line In the Sand” she modulates back and forth between falsetto and full throated singalongs.
A vocal highlight is the dreamy “River Anacostia” a poignant track named after the infamously polluted eight mile stretch of River in Washington DC named after an original settlement of Necostan or Anacostan Native Americans.
The 2022 release of this record, plus the demos, completes Harvey’s two year vinyl reissue unveiling of all nine of her studio albums and demos.  – Major Matt

Queen – Greatest Hits

Run the Jewels – Run The Jewels 3 (Gold Colored Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Poster)

Run the Jewels – Run The Jewels (Orange Colored Vinyl, Poster, Indie Exclusive)

The Replacements – Please To Meet Me

Richard Thompson – A Collection Of Unreleased And Rare Material 1967-1976

Screamin Jay Hawkins – At Home With Screamin Jay Hawkins (Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl, Red Colored Vinyl)

Suicide – Surrender

Steve Vai – Inviolate (180 Gram Vinyl)

Spoon – Lucifer On The Sofa (Orange Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)

Tears for Fears – The Tipping Point (Green Colored Vinyl, Lithograph, Indie Exclusive)

Theon Cross – Intra I

Thurston Moore – Screen Time

Willie Hutch – Seasons For Love

Yasuaki Shimizu – Kiren

 

 

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Sherman, Gordon, Cat, Matt, Dylan, Doyle, Heather, Greg, Dave and Lain

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