Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
Continuing my month long “Best of 2022 Idelic Hits,” episode 2 came to together by “flippin thru” my recently assembled “crate” of new albums and singles—all released over the last year. For this episode I abandoned “counting down” records 21-41, and opted instead for piecing these recent gems in an elegant fashion to create a luscious hour of music.
Hey, that’s what Idelic Hours are all about.
It’s the time of the year when holiday music sounds as fresh as the stacks of Christmas trees being sold at your local firehouse. With some melancholy, however, we know that in another month or so we’ll be dragging those trees down the driveway and onto the curb while searching for music without so much comfort and joy to keep us busy until the birds of spring begin to chirp.
But, we’re not there yet! The days are short, and the novelty of a cozy, warm evening by the fire with a softly murmuring hi-fi in the background has not yet worn off. And what better music to hear than some traditional and popular Christmas tunes? But what to choose? There’s no shortage of places to find the stuff, but it’s not so simple to find enduring holiday classics crafted with care, skill, and class.
Acclaimed jazz and pop singer, Jane Monheit knows her way around a Christmas song or two, and she’s here to prove it with her newest release, The Merriest. The celebrated vocalist has released many albums, several of which have appeared on the Billboard Jazz Charts, and of course, she’s entertained audiences all over the world. Here, however, Jane hand-picks some of her favorite Christmas tunes with a crack band backing her up. John Pizzarelli even comes by with his guitar to join her on a rendition of “That Holiday Feeling.”
Jane and I discuss her relationship with the holidays, the lush production behind the album, some dates she’ll be performing in support of the new album, and much more. If you’re searching for something familiar, yet fresh, to accompany you through the holiday season this year, consider giving Jane Monheit’s new album a spin.
Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.
Why go in search of space when you’ve already found it? You would have to ask the space rockers in Hawkwind, which on its 1971 sophomore LP In Search of Space takes you on an aural tour of the cosmic beyond on a psychedelic double-decker bus, pointing out the sites while reminding you, on “You Shouldn’t Do That,” to not feed the pulsating Day-Glo protoplasm. I know, I know—it looks friendly. But it will envelop your hand like the Blob, and have the rest of you for dessert.
What differentiated the early Hawkwind from their psychedelic rock brethren was their rich instrumental palette and decided Krautrock tendencies. They came at you with guitars, flute, saxophone, synthesizer, and audio generators, lots of audio generators. And they sure knew how to establish a killer drone. The almost sixteen-minute ”You Shouldn’t Do That” dispenses with choruses and bridges and all of that nonsense because they just kill the momentum—I doubt you’ll find any bridges in the furthest reaches of space, but who am I to say? I should have flunked physics (and would have had my teacher not been terrified of seeing me again) and for all I know the universe is one big chorus.
In Search of Space revs its engines with the aforementioned “You Shouldn’t Do That,” which opens with the sound of eon-glugging space whales, then rockets you into the psychosphere (a word I may have just made up!) at the speed of lava lamp. Nik Turner’s alto saxophone and what sounds to me like the whistling noise on Flipper’s “Sex Bomb” join some group vocals that sound like an endless repetition of “Chick-fil-A.”
After that Turner and electric guitarist Dave Brock really get down to business, accompanied by lots of soaring intergalactic noise (and some cool hissing), and my only problem are the lyrics, which reveal that like David Crosby and so many other freaks of the era, Hawkwind had a pathological fear of what Freud called “hippie hair castration,” as demonstrated by the lines “You try so hard to get somewhere/They put you down and cut your hair.”
Manchester, UK | New record shop, Haunted Dancehall, opens in Manchester: It’s named after a 1994 album by Sabres Of Paradise. Manchester has a new record store. Haunted Dancehall has recently opened in the city on Pollard Street East. It takes its name from a 1994 album by Sabres Of Paradise, the project of Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. It sells both new and used vinyl, and will be open from 11am-8pm between Tuesday and Friday, and 2pm-8pm on Saturdays. You can scan through some of the new records that the store has for sale, and order online, via Haunted Dancehall’s website. Earlier this year, a new mobile record shop opened on a canal boat in East Yorkshire.
Minneapolis, MN | Now Open: Disco Death Records: Records, coffee, and film collide in Uptown. A new coffee-record-film shop sprouted up in Uptown last August, on 26th just off Lyndale, around the corners from CC Club’s wooden patio and French Meadow. Let us set the scene: Walking through the glass door at Disco Death Records pulls you to a different space and time, somewhere a little older and a little wiser. Plants sit on sunny shelves, a refurbished church pew welcomes visitors to hangout behind wooden tables, round mid-century lights guide a path to an all-manual Victoria Arduino espresso machine gleaming on the counter. The words Photo Lab shine bright in the back hall, 1960s French music plays from a record player behind the counter, and there are records for sale everywhere. …“We’re not gatekeeping at all. We’re literally trying to make everything as accessible and fun and different as we possibly can,” Eckerson said as he eyed the store’s jazz collection of records sitting nearby. “We want everyone to feel welcome to come in and talk about anything—coffee, records, or film.”
Mansfield, OH | Fat Dog Vinyl brings record collecting back to Mount Vernon: The first record Phil Hicks collected was KISS’s “Alive!” in 1975. It was wrapped and waiting under his Christmas tree. Now Hicks and wife Jennifer are living a dream he wasn’t sure would ever happen. He remembers seeing his first live show during a Journey concert at Blossom Music Center for $10 a ticket. It became a lifelong interest. “I didn’t think I’d open my own record store one day,” he said. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Fat Dog Vinyl, located at 7 North Main, where the former Mount Vernon Brewing Company previously resided, has hundreds of records to choose from. The genres include rock classics, smooth jazz hits, soundtracks, new wave rock, pop and metal. “People have been blown away by the diversity,” he said.
Bend, OR | Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree At Smith Rock Records: Santa loves a physical media comeback. Trust us, your teen will want a CD in their stocking. Cassette tapes, vinyl, CDs — oh my! Sure, we could just text a Spotify link to share our favorite song or album in this day-n’-age, but I’m sure I’m not the only one in this town who remembers that one record that one person gave you that one time as a gift — that moment sticks with us over time! …So, where my fellow music fanatics at?! It’s now December (holy sh*t) and Christmas is in three weeks! So I’m here to preach to you — whatever year you were born or however old the one you need to get a gift for is — that you should give the gift of music and hop on this physical media comeback. What better way than to shop local at what might just be the coolest spot in town…
Jackson, WY | Annual Jackson Hole record sale returns this Saturday: Jackson’s vinyl enthusiast Matt Donovan is back with his collection of hundreds of records for sale, that range in price from two dollars to standard new record prices. In conjunction with the Jackson Hole Book Trader, the annual Jackson Hole Record Sale will start Saturday, Dec. 10 during regular business hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and continue through the holiday season. According to Donavan, vinyl records accounted for one-third of all physical media sales in recent years and continue to gain popularity. Without a true record store in Jackson Hole, this is inarguably the most concentrated access to vinyl records in the area, with a selection of artists and titles curated through the year specifically for this event, he says. “It’s a chance to stock up on classics, with a diverse selection of new and current titles as well,” Donovan said. Jackson Hole Book Trader also has a smaller selection of vinyl year-round.
All eight Roxy Music albums have been reissued as half-speed masters and are available for the first time as individual albums. They were pressed on 180-gram vinyl in Germany at Optimal. The albums all come in poly-lined sleeves and include the original album sleeves. Miles Showell cut the previous discs at half speed in 2016, but these new cuts were done on upgraded equipment. For our purposes here, we only have access to Roxy Music, Flesh + Blood, and Avalon.
The group’s self-titled debut in 1972 was a groundbreaking work. Coming right in the middle of the late ’60s/early ’70s hippie days, the album was like a musical visitor from outer space. The initial lineup, which included Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera, and Andy MacKay, has remained intact right up until the group’s most recent tour this year. The rhythm section for the album was Paul Thompson and Graham Simpson. Thompson would last all the way through until Siren, and Simpson would leave after the group’s debut.
A rotating cast of bass players followed on the group’s next seven releases. More significantly, the group’s debut and second album included Brian Eno. Eno would of course leave the group after its second album and pursue ambient music, collaborate with Robert Fripp and David Byrne and, more significantly, become an in-demand and highly successful record producer.
Even 50 years later the album is a jarring and garish mix of styles and attitude. This is the height of DIY art rock. The album has touches of glam, glitter, or prog and the group dipped far back to mix in old jazz, cabaret, musique concrete, and the influences of crooners on Ferry’s vocals. The packaging includes a gatefold jacket, original sleeve, and the album in a poly-lined sleeve. The pressing is excellent and the sound is natural, with only the limitations of the original recording taking away from the overall sound.
What’s Going On from Marvin Gaye, released in 1971, is arguably one of the greatest albums of the pop-rock/soul era. It is Gaye’s masterpiece. It’s a deep, spiritual and musically sophisticated concept album that transcends R&B, soul, and pop.
Gaye, like Stevie Wonder, met resistance from Motown head honcho Berry Gordy for making an album that eschewed the hit Motown formula for creating a personal artistic statement, but Gaye prevailed. Many of the themes Gaye explored on the album—war, race, the environment, economic inequality and lack of human empathy—are just as relevant today. The way Gaye wove R&B, soul, pop, gospel, and orchestrated music into a suite of interconnected and often repeated songs and themes has rarely been matched.
While groups like The Beatles, The Who, and Pink Floyd, among others, have created sweeping and fulsome concept albums that are timeless, solo artists such as Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan have come close, but perhaps only Stevie Wonder has created any works to match this stunning musical and recording achievement.
The sound quality is very natural. The strings and church feel have a mesmerizing ambience and Gaye’s voice is front and center. This reissue was mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, was pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Precision in Canada, and comes in a 2-LP, gatefold tip-on jacket.
Based in New York City, SUSS is an ambient country trio whose new self-titled full-length, their fourth and a 2LP set, is out now through Northern Spy. For their first two albums, SUSS was a quintet. Then, with the departure of William Garrett, they were a quartet for their third LP, and now, after the passing of Gary Leib in 2021, a three piece featuring Jonathan Gregg, Bob Holmes, and Pat Irwin. SUSS collects four EPs: “Night Suite” (the final recording with Leib), “Heat Haze,” “Winter Was Hard,” and “Across the Horizon,” the last making its debut with this release. Across the four sides, clear progressions deepen a sound of striking cohesiveness and precision.
In SUSS, Jonathan Gregg plays the pedal steel and dobro, Bob Holmes the mandolin, baritone guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, violin and keyboards, and Pat Irwin the electric guitars, national guitar, eBow, harmonium, keyboards, melodica and loops. Their music is exactly as advertised, and if ambient and country seem an unlikely combination, the SUSS’s approach is warm, organic and compelling rather than an underwhelming exercise in style-stitching.
Earlier this year, Tompkins Square released the latest volume of their Imaginational Anthem series, the set curated by Luke Schneider and titled Chrome Universal – A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel. It featured nine tracks from as many different pedal steel players carrying their shared instrument far beyond long-established norms.
Like the musicians on Chrome Universal, Jonathan Gregg’s pedal steel travels outside the realms of standard twang, while simultaneously fortifying the country side of SUSS’s equation. As reinforced by the titles of the five tracks on side one , all named for locations in New Mexico, California and Arizona, the “Night Suite” EP offers a feel that’s decidedly Southwestern, and further enhanced by the guitars of Holmes and Irwin, though the titular vistas are distinct from the increasingly common strains of desert noir heard on the contemporary scene.
Madison, WI | Agrace selling vinyl from collection of more than 45K records: Record collectors and music lovers alike will have the chance to add to their collections this week while also picking up items with ties to Wisconsin’s recording history. Jim Kirchstein, the founder of Wisconsin-based Cuca Records recently donated his entire collection of more than 45,000 records to Agrace to help the organization raise money. Kirchstein created his independent record label in 1959 and is said to have “captured the sound of Wisconsin in the 1960s.” Thousands of songs and LPs by Wisconsin and Wisconsin-adjacent musicians were recorded at Kirchstein’s studio in Sauk City, Wisconsin until the early 1970s. Officials with the organization said it took days to gather all of Kirchstein’s records. “It took three days and many hands to collect the full donation of records and transport them to our store,” Agrace pack up and pick up manager Robert Washburn said.
Hermosa Beach, CA | A spin down Music Lane—Studio Antiques keeps the vinyl tradition alive: The resurgence of vinyl records in the past decade can be attributed to everything from kids going through their parents or older siblings record collection, to scenes in movies such as Jack Black’s hilariously condescending record store clerk in the “High Fidelity,” and last year’s “Licorice Pizza,” which was the name of a Southern California records store chain known for a super friendly, and knowledgeable staff that knew their music, and would talk endlessly about what bands the customers should be listening to. Interest in vinyl recordings is so high now that there’s a bi-annual celebration, Record Store Day, every April and November to celebrate independent record store. …Their collection of used LPs is almost certainly the largest in the South Bay.
Burlington, MA | Bookworm’s Dream: Burlington Used Book Superstore Always Changes Inventory: If you’re looking to snag some good reads on the cheap this holiday season, if you’re in Burlington or Middleton, you may be in the right place. The Used Book Superstore is offering large percentage sales on all things books, movies, merchandise, and more. WBZ’s Matt Shearer had to go and check it out for himself, and spoke to the owner, Bob Ticehurst, who quite literally built the store from the ground up to what it is today. “This has definitely grown a lot since I started it in my parents’ basement. It was taking over the whole basement, then it was taking the stairs up to the basement, then it was taking up my bedroom— so it was time for me to get out of there,” Ticehurst said. …The UBS’ vinyl record collection gets refreshed every Saturday morning, something people will line up for weekly to try and score a hidden treasure at just $4 apiece. “Somebody found the White Album of the Beatles, they said it was over a thousand-dollar copy of it, based on the condition,” Ticehurst said.
The White Lotus’ Emmy Award winning soundtrack is now on vinyl: Get the White Lotus experience from the safety of your home. WRWTFWW Records has announced a vinyl release of the soundtrack for HBO tv series The White Lotus. Created by Chilean-born composer, arranger, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cristobal “Cristo” Tapia de Veer, the soundtrack has found popularity online with its distinct sound. De Veer’s work for The White Lotus has won two Emmy Awards. The White Lotus, now in its second season, follows the lives of a varied cast of wealthy guests at the fictional White Lotus hotel chain as they face conflict, mystery and interpersonal drama. The limited edition double LP comes on white 180g vinyl, housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve with OBI and double-sided art print, and is available in a choice of three artwork variants—taken from the series’ opening sequence.
To know them is to love them. And if you’ve never had the pleasure of listening, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite band: Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
Selling out Aragon Ballroom in Chicago—and not just “selling out” but also emptying all resale sites with some eager fans paying up to 10 times the original ticket value—the five piece alternative indie/rock band kicked off their US tour with a long awaited bang.
Having rescheduled their tour multiple times due to lead singer Ela Melo’s mental health, the magnitude of Saturday night’s show was clear. Opening with nostalgic 2013 hit “All That and More (Sailboat),” the crowd seemed to quickly forget any disappointment they had carried and were ready to welcome them back to the stage. Addressing the crowd a couple of songs in, drummer Jess Haney thanked everyone for sticking by them and admitted he was shaking at the reception they were receiving.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Jazz Dispensary proudly announces the latest release in its acclaimed Top Shelf series, Pleasure’s long out-of-print classic Joyous. Produced by Wayne Henderson (The Jazz Crusaders), the 1977 album delivers instant party vibes, thanks to a lively blend of soul, funk, disco, and jazz.
As with every title in the album-centric Top Shelf series—which reissues the highest-quality, hand-picked rarities (all culled from Craft Recordings’ vaults)—Joyous has been cut from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl at RTI. The LP is housed in a tip-on jacket, featuring faithfully reproduced original designs. Returning to vinyl for the first time since its original release, Joyous is out January 6th and available to pre-order beginning exclusively at JazzDispensary.com.
Ahead of the holidays, Jazz Dispensary is also adding a groovy new colorway to its popular “Catnip” T-shirt. Perfect for all jazz cats, the design (now available in Granite or Ivory) features an original illustration by Favorite Vegetable. The Jazz Dispensary store also includes a variety of exclusive gifts, including a logo T-shirt and crewneck, a corduroy logo hat, a zeotropic slipmat from record animator Drew Tetz, and a variety of bumper stickers, in addition to a curated selection of vinyl LPs.
Hailing from Portland, OR, Pleasure formed in 1972, blending the talents of two local acts: The Franchise (featuring drummer Bruce Carter, guitarist Marlon “The Magician” McClain, and bassist Nathaniel Phillips) and The Soul Masters (featuring keyboardists and brothers Donald and Michael Hepburn, saxophonist Dennis Springer, trombonist/guitarist Dan Brewster, vocalist Sherman Davis, and percussionist Bruce Smith).
The Who Sell Out, released in 1967 and the group’s third album, was a major breakthrough for The Who. It was the group’s first album that proved throughout that the band was more than a post-R&B, heavy English pop band. The thematic concept album presaged Tommy—which was more ambitious and a double album—by two years. With The Who Sell Out, Townshend and The Who offered a concept album, but one that was light and fun.
The album did include “I Can See for Miles,” another of the group’s dynamic hits, but it was now clear that Pete Townshend was a songwriter with lofty goals and the talent to back it up. The album featured faux radio commercials and station IDs with songs that reflected new pop ideas about commerce and youth culture, often from a very English point of view.
This new 180-gram vinyl reissue, which was remastered by Jon Astley, cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, and pressed in Germany at Optimal, comes on the heels of the 2020 deluxe CD box and vinyl remaster of the album. At first this new vinyl album remaster, particularly in terms of the vocals, doesn’t sound quite as bright as previous reissues and, in fact, at times it sounds best when the fake radio material is presented.
The album package comes complete with an OBI-strip, the original psychedelic poster that came with the record and a certificate of authentication, but the LP is only in a paper sleeve. Overall, however, this Abbey Road remaster is a worthy addition for Who fans.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Celebrated archival reissue label Light in the Attic (LITA) announces the latest chapter in its acclaimed Japanese City Pop series, Pacific Breeze, which delivers a mesmerizing blend of AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie, and disco from the country’s flourishing bubble era of the ‘70s and ‘80s. The highly anticipated Pacific Breeze 3: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1975–1987, continues the exploration with songs that push the boundaries of the genre and offer glimmers of the next waves of music, including Shibuya-kei, hip-hop, and electro.
Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), and once again featuring the iconic artwork of legendary artist Hiroshi Nagai on its cover, this volume of Pacific Breeze is a female-forward offering, spotlighting the voices of women who would become household names in Japan as actresses and pop idols. Brimming with an innovative spirit, the album includes essential hits and under-the-radar rarities, including techno-pop classics from Susan, Miharu Koshi, and Chiemi Manabe; funk from Miho Fujiwara and Naomi Akimoto; and a sultry reggae jam by Teresa Noda.
Pacific Breeze 3 also delivers hypnotic jazz fusion by Parachute and Hiroyuki Namba, a synthesizer fantasy from Osamu Shoji, and magnetic pop by Makoto Matsushita and Chu Kosaka. As with the last two records, the visionary members of Yellow Magic Orchestra continue to have a presence on Pacific Breeze 3, with Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi taking up producer and musician roles on many of these tracks.
Released in 1920, The Golem: How He Came into the World is a German silent horror film and a landmark of German Expressionism directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese with roots in a 16th century Jewish folktale. Often described as the Jewish Frankenstein (and directly inspiring James Whale’s subsequent film), The Golem’s strange power is still very much in evidence, especially when accompanied by a new score made possible by arts and culture nonprofit Reboot featuring members of Wolf Eyes, Universal Indians, Love Child, Espers, Secret Chiefs 3, Dead C, Boredoms, The Flaming Lips, Los Lobos and more. The Golem Rescored is out now on 2LP and digital via Reboot Records.
Reboot’s raison d’etre is admirable: to reimagine, reinvent, and reinforce Jewish thought and traditions. If a broader enterprise than a record label, Reboot has released a few musical items in its history (the organization was formed in 2001) including A Great Miracle: Jeremiah Lockwood’s Guitar Soli Chanukah Record and a rescore for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (the first film from 1923, not DeMille’s ’56 remake) by Scott Amendola, Steven Drozd, and Steve Berlin, who also contribute the closing piece to The Golem Rescored.
“Loew Sparks on High Gratitude Love” is the selection by Amendola, Drozd, and Berlin, and it’s the longest excursion into rhythmic patterns and tangible melodies on the entire set, though it should be noted that the piece comprises a handful of shorter varied segments that cohere into an attractive, at times proggy, eclecticism. It contrasts well with the longer passages of abstraction that proceed it.
Opening side one is “Born Mystic Section” by Threshing Floor, a group featuring Alan Licht and Rebecca Odes of the terribly undersung late ’80s-early ’90s indie rock trio Love Child, Gretchen Gonzales Davidson of the fab Universal Indians and Slumber Party, and John Olson and Nate Young of noise kings Wolf Eyes. Theirs is an immediate dive into abstraction as methodically building tension that occasionally rises to maelstrom-like levels.
Manchester, UK | New record shop Haunted Dancehall opens in Manchester: The store launched last week in Wellington House across from the Ashton Canal. A new record shop has opened in Manchester. On Monday, November 28th, Haunted Dancehall launched on the second floor of Wellington House, an industrial space across from the Ashton Canal. The shop stocks a range of electronic music, mostly focussed on the dance floor. There’s a mix of new and second-hand records, as well as reissues. Haunted Dancehall takes its name from the 1994 album of the same name by London trio The Sabres Of Paradise, AKA Jagz Kooner, Gary Burns and Andrew Weatherall. The shop bears no relation to the new Dublin festival. Haunted Dancehall will open from Tuesday through Saturday. Browse the shop via the website.
San Francisco, CA | Open, divine portal: Dark Entries label launches record store in Tenderloin: Josh Cheon’s acclaimed outfit specializes in dark and synth-y sounds; now it’s got an IRL outpost in the TL. SF’s Dark Entries label specializes in releasing and re-releasing dark and/or synth-y sounds from decades past as well as today, but the musical excavations of label honcho Josh Cheon go beyond lost goth and other shadowy dance floor classics, though there are plenty of those. (It is named after a Bauhaus song, after all.) The label has championed such obscurities, at least to the US, as cult ’80s Argentinian darkwave act Euroshima, underground Mexican synth-pop acts, experimental poetic Greek electronic music from Dark Entries muse Lena Platonos, gender-swapping dream pop, and, perhaps most famously, the unreleased work of San Francisco electronic dance music wizard Patrick Cowley, who passed from AIDS 40 years ago. There’s even fizzy Italo disco and vintage gay porn soundtracks in the Dark Entries portfolio.
South Bend, IN | South Bend Record Show holds last event of 2022: If you’re looking for treble, you found it as The South Bend Record Show holds its final event of 2022. Vendors from five Midwestern states filled 88 tables with thousands of vinyl records, CDs, memorabilia, and more at the Gillespie Conference Center in South Bend. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., hundreds of people came to talk about music, add to their collection, or find a music lover’s perfect holiday gift. Event organizers tell 16 News Now they love helping people start and add to their growing collections. “We have people who come here who have thousands and thousands of records, getting to the point where it’s really hard for them to find something they still need, and we get people who walk in the door for the very first time,” South Bend Record Show Owner & Organizer Jeremy Bonfiglio said. “They just got a turntable. They’re just learning about what it is to have vinyl and how to play it, who are buying their very first records, and everything in between. So, it’s a really wide mix, which makes it a lot of fun.”
Atlanta, GA | New vinyl listening bar aims to be a source for creativity in Atlanta: At Ponce City Market on a Saturday evening, it’s hard to miss the tiny store that’s designed as a living room. Warm hues of brown abound. Art, magazines, and Ghia — a brand of non-alcoholic drinks — fill the back of the store. Speakers, incense, clothes and other items compose the front. Stacks of vinyl records and a sofa encompass the middle. Erykah Badu’s “Time’s a Wastin’” blares in the background. There’s a lot going on in the small yet inviting space. And, upon a first glance, it’s tough to decipher what exactly is going on. But the store’s appeal is rooted in its mystique and its soothing atmosphere. “We wanted it to be kind of homey in a sense … but everything is for sale,” said Kim Alex Hall, co-founder of Console by 2ndbdrm. Located within Ponce City Market’s Citizen Supply, Console by 2ndbdrm is a new vinyl listening bar that also sells furniture, incense, non-alcoholic spirits and other items. The space had a soft launch on Nov. 25 and 26, but it officially opened on Sat, Dec. 3.
Remembering Hamish Kilgour. —Ed.
Over the decades there have been many bands in the post-Velvets guitar-rock sweepstakes, but none better than The Clean, New Zealand’s on-again off-again kings of post-punk/DIY string splendor and one of the cornerstones of the whole Flying Nun sound. In 1988, the generically titled Compilation LP helped introduce to world to their brilliance.
In the world of heavy-duty record collecting, single artist compilations are often viewed like a small army of redheaded stepchildren. The words Best Of and Greatest Hits are the tip off to a certain type of casual abbreviation, a CliffsNotes or Condensed Classics treatment for careers that obviously encompass much more than can be adequately summarized through the cherry-picking of chart-toppers or the most noteworthy tunes of an artist or act. But sometimes these comps provide a valuable service in the procurement of music that was originally released on 78 RPM discs or vinyl 45s, records that would be tremendously difficult to obtain in their original form. Indeed, there is a big difference in perception between a lowly Best Of cash-in and a well-ordered anthology presenting often scarce and forbiddingly pricey material.
You want the easiest route to The Falcons, a ‘50’s-‘60s R&B group with members that included Eddie Floyd, Sir Mack Rice, Joe Stubbs, and Wilson Pickett? Well, that would be You’re So Fine and I’ve Found a Love, a pair of far from perfect yet basically indispensible LPs chronicling this historically titanic acts’ progress for the Lupine and Flick labels. You want to taste the root of jazz via New Orleans in the ‘20s? Any physical format other than shellac that holds Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens is a comp, some obviously better than others. You want the full picture on the early belladonna-whacked work of Siouxsie and the Banshees? Then please don’t neglect Once Upon a Time: The Singles.
In 1981 The Clean began a quick spate of recording, making quite a ripple in their homeland, a hubbub that would take a few years to travel the oceans beyond their shores as one of the earliest and finest examples of the Kiwi nation’s Flying Nun record label. Featuring Robert Scott and the brothers David and Hamish Kilgour (with early assistance from Peter Gutteridge and Doug Hood), this band forms one of the four pillars upon which the whole Flying Nun experience rests, the others being Tall Dwarfs, The Chills, and The Verlaines.
