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August Vinyl

Summer is the slow time for new music releases and August saw a number of great new releases, with even more coming later this fall.

Here’s some of the new releases I picked up on vinyl in August:

  • Superchunk – I Hate Music:  The alt rockers have been around since 1989(!) and I Hate Music is their tenth album.  The album is short and sweet, clocking in at just over 37 minutes.  If you’re a fan of Superchunk there isn’t anything new here, and that’s a good thing.  (I also picked up the Divine Fits 12″ at the same time featured in the picture below).
  • Volcano Choir – Repave: Justin Vernon of Bon Iver joins up with Wisconsin’s Collection of a Colony of Bees for their second album.  Mr. Vernon says he didn’t write any of the music – the one chord he wrote the band didn’t use.  But to me, this could easily be a 3rd Bon Iver album.  Barb Abney of The Current wrote a fantastic review a couple weeks back when it was The Current’s Album of the Week.  Highly recommended.
  • Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You:  Neko Case released her 6th solo album and it’s fantastic.  The alt-country darling follows up 2009’s Middle Cyclone with an album that works through her recent depression after recently losing her grandmother and both parents – and it works.  The pacing of the album is fantastic and she clearly opens her soul and bares it all.  The vinyl release is stunning – both the artwork and Side D of the vinyl release, which doesn’t have any music, features a stunning etching that covers the album.  Middle Cyclone was the first new vinyl album I bought on Record Store Day 2010 in clear vinyl and holds a special place in my heart.

August Vinyl

  1. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 2. Volcano Choir – Repave, 3. Volcano Choir – Repave, 4. Now Now – Threads, 5. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 6. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 7. Superchunk – I Hate Music, 8. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, 9. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

Rolling Stone’s 25 best record stores

Rolling Stone released their list of the 25 best record stores in the United States yesterday.

Minneapolis was well represented with Electric Fetus coming in as the sixth best record store in the U.S. and Hymie’s Vintage Records rounded out the list at twenty-five.

In July I went on a bit of a shopping spree at Electric Fetus, which is also where I spent Record Store Day 2009.  There is no question that Electric Fetus has one of, if not the best, selection in the Twin Cities, though Cheapo gives them a pretty strong run for selection.  I have to say I was disappointed in the service at Electric Fetus in July.  I asked two different clerks questions about the vinyl I was buying and both times they couldn’t answer my question (and they weren’t hard questions – it’s not like I was trying to play stump the clerk).

I’m embarrassed to admit I hadn’t heard of Hymies until now – I definitely know where my next round of shopping is going to be!