NYCD: The Blog

Texas Psych - Psychedelic Music, 13th Floor Elevators, Golden Dawn, Red Crayola and more!: Crappy Psychedelica Yahoogroup

2009-08-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

Texas Psych - Psychedelic Music, 13th Floor Elevators, Golden Dawn, Red Crayola and more!: Crappy Psychedelica Yahoogroup

As someone who is a member of the "psychedelica chat" room i must take offense at the way you have attempted to belittle and humiliate the members and the moderator. You as well as i and all members are guests and should abide by the rules presented. Did you ask permission to post a link to your site? Are you entitled to continually post links after you are told that it is not allowed? Why have you continued to post links when the moderator requested that you not do? I think that with all the 60's/70's messageboards/chat rooms on the internet there should be some sort of community where all of the fans of this type of music can get along rather than slagging each other off. I don't think you will win this argument by the tone of your post, you'll just come off as a "spoiled child" who doesn't get what he wants.
I hope that you'll understand that this was not the way to handle this situation.

JK

2007-07-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

NYCD LIVES ... SORT OF

Rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated -- by us. We'd like to think of NYCD as the Frances Farmer of the music industry. Let's look at the similarities.

We both started our careers with big dreams and stars in our eyes.
We quickly became the darlings of our respective industries.
Miss Farmer won an Oscar. NYCD was chosen "Best CD Store" by both New York magazine and the New York Press on three separate occasions.
We're both very outspoken.
The cool people "got" us.
The imbeciles were turned off by us.
We both had our careers unjustly and prematurely taken away from us.
We were both institutionalized, had lobotomies, and resumed our happy, if somewhat confused, lives.
We both had songs written about us by Nirvana.

THE INDUSTRY KILLED US, BUT WE WOULDN'T DIE!

Just because we don't have a physical location anymore, doesn't mean we're not still doing the CD thing. As in buying CDs (and DVDs) from you, selling CDs to you, and writing about CDs for you.

BUYING: Let us know what you've got and we will check them out! Write to HEYNYCD@aol.com for details.

SELLING: We can still order CDs for you and ship them right to your door. We're not taking credit cards anymore, but PayPal, checks/money orders and good old American greenbacks are still accepted. Email if you're interested.

WRITING: Miss the newsletter? Have no idea what new releases are available for your listening pleasure? Need a laugh or two? The status of weekly emails and our blog are still up in the air, but you can check out our weekly new release wrap-up (and other stuff besides) starting next week at the Huffington Post, a very fine website that has even more readers than our blog! About three million more, to be exact.

It's great to be sort of back, sort of. And as the great man once said, "Keep those cards and letters comin'."

Your friends,
Peter and Mark Lemongello

2007-06-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS NYCD?

"If you don't go shopping, the terrorists win."

Rudolph Giuliani, 9/20/01

Hi Everyone,

In NYCD's world, the terrorists have won.

June 29th is our last day. We have tried and tried. To paraphrase Miss Tina Turner, "Ow! Stop it Ike!" (Oops, wrong quote) We've given it the best that we got. But, as with most dying animals, a shot in the head is the best remedy.

We want to thank all of you who have supported NYCD, both as a small retail outlet on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, right on through our attempt at the Internet. It was fun...early on.

But wait, there is some good news.

Both Tony and Sal would like to continue purchasing your CDs and DVDs. How and why, do you ask? Well...we will deal with your queries on a person to person basis. You have our e-mail addresses and our phone numbers. Use them. If you don't know how to reach us, email HEYNYCD@aol.com and maybe you'll find out.

Thank you all again. It's been a great ride.

We remain,
Completely Bitter About The Music Industry....uh..... we mean,

Sal Nunziato & Tony Sachs

2007-06-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #22!

TONY HAS MIGRAINE: ALL LAME JOKES HIS FAULT

SAL HAS PULLED MUSCLE: DISTRACTS HIM FROM LAST WEEK'S RUPTURED CLAVICLE

MANY NEW RELEASES!

NEW YORK YANKEES, R.I.P.: SMUG METS FANS ALREADY GLOATING WITH 112 GAMES LEFT

PAUL McCARTNEY RELEASES BEST ALBUM EVER... IN 1970!

and now... YOUR ALPHABETICALLY LISTED NEW RELEASES!

THE AFGHAN WHIGS - UNBREAKABLE: A RETROSPECTIVE. It seems every time a Whigs or Whigs-related CD is released, we rave. We don't sell very many -- lots of skeptical readers out there. But here's the perfect place for you to start. An 18 track anthology (including two new ones, their first recordings together in almost a decade) featuring just about the same 18 tracks we would have put together ourselves. If you're not familiar with the band, imagine a ballsy rock n' roll band playing soul music. It really works. Just check out their brilliant cover of the Supremes' "Come See About Me."

BIG & RICH - BETWEEN RAISING HELL AND AMAZING GRACE. If gaudy costume jewelry was a country band, it would be Big & Rich. Not quite sure if they want to play twangy hillbilly music or AC/DC inspired heavy metal, so they do both, almost always at the same time, and it miraculously works. Kitchen-sink production too often takes away from the super-hooky melodies, but still, Big & Rich are a lot more fun than Bjork.

DAVID BOWIE - YOUNG AMERICANS (CD/DVD). This is the same one we've been talking about for months, with amazing Surround Sound, a complete video performance on Dick Cavett, and it's finally out in the States. Please reorder if you already did so many weeks ago!

JAMES BROWN - JAZZ. In addition to being Soul Brother #1, Mr. Dynamite, and the Hardest Working Man In Show Business, not to mention helping to invent funk, James Brown also found the time to play jazz. He wasn't the most talented instrumentalist in the business, but his jazz-oriented work definitely swings, and now the best of it is collected on one disc.

CHRIS CORNELL - CARRY ON. Chris' first solo album, the underrated Euphoria Morning, sounded more like Jeff Buckley than Soundgarden, and a lot of fans missed the boat on it. This one sounds more like Jeff Buckley fronting Audioslave, which somehow works. A great hard rock record that's got brains as well as balls. Includes a nifty cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." (As opposed to Nana Mouskouri's "Billie Jean". You'd think we're getting paid by the word.)

DREAM THEATER - SYSTEMATIC CHAOS. We don't get this band, but thousands and thousands of loyal fans do. A band that makes Rush sound like Tim Hardin. Flashy, soulless guitar solos, spoken word passages, and songs that go on... and on... and on. Available as a CD or CD/DVD combo, which has the entire album remixed in 5.1 Surround Sound.

THE IDLE RACE - BACK TO THE STORY. Before ELO and before the Move, there was the Idle Race, Jeff Lynne's psych-pop band. Long out of print, this is a straight reissue of the two CD anthology, which is basically all their recorded work. If you're a fan of either of the aforementioned bands, this is a must.

MARILYN MANSON - EAT ME DRINK ME. If anyone cares, it comes out Tuesday. If you don't care, read on.

PAUL McCARTNEY - MEMORY ALMOST FULL. About 1972, people began to realize that the Beatles, who made some of the greatest music of all time when together, also had the ability to make some of the worst records since the invention of the cylinder as solo artists. So for every Band On The Run or All Things Must Pass, we got stuck with a Wild Life or Dark Horse. We dealt with it -- tried to ignore the lesser records, loved the good ones, and hoped against hope that they'd come to their senses and get back together.

Beginning in the early '80s, when we all found out the hard way that Beatles can get older and even die, and that a reunion was no longer possible, there arose a curious breed of music fan called Beatle Apologists. Their job was to find the minutes of brilliance or even competence amidst the forty minutes of dreck that made up most Beatle solo albums, and use them to justify the whole sorry mess.

It seems like a large percentage of Beatle apologists have become record reviewers over the years. That's why records like Off The Ground, Gone Troppo, and Stop And Smell The Roses (by Paul, George and Ringo, respectively) received respectful, even mildly encouraging reviews upon their release. The bar was set so low that all a Beatle had to do was put any sort of garbage on a piece of plastic to prove he hadn't joined John Lennon in the great beyond, and by golly, that was good enough for the apologists.

Along with Beatle apologists emerged a somewhat more cynical group, the Beatle realists. They loved the Beatles too, and dutifully bought all the solo records out of some strange sense of loyalty. The difference between the realists and the apologists was that the realists were able to hear just how bad most of these records were. Conversations between realists and apologists usually go something like this:

APOLOGIST: You know, there are a couple of really good songs on this new Ringo Starr CD.
REALIST: No. There aren't.

Just to clarify, we love Sir Paul. So much so that we are still listening to Memory Almost Full, looking for that hidden gem in this mess of an album. As of listen # 6, it's still dreck.

THE POLICE - THE POLICE. If the single disc hits compilation isn't enough Police for you, but the four CD box set is too much, and the five individual CDs take up too much shelf space, and you don't want to wait for the inevitable three CD compilation, then this two CD, 28 track compilation is for you, Goldilocks! All the great songs for $235 less than a ticket to see them live. Sounds like a bargain to us!

ELVIS PRESLEY - ELVIS AT THE MOVIES. Features previously unreleased sound bites of Elvis at his favorite Memphis movie theater, watching films with the Memphis Mafia. Our favorite moments include "Man, that Holly Golightly's somethin', ain't she, Red?" "Are those two taken? Thank ya ver' much," and "Man, that Charlton Heston's somethin', ain't she, Red?"

PRETENDERS - LEARNING TO CRAWL & GET CLOSE. The next two in the very cool Pretenders reissue series from Rhino Records originally came out in 1984 and '86, respectively. Now remastered for the very first time (and boy, did they need it), plus each one has a bonus disc of rare and unreleased live tracks and B-sides.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WITH THE SESSIONS BAND - LIVE IN DUBLIN (CD/DVD). One of the best records of last year, followed by one of the best tours ever, captured on one of the best live records of this year. It was a shame to see him fail to sell out Madison Square Garden because he wasn't playing with the E Street Band, especially when this heartfelt, uplifting and boisterous show was one of the best we've ever seen. This collection features songs from We Shall Overcome as well as ten reworked classics from the Bruce catalog, including "Atlantic City," "Blinded By The Light," and the big band/swing version of "Open All Night." Get it!

MARTY STUART - COMPADRES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF DUETS. The great Marty Stuart singing with everyone from Johnny Cash and Steve Earle to B.B. King and Mavis Staples, all in one spot.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - ANCHORED IN LOVE: A TRIBUTE TO JUNE CARTER CASH. A tribute to the late, great and wonderful June Carter Cash, this features such top-drawer names as Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Carlene Carter, Sheryl Crow, and, of course, Billy Bob Thornton, all on newly recorded tunes.

PORTER WAGONER - THE WAGONMASTER. Country legend and Dolly Parton's onetime collaborator releases his first new album in years, produced by Marty Stuart. A musical biography of sorts, this record features Wagoner's storytelling through words and music, and it really is one of the best country records we've heard in a long time. Wagoner's voice has aged well.

TO ORDER ANY OF THESE "COMPACT DISCS," PLEASE CALL (212) 244-3460 OR EMAIL US!

SELL US YOUR DISCS! CALL OR EMAIL! WE PAY MONEY!

READ OUR BLOG! AND IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING OUR BLOG, READ US ON THE HUFFINGTON POST! AND READ OUR CAPSULE REVIEWS ON ERIC ALTERMAN'S BLOG, "ALTERCATIONS"!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

2007 seems to be the year of reunions, with the Police, Genesis, Crowded House and Squeeze all taking to the road.

Thank you.

Your friends,
Sinead O'Connor and Jackie Coogan

2007-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #21!

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND UPON US; NEW RELEASES ARE NOT

ENTERTAINING LISTS TO KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED!

COOL JERKS PLAY GIG, WILL USE MONEY TO RENT CABANA ON FIRE ISLAND FOR MEMORIAL DAY 2008

Let's get right to it, shall we? Because as you can see, the headlines are lame.

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES! (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE ALPHABETICAL BY ACCIDENT)

HERB ALPERT - RISE. Herb's 1979 comeback features the still-brilliant title track, with some other not-so-brilliant tracks that sound like anything from the chase scene from a Robert Urich TV special to background music for a David Copperfield plate-spinning extravaganza. If that's your sort of thing, then enjoy.

PERRY FARRELL'S SATELLITE PARTY - ULTRA PAYLOAD. There are few we find as annoying and repulsive as Perry Farrell. This could be his "Rhapsody In Blue" for all we know, but we'd still hate it, because Perry's an annoying Jewish rocker (we can get away with saying that because Sal is Jewish). Features some more annoying people, including Fergie, Flea, and the very dead but still annoying Jim Morrison.

R. KELLY - DOUBLE UP. We'll give this to him -- the man is popular. So who are we to judge such masterpieces as "Freaky In The Club" and "Pull Ya Hair"? For all we know, such great composers as Shostakovich and Carole Bayer-Sager also had bizarre liaisons with underage strumpets.

JOHNETTE NAPOLITANO - SCARRED. The legendary (yes, legendary) vocalist from the legendary (you heard us right, legendary) Concrete Blonde releases her long-awaited solo debut, and Sal is loving it. She's abandoned the Dracula-meets-Emiliano Zapata sounds that seemed to dominate the last two Concrete Blonde records for good ol' fashioned goodness in the guise of ballsy singer-songwriter fare. Also includes covers of Coldplay's "The Scientist" and a killer "All Tomorrow's Parties."

ROBERT POLLARD - CRICKETS. It's been at least two weeks since Robert Pollard put out a new record, so the fans are getting antsy. Features the usual drums made out of aluminum foil, amps running on C batteries, and vocals sung through a bullhorn. Low-fi and lovin' it!

SAL'S PICK OF THE WEEK! (WHICH TONY HASN'T HEARD YET)

RICHARD THOMPSON - SWEET WARRIOR. Truth be told, Richard Thompson releases records almost as quickly as Robert Pollard. The difference is that Sal loves Richard Thompson and hates Robert Pollard. Nonetheless, this new full-on electric record doesn't stray far from anything Richard's done before -- and that's a good thing. Smart lyrics, great hooks, and some of the greatest guitar playing you'll hear this side of Ace Frehley (you know that's a joke, right?).

NOT THAT WE'RE FORCING YOU, BUT WE'D LOVE IT IF YOU ORDERED SEVERAL OF THESE FINE, NAY ESSENTIAL, COMPACT DISC RELEASES. YOU MAY DO SO BY CALLING (212) 244-3460 OR, IF YOU HAVE A COMPUTER, EMAILING US.

and now, for your reading pleasure...

TEN SONGS THAT PISS US OFF!

Before we get to the list, we should mention that these are by no means our ten least favorite songs, or what we think are the ten worst songs ever recorded. No, these are songs that, when we hear them, stick in our craws like a sesame seed gets stuck in a dental bridge. The songs that, half an hour after we hear them, still leave us muttering to themselves "How could somebody have not pointed out how annoying this song/line/word/verse/chorus is? Why must we be tormented like this?!" The fact that just about all these songs were big hits, and thus inescapable on the radio and/or MTV, also adds to the pissing-us-off factor.

10. MY LOVE - Paul McCartney & Wings. It's hard to believe that a mere four years before this was recorded, Paul was working on Abbey Road. But it's the lyrics -- the chorus, specifically -- that really puts it over the top for us. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa," Paul meaningfully intones, "whoa whoa whoa whoa. My love does it good." We don't think he ever would have had the guts to play it for Lennon had the Beatles still been a going concern in '73. The guitar solo isn't bad. We still hate the song. (Actually, "we" means Tony. Sal thinks it's very good, especially the guitar solo, which he thinks not only isn't "isn't bad," but is excellent.)

9. THE BEST- Tina Turner. Tina Turner had a much-deserved comeback in the 80's. We all read about her terrible life with Ike, and we embraced her every move after her not-bad remake of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" topped the charts. Unfortunately, the downhill slide began with the atrocious "We Don't Need Another Hero," from a Mad Max movie. (Why was that a hit?) But, the nadir of Miss Turner's existence is "The Best." (Actually, the nadir of her existence was probably getting beaten by Ike. But you know what we mean.) "You're simply the best/better than all the rest/better than anyone...." Uh..."better than you two over there/ and uh....better than that woman with with the baby stroller....and uh....better than all the rest...oh, said that already." We get it. It IS called "The Best," for Pete's sake. Oh, the irony.

8. I DON'T WANT TO WAIT - Paula Cole. This one pisses us off for one line, pretty much: "Say a little prayer for I." What the hell is that? Since Paula Cole's not a Rasta, we can only conclude that she was too lazy to come up with a line that rhymed with "Say a little prayer for ME." "Damn, what the hell rhymes with 'me'? Ahhh, screw it -- 'Say a little prayer for I.' " The fact that this song was not only a monster hit, staying on the charts for a full year, but also became the opening theme for Dawson's Creek, means that we still hear it every now and then ten years after the fact, which leads us to conclude that the gods hate us. N.B. Tony once saw Paula eating lunch in the West Village, and seriously contemplated dumping his chicken salad on her head.

7. ALMOST BLUE- Elvis Costello. A great song from a great songwriter and one of our all time faves. Period. So, why does it piss us off? One word: "this." Where is it? In the line, "Flirting with THIS disaster became me." The phrase is "flirting with disaster," not "this disaster." It is a speed bump in an otherwise beautiful attempt at a modern day standard. Costello is clever. "Do I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches," from "New Amsterdam. BRILLIANT! But it is not necessary to be cute everytime. We all know that Elvis Costello is no flash in "this" pan, so, maybe we'll let him slide. Still, very cringe-making.

6. WHO WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL - Jewel. Back in the mid '90s, it seemed like Jewel could do no right, cranking out one horrific, annoying single after another -- all of which stormed the VH-1 playlists and the Hot 100. But her first was the worst. "Who Will Save Your Soul" features Jewel folkily crooning, growling like a blueswoman (albeit a white blueswoman from Alaska), and cooing like a six-year-old, all within the twelve seconds or so of the insufferable chorus. Preachy lyric plus annoying singing plus dull melody equals pissed off Tony & Sal.

5. CROCODILE ROCK - Elton John. Elton's vast output has its merits, of course But damn, this song pisses us off. We assume it was intended as a '50s rock and roll pastiche, but it removes all the passion and excitement that characterized the music and leaves in all the lame crap, like the sub-Frankie Valli chorus. It's like an episode of Happy Days set to music, but not the good early episodes. This is like one of those later episodes from 1980, where everyone has the blow-dried disco haircuts even though it's supposed to be 1962, and whenever Chachi walks on the set all the girls scream and applaud for about four minutes. That's what this song is like.

4. EVERYBODY HURTS - R.E.M. R.E.M. is one of our very favorite bands. Tony is even a member of the fan club. But oh lordy, does this song piss us off. On what's otherwise one of the best albums of the '90s (Automatic For The People), Michael Stipe whines and screeches his way through a trite self-help lyric and a shopworn melody. Stipe is an excellent frontman, but he should never, never try to make like a soul singer. Would you want to hear Solomon Burke singing about legumes or Cyrus Vance? Didn't think so.

3. UNDER THE BRIDGE- Red Hot Chili Peppers. For four albums, the Chili Peppers rocked and funked and kicked our butts with their unique brand of James Brown-meets-Funkadelic-at-a-hardcore punk party in the Cali Valley. Did they sell any records? Not really. But they finally hit the big time with their Number 2 single, "Under The Bridge," a clumsily written confessional of lead singer Anthony Kiedis's drug days. How it managed to be so successful with such insipid lyrics and the now legendary off-key caterwauling of Kiedis — a trait that went unnoticed when the band did what they did best, which wasn't playing ballads — is beyond us.

2. DIRTY LAUNDRY--Don Henley. How do we hate this song? Let us count the ways. "KICK'EM WHEN THEY'RE UP! KICK'EM WHEN THEY'RE DOWN! KICK'EM WHEN THEY'RE UP! KICK'EM ALL AROUND!" Let's start with that. Then throw in the super-cheesy 80's production that's so dated it makes a Rudy Vallee 78 sound more current, and of course, Henley's delivery of the line, "Bubble-headed bleach-blonde," and what you have is a musical ipecac.

and the #1 song that pisses us off...

1. ZOMBIE - The Cranberries. Sinead O'Connor's first two records weren't so amazing that we needed a replacement when she decided to give up music and become a lesbian Rasta nun. But Dolores O'Riordan felt different, and her irritating brogue was heard on the radio and in department stores throughout the mid '90s. We still can't decide what's more annoying, the chorus ("In yer heee-eead! In yer heee-eee-eee-eead! Zah-ham-beh! Zah-ham-beh! Zah-ham-beh!") or the fact that it appealed to everyone from age 6 to 65. What's wrong with you people?!

HONORABLE MENTION FOR SONG WE LIKE THAT STILL PISSES US OFF FOR REASONS WHICH HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SONG ITSELF:

I GOT YOU (I FEEL GOOD) - James Brown. This one is obviously a great song, but it pisses us off because for a while in the '80s, it was used in the trailer for every lame comedy film that Hollywood spewed out. So, almost 20 years later, we can't hear it without also hearing a voiceover in our heads saying "He's a rich stockbroker with a thing for race cars. She's a sexy mechanic with a filthy mouth. Judge Reinhold and Shelley Long star in..."

NEXT WEEK:

New releases from BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, CHRIS CORNELL, BIG $ RICH, and that stinker from PAUL McCARTNEY!

And mark your calendars -- our next holiday list, which will come out the week of Flag Day, will be our ten favorite songs with the word "spatula" in the lyrics. Future holiday lists will include Tony's ten favorite songs to listen to while eating dumplings, our ten favorite records by major league umpires, and 25 reasons why we need another nail salon on the Upper West Side.

And finally...

If you're staying in the city this weekend, cherishing all that parking space and getting a seat at Isabella's, start the night right by catching Sal's fantastic new band, THE COOL JERKS, featuring Sal doing what he does best! And what's that, you may ask? You gotta show up to find out! But it definitely involves bacon. (Hey, when the rest of the Cool Jerks write a newsletter, they can call it their band.) TONIGHT AT AN BEAL BOCHT!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

All you Met fans, don't get cocky. It's early.

Your friends,
Art Shamsky & Ed Charles

2007-05-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #20!

ONLY 19 MORE DAYS UNTIL NEW McCARTNEY STINKER!

SQUEEZE, CROWDED HOUSE REUNITE FOR SUMMER TOUR; QUARTERFLASH & COCK ROBIN CONTINUE RUN AT THE NEVELE

MANY NEW RELEASES!

EXCLUSIVE! 1ST PICTURES OF JERRY FALWELL, ADOLF HITLER & TY COBB IN HELL!

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

THE BRAVERY - SUN AND THE MOON. Our press release said that the Bravery spent a whole eight months working on their second album. We remember a time when it took Don Henley eight months to properly mic the castanets on "Hotel California." These boys made a name for themselves with their not-bad debut, and this record will either get them back on top or get them on the bill with Quarterflash and Cock Robin at the Nevele.

JEFF BUCKLEY - SO REAL. A 14 track best-of featuring songs from all 1 1/2 of his albums, plus live tracks from his three live records and alternate takes from his two posthumously released outtakes records, AND a brand new outtake which is a cover of the Smiths' "I Know It's Over!" We look forward to Sony's Essential Jeff Buckley CD, due out sometime next year, which will feature these same tracks, less one outtake. Barrel scrapers rejoice!

TONY'S PICK OF THE WEEK (THAT HE HASN'T HEARD YET)!

ROBERT DRASNIN - VOODOO II. In the late '50s, Drasnin made one of the greatest exotica albums of all time, "Voodoo!" Martin Denny and Les Baxter never made a better album in the genre, and that's the truth. Now, almost 50 years later, Drasnin has finally made the sequel. And no, I haven't heard it yet, but apparently he did it right. No Pro Tools, no synthesized conch shells, just real people recording real instruments on analog tape. This should be a winner. (Sal: "And I'm not allowed to listen to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Fine...")

ERASURE - LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Moderate-to-wildly successful pop duo release their ninth (or possibly 16th) record of dated, soulless synth-pop. (Note to all of Tony's Asian friends: Sorry, Sal made me write that.)

SAL'S PICK OF THE WEEK (WHICH HE HAS HEARD)!

FICTION PLANE - LEFT SIDE OF THE BRAIN. Their debut release, "Everything Will Never Be OK," was one of my faves of the year in 2003. This exciting new band, let by Joe Sumner, the son of legendary English professor (and future hell-dweller) Gordon Sumner (that's Sting for you laymen), has all the excitement the Police left behind when Sting took up faux-jazz, an all-yogurt diet, and sex with plants. High-energy rock n' roll reminiscent of early Police, with smart lyrics and super-catchy melodies. They're opening for the Police on their $250-a-ticket tour, so get there early and get your money's worth!

MAROON 5 - IT WON'T BE SOON BEFORE LONG. More songs that will make you want to smack that guy in the face, along the lines of "She weeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll, be luuuuuuhhh-uhhhved."

THE NATIONAL - BOXER. The only thing more offensive than a Republican saying global warming doesn't exist because it's 50 degrees out today is referring to the National as "the greatest rock n' roll band since the E Street Band." This band has sold out the Bowery Ballroom for, like, 97 nights based on a handful of OK records. What's with the hype, people? Just stop it.

JOAN OSBORNE - BREAKFAST IN BED. One of the best voices in music today still has not reached her potential. Her all-covers record, "How Sweet It Is," could have been the one to show off Osborne's killer pipes. Unfortunately, the safe production turned a great idea into an OK album. She's trying her hand at it again with this new release of'70s soul covers, featuring a killer band that includes Ivan Neville and Tracy Wormworth (whose fine bass playing was a standout on the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" single). We love Joan enough to give her a fourth second chance.

OZZY OSBOURNE - BLACK RAIN. "Euuuuhhhh, zzhhhuuughh wittthhhha bloody hard rock fgmihhiilll... Zack Wylde guitars... firwenaggkkklll... Kelly, pudddown those bloody pills.... grhhheennndwuvvv...."

HEY, DO YOU LIKE JAZZ? SO DO WE! HERE ARE SOME NEW RELEASES!

MICHAEL BRECKER - PILGRIMAGE. The late great legend's final album features the all-star band of Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci, and Jack DeJohnette. We have not heard it yet, but honestly, how could you say anything bad about Michael Brecker?

BILL CHARLAP TRIO - LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD. Charlap, with his Washington rhythm section, doing what they do best at the legendary Village nightclub. We have not heard it yet, but honestly, how could you say anything bad about Michael Brecker?

CHICK COREA & BELA FLECK - ENCHANTMENT. Chick & Fleck (and the Knicks and the Hawks and the Bucks -- first person to email us with the reference gets a copy of the CD!) combine for their first ever collaboration. We have not heard it yet, but how can you say anything bad about Willis Reed?

VICTOR GOINES - LOVE DANCE. A dear friend of Wynton Marsalis, but we won't hold that against him, because he's one of the great sax players in the jazz game. This new release features the same quartet that was on his last brilliant record, "New Adventures" (Peter Martin, Reuben Rogers and Gregory Hutchinson).

ABBEY LINCOLN - ABBEY SINGS ABBEY. Jazz legend's new record has a unique sound that features guitar virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist (not to mention Bob Dylan's occasional right hand man) Larry Campbell running the show. Miss Lincoln may not be for everyone, but her voice is still sounding remarkably vibrant.

ORDER ONE! ORDER TWO! AWW, HECK, ORDER 'EM ALL! EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

ONE MORE THING ABOUT THIS NEW McCARTNEY CD...

OK, we know the guy wrote "Yesterday," "For No One," "Maybe I'm Amazed," and "Hey Jude." For those songs alone, Pauly should get a pass. But let's not forget, he also wrote "Biker Like An Icon," "Frozen Jap," and "Mumbo," as well as the lyric "And I acted like a dustbin lid." This new record makes the aforementioned crap sound like Gershwin. If there is one review in any of the popular rags that gives MEMORY ALMOST FULL anything but 1 1/2 stars, you'll be hearing from our lawyers. (Actually, we don't have any lawyers. You'll be hearing from our uncles.) McCartney must be stopped! Sir George Martin, please make that phone call. You're the only one who can intervene.

CHECK OUR NEW POST ON THE HUFFINGTON POST!

HEY! DO YOU LIKE STEELY DAN?

Sal has ONE AWESOME SEAT for Monday night's show (5/21), Row A, in the loge, on the aisle. He'd like face value but he'll accept reasonable offers. EMAIL OR CALL!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

We're sorry if we offended anyone with our Jerry Falwell joke. We meant no disrespect. He was a good man.*

Your friends,
The Brothers Glib

*No he wasn't.

2007-05-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #19!

"HI HONEY, I'M HOME!" SAL RETURNS FROM NEW ORLEANS; MENTIONS OF LOUNGE MUSIC AND DUMPLINGS CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT FROM NEWSLETTER

PAUL McCARTNEY RELEASES NEW BAD ALBUM; RINGO GAINING GROUND IN "BEST BEATLE WHO'S NOT DEAD" COMPETITION

NEW GOOD MUSIC COMING OUT NEXT WEEK! (NONE OF WHICH IS THE NEW McCARTNEY RECORD)

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

GENESIS - 1976-1982 (BOX SET). There is so much to love and hate about Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and the rest of this pretentious gang of Brits. Pros include Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Phil Collins' drumming, Peter Gabriel's reverse Mohawk, Tony Banks' impish grin, and "Paperlate." Cons: Phil Collins post-1982, Peter Gabriel's fascination with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mike Rutherford and his Mechanics, and Phil Collins post-1982 -- so horrendous we had to mention it twice.

As for this box set, it's a brilliant idea. Take the five best post-Gabriel records, give them new stereo mixes, 5.1 Surround Sound, and rare videos, slap 'em in a box with a bonus disc of rarities, and Bob's yer uncle. But the British version, which is identical musically, presses the discs on the best audio format around, SACD Hybrids, while here in the States, we can only listen to our 5.1 Surround mixes on DVD-Audios. That would be fine, if we could afford the British version, which is twice the price. But even if we could afford it, the DVDs wouldn't play unless you had an all-region player. Thanks, Rhino! For years we've been calling you the gold standard of reissue labels, but you blew it this time.

GUIDED BY VOICES - LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX. A 2004 set recorded for Austin City Limits on their farewell tour. GBV records are few and far between, so you should snap this up!

IAN HUNTER - SHRUNKEN HEADS. The older this Hoople gets, the better he sounds. The followup to "Rant," one of the strongest records in Hunter's career, is just as strong. With lots of help from Jeff "Will Someone Hold My Hair Back?" Tweedy, Shrunken Heads sounds like Bob Dylan fronting "Exile"-era Stones. You can't get much better than that.

LINKIN PARK - MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT. The press release we're reading claims that this is the most anticipated release of the year. It is? Wait, what year is this again?

MOBY GRAPE - LISTEN MY FRIENDS: THE BEST OF MOBY GRAPE. All of you who purchased the long out-of-print and bad sounding Vintage collection can now trade it in to us and get a newly packaged and newly remastered 20 track anthology from the legendary San Francisco band.

TONY'S PICK OF THE WEEK (AND SAL'S ONE LOUNGE MUSIC ALLOWANCE)!

PINK MARTINI - HEY EUGENE! I really wanted to dislike this record. Just because you can speak twelve languages doesn't mean you have to record a song in each of them. And thanks to China Forbes and her multilingual skills, she has made Pink Martini a bit more gimmicky than they deserve to be. But the band is too good to be dismissed as a bunch of globehopping lounge lizards. They can take any style of music and play the crap out of it. And watch out -- the title track, which has been a live favorite for years, is a hit single waiting to happen.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - A REGGAE TRIBUTE TO THE POLICE. This is probably as lame as you think it is. It's $11.98 in 49 states, but $250 in New York City.

JOE STRUMMER - FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN. The soundtrack to the film about the late rock legend features early unreleased Clash classics, as well as tracks by Bob Dylan, the Ramones, and Elvis Presley.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - RELEASE THE STARS. We can't think of an artist who has had such strong feelings from both sides of the fence about his career. You either absolutely love the guy, or hate the guy. We love the guy (and when we say "we," we mean Sal). The powerful new release is exactly what you want from Wainwright -- heartbreaking, baroque pop, monster production that harkens back to the great '70s records of Queen and Elton John, intelligent and often demanding lyrics, and melodies to die for. We know those of you who hate him (and when we say "we," we mean Sal) can't hear any of this. But that's OK, because we hate Ben Folds just as much. (And when we say "we," we mean Sal and Tony.)

WILCO - SKY BLUE SKY. It's just too easy to tear this band apart. Hitting their peak with their modern masterpiece Summerteeth in 1999, the band then became alt-country's version of Radiohead. They abandoned "the song" and embraced "the sound," which is textured twaddle. BUT... they're back! Much closer to Summerteeth and their sophomore release Being There, Sky Blue Sky regains some of the magic that was lost on their last two self-indulgent releases. Comes both as a CD or a deluxe edition which also features a DVD with a 48 minute film about the recording of the record.

YOU CAN ORDER ANY OF THESE, AS WELL AS THE DOLORES O'RIORDAN SOLO RECORD (SHE'S THE VOICE BEHIND ONE OF THE MOST ANNOYING SONGS OF ALL TIME, THE CRANBERRIES' "ZOMBIE". ZAH-HAM-BEH! ZAH-HAM-BEH! ZAH-HAM-BEH!) BY EMAILING US OR CALLING (212) 244-3460!

TRADE IN YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs FOR CASH OR SHINY STORE CREDIT! EMAIL OR CALL FOR MORE DETAILS!

AS WE WERE SAYING ABOUT MACCA...

The best way to describe MEMORY ALMOST FULL, the new release from the not-so-cute-anymore former Beatle, is what we like to call "The Keith Richards Phenomenon." Remember when you saw a picture of Keith Richards in 1977? You thought to yourself, "Man, this guy looks terrible!" Then, you saw a picture of Keith in 1987, and he looked so much worse that it made the 1977 picture look like a Cary Grant headshot in comparison. Now, you see a picture of him from 2007, and that 1987 picture, where he looked like death warmed over, suddenly makes him look like Frankie Avalon. So basically, Memory Almost Full is Keith Richards, while "Vanilla Sky" is Frankie Avalon.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

If anyone's wondering why nothing has been written about Sal's trip to New Orleans, his days at JazzFest, the food he ate, the people he met, and the all-around joy of being in the Crescent City, it's because he made a deal with Tony. Sal won't talk about his trip to New Orleans if Tony stops playing Nat King Cole's Cole Español in the office every day.

Your friends,
Beef and Duke Ellington

2007-05-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #18!

SAL STILL IN NEW ORLEANS; TONY STILL NOT IN NEW ORLEANS

NYCD CELEBRATES CINCO DE MAYO BY DRINKING TOO MUCH TEQUILA, SAYING RUDE THINGS ABOUT FERGIE

NEIL SEDAKA AND DONNY OSMOND PLACE ALBUMS IN BILLBOARD'S TOP 30: PAUL WILLIAMS AND ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK RUSH INTO STUDIO

LOTS OF EXCITING NEW RELEASES!

ALSO SOME NOT-SO-EXCITING NEW RELEASES, BUT WE'RE GONNA MENTION THEM ANYWAY!

R.I.P. TOMMY NEWSOM

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

but first... ONE THAT CAME OUT THIS WEEK THAT TONY FORGOT TO MENTION LAST TIME!

WARREN ZEVON - PRELUDES. 17 previously unreleased demos, including rough versions of some of his biggest hits ("Werewolves Of London," "Hasten Down The Wind," "Poor Poor Pitiful Me") plus some songs we've never heard before. Zevon was a great performer as well as a great writer, so hearing this music in raw form, without the studio gloss added, is a treat indeed. Also includes an interview from 2000 that's worth the time it takes to listen to it.

OK, seriously... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

PAULA ABDUL - GREATEST HITS: STRAIGHT UP. This 18 track compilation of the drunken American Idol judge's biggest pop hits includes four which weren't on her previous greatest hits album. If that's not exciting news, I don't know what is.

KEREN ANN - KEREN ANN. The French/Russian/Israeli/New Yorker's previous four folk/jazz/French/pop albums have garnered critical raves and a growing following. Album #5 is sure to increase that following, but the information we've been given about it has been so vague that I can't really tell you what this one is going to sound like. Note to record companies -- you could make this a lot easier for us by SENDING US MORE ADVANCE COPIES!

THE BAD PLUS - PROG. Their signature blend of piano-led trio jazz with ballsy rock n' roll is more hit-and-miss now than it was on their brilliant debut album, These Are The Vistas, or its followup, Suspicious Activity. But if you're not already a fan, this record is definitely worth hearing just for its excellent cover of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World." At times the mix of rock and jazz can get gimmicky, but this band is too talented to count out yet.

BJORK - VOLTA. Yes, she may be a weirdo, but... well, she's a weirdo. Our favorite Icelandic chanteuse follows up her mostly-acapella Medulla with this non-acapella collaboration featuring ubiquitous producer Timbaland, Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons, and an all-female Icelandic brass section. Insert your own joke here.

TONY'S IN-LAWS' PICK OF THE WEEK!

JIMMY BUFFETT - DOWN TO EARTH/HIGH CUMBERLAND GAP. Buffett's first two albums, from 1970 and '72, get slapped onto one CD, along with a pair of non-album tracks from the same period. I've been forced to listen to Mr. Buffett on several occasions by my Parrothead in-laws, and while I don't understand the appeal of the music, the tailgating parties before his concerts definitely sound intriguing.

OF MONTREAL - ICONS ABSTRACT THEE (EP). Previously available only at the indie hipsters' shows, this EP, which is a companion piece to the indie hipsters' latest release, Hissing Fauna, is now available to indie hipsters everywhere through non-hipster, rapidly-dying, traditional music retail.

RADIOHEAD - COM LAG: 2+2=5. To tide you over until their next proper album, here's a compilation of non-album tracks from the Hail To The Thief singles. Didn't that album come out, like, four years ago? Way to strike while the iron is hot, Capitol Records!

ELLIOTT SMITH - NEW MOON. Two dozen previously unreleased demos and outtakes from the late lamented singer-songwriter, many of them solo acoustic recordings cut during his most fertile creative period, 1994-97.

BARBRA STREISAND - LIVE IN CONCERT 2006. Barbra, along with Judy Garland, is an artist who's regarded as a genius by many, but whose voice hits me like fingernails scraping down a blackboard. I'm sure that somewhere in her vast oeuvre there's an album's worth of songs that I'd enjoy, but I'm also sure that this album won't be it. Especially considering the duet she does here with Il Divo. Simon Cowell should be taken out back and flogged for coming up with that idea. Not to mention all his other crimes against pop culture.

TRAVIS - THE BOY WITH NO NAME. Everyone's second or third favorite sensitive British band returns with their latest collection of delicate, moody pop anthems. But seriously, they're pretty good if you like that sort of thing.

TONY'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

THE VIEW - HATS OFF TO THE BUSKERS. These young Scottish louts have caused quite a stir in the UK with their blend of punk energy, killer hooks and unintelligible singing that can probably only be understood by other Scotsmen. But when you're busy jumping around the room to the infectious music, you won't really care about the lyrics. They're one iPod commercial away from becoming big stars.

ORDER THEM ALL! OK, YOU CAN LEAVE OUT THE STREISAND IF YOU MUST... BUT ORDER THE REST! AND ORDER ANYTHING NOT MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER AS WELL! EMAIL OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

WANNA GET NEW MUSIC FOR FREE? TRADE IN YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs FOR CREDIT TOWARDS NEW CDs & DVDs! OR GET CASH IF YOU'RE INTO THAT SORT OF THING! EMAIL OR CALL TO LET US KNOW WHAT YOU'VE GOT!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Here's a roll call of forgotten '90s alternative bands. A moment of silence, please, as we remember...

MADDER ROSE, JAWBOX, THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS, LETTERS TO CLEO, GREENBERRY WOODS, SKELETON KEY, FOR SQUIRRELS, SMOKING POPES, QUICKSAND, NEW FAST AUTOMATIC DAFFODILS, RAGING SLAB, COME, SWEET 75, MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE, LOTION, SATCHEL, ETHYL MEATPLOW, GUMBALL.

Bless you all, wherever you are now.

Your friend,
Barney Greengrass, "The Sturgeon King."

P.S. -- STAY TUNED NEXT WEEK FOR THE RETURN OF SAL!

2007-04-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #17!

SAL GOES TO NEW ORLEANS TO SEE JAZZFEST AND SINGLEHANDEDLY FINISH REBUILDING CITY: "WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE DOING"

TONY LEFT IN NYC TO EAT DUMPLINGS, WRITE NEWSLETTER

R.I.P. DAVID HALBERSTAM, BOBBY "BORIS" PICKETT, BORIS "BOBBY" YELTSIN

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

AND OH SO MUCH MORE, IF WE CAN THINK OF ANYTHING!

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

DAVE ALVIN - LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX (CD & DVD). The red-hot rockabilly cat as featured on Austin City Limits. Dunno when this one was recorded, but you can bet it's going to be a damn good show, because he's probably never done a bad one. Available on CD or DVD.

TORI AMOS - AMERICAN DOLL POSSE. I'm gonna take a wild guess and surmise that her ninth studio album sounds more or less like the other eight. Available as a plain old CD or as a special edition with a DVD including unseen footage plus a 36 page booklet and -- are you ready? -- FIVE POSTCARDS! "Dear Zelda, listening to Tori's latest album. Wish you were here. Fondly, Millard."

JOAN ARMATRADING - INTO THE BLUES. Her first album in five years finds her getting into blues grooves and riffs on original material. Good singer, good songwriter and a good guitarist, too.

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - BABY 81. Sal has liked these British rockers who sound vaguely like the Jesus & Mary Chain, but less mopey, since the beginning. Tony always says to Sal "This is good -- who is it again?" when he plays them. So you know they're pretty good.

CORBIN BLEU - ANOTHER SIDE (CD/DVD). If you're 14 or under, you probablty know Corbin Bleu from High School Musical, which was, we think, the biggest selling album of all time that we never heard a note of. If you're over 14, you may not care so much. But anyway, here's his album, with a bonus DVD including four music videos.

MICHAEL BUBLE - CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE. What's the difference between Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra? Well, there's the obvious: Buble is young and good looking, and Frank is, to put it charitably, no longer living. But that doesn't mean you need to listen to this guy attempt to tackle standards whose definitive versions have already been waxed by Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Mel Torme, etc. You've got a nice voice, so find something new and run with it, kid. This soil has already been tilled, you dig? Also available as a limited edition with a bigger booklet and a bonus track, if you feel you must.

ELVIS COSTELLO - REISSUES. For only the fourth time in 20 years, you can once again buy all the Elvis Costello albums from My Aim Is True through 1986's Blood & Chocolate in the newfangled "compact disc" format. What's the catch, you might ask? Well, this time they're in cool Japanese-style mini-LP sleeves, and they don't have all those pesky bonus tracks that we Costello fans and collectors hated so much. That's right, no more B-sides, outtakes and alternates! Phew! There are also two new compilations. The First Ten Years is a 22 track comp spanning 1977-86, and since he's only had three (or is it four?) other comps with these tracks on them, it's good to have. There's also Rock And Roll Music, featuring 22 of his best rockers, including some obscurities and two previously unreleased alternates. If you don't own any Costello, it's a pretty good place to start. But if you don't own any Costello, why are you reading this newsletter?

DINOSAUR JR - BEYOND. J Mascis and Lou Barlow (a founding member of the band who's better known for his stint leading Sebadoh) reunite for the first time since 1989 on a damn good record that sounds like vintage Dinosaur, but with better production. If you ever liked this band, it's absolutely worthwhile.

FEIST - REMINDER. You've read about her in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section, now get the record! Mellowish singer-songwriter stuff with an indie edge. I've heard her previous records, but I can't remember a thing about them. For all I know, however, they may have been great.

ROBBIE FULKS - REVENGE. Two CD, 23 track live record which is half rockin' with a full band and half solo acoustic. This guy is a great songwriter, so it should be a pleasure to hear him either way.

GOV'T MULE - LIVE AT ROSELAND BALLROOM. Out of print for a decade, this legendary 1995 show was recorded at the Beacon Theater, so you know it's good. A very fine venue, that Beacon Theater. And the CD is once again available. Can you tell that I have nothing to say about this band? I mean, you probably knew long before this newsletter whether you liked them or not. I hope so, anyway.

CHANTAL KREVIAZUK - GHOST STORIES. Nothing to say about this one, either. I just like typing "Chantal Kreviazuk." It's even more fun to say aloud.

RUSH - SNAKES & ARROWS. Rush is one of those bands where you say "Damn, I hate Rush -- except for 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Limelight' and 'New World Man' and 'Subdivisions' and... OK, I guess I don't hate Rush." Which doesn't mean you're necessarily going to care about what they have to say in 2007, but they deserve a little respect nonetheless.

HOLLY COLE - HOLLY COLE. We raved about this one a couple of weeks ago when it was supposed to be released, and now you can actually order it! Available only as an import right now, so it'll cost a little more, but it's worth it.

GET YOUR JAZZ REMASTERS RIGHT HERE!

Classic albums from the vaults of Prestige Records, newly remastered by the great Rudy Van Gelder, include TADD DAMERON's MATING CALL (featuring John Coltrane), BOOKER ERVIN's FREEDOM BOOK, ROLAND KIRK's KIRK'S WORK, and THELONIOUS MONK's THELONIOUS MONK TRIO. All include new liner notes, too!

And if you're looking for some new jazz, the FRED HERSCH TRIO's first studio album in over a decade, NIGHT AND THE MUSIC, is available, too.

THE "WOW, RECORD COMPANIES STILL DO THAT KIND OF THING?" PICK OF THE WEEK!

SOUNDTRACK - SPIDER-MAN 3. Remember back in the '90s, when every summer there would be a ton of soundtracks from big-budget action films featuring new songs by a bunch of high-profile bands, sporting a ridiculously high list price? Well, go back to the future with this $18.98 turkey featuring new songs from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flaming Lips, the Killers, Jet, Snow Patrol and more! Apparently nobody told the good folks at Reprise Records that people stopped spending $19 for CDs around 2001. And that they download the two songs they want from soundtracks like this, rather than buying the whole thing. But God bless 'em for trying, even if this is the kind of thing that made us close our brick-and-mortar store (I think we still have a few copies of the Mystery Men soundtrack, if anyone wants them). Pre-order it and we'll be able to hook you up with it for even less than $18.98!

ORDER THEM ALL! GET INTO THE CD BUYING SPIRIT! EMAIL OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

and don't forget... WE WANT TO BUY YOUR CDs AND DVDs! REALLY, WE DO! CALL OR EMAIL!

IN CLOSING, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Yes, the Yankees suck, but at least you can't blame A-Rod.

Your friend,
Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky

2007-04-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #16!

MUSIC BUSINESS THRIVING!

GEORGE W. BUSH GREATEST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES!

PAULY SHORE GETS ANOTHER TV SERIES!

SAL AND TONY DELUSIONAL!

R.I.P. KITTY CARLISLE HART, DON HO

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES, AS WELL AS BUMPS AND DELAYS

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

BULLETIN

Many of you ordered both the new Holly Cole and the US edition of David Bowie's Young Americans CD/DVD. They have been bumped to 5/1 and 6/5, respectively. Thank you for your patience! Please reorder when you see them in the appropriate newsletters a few weeks from now.

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

ARCTIC MONKEYS - FAVORITE WORST NIGHTMARE. It took a couple of listens for us to get into their debut because the hype surrounding it made us expect the next Sgt. Pepper, when it was really the next Goodnight Vienna. That said, we are looking forward to their followup, and their inevitable stadium tour.

THE BAND - THE BEST OF: A MUSICAL HISTORY (CD/DVD). As we say here in the NYCD office, "too much Band is not enough." If you missed out on the multi-disc box set, A Musical History, or if you just felt that it may have been too much for you (even though, as we just said, too much Band is not enough), here is a single CD from the box set, containing all the hits, some strong album tracks, and a couple of tracks that were unavailable apart from the box set. A version is also available which includes a DVD that features a half dozen of the videos that appeared on the box's bonus DVD.

FRANK BLACK - CHRISTMASS. Big Cholly Thompson, as we like to call him here when we're not saying how too much Band is not enough, got busy on his 2006 tour by not only playing live to partially packed houses but laying down some tracks in his hotel, too. This release comprises some live acoustic recordings and those hotel room tracks.

SAMMY DAVIS, JR. - SINGS JUST FOR LOVERS & STARRING SAMMY DAVIS, JR. His first two albums, from 1955, and they're proof that long before he was wearing Nehru jackets and calling everyone "Babe," he was an amazing singer of standards. First time on CD!

DETROIT COBRAS - TIED AND TRUE. There aren't many things that we all agree on here at the NYCD offices. One is that too much Band is not enough. The other is that the Detroit Cobras are about as hip and rockin' as Rose Kennedy on poppers. This new record does not break any new ground... THANK GOD! They do what they do best, which is take old R&B tunes, some of which you know and some of which you don't, and just have a party with them.

You know, another band who does this is THE COOL JERKS, and they just happen to be playing tonight! DON HILL'S, 511 GREENWICH ST. (off the corner of Spring), at 8 PM! Sal will be there, as well as all the other Jerks (we mean the band members). Tony & Rob will be there too, doing the Frug, the Monkey, and possibly even the Shing-A-Ling.

TIM FINN - IMAGINARY KINGDOM. The quirky Finn brother releases his strongest record to date. This is the perfect combination of the infectious pop that brother Neil created with Crowded House, mixed with the slightly more daring arrangements that Tim was noted for with Split Enz. This is a winner.

GOLDEN SMOG - BLOOD ON THE SLACKS. Sort-of-supergroup releases a followup EP to their super-commercial "Another Fine Day." Features six originals, an annoying cover of David Bowie's "Starman," and a Dinosaur Jr classic.

COLIN HAY - ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME? The Man is still Working. What could it be now? Straight from the land Down Under, Mr. Hay actually releases a fine new record of guitar-driven pop and some pretty ballads. So Be Good, Johnny -- put down that vegemite sandwich and order this! (Sorry, were the Men At Work jokes Overkill?)

MARIA McKEE - LATE DECEMBER. All of McKee's solo records have been worth a listen. We're hoping that this comes close to the brilliant "Life Is Sweet." We haven't heard it yet, so we can't say how much we hate it.

JOHN PRINE & MAC WISEMAN - STANDARD SONGS FOR AVERAGE PEOPLE. Just a fantastic record. Two weathered but warm voices running through a repertoire of such classics as "I Love You Because," "Pistol Packin' Mama," and "Old Cape Cod."

PICK OF THE WEEK!

LOU REED - HUDSON RIVER WIND MEDITATIONS. The 91-year-old Reed, who from what we hear has one of the nicest lawns in New York state, is also a longtime practitioner of yoga and tai chi. Here he takes a break from such commercial releases as "The Raven" to release a record of soothing harmonics so that the listener can settle his or her mind and open his or her heart. You too, after listening to this wonderful release, will also be able to look like a 91-year-old woman named Yetta. Thanks, Lou! Aaaaahhhhhh....

REAL PICK OF THE WEEK!

MARK RONSON - VERSION (UK IMPORT). Hot British producer who's turned both Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse into household names, depending on where your house is, releases his second solo album, and man, is it good. With the help of the aforementioned ladies as well as Robbie Williams and Daniel Merriweather, Ronson takes the current hit parade (tracks by Coldplay, Ryan Adams, the Kaiser Chiefs and Radiohead, to name a few) and turns them into a retro dance party. If that's hard to understand, you have to trust us that it's shaping up to be one of our Top Ten of the year. As of now, there is no US release, so if you do order the import, give us a week or two to get a hold of it.

SIMPLY RED - STAY. The Tina Yothers of British pop singers keeps churnin' 'em out, and that's OK, because Mick Hucknall's got a great voice, and he covers the Faces' "Debris" on this new 11 track release.

PATTI SMITH - TWELVE. Have you ever wondered what Patti Smith singing Tears For Fears would sound like? Well, wonder no more, because it's here, along with covers of The Beatles, Neil Young, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and more. Not bad, Patti. All that's missing is "Old Cape Cod."

ANOTHER PICK OF THE WEEK!

MAVIS STAPLES - WE'LL NEVER TURN BACK. Produced by the legendary Ry Cooder, Miss Staples returns to what she does best -- the emotional soul and gospel that made the Staple Singers so damn good. Staples' voice is is better than ever and Cooder's production is clearly a labor of love, right down to the Pops-like tremolo on his guitar. This is one emotional powerhouse of a record.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - A TRIBUTE TO JONI MITCHELL. Great songwriter plus great musicians equals great tribute record. Artists involved include Prince, James Taylor, k.d. lang, Brad Mehldau, Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, Elvis Costello, Caetano Veloso, and Henry Kissinger doing "The Last Time I Saw Richard."

W.A.S.P. - DOMINATOR. Heavy metal legends return with an album we have absolutely no feeling about whatsoever -- we just wanted to ask this question: Who was lead singer Blackie Lawless' uncle? The answer -- Yankees pitcher Ryne Duren! Thank you very much.

LEONARD COHEN - REISSUES. Canadian poet and life of the party Leonard Cohen gets three of his legendary releases remastered with previously unreleased bonus tracks -- SONGS FROM A ROOM, SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN, and SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE.

JOSHUA REDMAN TRIO - BACK EAST. Featuring both original Redman compositions and some cover versions, Redman uses a handful of different rhythm sections to create what people are calling the strongest record of his career. We don't know who these people are, but we believe them, because this record is on Nonesuch. And as we always say here in the NYCD office, "Too much Band is never enough, and anything on Nonesuch sounds great once you sandblast it out of those stupid slipcases."

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - REMASTERS. The bane of our existence has now been broken up into seven individual CDs for your listening pleasure. A WHOLE NEW THING, DANCE TO THE MUSIC, LIFE, STAND!, THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON, FRESH, and SMALL TALK. The obvious choices would be Stand, Riot and Fresh, and the one to avoid would be Small Talk. But truth be told, after giving all seven fresh listens, there's not a hack in the bunch. Even the least favorable Small Talk is much better than we ever remembered, and this particular reissue campaign has one more very amazing thing going for it -- the bonus tracks are not throwaways! So what are you waiting for? You need these!

ORDER THEM NOW! LINE FORMS TO THE RIGHT! CALL (212) 244-3460 OR EMAIL!

WE HATE AMERICAN IDOL AND ALL THAT IT STANDS FOR!

SELL US YOUR OLD CDs! SERIOUSLY! CALL OR EMAIL!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

In the words of the great Penny Marshall, "Every day will hopefully be your last."

Your friends,
Kurt Ellling & Max Schmeling

2007-04-17T07:13:00.001-07:00

UPON MY DEAD BEAR COUCH
A Poem by Sal
(Hey, we figure with business the way it is, we should start looking for side jobs. If you know any literary journals that pay by the word, please let Sal know. He can make this longer.)

T'was I who sat with folded leg
Upon my dead bear couch
A'listening to Hugo Largo
Not "Funny Face" by Donna Fargo
My left ear quivered for strange some thing
On times of other it might well ring
I'dst not know why this comes to me
Upon my dead bear couch
If nothing else to say the least
I've soaked myself in Dos Equis

2007-04-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

SUCK 'EM UP: AN APPRECIATION OF DON HO

Don Ho, who died on Saturday, is responsible for the first fight of my marriage. We were honeymooning in Hawaii near the Waikiki Beachcomber, where Don had performed for decades, and on the third night of our new life together, I took my bride to see his show. Ho was days away from being hospitalized with heart trouble, and he looked and sounded every bit of his 75 years. He mumbled and slurred his way through the songs; his between-song patter was barely coherent. Even the mai tais were watered down. The show went on forever, as other musicians and local kids took overly long guest spots. It started to feel like an amateur talent show.

But I wouldn't let my wife leave, because after the show -- for a fee, of course -- we could exchange pleasantries and get our picture taken with Don Friggin' Ho.

The only thing I remember about our brief and expensive meeting is that he said to my wife, "You look like my daughter." Having seen photos, we both disagree. I still treasure the photo, though. Christine eventually forgave me for holding her hostage, even though she didn't believe me when I tried to explain myself: "You don't understand! He wasn't just a great entertainer. He was a pioneer, a groundbreaker!"

"'Tiny Bubbles' is NOT groundbreaking," she snapped back.

I wasn't lying. Though he sounded more like Dean Martin than anyone else, his music was undeniably Hawaiian. Born and bred on the islands, he championed the work of fellow Hawaiians like Kui Lee, whose "I'll Remember You" became one of Ho's biggest hits. Most of his music had at least a sprinkling of his native tongue. And the subject matter of his music — paeans to Waikiki or Kauai, "beach boy" surfer anthems of love, or exclamations of local slang like "Geev'um" — was more often than not Hawaiian, even if a lot of it sounded like commercials for the tourism board.

But Don Ho was more than just the musical ambassador of Hawaii. At a time when the most recognizable Asian-American pop musician is American Idol laughingstock William Hung, don't forget that Don Ho crossed over to mainstream success without having to deny his cultural background or make a joke of himself. It was his smooth baritone that gave him half a dozen hit albums, not a funny accent. And it was his good looks, not a geeky caricature, that kept him on TV and in movies throughout the '60s and '70s (Remember his mid '70s variety show, anyone?). And if much of his legend rests on one song — the immortal "Tiny Bubbles" — well, that's one more hit than almost any other Asian-American act has had in the four decades since it first hit the charts.

I'm not going to try to convince you that "Tiny Bubbles" or "Suck 'Em Up" or "One Paddle Two Paddle" are the Hawaiian Sgt. Pepper , because they're not. But they did help Don Ho not only become synonymous with his native land, they helped him become a star whose name is still known close to four decades after he last hit the pop charts. Nowadays, when it seems that musical stardom for Asian-Americans is more elusive than ever, his feat seems all the more remarkable.

And if that doesn't want to make you lift a mai tai in the great man's honor, I don't know what will.

2007-04-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #15!

KURT VONNEGUT, DON IMUS, SAL & TONY'S 15 MINUTES R.I.P.

SOME NEW RELEASES!

BE NICE TO US, OR YOU MAY WIND UP AN OP-ED!

SAL AND TONY ON iTUNES? YES! LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST!

SAVE THE DATE! 4/20! COME SEE SAL WITH THE COOL JERKS!

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

DAVID BOWIE - YOUNG AMERICANS (CD/DVD COMBO). We wrote about this a couple of weeks back when it was an import, but it is such an amazing release that we want to mention it again now that it's out here in the States. Even though it contained Bowie's first #1 hit, 1975's Young Americans was never considered anything more than a failed experiment. But as the years passed, so did many more phases of Bowie's career. By the time of his "bad pop musician" phase of 1987, his "white soul man" phase was starting to look pretty damn good. So now we have the album remastered, but the key is the bonus DVD with the 5.1 Surround mix. Now, many of you may not have a Surround Sound system, so you may stop reading -- if you haven't already deleted this newsletter. If you do have 5.1, this is what it was made for. The mix is perfect, the sound is phenomenal, and we guarantee, no matter how many times you've heard this record, it'll be like you're hearing it for the first time. PLUS it has the entire 30 minute Dick Cavett appearance from '75, which is a real hoot.

COWBOY JUNKIES - AT THE END OF PATHS TAKEN. The new album from the band that just keeps making new records. We have many friends who are fans of the Junkies, and we're very happy for them. We, on the other hand, find them snooze-a-riffic, and have had more fun with an old David Frye album, a bottle of Phisohex, and our neighbor's dog, Foamy.

AVRIL LAVIGNE - THE BEST DAMN THING. "Avril Lavigne" ain't kiddin' nobody. She's April Levine from Canarsie. Everybody knows this. What kind of name is "Avril"? Isn't that something you take for a headache? "Damn, I feel a migraine coming on, gimme two Avrils."

NINE INCH NAILS - YEAR ZERO. Hot on the heels of the best record of his career, Trent Reznor jumped right back into the studio and recorded this gem, which only took him two years instead of the usual five. Admittedly, not much different in sound than anything he's done before, but as we said about "With Teeth," he's managed to take an aggressive sound and make it mature enough for adults.

THE NOISETTES - WHAT'S THE TIME, MR. WOLF. Creating a buzz with their EP from a few years back, this record has the potential to be #1 in the hipper-than-thou department for at least a week. Pretty soon, they'll be selling out Brazilian soccer stadiums just like Arcade Fire, while Marshall Crenshaw continues to deliver milk in Ho-Ho-Kus for rent money. We love you, Marshall.

MICHAEL PENN - PALMS & RUNES & TAROT & TEA. "Smilin' Mike," the clown prince of rock music, gets compiled, featuring all his hit, with some album cuts and demos.

JOSEPH ARTHUR & THE LONELY ASTRONAUTS - LET'S JUST BE. Another introspective singer-songwriter blah blah blah blah. Enjoy.

RYAN SHAW - THIS IS RYAN SHAW. We haven't had the pleasure of hearing this yet. We've been told by people we respect that Ryan Shaw is the real thing. Working with producers Jimmy Bralower and Johnny Gale, Shaw covers some deep soul favorites by such greats as Wilson Pickett and Bobby Womack, as well as songs by obscure artists, the names of whom we don't know yet.

ORDER THEM ALL OR YOUR MATTRESS IS FREE! CALL (212) 244-3460 OR EMAIL!

WE'RE ON iTUNES! AND IT'S FREE!

We don't care that iTunes is designed to put us out of business, or that our speaking voices sound like George Jessel after a gallon of orange juice. You get to hear us comment on 12 upcoming artists, one of whom was very good! Go to the "podcasts" section of iTunes, click on "Music," and our show, Next Big Hit, should be easy to find. If that's too complicated, you can go straight to their website. Our show is Week 10. Enjoy, paisan!

DO YOU LIKE GOOD MUSIC (YEAH YEAH), THAT SWEET SOUL MUSIC (YEAH YEAH)?

Don't forget, NEXT FRIDAY, APRIL 20, THE COOL JERKS, featuring none other than NYCD's SAL NUNZIATO banging on whatever happens to be lying around onstage, including the drum set, will be playing DON HILL'S. Two sets, starting at 8:00. Have fun!

SELL US YOUR CDs & DVDs! We give you money, you give us discs. Great deal, right? Call or email!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

How do you get 65 old women to shout out "Son of a bitch"? Get one old woman to shout out "Bingo."

Your friends,
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Acker Bilk

2007-04-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

OUR FAVORITE RESPONSE TO THE OP-ED PIECE SO FAR:

Nostalgia for the days when music stores for pop music aficionados doubled
as salons for the cognoscenti won't bring back those days. The CD album
and the CD single are dead and gone, done away by technology that delivers
the whole repository of recorded music direct to listeners' ears. All this
calls for a new business model, still evolving, based not on longing for
days gone by but on the realities of the here-and-now era of digital
technology.

(Written by Tony's dad. Um, thanks?)

2007-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

LETTERS. WE GET LETTERS.

Got to admit, the last day has been a blast. So much feedback over the Op Ed, almost all of which was positive. Some correspondence was very entertaining. Here's one below from an old customer:

NYCD:

It was great (in a melancholy sort of way) to read the Op Ed in the New York Times yesterday.

I was a regular. I loved to browse and listen to what you guys were playing. Every Tuesday (and most weekends) I would swing by to see what NYCD had found that had flown under my radar (and my radar is pretty good). Even on the rare occasion I went away empty handed, it was always worth the trip for those elaborate handwritten labels on the week’s more dubious releases. I still laugh about the time Sal “loaned” me the advanced release of Paul Westerberg’s Suicaine Gratifaction on the condition that I not bring it back.

I left New York in 2002 to return to Austin with its cloyingly smug music scene. Every time I would visit New York, I would drop in on the new location and find some peculiar Jon Auer disc or something that I would never be able to find in Texas.

But when I visited last month, I was saddened to see NYCD replaced by a laundromat. In reality, however, I didn’t really expect the store to still be in business. It is weird though. In the space of three Fountains of Wayne records, NYCD has gone from an unpleasantly busy storefront on Amsterdam to a strictly online affair.

I am a music obsessive. Particularly pop. I am not a collector of obscure mono mixes (my two versions of Picture Book is arguably one too many). I just like the excitement of discovering a new band. A whole new catalogue to explore. And that happened at independent record stores. It happened at the Princeton Record Exchange when I was in high school. It happened at the then modestly scaled Waterloo Records in Austin during the late 80’s. And it happened at NYCD. But, given that there are no more real DJ’s and no more real record stores, it is not going to happen anymore. How does one trip over new music online? Should the fans just all face the ugly truth and start buying Norah Jones records at Starbucks? It was a bizarre turn of events to find me saddened to see even Tower shut its doors. As a result, with a few exceptions, I listen to the same bands I listened to a decade ago.

Now that the music industry has declared war on music, I fear the CD is in danger. There is something satisfying about an album as a thing; with art and lyrics and liner notes. I hope the new online existence goes well. But NYCD (as a thing) is missed.

Burton

2007-04-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

ROCK ON, YOU ROCKING ROCKERS!!

We found this review on Amazon. Why on earth were we looking for an Osmonds review? Can't tell ya! (Aaaawww!) Read it. Such enthusiasm.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

THE OSMONDS PROVE THAT THEY CAN ROCK WITH CRAZY HORSES., January 31, 2007

Reviewer:

John Lopez "Johnny Boy (JL)" (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

Readers and reviewers, I will be writing a review on the legendary album "CRAZY HORSES" by one of Rock's most underrated bands, THE OSMONDS. This album was originally released in 1972 on vinyl and 8-Track on the Curb Records label in association with MGM Records. I purchased one of the most recent releases of this album on Compact Disc in a British import on the COE Records label. What I find so hard to believe is that someone is selling the same exact CD album I purchased on E-bay on amazon for almost $500.00. I purchased the same exact CD album for $12.99 on E-bay. As always, if I hear any new additional information concerning this legendary album, I will edit this review immediately so that you the consumer will get the best informative and most accurate review possible.

THE OSMONDS are truly a remarkable band that got lost in Rock history somewhere. In my opinion, THE OSMONDS were never taken seriously as a hard Rock Band because of their Mormon faith. I've always said that it was ridiculous to judge a band by their religion. In reality, THE OSMONDS were five really talented brothers that truly knew how to Rock. If there was ever an album that proved that THE OSMONDS could rock it has to be the "CRAZY HORSES" album.

I will only list and review the song tracks that really rock on this album in their original exact running order as follows: (1.) "Hold Her Tight," (This is truly an incredible ROCKIN' song. This song reminds me of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." Merrill Osmond sings this song with such power that he gives this song an additional lift as to what THE OSMONDS are really capable of performing as a rock band. You have to hear this song to believe it.) (5.) "We All Fall Down," (This is another ROCKIN' song. Whoever thought that THE OSMONDS could not rock, listen to this song. This song will definitely change your mind. Alot of these songs will change your mind. The guitar arrangements of brother's Alan and Wayne take their blend of Rock n' Roll to another level that no one thought they could do.) (7.) "Life Is Hard Enough Without Goodbyes," (This is a good slow Rocker. Alan and Wayne play guitars in this song like there's no tomorrow. Merrill sings this song like the way Robert Plant sings "Since I've Been Loving You.") (8.) "Crazy Horses" (This is one ROCKIN' song. Who would have ever thought that THE OSMONDS could rock like this. If you have never heard this song, I advise you to listen to it. This song is pure hard Rock. Alan and Wayne really let loose in playing their guitars in this one. Drummer Jay Osmond sings the lead vocal in this song with such power that he would have driven any horse crazy. In my opinion, Axl Rose, formally of Guns n' Roses, copied alot of Jay's dance moves.) and (9.) "Hey, Mr. Taxi." (This is another well recorded hard rocker. Alan and Wayne just keep getting better as guitarists and this song proves it. This is an incredible song. Merrill sings this song the way a real frontman is supposed to sing.) Overall, this is a remarkable hard rockin' album. You have to hear it to believe it.

I highly recommend this album for everyone to own as part of their collection. It is just too bad that this album is out of print here in the U.S. and is only available in England. Maybe that is the reason why THE OSMONDS have been slightly forgotten. When you listen to this album, you will be surprised and amazed.

In closing, THE OSMONDS never truly received the recognition they truly de

2007-04-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

WE'RE IN THE F***IN' NEW YORK TIMES!

(The following is from Thursday's Op-Ed section of the Old Grey Lady, as the journalism hepcats call it. And we wrote it.)

SPINNING INTO OBLIVION

DESPITE the major record labels’ best efforts to kill it, the single, according to recent reports, is back. Sort of.

You’ll still have a hard time finding vinyl 45s or their modern counterpart, CD singles, in record stores. For that matter, you’ll have a tough time finding record stores. Today’s single is an individual track downloaded online from legal sites like iTunes or eMusic, or the multiple illegal sites that cater to less scrupulous music lovers. The album, or collection of songs — the de facto way to buy pop music for the last 40 years — is suddenly looking old-fashioned. And the record store itself is going the way of the shoehorn.

This is a far cry from the musical landscape that existed when we opened an independent CD shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1993. At the time, we figured that as far as business ventures went, ours was relatively safe. People would always go to stores to buy music. Right? Of course, back then there were also only two ringtones to choose from — “riiiiinnng” and “ring-ring.”

Our intention was to offer a haven for all kinds of music lovers and obsessives, a shop that catered not only to the casual record buyer (“Do you have the new Sarah McLachlan and ... uh ... is there a Beatles greatest hits CD?”) but to the fan and oft-maligned serious collector (“Can you get the Japanese pressing of ‘Kinda Kinks’? I believe they used the rare mono mixes”). Fourteen years later, it’s clear just how wrong our assumptions were. Our little shop closed its doors at the end of 2005.

The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite of everything they wanted in trying to keep the music business prospering. The association is like a gardener who tried to rid his lawn of weeds and wound up killing the trees instead.

In the late ’90s, our business, and the music retail business in general, was booming. Enter Napster, the granddaddy of illegal download sites. How did the major record labels react? By continuing their campaign to eliminate the comparatively unprofitable CD single, raising list prices on album-length CDs to $18 or $19 and promoting artists like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears — whose strength was single songs, not albums. The result was a lot of unhappy customers, who blamed retailers like us for the dearth of singles and the high prices.

The recording industry association saw the threat that illegal downloads would pose to CD sales. But rather than working with Napster, it tried to sue the company out of existence — which was like thinking you’ve killed all the roaches in your apartment because you squashed the one you saw in the kitchen. More illegal download sites cropped up faster than the association’s lawyers could say “cease and desist.”

By 2002, it was clear that downloading was affecting music retail stores like ours. Our regulars weren’t coming in as often, and when they did, they weren’t buying as much. Our impulse-buy weekend customers were staying away altogether. And it wasn’t just the independent stores; even big chains like Tower and Musicland were struggling.

Something had to be done to save the record store, a place where hard-core music fans worked, shopped and kibitzed — and, not incidentally, kept the music business’s engine chugging in good times and in lean. Who but these loyalists was going to buy the umpteenth Elton John hits compilation that the major labels were foisting upon them?

But instead, those labels delivered the death blow to the record store as we know it by getting in bed with soulless chain stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. These “big boxes” were given exclusive tracks to put on new CDs and, to add insult to injury, they could sell them for less than our wholesale cost. They didn’t care if they didn’t make any money on CD sales. Because, ideally, the person who came in to get the new Eagles release with exclusive bonus material would also decide to pick up a high-speed blender that frappéed.

The jig was up. It didn’t matter that even a store as small as ours carried hundreds of titles you’d never see at Best Buy and was staffed by people who actually knew who Van Morrison was, or that Tower Records had the entire history of recorded music under one roof while Costco didn’t carry much more than the current hits. A year after our shop closed, Tower went out of business — something that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier. The customers who had grudgingly come to trust our opinions made the move to online shopping or lost interest in buying music altogether. Some of the most loyal fans had been soured into denying themselves the music they loved.

Meanwhile, the recording industry association continues to give the impression that it’s doing something by occasionally threatening to sue college students who share their record collections online. But apart from scaring the dickens out of a few dozen kids, that’s just an amusing sideshow. They’re not fighting a war any more than the folks who put on Civil War regalia and re-enact the Battle of Gettysburg are.

The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today it’s not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.

At this point, it may be too late to win back disgruntled music lovers no matter what they do. As one music industry lawyer, Ken Hertz, said recently, “The consumer’s conscience, which is all we had left, that’s gone, too.”

It’s tempting for us to gloat. By worrying more about quarterly profits than the bigger picture, by protecting their short-term interests without thinking about how to survive and prosper in the long run, record-industry bigwigs have got what was coming to them. It’s a disaster they brought upon themselves.

We would be gloating, but for the fact that the occupation we planned on spending our working lives at is rapidly becoming obsolete. And that loss hits us hard — not just as music retailers, but as music fans.

(Hey, if you want to support us, go to the Times' website, email the article to all your friends using the Times' link, and tell them to put it in their blogs. Thanks!)

2007-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #14!

BIG HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: SAL & TONY GET OP-ED IN THURSDAY'S NEW YORK TIMES! READ IT HERE!

SOME EXCITING NEW RELEASES, SOME REALLY LAME NEW RELEASES

YANKS 1-0, METS 3-0, AND IT'S STILL SNOWING OUT

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

A major release we forgot to mention is JENNIFER LOPEZ's first all-Spanish language album... we don't remember the name of it. It's in Spanish. But in related news, there was a mass suicide at the Mall Of America, when 73 moviegoers drank liquid bleach during the closing credits of Monster-In-Law.

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

BRIGHT EYES - CASSADAGA. What can we say about Conor Oberst that is printable? Is it necessary to overhype every new artist that comes out? He's fine -- a harmless singer-songwriter with some good material and some real crap, too. We just can't buy into the hype, nor will we be seeing him at any one of his 219 nights at Town Hall.

GENESIS - REISSUES. Part of an ongoing reissue campaign to coincide with their semi-awaited reunion tour, five post-Gabriel LPs -- A TRICK OF THE TAIL, WIND & WUTHERING, ... AND THEN THERE WERE THREE, DUKE, and ABACAB -- get the SACD and DVD treatment. Each reissue features 5.1 Surround Sound, videos, and unreleased material. And, for those keeping track, these were the five records that the post-Gabriel lineup released that were worth your time.

LESLEY GORE - EVER SINCE. The first album in a mighty long time from a woman who once had a greatest hits album annotated by Tony, who cowrote the article in the Times today with Sal. And Sal, like Tony, loves the early Lesley Gore stuff. And both Tony's dad and Sal's mother love them.

GRINDERMAN - GRINDERMAN. Nick Cave's new lineup featuring a few Bad Seeds is an in-your-face, gritty rock n' roll extravaganza. It's so dark that when it went to night school, it was marked absent. But seriously, lemon ices.

BRANFORD MARSALIS DOES SOME GOOD!

While brother Wynton is taking an interest in the big Upper West Side bucks at Lincoln Center, Branford is taking an interest in musicians from his hometown of New Orleans. Marsalis' Imprint label, distributed by Rounder, gives us two new releases from two New Orleans legends. The first is from modern jazz clarinetist ALVIN BATISTE, who still teaches to this day, but unfortunately records very little. Here is an opportunity to hear this amazing player, who once shared many stages with Ornette Coleman and Ellis Marsalis.

The other new release is from BOB FRENCH, the legendary New Orleans drummer and radio personality who held court every Monday night at the famed Donna's Headquarters in New Orleans. He gets his unique band of traditional New Orleans jazz documented, with special guests Harry Connick Jr. and Branford sitting in for most of the album.

BIG RELEASE OF THE WEEK (IF IT EVER ACTUALLY COMES OUT)!

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - COLLECTION (7 CD BOX SET). This has been promised for months, and even at this late date we don't know if it's going to show, but assuming it does, you're gonna want it. Their entire studio output from 1967-74, featuring such classics as STAND, THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON, and FRESH, not to mention the seminal and underrated debut, A WHOLE NEW THING, and everything else in between. Each set is individually numbered and newly remastered (four of the seven are remastered for the very first time), and all the discs feature anywhere from three to eight bonus tracks. This is STRICTLY LIMITED! The individual CDs get released on 4/24, or so they say. Either way, hop on it quick!!

That's all we've got for this week, unless you're interested in the new MOE BANDY greatest hits CD.

BUY THEM ALL, ESPECIALLY MOE BANDY! EMAIL OR CALL (212) BIG-DINO (244-3460).

SELL US YOUR CDs & DVDs! HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU -- MONEY MEANS NOTHING TO US! IT'S A MERE FASCINATION! WE'VE BEEN TEARING MONEY SINCE OUR FIRST HOLY COMMUNION -- OR, IN TONY'S CASE, SINCE THE YANKEES ACQUIRED STEVE BALBONI! COME GET THE MONEY IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR DISCS!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05sachsnunziato.html

(Yes, that's right, we're proud of it. Keep reading it and pass it on.)

Your friends,
Punch & Judy Sulzberger

2007-03-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 UNLUCKY #13!

QUICK NEWSLETTER TODAY - TONY ON HIS WAY TO LEONARD'S OF GREAT NECK!

BUT ALL THE NEW RELEASE NEWS AND THE OTHER STUFF THAT, FOR SOME REASON, YOU FIND ENTERTAINING!

PICK OF THE WEEK!

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE - TRAFFIC & WEATHER. Both their debut and followup, Utopia Parkway, appealed to just about everyone who heard them. Even people who only listened to jazz were blown away by the hooks and chops. Their most successful record, Welcome Interstate Managers, had some of their best-written material, as well as some of their most easily dismissable. But after "Stacy's Mom" became their much-overdue hit single and they were no longer hip, people were ready to stick a fork in F.O.W. Many fans figured that the commercial success would have diminished the creative edge that put them a step ahead of so many other power-pop bands. The nay-sayers figured, OK, witty, often hilarious lyrics, great harmonies, '70s pop influences with '80s new wave flourishes -- we get it. Enough. But NO! NOT ENOUGH! Traffic & Weather sounds like classic Fountains Of Wayne, but it also goes a step further, incorporating everyone from Nilsson to the Beach Boys to Todd Rundgren to the Flying Burrito Brothers. Don't count these guys out yet, not by a long shot. This is some of the best-written material you'll hear this side of the Pecos.

BLACK SABBATH - THE DIO YEARS. Ah, the Dio years -- how the mere mention of the name mingles memory with desire. Their first post-Ozzy record, Heaven & Hell, is arguably a hard-rock classic. Their two followups (follows up?), not so much. This collection compiles some of each, with three newly recorded tracks, just in time for Pesach -- and their sold-out reunion tour.

HILARY DUFF - DIGNITY. Dignity is a word that instantly springs to mind when we think of Hilary Duff. (Have you SEEN "Cheaper By The Dozen 2"?) And this is her most dignified album to date.

KINGS OF LEON - BECAUSE OF THE TIMES. First there was Arcade Fire. Then the Killers. Now, the third most overrated band in the history of overrating bands, the Kings Of Leon, release their third not-so-good CD. Buy it now! Only in theaters.

ROBERT PLANT - REISSUES (PHASE 2!). Remastered with bonus tracks, the second half of the "Nine Lives" box set is now available individually. Titles include Dreamland, The Honeydrippers EP, Now And Zen, and Principle Of Moments.

BEYONCE - B'DAY (Deluxe Edition). Just in case you still like CDs, here's another ripoff that's sure to try your patience. This time, you get a bonus disc with THREE brand new, never-released songs, and SIX brand new, never-released songs in Spanish! This is, as our Spanish friends say, "Caca de vaca."

TIMBALAND - TIMBALAND PRESENTS SHOCK VALUE. The Eugene Landy of Britney Spears' life drops his new joint which features collaborations with Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Fall Out Boy, The Hives and Elton John. Our Yiddish friends refer to this as "trayf."

PAUL MOTIAN, BILL FRISELL & JOE LOVANO - TIME AND TIME AGAIN. The followup to their critically acclaimed I Have The Room Above Hers is just as beautiful, and features some fantastic playing by these three jazz legends.

ALISON KRAUSS - HUNDRED MILES OR MORE: A COLLECTION. Not to be confused with the previously released collection Now That I've Found You, this compiles many of her duets with people like Sting, Brad Paisley and James Taylor, as well as two newly recorded tracks with one of our favorite vocalists, John Waite.

JONATHA BROOKE - CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. Miss Brooke's last four releases were all in heavy rotation on the NYCD playlist when they came out. She is a brilliant songwriter who has just the right amount of balls to keep her a step ahead of her peers. This new release is a bit harder and poppier than anything she's done before. The catchy title track will keep all you power-popsters singing for weeks.

JARVIS COCKER - JARVIS. The US release of the UK hit. We never liked Pulp, but we thought this was pretty damn good.

LOS STRAITJACKETS - ROCK EN ESPAñOL. It seems that every vintage rock n' roll hit of the '60s had a Spanish counterpart. Here, the 'Jackets, along with Cesar Rosas, Big Sandy, and East LA legend Little Willie G give you their versions of the Spanish versions. Features classics by Arthur Alexander, The Kinks, the McCoys and the Troggs, among many others. As they say in Spanish, "Es muy bueno!"

KERMIT RUFFINS - LIVE AT VAUGHAN'S. Just in time for the New Orleans JazzFest, the ambassador of all things Louis is captured live at his regular stomping ground, Vaughan's in New Orleans. If this doesn't put you in the mood for a little second-lining and parasol-waving, nothing will.

HOT OFF THE PRESSES!!!

One of our favorite records of the last ten years was FREE THE BEES by THE BEES, which many of you bought and loved. And if it wasn't for our friend STEVE WYNN, who turned us on to this wonderful band, we never would have experienced the joy that is The Bees. Now, their long-awaited followup, OCTOPUS, is here! Unfortunately, for now, in small quantities, as it's only available as an import and we only have a few in stock. It can be ordered, but for the ones we have on hand, it's a first-come, first-served basis, so get those emails in NOW!

BUY 'EM ALL! BUY 'EM ALL TWICE! EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

SELL US YOUR CDs! AND DVDs, for that matter. CALL OR EMAIL TO SET IT UP!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

SAVE THE DATE! Sal's band, THE COOL JERKS, is playing on APRIL 20 at 8 PM at DON HILL'S. They're a lot of fun! No pretentious originals, just your favorite R&B cover versions by Sam & Dave, Fats Domino, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and even Wet Willie. Come on down and have some fun!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Halleljuah, we're a bum!

Your Friends,
Audrey & Flushing Meadows

2007-03-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #12!

TONY AND SAL MOURN EACH OTHER

ARE RINGTONES SAVING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

GET YER RED HOT RINGTONES RIGHT HERE!*

JIMMY WEBB & BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN GET TOGETHER FOR HISTORIC RINGTONE COLLABORATION!

And now... NYRT's NEW RINGTONES FOR NEXT WEEK! (available on CD)
*We do not actually sell ringtones.

DAVID BOWIE - YOUNG AMERICANS (CD & DVD). As Sal once said, "Ah sure does love me a David Bowie!" This is his 1975 classic featuring the #1 hit single "Fame," featuring John Lennon, as well as the title track. Being released in between the classics Diamond Dogs and Station To Station, and not really sounding like either of them, Young Americans, while selling well thanks to its singles, never really got the acclaim it deserved. Now, with this newly remastered package, which also includes a DVD that features 5.1 Surround Sound as well as videos from Bowie's performance on the Dick Cavett show and 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks, you can finally give it the acclaim it deserves. BUYER BEWARE! While smartly priced, this is still an import, so the DVD is in PAL format. The US release is due next month. The ringtone release has yet to be scheduled.

THE DOORS - REMASTERS. Get your "Peace Frog" ringtone right here! The Doors' recent box set "Perception" went out of print faster than you can say "Hey, was that Jim Morrison's shlong?" But the individual albums, with their additional bells, whistles and ringtones, are now available separately. That's six of the most overrated records in the history of music, now with bonus tracks and new packaging, but unfortunately with the same rinky-dink organ courtesy of Ray Manzarek.

BRYAN FERRY - DYLANESQUE. Originally scheduled for March 10, then canceled, now back on schedule for April, this contract-breaking stinker by one of our alltime favorite artists is available NOW as an import! We can't decide what's more boring -- the really novel idea of doing all Dylan covers, or the songs that were chosen for this music equivalent of triptophan. Featuring a bonus downloadable ringtone of "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll!"

GOOD CHARLOTTE - GOOD MORNING REVIVAL. Wow, they must be 20 by now.

ELTON JOHN - ROCKET MAN: NUMBER ONES (CD & DVD). Elton John celebrates his 60th birthday by ripping off his fans with yet another greatest hits package (funny, that's how we celebrate our birthdays too). Features 17 chart-toppers plus an optional DVD with 10 clips, and a ringtone of "Song For Guy."

KAISER CHIEFS - YOURS TRULY, ANGRY MOB. Those goofy, lovable Brits follow up one of the best debuts in recent years with more of the same -- literally. We love these guys, and you should too.

KLAXONS - MYTHS OF THE NEAR FUTURE. Those goofy lovable Brits precede their sophomore effort with their debut, featuring their hit ringtone... uhhh... we don't remember the title, but when we hear it, we know it's Uncle Phil calling.

MADINA LAKE - FROM THEM THROUGH US TO YOU. A new band that's all over MTV and is sure to sell millions of ringtones.

MIKA - LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION. Mika makes Freddie Mercury sound like Howlin' Wolf. This fey young lad, with his fragile little pop tunes, is both very talented and very scary. If you like Queen and the Pet Shop Boys and George Michael, you're supposed to like this guy.

STEVIE NICKS - REFLECTIONS: THE VERY BEST OF. She hasn't had any hits since her crack pipe broke, but that doesn't stop the record companies from repackaging the same hits compilation that you bought 15 years ago. The difference here is that it's got more songs, which you've probably never heard, PLUS a DVD with her videos AND her audio commentary on each one! "That was the day I did a lot of blow." "That was when I let myself go and found it difficult to spin more than three seconds at a time without getting out of breath." "As we were shooting the video for 'Edge Of Seventeen,' I turned to Tom Petty and said 'ringtones.'"

GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS - STRANGELET. Ten years ago, the fact that Peter Buck of R.E.M. plays on this album would have been a selling point. Now, we need to remind people who R.E.M. is. Who has time to try to sell this CD? And it's probably damn good, too. The first ringtone could have been a hit, but Stacey had a fight with Brad, so she deleted that number from her phone.

RUBINOOS - PARTY OF TWO. All you power-popsters out there certainly remember the Rubinoos' brilliant single "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," on the Berserkley label, so you should be excited about this expanded version of the Todd Rundgren-produced "Party Of Two" EP, now including six more tracks, and still including Utopia on background vocals and various instruments.

PICKS OF THE WEEK!

Tony: THE SONICS - BUSY BODY: LIVE IN TACOMA '64. As raucous and demented as the Sonics' studio records are, they were even more raw live. This is the first ever document of the Sonics in concert, and if you like Nuggets-y garage rock, you gotta have it.

Sal: MARY WEISS - DANGEROUS GAME. 40 years after recording a string of hits with the legendary Shangri-Las, Miss Weiss is back. Backed by Detroit legends The Reigning Sound, Mary Weiss still sounds great at the age of 55, and she serves up one catchy tune after another. It's got the balls of Patti Smith, the girl-group jangle, and perfect retro production that'll transport you right back to the days of Danceteria while you waited for Holly & The Italians to take the stage.

Both of these records are available courtesy of the great Norton Records label!

NORTON RECORDS: "Ringtones? Shmingtones!"

SYLVAIN SYLVAIN - REISSUES. The New York Doll, not to be confused with the assassin with the similar name, released two solo albums for the RCA label, and now Wounded Bird, along with a handful of other people, recognizes these releases, SYL SYLVAIN & TEARDROPS and SYLVAIN SYLVAIN, with first-time CD appearances. Feature the minor hits "14th Street" and "Formidable."

WOUNDED BIRD RECORDS: "Popular records? Shmopular records!"

VARIOUS ARTISTS - NOW 24. Features many popular ringtones in their full length, "song" versions.

WARREN ZEVON - REISSUES. The late great Warren Zevon... need we say more? One of the greatest records of all time, EXCITABLE BOY, gets remastered and expanded, and two other albums from the same period, THE ENVOY and the holy grail of never-on-CD live albums, STAND IN THE FIRE, also get remastered and expanded with lots of bonus tracks. All three are essential, none of them are greatest hits CDs, and Excitable Boy is a must for anyone with a conscience.

MACY GRAY - BIG. Resident soul loony Macy Gray put out one strong debut and two really strong and unjustly ignored followup records. She also proved to be a damn fine actress in such films as "Lackawanna Blues" and "Training Day." So basically, Macy Gray is a major talent, with hit singles and acting chops. So you tell us why nobody gives a s***, because we're baffled and we're tired of it. Thankfully, her new album is produced by "The Rajah Of The Ringtone," Will.I.Am, so maybe she'll finally have another hit.

Speaking of the Black Eyed Peas, is it us? Or does Fergie look like Martin Milner?

HIP-HOP RELEASE OF THE WEEK!

THA DOGG POUND - DOGG CHIT. NB: We guarantee our distributors have plenty of THESE in stock.

ORDER ALL OF THESE CDs BY TEXTING "GIMME THESE CDs" TO 95633*, OR YOU CAN SIMPLY EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460!
*please do not text us. That was our lame attempt at bitter sarcasm.

SELL US YOUR CDs, DVDs AND RINGTONES! You'll find us in the cardboard boxes next to the churro stand on 9th Ave. Bring blankets! Please!

KEEP READING THE BLOG! There's bound to be something new on there someday!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Tinariwen are not from Egypt. We thank our reader for correcting us.

Your friends,
Sal Phone and Ringtony

2007-03-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #11!

R.I.P. BRAD DELP, BOWIE KUHN, RICHARD JENI (hey, we're equal opportunity mourners)

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

SAL'S BRIEF BUT TO-THE-POINT NEW ORLEANS REPORT!

and in honor of St. Patrick's Day... OUR FIVE FAVORITE SONGS THAT MENTION KEVIN McHALE!

and now... in alphabetical order just so you don't think we're playing favorites, NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

CIBO MATTO - POM POM: ESSENTIAL CIBO MATTO. If you ask Sal, the essential Cibo Matto would be a nice three track single. But if you ask fellow Asian Tony Sachs, the good people at Rhino Records got it right with this 19 track comp, featuring all their semi-hits plus rarities and two previously unreleased tracks. They had a reputation for being goofballs, but by their second and last album they'd developed into some mighty funky goofballs who could write and perform a great tune. Worth checking out.

MODEST MOUSE - WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK. It seems like a million years since "Float On," from their last record, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, became a surprise crossover hit and made Modest Mouse bigger than the Beatles for at least a month. Will anyone care about this release now that Johnny Marr is a fulltime member of the band? We sure don't.

ROBERT PLANT - REISSUES. As expected, individual remasters of his entire catalog, which was featured in the Nine Lives box set, are now available with the same remastering and bonus tracks. Phase one, due next week, includes FATE OF NATIONS, MANIC NIRVANA, THE MIGHTY REARRANGER, PICTURES AT ELEVEN, and SHAKEN N' STIRRED.

RICKY SKAGGS & BRUCE HORNSBY - RICKY SKAGGS & BRUCE HORNSBY. We haven't heard this record yet, so we really can't fairly tear it apart the way we wish we could. But take it from us, it's probably not that good, seeing as how it includes both Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby.

JOSS STONE - INTRODUCING JOSS STONE. The Soul Sessions -- very good. Mind, Body & Soul -- very bad. Introducing Joss Stone -- very very good. Cowriting most of the material herself, Stone's voice has matured a bit. The melisma is almost non-existent, and the tunes are super-catchy.

COOL REISSUE OF THE WEEK!

Now that STAX RECORDS is being resurrected by Concord/Universal, expect to see not only new music from such R & B artists as Angie Stone and Isaac Hayes, but classic reissues, expanded with rare and unreleased tracks. Next week, we see 1969's career-making classic THE QUEEN ALONE, from CARLA THOMAS, get new remastering with five previously unreleased bonus tracks added.

NOW YOU HAS JAZZ!

From Blue Note, newly remastered reissues include DONALD BYRD's CATWALK, DEXTER GORDON's CLUBHOUSE, ANDREW HILL's COMPULSION, THAD JONES' DETROIT NEW YORK JUNCTION, JACKIE McLEAN's NEW AND OLD GOSPEL (which features Ornette Coleman on trumpet and is highly recommended by Sal if you want to get your squeak on!), and ART TAYLOR's ART'S DELIGHT.

Also from Blue Note, a new release from one of the great young jazz pianists on the scene today. ROBERT GLASPER's IN MY ELEMENT is a trio record that features a bunch of Glasper originals as well as a damn fine take on Sam Rivers' "Beatrice" and a great medley of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" with Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place."

While we were typing that out, WILLIE NELSON just recorded another album, this one featuring RAY PRICE and MERLE HAGGARD. LAST OF THE BREED is a two CD set featuring songs made famous by such legends as Bob Wills, Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, the Everly Brothers, and Elvis Presley, with special guests Kris Kristofferson and Vince Gill. We must admit, these three guys still sound fantastic. We're eagerly awaiting Willie's followup album, due in a couple of minutes.

ANOTHER COOL REISSUE OF THE WEEK!

COLIN BLUNSTONE, lead singer of THE ZOMBIES, finally sees his brilliant debut solo album, 1971's ONE YEAR, get a US release. If you've never heard this record, it's high time you did. It's not quite Britpop like the Zombies, but its lush production and gorgeous melodies are addictive.

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - THE ABBATOIR BLUES TOUR. 2 CDs AND 2 DVDs culled the 2004 tour of the same name, as well as from 2003's "Nocturama" tour.

HOLLY COLE - HOLLY COLE. The new release from the Canadian chanteuse is, unfortunately, import-only, but highly recommended and worth the extra bucks. Miz Cole has a knack for taking standards and current pop tunes and making them quintessentially Cole-esque. In fact, we love Holly Cole so much that we're going to start a Sunday morning tradition, "Breakfast With Cole," with lots of jams and muffins and .... (Sorry, we didn't know where we were going with this. Still, it's a fine, fine record.)

JESSE MALIN - GLITTER IN THE GUTTER. Downtown New York legend releases his third solo CD, with guest spots from BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, RYAN ADAMS, and JAKOB DYLAN.

TRACEY THORN - OUT OF THE WOODS. The Girl to Ben Watt's Everything releases her first solo album in many a moon. TRACEY THORN JOKE OF THE WEEK! Tracey Thorn walks into a bar. The bartender says "Hey, Tracey, why the long face?" (Forget the joke, buy the record.)

TINARIWEN - AMIN IMAN. Not a concept album about a love affair between the former ruler of Uganda and David Bowie's wife, but some more "desert blues rock" by these incredibly talented Egyptians hailed by so many.

TO ORDER AS MANY OF THESE AS YOU LIKE, OR EVEN MULTIPLE COPIES IF YOU WANT TO GIVE THEM OUT AS GIFTS, EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460! WE CAN ORDER ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT AS WELL, EXCEPT FOR TURKEY ON RYE, BECAUSE WE'RE OUT OF TURKEY. (SAL JUST WALKED OUT)

SAL'S QUICK BUT THOROUGH NEW ORLEANS REPORT!

Got to see IRMA THOMAS for the first time. So often, I am disappointed going to see some legend in concert. Two people come to mind: Al Green and Little Richard. Both charged a small fortune for the ticket, both played less than 60 minutes, and neither finished singing a song in its entirety, with the exception of Little Richard, and that song was "On Top Of Spaghetti" from his then-new childrens' CD. Irma Thomas -- $20, 100 minutes. What did I get? Six perfectly executed performances of songs from her new Grammy-winning release, AFTER THE RAIN, as well as full-length, well-rehearsed, and completely inspired versions of every hit you'd ever want to hear. New Orleans musicians are proud. I thank you. Go to New Orleans. It's not snowing there. Tell 'em Sal sent you.

DON'T FORGET TO KEEP CHECKING OUT THIS BLOG, which for the last three weeks has had absolutely nothing new to read apart from our last three newsletters. Why? Because you never know when there's going to be some new and controversial topic, such as "TONY'S WEEK IN THE NATIONAL GUARD" or "SAL'S GOT A LITTLE BIT OF BITCH IN HIM."

SELL US YOUR CDs AND DVDs! WHY? BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU. M-O-U-S-EEEEEEEEEEEEEE.... CALL OR EMAIL TO SET IT UP!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THESE TWO THINGS:

1. It's a shame that the band BOSTON is often lumped into the same bad piles as R.E.O. Speedwagon, Styx, and Kansas. Is it just because their first two records sold a quizillion copies? We never understood why that was a reason to turn them off. BOSTON and DON'T LOOK BACK are two legendary records -- yeah, that's right, legendary. And with the suicide of lead singer BRADLEY DELP, we just wanted you to know that.

2. Sal is very worried that, now that he's back, that all the bad jokes in this newsletter are going to be attributed to him, since last week's newsletter was so good when he wasn't around. With the suicide of Richard Jeni, we just wanted you to know that.

Your friends,
Bowie Kuhn and his Band of Renuhn

2007-03-10T04:41:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #10!

SAL GOES TO NEW ORLEANS, TONY HAS A BUSY FRIDAY IN THE OFFICE, READERS GET FIRST EVER NYCD WEEKEND NEWSLETTER

GIULIANI TAKES EARLY LEAD IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE: MILLION SQUEEGEE MAN MARCH PLANNED FOR D.C.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH BURIED, JESUS' TOMB EXHUMED, ABE VIGODA STILL ALIVE

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES! AND THERE'S A WHOLE LOT OF 'EM, TOO!

AQUALUNG - MEMORY MAN. The acclaimed British singer-songwriter returns with his second full-length album, and, um... yeah, that's about all I got for you on this one. Second album, folks. Line forms to the right.

TONY'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

THE FRATELLIS - COSTELLO MUSIC. The latest UK flavor of the month (from Scotland, actually) surprisingly turns out to be as good as the hype surrounding them. You may have heard the frenetic, insanely catchy first single "Flathead" on a recent iPod commercial. The rest of the album is excellent as well -- if you like your music loud, fast, and hooky, this is for you.

THE CORRS - DREAMS: THE ULTIMATE CORRS COLLECTION. We don't know anyone who likes them, but they sell a whole lot of records, so if you're interested, here's a 20 track collection featuring lots of songs that were supposedly big hits but we don't remember ever hearing them.

JAMES MORRISON - UNDISCOVERED. The British pop/soulman's voice has been compared to Stevie Wonder's, although to my ears he sounds more like Paul Young, and his debut album has already gone triple platinum in the UK. This week it finally sees US release. FUN FACT: A friend of Tony's thought that Paul Young's big hit single was called "Every Time You Go Away, You Take A Piece Of Meat With You."

SAL'S PICK OF THE WEEK! (PICKED BY TONY, AS SAL IS IN NEW ORLEANS)

AMY WINEHOUSE - BACK TO BLACK. You'd think with all the rapturous, foaming-at-the-mouth praise this record has received from the critics, it couldn't help but be disappointing, but seriously, this is excellent. Soulful, a little jazzy, and a little funky, with songs and production that do justice to her sultry, smoky vocals. Sal has been going bonkers over this album for months, and even Tony, who usually heads for the exits at the mention of the words "new UK soul diva," is in agreement this time.

NEIL YOUNG - LIVE AT MASSEY HALL. After decades of promising but never delivering, Neil Young is finally going into his vaults and coming out with some amazing material. Live At Massey Hall, the second in his series of archival releases, is a previously unreleased solo acoustic gig from 1971, and not only is the performance killer, but the sound is amazing as well. If you're a fan, you've gotta have this one. You even get to choose if you just want the CD or if you want it with a DVD featuring video of the performance as well.

MUSIQ SOULCHILD - LUVANMUSIQ. Worth boycotting for his stupid album titles alone. Stayawayfromthizreqord.

PAT METHENY/BRAD MEHLDAU - QUARTET. Metheny has one of the stupidest hairpieces in the music business, but he's a damn talented musician, and his 2006 album with Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau, had some fine moments. Their second collaboration adds the other members of Mehldau's trio. I haven't heard it yet, but this has a lot of promise.

GENE CLARK - WITH THE GOSDIN BROTHERS. Clark cut this pioneering country-rock album (although it's got some great pop songs on it as well) shortly after leaving the Byrds in 1966. The lineup includes fellow Byrds Michael Clarke and Chris Hillman, as well as Glen Campbell, Clarence White and Doug Dillard, and orchestration by Leon Russell. A lost gem that was a big influence on, among many other records, the Byrds' own Sweetheart Of The Rodeo.

MARC FORD - WEARY & WIRED. Since Sal's not here I've gotta be straight with you and tell you that I could care less about this guy, who happens to be the former guitarist for the Black Crowes. But Sal likes him, and for all I know, this record could be good. If you like that sort of thing.

ROB'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

JORMA KAUKONEN - STARS IN MY CROWN. I don't think Rob has heard this album, but I know he loves Jorma, and that's good enough for me.

GRAHAM PARKER - DON'T TELL COLUMBUS. For the handful of fans that Parker hasn't alienated by being a crotchety old bastard, here's his latest record. Enjoy.

TONY'S OTHER PICK OF THE WEEK!

JON RAUHOUSE - STEEL GUITAR HEART ATTACK. I read somewhere that Rauhouse's music shows that steel guitar goes as well with a dry martini as with a cold glass of beer, and that's the case on this nonstop hoot of an album. Jazz, swing, retro-pop, lounge... Rauhouse delivers it all and then some. Backed by Calexico, and guest vocalists include Neko Case, Sally Timms of the Mekons, and Kelly Hogan. Fun fun fun.

WILSON PICKETT - HEY JUDE. The Wicked Pickett covers the title track, "Born To Be Wild," and lots of smokin' Southern soul on the reissue of this 1969 classic. You can't go wrong with this guy.

LIZ McCOMB - SOUL, PEACE & LOVE. For over two decades she's been a sensation on the gospel circuit, and now soul fans are starting to pick up on this vocalist and pianist. And frankly, that's about all I know about her. Sal knows more, but he's in New Orleans, so what do you want from me, people?!

PINE LEAF BOYS - BLUES DE MUSICIEN. This young band is the best of the new wave of Looziana bands who bring rock and roll energy to traditional Cajun and Creole music -- you may have read their recent writeup in the Times. Seriously, these guys can really kick ass. Bon temps roulez, motherf***ers!

YOU WANT 'EM? YOU GOT 'EM! ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THIS FINE BATCH OF NEW RELEASES DIRECTLY FROM US! EMAIL OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

SELL US YOUR OLD CDs! COME ON, ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT! EMAIL OR CALL!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Since Sal's not here, it's time for...

TONY'S COCKTAIL TIPS!

People, people, people. I know what you're thinking. The less vermouth in a martini, the better. Because vermouth tastes like ass. And I understand why you think that. Your bottle of Martini & Rossi has probably been sitting in your liquor cabinet for months, if not years. Right? Well listen up, kids -- vermouth is a kind of wine. And if you opened up a bottle of wine and left it at room temperature for six months, it'd taste like ass, too. Here's the key -- once you open up a fresh bottle of vermouth, stick it in the fridge. It'll keep for a good long time, taste like it's supposed to taste, and then you'll realize just how much oomph that stuff will add to your 'tini. "Dry," my friends, does not necessarily equal "better." I thank you.

Your friend,
Les Brown and his Band Of Renown

2007-03-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #9, #9, #9...

SAL CELEBRATES 21ST BIRTHDAY -- EXCITED TO FINALLY DRINK LEGALLY IN BARS

NYC GETS 3" OF RAIN: ONE DAY A REAL RAIN'S GONNA COME AND WASH ALL THE SCUM FROM THE STREETS

NEW RELEASES, INCLUDING SOME THAT WE MAY ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO GET!

R.I.P. LARRY STORCH (scared you for a minute, didn't we?)

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Before we get to the CDs, we'd like to give a shout out to "Cubby" out in L.A. by mentioning that "Private School," starring Phoebe Cates, finally gets a proper DVD release next week.

BIGGIE OF THE WEEK!

THE ARCADE FIRE - NEON BIBLE. It seems like everyone except us has been waiting for this one. Comes in a standard version as well as the deluxe edition with a 32 page booklet. We'll be as happy as anyone if this is the record that winds up saving the music business, but we still don't get what the big deal is. We like Split Enz.

!!! (pronounced "Chk Chk Chk") - MYTH TAKES. The new record from the indie rock collective also comes in two editions -- the deluxe edition includes a bonus disc with live tracks and remixes. All we can say is, !!#@$. (Pronounced "Yawn.")

AIR - POCKET SYMPHONY. The French electronic duo have put out some really interesting material, including their very strong debut, "Moon Safari," and the wonderful soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's "Virgin Suicides." They've also put out some real snoozers. So, if you haven't read the terrible review that we've read about this record, you may still be interested.

Fine new reissues from the WOUNDED BIRD label!

Before we list them, keep in the back of your mind that just because they hit the streets next week doesn't mean we'll get them next week. So if you have patience and can wait just a little bit longer, and can deal with not being the first one on your block to get Translator's third record, here's what's coming up:

BREAD - ON THE WATERS, PETULA CLARK - SUPERSOUNDS FROM A SUPERSTAR (new greatest hits collection), LOGGINS & MESSINA - FINALE, three MELISSA MANCHESTER titles, and PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC - PG & E. Praise the Lord! We're saved!

MARY CHAPIN-CARPENTER - CALLING. Singer-songwriter releases her Zoe/Rounder Records debut, sure to have the usual minimal impact on the world as we know it.

RY COODER - MY NAME IS BUDDY. What can we say about Ry Cooder? We love him. If it wasn't for Mr. Cooder, the US of A never would have heard the Buena Vista Social Club. That alone should be reason enough to buy his new record, which features Jim Keltner and Van Dyke Parks on a new set of original material sung from the perspective of a cat. Listen, the guy discovered the Buena Vista Social Club. He can sing from the perspective of a hamster if he wants, as far as we're concerned.

ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. - YOURS TO KEEP. A relative of Albert Hammond, Sr. (we believe it's his son), and also a member of The Strokes, releases his first solo record with guest appearances by Ben Kweller, Sean Lennon, and Julian Casablancas. Somewhat sparse and underproduced like the Strokes' debut, with a slightly more melodic and poppier edge. Nice job, Al!

GRUFF RHYS - CANDYLION. The Super Furry Animals frontman releases one crazy, sugarcoated, psychedelic, hallucinogenic, freakazoid pop record.

SON VOLT - SEARCH. We've written the same review for the last three Son Volt records, so why stop now? We're in the Wilco camp. We know many of you are in the Son Volt camp, so this may be exciting for you. Us, we're sitting tight for May 15th.

THE STOOGES - WEIRDNESS. Iggy & The Ashetons' first studio release since 1973's Raw Power has everything going for it, right down to the original band logo on the front cover. The only thing missing are the songs. It sounds great. By the second song you're thinking "Wow, this kicks ass!" By the fifth song you're thinking "Wow, I feel like having some Skittles!"

WYNTON MARSALIS - FROM THE PLANTATION TO THE PENITENTIARY. Of the several hundred records he's released -- and that's just in this decade -- this sounds like one of the best. Highlighting the sultry vocals of Jennifer Sanon and the piano playing of Dan Nimmer, both of whom can often be seen at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center, this record touches on everything from down-home blues to New Orleans second-line to modern habanera and swing. This is such a strong release that even Tony said "Wow, this may be his 23rd best record out of 807."

NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - GREATEST HITS. Yes, he only had two real albums, but Tony's been waiting ten years to have "Big Poppa" and "Hypnotize" on one CD, and now, at last, his dream is becoming a reality. Sal wishes Tony the best of luck in future endeavors. The CD also has two brand new tracks produced by 2Pac, as well as a duet with Russ Columbo.

ELVIS PRESLEY - ULTIMATE GOSPEL. Not to be confused with the last gospel collection called Ultimate Gospel, this one features 26 tracks, all of which are on the last Ultimate Gospel collection. Just don't confuse the two. The first one already came out, and this one comes out next week.

TO ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE TRULY EXCELLENT NEW RELEASES, EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460, AND KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! Apparently, NYCD has become the Sonny Corleone of the music business. Everyone knew that the first 800 bullets killed him on the causeway, but there was still that guy who had to kick him in the face. Thank you to everyone who's waiting for CDs and still wants to give us money! We are doing our best to keep you happy! IT REALLY ISN'T OUR FAULT!

BUY SOME OF OUR WARES ON AMAZON!

And while you're at it... SELL US YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs! We got the cash right here! CALL OR EMAIL!

WE WANT TO KNOW! (first in a series, maybe)

Sal was riding to work today, drenched from the morning's downpour and being suffocated by some fat guy in a puffy coat, when the Walker Bros.' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" came on his iPod. Suddenly, being wet and suffocating on a crowded train didn't seem so bad. It's one of those songs that, no matter what Sal is doing or where he may be -- purchasing spearing at a live bait shop, getting a tattoo in an uncomfortable place, whatever -- everything becomes OK for 3:07. Tony gets the same feeling from Frank Sinatra's "That's Life."

Our question -- what song can brighten YOUR mood, no matter how crappy your day is? EMAIL and let us know!If we get enough entries, we'll compile them onto a CD for all those who contributed answers! If we don't get enough entries for a full CD, those who participated will get a bag of spearing.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

In the words of Dennis De Young, "This song goes out to Avi Fishbein. Mazel tov -- today you became a man. Here's 'Mr. Roboto.'"

Your friends,
Shaw-Blades

2007-02-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #8!

Hubbye Frubbends,

This week's NEWSLETTER will get right to the point. It's been a hectic week at the NYCD office and we don't want to take it out on you. So...NEW RELEASES ANYONE?

COOL BIG RELEASE OF THE WEEK!

BOB DYLAN - DON'T LOOK BACK (65 TOUR DELUXE EDITION). D.A. Pennebaker's classic film of Dylan's 1965 British tour, plus an incredible amount of bonus stuff, has been beefed up into one heavy DVD box set. Lots of unseen footage from the tour, five additional uncut audio tracks, new audio commentary, the 1968 companion book to the film, and even an alternate version of the famous "Subterranean Homesick Blues" "cue card" video, not to mention a NEW FILM culled from over 20 hours of unreleased footage from the '65 tour. WOW.

BOZ SCAGGS - SILK DEGREES (EXPANDED). The legendary disco/soul masterpiece from 1976 was briefly out of print, but now gets its first US remastering, along with three previously unreleased live tracks. You know you love "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle," not to mention "Georgia" and "What Do You Want The Girl To Do."

Believe it or not, these are the only two releases worth mentioning this week. But just in case you're thinking we're holding out on you, here are some other things that are orderable. If you need more details, feel free to EMAIL or CALL (212) 244-3460.

BECK - THE INFORMATION (DELUXE EDITION). Now includes six remixes and some videos. The non-deluxe version had the videos and a whole lot of stickers.

DEAN & BRITTA - BACK NUMBERS. Half of Luna ("Mezzaluna" for you Italians out there) record a sophomore record that picks up where their debut left off. Where was that, actually?

JOHN DENVER - THE ESSENTIAL. 2 CDs, 36 tracks about mountains, snow and George Burns. R.I.P.

LISA GERRARD - THE BEST OF (IMPORT). Half of the gothic duo Dead Can Dance ("Mezzamorte di Tarantella" for you Italians out there) gets anthologized?

KILLERS - SAM'S TOWN. The critically panned followup to the overrated debut has been reissued every week since its initial release. Here it is again, featuring yet another bonus track and some videos.

VICTOR KRUMMENACHER - COCK CROWS AT SUNRISE. A member of Camper Van Beethoven who is not David Lowery has somehow released four previous solo albums completely unbeknownst to us. His fifth is being released knownst to us.

NICO - ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES. Two extremely rare early '80s live performances by a woman who, by the early '80s, was a dead woman walking. We're a-scared, Norton.

THE RUTLES - ARCHAEOLOGY (REMASTER). Thank goodness someone found the time to remaster this one. Includes lots of bonus tracks!

ORDER 'EM ALL! ORDER TWO OF EACH! HEY, WE'LL ORDER WHATEVER YOU WANT! EMAIL US AT HEYNYCD@AOL.COM OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

WE LOVE OUR BLOG

Admittedly, not much was posted this week, but there's plenty to read that you may have missed for the last year. We'll give you a little time to catch up.

SELL US YOUR CDs & DVDs! If you're tired of hearing us beg, BRING THEM IN and we will shut up for one week at a time for each box of discs you bring us!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

In the words of George W. Bush, "Sorry for the briefosity of this newsletter, but the major labels did not new releasicate this week."

Your friends,
Mary Elizabeth Nunziato and Maria Conchita Sachs

2007-02-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

LUCKY NEWSLETTER 'O7 #7!

ANNA NICOLE SMITH JOINS CAST OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL OF TONY'S FRIENDS!

PITCHERS & CATCHERS REPORT TO TAMPA; BERNIE WILLIAMS, ANNA NICOLE SMITH NO-SHOWS

and now... NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

BLACK LIPS - VALIENTES DEL MUNDO NUEVO. Their last record, Let It Bloom, still gets heavy rotation on Sal's iPod for its excellent mix of '60s garage and psychedelia. This new release is a compilation of sorts in that it contains new versions of songs from their previous albums and singles. At times, they sound like the Velvet Underground, at other times like Them. They're always interesting and never boring.

JILL CUNNIFF - CITY BEACH. It seems like everyone in Luscious Jackson disappeared off the face of the earth about five years ago, but lead vocalist Cunniff finally breaks the silence with her first solo album, featuring a guest vocal from Emmylou Harris. Tony, for one, is excited. ALSO OUT NEXT WEEK: LUSCIOUS JACKSON - GREATEST HITS. 18 tracks, only three of which were actually hits, but they're all damn good. Features rare remixes and non-album tracks! Tony, for one, is excited. A great and unjustly forgotten band of the '90s.

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - OUT OF THE BLUE (EXPANDED EDITION). One of the remaining two LPs by ELO that did not get an upgrade (the other being Balance Of Power, an admittedly weak record that has been upgraded but will not get a US release. Look for this practice to become more common as the record industry continues its journey into the shitter), Out Of The Blue was a monster success which features the hits "Turn To Stone," "Mr. Blue Sky," and "Sweet Talkin' Woman," as well as Jeff Lynne's most treacly (and we mean that in a good way) melodies. Now includes three bonus tracks, one of which is apparently a brilliant tribute to John Lennon. Sal, for one, is excited.

VIKTOR KRAUSS - II. Studio sessionman extraordinare, Krauss' bass playing has been heard behind such artists as Lyle Lovett, Elvis Costello and Dolly Parton, to name a few. This record sounds like something you would hear if you go into an upscale place to buy nail polish. It does feature a kind of interesting (read: terrible) version of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with Shawn Colvin on vocals.

ELVIS PERKINS - ASH WEDNESDAY. Highly touted debut from the sensitive singer-songwriter with the stupid name.

POLYPHONIC SPREE - WAIT. If you've never heard or seen this band, now's the time. A 70 member choir, all dressed in white, who look less like rock stars and more like they're on the way to drink some punch and reside in that big indie record store in the sky. That said, this new EP features two songs from their upcoming album, The Fragile Army, as well as absolutely brilliant cover versions of Nirvana, the Psychedelic Furs, and Tripping Daisy.

JOHN SEBASTIAN - REISSUES. Leader of the legendary Lovin' Spoonful gets some respect with five new remasters of his '70s solo albums from Collectors Choice. Long out of print, JOHN B. SEBASTIAN, CHEAPO CHEAPO PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS, TARZANA KID, "FOUR OF US," and "WELCOME BACK" are all solid records that sold fairly well in their day and deserve to be heard again.

SAL'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS - COUNTRYPOLITAN FAVORITES. It's hard to really describe the sound of this band if you've never heard them, but we'll try. Think of good-time rockabilly crossed with a big ol' bucket of fried chicken and a bit of Memphis stew. This new CD has 15 cover versions made famous by Wanda Jackson, The Kinks, and The Byrds, as well as absolutely brilliant takes on T. Rex's "Life's A Gas," The Golliwogs' "Fight Fire," and The Who's "Happy Jack." This one's a winner, just like Mario Andretti.

TRANSLATOR - REISSUES. "Wow, CD sales are in the toilet, the industry's going to hell... hmmmm.... let's put out the Translator catalog!" TOP. In the words of a very dear friend of ours, "Why oh why did the '80s have to end?" You probably know them for their biggest hit, "Everywhere That I'm Not," and now you can get the album, Heartbeats And Triggers, that featured it, plus their other three albums. Please write if you're interested in the titles!

CHARLIE LOUVIN - CHARLIE LOUVIN. The legendary Brother releases his new solo record, which includes some Louvin Brothers classics and other country favorites. Special guests include Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, and George Jones.

STEVE KUHN - LIVE AT BIRDLAND. We have not heard this CD yet, but we know it's great because we have a friend who works at Blue Note who reads our newsletter, and might possibly hook us up with a pair of Norah Jones tickets.

TO ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE NEW RELEASES, NOT TO MENTION THE HUGO LARGO REISSUE THAT'S COMING OUT NEXT WEEK, OR ANY OTHER CDs & DVDs YOU MIGHT WANT, EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

PASS IT ON!

HEY, WANNA DO SOMETHING NICE FOR FRIENDS OR LOVED ONES, AS WELL AS FOR US, AND IT'S FREE? AND EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, IT'S STILL FREE? Send our newsletter to ten people you think would like our brand of music commentary, and maybe they'll send it to ten friends, and so on and so on. We need your love, people!

We also need your CDs and DVDs! SELL US YOUR OLD DISCS! Some of you have emailed and inquired, and others have already promised us many boxes, but we're still waiting. Come on by, the sooner the better! And don't forget, WE MAKE PICKUPS, especially on days when it's not snowing and really nice out and warmer! But we'll come out in crappy weather, too. CALL OR EMAIL TO SCHEDULE!

REMEMBER TO READ THIS BLOG!

REMEMBER THE ALAMO! www.thealamo.com

DOES ANYONE REMEMBER LAUGHTER? www.laughter.com

HAS ANYBODY HERE SEEN OUR OLD FRIEND MARTIN? www.ouroldfriendmartin.com

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

In the words of Dean Martin, "I've got seven wonderful children... don't applaud, it took me seven minutes."

Your friends,
Franken and Halle Berry

2007-02-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

THE GRAMMYS (OR IS IT GRAMMIES?): OUR READERS RESPOND!

Mimi from NYC:

Yes, it was the most boring, lifeless Grammy Awards show in recent memory. Last year's Grammys were just as boring. Maybe they should save production costs and replay this year next year. See if anyone notices. I am quite content disliking both John Mayer and John Legend. Mayer more than Legend. I hate Mayer immensely. As for Mary J., she oversings everything to compensate for not being able to sing anything. Most idiots won't be able to tell if she's off key when she does 34518414987435 runs for each note. As for Xtina's James Brown tribute, she ain't even a brotha! Why not just have David Caruso recite the lyrics of "Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)" with as much deliberation as he does every line on CSI Miami? Did they force enough of their sitcom stars on us by making them present that night? I think not. What? CSI Miami isn't a comedy? But it's so funny!

Mike From Long Island:

Well, you certainly nailed the Grammys below. It's a good thing that you can read the zipper or else you'd never know about Irma Thomas' award.

The Ornette Coleman appearance was very weird, like they were parading him out before he was being stuffed and mounted on a wall. Yeah, when Tony Bennett gave Target some product placement, I reached for my anti-nausea medicine. And regarding that segment with Bailey, Legend, Mayer - I would have liked to see a duet between the first two. Mayer was on a different plain entirely.

Now, here's an issue that you didn't mention. Dixie Chicks. I don't get it since the album was not regarded as country but pop and wasn't selling that well after the first few weeks. Do you have any demographics on it? Am I way off base? Natalie Maines offered her rationale on the the album's success and as much as I hate to admit it, maybe she's right.

Oh, one of the question...what did Bob Wills (San Antonio Rose) have to to with the Eagles?

KIRA, THE COOLEST 9 YEAR OLD IN PFLUGERVILLE, TEXAS:
"I liked seeing the things that they say, and the songs, and the dresses (if it's a girl)."

2007-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

SAL & TONY GO TO (WATCH) THE GRAMMYS! (ON TV)

It was exciting, it was dazzling, it was... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

Yes, it was the most boring, lifeless Grammy Awards show in recent memory, but we managed to keep our eyelids pried open so we could bring you, our readers, our Annual Grammy Wrap-Up! So here goes!

De do do don't? Actually, as much as we hate Sting (winner of Best Incredibly Pretentious Idea For An Album) these days, The Police sounded damn good. Stewart Copeland was grey, but he bashed away like the days of old, just slightly stiff with his fancy hi-hat work. Plus, he looked so happy. We just wanna know how they convinced Hilary Clinton to play guitar with them.

Aside from The Beatles remasters on CD, the thing we are looking most forward to is the last second of Jamie Foxx's 15 minutes. We liked him much better as Klinger.

Tony Bennett (winner of Best 80-year-old Who's Still Alive and Sells More Than Three Records) thanked Target. Discuss.

Click below for the rest of Mary J. Blige's first acceptance speech:
www.kissmyasstonyandsal.com

The filmed intro of Justin Timberlake (winner of Best Likable Pro Who's Being Mistaken For A Genius For Some Reason Which Sal & Tony Can't Figure), preceding his performance, ruined what would have been ... a mediocre performance. THIS was the best song he had ever written? Two chords and no melody? We weren't expecting "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carrol," but Jeez. It's just too easy. Artists need to do less and less these days to become superstars.

We still want to know what is it we are missing with Mary J. Blige (winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Never Having Sung A Single Complete Song On-Key In Her Entire Career). I mean, we have some cred, don't we?

We are ELATED that Irma Thomas' "After The Rain" won Best Contemporary Blues Album. EVERYONE should own this heartbreaking masterpiece.

SAL: Connie, Legend, and Mayer. Not bad. I want to like both John Mayer and John Legend as much as I like Corinne Bailey Rae. What stops me is that so many think Mayer and Legend are better than they really are, and not enuff think Rae is as good as she is.

TONY: I thought they were all very earnest and eager to please. Like three schoolkids on their best behavior, trying to pass their oral exams or something. Not my idea of compelling music, but it coulda been worse.

Best acceptance speech: Ludacris --"I want to thank Bill O'Reilly"? "My father's on his death bed. I Love you to death, Dad"? Looks like ya already did 'Cris. Or is it Lu'? Luda? He gets bonus points for thanking the William Morris Agency.

We just dont get Mary J. Blige.

Worst song ever by great band: "Life In The Fast Lane" - The Eagles (winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Band That Pisses Off Tony The Most).

Tony missed Rascal Flatts' Eagles tribute so he could check out a movie on ESPN Classic which features a cameo appearance by Buddy Greco.

SAL: I cannot believe one of my heroes, Ornette Coleman, just said "Imogen Heap."
SAL'S WIFE: Lifetime achievement awards don't come cheap.

At this point in his career, Lionel Richie should devote all his time to feeding his daughter.

OK, Mary J. is better than Chris Brown. But he can dance better than Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie put together. Then again, they are a combined 130 years old.

It is a sad state of affairs when "Soul Brother Number One" leaves us, and the go-to artist for the tribute is Christina Aguilera, with Prince in the room. Even without Prince in the room. When Peter O'Toole dies, we guess we can expect a tribute from James Brolin.

Ludacris and Mary J.-- it just wasn't good.

Watching James Blunt sing "You're Beautiful" (winner of Best Song That The Entire World Is So Sick Of That Nobody Will Ever Want To Hear Anything This Guy Does In The Future) made us think, "This is what we expect Burgess Meredith would have sounded like as a 25 year old folk singer."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' (winner of Band Whose Drummer Looks The Most Like Will Ferrell) performance was touted as "the performance you'll be talking about tomorrow morning." Why, because they dumped a lot of confetti from the ceiling? Or because Anthony Keidis gave Mary J. a run for her money as most off-key performer of the night? And how much did they pay Chris Rock to call them the greatest rock band in the world?

It's a sad state of affairs when the Grammys has to resort to American Idol-style audience participation to get people to give a crap. And it's sadder still when the terrified 19-year-old chosen to sing with Justin Timberlake is a better singer than Mary J. Blige.

Our friend Nancy on Justin Timberlake:

I like pawns of the music industry who play the game nicely. Justin walks around like he's above all that. And he's just this boy, not a man. Airing out his bidness with Britney in that Cry Me A River video, letting Janet Jackson take the rap for the Nipplegate thing, and ditching Cameron and the tabloids make it out like she's a shrew. How is he so untouchable? And what would his music be if it weren't for Timbaland?

I might get a turkey burger. Or.. maybe some Japanese noodles.

And finally, congratulations to Bob Dylan for winning the Grammy for We Already Gave You The Best Album Award For "Time Out Of Mind," And You're Not Supposed To Be Making Such Good Albums At Your Age, So You Know What? We're Gonna Put You In Some Bogus Category Like "Contemporary Folk" That's More Appropriate For Old White People!

This year's awards definitely coulda used Sly Stone to perk things up a bit.

2007-02-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #6!

R.I.P. FRANKIE LAINE, JOE HUNTER (FUNK BROTHERS), BILLY HENDERSON (SPINNERS)
HOW COLD WAS IT THIS WEEK? IT WAS SO COLD THAT EVEN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY WAS NIPPLEY

SPEAKING OF NIPPLES... HERE ARE NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

BLUE OYSTER CULT - REISSUES (Spectres and Some Enchanted Evening). We realize that at this point in the game, reissues of late '70s Blue Oyster Cult records are about as in demand as Joe Piscopo. But it would be unfair if we didn't give credit where credit is due. While most of you only remember "Don't Fear The Reaper" from 1976's Agents Of Fortune, the followup release, Spectres, was the band's strongest record to date. It features the hit "Godzilla," which of course is a bit of a novelty, but still a lot of fun. And the rest of the record is their most melodic and most accessible, with lots of Phil Spector Wall Of Sound-type production as well as some of Buck Dharma's finest guitar playing. Some Enchanted Evening was the live record to their most successful tour, which is now expanded to include five bonus tracks and a DVD.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS - WEST. Lucinda Williams is not one to hold back any emotion, or try to conceal any part of her personal life. She once said, "All my songs are written about somebody I know, and if they don't know what songs are about them, I tell them." This new record is her most personal to date, and could be her strongest work since Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. A friend of ours, upon first listen, said "I love this f***in' album. It sounds like Time Out Of Mind." And you know what? He's right.

And, um... guess what! That's about it as far as exciting new releases for next week! Of course there are always other things that we didn't mention, so if you happen to want the Harry Belafonte/Nana Mouskouri duets album, or any other new releases (or old, for that matter), we'll get it for you! EMAIL HEYNYCD@AOL.COM or CALL US AT (212) 244-3460!

Stay tuned, because the following week has plenty to offer! In the meantime, go read Pt. 5 of "PASSION OF THE CRANKS" on this very blog, and SELL US YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs! CALL OR EMAIL TO SET IT UP!

Admittedly, it's not very much of a newsletter, but we call it as we see it.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

What did one harmonica player say to the other harmonica player?

"I'm better than you."

Your friends,
Nomar & Jerry Garciaparra

2007-02-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS, PART 5

Since Christmas, CD sales have been in freefall. Is this the end of the music business as we know it? Or is it just a really crappy time for pop music?

Since the Thanksgiving week flood of new releases by megastars from the Beatles to Jay-Z, all's been quiet on the pop front. A little too quiet. I mean, take a look at the album chart and tell us what's gonna make Mr. and Miz Middle America go to their local record store, Wal-Mart, or iTunes. Dreamgirls -- the soundtrack to a movie based on a Broadway musical from 25 years ago. Thrilling. Daughtry -- cookie-cutter hard shlock from the American Idol winner. The Shins -- excellent album, but not the kind of thing that will get the attention of non-music geeks. A Disney soundtrack, Justin Timberlake, Akon... YAWN.

There's always great music that's out there under the radar. It's our job as retailers to get people to listen to stuff they normally wouldn't know about. We could talk all day about James Hunter or the Twilight Singers or the Essex Green or dozens of other current artists we love. But we need something to get the people in the shops or on the websites in the first place, and that something is the big chart hits. In our heyday, people came into NYCD to buy Alanis Morissette or Pearl Jam, but walked out with a half dozen other CDs, many of which they may not have heard of when they walked in. It's a lot harder for us to turn people on to music that's not so popular when they're not interested in the music that is popular.

So where are the new, fresh young faces that will wake us all up from our stupor and get us excited to buy music again? No doubt they're out there on a myspace.com page someplace, but will the right people hear them and bring them to the jaded masses? Do these young musicians even care if their music gets heard on the radio or if their physical CDs make it into physical stores? Or is the system so broken that we're going to be stuck with the same artists making the same music, until the last person stops listening and buying? And when that happens, who's gonna tell Hinder or Nelly Furtado to turn out the lights and lock up?

2007-02-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #5!

R.I.P. BARBARO, SIDNEY SHELDON, JOE BIDEN

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

TONY AND SAL START "HOW TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE" LECTURE TOUR!

BILLY JOEL'S BIG POP COMEBACK - AIRBAG SALES GO DOWN

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES

BLOC PARTY - WEEKEND IN THE CITY. The followup to their smash debut, "Silent Alarm," promises to be every bit as bright, powerful, and overrated as the first one was. These guys could be the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Unless they came before, in which case Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are the new Bloc Party.

BELINDA CARLISLE - VOILA. A limited edition 2 CD set is Carlisle's first new album in a decade, and her first sung entirely in French. The repertoire consists of songs from the '40s, '50s and '60s, which coincidentally are the ages of her remaining fans. (Please write in for uncensored alternate punchlines!) Includes the bonus tracks "We Got Le Beat," "Heaven Is A Place On Le Earth," and "Our Leep Are Zeal'."

FALL OUT BOY - INFINITY ON HIGH. Didn't they just put out something?

PATTY GRIFFIN - CHILDREN RUNNING THROUGH. One of Emmylou Harris' favorite songwriters, and for good reason. This highly anticipated new release will hopefully not stray far from her introspective and moving work to date.

RICKIE LEE JONES - SERMON ON EXPLOSION BLVD. One of our favorite artists has found religion on this new release that musically resembles her classic work, but lyrically resembles many chapters of the Old Testament.

HUMAN BEINZ - NOBODY BUT ME/EVOLUTIONS. The '60s one-hit wonders get two full albums reissued on one reasonably priced CD, which features their one hit, "Nobody But Me," plus about two dozen other songs.

YOKO ONO - YES, I'M A WITCH. The woman solely responsible for breaking up the Beatles and making the world a much more horrible place to live in, as well as a line of very tasty vegetarian frozen dinners (oh wait, that's Linda McCartney), releases a new album which really isn't new material at all. It is actually her unreleased 1977 album, "A Story," reworked and remixed by all your favorite hipster boneheads such as Flaming Lips, Cat Power, The Apples In Stereo, Peaches, and Sleepy Jackson. Ringo Starr is turning over in his grave right now. Oh wait....

JOE ELY - HAPPY SONGS FROM RATTLESNAKE GULCH. Both Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer love this guy, and that's good enough for us.

JAZZ FANS REJOICE! NEW RVG REMASTERS ARE HERE!

The new batch includes JOHN COLTRANE'S TRANEING IN, MILES DAVIS' COOKIN', LOU DONALDSON'S LUSH LIFE, KENNY DREW'S UNDERCURRENT, JOHNNY GRIFFIN'S INTRODUCING, JACKIE McLEAN'S 4, 5 & 6, DUKE PEARSON'S THE RIGHT TOUCH, SONNY ROLLINS' PLUS 4, and STANLEY TURRENTINE'S THE SPOILER, all with 24-bit remastering by the great Rudy Van Gelder.

TIERNEY SUTTON - ON THE OTHER SIDE. The sticker on the jewel case says: "... A masterpiece.... In The Wee Small Hours, Sketches Of Spain, The White Album... On The Other Side joins that rarified group because it is eloquent, honest, and magnificently sung and played." That review, of course, came from everyone's favorite music mag, Business Week. You're on your own with this one.

TO ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE NEW RELEASES, EVEN THE ONES THAT WEREN'T REVIEWED IN BUSINESS WEEK, EMAIL US OR CALL (212) 244-3460! WE CAN ALSO GET ANY OLDER CDs OR DVDs YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!

SELL US YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs! DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES! COME IN AND FIND OUT WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING LIST WE'RE WILLING TO DO TO GET SOME PRODUCT IN!

WILL WE:

Sing the entire "Soliloquy" from Carousel?
Balance a baked potato on our heads while listening to the new Tierney Sutton?
Dance a waltz wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a Lone Ranger mask?
Translate the last Willie Nelson album into Urdu?
Translate the last Ryan Adams album into English?
Get on our hands and knees and beg for your product, because we're sick of eating melba toast and water cooler water for lunch?

COME IN WITH CDs & DVDs AND FIND OUT! Those with the most CDs can make their own requests!

PART 4 OF OUR AWARD-LOSING SERIES "THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS" IS NOW ON THE BLOG! SCROLL DOWN TO READ IT!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Home is where the felt is.

Your friends,
Bill & Hillary Duff

2007-01-31T11:40:00.000-08:00

PASSION OF THE CRANKS: PART 4

It's that time again, when we write something along the lines of "Wake up, folks! Time to start buying CDs and enjoying music again!" And, as usual, we'll get responses like "Hey guys, great email! I read it while I was burning my friend's CD collection onto my hard drive and checking out the new Playstation game. Keep up the good work! And let me know when someone starts making good music again!" Not to mention a few, "How dare you say to me I don't enjoy music anymore? Why, I just downloaded a song by the Shins the other day!"

As music retailers who are suffering through the worst time for our industry since we opened over 13 years ago, we can't help but take the turn of events a little personally. And it's not just us. The people behind the scenes -not the creepy, money-loving putzi who don't know the difference between Bob Dylan and Matt Dillon, but the die-hards who create and produce the music you "used" to love - are all suffering right now, as well. Why should anyone care about these people, or us, for that matter? Well, maybe you shouldn't. You've got your own fish to fry. But that doesn't change the fact that at one time, the same people who drooled over a Johnny Cash box set, and its wealth of unreleased material, now seem to think anything more than buying "I Walk The Line" for 99 cents on iTunes is unnecessary.

Somehow, we are being led to believe that it has become as dramatic as Sophie's Choice to decide between buying a CD, seeing a movie, or owning the second season of "Grey's Anatomy" on DVD. Don't get us wrong -- just because the economy seems to be getting better doesn't mean you are required to spend your disposable cash on a CD. Just don't blame the musicians. Don't blame the record execs. (Not this time, anyway.) And don't blame us. Just a few short years ago, "unreleased bonus tracks" were three very exciting words that got people all sweaty and happy. Now, those words get the proverbial "eye roll," as if we're trying to sell you a hot Rolex or asking you to play three card monte.

What happened?

It seems that people are trying to find ways to not WANT to buy music anymore. We have heard excuses ranging from downloading, to the tired ol' "CDs are too expensive." (No they aren't. They haven't been for years, now. While people were busy not going to record stores, the prices generally came down.) Another common reason for this drop in music sales seems to be the endless choices of entertainment. Video games, computers, and expensive toys seem to be giving music a scary run for its money. But wait, haven't video games and computers and movies been competing for the music fan's dollars since the '80s?

The single most blasphemous excuse, and the most inaccurate, is "There's no good music to buy." Have you bothered listening to some of the music you bought 20 years ago? It was CRAP! Try telling us the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack is better than anything that's out there now. Seriously, try getting halfway through "Neutron Dance" or "The Heat Is On" without gagging. So it's not like you haven't settled for garbage before now. Besides, there's plenty of great music out there to buy. There always is. It's not about "settling" for anything. It's a matter of caring enough to look for it.

2007-01-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

BEATLES BY THE NUMBERS:
ARTISTS, NOT RIPOFF ARTISTS

When the Beatles' two Capitol Albums box sets were released a couple of years back, a surprising number of our customers stayed away from them, accusing the surviving Fabs and EMI of needlessly milking their legacy. Never mind that ever since we'd been in music retail, we'd been turning away customers who came in looking for those American Beatles albums that had never been officially available before. When Love was released in November, a lot of people bought it. But there were a fair share of naysayers too, who claimed it was a ripoff without ever hearing the mashed-up, remixed and remastered music that was hailed as revelatory by a good number of fans, us included. Now, rumor has it that the entire Beatles catalog is going to be remastered this year for the first time since their albums came out on CD in 1987. And of course there are the usual number of moans and groans from people who are crying "Ripoff!" yet again.

You know what, people? You're WRONG.

Let's look at it by the numbers. Starting with Hey Jude, a collection of stray tracks and singles that was released shortly before the band's breakup in 1970, EMI has released 23 Beatles compilations, not counting the straight CD reissues of the original British albums. Of those, six consist partly or entirely of previously unreleased music. Four are collections of singles and rarities that weren't included on the British albums. Four are generously timed, well thought out hits compilations.

Which leaves a grand total of nine questionable Beatles releases in 37 years. Among those are the Capitol Albums sets, which diehard fans had been requesting for years, and the first Beatles album Tony ever owned, the excellent 2 LP set Rock & Roll Music. And not a skimpy, ten song budget collection in the batch. By comparison, in the '90s alone, RCA released over 50 Elvis CDs, a good chunk of 'em short collections of random hits, and Frank Sinatra's various labels put out over 30 "new" collections of his -- some essential, many pointless.

So why do the Beatles get such a bad rap for supposedly abusing their legacy? Maybe it's because, when they put out a "new" record, it's handled with enough care, as far as production, packaging and promotion are concerned, that it inevitably sells well. Elvis and Frank Sinatra, the only artists of comparable stature, can have half a dozen comps sneak out under the radar, without anyone apart from obsessive fans knowing they exist.

Even something as inessential as the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, released in 1999, had a lot going for it. Not only did it expand an album that was originally six songs and a side of George Martin's orchestral music into a tasty 15 track collection, but it also was remixed and remastered so that it had the best sound of any Beatles CD to date. And as a result, it made the Top 20 of Billboard's album chart.

Hopefully, when one of our newsletters trumpets the impending arrival of the Fabs' newly remastered catalog, you'll remember this little math lesson -- and give a last listen to your crappy-sounding, 1987-vintage Beatles CDs -- before you go around poo-poohing the news.

2007-01-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #4!

THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES:

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES LINE-UP; SAL SEEN CRACKING SMILE

COLDEST DAY IN TWO YEARS IN NYC; TONY SEEN WEARING COAT

"THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS" GETS NICE RESPONSE ON NYCD'S BLOG; PARTS 4 & 5 COMING NEXT WEEK.

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK, HERE ARE SOME NEW RELEASES!

LILY ALLEN - ALL RIGHT, STILL. The cute little British phenomenon is making everyone crazy-go-nuts with her first single and video, "Smile." What can we say? We think she sounds like a 16-year-old girl trying, not entirely successfully, to sing. Call us cranks. You won't be the first. Needless to say, we are not impressed, and it's still going to be big.

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH - SOME LOUD THUNDER. This is supposed to be big too, we guess. But we played the first one in the store when it came out, and about a half dozen people, including the staff, actively hated it. So we're expecting to "Clap Our Hands Over Our Ears And Scream 'Turn That Off!'" with this one, but feel free to buy it, because what do we know? We still like the Beatles.

THE IMPRESSIONS - THIS IS MY COUNTRY/THE YOUNG MODS' FORGOTTEN STORY. Now THIS -- THIS is music! In and out of print for years now, these two absolutely classic soul records can be found on this fantastic and essential new reissue. Curtis Mayfield at his finest.

NORAH JONES - NOT TOO LATE. The following is from Bob "Hate 'Em Or Really Hate 'Em" Lefsetz's newsletter: "Everyone knows that the Norah Jones album is gonna stiff. She was too big too fast with too little a personality and identity to sustain her success. The tour numbers tell us everything. There aren't enough believers."

Now what the hell does that mean? She's already had two multi-platinum CDs with whatever personality she's accused of having. Just because her audience would rather listen to her in Starbucks than go see her play live doesn't mean the CD won't sell. It just means that the industry is probably going to hurt sales by saying things like "It's a bomb" before anyone gets to hear it. We've heard it, and you should buy it, whether or not she changes costumes during her shows. Available as a CD or limited edition CD/DVD with, apparently, boring live footage of her not changing costumes in front of 4 people.

MADONNA - THE CONFESSIONS TOUR. A CD/DVD package by a woman with lots and lots of personality, but it's still going to sell less than the Norah Jones album, because who really thinks of Madonna as a live artist? An expensive live package by an artist who lip-syncs is going to save the industry? Still, the DVD probably has footage of her up on that mirrored cross, which is kind of cool in its own blasphemous way.

SNEAKERS - NONSEQUITUR OF SILENCE. (We believe that's the first time we've typed "nonsequitur.") The not-exactly-legendary but still very good '70s power-pop band which featured Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter gets compiled on this reissue from Collectors' Choice. It features the Don Dixon-produced EP from 1976, their full-length album from 1978, and their reunion record from '92.

LEWIS TAYLOR - THE LOST ALBUM. This very pasty, Moby-looking Brit created a buzz with his US debut, Stoned, thanks to his strong sound which belied his wimpy looks. Taylor takes the pop sensibility of Todd Rundgren, the lush production of Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson, and the vocal attack of Marvin Gaye, and wraps it all up into one big, shiny package with a bow on it. This record, we believe, was recorded prior to Stoned, and has more than enough gems to keep everyone happy.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - ENDLESS HIGHWAY: THE MUSIC OF THE BAND. A not-bad tribute to the Band featuring some really strong performances by Rosanne Cash, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab For Cutie, and Jakob Dylan with Lizz Wright. Better than your average tribute record, even if Widespread Panic ruin "Chest Fever."

HARRY CONNICK, JR. - Not one but TWO new releases! CHANSON DU VIEUX CARRE is Harry and a 17 piece big band running through a heartfelt repertoire of New Orleans classics. This record does not focus on Harry's Sinatra-like crooning, but on his underrated James Booker-like piano playing. OH, MY NOLA is the vocal record that features Connick running through some more New Orleans classics, many by Allen Toussaint and Dave Bartholomew, as well as a handful of originals. Both these records were high on Connick's priority list, and are highly recommended. Connick is a major talent even if you didn't like "Copycat."

LORRAINE ELLISON - SISTER LOVE: THE WARNER BROS. RECORDINGS. Ellison never scored many hits, but serious soul fans know what a great singer she is. This limited edition package ("limited edition" meaning "pricey, so we're only making a few") contains her classic recordings from 1966-73, including 24 previously unreleased tracks.

ALREADY OUT, BUT WE FORGOT IT LAST WEEK!

FRANK SINATRA - ROMANCE: SONGS FROM THE HEART. For obsessive collectors, this new compilation includes a previously unreleased alternate take of "Nice N' Easy" and the first Stateside CD appearance of the beautiful ballad "If You Are But A Dream." For non-obsessives, it's a great 21 track collection with nice packaging, liner notes, and a good selection of uptempo songs as well as ballads.

PLEASE ORDER ALL OF THESE CDs FROM US, EVEN THE ONES WE DON'T LIKE! YOU CAN DO THIS BY SIMPLY EMAILING US OR CALLING US (212-244-3460)! WE CAN ALSO GET ANY OLDER CDs OR DVDs, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE NEWER RELEASES THAT WE FAILED TO MENTION! ALTHOUGH SEVERAL WEIRD AL YANKOVIC CDs ARE NOW OUT OF PRINT....

SPEAKING OF WEIRD AL YANKOVIC...

The lineup for this year's NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL has just been released, and Weird Al Yankovic got shut out again. Both Sal and Tony have been cranky for different reasons over the last three weeks, but just say "JazzFest" in front of Sal, and the bile magically disappears. The same thing happens with Tony when you say "steamed dumplings."

THANKS FOR READING THE BLOG! Our readership is up to seven people now, and we are damn proud. www.NYCDonline.blogspot.com. Don't forget parts 4 & 5 of our award losing series "THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS," coming next week!

DON'T FORGET TO SELL US YOUR CDs AND DVDs! Because without you, we're just flying TVs around the world. Oh no, that's Jet Blue. Without you, we're even crankier. (OK, we know many of you think we really are cranky, and we really don't enjoy life, but it's just a facade! We're loads of fun! We're just trying to make you laugh through the misery that is our current retail life... KIDDING, KIDDING! Ha ha ha, we're laughing! Life is good! We love everybody, and everyone loves us! Almost everyone... Ha ha ha! Oy.) (Seriously, sell us your CDs and DVDs, we need the product. Call or email for details on how we can give you money for stuff you don't want anymore!)

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

It is so cold in New York City right now that the rats are wearing Uggs.

Your friends,
Christine Ebersole and Gary Kroeger

2007-01-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER '07 #3!

R.I.P. ALICE COLTRANE, MICHAEL BRECKER & ART BUCHWALD

NO OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK -- LET'S GET RIGHT TO IT! WE SHOT OUR LOAD ON OUR BLOG!

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

THE BEE GEES - REMASTERS. Many of you had doubts when we raved about the Bee Gees box that came out in November. Now, you have the opportunity to buy their first three albums (Bee Gees 1st, Horizontal and Idea) individually, without shelling out the big bucks for the box. Same 2 CD remasters, same great bonus tracks, same rave reviews from us. If you have to pick one, we recommend starting with Horizontal, but they're all great. Remember, this isn't the disco stuff, but lush, hook-filled '60s pop.

FRANK BLACK - CHRISTMASS (CD/DVD). Live acoustic recordings plus some new studio stuff, along with a live DVD by the enormous lead singer of the PIxies.

CLINIC - VISITATIONS. Their third record since their breakthrough album Walking With Thee still has the trademark Gang-Of-Four-meets-Charlatans -UK sound, but the songs are their strongest in years.

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - VERY BEST OF: MORE SONGS TO LEARN AND SING (CD/DVD). What makes this compilation different from their last six compilations is that this is the only one to be released in January 2007. Plus it's got videos.

FACES - DEFINITIVE ROCK. If the single disc best-of wasn't enough for you, but the 4 CD box set was too much (although we don't think there's such a thing as too much Faces), this new 2 CD collection expands upon the single disc, and actually gives you a taste of some of the rarities from the box set. Not a standard to be found! Highly recommended.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN - THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN. Damon Albarn from Blur and the Gorillaz and Paul Simonon from the Clash release a new project which is supposed to sound like world music with a little British punk mixed in.

GRATEFUL DEAD - LIVE AT THE COW PALACE: NEW YEAR'S EVE 1976. Apparently popular in their time for playing long live shows and eating jam, these "hippies" still have quite a following. This live document is their 933rd live record, but only the 874th to feature "Playing In The Band."

LEE HAZLEWOOD - CAKE OR DEATH. Reportedly the last album by the legendary singer-songwriter, this features new recordings of some of his classic songs. Now we know he's sick, but what if he gets better? Or is inspired to make another quick record? Don't write Mr. Hazlewood off yet!

KRISTIN HERSH - LEARN HOW TO SING LIKE A STAR. It's like we always say. When life hands you lemons, make a Kristin Hersh record.

JOHN MELLENCAMP - FREEDOM'S ROAD. The new album featuring the Chevy commercial, the yogurt commercial, the cat food commercial, the insurance commercial, and a remix of "Pink Houses."

MOE - THE CONCH. His first record without Larry and Shemp is... oh, it's not that Moe? Oh, these are the guys who are pretty big on the jam circuit, selling out places as big as Radio City Music Hall. But then again, Dispatch just sold out three nights at Madison Square Garden, so what does that tell you?

THE SHINS - WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY. Critically acclaimed, their third record is certainly their strongest to date. A little less lo-fi and a little more grownup, the melodies are strong and the arrangements are clever, but not too clever.

TWILIGHT SINGERS - STITCH IN TIME. A 5 song EP from one of our favorite rock bands, with guest appearances by Joseph Arthur and Mark Lanegan.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE GOLDEN AGE OF ELEKTRA RECORDS (BOX SET). A 5 CD compilation from what David Fricke calls "the greatest rock n' roll label ever." We'd like to call this new set a 5 CD compilation from "one of the greatest rock n' roll labels ever, and also a very good folk label." This has it all -- Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, The Doors, Love, Queen, Judy Collins, Paul Butterfield, and last but not least, Bread. You wouldn't know it from what we just wrote, but it really is a damn good compilation.

THE WALKMEN - PUSSY CATS. We love Harry Nilsson, and we like the Pussy Cats album, and we don't really like the Walkmen. But why the hell would someone choose the ninth best Nilsson album as a cover project? Future projects by the Walkmen include re-recording Neil Young's Everybody's Rockin', Bob Dylan's Knocked Out Loaded, Frank Sinatra's Watertown, and the Doors' Other Voices.

PAUL WELLER - HIT PARADE (BOX SET and SINGLE CD). The US versions of these fine career-spanning compilations are now available at a more affordable price from the supercool Yep Roc label. If you need to be reminded, the single disc is a career-spanning best-of, while the box set devotes a disc to each phase of his career -- one for the Jam, one for the Style Council, and two to his solo career. Highly recommended.

TONY'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

YOU AM I - CONVICTS. Released in Australia last year, this excellent, punky power pop album is finally being released Stateside. Some damn fine high energy rock n' roll. Think late '60s Who crossed with early Jam, plus a smidgen of the Replacements.

JOHN HAMMOND - PUSH COMES TO SHOVE. The last few John Hammond records have been good, solid blues records with a modern sound, but this new one, produced by G. Love, gives Hammond his best record in years. It doesn't stray far from the gritty grooves of his previous records, yet something about it makes it more appealing. It could just be that G. Love has inspired Mr. Hammond. Highly recommended. Only in theaters!

SONNY ROLLINS - SONNY, PLEASE. We've read almost nothing but positive reviews of Rollins' first studio album in five years. The one so-so review is the one that we most agree with. There's nothing wrong with Sonny's playing -- there never has been. It just seems like the musicians backing him are kind of sleepwalking through the arrangements, and the production is borderline amateurish. But don't forget, anything new from Mr. Rollins is worth your time.

SOUNDTRACK - BILLY STRAYHORN: LUSH LIFE. Music from the PBS special about the brilliant songwriter and arranger, featuring performances by various combinations of Joe Lovano, Hank Jones, Paul Motian, Bill Charlap, Dianne Reeves, and Elvis Costello. Nice stuff! Highly recommended. Only in theaters!

ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED NEW RELEASES (OR ANY OLD STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT TO PICK UP) FROM US! EMAIL HEYNYCD@AOL.COM OR CALL (212) 244-3460!

URGENT!!!!

The dog days of January are almost over. Come on people! SELL US YOUR CDs AND DVDs! KEEP US IN BUSINESS! How many other emails do you get begging you to go somewhere and get money?

CHECK OUT our five part series "THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS," parts 1, 2 & 3 of which are already posted, along with a public bitch-slapping of Sal and his opinion by our loyal readers!

COMING SOON:

New releases from LUCINDA WILLIAMS (wait till you hear this one -- wow!), FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE, WILCO, HOLLY COLE, and two from HARRY CONNICK, JR., as well as the long-awaited expanded remasters of the SLY & THE FAMILY STONE catalog.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

How many blues guitarists does it take to change a light bulb?

4.

Your friends,
Elysian & Totie Fields

2007-01-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

PASSION OF THE CRANKS: PART THREE

This week's #1 record on the Billboard charts, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, sold a paltry 60,000 copies, an all-time low since the SoundScan method was put into use to tabulate weekly sales in 1991. Six or seven years ago, 60,000 units sold in a week would put you somewhere around the bottom of the top 20. If the sky isn't falling in the music industry, it sure feels like it is.

People in the industry, and the people who write about it, all have their theories about why nobody is buying music anymore. A big part of it, certainly, is now that everyone has a computer with a CD burner, a lot of former music buyers are now simply copying their friends' discs. The closing of chains like Tower gives prospective customers fewer places to buy CDs, and it also results in fewer impluse buys. And of course there's the over-hyped downloading revolution, which, while still only a tiny fraction of overall music sales (less than 6% in 2006), is nonetheless eating into physical music sales.

Even though all those things play a part in what seems to be the slow death of the music business as we know it, I think it's something a lot more insidious and far-reaching than the question of how we listen to music. It's more about how we hear music, and why.

There are now 300 million people in America, and it seems like there are also 300 million satellite radio stations, 300 million myspace.com band pages, and 300 million bloggers who write about music. Never before has the music scene been able to tailor itself to suit so many individual music tastes. Even Top 40 radio, which was designed to be all-encompassing, is itself fragmented into rock-oriented Top 40, dance-oriented Top 40, and so on. Listening to music can obviously be a very insular, individual experience, allowing us to create our own unique environments. It's why the Walkman, then the Discman, and now the iPod have been so successful. It's why niche formatting has taken over at radio.

But the emphasis on individuality has taken away something important, even vital, to pop music's success -- the communal experience. I don't think Nirvana is the greatest band in rock history. But in 1991 and '92, when millions of us were swept up in the grunge explosion that completely changed pop music for a few years, it felt like they were. It was thrilling to feel like we were a part of something that was bigger than our own personal tastes. Buying a Mudhoney or a Pearl Jam CD felt like making a statement -- screw the status quo, forget all the prefab trash that's been shoved down our throats, this is what speaks to me. To us. Because part of the excitement of that time was knowing that millions of people all over the country felt the same way and were listening to the same thing.

Even a few years later, when the boy band explosion seemed to negate everything that grunge stood for (and against), the spectacle of millions of teenagers squealing their lungs out over the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync made us pay more attention to the music, and instead of dismissing them as a bunch of pretty faces, we realized that they also had some excellent singles. It wasn't the same kind of communal experience as grunge was by any means, but it was an exciting time nonetheless.

Since then, there hasn't been a movement in pop music that could make music fans of diverse demographics and tastes all stand together and say "Yes, this is good." For all the great music that's been made in this decade, both popular and obscure, it's never equaled more than the sum of its parts. Nobody in particular is to blame, because it's damn near impossible to engineer that kind of explosion. It always seems to just happen spontaneously, and the record execs are usually as surprised as anyone when it does. But now, thanks to the fragmentation of the pop scene, it seems unlikely that we'll ever even have the opportunity to reach such a consensus again. Music is now engineered to reach certain sets of ears, and only those ears. No doubt there's a radio station on XM or Sirius that will play Beyonce followed by the Shins followed by the new Who record. But even that station will be designed to reach only the "eclectic listener" demographic or whatever they'll choose to call it, and nobody else.

People like Sal and me (and probably you too, if you've read this far) don't need pop phenoms to get excited about music and buy it. Music is our lives. We go searching for good stuff, be it old or new or in a record store or on iTunes or eBay. But there aren't enough of us for the biz as we know it to stay alive. It needs those casual fans -- for whom it takes more than just another Tuesday of new releases to get excited about buying music -- to take notice again. The people who got on line for Nirvana CDs in '91, and maybe even Backstreet Boys CDs in 2000, have gone missing. Is the apparatus to get them back still in place? Is the top 40 simply in need of a good, grunge-styled shakeup? Or is the mere idea of an across-the-board hit hopelessly outdated? Your guess is as good as ours.

2007-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

PASSION OF THE CRANKS: PART TWO

I spent a good part of the late 70's and most of the 80's playing drums in various bands. One band in particular, Pep In The Cat, was the working band. We made several demos, played many gigs, had some interesting opening slots (Badfinger -- minus Pete Ham & Tom Evans -- Big Joe Turner, and Defunkt), but most of all, had an amazing time. Now when I say it was a working band, I mean, I'd go to the gig, play all night, and get paid very little or nothing, a lot like my current job as a CD retailer. Yet, both jobs have one very important thing in common. Joy! Yes, amidst my complaining, I had a wonderful time then, and for the most part, I am having a wonderful, poverty-stricken time now. At Pep In The Cat's peak, a moment in time where we were close to being signed and we all thought we were going to be rock stars, the band would literally pack the clubs. A one A.M. showtime on a Tuesday was the norm, and STILL, people would come out. Lots of people. To see...well... a bunch of nobodies.

Earlier this week, I played my first gig as a (mostly welcome) new member of a band in almost 20 years. The Cool Jerks, a band of friends who have been playing music together for 25 years, invited me to sit in with them. I was a utility man, the Randy Velarde of cover bands. Over the course of two hours and two sets of good, old fashioned rock, rhythm & blues and soul, I jumped from drums to congas to tambourine, all the while, doing my best "Pip" or "3rd Top" on background vocals. Again, joy! Even on a frigid night, friends and family came out and had a good time.

Something struck me though, as I tried to focus on the crowd from the stage. This was obviously a crowd who came out to have some fun. (Well, all but 2 or 3 of them.) There were no big names on stage. There were no articles in The New York Times praising the Cool Jerks for their influence on hip-hop. This wasn't a one-off reunion. It was simply, "Come see your friends and hear some of your favorite tunes, have a few beers, and dance."

Now, for all the bellyaching about the price of concert tickets, the Stones can still pack 'em in by the truckload for slightly less than the price of a used car. Kids will always go to see their favorite bands because, hey, what else are you going to do when you're 18? But a lot people in my age range -- roughly 40-50 -- seem, for whatever reason, to have lost whatever impetus that used to get them out to see live music by someone other than a friend or a living legend from the classic rock era.

One obvious answer is this. Once you hit 40, you'd really rather not stand nuts to butts in a crowded club for your 10PM headliner. Sometimes, the start time is even later. And while monsters like The Stones and The Who can get away with the crippling price tag, others such as Lindsey Buckingham, Boz Scaggs, and the long absent Bob Seger, seem to be having trouble filling smaller-than-stadium size venues for less than half the price. $125 a ticket for Bob Seger seems like a bargain when the Stones' premium seats are $450. But really, $125 is about $75 too much. Basically, no one can afford to go to the big shows anymore.

And what about new music? Band of the moment Arcade Fire is playing a small church, and tickets are fetching $1000 on eBay. That's right, $1000. Passion? Or stupidity?
I say, some of the former and a lot of the latter.

What concerns me is what falls in between these extremes. Good bands, in tiny places, for little money, NOT selling more than 75% of the room. What's worse is the sad, empty jazz clubs of NYC. It shouldn't be easy to see ANYONE at the Village Vanguard on any night of any week! If Branford Marsalis plays a rare club date, then OK. Make your reservations early because, a special event like that, will no doubt draw the crowds. But when jazz legends like Curtis Fuller or Louis Hayes play to a half-full club, for an admission price of $15, it seems to me that something is terribly wrong. The Village Vanguard holds approximately 100 plus people. Are there not 100 people in NYC on any given night who want to see live jazz for 25 dollars? Hard to believe.

It's not the fault of die-hard music fans, who will go out to see pretty much anything, any time, at any cost. It's certainly not the fault of the artists. Maybe it's nobody's "fault." But the casual music fans, the people who can take or leave going to see a show, are choosing to leave it. Maybe to music fans, it's just too hard to understand how someone could choose any other sort of entertainment, or in some sad cases, no entertainment, as their choice for an evening. But in the words of a wise old friend of ours, "Just like if you build it, they will come, if you don't come, they will tear it down."

I know to many of you readers, this just sounds like fanatical music retailers taking out their frustration on a bunch of strangers. And in some ways, it is. But you can't deny the fact that music has been on life support for too many years now. And all of us have our hands on the plug.

2007-01-17T06:49:00.000-08:00

THE PASSION OF THE CRANKS

Back in the days when music was something that was only available in physical form, Sal and I would ogle whatever new releases or used CDs came into NYCD and say "That's mine, I'm taking it home." (Hey, why do you think we got into music retail in the first place? So we could get first dibs on all the discs that came in.) Nowadays, rarely a day goes by that I don't hear my partner talking about how he goes to bit torrent sites to "grab" live shows by his favorite bands and "throw them on iTunes."

Those phrases are telling. Music has gone from something we "take home" -- shepherding it into our inner sanctums, in a sense adopting it into our lives -- to something we "grab and throw." Violent words. We could do the same thing with a ball, or a toy, or a piece of trash. And that, I think, is what the digital revolution has wrought. We're becoming less music collectors than music accumulators. The question is, is this a good thing?

On one level, of course it is. Having more music than ever before at our fingertips, at a lower cost than ever before, and without the hassle of having to store it in physical form, is liberating. A friend of ours is burning us 34 hours of Bob Dylan's radio show. God knows when we'll ever find the time or the inclination to listen to all 34 hours, but it doesn't matter. If it's next week or 40 years from now, the shows will be on our hard drives, waiting for us. And that's pretty cool.

On another level, though, having unlimited access to cheap music... well, cheapens the music.

The records that stick in my head the most are the ones I bought when I was eight or nine years old, when I had to save my allowance for a couple of weeks so I could go to King Karol or Woolworth's and buy one record. And I would listen to that record dozens, even hundreds of times. So I would have to carefully choose which record to get, because a dud would mean I'd wasted my six or seven bucks AND two or three weeks of my time and energy, which I invested in learning that record note for note. As a result, I'm still sick of Blondie's "Parallel Lines" 25 years after I last heard it, because I played the damn thing so much in fourth grade. But I still probably know it better than I know my favorite record of, say, 2004, which is... um... what was it again?

Now, I'm not saying that we should have to fork over a week's salary for a CD (the major labels already tried that in the late '90s) and force ourselves to listen to it 500 times. But there's also something to be said for a music collection that's really a collection, rather than a bunch of stuff you've burned from friends or downloaded from eMusic and plan to listen to eventually, if you even remember you've got it on your hard drive.

Maybe I'm a reactionary, or a sentimentalist, or a businessman running scared. Or all of the above. But I think there's something to be said for having to put a little effort into finding music you can get passionate about. Because lately, it seems to me, a lot of people just don't have the passion they used to have for music. Don't get me wrong -- they probably listen to it as much as ever. They may "grab and throw" more music now than they ever "took home" before. But how much of it really grabs US? How often do we even listen to full albums anymore, let alone absorb them and let them affect us the way we used to?

Obviously, things will never go back to the way they were. There are too many casual music fans out there who are thrilled that they'll never have to go to a record store again, delighted that they can now buy one or two songs from iTunes rather than having to invest in a whole album's worth of music, overjoyed that they can free up all the shelf space that used to be taken up by records, tapes and CDs.

In the meantime, Sal and I still ogle the new releases and incoming used discs, and still take home a big pile of them every week, where we lovingly place them on our overcrowded CD shelves (for all his talk of grabbing and throwing live shows, there are few people who love CDs more than Sal). A lot of our regular customers still do the same thing. But how many of us are left, and for how long will we even be able to do so? For all that we've gained in the last few years, something important is being lost as well. Something that a lot of us may not even realize has been lost, until it's too late to do anything about it.

2007-01-13T05:42:00.000-08:00

THE READERS RESPOND!

Normally this would go in the "Comments" section of the blog, but because newsletter reader Michael Wells didn't post it there, and because we think it's a response worth reading, here it is:

I loved your store and very much enjoy the blog but I gotta take exception with your recent slagging of Paul Westerberg.

The 4 records he released 2002-04 on Vagrant (totally DIY, playing every instrument, recorded in his basement) "Folker", "Come Feel Me Tremble", "Stereo" and, especially, "Mono" are terrific and inspired. Things may have fallen off a bit during his major label solo outings but there's good stuff on them, as well. "Open Season" was a one-off cartoon soundtrack. "Let It Be", it ain't but it's not a "proper" PW release. No one's claiming it to be. And I maybe a fanatic, but some of that's even not half bad. "Love You in the Fall", for instance. His last two tours have been absolutely the equal of great Mat gigs in my opinion. Veering dangerously and without warning from disaster to redemption, ultimately.

I fucking love the guy, what can I say? I think he's an inspiration. Like for fuckups around the globe. I like you guys, too, so I guess that's why I'm leaping to his defense. At least he hasn't take up the goddamn lute.

Also, don't know if you saw this, he had some horrific accident over the holidays and put a freakin' screwdriver through his hand. Like impaled it. The left hand. His fretting hand. His doctor said he wouldn't play guitar for a year. So, if ya wanna look it one way, maybe this'll give him time to rethink direction and make another "Let It Be". Don't forget, tho', "Gary's Got A Boner" was on there as well...

In friendly disagreement,

Michael Wells

Michael, we still think Paul's recent records, while better than 1999's godawful Suicaine Gratifaction, are lifeless and boring. But maybe it's wrong to bash a guy when he's got a screwdriver rammed in his hand. Especially after he reunited the Replacements for two fun new songs on their recent best-of compilation. Get well soon, Paul!

2007-01-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER 2007: 2

TONY RETURNS FROM SHUFFLEBOARD CONVENTION IN FLORIDA!

SAL PUTS AWAY PHOTOS OF JIMMY ROSELLI AND TAKES DOWN DRIED SAUSAGES HANGING FROM CURTAIN RODS

STILL TOO EARLY IN THE YEAR FOR MANY NEW RELEASES, BUT WE'RE GIVING YOU WHAT WE'VE GOT

A SPECIAL COMMENTARY: POISONING THE WELL -- FORMERLY GREAT ARTISTS WHO NOW SUCK, AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM

and now... THE NEWSLETTER!

NEXT WEEK'S NEW RELEASES!

SAL'S PICK OF THE WEEK!

THE HOLMES BROTHERS - STATE OF GRACE. The Brothers have been making records since the late '80s, but it was only with the release of the Joan Osborne-produced Speaking In Tongues a few years back that they really seemed to find their voice. Their followup, Simple Truths, produced by Craig Street, was in the same vein -- soulful, even a bit preachy, but no less wonderful. Now, Craig Street is back behind the boards with State Of Grace, which could be the best of the lot. The majority of the instrumentation is done by the Brothers themselves, with help from such studio greats as Larry Campbell and Glenn Patscha, and the repertoire features some Holmes Brothers originals along with some of the most unique cover versions you'll ever hear, including a duet with Rosanne Cash on Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)," a couple of Lyle Lovett covers, and the crown jewel, a version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" that will leave you frozen in your seat -- check it out!

I WANT YOU TO WANT ME.mp3

AMERICA - HERE & NOW. This band got a bad rap for songs such as "Muskrat Love" and one of their biggest songs, "A Horse With No Name." But back in the '70s, their string of hits, produced by Sir George Martin, as well as some fine album tracks, made them a most respectable pop band. So much so that such luminaries as Adam & Chris from Fountains Of Wayne and Ryan Adams, plus not-such-luminaries like Ben Kweller and Nada Surf, all jumped at the chance to work on this new release. And you know what, dear readers? It's a damn good listen. Just think Fountains Of Wayne for the over-40 crowd. Also comes with a bonus live disc recorded just a few months back, featuring "Muskrat Love" and "A Horse With No Name!"

LOCKSLEY - DON'T MAKE ME WAIT. After a year as an Internet-only item, the debut from this Brooklyn-based band is finally made available with additional material. You may already know the title track, as it's been used on the Showtime network and a new commercial for either a car or soap, we can't remember. Regardless, this is Beatlesque power-pop at its finest. (WOW! 3 for 3 so far! But wait, there's more!)

PATRICK SIMMONS - ARCADE (REMASTER). Those wacky people at Wounded Bird Records pull another one out from the memory banks with the 1982 solo debut from one of the less attractive but very talented members of the Doobie Brothers. Features the kind-of-a-hit single "So Wrong."

THE SMITHEREENS - MEET THE SMITHEREENS. For the 25th anniversary of the Smithereens' existence, the boys pay tribute to the greatest band of all time by recreating, note for note, Meet The Beatles. It is so precise that when you throw it on iTunes, the database actually brings up Meet The Beatles. Well done, Smithereens!

THE STRANGLERS - SUITE XVI. Our old boss thought the Stranglers were the third best band in rock history, behind the Beatles and the Sex Pistols. This is why he now sells toilet parts.

JAZZ RELEASE OF THE WEEK!

CHARLES TOLLIVER - BIG BAND WITH LOVE. In the early '70s, Tolliver was one of the brightest young trumpeters around. As a matter of fact, his Live At Slugs performances from 1970 are some of the hottest live albums of the period, and some of that material is now available through a special box set from Mosaic Records. But if you don't want to go whole hog with an expensive box, this new release is just as smokin'. A big band which features Craig Handy, David Weiss, Clark Gayton, and Robert Glasper rips through some Tolliver originals and standards including a brilliant take on Monk's "'Round Midnight." The high-energy performance of this band is barely contained. The soloing, at times, feels like it'll ride you right off the rails. This kicks ass! It's an ass-kicker!

AL GREEN - THE DEFINITIVE GREATEST HITS. For those of you who still don't own an Al Green compilation, this new set is quite good. 21 remastered tracks featuring all the hits right through his most recent releases on Blue Note, plus a bonus DVD with six performances both old and new. Everyone should own at least one Al Green album, and this is as good as any.

DIANA ROSS - I LOVE YOU (CD/DVD). It's her first new studio album since 1999, but who noticed? To be quite honest, we haven't listened to Miz Ross since the classic Nile Rodgers-produced Diana album in 1980. Maybe we'll listen to this one if you ask nicely. We're a little curious. After all, she is the stepmother of Leona Naess. But we draw the line at her cover of "Take My Breath Away." The DVD features 40 minutes of Diana twirling in the rain while people get their pockets picked.

TO ORDER ANY OR ALL OF THESE RELEASES, EVEN THE ONES WE MADE FUN OF, EMAIL US AT HEYNYCD@AOL.COM OR CALL (212) 244-3460! WE CAN ALSO GET ANY OLDER CDs OR DVDs YOU WANT!

SPEAKING OF OLDER CDs...

GET YOUR BUTTS OVER HERE WITH YOUR COLLECTIONS! It's two weeks after Christmas. You're all broke. You need some money. And we need your CDs and DVDs. Get here toot sweet! We pay top dollar or even more top store credit! Call or email to make a date to SELL YOUR STUFF!

And now, it's time for...

POISONING THE WELL: THE LIFE AND (CREATIVE) DEATH OF SOME OF OUR FAVORITE MUSICIANS

Just about every artist was better in the early part of his or her career. Elvis peaked before he went in the Army, the Beatles' solo careers don't measure up to their group work, Elton John's first six records have more good songs than his last 46, and so on. But there are certain artists whose recent material is so inconceivably bad that we can't even listen to their good old material anymore. Some may think we shouldn't take this personally, but we think otherwise, because we are the fans who gave them fame and fortune in the first place, and now we feel abandoned. Here are a few examples:

STING: Sure, he pissed a lot of people off when he left the Police at the peak of their career to go solo, and it pissed even more people off when he won a Grammy for best jazz performance in 1985. But that's not his fault. And his first four solo records ("Dream Of The Blue Turtles," "...Nothing Like The Sun," "The Soul Cages," and "Ten Summoners Tales") really were damn good, even if they didn't sound like the Police. But since then, Sting has all but abandoned the pop music that he's best at. Even when he tries to revisit his classics, it's usually some sleepwalk through "Roxanne" or "Message In A Bottle" with the aid of some current pop star in the spotlight. Now, by delving into world music, classical music, and most offensively, 16th century lute music, he's poisoned the well. You couldn't fault the guy for trying to expand his musical horizons. But he's made it known publicly that he thinks all current rock and pop music is boring. You know what we'd like to do, Sting? We'd like to take that lute and shove it up your tight Tantric ass.

THE REPLACEMENTS: One of the most passionate and exciting bands of the '80s would be so reckless onstage that their performances could veer from tight, rock-solid punk brilliance to drunken covers of Petula Clark hits within minutes, and their fans loved them for it. Records like Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased To Meet Me influenced more bands than their record sales might indicate. Once they broke up in the early '90s, however, frontman Paul Westerberg got on the wagon, fell in love, had a kid, and ruined it for everyone by making some of the most boring, soulless, insipid, flaccid, utterly crap albums in rock history. In order to pay the bills, his most recent album was the soundtrack to an animated film, and even four year olds thought it was wimpy. You know what, Paul? We heard you fell off the wagon on your last tour, and even that didn't work. Maybe you should try leaving your wife next.

DAVID BYRNE: If you could love a pretentious asshole, then you had to love David Byrne. The first four Talking Heads records are arguably some of the most influential and groundbreaking albums ever made. Three skinny white guys and a skinny white gal who met at RISD and pooled their talents in New York City laid down some of the nastiest grooves since the heyday of Fela and James Brown, and made it cool to be a nerd in the process. But Byrne's ego got in the way, and the beginning of the end began. Sure, Rei Momo, Byrne's 1989 post-Heads solo debut, was a little bit of fun, and we thank him for turning us on to so much great Brazilian pop via his "Beleza Tropical" series. But then, it was one debacle after another. Forays into avant-garde neo-classical doody like "Music For The Knee Plays" and "The Forest" were painful, and even his most recent attempts at pop records were little more than the B-level material heard on latter-day Heads records like Naked and True Stories. Now, we have this pompous release on the horizon: a collaboration with Fatboy Slim on the life of Imelda Marcos. You know what, David? Shut yer piehole. No one gives a s**t anymore except people who go to see you because they think you wrote "Take Me To The River."

There are many others who fall into this category, such as Prince, Joe Jackson, and the aforementioned Elton John. Some of you may wonder why we didn't include Rod Stewart, who went from being one of the greatest performers in rock history to a man who makes us ashamed to say we like music. There is nothing more unlistenable than Rod Stewart's recent success in the form of poorly sung standards with poor arrangements and poor production. But for some reason, we can still get off on the Faces and his early solo work without thinking of the travesty that he's become. Go figure.

Thanks for reading!

Until next week, we leave you with this:

In the words of the great Louis Armstrong, "There are some people that, if they don't know, you can't tell them."

Your friends,
Lovely Rita and Vaughn Meader

2007-01-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

WHAT REPUBLICANS LISTEN TO AND WHY

Our good friends over at RIGHT WING TRASH have posted their TOP TEN CDs of 2006. Better late than never, I say. We're still waiting for POPSURFING'S list, although the promise to listen to every cd released before making a decision on the Top Ten, may certainly leave us waiting a very long time.

2007-01-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

THE MARSALII

While Wynken and Blinken Marsalis are busy doing their high profile activities to bring jazz to a much broader audience (read:rich people), the two lesser known and in many ways more exciting and talented Marsaliseses, Delfeayo & Jason, continue to stay low profile and play jazz for jazz fans.

Delfeayo's most recent release, "MINION'S DOMINION," is a fantastic record that features the late great drum legend Elvin Jones, in his final recorded appearance. And last night, at the most odious of all NYC venues, the Blue Note, Delfeayo Marsalis and his sextet, paid tribute to Mr. Jones with a solid, if somewhat safe set, that featured the Baby Marsalis, Jason, filling in on traps.

The band included the very tasty Anthony Wonsey on piano, bassist Gerald Cannon from that jazz mecca we call Milwaukee, and Mark Shim & Dave Liebman both on tenor, with Delfeayo leading the way on trombone. The material was as I said earlier, a bit safe. Two Marsalis originals opened the set, "Brer Rabbit," and "The Lone Warrior," the latter written for Elvin Jones. Both songs were your standard 15 minutes workouts, giving each musician time to loosen up. Everyone on the bandstand was quite capable, but no one, aside from Jason on drums, offered anything to take home.

It was on the next song, a slow, heartbreaking rendition of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World," where the band wore their hearts on their sleeves. Delfeayo took the melody to new heights on the trombone, and turned this song into a gospel.

The band closed the set with the Duke's (Ellington not Snyder)"It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing." Again, all band members got their moment, but it was Jason's drum solo that got the biggest ovation, as it usually does. Tall and lanky, Jason Marsalis somehow manages to create tone and more important, melody on his drumkit, while still astonishing the audience with his speed and often unorthodox soloing. He turned an average night into something to remember.

Now, back to the Blue Note. I don't know anyone who resides in NYC and goes to the Blue Note unless they absolutely have to. It is expensive, unfriendly and uncomfortable. It is a tourist trap, regardless of its history, and a mostly unpleasant experience for all.

I made my reservation almost a month ago for this show. I try to catch Jason Marsalis anytime he is in NY. My wife and I arrived 30 minutes prior to showtime, and got seated behind the piano, with a perfect view of Anthony Wonsey's ass. We were seated at a table for 4, with 6 people and had to watch most of the show by staring at the reflection in the designer mirror, opposite the stage. Thanks to the wooden paneling across the mirror, it often looked liked Mark Shim's head on Delfeayo's body, or Gerald Cannon plucking Dave Liebman's sax.

Delfeayo Marsalis said something very interesting soon after he took the stage last night. "Back in the 1900's, horn players had to make their horns sound like voices in order to get gigs. We are sort of keeping that tradition, only we still can't get gigs." Well Delfeayo, it's not only jazz and its musicians who can't get respect. It's the fans, as well. And you can thank the Blue Note for keeping that tradition. See you at Jazz Standard.

2007-01-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

WHO WILL PLAY THE LUTE?

To mark the 30th anniversary of "Roxanne," the Police will reunite for a tour of the UK and the States in 2007. Also, A&M plans on releasing a multi-disc boxed set, "in the same vein as 'Message In A Box,' which included their entire studio recordings and rarities. You can read all about it here.

So, riddle me this Batman, what geniuses at Universal came up with the idea to release another boxed set? What will this new one have on it, if the first one was their entire recorded output? Outtakes from "Rumble Fish?" And, if 50% of The Who can charge $250 a pop, what could The Police possibly charge for a full blown reunion? I bet, $350 a ticket. That's $340 for Sting, and 5 bucks each for Andy and Stewart.

Only in theatres!!

2007-01-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

BUENA VISTA FELINE CLUB

The new March release from Ry Cooder, "My Name Is Buddy," is a 17 song affair sung from the perspective of a cat. Now there is no indication that this is a children's record, so one must assume that Cooder has not taken the deaths of 4/5 of the Buena Vista Social Club too well.

2007-01-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

2007: IN LIKE A LAMB

The Christmas and New Year's holidays just weren't the same without that last minute rush of retail business like the days of old. As NYCD starts year #2 of office work, we look forward to keeping the music alive. I know, a very cheesy thing to say. But, if we say it enough, maybe, just maybe, things will take a turn for the better. It is for the love of music that we plan on hanging around a bit longer. (It certainly isn't for the love of money.) Our goal is to stay positive! We started the new year, healthy and somewhat happy. Two very important things.

An old friend called to say hello for the holidays and we discussed many things, including the things that cause us stress. Our jobs, our health. Not to mention the smaller pointless things like slow subway service. OR the terrible, expensive coffee at Starbucks along with its slow service. Rod Stewart. Paris Hilton. Movies over 95 minutes. As I continued with my litany of complaints, he interrupted me and asked me, "If you only had 3 months to live, would you give a shit about the subway or Starbucks or any of this?" My answer was, "Of course not." "So why do you care now?" He had a point. So I've decided, from here on out, not to care about those things. And neither should you. Enjoy your life! Fill it with music. And for those of you with 3 months or less to live, can we please have your CDs? WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF STUFF TO SELL!!!

In the words of Danny Rose: "Acceptance. Forgiveness. Love."

2006-12-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

... AND A HAPPY F***IN' NEW YEAR

With the passing of AHMET ERTEGUN, TOWER RECORDS, PETER BOYLE and JAMES BROWN, the world is an immeasurably crappier place than it was just a few weeks ago. Heaven help us all. More on the Godfather of Saul -- er, Soul -- later. But first, here's a little year-end recap of Year I of NYCD: The Office.

NYCD started a new life in 2006, operating from a small office in midtown after shutting its Upper West Side doors on Christmas eve of 2005. Just like everyone else, we had high points and low points. Most of our high points involved our friends and loyal supporters who did not let a week go by without paying respect to our dear, departed brick and mortar. Hearing that the loss of NYCD's retail outlet left a great void in so many lives fueled our fire. We want to come back. AND WE WILL!

Most of low points came in the guise of phone calls from the oblivious, fair-weather friends who failed to notice that our wonderful little shop had gone out of business. "I can't find you. Did you move?" "What time do you close tonight? Really? When did you close? I loved that shop." So many loved us, yet 367 days later, they still didn't notice we weren't there.

2007 must not be a continuation of 2006. Music is on the verge of disappearing. And we strongly suspect that things are going to get worse before they get better. Stores where you can go and buy music will continue to disappear. More CDs will go out of print, and those that are still in print will be harder to find. For real music lovers who want more than compressed MP3 files of this week's hot new releases, or who love shopping for vintage recordings on small labels, it looks like we're entering a new Dark Ages.

Our message to you is, DON'T DESPAIR! Don't decide to stop caring about music! Don't be one of those old curmudgeons who doesn't listen to any music made after 1973 because "Nobody's making good music anymore"! When you do that, the idiots who put the music industry in this mess in the first place win. They don't give a crap what music fans (or indie retailers, for that matter) want, as long as they make a buck. It's up to all of us to be the thorns in their side. If you want to be able to buy CDs as well as download music, then don't stop buying CDs. If you don't want to have to go to Amazon or Wal-Mart to find CDs, then support your local music retailers. But don't stop letting your voices and your wallets be heard!

And if you're looking for some good CDs by a recently deceased artist to buy (because, hey, who doesn't like to buy music by someone who just died?).... here's our little tribute to the Hardest Working Man In The Shoe Business -- er, Show Business!

We're not going to presume that we can add anything substantial to the millions of words that have been written about James Brown over the years, let alone all the boring yakety-yak that untold bloggers have been spewing since they heard the news of his death. But if there's one thing we do know, it's CDs. And here are a few of Mr. Brown's recordings that go beyond the standard hits compilations, and are worth your time and money:

LOVE POWER PEACE - Recorded live at L'Olympia in Paris in 1971 for a proposed live album that never surfaced until 20 years later. This is the only full-length live recording by Brown with the legendary JB's, the backing band that only stayed with him for a year but helped him to create some of his most legendary recordings. Explosive and intense from start to finish.

FOUNDATIONS OF FUNK: 1964-69 - One of a series of double CD sets chronicling the Godfather's entire career. This covers the period when he virtually reinvented soul music, from groundbreakers like "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" through funk workouts like "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud."

I CAN'T STAND MYSELF - The majority of these tracks have been reissued elsewhere, but in its original running order, this LP is unquestionably some of the funkiest music recorded by Brown. "I Can't Stand Myself When You Touch Me," "There Was a Time," "Get It Together," and the instrumentals "Funky Soul #1," "The Soul of J. B.," are all included.

SOUL PRIDE :THE INSTRUMENTALS (1960-1969) - 36 tracks culled from various singles and albums, these tracks showcase the "Godfather's" backing bands, as well as Brown's organ playing. This stuff is hot stuff, this stuff. (This one is out of print and pretty hard to find, but we'll do a search for it if you're interested enough.)

SOUL ON TOP - Definitely not your typical James Brown album. This 1968 excursion into jazz was recorded with Louie Bellson's orchestra, with arrangements by Oliver Nelson, and features Brown tackling everything from standards like "That's My Desire" to Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart" to a big band workout on his own "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." The highlight is a bizarre but thrilling version of "September Song." Also recommended: Gettin' Down To It, in which he's backed by a small jazz combo and sings mostly Sinatra classics.

IN CLOSING, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Stay tuned next week for our list of OUR FIVE FAVORITE ALBUMS BY GERALD FORD!

Happy New Year from your friends, current and ex,
Tony and Sal
aka Sal and Tony

2006-12-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

STOP THE PRESSES! IT'S ROB'S TOP TEN AND THE STAFF TOP TEN!

Since we published our top ten lists, hardcore NYCD fans have been asking "Hey, what about Rob's top ten?" To which we responded, "Aaahh, Rob only listens to Grateful Dead records." Obviously, we were mistaken, because here's his Top Ten for 2006!

10. NEKO CASE - FOX CONFESSOR BRINGS THE FLOOD
9. TWO TIMIN' THREE - PAYIN' THE PRICE
8. STANTON MOORE - III
7. RACONTEURS - BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS
6. ELVIS COSTELLO/ALLEN TOUSSAINT - THE RIVER IN REVERSE
5. BOB DYLAN - MODERN TIMES
4. THE LITTLE WILLIES - THE LITTLE WILLIES
3. JAMES HUNTER - PEOPLE GONNA TALK
2. WAYNE HANCOCK - TULSA
1. GOMEZ - HOW WE OPERATE

And now, using our trusty abacus and some old IBM punchcards, we've managed to tabulate the NYCD Top Ten for 2006, incorporating all our picks based on an arcane and complicated mathematical formula that's been in the family for generations. Hold onto your hats, people!

10. WILLIE NELSON - SONGBIRD
9 . WAYNE HANCOCK - TULSA
8. BELLE & SEBASTIAN - THE LIFE PURSUIT
7. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - WE SHALL OVERCOME
6. BECK - THE INFORMATION
5. RACONTEURS - BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS
4. STANTON MOORE - III
3. ELVIS COSTELLO/ALLEN TOUSSAINT - THE RIVER IN REVERSE
2. JAMES HUNTER - PEOPLE GONNA TALK
And the best album of 2006, as chosen by the NYCD staff...
1. BOB DYLAN - MODERN TIMES

Order them from us! Buy with confidence -- they all get the official NYCD seal of approval!

2006-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

AND THE LISTS JUST KEEP ON COMING

Here's NYCD Blog reader Kevbry's TOP 10 of 2006!

1) Long Winters – Putting the Days to Bed

2) Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium

3) Snow Patrol – Eyes Open

4) Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Letting Go

5) The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America

6) PJ Harvey – BBC Sessions

7) Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers

8) Sparklehorse – Dreamt for Light Years…

9) Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche

10) The Zutons – Tired of Hanging Around

And here's Jay B.'s TOP 10, along with commentary.

10. Cuff the Duke – A gentleman from Vancouver told me to buy it and
then told me to eat Salmon Benedict! Win Win!

9. Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit. They pissed me off in
college, but this album ain’t their typical twee college try.

8. Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. A
fine, fine album from the band who rescued Hanukkah and VU style jams
for all the world to hear.

7. Benevento-Russo Duo. – Play Pause Stop. Superb soundscapes from two
awesome musicians.

6. Donald Fagen – Morph the Cat. Terrific. Just as Lou Reed’s New
York painted the vivid images of late 80s city in crisis, Donald
Fagen’s third part in a trilogy is beautiful and haunting. Too bad,
the last Steely Dan album sucked!

5. The Essex Green – Cannibal Sea. You guys recommended this album and
I’ve never looked back.

4. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The Country and Pop
chanteuse brings the goods.

3. Eccentric Soul – The Big Mack Label. Some of the best Soul you’ve
never heard.

2. Wilco – Kicking Television. I made a New Years resolution to stop
listening to live tracks, unless I was at the show. But this is one
hell of a live band and one hell of a live album.

1. Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse. So good, so
good. And their show in Oakland was the best show I saw all year

Don't forget, all these CDs can be ordered from us, so email or call us at (212) 244-3460! What better way to show your loved ones that you care this holiday season than to buy them some kickass music?

2006-12-10T06:39:00.000-08:00

A COOL LIST FROM A COOL JERK

Here's Peter R.'s year-end faves, along with his always welcome, stream-of-consciousness commentary:

10. GRAM PARSONS- The Complete Reprise Sessions
9. DRIVE BY TRUCKERS - A Blessing & A Curse
8. QUANTIC- An Announcement To Answer
7. ALICE RUSSELL- Under The Munka Moon II
6. CHARANGA CAKEWALK - Chicano Zen
5. LILA DOWNS - La Cantina
4. BOOZOO BAJOU- Juke Joint III
3. JAMES HUNTER- People Gonna Talk
2. DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND- What's Going On
1. ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT- The River In Reverse

Special mention, 'cause it's from 2005, DWIGHT YOAKAM- Blame The Vain, and NICOLE WILLIS & THE SOUL INVESTIGATORS- Keep Reachin' Up (this would be 10 if you can't count the Gram Parsons) NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE - Live At the Fillmore East (not sure if old new albums count or maybe this would be 10) and the first two J.Geils Band albums 'cause I've been listening to them again and they are so good and these guys don't get enough respect.

AND TWO GREAT CHRISTMAS ALBUMS
Soul Christmas
It's Christmas Time Again

SUPER SPECIAL MENTION
Any mixes by Sal N.
Any mixes by Steve F.

(editor's note: NYCD had nothing to do with this)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something and all musical lists, no matter what, (except worst of) should include OTIS REDDING- Otis Blue.

Thank you, Peter.

2006-12-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

THE READERS SPEAK!

Our first entry if from Ed. A fine man, a loyal customer, and from what I hear, a damn good Snooker player. Here is Ed's TOP TEN CDs of 2006.

10. THE MAGIC NUMBERS- Those The Brokes
9. LOS LOBOS- The Town & The City
8. GOLDEN SMOG- Another Fine Day
7. I SEE HAWKS IN L.A.- California Country
6. THE RACONTEURS- Broken Boy Soldiers
5. DIXIE CHICKS- Taking The Long Way
4. ELVIS COSTELLO/ALLEN TOUSSAINT- River In Reverse
3. JAMES HUNTER- People Gonna Talk
2. THE MINUS 5- The Gun Album
1. DEADSTRING BROTHERS- Starving Winter Report.

This next list is from the "other" great man named Dylan. NYCD and Dylan #2 don't always agree. Take a look at his 10 faves of the year and see what you think.

10. ELVIS COSTELLO/ALLEN TOUSSAINT- River In Reverse
9. OUTKAST- Idlewild
8. CRACKER- Greenland
7. ROBERT RANDOLPH- Colorblind
6. ARCTIC MONKEYS- Whatever They Say I Am...
5. RATATAT- Classics
4. PRINCE- 3121
3. TREY ANASTASIO- Bar 17
2. GNARLS BARKLEY- St. Elsewhere
1. BENEVENTO-RUSSO- Play Pause Stop

Keep them cards and letters coming, folks.

2006-12-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER: THE YEAR-END LISTS!

NEWS FLASH: CDs MAKE BETTER GIFTS THAN DOWNLOADS!

SAL & TONY'S YEAR-END LISTS!

YEAH YEAH, HO HO, SANTA'S ON THE PIPE....

And now... THE NEWSLETTER! (SPECIAL YEAR-END VERSION)

It's that time again, dear readers. Time for eggnog, mulled wine, cats choking on tinsel, and of course, NYCD'S TOP TEN RECORDS OF 2006.

Both Tony & Sal have put together their faves, as well as some honorable mentions. So here we go!

TONY'S TOP TEN:

10. THE LEMONHEADS - LEMONHEADS. Yes, Evan Dando is a stoner nincompoop, but he's also an excellent performer and songwriter, and he proves it on his best and most exciting album in over a decade.

9. ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT - THE RIVER IN REVERSE. This album flopped big-time; I can almost hear the would-be record buyers saying "I like Elvis Costello, but why's he dressed like a pimp on the cover? And who's the black guy next to him?" It's a shame so many people passed it by, because it's a beautiful, heartfelt and passionate tribute to New Orleans by two brilliant musicians.

8. YOU AM I - CONVICTS. Think Paul Westerberg crossed with Pete Townshend with a bit of young Paul Weller thrown in for good measure. Australia's finest band rock harder than ever on their eighth album, but on first listen it seems like the power pop magic that fuels their finest music is missing. Give it a couple of chances, however, and the melodies and hooks creep in amidst the buzzsaw riffs and screaming vocals. They've still got it.

7. THE RACONTEURS - BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS. My favorite thing about this union of Jack White, power-popper extraordinaire Brendan Benson, and the rhythm section from garage rock greats The Greenhornes is that you really can hear strong elements of all three -- it's not a vehicle for any one artist. Somehow, they manage to combine their strong personal styles and fuse them into a great group effort. I don't know if I'd want them to give up their day jobs, but this is a great side project.

6. GNARLS BARKLEY - ST. ELSEWHERE. Every year or two, there's a record that's so undeniable that everyone loves it -- hip-hoppers, alt-rockers, Top 40 fans, the classic rock crowd... everyone. This year that record was Gnarls' "Crazy," and the rest of the album is damn near as good.

5. THE ESSEX GREEN - CANNIBAL SEA. Indie pop meets '60s pop, and this Brooklyn band does them both perfectly. Catchy as hell, but with a cynical edge that makes it clear this is no dewy-eyed nostalgia act.

4. JAMES HUNTER - PEOPLE GONNA TALK. There's a big, big difference between doing an album that sounds like it was recorded in 1962 and one that sounds like a great lost album from 1962. This is definitely the latter -- great songwriting, fluid, supple guitar playing, and soulful vocals that sound like Sam Cooke crossed with Georgie Fame. The only disappointment about it is that his live performances show how much more he's capable of.

3. BELLE & SEBASTIAN - THE LIFE PURSUIT. I never understood the appeal of these tweesters when they were conquering the alt-rock world, but now that they've gotten a little more peppy and beefed up the instrumentation, they've revealed themselves as an absolutely brilliant pop band. This album may have been roundly ignored upon its release in February, but I kept coming back to it all year long, and it holds up.

2. BOB DYLAN - MODERN TIMES. At age 65, Dylan's not only in peak form, he's selling more records than he has since the '70s. He's still able to toss off lyrics that any songwriter would kill to think up, and his band is able to make the music stand up to the words. If you've ever liked Dylan, then this album is worth picking up.

1. BECK - THE INFORMATION. He hasn't been Mr. Zeitgeist for a while now, but Beck's records have gradually been improving, and this is his best yet. At last, a cohesive fusion of all the stylistic hats he's tried on in the past -- from ironic slacker to sensitive folkie to party animal, to name a few -- and the result is a wall-to-wall display of the man's genius. Great packaging, too.

SAL'S TOP TEN:

10. THE RACONTEURS- BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS. Jack White left his Stripes behind to join forces with pop-craftsman Brendan Benson, and the killer rhythm section from Cincinnati, The Greenhornes, for a record of psych-pop, hard rock, and hummable melodies.

9. JAMES HUNTER- PEOPLE GONNA TALK. This wunderkind has blessed us with a perfect throwback to the heyday of 1960s British R&B. Part Sam Cooke, part Van Morrison, all amazing.

8. SCISSOR SISTERS- TA-DAH! This is like listening to your favorite '70s and '80s mix tape. After a solid debut, the Sisters' sophomore release has more hooks than Mike's Bait & Tackle on Emmons Avenue. Elton, Bowie, The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, T.Rex -- they all show up in spirit on this fun-filled CD.

7. CORINNE BAILEY RAE - CORRINE BAILEY RAE. Could have easily been dismissed as another Norah Jones wanna be, or the British Darling du jour. Thankfully, Corinne Bailey Rae is neither. She is full of charm and talent, and her songs are full of melody. An acoustic soul record that overrated artists such as India Arie and Mary J. Blige wish they could have made.

6. IRMA THOMAS- AFTER THE RAIN. The Queen Of New Orleans released some of the greatest R&B of the 60's, with the help of songwriting genius Allen Toussaint. But over the last 25 years, Miss Thomas has had more misses than hits -- until now. Inspired and moved after losing everything to Hurricane Katrina, "After The Rain" is an understated but powerful record, featuring some of the New Orleans finest musicians backing Miss Thomas on her best record in 35 years.

5. BOB DYLAN- MODERN TIMES. The greatest living songwriter completes his trilogy that began with "Time Out Of Mind" and continued with "Love & Theft." A record that sits right up there with his best.

4. WILLIE NELSON- SONGBIRD. Nelson's umpteeth release is his best in years, thanks to solid production and song selection from Ryan Adams.

3. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - WE SHALL OVERCOME: THE SEEGER SESSIONS. A joyous and emotional romp through American folk classics. The Boss drives home many a message with the help of a stellar big band.

2. ELVIS COSTELLO/ALLEN TOUSSAINT- THE RIVER IN REVERSE. Two legends collaborate on a post-Katrina gift to New Orleans. Consisting of mostly Toussaint songs originally recorded by Lee Dorsey, as well as some Costello originals, The River In Reverse is a truly inspired creation.

1. STANTON MOORE- III. Quite possibly the funkiest record since Sly Stone's heyday, New Orleans drummer-extraordinare's third solo release is as much a party record as it is a groove record, much like the brilliant jazz releases of Grant Green & Jimmy Smith. Chock full of chops, Moore's drumming will knock the wind out of you.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

NEW ORLEANS SOCIAL CLUB- SING ME BACK HOME. One of the many New Orleans/Katrina tribute CDs released this year, this is the cream of the crop. With a core band featuring members of the Meters and the Neville Brothers, Henry Butler, and Raymond Weber, this group convened in Austin, with vocalists Irma Thomas, John Boutte, Marcia Ball and more, for the most hearfelt tribute to the great city.

BOBBY PREVITE- THE COALITION OF THE WILLING. A longtime figure in N.Y.'s downtown music scene, drumming genius Previte releases his most accessible album to date. With the help of Charlie Hunter, Stanton Moore, Jamie Saft and DJ Logic, Previte crosses jazz, funk, fusion and surf for a jovial, yet challenging listen.

ROSANNE CASH- BLACK CADILLAC. The loss of Miss Cash's parents inspired this beautiful work, which is arguably the best of her of distinguished career.

TWILIGHT SINGERS- POWDER BURNS. Greg Dulli's Afghan Whigs are no more, but thankfully he continues his hard rocking soul with The Twilight Singers' newest release, Powder Burns. The music is riff-heavy and packs a punch, yet Dulli's vocals can, at times, sound like he's crooning a soul ballad right in the middle of it.

THE BEATLES - LOVE. Not sure if this really counts as a "new" album, but the chance to hear these songs in a new context and jaw-dropping remastering is worth mentioning regardless.

FRANK SINATRA - VEGAS (BOX SET). Four CDs and a DVD of previously unreleased nightclub performances from 1961-87 that will convert the unconverted, raise the dead, bring about world peace, you name it. An astonishingly good collection that's not for fans only.

THE BEE GEES - THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1967-68 (BOX SET). Record Label Of The Year goes to Rhino, hands-down, for continuing to release beautiful, well-thought-out box sets like these in the face of a declining CD market. If you've never heard the Bee Gees' lush, Beatlesque late '60s albums, then you need to check out this box. Six CDs of pop bliss, and even the outtakes and alternates on the bonus discs are first-rate.

NAT KING COLE - STARDUST (BOX SET). It'll cost you an arm and a leg, but you won't miss 'em once you hear the 11 CDs worth of pop and jazz brilliance in this box, containing everything the King recorded between 1955-59. Classic albums, rare singles, and even a dozen or so previously unreleased gems, with an enormous hardcover book included to guide you through it all.

IRVING FIELDS & ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ - OY VEY... OLE! Tony never misses an opportunity to mention Irving Fields, one of the last cocktail pianists from the '40s and '50s who's still active. He's still going strong, too, as this fantastic fusion of Cuban and Jewish music proves. Assisted by Rodriguez's red-hot band, you'll be on the floor, whether you're dancing a rhumba or the hora.

And because Tony is a list-making machine and just can't stop... here's another list!

TONY'S FIVE FAVORITE CHRISTMAS ALBUMS!

5. FRANK SINATRA, DEAN MARTIN & SAMMY DAVIS, JR. - CHRISTMAS WITH THE RAT PACK. A great mix of three of the heppest cats around singing some of your favorite Christmas songs. Apparently someone forgot to remind Sammy that he was Jewish, because he chimes in with a couple of Yuletide carols as well.

4. THE FAB FOUR - CHRISTMAS WITH THE FAB FOUR. An anonymous studio band does letter-perfect hybrids of holiday classics crossed with Beatles songs. They've got the accents and the instrumentation down perfectly, and... well, you've got to hear it.

3. VARIOUS ARTISTS - CHRISTMAS COCKTAILS, VOL. 1. The kings and queens of '50s and '60s E-Z listening doing straight and not-so-straight versions of holiday classics. Which means you'll get "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" by Dean Martin alongside "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Mambo" by Billy May. Volumes 2 and 3 are great, too!

2. VINCE GUARALDI - A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS. It wouldn't be Hanukkah in my home without Guaraldi's classic album adding to the holiday cheer. If you've heard it, you don't need me to tell you how great it is. If you haven't heard it, you've obviously been in a coma for the last forty years. The album has just been reissued with unreleased bonus tracks added, by the way.

1. VARIOUS ARTISTS - HIPSTERS' HOLIDAY. One of the only things I like about December is that it gives me the opportunity to play this CD again. Amazing swing, jump blues, rock n' roll and jazz by legends like Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross alongside fantastic unknowns from the '40s and '50s.

If you've got a top ten list you'd like to submit, email it to us at HEYNYCD@aol.com and we'll post it on the blog. First come, first served!

CDs MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

Once you've checked out our lists, get your orders in for those stocking stuffers and under-the-menorah gifts (nothing like a Corrine Bailey Rae CD for day 6!).

And since we're here, why not a little bit of NEW RELEASE INFO!

GWEN STEFANI - SWEET ESCAPE. The harmless followup to Love, Sex, Angel, Shoes contains the usual assortment of slickly produced, all-style-no-substance la-di-dah beloved by music industry tools.

FRANK ZAPPA - MOFO PROJECT/OBJECT. Official album #78 from the Zappa camp features the original stereo vinyl mix of the legendary debut album "Freak Out," along with a second disc featuring unreleased sessions and alternates.

ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT - HOT AS A PISTOL, KEEN AS A BLADE (DVD). Two-plus hours of concert footage and more, captured earlier this year in Toronto. This DVD features Costello faves and Allen Toussaint hits reworked with a New Orleans R & B flavor. This is a good one!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER...

VARIOUS ARTISTS - RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO. This project brings together the legendary surviving musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club (which at this point is one guy named Jose) with Chris Martin (Coldplay), Dido, Franz Ferdinand, Sting, Bono, and Radiohead among others, performing collaborations on some of their classic hits. We've heard their version of Radiohead's "High & Dry," and it doesn't sound as funny as the actual description. As a matter of fact, it was damn good.

DON'T FORGET, WE CAN GET YOU ANYTHING MENTIONED HERE PLUS ANY OTHER CDs OR DVDs YOU'RE HANKERING FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON! CALL (212) 244-3460 OR EMAIL US AT HEYNYCD@AOL.COM!

SELL US YOUR OLD CDs & DVDs! COME ON, WE KNOW YOU NEED THE CASH FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS! CALL OR EMAIL!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

What's the difference between James Dolan and e.coli?

No difference.

Your friends,
The bags under Jeff Van Gundy's eyes

2006-11-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER #38!

JOKE OF THE DAY:

CUSTOMER: Hi! Is this NYCD? We're looking for your store but... you don't seem to be there. Did you move?

NYCD: Bet you miss us now that Tower's closing, don't you? Why don't you buy your nephew a frappuccino for the holidays instead of a CD, you shtoonk!

(That felt good!)

R.I.P. ANITA O'DAY, BETTY COMDEN

GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK MICHAEL RICHARDS

And now, the BLACK FRIDAY NEWSLETTER, with a handful of new releases, but you can always check our blog for previous weeks' newsletters as well as lots of other entertaining and informative music-related crap!

OUT NEXT WEEK!

CROWDED HOUSE - FAREWELL TO THE WORLD. The band's final performance at the Sydney Opera House was available overseas as a videotape for a short period of time. Now we get a 2 CD version of the legendary farewell show from 1996, which will actually play in American CD players.

DAVID GILMOUR - ON AN ISLAND (SPECIAL EDITION). It took Sony an excruciatingly long 32 weeks to reissue this not-bad solo release from the Pink Floyd guitarist, which now includes a bonus DVD that features footage from Royal Albert Hall and his AOL Sessions. Technology has improved dramatically in 32 weeks.

GEORGE MICHAEL - 25: ANTHOLOGY (IMPORT). UK-only digitally remastered compilation which features the good and bad Wham songs, the really good George Michael solo stuff, some of the drecky George Michael stuff from the post-caught-in-men's-room years, as well as his guest spots on other people's records, all in one fine package. And when we say "package," you know we mean George Michael.

And that, dear readers, is the lineup of fine new releases for next week. But wait, there's more!

WARNING: THE TOM WAITS ORPHANS BOX SET IS NOW OFFICIALLY OUT OF PRINT! So if you were thinking of buying it, act now, because our supply is pathetically low!

OUT THIS WEEK, BUT WE FORGOT TO MENTION IT BECAUSE WE THINK JIM MORRISON IS A TOOL!

THE DOORS - PERCEPTIONS. A beautiful 6 CD/6 DVD box set featuring all their albums newly remastered, as well as remixed for 5.1 Surround Sound. It even includes a few rarities that weren't on the other "Everything the Doors Ever Recorded" box sets. It's very heavy, and very expensive.

TO ORDER ANY OF THESE RELEASES, OR ANYTHING WE DIDN'T MENTION, OR ANY OLDER CDs OR DVDs, EMAIL US AT HEYNYCD@AOL.COM OR CALL US AT (212) 244-3460!

SELL US YOUR CDs AND DVDs! SERIOUSLY! WE REALLY WANT TO BUY THEM! CALL OR EMAIL!

OUR BLOG IS BETTER THAN EVER!

Why do we say that? Because we're full of ourselves. But also, because you can now sample the very music we rave about in this newsletter. Check out some of our recent blogs for tracks by Elvis Costello and The Beatles, plus EXCLUSIVE LIVE TRACKS by The Posies and Twinemen!

TOTALLY RANDOM TOP TEN LIST!

Here it is, folks, our TEN FAVORITE OBSCURE BASEBALL PLAYERS!

10. NINO ESPINOSA
9. CLAY DALRYMPLE
8. JAKE GIBBS
7. GARTH IORG
6. ROGER REPOZ
5. MICKEY KLUTTS
4. DANNY AINGE (betcha didn't know he was a baseball player!)
3. PETE LACOCK
2. HOMER BUSH
1. CELERINO SANCHEZ

UNTIL NEXT WEEK, WE LEAVE YOU WITH THIS:

Everyone please sell your Seinfeld DVD collections and donate the proceeds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina!

Your friends,
Hawkeye and Trapper
(R*I*P* ROBERT ALTMAN)

2006-11-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

OVERHEARD AT A RECENT MEADOWLANDS CONCERT

How ya doin', East Rutherford! It's really great to be back here at the Continental Airlines Arena -- I've played everywhere from tiny clubs to baseball stadiums, but I'll tell ya, there's nothing like the feeling you get playing in a hockey arena.

Every time I come back here I feel like I'm coming home. You can talk about Nassau Coliseum, you can talk about the Wachovia Center, you can even talk about Madison Square Garden, but this place has soul.

I mean, just to stand here, where so many hockey legends have skated... it gives me goosebumps, you know? Growing up in England, it was hard to follow North American hockey, but I loved it. I used to have a huge poster of Bryan Trottier on my wall....

To look up at the rafters and see the New Jersey Devils banners makes me think back to all the great players who've worn the uniform. Mel Bridgman, Jan Ludvig, Chico Resch... they were like gods to me.

OK, this next tune's for all you Kirk Muller fans out there! If you love high-sticking, lemme hear you say 'yeah'!

2006-11-21T03:47:00.000-08:00

LOST TRACKS

The great run of classic Elton John albums ended for many with the release of "CAPTAIN FANTASTIC & THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY." It was the last to feature the legendary Elton band that included Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, and Nigel Olsson. But I stayed with Elton for at least two more releases. The first was the follow-up "ROCK OF THE WESTIES." It was a bit of a disappointment that featured a new gang from Philly in the studio, Caleb Quaye, Roger Pope and Kenny Passarelli to name a few, and spawned the hit single, "Island Girl."

Then came "BLUE MOVES," an album whose release in 1976 was met with mostly closed arms.
It was a two CD set which most critics felt showed signs of fatigue in Elton's hit making ability. There were epic orchestral ballads that lasted 8 minutes. Disco workouts that lasted 7 minutes. Gospel numbers. And of course, the monster hit, "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word." But that was it. No follow up single.

The album is never talked about with the same respect as such classics as "Tumbleweed Connection," "Madman Across The Water," or "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." And maybe it shouldn't be. But it deserves more attention than it has gotten over the years. It's an ambitious work that years later still holds up. And if we still have the patience to listen to any of Elton's dreck from the 80's, 90's and later, "BLUE MOVES" deserves at least 5 minutes of your "upload to iPod" time.
Listen to a fave track of mine. A beautiful ballad, unlike anything Elton and his band had attempted prior.

Idol.MP3

BUY "BLUE MOVES" HERE

2006-11-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

FROM THE NYCD VAULTS... IN-STORE PERFORMANCES!

NYCD's second brick-and-mortar location, at 81st St. just off Amsterdam Ave., sucked eggs for a lot of reasons. It was in a basement. It was covered by scaffolding most of the time we were there. Our landlord stole our sign. Upper West Siders were more interested in getting a good latté than a good CD. The massage parlor above our store kept flooding us. And so on and so on.

The one nice thing about the place was that it was big enough for us to set up a little stage and host in-store performances. Sometimes the place would be packed, sometimes it would almost be a private show for the staff. But the music was almost always good and a fun time was had by both the performers and the audiences.

We didn't think to tape the vast majority of the in-stores we hosted, but a couple were preserved for posterity. Power-pop legends THE POSIES have been friends of NYCD for a lotta years, not to mention one of our favorite bands, so when they hit New York on one of their many reunion tours (since they broke up in '98, they've gotten back together more times than the Who), they also paid us a visit, and blew our minds with a killer acoustic performance.

TWINEMEN rose from the ashes of Morphine, and Tony goes ga-ga over both bands, so when Twinemen's second album came out, he figured "What the heck" and asked them to play at NYCD the next time they came to town. To our surprise, they said yes, and despite having to play a midweek lunchtime show, they got an enthusiastic crowd and put on a great show. Tony is still recovering from the thrill.

Listen and enjoy!

THE POSIES - Sad To Be Aware (live at NYCD 9/29/05)
TWINEMEN - Wishers (live at NYCD 10/27/04)