Featured new vinyl releases

We’ve got several new vinyl releases to feature today. A few reissues in there along with a few new releases.
These restocks have come in today too, Iron Maiden reissues, Led Zeppelin IV reissue, Radiohead, and more Disney 12″ picture discs.

We have also just done an update on our list of the special releases coming out November 28th for Black Friday. You can now see what we have and don’t have on order, to help you better prepare for the big day. If there is anything on there you are specifically looking for let us know really soon (right now is a good time) and we will do our best to get it in. Acting fast and getting orders in early is important due to the limited nature of these releases. You can check out the list here:
Record Store Day – Black Friday 2014 Releases

Now on with today’s featured vinyl.

Horse Feathers – So It Is With Us

From NPR:
Late in Horse Feathers’ fifth album, So It Is With Us, singer-guitarist Justin Ringle unleashes a provocative little five-word phrase — “softly screaming, ‘woe is me'” — that’s summed up a lot of the band’s music over the past decade. Ringle’s songs generally set wearily fatalistic lyrics against a gentle backdrop of strings and banjos and other exquisitely appointed Americana. But the grimness of his words, the “woe is me” of it all, has always been swathed in sweetness, to the point where a song’s suffocating misery can sound like comfort food.

On So It Is With Us, though, Horse Feathers’ music takes a turn — not 180 degrees from suffocating misery, because what would be the point, but far enough away to mark a significant departure. The softness of Ringle’s voice comes packaged with a lighter quality here, while the band’s chamber-folk arrangements possess a certain brightness: Once-mournful violins are frequently transformed into fiddles, while roughly half of these 10 songs move with a gallop that teeters on the brink of outright joy. The album’s opening track is even called “Violently Wild,” and damned if Ringle doesn’t try to sell at least a gesture in the direction of wildness.

For those who covet the densely pretty seethe of Horse Feathers’ earlier ballads, So It Is With Us revisits it often enough; the title of “Why Do I Try” suggests a planet-sized ball of resignation, and the song’s pace dutifully follows through. But whether it’s brooding sleepily or chugging along with breezy, ingratiating agreeability, So It Is With Us feels unerringly graceful — a quality that transcends tempo and tone, infusing every song with enough beauty to overwhelm sadness.

Grouper – Ruins

Ruins was made in Aljezur, Portugal in 2011 on a residency set up by Galeria Zé dos Bois. I recorded everything there except the last song, which I did at mother’s house in 2004. I’m still surprised by what I wound up with. It was the first time I’d sat still for a few years; processed a lot of political anger and emotional garbage. Recorded pretty simply, with a portable 4-track ,Sony stereo mic and an upright piano. When I wasn’t recording songs I was hiking several miles to the beach. The path wound through the ruins of several old estates and a small village. The album is a document. A nod to that daily walk. Failed structures. Living in the remains of love. I left the songs the way they came (microwave beep from when power went out after a storm); I hope that the album bears some resemblance to the place that I was in.

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Little Big League – Tropical Jinx

From the very start of Little Big League’s LP Tropical Jinx, it’s clear that there is nothing little about the band or their second full-length album. In fact, there is an unmistakable depth in these ten indie rock gems that makes each song fulfilling in a dozen different ways. The brutally honest lyrics of guitarist/vocalist Michelle Zauner are one of the album’s undeniable high points: the confessions and confrontations about dealing with family life, relationships and personal failures are both relatable and cathartic. Little Big League have created something special on Tropical Jinx. It is an homage to the best moments of alternative rock with the unmistakable spirit of Philadelphia DIY, blended in a way that demands your immediate attention.

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Modest Mouse – This Is Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About – 2LP reissue

180 gram reissue! This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About is the first full-length album by indie rock band Modest Mouse. The album was released on Up Records on April 16, 1996. Many of the tracks focus on traveling by automobile, and the loneliness and isolation associated with rural life. Sad Sappy Sucker was supposed to be released before This Is A Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About; however, it was delayed and shelved.

Boards Of Canada – Hi Scores – EP reissue

Boards of Canada’s “Hi Scores” EP dates back to 1996, and thanks to Skam’s reissue of the exemplary recording, we discover that Michael Sanderson and Marcus Eoin gave birth to their Boards of Canada project fully developed and ready to wow. That the pair were able to achieve this isn’t all that surprising given the insane amount of stuff they’d composed together in order to hit upon their distinctive sound. If you sat in your big, worn-in La-Z-Boy with headphones clamped to your ears, and spent hours of electronic enjoyment with the band’s debut, Music Has the Right to Children, you will thoroughly embrace Hi-Scores. You’ll make certain that it’s the last thing you hear when you nod off to sleep and the first thing that registers in your cortex the morning after. (Or maybe you’ll be slightly less obsessed– these thing vary from person to person.) See, Hi Scores is every bit as sensual and fulfilling as your fondly cherished fantasy date with a high school sweetheart, and not nearly as likely to transform into a shrill- voiced, gossipy administrative assistant when reality impinges. While tracks like “Nlogax” incorporate those electro squiggles that abounded in Rufus and Chaka Khan’s classic 1983 hit “Ain’t Nobody,” while on the record’s close, “Everything You Do is a Balloon,” Sanderson and Eoin mix head- bobbing hip-hop with Eno soundscapes, and dust the glorious confection with an irresistible and shamelessly romantic melody. “Seeya Later” is a similar and as enjoyable a fusion of opposites. And while “Turquoise Hexagon Sun” already made its appearance on Music Has the Right to Children, its familiar warmth and scent are like a beloved woolly sweater amongst these tracks.

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Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart – 7″

A very special limited edition 7” vinyl of Joy Division’s rare studio outtakes from the 1980 Martin Hannett sessions! Limited to 1000 copies.