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U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere in Las Vegas (10/18)
I’m not really a Las Vegas person. I don’t gamble, I don’t love the desert, and I’m not in to high-end shopping, strip clubs, or whatever else Sin City is supposed to offer. To me it’s usually just a hot, crowded, series of smoke-filled rooms and broad streets I have to navigate through in search…
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Sara Watkins, Under the Pepper Tree, 2021 on New West
I’ve been a big fan of Sara Watkins going back to Nickel Creek, I’m With Her, and her solo work. Great versions of “Pure Imagination” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” Produced by Tyler Chester and with guests from I’m With Her and Nickel Creek My copy direct from New West
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Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material, 2015 on Mercury Nashville
The follow up to her break out Same Trailer, Different Park, released in 2015 on Mercury Nashville. Love the songwriting here – modern twist on classic country songwriting, co-produced by Musgraves with Shane McAnally and Luke Laird. My copy is the Vinyl Me Please reissue on gold nugget vinyl, with listening notes by Amileah Sutliff
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Santigold, Santigold, 2008 on Downtown / Lizard King
My copy is the recent Vinyl Me Please reissue on “gold nugget” vinyl. This is a 15th anniversary edition with an “art print” by Isabelle Lumpkin (Narcissister) who designed the original cover. Originally released as a self-titled album by Santogold, she later changed her name to Santigold based on legal action – so the later…
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Stray Cats, Stray Cats / Pin Up, 1981 on Arista
This was their debut album – after forming in NY they moved to the UK and this was first released there in early 1981. It wasn’t released in the US until after Built for Speed, which included six of the tracks from this debut. Produced by Dave Edmunds and the band. The cover and spine…
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Stephane Grappelli, with The Hot Club of London, I Got Rhythm, 1974 on Black Lion
Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London November 1973, and featuring Diz Disley, Denny Wright, and Len Skeat along with Grappelli. Liner notes by Alan Morgan. My copy via Mystery Train Records in Gloucester MA, which has a pretty impressive Jazz selection
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Jelly Roll Morton, Mr. Jelly Lord, RCA Victor, 1967
My copy is a slightly later pressing – 1973 – but this compilation first came out in 1967 as part of the RCA Victor Vintage Series. These tracks were originally recorded between 1927 and 1930. Yes, this is the Jelly Roll of “stoned me just like Jelly Roll” in Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me.”…
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Violent Femmes at MGM Music Hall
Last night the Violent Femmes played MGM Music Hall in Boston – great venue tucked under a corner of Fenway park. This was a stop on the tour of playing their debut self-titled album in its entirety, celebrating the 40th annivesary Please Please Please Do Not Go Gone Daddy Gone I’m Nothing Gimme the Car…
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Erika Lewis, A Walk Around The Sun, 2022 self-released
I knew Erika Lewis from Tuba Skinny, of which I’m a huge fan, so I picked up this solo album when I heard it had been released. It was produced by John James Tourville of The Deslondes. It’s a different register than the Tuba Skinny repertoire – more in a roots / americana / even…
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Kevin Morby, City Music, 2017 on Dead Oceans
Morby‘s fourth solo album and second on Dead Oceans – he was previously in Woods and The Babies. Includes a cover of “Caught in My Eye” by the Germs and a passge from Flannery O’Connor My copy is the Vinyl Me, Please reissue from 2023 on white & orange tie-dye vinyl, which includes a 12…
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Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, 1984 on Sire
It’s hard to overstate how critical this album and movie were – the impact on live music films, the impact on shows themselves (in staging and effects) and just the music itself. I recall it running for a very long time at the Uptown movie theater in Minneapolis – alternating Friday and Saturday nights with…
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Stephane Grappelli, Just One of Those Things: Recorded Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1973 on Black Lion Records
Recorded July 4th, 1973, this is Grappelli with Jack Sewing, Daniel Humair, and Marc Hemmeier. My copy via Mystery Train records in Gloucester MA. Black Lion was a label Alan Bates created in 1968 – in 1973 they started to have distribution through Audiofidelity (the AFE logo on the rear cover here). Lots of great…
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The New Stan Getz Quartet Featuring Astrud Gilberto, Getz Au Go Go, 1964 on Verve
Sadly, Gilberto died this summer (June 5, 2023) – I tend to buy any albums I run across from the Getz / Gilberto collaborations or that feature her. Recorded at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village and Carnegie Hall in 1964 – how great it would have been to have seen these shows!…
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Stella Donnelly, Flood, 2022 on Secretly Canadian
Nothing to do, so far as I can tell, with the They Might Be Giants album of the same name. Donnelly is Australian in the vein of Courtney Barnett and cites Barnett and Billy Bragg as influences. This was her second solo album and was written at least partly during the pandemic. Co-produced by Donnelly…
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Sturgill Simpson, High Top Mountain, 2013 on High Top Mountain Records.
This was Sturgill’s solo debut, self-funded and produced by Dave Cobb, with an outlaw country feel and some Nashville session players like Hargus “Pig” Robbins on keys and Robby Turner and Leroy Powell on Steel Guitar. Tremendous debut and auspicious of good things to come. My copy is the Vinyl Me Please 10th anniversary reissue…
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Various Artists, Newbury Comics 30th Anniversary, 2008 on Rhino.
Promotional record originally handed out at Newbury Comics on Record Store Day in 2008. I found a copy at Vinyl Destination in Lowell, MA. Not sure what the theme is – reissues, box sets, and new albums coming on Rhino and ATCO that year? I love picking up random compilations with unexpected pairings on them,…
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James Blood Ulmer, Free Lancing, 1981 on Columbia.
A happy and accidental find at Academy Records in New York. Ulmer had played on several Ornette Coleman releases before going out on his own – this was his third solo LP and first on Columbia.
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Brinsley Schwarz, Silver Pistol, 1971 on United Artists
Brinsley Schwarz is one of those acts that challenges discogs users, because there is both an individual named Brinsley Schwarz, bottom right photo on the rear jacket, and a band that released albums under that name. So does it get filed under Schwarz, Brinsley (as I would for the individual artist) or Brinsley Schwarz as…