It's Record Store Day Tomorrow!

Record Store Day, the day we give thanks that there are still places to buy music, learn about music, talk about music - all with real live people. This year, there is an amazing amount of special releases you can try to find tomorrow - I say try because different stores will have different items, and some will go lickety-split. You can check out the full list here, something for just about everyone. 9 stores in Winnipeg are participating. Yes, I am nostalgic about record stores, not so nostalgic about working in one. The Winnipeg Folk Fest Music Store will have bands like The Wind-Ups, Telepathic Butterflies, and Rambling Dan Frechette, while Into the Music will have Scott Nolan. Four stupendous local acts, you can catch 'em all if you're smart.



Crowded House, Green Day/Husker Du, Television, R.E.M., Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, The Cars, The dBs (brand new!), The Decemberists, Urge Overkill, a Guided by Voices tribute, Nada Surf - there's a lot of tunes I'd like to snag. Below are some pics of the items on sale, the tunes may not be the exact ones you'll find as part of the special sale, but I gotta give ya something to listen to, don't I?



01 The Decemberists - Down By The Water (Live 6 Music Session) by drakeygirl



Television - Marquee Moon [live] by PYITE



Effigy by Urge Overkill by scruffy the yak



Crowded House_Live in Manchester_26th May by the_hbomb



Cars - Sad Song by MMMusic

The Cars - Blue Tip by KWSS On Demand

Leave a comment below. Is there anything you'd like to get tomorrow?

Free Television & Tom Verlaine

Photo used under Creative Commons by rockographer.com

One of my favourite artists of all time is Tom Verlaine, including his work with Television. For quite a while, Verlaine was off my radar, doing production and generally not releasing any Verlaine-like works of solo genius since 1990 (The Wonder). Television regrouped to put out a third record in 1992 and played sporadically between then and now, but have never put out any more recorded material. Verlaine has said that there will be a Television album out someday, but I'm still waiting.



Luckily, there are others out there in blog-land who love Verlaine and Television as much as me.

Captains Dead has made available some fine demos for Television's second album, Adventure. Although the first, Marquee Moon, is considered the classic, Adventure seems to be finally getting its due. Aquarium Drunkard recently released a charity album of L.A. bands covering songs from Adventure.

This is the video that sparked my interest in solo Verlaine; I was a little late in realizing how amazing he is. The sinuous guitar, the unique way he spits out his sing-speak vocals, the decidedly un-rock star-like look (pale-face beatnik in the big-hair 80's? Cool.) all intrigued me, and still do.



Verlaine finally released a couple of new albums in 2006, you can download a tune from Songs and Other Things at the ultra-fine Largehearted Boy blog.