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?

What Scruffy Loved Listening to This Year, Pt. 3

Everyone's got a best of the year list. Sorry, not here. But you do get a bunch of music that I loved in the past year (some of which may have been released prior to 2010, I don't care), some of which I've blogged about already, and some of which I didn't get to sharing. So here it is, Part Three (and of course by This Year I mean last year), come on back for the next parts.

Crocodiles: a perfect mix of psychedelia, Jesus & Mary Chain, and shoegaze euphoria still gets me stoked.

Crocodiles - Sleep Forever
Crocodiles - Sleep Forever by Paduta

Cut Copy's name has come up in my endless search for fine music, but I ignored 'em, because with a name like that I stupidly guessed I was gonna hear techno or industrial-type sounds. I still don't know anything about the band, but this song sounds like a joyous celebration of something; the future? the road right in front of you? Re-claiming Gary Glitter's stomping beats for a pretty possibility party? For an email address, Cut Copy will give you this song for free.

Cut Copy - Where I'm Going
Cut Copy -- Where I m Going by F M

Old 97's The Grand Theatre Vol. 1 contains this raucous, raw stomper, proving that not only can the band ace alt country and sweet pop, garagey rock is also in the arsenal.

Old 97's - Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)
Old 97's - Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You) by MMMusic

Winnipeg's Telepathic Butterflies seem to have skipped the last three decades in their quest to make sounds less fleeting than disposable pop. Reverb-drenched guitars, thick harmonies, literate lyrics and well-crafted tunes are a good start, and since thousands of people like you listened to their songs in previous posts on this blog, many of you agree.

Telepathic Butterflies - Circle Man
The Telepathic Butterflies-Circle Man by scruffy the yak

The Thermals released their new album Personal Life and continued their fine tradition of short, hook-filled, rocky-road-flavoured gems. The band members have a sense of humour. They have conveniently provided useful terms such as mid-fi, post-pop-punk, and post-power-pop, among others, which you may apply or not as you see fit. Near as I can figure, The Thermals are a power trio from the future. And they wrote a song called Canada.

The Thermals - I Don't Believe You
The Thermals - I Don't Believe You by The Drift Record Shop

The Thermals - Canada
The Thermals - Canada by killrockstars

The Thermals - Never Listen To Me
The Thermals - Never Listen To Me by halfchannel



Urge Overkill came back to ready their first album in more than a decade, performed on Yo Gabba Gabba, and gave a away a new song, Effigy. Bring back the swingin' medallions and they will come, boys.

Urge Overkill - Effigy
Effigy by Urge Overkill by scruffy the yak


Come on back for the next installment and final round up of last year's faves, leave a comment, tell me what I missed.

New Urge Overkill mp3 - Effigy

Urge Overkill. Just found out via captainsdead.com and Spin.com that a new album is coming, and one new song is here for us to enjoy. There are a lot of bands from the late eighties into the nineties that we don't need to come back, but we need Urge. I'm sure you loved Saturation, but there was a lot more to love if you were paying attention. Dirty rock 'n' roll without going too far over into the consistently cheesy side, substantial without getting too pretentious, Urge Overkill were fun and worthy at the same time. And if you ever saw them live (for some reason they came to Winnipeg pretty regularly), you know the band had the fire and passion people want to see, hear and feel. The Hold Steady kinda brought back good riffing rock for me, Urge Overkill can bring it to the masses again.

Effigy by Urge Overkill by scruffy the yak

Royal Albert - The Movie

I was sent the trailer for a new doc on the Albert, the place that has welcomed Husker Du, Green Day, Black Flag, The Weakerthans, The Watchmen, Comeback Kid, Propagandhi, Melvins, Stretch Marks, Personality Crisis, Sloan, New Duncan Imperials, Urge Overkill, Breath Grenades, Sons of Freedom, Kittens, UK Subs, Biohazard, Jesus Lizard, Nine Pound Hammer, The Vibrators, Cannibal Corpse, Telepathic Butterflies, The Wind-ups - the list goes on forever. Decades of rock, many flavours, blood, sweat and beers, long live the Albert.