Tampa Calling

Vinyl:

Antony & the Johnsons – Aeon 7”
New single from ‘The Crying Light’. Includes the earnest and impassioned cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.”

Assjack – Assjack
Death-metal band founded and fronted by Hank III.

Fruit Bats – The Ruminant Band
Using bright melodies, defiantly major-key chord structures, natural imagery mixed with the occasional blazing insight and tender observation, The Ruminant Band marks a further crystallization of singer/songwriter Eric Johnson’s own melodic instincts and overall vision.

Guided By Voices – Under the Bushes, Under the Stars 2xLP+MP3
The last GBV album with the original lineup of Pollard-Sprout-Mitchell-Fennell. Beautiful original gatefold packaging. Double HQ-180 vinyl includes download code.

Gus Gus – 24 / 7
Sixth album from the Icelandic electronic/dance collective.

Jimi Hendrix – Live at Woodstock
2XHQ-180gram LPs.

Julian Plenty – Julian Plenty is Skyscraper
Solo album from Paul Banks — lead singer of Interpol. This varied album runs the gamut from folk-tinged acoustic songs to orchestral guitar anthems.

Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall LP+MP3
Vinyl now, CD due August 18.

Sian Alice Group – Troubled, Shaken, Etc.
You get your minimalist trances, electronic experimentation, techno thump, jazz motifs and Eastern music tropes. A complete listening experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Vinyl:

Fugazi – 3 Songs (7″)
Originally recorded in 1989.

Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
Electric Dirt again finds Levon steeped in tradition in his connection to the land and those who live by it, but this record goes deeper and wider, incorporating gospel, blues and soul elements in a bracing collection of originals and carefully chosen outside songs.

Wilco – Wilco (The Album) LP+CD
Wilco’s seventh combines the intimacy of its previous studio disc, Sky Blue Sky, with the experimentation of A Ghost Is Born in a set that boasts strong melodies and often unabashedly pop arrangements. LP includes the album on a CD.

Pete Yorn – Back & Fourth

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Vinyl Fever is not only open today, but hosts a Memorial Day listening party of Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear’s third and latest album (due out tomorrow, May 26). In honor of the listening occasion, the store also offers a sale of used CDs and records, and gives away lithos with the purchase of new Green Day, Tori Amos and/or Grizzly Bear albums. Buy enough music stuff and put it all in a Record Store Day tote (while supplies last). The listening party begins at 2 p.m. Regular store hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m.. Vinly Fever is located at 4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa.

On that note, I’d just like to say that David Letterman has jumped the shark. Grizzly Bear’s appearance last week got bumped for — get this — GM’s Bob Lutz, who talked so much that there wasn’t time for a string quartet-assisted Bear to perform “Ready, Able.” Yeah, bumped for Lutz, and I watched the whole damn episode, and boring Lutz (who gave away a car or some such bullshit) just to find out I’d wasted an hour (well, less than an hour as I DVR’d it and fast-forwarded through the commercials and Letterman’s routine). So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s the Bear on Letterman from last July playing “Two Weeks.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Vinyl Fever’s Gabe Echazabal

A young music lover whose taste I respect and admire told me something shocking the other day. The kid is in his late teens and listens to some pretty cool stuff — vintage

Bowie, freaked-out Zappa and some other worthwhile contemporary artists as well. I see myself in this person … when I was 18. I couldn’t get enough music. I read about it, listened to it, tried to play it … You get the idea.

We were talking music in the aisles of Vinyl Fever and he asked me for some suggestions. Everything came to a screeching halt when, totally unprovoked, he told me he did NOT want anything by the Ramones. My jaw was still mid-drop when he twisted the knife in my soul a little deeper. “All their music sounds the same!” he announced. I don’t know if I was more shocked, saddened or confused. I mean, I just assumed, based on his level of music knowledge, that he’d already been converted to the clan from Queens. I felt like he was cheating himself out of a vital part of his adolescence by denouncing the “bruddahs” who fueled the passion and fire for music for so many teenage boys (and lots of girls too) for so long. It was as if he were telling me that he hated candy, cartoons and videogames, too.

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Vinyl Fever is part of a coalition of about 30 other stores like ours all across the country. It has improved the kind of attention we get from record labels (like all the free samplers and 7″ers we get on such a regular basis, and more access to bands for in-stores). The best part of it is that we share ideas amongst ourselves without concern about sharing secrets, like there’d be if we were actual competitors. With all the hoopla that has taken place in the music industry the past 10 years, it has been quite a saving grace and we’ve made some great friends with some of the best damn record stores in the U.S.

What I love most about this alliance is when the conversations and ideas move beyond music industry junk and into a more universal realm.

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This Saturday marks the second annual Record Store Day, a national salute to the more than 700 indie music stores located across the country and the positive impact they make on their communities. In honor of the event, several Bay area stores are offerings specials and carrying limited edition, exclusive Record Store Day releases.

Daddy Kool gives 10 percent off all new albums and 20 percent off all used inventory, and hosts some yet-to-be-announced activities.

Other area stores, like Sound Exchange, Mojo Books & Music and Vinyl Fever, have stocked up on an array of exclusive Record Store Day releases available only at indie stores. Amid the offerings are an array of split 7”-ers, including a double 7” of live tracks from Atlanta and Edinburgh by Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams, and a split 7” featuring covers of songs from Warner Bros.’ back catalog – Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs performing Madonna’s “Borderline,” and The Black Keys doing Captain Beefheart’s “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles.” Guided By Voices re-releases its Hold On Hope LP with three bonus tracks, My Morning Jacket offers a limited run CD and double 10″ vinyl release recorded live in Louisville at Ear X-tacy record store, and Wilco makes its forthcoming concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, available solely to indie stores and on its website on Record Store Day. Other exclusive RSD vinyl releases come from Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Mastodon, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Jane’s Addiction, The Stooges, Modest Mouse, Slayer, The Decemberists and Black Kids, among many others. Read the rest of this entry »

Just got the latest news release from our music store friends at Vinyl Fever, who apparently talked Tampa Tribune music critic Curtis Ross into recommending some of his favorite records for them to procure for Record Store Day, a celebration of the more than 700 indie music stores located across the nation and their positive impact on their individual communities. Vinyl Fever has not yet revealed Ross’ record selections, but  they’ve revealed a list of artists who are showing support early with special 7″ releases for the day, among them, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello, Sonic Youth, Decemberists, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen as well as 10″ers from Radiohead and regular LPs by My Morning Jacket, Guided By Voices, Pavement, Silversun Pickups, Green Day, Neil Young, Misfits, Hank Williams III, Mastodon, Talking Heads and others. The second annual Record Store Day event takes place at stores across the country on Saturday, April 18.