music night

Beat Connection has been featured on Music Night in the past, but I mention the band’s vocalist, Tom Eddy, today for the recently released The Art of Escaping EP. This Seattle musician shows a different side of himself with what his own tags describe as “blues-driven indie folk.” Works for me.

Name your own price and buy it here now.

- D

Dear friends, forgive me, for I have sinned by neglecting the site I love. My excuse is that I’ve been in Canada, but as charmingly simple as those Canucks may seem, they do in fact have computers and the interweb. I saw it with my own eyes. The upside, cold comfort though it may be, is I’ve been listening to a lot of music. Plus, the Music Night crew held a listening session for songs about cities. I promise more on both fronts soon.

To get us back up and running, I recommend this Pitchfork interview with Robin Pecknold, the frontman of Fleet Foxes. The new album, Helplessness Blues, is fantastic and I can’t escape the feeling that they’re growing beyond the novelty and into an important band.

- D

A cool piece on NPR this morning featured Derwin Panda, a.k.a. Gold Panda, breaking down how he made “You” from last year’s debut Lucky Shiner in his own words. I was really taken by his approach to assembling his pieces. He says, “I don’t use any stock sounds. That’s never really had any appeal to me, because I felt like I wasn’t doing any work. These sounds didn’t mean anything to me. They were just sounds that someone else had compiled.”

Listen to the full story online and check out the live clip from KCRW.

- D

Seeing those closed stores made me think of all the store closing sales I’ve been to personally.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the funeral atmosphere usually kills the mood to shop and I end up leaving with only one or two for old time’s sake purchases.  More importantly, I want to pick up on my friend’s encouraging note below.

Tomorrow, April 16, is Record Store Day and a great chance to say hi to the cool kids at your nearest record shop.  Give ‘em a nod of the head and go straight for the section with special releases found only in your local store on this occasion.  The official Webpage offers a complete list of the “windowed” releases, small/regional runs and limited editions available in a matter of hours.

Run free with the buffalo to your favorite temple of music culture.

- D

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-sad-portraits-of-closed-record-stores

As the link points out, the state of records stores in the U.S. is a sad one. It’s a sensitive subject to us here at Music Night, having collectively spent literally tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in record stores over our lifetimes. We have fond memories of flipping through racks looking for random bootlegs, trying to score the best finds, or talking to friends about album X.  I spent two glorious years working at Mod Lang and Tower in Berkeley, my sole experience in life being fucking cool (or trying my hardest).  Nowadays, we still insist on buying physical media. We use iTunes and Amazon fairly sparingly - typically only when the music is otherwise unavailable or price-prohibitive. I just dropped $125 (and the lady - $65) on CDs, in person, and every time I go, I wonder how many record store shoppers there are really left in the world.  

As sad as it is to look at those photos, I find they encourage a sense of fatalism about record stores and their perceived inevitable destruction. There should be a comparable photo spread featuring neighborhood record shops still in existence - the encouraging message being, “we’re still out here, come support us.”  I’ll start with these.  

Mod Lang Record Shop, 6328 Fairmount Avenue, El Cerrito, CA 94530

Source: William Kneitel (http://elcerrito.patch.com/articles/mod-lang-berkeley-transplant-at-home-in-el-cerrito)

Amoeba Music, 2455 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704 (also, 1855 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117)

Source: Amoeba Music (www.amoeba.com)