Cloud Nothings are coming back to New York shortly after the release of Turning On, and this time it is to play with Alex Bleeker and the Freaks (and Beach Fossiles).  I’ve listen to Turning On more times than I can count on my headphones since I got it at the beginning of December (see my post on Turning On here), and I’m ready to see what it sounds like live.  Cloud Nothings’ Turning On is almost sold out at Bridgetown records, and Speaker Tree Records, out of Lynchberg, Virginia is planning to release it on LP toward the end of February (with an extra track).

Breakfast of Champs have posted a newish mp3 from Cloud Nothings that will be on their forthcoming compilation:

[mp3] Cloud Nothings- “Crying Underwater”
(eventually it will be available here)

On top of Cloud Nothings….Alex Bleeker is playing too…

When I got to see Alex Bleeker play with Mountain Man back in December (actually the same weekend I got the Cloud Nothings CD) it was a truly surreal event. Alex Bleeker played a beautiful set, and his only backing musicians were the women from Mountain Man. The crowd was the most respectful I’ve ever seen in New York, and let the quietness and intimacy of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah, as well as the music itself, shine. As wonderful of an experience as that was I’m looking forward to seeing him backed by the Freaks.  But we do have this mp3 to remember that event by, thanks to Chocolate Bobka:

[mp3] Alex Bleeker w/ Molly Sarle of Mountain Man- “Oh, Boy (Girls cover)”
recorded live at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah. via Chocolate Bobka.

Saturday should be fun…you should be there:

Presented by Chocolate Bobka & Group Tightener:
This Saturday, January 16th
Beach Fossils.
Alex Bleeker & the Freaks.
Cloud Nothings.
Nude Beach.
at Monster Island Basement.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Links:

• Buy Cloud Nothings’ Turning On from Bridgetown Records here.
• more on Cloud Nothings here.
• more on Alex Bleeker and the Freaks here.
• Buy the Alex Bleeker & The Freaks LP from Underwater Peoples here.
• more on Group Tightener Records here.

I’ve been in New York for three and a half years, and Greenpoint for the past year and a half.  When I moved to the city I never thought that I would have such a devotion to one record shop….I have always been a record buyer/ collector, and even worked at a record store (which I still consider one of the best).  I was familiar with the other stores in the city, but had not been to Permanent Records until I moved to Greenpoint.

This has come to be, more or less, my only stop for records in the city.  Marjorie and Ron have been working there since I started going in, and have become more like friends than people who run the shop.  I like that they are honest, and if they aren’t into something they will tell you, and if you are interested in recommendation they will offer you an endless array of albums and genres depending on your mood.

Permanent Records is one of those places that I always want to go, and some days find myself emailing or playing phone tag with them.  Permanent Records is my favorite record store in the city, and if you haven’t been yet I highly recommend it…you just might find your new regular record shop.

Marjorie, Ron, and Milli were nice enough to donate their best of lists to be posted here on the Great Pumpkin, and I was really excited to see what they loved this year:

Marjorie’s Best of 2009

• Albums (alphabetical):
  • Arbouretum- Song of the Pearl
  • Neko Case- Middle Cyclone
  • Jarvis Cocker- Further Complications
  • Eddy Current Suppression Ring- selftitled
  • Eddy Current Suppression Ring- Primaru colors
  • Fresh & Onlys- selftitled
  • Fresh & Onlys- Grey Eyed Girl
  • Horrors- Primary Colors
  • I Was A King- selftitled
  • Cass McCombs- Catacombs
  • R. Stevie Moore- Meet the R Stevie Moore
  • Muslims (now known as Soft Pack)- selftited
  • Mystery of Two- selftitled
  • Obits- I Blame You
  • Ty Segall- Lemons
  • Ty Segall- Horn of Unicorn
  • So Cow- selftitled
  • Sonny & The Sunsets- Tomorrow is Alright
  • Richard Swift- Atlantic Ocean
  • VA (Numero 028)-Wayfaring Strangers Lonesome Heroes
  • Woods- Songs of Shame

• Best Re-Issues:
  • Amanaz- Africa
  • Bachs- Out of the Bachs
  • Chandra- Transportation
  • Ryan Trevor- Introducing
  • Spiritual Singers- Ntsamina
  • Witch- Lazy Bones

• Live:
  • REM- Live at the Olympia

• Stand-out Tracks/ Song of the Year:
  • Laura Veirs- “July Flame” (from July Flame)
  • The xx- “Crystalized” (from selftitled)
  • Hush Arbors- “Fast Asleep” (from Yankee Reality)

Ron’s Best Albums of 2009

1. Mystery Of Two – S/T
2. Meanderthals – Desire Lines
3. Jeremy Jay – Slow Dance
4. Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
5. Ganglians – Monster Head Room
6. A.C. Newman – Get Guilty
7. The Horrors – Primary Colors
8. Fresh & Onlys - Grey Eyed Girls
9. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - S/T
10. 9DW / Boris - Golden Dance Classics
11. Crocodiles – Summer Of Hate
12. Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
13. Ty Segall – Horn The Unicorn

Milli’s Top 25 Albums 2009

• 25. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
• 24. Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be?
• 23. Metric – Fantasies
• 22. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions
• 21. Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid
• 20. The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
• 19. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
• 18. Mandy Moore – Amanda Leigh
• 17. The Dead Weather – Horehound
• 16. Sean Lennon - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead
• 15. Tom Waits – Glitter & Doom Live
• 14. Daniel Johnston – Is And Always Was
• 13. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
• 12. Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
• 11. Dashboard Confessional – Alter The Ending
• 10. Ben Kweller – Changing Horses
• 09. Karen O & the Kids – Where The Wild Things Are (Original Soundtrack)
• 08. Regina Spektor – Far
• 07. Relient K – Forget And Not Slow Down
• 06. Andrew WK – 55 Cadillac
• 05. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
• 04. They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science
• 03. Mastodon – Crack The Skye
• 02. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• 01. Eels – Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire

If you are interested in any of these releases, and happen to be in the New York City I would highly recommend checking at Permanent Records first. Marjorie, Ron, and Milli would be happy to help you find them, or anything you are looking for…and if they don’t have it they will try to order it(believe me I have them special order way too much for me). Customer service keeps people coming back, and this place definitely has it!

Permanent Records is located at
181 Franklin St
(between Green St & Huron St)
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
(718) 383-4083
website / twitter / facebook

If you are not in NYC maybe try an online music retailer ?

Links:

• more on Permanent Records here.
• more guest best of lists can be found here.

Thanks again to Permanent Records to contributing to the Great Pumpkins best of 2009 series and Happy Holidays!

Friday November 20th:

• Times New Viking, The Axemen @ Maxwell’s

Saturday November 21st

• Fluffy Lumbers @ Cake Shop
• The Beets, Beachniks @ Death By Audio
• Dirty Projectors, tUnE-YaRds @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
• Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Cold Cave @ Terminal 5

Sunday November 22nd

• Dirty Projectors, tUnE-YaRds @ Bowery Ballroom

Monday November 23rd

• Melt Banana @ Bowery Ballroom

Tuesday November 24th

• Greenpoint’s Manhattan Connection (6pm-9pm)
  • *Free Manhattan cocktail at Kill Devil Hill, 170 Franklin St!!!
  • *Manhattan Project beer based on said cocktail available at the Diamond!!!
  • *Experience the Double Manhattan Vortex!!!!
• Family Portrait @ Bruar Falls

…more to come next week.

———————————————-

actually no more to come next week.  this was the last weekly recs post.  keep an eye on the blog for specific shows though…still posting about those.  Cheers.

Tonight! Friday November 13th:

• Boat, How I Became the Bomb @ Union Hall
• Art Brut, Midnight Masses, Surfer Blood @ Brooklyn Bowl
• Oneohtrix Point Never, Northampton Woods, Keith Fullerton Whitman, No Fun Acid (Carlos Giffoni), Prehistoric Blackout @ Glasslands
• The Family Portrait @ Sycamore
• Krallice, Liturgy, more @ Union Pool

Saturday November 14th:

• Boat, miniboone, SHARK? @ Bruar Falls
• Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Party @ The Bell House
  • The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Crystal Stilts, Brown Recluse, Pants Yell!, Frankie Rose, The Ropers, Nord Express, Lorelei

Tuesday November 17th:

• A Camp (w/ Nina Persson of Cardigans) @ le Poisson Rouge
• Shonen Knife, Golden Triangle, Jeff: The Brotherhood @ Brooklyn Bowl
• Kurt Vile, Home Blitz, more @ Europa

Wednesday November 18th:

• Dirty Projectors, tUnE-YaRds, Glass Ghost @ Bowery Ballroom
• Big Star, Kurt Vile (and the Violators) @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple
• Times New Viking @ Mercury Lounge

Thursday November 19th:

• Cave-In @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn
• Dirty Projectors, tUnE-YaRds, Cale Parks @ MHOW
• Times New Viking @ Union Pool

all band links link back to previous gprecs posts.  more things to be added though out the week.

Tonight, Friday November 6th:

• Girls & Real Estate @ Bowery Ballroom
• Jeremy Jay @ Cake Shop
• Vivian Girls, Bitters, Grass Widow @ Market Hotel
• Love as Laughter, Hartwell Littlejohn @ Union Pool
• The History Eraser Button @ The Charleston

Saturday November 7th:

• Crystal Stilts, Grass Widow, The Beets @ The Brooklyn Museum
• Small Black, Picture Plane, Grass Widow, Cale Parks, Girls At Dawn @ Market Hotel
• Glorrytellers (ex- Karate) @ Union Hall

Sunday November 8th:

• Nana Grizol @ Cake Shop
• Gary War, PC Worship, Liturgy, Florida @ Death By Audio

Monday November 9th:

• Jason Anderson @ Cake Shop

Wednesday November 11th:

• Overwhelming Beer Tasting with Matthias Neidhart of B. United International @ The Diamond
  • Buy Tickets here.  This will sell out.
    • Featuring: Aventinus Wheat Dopplebock heated with a beer blow-torch, creating lovely caramelized flavors.  Served w/ S’mores.
    • and:
      • JW Lees Harvest Ale barleywine aged in Calvados barrels.  Served from wooden cask.
        
      • Schrami’s Dry Mead matured in plum brandy barrels
        
      • Hanssen’s Experimental Raspberry Gueuze
        
      • Le Baladin Xyauyu.  (influenced by Jerez Sherries of Spain, produced from variously oxygenated strong ales)

band links lead to previous gprecs posts.  more events get added as I find them.  these lists are going to become more refined.

hot dog from Bark.

Halloween is a holiday that always has really high expectations, and typically doesn’t live up to them…so when I heard that Mount Eerie was playing my decision was made for me…Mount Eerie never disappoints.

This was my first time hearing Malkuth and Liturgy.  Malkuth went on shortly after we got to Market Hotel, and played for what seemed like forever…and not forever in a bad way, but more like…wow this opening band is playing for over an hour.  I was pretty impressed, but as I soon found out it is hard for any band to share the stage with Liturgy. I haven’t been to a metal show in a couple months, and I really did enjoy it…even klk got into Liturgy, and the metal typically isn’t her thing.  As far as black metal goes I got more out of Liturgy’s performance on Saturday than I did out of Wolves In the Throne Room earlier this year. Liturgy can keep the underlying melodic guitars even during a full blown thrash session.  Totally worth checking out:

[full album] Liturgy- Live on My Castle of Quiet at WFMU (via FMA)

Mount Eerie took the stage in a form that I have yet to see, and this was due to the recent release of Wind’s Poem.  Not only was Elverum on stage, but he was accompanied by both Julia Chirka and Nick Krgovich of No Kids as well as two drummers.  Their set consisted entirely of songs from Wind’s Poem, and Phil let us in on something that I was previously unaware of…Wind’s Poem was written by himself and Nick Krgovich (last time I saw Nick play it was less than exciting, but he redeemed himself on Saturday night).  Mount Eerie sounded thunderous, and the amazing part was that there was only one guitar on stage.  Krgovich and Chirka both played keyboards, and Elverum stood center with the guitar. For me heavier music can sometimes get lost in the wall of sound created by too many guitars, and I think Elverum has found the perfect combination for his live set up to show off both his song writing and vocals.  With only one guitar Elverum was able to shine over the the heaviest music he has ever written.  Mount Eerie’s set was near perfect, and Krgovich even interjected a dance beat into what I consider one of the best songs of the year:

Mount Eerie still have most of their tour to go…I highly recommend catching them…only good things can come of it….tour dates can be found here.

In other Mount Eerie related news….

Julie Doiron, who collaborated with Phil Elverum on last year’s wonderful Lost Wisdom, will be gracing NYC this Thursday, November 5th, accompanied by Herman Dune at the Bell House. Julie released an excellent album this year, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (which will also be making my best of 2009 list), and was great when she played Cake Shop this past spring.  If you are unfamiliar with Julie she used to play in Eric’s Trip, and has been making music on her own since the early 90’s.  Check out one of my favorite tracks from last year’s Lost Wisdom:

[mp3] Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire- “Voice in Headphones” (from Lost Wisdom, buy it here.)

Links:

• more on Mount Eerie and Phil Elverum here.
• buy Mount Eerie and P.W. Elverum and Suns releases here.
• more on Julie Doiron here.
• buy Julie Doiron’s releases here.
• more from the free music archive here.
• more gprecs video (Karl Blau, Dum Dum Girls, Los Campesinos! and More) here.

End Note: There has been a lot going on in my real, non-internet, life this week…so blog posts will be scarce until sometime next week.  My stress will greatly decrease tomorrow, and I am looking forward to enjoying Julie play in one of my favorite venues in Booklyn…beer will be calling my name.

Tonight Friday October 30th:

• Wooden Shjips @ 92YTribeca
• Pissed Jeans @ Le Poisson Rouge
• Lightning Bolt @ Above the Auto Parts Store
• Pinback & Obits @ Irving Plaza

Halloween: Saturday October 31st:

• Halloween Parade!
• Greenpoint’s Halloween Dog Parade!
• Greenpoint Zombie Bar Crawl!
• Vivian Girls, Wooden Shjips,Crystal Stilts, Religious Knives @ 171 Lombardy St.
• Mount Eerie, Liturgy, Malkuth, Tara Jane O’Neil, No Kids @ Market Hotel
• King Khan & BBQ Show, Dum Dum Girls @ Bell House

Sunday November 1st:

• Mount Eerie, Tara Jane O’Neil, No Kids @ Le Poisson Rouge

Monday November 2nd:

• Girls & Real Estate @ Maxwell’s

Wednesday November 4th:

• The Fiery Furnaces @ Maxwell’s

Thursday November 5th:

• Fucked Up (performs The Chemistry Of Common Life) with Andrew W.K. on keyboards and Vivian Girls doing backup vocals, & Titus Andronicus, Katie Stelmanis @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple
• Grass Widow, Bitters @ Monster Island LATE NIGHT!
• Herman Dune, Julie Doiron @ The Bell House
• Grass Widow @ The Woodser
• Jeremy Jay @ Union Hall

All band links go to previous post, and more events will be added as I find them.

Photo via.

It starts today.  One of the most wonderful events in the world for the record dork (yep I’m included in that).

The WFMU Record Fair will be going all weekend starting this afternoon.  It is an exciting time…performances, live broadcasts, and more records than you can wrap your head around.

The fair runs Friday 10/23 from 7-10pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 10/24 & 10/25 from 10am to 7pm. Admission is $7 (per day).  Earlybirds can get in on Friday at 4pm for $25, which includes readmission all weekend.

I hate to say it, but last year was my first time going to this wonderful event…and I plan to go every year until I leave this city.

While there are tons of records you have to be selective or you will go broke very fast (I recommend setting a spending limit for yourself).  Last year I only purchased three records…Brian Eno’s Before and After Science, a Mommyheads’ 7″, and the grand prize… Talulah Gosh’s They’ve Scoffed the Lot put out by Sara Records!  And I can definitely say that my couple hours of browsing were worth it!

I tried to have a game plan last year, but I realized it’s pretty useless…I think it’s good to have a couple tables in mind that you want to shop (for me it is Michael Goodstein’s table and Gern Blandsten Records) and just kinda browse the rest of it… you know pretty fast if you have found a table that you like.

• Check out the Vendor List here!
• The Live events here!
• and the floor plan of the event here.

I’ve been mentally preparing for this event for a couple weeks now, and I can’t believe it’s finally here.  Record shopping is pretty meditative for me so I’m looking forward to a relaxing Sunday afternoon at the the fair.

The WFMU Record Fair happens at Metropolitan Pavilion located at 125 West 18th Street in New York City.

In honor of my wonderful find last year…here are two tracks from Talulah Gosh’s They’ve Scoffed The Lot:

[mp3] Talulah Gosh- “Talulah Gosh”

[mp3] Talulah Gosh- “Be Your Baby”

It’s so nice to have some of my favorite twee on wax.  I love it.  Now only if I can find some Field Mice this year (most likely not).

They’ve Scoffed the Lot is out of print, but you can get these tracks and a whole lot more on Talulah Gosh’s collection titled Backwash!  Buy Backwash here!!!

I’ll be sure to report back on my finds.

Links:

• more on WFMU here.