The second unreleased mp3 in our Brighten The Corners: The Nicene Creendence Buy Early Get Now went up yesterday! For those of you who for some inexplicable reason haven’t signed up yet the song is a live version of “Transport Is Arranged”.

We promised a some surprise goodies for Buy Early Get Now so without committing too much, there might…possibly….probably….be a few more incredible unreleased tracks coming along to supplement the two we promised and delivered

You can get into Buy Early Get Now on the Matador Store HERE or sign up at one of the fine retailers below….

1-2-3-4 Go! Records - Oakland, CA
Aboveground Records - Edgarton, MA
AKA Records- Philadelphia, PA
Atomic Records- Milwaukee, WI
Aural Exploits - Santa Monica, CA
Bull City Records - Durham, NC
Criminal Records - Atlanta, GA
Disconnected Records - San Diego, CA
Ear Candy Music - Missoula, MT
East Coast Music & Video - Greenville, NC
End Of An Ear - Austin, TX
Exiled Records - Portland, OR
Good Records - Dallas, TX
Graywhale - Salt Lake City, UT
Grimey’s New & Preloved Music - Nashville, TN
Guestroom Records - Norman, OK
Hard Boiled - Chicago, IL
Insound - New York, NY - Online Only
Jackpot Records - Portland, OR
Landlocked - Bloomington, IN
Laurie’s Planet of Sound - Chicago, IL
Lou’s Records - Encinitas, CA
Love Garden Sounds - Lawrence, KS
LUNA Music - Indianapolis, IN
Lunchbox Records - Charlotte, NC
Madcity Music - Madison, WI
Matador Records - New York, NY - Online Only
Mod Lang- El Cerrito, CA
Mojo- Tampa, FL
M-Theory - San Diego, CA
Music Saves - Cleveland, OH
Other Music - New York, NY
Parasol - Urbana, IL
Park Ave. - Orlando, FL
Paul’s Compact Discs - Pittsburg, PA
Permanent Records - Chicago, IL
Reckless Records - Chicago, IL
Repo Records - Philadelphia, PA
Siren Records - Doylestown, PA
Slowtrain - Salt Lake City, UT
Sound Fix - Brooklyn, NY
Square Records - Akron, OH
Stinkweeds- Phoenix, AZ
Tonevendor - Gainesville, FL - Online Only
Treehouse Records - Minneapolis, MN
Twist & Shout - Denver, CO
Underground Sounds - Ann Arbor, MI
Vintage Vinyl - St. Louis, MO
Von’s Records - West Lafayette, IN
Waiting Room Records - Normal, IL
Waterloo Records - Austin, TX
Wazoo Records - Ann Arbor, MI
Wuxtry Records- Atlanta, GA
Young Ones - Kutztown, PA
Zzz Records - Des Moines, IA

And, here are participating Canadian stores!
Blackbyrd Myoozik - Edmonton
Criminal Records - Toronto
Ditch Records - Victoria
Encore Records - Kitchener
Grooves Record Store - London
Listen Records - Edmonton
Music Trader - Winnepeg
Phonopolis - Montreal
Red Cat Records - Vancouver
Rotate This - Toronto
Scratch Records - Vancouver
Sonic Boom - Toronto
Soundscapes - Toronto
Zulu Records - Vancouver

Australian stores:
Big Star - Adelaide
Planet - Perth
Polyester - Melbourne
Red Eye - Sydney
Rockinghorse - Brisbane

Since we last told you where you could pre-order and participate in Buy Early Get Now, there have been some more stores added!

You can pre-order Pavement - Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. at the stores listed below, and through most of their websites.

1-2-3-4 Go! Records - Oakland, CA
Aboveground Records - Edgarton, MA
Atomic Records - Milwaukee, WI
Aural Exploits - Santa Monica, CA
Bull City Records - Durham, NC
Criminal Records - Atlanta, GA
Disconnected Records - San Diego, CA
Ear Candy Music - Missoula, MT
East Coast Music & Video - Greenville, NC
End Of An Ear - Austin, TX
Exiled Records - Portland, OR
Good Records - Dallas, TX
Graywhale - Salt Lake City, UT
Grimey’s New & Preloved Music - Nashville, TN
Guestroom Records - Norman, OK
Hard Boiled - Chicago, IL
Insound - New York, NY - Online Only
Jackpot Records - Portland, OR
Landlocked - Bloomington, IN
Laurie’s Planet of Sound - Chicago, IL
Lou’s Records - Encinitas, CA
Love Garden Sounds - Lawrence, KS
LUNA Music - Indianapolis, IN
Lunchbox Records - Charlotte, NC
Madcity Music - Madison, WI
Matador Records - New York, NY - Online Only
Mod Lang- El Cerrito, CA
M-Theory - San Diego, CA
Music Saves - Cleveland, OH
Other Music - New York, NY
Parasol - Urbana, IL
Park Ave. - Orlando, FL
Paul’s Compact Discs - Pittsburg, PA
Permanent Records - Chicago, IL
Reckless Records - Chicago, IL
Repo Records - Philadelphia, PA
Siren Records - Doylestown, PA
Slowtrain - Salt Lake City, UT
Sound Fix - Brooklyn, NY
Square Records - Akron, OH
Tonevendor - Gainesville, FL - Online Only
Treehouse Records - Minneapolis, MN
Twist & Shout - Denver, CO
Underground Sounds - Ann Arbor, MI
Vintage Vinyl - St. Louis, MO
Von’s Records - West Lafayette, IN
Waiting Room Records - Normal, IL
Waterloo Records - Austin, TX
Wazoo Records - Ann Arbor, MI
Young Ones - Kutztown, PA
Zzz Records - Des Moines, IA

And, here are participating Canadian stores!

Blackbyrd Myoozik - Edmonton
Criminal Records - Toronto
Ditch Records - Victoria
Encore Records - Kitchener
Grooves Record Store - London
Listen Records - Edmonton
Music Trader - Winnepeg
Phonopolis - Montreal
Red Cat Records - Vancouver
Rotate This - Toronto
Scratch Records - Vancouver
Sonic Boom - Toronto
Soundscapes - Toronto
Zulu Records - Vancouver

As you can see, Times New Viking have been having the time of their lives on the current Drowned in Sound endorsed Shred Yr Face tour with the lovely No Age and Los Campesinos! kids.

There’s still a fair few dates to go (see below) but if you happen to be London bound this weekend, be sure to get yourselves down to the Super Shred Sunday instore frenzy. Details had been kept secret until now, but i’m pleased to announce which band will be playing which store at what time and how you get in and what it’s all about etc etc:

3pm - Puregroove - No Age
5pm - Beyond Retro, East End - Times New Viking
7pm - Rough Trade East - Los Campesinos!

As with all things in life, there’s a catch - to get into the instores, you’ll need to obtain yourself a wristband.

There’s just 300 wristbands for the Super Shred Sunday instores. The first 100 wristbands will be available direct from Pure Groove Records when you pre order the exclusive Shredyrface 7″ (featuring all three bands), these wristbands will get you free entry into all 3 shows on the Sunday. For wristbands call Pure Groove on UK number 0207 778 9278 or visit www.puregroove.co.uk.

The remaining 200 wristbands will be available via Rough Trade East when you preorder the exclusive Shredyrface 7″ and will gain you free entry to the Beyond Retro and RT East instores.
For wristbands call Rough Trade East on 0207-392 7788 or visit www.roughtrade.com.

Remaining Shredyrface dates:

17 Oct Whelan’s, Dublin
18 Oct School Of Arts (14+), Glasgow
20 Oct Electric Ballroom (14+), London
21 Oct Fleece, Bristol (18+)
22 Oct Academy 3, Manchester (14+)

Chris Lombardi (photos by Natalie Judge), interrupting a fact finding mission in Glasgow earlier this week to observe the state of music retail.  We don’t wanna be cruel to the hard working folks at Zavvi, but it’s not quite a trip to Amoeba Records.

Michael and I did a duo show a week or so ago in Northampton and I used this as as an opportunity to resume my record store interviews. We hit up Dynamite Records in Northampton, which had moved to my surprise, but we tracked them down.

I spoke to Lane and Willis.

Jennifer, Lane, Willis

JO’C: How long have you worked here?

Lane: 3 months

JO’C: What did you have for lunch?

Lane: Burger King Double Cheese Burger!

JO’C: What’s the last great show you went to?

Lane: Western Mass Hardcore Fest in Amherst

JO’C: What’s the best record you’ve come across lately?

Lane: Street Dogs - State of Grace

JO’C - Did you get it here at Dynamite?

Lane: Yeah

Willis: You really got it from me!

Lane: Well, yeah, but that’s through here.

JO’C: Ok. If you could meet any musician or band, dead or alive, who would it be?

Lane: Talib Kweli

Willis: Joe Strummer

JO’C: Anything else we should know about Dynamite?

Willis: We are the best record store in the Valley.

JO’C: Ok, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

This did seem like a pretty cool store, though it seemed like they had considerably less stock than in their previous location, but I think they are still in the process of moving. Lots of vinyl - reasonably priced.

Look out for many more record store interviews in the coming weeks as we are about to head out for over a month. Feel free to check out the tour schedule and send along your recommendations!

Love,
JO’C

I apologize for the use of the word “free” in these instances. I don’t know when we’ve charged money for an instore previously, and if someone did make you pay $5 (for instance) to see one of our bands perform in a record shop, might I suggest you’ve been a victim of a subway troll moved overground?

A few weeks ago I was killing time between flights at big box-y retailer who shall remain nameless, and though I’d originally ventured inside to purchase a car charger for my phone, I ended up dropping $16.98 on the new Judas Priest double CD ‘Nostradamus’. The cover sticker claimed there was a coupon good for a free general admission ticket to see Priest, Dio-fronting-Sabbath, Motorhead and Testament, and I figured even if the concept album was just as rotten as I suspected, this was still a good deal.

WRONG WRONG WRONG.  As it turned out, Mr.-Has-No-Loyalty-To-Indie-Retail got karmic payback up the rear when he failed to read the fine print — “WHILE SUPPLIES LAST”, etc.     No free Priest ticket.  One $16.98 pair of ugly coasters.  Let this be a lesson to you all — if you’re gonna buy terrible records, the least you can do is buy them from a record store and not some fucking refrigerator warehouse.

With that intense experience behind me, I was pleased to read the following interview with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, as conducted by the LA Weekly’s Skylaire Alfvegren.

L.A. WEEKLY:Rob, how are you?
ROB HALFORD:I’m fine. Did you survive the earthquake?

I was in Northern California at a UFO convention.
Oh, for the band?

No, not the band.
The things in the sky?

The things in the sky.
Well, I’ve got some stories to tell you. I’ve had one or two encounters in England, not close encounters, but things that have totally freaked me out. It absolutely fascinates me. I think maybe just because it’s an artistic thing. People that are in tune with their emotions and creativity, I think that a lot of us are prone to that almost sixth-sense phenomenon. Having said that, people from all walks of life see those things in the sky, you know. But I think it’s something very bizarre and it’s been with humanity forever.

Ezekiel’s Wheel, Zoroaster, heck, Muhammad, the Dogon tribe … I’m curious. Do you feel certain camaraderie with Nostradamus because he was basically exiled, somewhat like heavy metal, and ultimately triumphed when he gained the patronage of Catherine de Medici and wrote the quatrains?
Yeah! Thank you for picking up on that! You’re one of the few journalists that has. But that was one of the appealing parts of the man’s character. You know, in metal, we talk about rejection, and running up against people that attack us. That’s exactly what that guy went through. He was looked upon as a bit of a freak, and he had this gift, this uncanny ability to have these visions and prophecies, and he was looked upon as being someone — at least by the Catholic Church — dabbling in the black arts.

I definitely see a parallel between your music and the man’s life.
Oh, but it was a terrible time to live, the 16th century, to a certain extent. There were still remnants of the Inquisition going on, which was hideous. He dealt with all that, and we thought, man, this guy led a bit of a metal life with some of those emotional elements, but he stood up for himself and he was triumphant in the end, and that’s just a great story.

Permanent Records is a new-ish record store in my neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. When I started doing my record store visit posts on tour, I knew at some point I wanted to do one on Permanent. I visit this store at least once a week when I’m in town. They have an amazing selection of used cds and vinyl and the right selection of new titles so when I want to pick up a new release they usually have it.

I talked to Marjorie (owner) and Ron.

Marjorie, Ron, Me

JO’C: Permanent used to be in Long Island, right? Why the move to Greenpoint?

Marjorie: Well, I live in Brooklyn, so the commute is much easier now. Also, as much as I liked Northport, people are much more supportive of music here.

JO’C: So you like having the store here in Greenpoint? How long have you been here?

Marjorie: Yes, I can hardly remember what it was like before. We opened the store in Greenpoint in May of 2007. It’s actually more like being in a small town here in Greenpoint than it was in Northport. Which is pretty rare for being in an urban setting.

JO’C: Greenpoint does feel like a small town. I think its one of the things I like most about living here.
What are your favorite places to eat in Greenpoint. This is the one question I ask of all the stores….

Ron: Brooklyn Label - They have a good balance of veggie and meat selections. And the coffee is good.

Marjorie: The Habitat on Manhattan Ave.

JO’C : I go to Brooklyn Label all the time. I’ve never even heard of The Habitat - new place to go!
Ok, what do you sell the most of in the store?

Marjorie: I’d say we’d sell the most used LPs, then used cds, then new lps, then new cds.

JO’C: That makes sense to me - as someone who comes here frequently and buys like 20 used cds at a time. ****

Marjorie: I’ve always enjoyed letting the used collections that I buy dictate the inventory I stock. We definitely carry new titles, but our niche is more used items.

JO’C: What’s the first record(s) you remember buying as a kid?

Marjorie: Yes Fragile. Blondie Heart of Glass 45 and Parliament Flashlight 45

Ron: Kiss Love Gun 45 and Aimee Stewart Knock on Wood 45

JO’C: Marjorie, I think you are the first woman record store owner I’ve ever come across, in all my years going to record stores. Do you know any other women who own record stores?

Marjorie: Not currently…

JO’C: I’ve always wanted to have my own store. Maybe someday….
What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about owning a record store?

Marjorie: Well, being my own boss is my favorite. And being my own boss, is also probably my least favorite.

JO’C: I hear that.
And you do instores here at Permanent right?

Marjore: Yup. We’ve done close to 20 or so in the last year.

JO’C: As a matter of fact, I am doing an instore at Permanent on Saturday August 23 at 3pm - to celebrate the Aug 19 release of my new record Here With Me. It’s free! (the instore, not the record).

****I should not neglect to note that there is an awesome 99 cent cd section at Permanent and a 5 for $10 cd section. Also, dollar lps and really great prices on everything really - new and used. If you are a record store fanatic like me, and live in the NYC area, you should really come check this store out!!

Lots to say, people, lots.  I totally heart Milwaukee.  Previously, I’d been to this fine city only once to play and had such a great time.  I wondered if it was a fluke.  I now know it was no fluke - Milwaukee may just be the finest place on Earth.

But let’s get to the record store juice, shall we?

I visited Atomic Records and had a lovely chat with Sahan.

JO’C: How long have you worked here?

Sahan: One year.

JO’C: What did you have for lunch?

Sahan: A baked potato.

JO’C: Yum, that sounds good. What’s your favorite place to eat in Milwaukee?

Sahan: Classic Slice.

JO’C: What’s the best music venue in Milwaukee?

Sahan: NOT The Rave.

JO’C: Oh shit! Is there a good music scene here? What are some good local bands?

Sahan: Yeah, I’d say there is. Malachi, Get Rad, Call Me Lightning, Brief Candles. Those are some of the best.

JO’C: Cool, I’ll check them out. What are your favorite new releases?

Sahan: Gregor Samsa - Rest and the Atlas Sounds‘ record.

JO’C: Are you going to any of the big festivals down in Chicago this summer?

Sahan: No, I was gonna go to Pitchfork, but I’m not now. I AM going to see My Bloody Valentine in September.

JO’C: I think that’s a much better choice. Good work.
I really like Milwaukee. Should I move here?

Sahan: Yes.

JO’C: Anything else you’d like to add?

Sahan: Yes, I am not 15…I’m actually 22.

Atomic is awesome. Sahan gave me a great Atomic Records t-shirt, and I bought Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man…on cd so I could listen in the car. And a $2 Deee-Lite single with some rad re-mixes. I also got the new Magnet magazine…which has a really fucking awesome new Matador ad in it. Really. To top it off - Sahan came to the show that night at the Cactus Club - which was the best show so far I think. I could go on and on, but unfortunately, I have to get in my rented Chevy Impala and drive to Minneapolis now.

Love,
JO’C

Photography by Miwa Okumura.  I’m pretty sure the guy on the far right is checking his voice mail (as opposed to sticking his fingers in his ears).  Not shown : Nate Dogg, Chris Martin.