Hey all -

I was so excited last week about my little Survivor experience that I completely forgot to mention one of the most important bits of news of the year — this year's Record Store Day list is live NOW, and lemme tell you, this one looks great to me! You can check it out HERE and see all the titles. It's taking place this year on Saturday April 18th, and we're very excited for this batch of releases! Start up your list, check back regularly for additions and deletions (there have already been modifications since it went live just last week!) and get your list together for RSD! As always, we will be opening at 8AM, and the usual rules apply: only one copy of any RSD title per customer — the event is an IN-STORE event only, so no pre-orders, phone orders, or online orders; you can buy as many different titles as you wish, but only one copy of each; we cannot do any holds on RSD product for anyone for any length of time for any reason; and we are unable to give out any information about quantity or pricing over the phone. Once RSD weekend is done, starting Monday April 20th, all restrictions are lifted and you can have at it! And coming up much sooner than, we've got a couple more listening parties happening. First off though, we'd like to thank everyone who came out for our Mumford & Sons early listening event last night! We had a blast listening to the new album with you, and we only wish we had the CDs we ordered in stock right now to sell you (see below)! But coming up next Wednesday February 25th we will have another early listening party for Iron & Wine's new album Hen's Teeth! The album isn't out until the Friday 2/27, but in a rare turn of events, we will be able to sell copies of the new album early during the release party! Woo-hoo! So if you want to grab your copy early and be the first to hear it, come down to our event at 5PM — no RSVP needed — we'll kick off the listening a little after 5, we'll have free giveaways while supplies last, and you can purchase your copy early too! We'll see you there! And then on Friday the 27th, we're gonna be doing another special listening party. Right around 5PM we will be playing the new Gorillaz album The Mountain as we usually do for listening events, and yes, we will have some freebie giveaways for attendees while supplies last, but for this event we will have a super-limited EVENT EXCLUSIVE variant vinyl LP that will be for sale during the listening party ONLY! These will be very limited so they will be one per customer only. That's right — no pre-orders for this, no online orders, we won't even be selling it off the shelves like a regular version — you can only get this version by attending the party and buying your copy there! Can't make it? You better send a friend down! We'd also like to take a moment to pat our own backs. The Colorado Music Hall of Fame has introduced a new Community Impact Award this year, and Twist & Shout and former Twist owner Paul Epstein are part of the first group of recipients! The Hall of Fame will be honoring all the recipients in a public ceremony on Wednesday April 8th at the Colorado Convention Center, and we're excited to attend and hopefully see some of you there! To read more about the event, the other honorees, and to get your tickets to the event, click HERE for all the info you need! Lastly in the community announcements, we also want you to know that we've got service fee-free tix to local art collective/band Itchy-O's upcoming show with Beats Antique at the Mission Ballroom on Saturday June 6th! We will sell through our allotment for sure, so get on down here while we've got 'em!

As Colfax construction continues to impact businesses up and down the corridor, we want to highlight our Support for Colfax Businesses page, which features a growing list of locally owned shops, restaurants, and venues affected by the ongoing project. If you're looking for ways to intentionally support the neighborhood and help keep Colfax's unique character alive during this stretch, we encourage you to check out the list on our website HERE.

Here are this week's new releases to keep you occupied for your weekend: Turkish psychedelic explorers Altın Gün return with Garip, out now on CD and blue vinyl LP and continuing their deep-dive into Anatolian folk filtered through fuzz and groove; Detroit rap icon Danny Brown drops Stardust, a new chapter that finds him reflective and experimental, available on CD and white vinyl LP; former Disney star turned pop mainstay Hilary Duff releases Luck or Something, out on CD, pink vinyl LP, and cassette; instrumental post-punk trio The Messthetics once again team up with firebrand saxophonist James Brandon Lewis on Deface the Currency, their second collaborative album blending hardcore energy with free-jazz ferocity, out on CD and LP; stadium-folk giants Mumford & Sons deliver Prizefighter on indie exclusive amber vinyl LP — unfortunately, thanks to a f*ckup from the geniuses at FedEx we will not have our ordered copies of CD, as they are languishing in another state! We’ll get them in ASAP, but we may not be able to get the autographed versions that we initially ordered. Stay tuned to this spot and I’ll let you know if we are able to acquire those!; alt-pop hitmakers The Neighbourhood share Ultrasound, out now on indie exclusive purple vinyl LP with the CD coming later this month; and modern jazz heavyweights Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, and Ches Smith unite on Dream Archives, a deeply textural ECM release available on CD only.

And in the land of reissues, it's also a decent week. Here's what's good out there: Tori Amos's covers-heavy 2001 album Strange Little Girls gets a vinyl reissue across multiple variants; Virginia hip-hop duo Clipse see three of their early albums reissued on various colored vinyl LPs; UK dance duo Disclosure's Energy returns as a visually striking zoetrope vinyl LP; Olivia Dean re-releases her 2023 album Messy fresh off her Best New Artist win at the grammys, out today on CD; Bob Dylan has four key titles back in print on vinyl — Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, MTV Unplugged, and Greatest Hits Vol. 2; the Blue Note Classic Edition series delivers essentials from trombone innovator J.J. Johnson with The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Vol. 2 and a cornerstone early statement from Thelonious Monk with Genius of Modern Music Vol. 2; Chicago blues harp legend Little Walter is celebrated with The Best of Little Walter in the Chess 75 Series, alongside Sonny Boy Williamson's The Real Folk Blues; pop icon George Michael's Faith returns on CD and half-speed mastered vinyl, including a red/black marble variant; Music for a Revolution Vol. 2 continues its excavation of Guinea's Syliphone label, spotlighting post-independence African classics from 1968–1980; the beloved soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? celebrates its 25th anniversary with an indie exclusive red vinyl LP; dub mastermind Lee “Scratch” Perry's Return of the Super Ape gets a limited, tri-color vinyl reissue; jam-band stalwarts Phish revisit New Year's Eve 1993: Live at Worcester Centrum as a sprawling 5LP box set; Canadian punk firebrands Propagandhi have two albums reissued on indie exclusive colored vinyl LPs; and power-pop heroes Sugar see both studio albums plus the Beaster EP reissued on CD and LP ahead of their long-awaited reunion tour.

In home video, we've got another solid week. Please note that after a long drought we finally have Shout Factory's 4K UHD release of John Woo's The Killer back in stock (unfortunately not Hard Boiled yet though), but for brand new stuff, read on!: The Criterion Collection's Criterion Premieres imprint, which focuses on important contemporary releases, has released Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud, out now on both DVD and Blu-ray; the acclaimed action film Sisu: Road to Revenge is also out on both DVD and Blu-ray, while the latest installment in the Predator series, Predator: Badlands, has been released on all home video formats, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD. Out on Blu-ray this week, Shout Factory brings us the 2025 fantasy/adventure film Deathstalker, the Criterion Collection's revitalized Eclipse series brings a Blu-ray upgrade of the Lubitsch Musicals box (directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and including the films The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, The Smiling Lieutenant, and One Hour With You), and the recent Hugh Jackman/Kate Hudson theatrical release Song Sung Blue is also out on Blu-ray. In 4K UHD releases, Shout Factory brings us UHD/Blu-ray combo releases of both David Cronenberg's super Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone and the 2014 thriller Nightcrawler, both in limited edition steelbook versions, and Arrow Films has released a limited steelbook UHD release of the anthology horror film Trick R Treat.

Outside the store, this weekend there's some good stuff happening - on Saturday Feb. 21st, the Hi-Dive will play host to Denver indie pop greats Dressy Bessy and will also be celebrating lead singer The Tammy Shine hosting a release party for her very first solo album OK Shine OK! Get the deets and tix HERE. And after playing a very expensive (and immediately sold-out) show at the Larimer Lounge last year, hip-hop greats Clipping. have circled back to play the much larger Gothic Theater on Sunday Feb. 22. Check out more details and get tix HERE. Our pals next door at the Sie Film Center are reaching the tail end of their Sie/Saw repertory series titles for February. Upcoming films include: Baby Boy in celebration of Black History Month, the Coen Brothers' Fargo, and the early Leos (Holy Motors) Carax film Lovers on the Bridge. Read about all their upcoming repertory films and get your tix HERE. Coming up this Wednesday, Feb. 25th Creative Music Works will be bringing trumpeter/ambient musician Glen Whitehead to Dazzle to perform his environmental sound works — a better way to describe what he does than “songs” — live, with percussionist Randy Bowen. Click HERE for more info plus tix, and perhaps even more useful a video of Whitehead's work to give you an idea of exactly what I'm not quite able to put into words here.

Peeking out into March, happening on Sunday March 1st at the Bug Theater, drag artist Peaches Christ is bringing her tour with close friend Mink Stole (known primarily for her roles John Waters films) for an evening of outre cabaret. Read more details and get your tix HERE! And on Thursday March 5th, former Twister Camilla Vaitaitis is celebrating the release of her solo debut album I Grew Up by bringing her group to Dazzle jazz! Read more about it and get your tix HERE! And Creative Music Works wraps this season's lineup with guitar legend Bill Frisell celebrating his 75th birthday by performing in trio at the Federal Theatre on Thursday March 19th. You can read details of the event and get your tix HERE! And in a similarly non-traditional vein, NYC-based classical group Bang on a Can All-Stars will be celebrating the music of the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto on Saturday March 28th at Macky Auditorium on the CU Boulder campus. All the details and ticket options are available HERE. And if going to Boulder isn't in the cards for you, on the same night Colorado singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson will be appearing at Swallow Hill, and you can learn everything you need to know about that show and get your tickets HERE.

It's sick season and stuff is going around, so be sure you're staying safe and healthy out there. Please feel free any time you visit to take advantage of our complimentary masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer while shopping to help keep yourself and your community healthy!

Cheers,
Patrick