Hey all -

Lotsa stuff on the horizon here at the store and in the neighborhood, so let's get to it! TONIGHT (Friday, Sept. 19th), we've got a listening event over 50 years in the making — Rhino Records has reissued the 1973 album Buckingham Nicks for the first official, non-bootleg reissue in decades, and we'll be hosting a listening party for the album's release at 5PM! As usual, there's no need to RSVP, just come on down and enjoy hearing a pristine remaster of what this then-couple was doing before they crashed the party with the Fleetwood Mac gang and pushed them to become one of the best-selling bands of the 70s (and beyond)! We'll be kicking the listening event just after 5, and we'll have a limited bunch of free giveaways while supplies last — first come, first served! See you then! And we're only a week out from the Bluebird Bodega | Super Colfax Block Party, a celebration taking place on Saturday Sept. 27th from 2-6PM on the best stretch of the best street in the city! There will be food, drinks, music, and pop-up shops — including Twist and other vendors holding a pop-up store and DJing some cool and groovy tunes at the Goosetown Tavern. It all culminates after the main event in a special concert at Lost Lake featuring Nikki Lane, who just played Red Rocks with Sierra Ferrell a couple weeks ago! Read more about the event, get your tix, and more HERE. And as always, be sure to stay tuned to this space for more good stuff in the works. We also want to make sure you know that we have service fee-free tickets for sale to the upcoming Itchy-O Hallowmass shows at the Summit Music Hall on Halloween (Friday Oct. 31st) and Saturday Nov. 1st. Picking up a two-day pass will save you a ton as well, so you might consider spending the weekend in the company of Itchy-O!

And as Denver keeps changing, the ongoing BRT Bus Line construction project has moved even further east on the Colfax Corridor and we've got this little page on our website HERE that will house all the latest information about what's happening and provide links to many of our favorite local business neighbors on this stretch of Colfax — and it's now newly expanded past Colorado Blvd to keep up with the construction. Please make an extra effort to support all these local businesses during this construction project to ensure that Colfax keep its always-unique and fascinating flair!

As usual, there are a slew of notables this week, plus a good number of smaller titles to talk about in both newly released albums and reissues of note; here's what's cool this week: Minneapolis hip-hop vets Atmosphere deliver Jestures on CD, cassette, and LP, continuing their decades-long run of introspective, underground rap; Cardi B follows her blockbuster debut with Am I the Drama?, available on CD and red vinyl LP, bringing her mix of razor-sharp bars and pop star charisma; garage-punk mischief makers the Black Lips return with Season of the Peach on CD and limited cream vinyl LP; The Blood Brothers (the blues duo of Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia, not be confused with the Seattle hardcore band of the same name) resurface with Help Yourself on CD and LP; UK electronic giants Faithless are back with Champion Sound on CD and LP; Four Tet's Kieran Hebden teams up with guitarist William Tyler (Lambchop, Silver Jews) for the atmospheric collaboration 41 Longfield Street Late '80s, out on CD and LP; cornetist Kirk Knuffke, a Colorado native now a New York jazz mainstay, offers his trio set Window on CD and LP; Swedish pop provocateur Tove Lo teams with producer SG Lewis on the LP-only release Heat; surf-rock outfit Los Straitjackets issue Somos Los Straitjackets on CD, yellow vinyl LP, and indie exclusive picture disc; storied singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan is back with her ne album Better Broken today, featuring a title track co-written by Denver's very own Matt Morris — you can get your copy on CD, Indie Exclusive blue LP or standard black LP; legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr documents his live power with Love Out Live! on CD and LP; Wu-Tang Clan staple Raekwon shares Emperor's New Clothes on CD and colored vinyl LP; Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant unveils her adventurous new album Oh Snap on CD and LP; masked metal collective Sleep Token release Even in Arcadia on indie exclusive gray vinyl LP; supergroup The Third Mind, featuring Dave Alvin, return with Right Now! on CD and LP (vinyl boasting a bonus track); poet-rapper Saul Williams collaborates with cosmic producer Carlos Niño and friends on Saul Williams Meets Carlos Niño at Treepeople, out on CD and green vinyl LP via International Anthem; British soul-pop songstress Lola Young pushes boundaries on I'm Only Fucking Myself, on CD and colored vinyl LP; and finally, Neil Young offers his latest soundtrack project Coastal on CD and LP.

And in this week's reissues and archival releases, naturally, we are faced with another sweet batch of goodies; Buckingham Nicks, the lone 1973 album from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before they joined Fleetwood Mac, finally returns in multiple formats: CD, blue vinyl, indie exclusive pink vinyl, and a Rhino Hi-Fidelity audiophile pressing; soul legend Ray Charles' 1963 set Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul — home to his rendition of “That Lucky Old Sun” — is reissued on CD and orange vinyl LP; the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series digs deep with two hard bop gems, Sonny Clark's Sonny's Crib (featuring John Coltrane) and Freddie Redd's Shades of Redd; punk heroes Descendents reissue their 1982 landmark Milo Goes to College across cassette, CD, gray marble vinyl, and a new “punk note” artwork edition; Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry revisits his solo catalog with reissues of Avonmore and Frantic on CD and colored vinyl; Quincy Jones' funk-jazz classics Body Heat and Smackwater Jack return on LP; Soul Jazz Records compiles a fiery survey of Colombian grooves on Latin Fire! Cumbia–Salsa–Afro-Funk: Tropical Dance Music from Discos Fuentes, 1956–83, available on CD and LP; indie stalwarts Real Estate gather non-album tracks on The Wee Small Hours: B-Sides and Other Detritus 2011–2025, out on CD and LP; and jazz archivists Resonance release Charlie Rouse's Cinnamon Flower on CD and LP, spotlighting the underappreciated tenor saxophonist best known for his work with Thelonious Monk.

This week gets us right back to a strong release week for movies on home video. Here are the highlights of this week's haul: the Criterion Collection brings us a couple big winners this week — after a long spell out of print, they've remastered and reissued the comedy classic This Is Spinal Tap on both Blu-ray and 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo just in time for the sequel hitting theaters, and they've also brought us Lizzie Borden's fantastic 1983 feminist indie sci-fi film Born In Flames on Blu-ray. Radiance Films continues their work shining a light on lesser-known international cinema with two titles on Blu-ray this week — Tokuzo Tanaka's 1966 samurai film The Betrayal, and Spanish director Carlos Saura's early masterwork Los Golfos. We've also got three Blu-rays by Soviet fantasy film specialist Aleksandr Ptushko — Ruslan And Ludmila, Sampo, and The Tale of Tsar Saltan. Other releases out this week include the 1987 Chow Yun-Fat action vehicle Flaming Brothers, the limited edition Arrow Films Blu-ray release of the 2021 folk-horror film Hellbender, the 1958 remake of the early queer cinema classic Maedchen in Uniform (starring the great Romy Schneider), both Blu-ray and UHD/Blu-ray combo releases of the tense 1980 crime thriller Night of the Juggler, and a Blu-ray release of the 2023 documentary So Unreal, narrated by Debbie Harry!

Outside the store, TONIGHT, Friday Sept 19th, we're psyched for the Grand (re-)Opening of the long-dormant Federal Theatre, coming back as a music venue after its original life as a movie theater ended decades ago. The evening will feature a FREE show with Latin psych-rock band iZCALLi and Chicano funk band Los Mocochetes, so go check out this revitalized theater and catch two of Denver's finest bands in the process! You can read all about it HERE! And then tomorrow night, Saturday September 20th, Scream Screen returns to the Sie to continue their ten years of eccentric and fascinating programming with the 2001 oddball indie Western/musical American Astronaut! Read about the film and get your tix HERE! Our pals at the Sie Film Center also continue September's Sie/Saw series, which is focused on the superb home video reissue studio Radiance Film with Ravishing Radiance, a series bringing many of these underseen films to the big screen! Remaining films in the series include Seijun Suzuki's little-seen 1977 film A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, the 1975 weirdo cult-horror film Messiah of Evil (and I do mean “cult” there!), and closes out with the 1968 horror/fantasy The Snow Woman. In addition to these, there are several others worth checking out, and you can read about all of them and get your tix HERE! And don't forget about the Bluebird Bodega/Block Party coming up next Saturday September 27th from 2-6PM, taking place throughout the Bluebird District just east of us on Colfax! See my note above or get more details and tix HERE. Also happening that night, Swans will be playing the Bluebird with what they have said will be their last shows with this incarnation of the band. It's a mighty live experience and if you've been holding out on catching their live shows, you don't want to miss it because this won't happen again! Get all the details and get your tix HERE! But if their deafening and heavy sound isn't your vibe, the same night Ben Ottewell (of Gomez) will be playing at the newly revamped Bar 404. If you haven't seen a show here yet, it's worth swinging by and seeing what they've done with the place, and also catch Mr. Ottewell in the process (and you can find out everything you need to know and get tix HERE)! Also taking place on Saturday the 27th the Sie will play host to the East High Film Fest, celebrating the film careers of several notable East High School grads with three films featuring cinema legends Hattie McDaniel, Harold Lloyd, and Pam Grier! You can see the lineup, read about the films, and get your tix HERE! And closing out our September recommendations, we'd encourage you to make your way to Globe Hall on Sunday September 28th to catch Lady Blackbird, who's now three albums to the good with her particular brand of soulful, jazzy R&B. Read all about that show HERE and I'll see you there!

Peeking out to October, Autechre returns to the States for their first U.S. tour in a decade, and will be appearing at the Ogden Theater on Wednesday Oct. 1. Check out the details and get your tix HERE. And the next night the Ogden will play host to California pop duo Aly & AJ — a treat in itself, but what will make the show extra special is that they're sharing the stage with opener Amanda Shires, who's formidable enough to carry the whole night herself (and will be touring in support of her new album Nobody's Girl, out 9/26)! Read more and get your tix HERE. Also taking place on Thursday the 2nd will be the fifth installment of the Analog Salon series, a monthly vinyl listening party that mixes music, storytelling, and community. This month's featured guest is Catherine Beeson — arts manager, violist, and community builder — who will take us on a journey through five songs that shaped her life, sharing the stories behind the soundtrack of her work and creativity. You can read more details of the event and get your tix HERE. And then later the same week, the great jazz big band Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (who I caught at this year's Big Ears Festival and they killed it) will be appearing at DU's Newman Center on Saturday October 4th. Get tix and info HERE. And in other legacy theaters putting on great shows, the venerable Aztlan Theater on Santa Fe will be bringing punk-era legend Martin Rev (of Suicide) to perform on Friday October 10th! You can read details of that show HERE. Taking place on Wednesday October 15th, our friends at Creative Music Works will be presenting a show by another Big Ears mainstay — drummer/percussionist Ches Smith — and his new band Clone Row, featuring bassist Nick Dunston and the paired guitars of jazz greats Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman. It'll be taking place at The Pearl (formerly the Mercury Café) and you can read more deets and get your tickets HERE! And lastly for now, it's time to mark your calendars and save the dates for this year's Denver Film Festival, taking place at the Sie and other locations from Friday October 31st through Sunday November 9th. Passes are available now, and the program will be announced Saturday October 4th. Read more and keep updated on Denver Film Society's website HERE!

Be sure to stay safe and healthy out there. Please feel free to take advantage of our complimentary masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer while shopping to help keep yourself and your community healthy!

Cheers,
Patrick