Thanks once more for making this year's Record Store Day so huge! We're still basking in the glow of it, and thanks to you, we've sold through a ton of the titles we brought in — but there are still a handful of things left and titles we were able to secure a restock on, so if you missed out don't despair — you may still be able to score that RSD release!
In music new releases this week it's yet another strong week, featuring several bigger releases (noted below) and plenty of other items that caught my eye: all-female jazz supergroup Artemis has returned with their second album for Blue Note, In Real Time, out now on both CD and LP; Sony has released a beautiful compilation of the work of Syd Barrett, covering his period with Pink Floyd and his solo works — An Introduction to Syd Barrett — out on both CD and LP; Austin weirdos The Butthole Surfers have an LP out this week as part of the RSD Essentials series of vinyl reissues — their 2001 release Weird Revolution, available on white vinyl LP; De La Soul's catalog reissues continue with an LP reissue of their superb and wildly underrated third album Buhloone Mindstate; punk rockers The Donnas have put out the limited Record Store Day release Early Singles 1995-1999 on CD; Freddie Hubbard's 1967 classic Blue Spirits has been reissued on LP this week as part of the Blue Note Tone Poet Series; soul singer Durand Jones has returned with his fourth studio album Wait Til I Get Over, out now on CD and indie exclusive blue vinyl LP; Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo steps out with his first solo release Rites of Percussion, apparently a departure into experimental soundscaping, which I wouldn't have believed if you'd told me last year, but after seeing him hold his own in a couple ensembles at Big Ears, I'm very intrigued — it's out on CD and indie exclusive red vinyl LP; and speaking of Big Ears, I also got to see Joe Lovano's Trio Tapestry with pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi and they were terrific — their new album Our Daily Bread is out on CD from ECM now; two early Medeski Martin & Wood releases — Friday Afternoon in the Universe and Shack-Man — have been reissued on LP this week as well; roots-rocker Dex Romweber is back with his first solo release in several years, Good Things Goin', out on CD and limited edition gold vinyl LP; filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's musical side project SQÜRL has become a more regular thing than new films by him, and their latest Sacred Bones release, Silver Haze, is out now on CD and silver vinyl LP; another few RSD Essentials are the Sally Cinnamon EP by Stone Roses, out now on red vinyl, Junior Walker's soul classic Shotgun, and two Wu-Tang Clan titles, Legendary Weapons and Wu-Tang Chamber Music, on silver and red vinyl respectively; and alphabetically last, but possibly my favorite reissue this week, are two titles from Brazilian legend Tom Zé — his first two releases on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label, Brazil Classics 4: The Best Of Tom Zé and The Hips Of Tradition — Brazil 5: The Return Of Tom Zé, have been reissued on LP this week as well. Whew!
Over in DVD and Blu-ray by contrast, there are only a handful of things out this week: in Blu-ray, there's a box set of the work of the great Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American film star in Hollywood, whose career spanned the silent and talkie era and went on to include work in both radio and television. The box set contains the films Dangerous To Know, Island of Lost Men, and King of Chinatown. In UHD releases, the sci-fi disaster film Deep Impact sees its 4K UHD debut, and the Criterion Collection has released Wim Wenders' masterpiece Wings of Desire in a 4K UHD/Blu-Ray combo pack this week. And that's all we got in new stuff! Whew!
Outside the store, coming up tomorrow evening Levitt Pavilion kicks off their season of free shows with Fishbone, who are performing on Saturday May 6th! Check out full info about the show and reserve your tickets HERE and bounce around the Levitt website a bit to see more info about other shows, both free (like Son Little, Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru, Flobots, Chali 2Na with Cut Chemist and more) and ticketed (like Garbage, Trombone Shorty, Violent Femmes, and others). This coming Tuesday May 9th at Dazzle The Songwriting of Ron Miles series returns, with this month featuring pianist/vocalist Dawn Clement, and you can read all about it HERE. And Monday May 15th experimental electronic musician Yves Tumor will be hitting the stage at the Ogden and you can read all about that show and get your tix HERE. The next night at the Bluebird, Australian rockers Hoodoo Gurus will be performing a show that was delayed from a planned fall 2020 concert, so there's bound to be a lot of pent-up energy getting released! Get all the info HERE. On Monday May 22nd, Wu-Tang member GZA will be performing his classic album Liquid Swords live with full band at Cervantes (which you can read about and get tix HERE) and also on Tuesday the 23rd at the Boulder Theater (click HERE for more data and ticket sales).
And peeking out to early June, there are a couple great shows in that first weekend — at the Hi-Dive on Saturday June 3rd, San Diego-based surf rockers Los Shadows will be playing (more info HERE) and on Sunday the 4th, lefty country singer-songwriter Adeem the Artist will be at Globe Hall (get all the info you need or get tickets HERE)! The Songwriting of Ron Miles series continues in June with Matt Skellenger and Greg Tanner Harris performing on Tuesday June 13th, and you can read all about that event HERE. A little further out, on Saturday June 17th, Levitt Pavilion has another great free show with hip-hop great Sage Francis and a bevy of guests. See the whole lineup, get details, or reserve your tickets HERE.
