Vintage Vinyl

Wilco’s thirteenth studio album, Cousin, was recorded in the band’s legendary Chicago studio – The Loft – over a period of two years. The ten new tracks are written by band leader Jeff Tweedy and feature musical performances by the longtime lineup of Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone and, of course, Tweedy on lead vocals.

After a short detour back into their country-influenced roots via last year’s Cruel Country double album, Cousin sees Wilco back in their more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory. Tweedy’s singular songwriting voice is in full evidence, with lyrics weaving across a variety of topics – from the iconoclastic to the introspective.

Adding a unique and new element to the recording process was the attachment of Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon as producer – the first time an outsider has been actively involved in a Wilco recording session for more than ten years, since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Le Bon brought her unique musical perspective to the band’s trademark sound and provided them with an inspiring new challenge to push their musical boundaries.

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio de la Soul and was released on March 3, 1989. It marked the first of three full-length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number, " "Buddy, " and "Eye Know". The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held it's annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, de la Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a "hippie" group, based on their declaration of the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

The definitive box set for Ghost's highly acclaimed album IMPERA (Best Rock Album: iHeartRadio + American Music Awards; #1 Spotify’s Best of Kickass Metal; etc) is bursting with some never before released vinyl, 3D die-cut gatefold vinyl jacket, wax seal kit with custom Ghost candles, band poster, 22-page photo book & more! This limited-edition black vinyl version features a gold foil number certification marked on the box's paper outsert.

Red Vinyl Second Pressing

Sometimes, Mitski says, it feels like life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what’s truly hers, what can’t be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski says. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will continue to shine that love long after she’s gone. Listening to it, that’s precisely how it feels: like a love that’s haunting the land.

“This is my most American album,” Mitski says about her seventh record, and the music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. In this album, which is sonically Mitski’s most expansive, epic, and wise, the songs seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time-traveling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star.

The album is full of the ache of the grown- up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything, and everyone, is crying out, screaming in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place — this earth, this America, this body — takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.

Mississippi Nights: A History of The Music Club in St. Louis chronicles the 30-year run of the iconic venue, even diving into the pre-Mississippi Nights history of 914 North 1st Street in Laclede's Landing. Stories include The Police, Nirvana, Melissa Etheridge, Public Enemy, AC/DC, Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), and local bands such as The Urge, Pale Divine, KingoftheHill, Story of the Year, Mama's Pride, and more. The rich music history of Mississippi Nights is brought back to life with stories, photos, and memorabilia.

In the summer of 1969, the Mississippi River Festival (MRF) kicked off on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Over the next 12 turbulent summers, the outdoor concert series attracted more than a million fans, showcased the talents of hundreds of legendary performers, and created countless memories among the artists, fans and workers who called the MRF their summer home. The Who, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, the Eagles, Janis Joplin and many other rock legends played the MRF. But the festival’s commitment to music diversity allowed area fans to also enjoy classical, jazz, dance, barbershop, theater and bluegrass over the course of a summer. The Mississippi River Festival is a part of history now, but it remains a beloved piece of nostalgia for thousands of St. Louis area residents. And now, for the first time, the complete story is being told. With fan reviews, artist recounts, and a gallery of rare, vintage photos, this is the story of what happened when the stars came out.

TO THE EXTENT THAT AMERICAN HIP HOP OWES A DEBT TO JAMAICAN MUSIC, THAT DEBT IS ALSO OWED TO U ROY

This Limited-Edition vinyl release for RSD Black Friday 2021 celebrates the long and ground-breaking career of the artist who single-handedly created the model for all succeeding reggae DJs, the legendary U ROY.

It is impossible to overstate his importance to the history of reggae, representing a status as Louis Armstrong’s lasting influence on Jazz; U Roy’s feat of having the Top 3 best-selling singles at one time in 1970 on the airwaves & in record shops announced the beginning of a long recording and live performance career, known internationally as the ‘Rasta Ambassador’, a status he held until his death in February 2021. Quite simply, U Roy created the template for all those countless Mic MCs who followed his example, from the 1970s to now. Bob Marley was known to not be a fan of the DJ music sweeping the dance in Jamaica, but when asked what he thought of the trend replied “Well…me like U Roy.”

Pressed on clear vinyl (with liner notes by the noted reggae producer/historian Leroy Pierson), this compilation includes Roy’s collaborations with the leading vocalists of the day (including Johnnie Clarke, Lee Perry, The Heptones, Slim Smith and others), on his own, now-extremely rare JA-only 45 releases, from the collection on Sound System Records, Foundation Skank . There are also sides from an earlier release on Sound System (out of print on vinyl for 20 years) The Lost Album: Right Time Rockers, cited by the Rough Guide To Reggae as one of its 100 Essential LPs. Chatting as a master jazz scat-vocalist over the rhythms originally cut at the Channel One studio in Kingston for the all-time greatest LP of the vocal group Mighty Diamonds, they give an intimate look at the island’s #1 DJ at the top of his form.

By the time of his demise at the age of 78, every accolade, honor, and recognition given in the reggae world were abundantly his, including the Jamaican government’s highest commendation, The National Order Of Distinction. From the early days until his end, U Roy was the epitome of the Rastafarian message of black pride and love. His primacy in the forefront of reggae is known world-wide, and Sound System Records gives thanks for our two decades + association with the man known as Daddy Roy.

SIDE ONE
1. FOUNDATION SKANK
2. ITAL VITAL
3. TRUTHFUL DUB
4. LOVE I BRING
5. DOWN DEH

SIDE TWO
1. MR. WARNER
2. RIGHTFUL REGGAE
3. CRASHIE SWEEP
4. FULL TIME
5. COOL DOWN
6. CREATION REBEL

Bobby Rush’s biggest hit, “Chicken Heads”, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2021. In recognition of this milestone, Bobby has tasked Gov’t Mule, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram and Buddy Guy to record reimagined versions of the track in their own unique styles. This release will include those three versions of the song, plus a brand new recording of the track from Bobby Rush that’s inspired by over 50 years of performing the song live in front of audiences around the globe.

Chicken Heads
Chicken Heads - Buddy Guy Feat Bobby Rush
Chicken Heads - Gov't Mule and Bobby Rush
Chicken Heads - Cristone "Kingfish" Ingram Feat. Bobby Rush

Over the course of his career, Sufjan Stevens has blurred distinctions between the major and the minor, between the details that color our existence and the big events that frame our lives. He has turned historical footnotes of States into kaleidoscopic pop, and rendered the immeasurable grief of loss with intimacy and grace.

His new album Javelin—Sufjan’s first solo album of songs since 2020’s The Ascension and his first in full solo singer-songwriter mode since 2015’s Carrie & Lowell—bridges all these approaches. Sufjan uses the quietness of a solitary confession to ask universal questions in songs we can share communally. Accompanying the CD and LP formats of the album is a 48-page book of art and essays. With a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields, Sufjan builds order from seeming chaos and vice versa. And toward the middle of it all are 10 short essays by Sufjan, another window into the process that informed Javelin.