Limited-run RSD albums from The Fleshtones, Los Straitjackets and Minus 5 due November 24

With Record Store Day fast approaching, the fine folks at Yep Roc Records just announced a Black Friday bonanza of releases from The Fleshtones, Los Straitjackets and the Minus 5 – each containing at least some music you don't already own! Here's the scoop...

The Fleshtones – Budget Buster (Yep Roc Records)
Packaging: 12” Vinyl / red and orange splatter-colored
Limited to 1000 copies worldwide

Known as the “The Kings of Garage Rock” or “America’s Garage Rock Band,” there’s no debate that The Fleshtones are one of the hardest working (and rocking) bands of all time. In the past decade, Peter Zaremba's crew has released loads of new music that rivals the best of their impressive 40-year run. The 12-song Budget Buster collects some of their finest singles tracks and rarities over the last 10 years, many of which are long out-of-print and difficult to find. Fleshtones completists should note that Budget Buster includes two previously unreleased tracks and features a sleeve created by Mons. Zaremba himself!

Los Straitjackets – Sing Along With Los Straitjackets (Yep Roc Records)
Packaging: 12” LP with bonus 45 single
Limited to 1500 copies worldwide

Way back in 2001, Sing Along with Los Straitjackets marked the first time the masked instrumental marvels featured vocals on their recordings, an endeavor they would embark on again later with Deke Dickerson.

Sing Along with Los Straitjackets features a party of musicians spanning the musical sphere, from Nick Lowe playing bass on his own “Shake That Rat,” to collaborations with the always amazing El Vez, Raul Malo from The Mavericks, Exene Cervenka from X, Mark Lindsay of Raiders fame, Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and even instro royals The Trashmen. Reissued on wax for the first time, every copy of the LP comes with a bonus 45 single featuring two rare collaborations from the Sing Along with… sessions featuring Dave Alvin and Reverend Horton Heat, who also appear on the album.

The Minus 5 – Dear December (Yep Roc Records)
Packaging:  12” LP | white vinyl
Limited to 1500 copies worldwide

In early 2017, Scott McCaughey penned a few holiday numbers to submit to a well-known artist’s prospective holiday album. He became so inspired by the task that he wrote more than an album’s worth of material and decided to record that album with his group, The Minus 5, which for this project includes Peter Buck and drummer Joe Adragna as core members.

A cool yule selection of 11 original future holiday classics, Dear December includes collaborations with Kurt Bloch, M. Ward, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, Mike Mills, Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists), Chuck Prophet and a few other special guests. The deluxe white vinyl album comes packaged with an Advent-inspired calendar, a gatefold cover and digital download.

Watch Bob Mould's entertaining new video for I Don't Know You Anymore

Bob Mould's eleventh solo album Beauty & Ruin is out on Merge June 3 – sounds like a winner!

Gillian Welch's rootsy new album The Harrow & The Harvest due June 28

According to a press release issued today by Outside Music who distribute Gillian Welch's Acony Records label in Canada, Gillian Welch's highly anticipated new album The Harrow & The Harvest will hit the streets June 28. Even better news is that this "return to the roots" recording was produced by her longtime collaborator David Rawlings who'll be accompanying Welch on her North American tour which kicks off at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, CA on May 30 – already sold out. There could be a Toronto date announced any time now but in the meantime, here's the scoop on the new album which gets the thumbs up from Colin Meloy of The Decemberists who benefited greatly from the presence of Welch on their latest album, The King Is Dead...

Acony Records is proud to announce that on June 28, 2011 they will release The Harrow & The Harvest, the new album by Gillian Welch, featuring ten new songs recorded at her own Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville , Tennessee and produced by David Rawlings.

On May 30, 2011, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will embark on a North American tour supporting The Harrow & The Harvest that will continue through the summer and into the fall.  The acclaimed duet will visit over seventy cities in their most extensive tour in over a decade.

The Harrow & The Harvest, "is a new Southern sound," writes Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, "with the sort of songs you wouldn't be surprised to hear issuing from some verdant, wooded hollow in Appalachia;  Songs you'd expect to hear hollered from an Asheville grange hall, all too late in the evening.  Songs with the wry humor of the back porch.  Listen to this record with the lights low.  Listen to it on an old radio, cradled next to your ear."  

Uncut Magazine's Album of the Month review calls The Harrow & The Harvest a "timeless country classic, this is Welch's most ruggedly traditional work yet."  And closes by lamenting,  "The only thing wrong with a Gillian Welch album is that she makes so damn few of them."

Welch and Rawlings met at Berklee College of Music in Boston .  Together, they moved to Nashville , TN , where most of their work together has been produced. Since then, they have influenced and inspired new generations of country and folk singers, songwriters and players. They have earned the slavish admiration of many of the most lauded and loved voices of the Americana milieu, and had their songs recorded by the likes of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and Solomon Burke.

Down By The Water by The Decemberists feat. Gillian Welch

Brave a blizzard for the Decemberists?

With the threat of a massive snow storm bearing down on Toronto this evening, it's understandable why some fans of the Decemberists – even those with tickets to tonight's highly anticipated show at the Sound Academy – are having second thoughts about leaving the house. Let's face it, as engaging as Colin Meloy and company can be in concert, no one really wants to be caught in a blizzard at the corner of Cherry and Polson waiting for a cab after 1 am with a few hundred bearded strangers.
Of course, many will brave the 30 cm blast to find out whether the songs off the Decemberists' Billboard chart-topping new album The King Is Dead sound any more or less like R.E.M. when they're performed live but for those who'd rather sit this one out, nyctaper has thoughtfully made available their excellent recording of the group's final show of their three-night stand at the Beacon Theatre in New York from last week which you can download for free (see LINKS below the clip).


Down By The Water on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jan. 20, 2011



LINKS
Decemberists site http://decemberists.com/
merch http://www.decemberistsshop.com/zencart/
Live at the Beacon Theatre 01-26-2011