thenewrecord:

The New Record Newsletter for November 30th (if you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re going to be shooting these out every Wednesday). 

A new post filled with intro by Bill talking about 00:02:59 Records (which Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem is a fan of) & Sugar Hill Records, a new editorial piece by Alex, a playlist from Alex as well, Just Added tracks featuring Nick 13, a Deep Cut by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and tons of more stuff. You know, the usual. 

The New Records Newsletter

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Make sure you’re following us on any or all sites. Whenever we have new tunes, great news and awesome contests, we post it all on there. 

My Editorial in this week’s newsletter for The New Record featuring my Brother, El Big Jim ( one of his latest posts were about sopes so consider yourself warned if you’re currently hungry). 

——

It’s that time of year again when everyone is assembling their Top Albums of the Year list. It’s such a great time to snoop around people’s list and see if they are either cool or lame. Right? I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but if one of your friends, who you hold high regards for musically, adds the new Selena Gomez record as their top favorites, is it acceptable to criticize him/her? Some might say that it’s absolutely okay… but it’s not.

My brother, Jimmy, grew up listening to Top 40 radio throughout his teenage and adult life. Rick Dees in the Morning on KISS FM was all we heard in the morning because it was his “get ready for school/work” music (we shared a room for a long time). So knowing what my brother’s musical taste was, I never hesitated to raid his 150 CD Case Logic wallet (wow, remember those?) to see what I might be missing out on…you know, just in case?  In being your standard nosey little brother, low and behold I made a huge discovery. The kind of discovery that if measured musically, it could be considered a gold mine now for me. If it wasn’t for my brother, I would have never got into Outkast or The Red Hot Chili Peppers which later led me to find my favorite artist of ALL TIME, John Frusciante.

So you see, never be ashamed of what you listen to and what music defines you. Some people may not approve of some of your choices or give you a hard time but it’s who you are. You can’t help but let music do to you what it’s meant to do: make you enjoy it. Always be willing to open up and let people know what you’re jamming to because you never know what kind of gem you’re going to introduce someone to.

In a world where we’re ambushed with greed at least share music…legally, of course.

Share your musical tastes by submitting your Top Records of 2011 as well as your New Record playlists on twitter - @thenewrecord

-Alex

sideonedummyrecords:

Brian Fallon and Chuck Ragan performing “Great Expectations” live on German TV Show neoParadise

The Revival Tour has allowed for some great collaborations. Performers include: Chuck Ragan, Brian Fallon, Ian Perkins (The Horrible Crowes), Dave Hause, Daniel Andriano, Joe Gingsberg and Jon Gaunt. With such an eclectic group of musicians, each night has been, without a doubt, a special and unique experience for everyone in attendance. Take a peek at this great rendition of a gem from The Gaslight Anthem’s “The ‘59 Sound” album.

Being a part of a label that puts out music like this here is definitely something special.

I had the opportunity to take my first band into a radio station for an interview last Thursday since I’ve taken over radio duties at SideOneDummy. After weeks of planning, I had the honor of taking in The Horrible Crowes into KCSN for an interview with Sky Daniels. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to set this up but with a little help (from my friends) it got done. After getting approval from management and scheduling with Sky, we were all set and all I needed to do was pick up the band and take them down there Thursday morning.

Along with Johnny B, we picked up the band (Brian Fallon and Ian Perkins) and their manager and loaded up my whip to head down to Cal State Northridge. After a little bit of trouble finding the place we met up with Sky. The offices were clean and everything looked new, kind of like what I imagined a radio station should look like. After a couple of introductions with the staff of KCSN we all entered the studio where the interview was going to take place.

The interview was a success. I always heard nightmare stories about bands cringing at the questions being asked and being stuck with a DJ who wasn’t knowledgeable about the band they were interviewing. I didn’t have to worry about any of this today as Sky was nothing but a professional in the way he conducted the interview with Brian and Ian. I felt proud and excited all at the same time as I witnessed the interview. Proud because I had helped coordinate this and excited because first and foremost I’m a fan of music and The Horrible Crowes’ album “Elsie” has easily crept into my Top Albums of 2011 list. Easy.

The band had an in-store at Fingerprints in Long Beach that night so after a quick stop at Norman’s Rare Guitars Shop in Tarzana we were on our way to the LBC. The in-store was amazing. The band played the whole album as well as their Katy Perry “Teenage Dream” and INXS “Never Tear Us Apart” covers. Even though setting up in-stores is not my gig here at SideOneDummy, I loved the fact that it happened at one of my favorite record stores.

One of my earliest and favorite music memories involves Fingerprints years ago when I was in high school.  I used to ditch to Long Beach to meet my girlfriend at the time and since I got there really early and had plenty of hours to kill, I’d always end up at Fingerprints browsing every section of the store. One of the albums I remember buying back in those days was the Rites of Spring “End on End” record. I had seen that record in some list in AP magazine and I was in the mood to take a chance on an album of a band I had never heard of so I bought it. After plenty of listens, I regretted buying that record because I just wasn’t feeling it at all. It was definitely the odd ball in my collection at the time so no matter how I had my CDs organized, I’m pretty sure you would always spot it at the bottom of the stack. Years later, it’s one of my favorite records and Fingerprints was the place where I later on bought one of my most precious records, Pavement’s “Slanted and Enchanted.” You can still find me in Long Beach often and I’m always convincing Lissette that we should walk off our lunch/dinner by talking a walk on 2nd street (the store has moved to 4th Street now towards Downtown LB) and my feet always tend to point into the direction of the record store.

So back to Thursday…the day was a success. I drove home tired, exhausted but happy that I was able to hang out with Brian and Ian and the rest of the band. A little Horrible Crowes interesting fact: the drummer Steve Sidelnyk was in Massive Attack at one point and was the drummer used for the “Mezzanine” demos. Pretty neat huh? I’m sure the owner of Fingerprints as well as my co-workers and I had one of those moments where you kinda stand back and think, “And THIS is why I love what I do.” I don’t think any of us take moments like that for granted.

Brian and Ian during their interview at KCSN.

Soundcheck for the Fingerprints In-Store.

Panoramic view during the performance. The app is called ‘Photosynth.’

Fingerprints made these in-store only posters for the show. I wasn’t even aware that Alex Rosamilia knew about “El Diablo” but it’s cool that people are still keeping that memory of what happens when Alex gets really drunk alive. The last in-store we had at Fingerprints was for Chuck Ragan and he wrote on it “Thanks for all the help.” Pretty sweet that this one has a little something special as well. “Good Luck With The Baby!”

Support your local independent record store! 

– The Horrible Crowes

The Horrible Crowes “Behold The Hurricane” premiered today on Rolling Stone’s website. Given that I’m working radio here for the Dummy, I’m really involved in spreading the word out on things like this. Really excited that we can start getting full tracks to people now of this great record. There are gems on ‘Elsie’ that are gonna be lifelong favorites. 

Check out the new song HERE

For fans of The Gaslight Anthem