Pretentious Record Store Blog

Rhino just keeps doing it. A few weeks ago they re-released all The Replacements Twin Tone albums as remastered editions with b-sides, outtakes, and in depth liner notes. What else could any hipster alt rock fan dream of?

So, on order of release there was Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, Stink, Hootenanny and then their Twin Tone apex of Let It Be. Who else would dare to blatantly ape The Beatles title but Paul Westerberg and company? Those Minnesota boys have some bravado, and with due reason: Youth never sounded more beautiful as when captured by Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars, Bob Stinson, and Tommy Stinson.

Do you doubt the wisdom of Pretentious Record Store Guy? Then pop in Let It Be and be instantaneously mesmerized by “I Will Dare” and continues all the way through to “Answering Machine”. In between are gems of “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”, “Androgynous”, and “Unsatisfied” maybe the best answer to Mick and Kieth’s opus to Satisfaction.

How do you say I love you to an answering machine?
How do you say I need you to an answering maching?

Often considered either the best band or worst band ever based solely on their live shows, The Mats live were either an exercise in organized chaos coming together in unified excellence or simply mass chaos. Unfortunately, Pretentious Record Store Guy was too young to ever see the The Mats live and in person, but he has caught Westerberg on tour with Grandpaboy and it was amazing.

Now if they’d only get to the Warner Bros. records and get Pleased to Meet Me and Don’t Tell A Soul…

Trent Reznor is a really nice guy.  He just made a new Nine Inch Nails album called The Slip and he likes his fans so much that he decided to give it to them for free!  That’s right, Trent Reznor is giving away the new album digitally, 100% free, with physical copies coming out in July. Unlike the free Radiohead, which was encoded in a low quality bitrate which kind of made you have to buy the actual CD on top of any donations you might have given for the free one, it’s actually excellent quality in multiple formats, with no option for spending money on it.  Plus there is a downloadable PDF that contains all the artwork so you can print off a cover for your CD.

Here is what he says on his site: “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me.”

How nice it that?  So what are you waiting for?  Go download it now:

http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup

Enjoy.

From the very moment it starts, It’s a Shame About Ray transfixes and mesmerizes me like maybe no other record before or since. Beautiful and serene while at the same time completely lonely and bittersweet, Evan Dando’s melancholy voice shines through pitch perfectly in his magnum opus. Luckily for all of us mere mortals, Rhino decided to release a deluxe version of this 30 minute marvel of a modern masterpiece with outtakes, b-sides and a full concert DVD as well as a smörgåsbord of liner notes and interview snippets.

She takes me on a rocking stroll
If you won’t wave guess I won’t know
As by I roll I hope you’ll throw a smile at me

At the time of it’s release, the It’s a Shame About Ray was initially overlooked. Although extremely well lauded and well reviewed, especially in Europe and with the British Press, it wasn’t until their throwaway cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” helped break The Lemonheads into the mainstream and into the arms of both MTV and the zeitgeist.

Unfortunately, Dando and company were immediately derided by long time fans for taking a turn from their Bostonian punk roots and into the public spotlight. People should have seen it coming. What was Lovey if not the perfect bridge of a punk past to a perfect pop future? They already had the songs down, they just needed to evolve a little bit, thrown some polish on it and let them shine. It’s A Shame is that resulting shine.

A ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder is like a ship without a rudder

With his perfect cheekbones plastered all over seemingly every magazine cover, Evan Dando became an unwitting product that was being force fed to America. Fanzines like Die Evan Dando Die sprung up posting venomous hate towards Evan. The constant scrutiny and negative reaction forced Dando away from the spotlight and helped produce an equally stellar follow up Come on Feel the Lemonheads.

In the mix tape soundtrack of my life, It’s a Shame About Ray is Side A to Come On Feel’s Side B and you can simply rewind the tape and play it again, Sam.

Looking back on all the great music of the 1990s, I’m stunned at how much truly great stuff was put out and also at the amount of crap that was allowed to be produced as well. This isn’t a Best of the 90s list, only my favorite records of the 90s; albums that I keep coming back to time after time because I love them so much. Maybe you like these and maybe you don’t. Either way, this is my list and these are my faves. Enjoy.

Radiohead

The Bends

The Lemonheads

It’s A Shame About Ray

Mother Love Bone

Mother Love Bone

A Tribe Called Quest

Low End Theory

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

The Verve

Urban Hymns

Guns and Roses

Use Your Illusion 1 & 2

Pavement

Slanted and Enchanted

Pearl Jam

Ten

Superdrag

Regretfully Yours

The Beastie Boys

Ill Communication

Modest Mouse

The Lonesome Crowded West

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Orange

The Lemonheads

Come On Feel The Lemonheads

Notorious B.I.G.

Ready to Die

1) Nada Surf - Lucky

2) Vampire Weekend - s/t

3) Magnetic Fields - Distortion

4) The Whigs - Mission Control

5) Cat Power - Jukebox

Next Tuesday Feb. 5th is Super Tuesday, so the Parade of Freaks wanted to remind everyone to go out and vote in the primaries.

Who has won the Parade’s admiration and vote this season? Why, none other than Mr. Barack Obama. Why? Because he is an Agent of C.H.A.N.G.E. What is C.H.A.N.G.E.? Change is Citizens Helping America’s New Government Effort. Government is broken and only C.H.A.N.G.E. can fix it.

To enable C.H.A.N.G.E. we must Vote for Barack Obama for President!

This illustration was inspired by the great Jim Steranko, the leadership of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and is powered by H.O.P.E.

Enjoy.

1) Radiohead – In Rainbows

2) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81

3) Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

4) Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

5) The Good, The Bad & The Queen – The Good, The Bad & The Queen

6) Rogue Wave – Asleep at Heaven’s Gate

7) Spoon – GaGaGa

The Shins – Wincing the Night Away

9) Albert Hammond Jr. – Yours to Keep

10) Editors – An End Has A Start

1) All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

2) Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday

3) 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso

4) Captain America by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting

5) Fables by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham

6) Madman Atomic Comics by Mike and Laura Allred

7) Casanova by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

9) Invincible by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Bill Crabtree

10) Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower

11) Dork by Evan Dorkin

12) Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday

13) Too Much Coffee Man by Shannon Wheeler

14) Eightball by Dan Clowes

15) Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja

I know I haven’t posted a new Pretentious Record Store Guy comic in a little while, and for that I apologize, but the truth is that I have been gearing up for Zuda Comics.

What exactly is Zuda Comics? Zuda Comics is D.C. Comics new online webcomic site. They just opened their doors in late October to an international talent contest and I have been busy frantically preparing my submission piece. The winner of the contest gets a 1 year publishing contract with D.C. and Zuda Comics.

Well, I’ve got great news for everyone! One of my comics, Development Hell, has been selected as a Top Ten Finalist in for the Zuda Comics December Competition: http://www.zudacomics.com/

What does this mean? Essentially, the editors at Zuda liked the comic enough to put it in their Top Ten for the month. Now, it’s up to all the people out there to decide which comic would they like to see on a weekly basis and vote for the winner. But voting for their favorite comic isn’t enough to seal the deal; since we are living in a Web 2.0 world (and if you don’t know what that is, then read Development Hell to find out), the comic rankings are based on a few different factors. The first is the vote of the people. Voting for the comic that you think is the best is the fundamental principle at work here. Secondly, you have to rate the comic on a 5 Star system, with 1 Star being a poor rating and 5 Stars being the best. Third, you have to add the comic as one of your favorites. Essentially this is bookmarking the comic for easy viewing at a later date. Lastly, comes the all important Page View factor. Going through all the pages of the comic help increase it’s Page Views. Coming back multiple times to the comic to reread it throughout the competition also help the Page Views Category. All of these things help affect the rank of the comic and go into Zuda’s top secret equation that determines the winner.

With all your help, I can make one of my dreams a reality by having one of my original creations published by D.C. Comics. So if everyone can please take 5 minutes and help me out by creating a profile and voting for Development Hell as they’re favorite comic, I would greatly appreciate it.

To create a profile and vote on Development Hell, simply go to Zuda Comics and get started.

Thanks a bunch!

Carlos

Everything you need to know about a band you can find in their name. Naming your band may be the most important thing you’ll ever do in your entire life. Give your band a shit name and people will automatically think you’re shit.

Example: Audioslave–great pedigree, great musicians, shitty band.

How can this be? How can the members of Rage Against the Machine (excellent band name) and the singer from Soundgarden (equally excellent) equal a sub par, standard rock fare? The answer simply lies in the namesake; a rose by any other name would be something else wouldn’t it? Call a rose crap and suddenly something smells like shit. Get my point?

So how can we solve this sartorial conundrum? Glad you asked, because here is

Pretentious Record Store Guy’s Handy Dandy Guide to Naming Your Band

Rule #1: If you’re in any kind of “core” band you need to show just how tough you really are. Blood works; bleeding works; dying and killing also work. Check out Bleeding Through, A River Runs Red, My Dying Bride, Blood Brothers, etc. So for my post-punk, neo-mathcore, pre-screamo, non ironic dance band we named our selves Bleed the Blood of the Dying.

Rule #2: Animals rock. Check out Wolf Eyes, Wolfparade, Wolf Mother, Band of Horses, Horse the Band, The Unicorns, etc.

Rule #3: Puns work. Check out The Beatles, Texas Chainsaw Mass Choir, etc. (Well, maybe they aren’t puns, but I’m not exactly sure what they are. I graduated high school, but I was mainly incoherent the majority of the time I was there. I’ve had a few college classes but nothing that has really stuck, you know, why bother? I already have the best job in the world: record store guy. I get to sit around all day and listen and talk about music and I get paid for it. How can you beat that? So it might not be a pun, but just because I’m not some English major doesn’t mean that you’re better than me. Screw you for judging me.)

Rule #4: “The” bands tend to work really well. Simply put “the” in front of something, thus making that something plural and watch the record deals come in (but this tends to only work if your sound is 70s garage rock rounding)…See The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Editors, The Stills, The Hives, etc.

Rule #5: Head(s) always works. See Talking Heads, Radiohead, The Lemoheads, etc.

Rule #6: When in doubt, go pretentious, that is, after all, my main motto in life. Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah, Godspeed You Black Emperor, etc. the longer the title, the cooler it is.