Sigur Ros “The Valtari Hour”    Listening Party/ Contest!

We’ve been chosen as one of the very few US retailers to take part in the worldwide unveiling of the new Sigur Ros album Valtari, the band’s first new album in four years.

Hailing from Iceland, Sigur Ros’ post-rock, experimental sound has always been popular in our store and we are happy to be part of this event.

The official release date is May 28, but you’ll have a chance to listen to it early and win some cool prizes here at Prex.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Communiversity, Princeton’s biggest yearly celebration, is this Saturday!

 But first, before we talk about that, we want to give big thanks to all the thousands of folks who visited us last Saturday for Record Store Day. We are really overwhelmed by the love and support from all of you who made it in. A special thanks to They Might Be Giants who put on a great show and stayed for hours afterwards meeting all their fans. It was a truly special day for us!

 (They Might Be Giants at Princeton Public Library April 21, 2012 for RSD- photo by James Reiner)

So…onto this week’s festival: Nassau and Witherspoon Streets (the main streets in town), will be shut to traffic and will be filled with vendors, food, music and more! We really like being part of the festivities and will be manning a booth at the corner of Nassau and S. Tulane (our store’s street). If you get a chance, stop by and check us out. We’ll be featuring a wide selection of even-further discounted CDs and DVDs.

In addition, to lure you away from the streets, we are holding a “Cheap” DVD sale in the store! On Saturday only, we’ll take $1.00 off all of our DVDs that are priced from $1.99 – $4.99. You’ll save 25% – 50% on your pick of thousands of already super-cheap movies. We have a great selection of big name titles in all genres; comedy, drama, action, children’s, sci-fi and more.

While Communiversty is always a lot of fun, it does mean that getting into Princeton will be a little different because the two main roads will be detoured (Sat., 4/28 only). Below is a set of alternate directions to our store from just about any direction. Please call us if you have any questions—we’re happy to help. Read the rest of this entry »

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Princeton Record Exchange and They Might Be Giants rock Record Store Day! 

We here at Princeton Record Exchange, are very excited to be celebrating the 5^th annual National Record Store Day on Saturday, April 21^st.   This year the hugely popular band They Might Be Giants will join us and perform a FREE show followed by an in-store signing!

For those of you who haven’t heard of our favorite holiday, Record Store Day is “a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA” (recordstoreday.com).  On this day, hundreds of limited edition titles are allotted only to independent record stores like Prex (no chain or “big box” locations).  Freebies and promotional items are given away, and special events are held to encourage all record store fans to come out and support their favorite locations.

A band of national renown, They Might Be Giants has been going strong for 30 years.  They have made 15 studio albums including the Platinum selling Flood and have sold over 4 million records. Their first Grammy was for the song “Boss of Me” that was used for the theme of the popular TV show Malcolm in the Middle, and their second was for their children’s music album Here Come the 123s.  We feel honored that the band has generously offered to help us celebrate this day. Read the rest of this entry »

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Yeah, yeah, this review isn’t timely.  This show was over about a month ago.  Frankly, there were more pressing and impressive things for me to write about.  Sam Llanas for one.  I’m still choked up over the news Random Touch is finished.  Then I had to deal with this Tool nonsense…

I approached this show with my usual motus-operandi.  Did all the research, made all the preparations, coordinated my “staff”, gathered the necessary equipment, and made my way to the Izod Center in the middle of the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

You know, the place where the mob sends people to “sleep with the fishes”.  The place where most of the opening sequence to the Sopranos was shot.  How many times I drove over the Pulaski Skyway…

By the way, I am allowed to talk about the mob, they sent my brother to sleep with the fishes after he borrowed money from them and was lax in paying them back.  Or so the family legend goes.

Frankly, even before I trudged up the walkway to the handicapped-inaccessible Izod Center, immediately my two female photographers were segregated by security who obviously did not get the memo on feminism, equality, and chauvanism.  Something about patting down females by female security, blah blah blah.  Frankly, there may as well not have been any security.  But the security that was there was so fascist, they would not allow EITHER of my photographers, who had floor seats, to take any pictures.

That’s why there are no photos with this review.  Just the facts, folks.

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Recording since the mid-1950s, Andre Williams is no new sucker on the scene.  He topped the charts in ’57 with his singles “Bacon Fat” (later covered by the Cramps) and “Jail Bait,” developing a style that could be described as early rap — talking slow more than singing — mixed with a more traditional R&B vibe.  Working behind the scenes as well as onstage, Williams deftly stepped over the fine lines between funk and R&B, writing songs for Parliament and Funkadelic in the ’70s, as well as Stevie Wonder’s very first song, “Thank You for Loving Me“” and the classic “Shake a Tail Feather.”  But high times led to too-high times as Williams dealt with a crippling addiction that left him penniless and, briefly, homeless.

Striking back in 1998, Williams returned with a super-sleazy album, Silky, that featured oh-my-stars tracks like “Let Me Put It In” and a rougher, tougher backing band.  Yet Williams has never been one to stray far from the music he knows and loves.  Relentless and impossible to refuse, “The Black Godfather” has returned with this year’s Hoods and Shades, a record that feels as timeless as an old friend, if perhaps  a little less exciting than Williams’ more edgy material. Read the rest of this entry »

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BoDeans frontman Sam Llanas lurks the night fantastic.

If you follow this blog, last time we promoted Sam Llanas’ 4AM with a press release and some bio info.  This time, we take on the album itself.  Now the “concept”, if you will, of this album is the adventures that take place after hours.  Llanas claims to have written many of the tunes late at night.  I identify with that as I do my best work at night (post 11pm).  So I went out on a limb this time and gave it an initial listen after 1am.  I’m too old to make it to 4am without chemical stimulants, and I knock off the caffeine at 5pm.

Much less anything stronger.

But I felt it best to get the full effect of this disc’s concept, if it was listened to at the same time it was composed, performed, etc.  I was right.  This is late night listening at its best!

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Lovers of indie rock bands: the town of Bethlehem, PA is about to deliver your salvation.  The folks who bring us Musikfest every summer have recently expanded into a fully functional venue that offers year-round music, film, and arts/culture events, nestled into the stark structures that once built Bethlehem Steel.  And, at the end of March, the ArtsQuest Center on the SteelStacks Campus will debut its new concert series: Nowadays.

Nowadays focuses on musicians of the indie rock persuasion, and this year’s two-day quasi-festival boasts headliners Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., RJD2, Jukebox the Ghost, and We Are Scientists.  A total of 22 acts will be split into three stages within the building: one a common area near a row of gigantic windows that look out onto the often lit-up SteelStacks; another, the venue’s movie theater, complete with crazy-comfy seats; and lastly, the building’s built-for-it music venue, the Musikfest Cafe.  On the second and third floors of the building, the Musikfest Cafe has a great view of the stacks and an intimate, can-almost-touch-the-band vibe (seats included). Read the rest of this entry »

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New solo album out October 25, 2011

Sam Llanas (pronounced yanas), formerly of the BoDeans, takes listeners deep into the night on his new release, 4 A.M., arriving Oct. 25 on Inner Knot Records. The intimate, mostly acoustic collection, produced by longtime collaborator Gary Tanin, features 10 new Llanas originals and a dazzling cover of Cyndi Lauper’s hit “All Through the Night.”

Llanas says of his latest work, “I do a lot of work late at night. It’s a night record, a nocturnal record, thematically about things that happen in the night. That covers a lot of ground. It could be the simple things — being in love, being with somebody — or about the loneliness that the night can bring.”

The album is markedly different from Llanas’ 1998 solo bow A Good Day to Die, which was a powerful eulogy for Llanas’s brother recorded under the group rubric Absinthe.

“The Absinthe record was kind of bombastic and very intense,” Llanas says. “I wanted to do something that was lighter, as light as I can get. I wanted it to be completely different. That’s why 4 A.M. is pretty much an acoustic record.”

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Various Artists “Revolution! Teen Time In Corpus Christi 1965-1970” (Cicadelic Records)

During the sixties, Corpus Christi, Texas was one heck of a hotbed of music, and here’s a collection presenting some of the acts responsible for making the scene so fertile and fantastic. Joining the cool sounds permeating “Revolution! Teen Time In Corpus Christi 1965-1970,” is a sixteen page booklet featuring interviews with band members, radio surveys, newspaper articles and rare photos. A host of previously unreleased material additionally completes the set.

Exploding with vim, vigor and vinegar, the Liberty Bell spits, snarls and pummels their way through pulsating garage punk nuggets like “I Can See” and “That’s How it Will Be,” while a smoking cover of “The Nazz Are Blue” is practically on par with the original version by the Yardbirds. Equipped with a nagging melody and a curtain of breezy choruses, “For What You Lack” stands as a paralyzing pop rocker, and then there’s “Reality Is The Only Answer,” which trembles and shakes with brain-bending momentum. Read the rest of this entry »

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The concert at the Richardson Auditorium on Feb. 9 was advertised as a first-ever performance of the 1936 dramatization of Pushkin’s masterpiece Eugene Onegin, with incidental music by Prokofiev, performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Princeton University. It was quite a surprise then, that after the intermission the audience were treated to the Symphony Orchestra and British percussion maestro Joby Burgess performing a bass drum concerto. A quite remarkable composition as a bass drum concerto is not something you come across every day.

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 Editor’s note: this article was submitted by Henry Faust, a reporter for the The Redwood Bark, a National Pacemaker Award-winning high school paper based in Marin County – 15 miles north of San Francisco.  We are always happy to help promote students work in the music industry and are pleased he chose us to publish this article :)

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Businessmen adorned with suitcases and pea coats bustled up and down the damp boulevard. On that foggy Friday night, San Francisco felt suspiciously normal. A large mob of Occupy Wall Street protestors aimlessly paraded through Market Street, while blocking traffic and blasting music from the Wu-Tang-Clan. They began chanting, “F**k the police, we are the 99%,” I considered this to be routine.

In seconds, dozens of police encircled the protestors like ravenous hawks. As wailing sirens fused together with red and blue flashes, I couldn’t help but admire the light shows that the policemen so kindly put on. Observing this cat and mouse scenario between the police and Occupy Wall Street protestors was simply just a warm up for what would happen that night.

On Friday, February 10th, Excision was headlining at the Warfield Theatre, with opening acts by Liquid Stranger and Lucky Date. After I walked past hundreds of anxious and outrageously dressed fans waiting in line to enter the concert, I began to feel déjà vu rush through my veins – it had tricked me. Looking back to previous dubstep concerts that I’ve attended; such as Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, and Nero, among others, they all seemed tame in comparison to the experience of having Excision melt your face with the filthiest bass God has ever been lucky enough to provide humans with. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jon Anderson, bringing Wondrous Stories to a city near you! Photo courtesy of Glass Onyon

There has been much speculation regarding the lead vocalist position with the band YES.  Let’s get the story straight.  In case you had not heard, original replacement singer Benoit David has left the group.  Before the official announcement that Glass Hammer vocalist Jon Daivison would replace original replacement David, rumors were circulating that founding vocalist Jon Anderson was asked by founding bassist Chris Squire to rejoin.  As stated in the pres release below issued by Anderson’s publicity company Glass Onyon, these rumors were completely unfounded.  Here is the press release:

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Love folk music, Ja Rule, and guys that look like Harry Potter?  How do you feel about girls with breathy voices and dramatic cover songs?  If you’re into it all and ready to burst with adoration in this love season, check out modern folk trio Town Hall as they cover Ja Rule and Ashanti’s memorable hit, “Always On Time,” below. Read the rest of this entry »

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Aging with grace, Tori Amos hides behind a bazillion megawatt floor spotlight. Good luck seeing her face at all… Photo by Amanda Collins

Now that my recording studio consignment obligation is over, it’s time to get back to blogging!!!

Maybe there needs to be some clarification with regard to that headline.  I have been head over heels with Tori Amos since I first heard her tracks on the Little Earthquakes LP.  While I was curious about this petite red headed stick of dynamite playing in frigid water in her “China” video, her looks were irrelevant because she won me over with the music.  As she progressed (some would say ‘grew’) as an artist, she repeatedly proved herself to fans, critics, etc.  While some would say albums like Strange Little Girls and The Beekeeper were sub-par for her, I hung in there.  She hadn’t lost me yet.

However, when she released Midwinter Graces, I thought, “hey, everybody should experiment a little.”  Not being a cold weather/winter holiday fan, I figured it just wasn’t for me.  But I hadn’t lost faith in her.  Yet.  Then she released Night Of Hunters.

I researched the origin of this album, and it appears that the iconic label Deutsche Gramophone had commissioned Amos to write and record a pop symphony.  Amos recruited her daughter and niece to record vocals on the piece.  This is a common occurrence in pop music today, Kate Bush has her son on her latest release, Peter Gabriel has taken his daughter Melanie on tour and through his Real World Records, was able to release her solo EP.

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The candy’s on the shelves.  The commercials are on TV.  Pink is everywhere. The first of February has launched the pre-Valentine’s Day hype and hawking. Whether you’re stuck in a love haze or just trippin’ out, California’s hallucinogenic foursome with a killer name, Mwahaha, have all the psyched-out love you can handle this holiday.

The band recently released a collaged time capsule of a music video for a single off of their recent self-titled debut album, “Love.”  ”Love” looks like it would’ve felt right at home in the middle of Roger Corman’s classic acid movie, The Trip, in 1967 (which, by the way, you can now watch in full on youtube — mind the warning).

Get caught up in the feeling and check out Mwahaha’s “Love” video below. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jack White is done clowning around.    Almost a year to the day after the official end of the White Stripes — a year filled with diverse collaborations, endless speculations, and heartbreak – Jack has announced his impending solo album, Blunderbuss, a record that is ironically being touted as his “debut.”

It’s strange to think that a rock star who has become so iconic has yet to truly strike out on his own. But Jack has never had any trouble standing out from the crowd, especially when it was just a crowd of two.  With his Draconian look, unmistakable voice, and confident creative control, Jack White rose to the top of a merely twitching rock scene with the White Stripes, towering over hush-voiced, heavy-handed bandmate Meg, lauded by critics as if he were already a solo artist. Read the rest of this entry »

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Palmist Records’ sixth split release is grungy, gruesome, and growling…from both sides of the globe.  LA’s Growlers meet Leicester’s Thee Ludds for an oil-slicked slide through 60s garage rock, though both bands add their own spin and earn their own sides.

It’s rumored that Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach will produce the Growlers’ next album, but while we wait for official confirmation, these five songs will sing us into submission.  The short but sticking “Graveyard’s Full” starts the side off with a sort of down-home, front-porch feel, mixed with creepy witticisms and the opposite of a sunny disposition.  A modern update on a tune that draws from early blues, “Graveyard’s Full” somehow also has a lilting, carnvial-esque vibe.  Check it out below: Read the rest of this entry »

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Chicago’s Wild Belle probably don’t listen to Sublime, but that just might be the secret to their sublime sound. Jammin’ without the slightest taste of irreverence, Wild Belle’s first single, “Keep You,” transcends ironic reggae, body-rockin’ sincerely to a shantytown shuffle.

The reggae feel of “Keep You” isn’t buried; it’s the jubilant edge to a song of slip-away sorrow, hazy, over-generalized, and real.  Add a horn section and some scattered space-age sounds (and an intro that at first reminded me of My Morning Jacket’s “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″), and you have an undeniably catchy number that puts the sway in your hips and sweet lyrics on your lips.  Check out the new tune below: Read the rest of this entry »

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Richard Drexler, piano and upright bass (right), Berlin (center) and legendary drummer Mike Clark (left). A dangerous combo, promising intense music in February.

1/9/2012 – Clearwater, FL – Insiders who have heard bass legend Jeff Berlin’s newest CD are buzzing about the forthcoming release – a release that they are saying could possibly be among the greatest bass album of all time! The word is that Jeff Berlin has recorded a jazz CD so astonishing that the artist himself is in shock with what he played! “I prepared for it by practicing 5 hours a day for weeks,” Jeff explains. “What came of my preparation was to record solos on the bass that I believe have never been heard before from a bass player!”

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Sleepy-eyed redhead and bassist for the Brooklyn-based, Jersey-bred Vivian Girls, Katy Goodman re-dubbed herself La Sera last year and graduated from her girl group roots into a solo project that was often more slow, dreamy, and subtle than the garage-band sound of the Vivian Girls.  Emerging with a self-titled album full to the brim of breathy numbers like my favorite, “Devil Hearts Grow Gold,” Goodman proved she could keep her own beat, though the tune of her drummer proved to be not too unique.

Lost amid popular lo-fi retro-pop, Goodman seems ready to add a bit of grunge back into her girly tunes, especially if the first single off of her upcoming sophomore solo album, Sees the Light, is anything to go by.  Listen to “Please Be My Third Eye,” the fun, fully-fueled, freaky little love song, below: Read the rest of this entry »

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