Charlotte Pop Fest 2008 Price: $15.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: Congrats to festival organizer/artist James Deem!  July 4 & 5, 2008 marked the first Charlotte Pop Fest!  Early reports are that it was a rousing success - enough so that looks like it will happen again in 2009!  The festival featured many artists... ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Look At The Sun Price: $18.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: SOLD OUT!! Another stellar 22-track collection of rare BBC session tracks along with a significant proportion of acetates - all previously unreleased - recorded by some of the decade’s most obscure happening groups. Genuine hardcore unreleased British psych is a rare beast indeed these days but Top Sounds believe they have found some with two late 1967 tracks by Louise, who played clubs such as Happening 44 and were most definitely the real deal as far as British psychedelia was concerned. Psych pop heroes Kaleidoscope return with a newly discovered and much improved BBC version of "Faintly Blowing" from 1967, together with a thought lost performance from the same session of "The Murder Of Lewis Tollani". Portsmouth psychsters Coconut Mushroom offer excellent fuzzy pop in ‘Without You’, then crank up the volume with a sledgehammer version of the Who’s ‘Call Me Lightning’. Top of many fans wants lists are new tracks by the Fleur de Lys and unbelievably a cracking version of Albert King’s "Cross Cut Saw" from a ’67 BBC session has been found for Look At The Sun. Rare BBC performances by Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera have also been located and two of the best tracks from Wooden Hill’s Onyx CD make an appearance here. Infamous for their classic "Does It Really Matter" and the fact that no-one had a clue who they were, the Glass Opening feature with not only that great B’side but also three other corkers cut onto acetates during 1968. Graded Grains reappear with an excellent take on Spooky Tooth's "Better By You, Better Than Me", nestling closely to Andy Scott blasting out heavy prog pop riffs with the Elastic Band on a previously unknown version of "Uptown, Downtown" And there are two BBC performances by the venerable T2, one of which incredibly is an audio recording of their only television appearance! Plus more makes this an absolute must for fans of this kind of stuff! We sure are! GREAT!!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Lowe Profile: A Tribute To Nick Lowe Price: $20.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: In 2005, Walter Clevenger rounded up a slew of fine artists to pay tribute to the guy who has had such a huge influence on his music - and one of our ALL-TIME FAVORITE ARTISTS! . The 2CD features contributions from Walter himself, Ian Gomm, Dave Alvin, Duane Jarvis, Foster and Lloyd, Steve Allen (20/20), Ron Flynt (20/20), Don Dixon, Jamie Hoover, The Muffs, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe, Terry Anderson, Robbie Rist, Eric Ambel, Steve Wynn, Eugene Edwards, Sparkle*jets UK, The Glimmer Stars, The Brilliant Mistakes + more! Walter's band (the Dairy Kings) helps out by playing "house band" and recording the music for several of the artists on the tribute. most of the artists on Lowe Profile are roots rockers and pop mavens who obviously know and love Lowe's music, but also bring their own flavors to the performances, and along the way testify to the diversity of his material. "The other widely available tribute to the music of Nick Lowe, 'Labour of Love', counted Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and Dar Williams among its contributors. The hitters on 'Lowe Profile' - a set covering, in the words of executive producer Clevenger, 'rock, pop, blues, country, and soul - and that's just the first five songs on disc one!'- aren't quite as heavy. But that's a plus, not a minus, as it allows the diversity of Lowe's songwriting to take center stage. Each of his periods is represented by a standout track. His Brinsley Schwarz bandmate Ian Gomm, who cowrote 'Cruel to Be Kind,' turns in a heartfelt version of the song accented by some delicious George Harrison-esque slide guitar, and Foster & Lloyd reunite after 15 years to put a smooth country spin on the Rockpile-era 'Without Love.' Other highlights include Greg Trooper's soulful, Wurlitzer-tinged take on 'What's Shaking on the Hill' (the centerpiece of 1990's 'Party of One') and a rockabilly reimagining by James Intveld of 'Dig My Mood''s 'Lonesome Reverie.'" - Benjamin Lukoff This isn't a bunch of slapped-together covers, but a heartfelt tribute to a musician whose talent and attitude has made a real impact among people who love music, and one of the best tributes we've ever heard! GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Sing Me A Rainbow: A Trident Anthology 1965-1967 Price: $28.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: In the mid-'60s, Trident Productions, run by Kingston Trio manager Frank Werber, recorded quite a bit of San Francisco Bay Area rock, usually but not always leaning to the folk-rock side. Though they had a big hit right away with the We Five's 1965 smash ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Hearts On Fire: Sweet Relief Vol. II Price: $14.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: WOW!!! Big-time kudos to Jeremy Morris and JAM Recordings for assembling this absolutely stellar start-to-finish collection of jangle pop! Featuring contributions from the likes of Greg Pope, The Records, The Lolas, The Temponauts, DM3, Dropkick, The Primary 5, Nigel Clark (Dodgy), The Junipers, Daniel Wylie, Cosmic Rough Riders, The Tangerines, and more, this 24-song offering begs you hit the "replay" button! Lasting 75 minutes plus, it is a double albums worth of music for the nice price of one. Special high grade mastering, superb art, and detailed liners make this a great value and best of all it's a charity CD to help provide aid to victims of natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Along with tracks from now-out-of-print releases, the collection also contains exclusive contributions from Jeremy, The Lolas, Paisley and Charlie, The Tangerines, and The Kubes! Can't say enough about this one (as we play it for the seventh time)! Like we've been known to say - GREAT MUSIC FOR A GREAT CAUSE! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

All Those Times We Spent Together: A Tribute To The Television Personalities Vol. 3 + bonus disc Price: $14.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: The Beautiful Music has committed itself to releasing ten Television Personalities tribute albums over the next few years. It is an idea that is both bonkers and admirable, as if the label is trying to make up for all the praise and recognition that the band has sadly missed out on over its 30 plus year existence. "After the Years’ offers up a spiky version of ‘This Angry Silence’, Anorak Girl take a kitschy electro pop approach to ‘Smashing Time’ that sort of sounds like a solo effort from the girls from the Human League, which is great, and seems to suit the song. Blue Petal’s arrangement of ‘A Good and Faithful Servant’ is fairly faithful to the original, slowing it down and giving it a swinging, waltzy beat, but capturing the sentiment of the song nicely. A Smile And A Ribbon’s take on ‘Magnificent Dreams’ sounds a bit Electrelane-like, and has a nice innocent, childish vibe to it. Sarandon take ‘And Don’t the Kids Just Love It’ and sharpen up the 60's garage rock influence within it, making it more overt. The Painted Word unsurprisingly takes ‘The Painted Word’ and adds a breakbeat to it, which, with the Beatles-ish backwards guitar and tambourine, makes it sound a bit like an early Britpop song. Amica’s loose, de-anglified version of ‘In a Perfumed Garden’ reminds me a little of Pavement, and therefore gets two thumbs up. Armstrong’s nice harmonies and simple, arrangement of ‘This Heart’s Not Made of Stone’ is another highlight; different enough from the original to stand up on its own, but keeping the sentiment of the original. Cineplexx gives ‘I Hope You Have a Nice Day’ a sort of lo fi Phil Spector treatment, while Apple Orchard strips away the 80's jangle of ‘The Dream Inspires’ and replaces it with Sloan-meets-Belle and Sebastian indie pop. La Grande Illusion Gainsbourg-ifies ‘Glittering Prizes’ and is surprisingly good. The alt-rock version of ‘The Man Who Paints the Rainbows’, supplied by Bunnygrunt, is another good one; it’s a natural adaptation that is different but doesn’t feel forced. Versions of ‘This Angry Silence’ book-end the compilation, with Boyracer’s closing take making it sound very Buzzcocks-like." - PennyBlackMusic.co.uk "Common to all of these songs is that hardly anyone knows them . Never mind. I assure you, the music is worth it. Dan Treacy is a great songwriter, tells the wonderfully true, sad, melancholic, incredible, off-beat, happy, dreamy stories and provides the right chords. Each band, each artist, brings his own vision and interpretation. It is always exciting and worth hearing . Nice thing !" - Twang-tone.de Jeremy Gluck (Barracudas) also covers "King and Country"! COMES WITH A 23-TRACK BONUS DISC OF EVEN MORE TVP COVERS!! EXCELLENT!!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Kool Kat Does Jellyfish Price: $0.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: Originally only available as an exclusive bonus disc with Burning Sky’s “Sensory Lullabies: Tribute To Jellyfish” release, and now to celebrate the release of Jellyfish's "Radio Jellyfish: Live Radio Broadcasts 1993", we’re alerting you to it's availability once again. ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Love Letter To Japan Price: $15.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: Many Scottish musicians have received much love and support over the years from Japanese friends and fans. Now they're sending some love and support back to the people of Japan with "Love Letter To Japan" - a Scottish indie pop fan's delight that has been specially compiled by Duglas T Stewart of BMX Bandits to raise money for the Japanese relief effort, following the recent earthquake and tsunami. The 18-track album features new, previously unreleased songs, from composer Craig Armstrong, Stevie Jackson of Belle & Sebastian, BMX Bandits, The Pastels, Bill Wells, The Pearlfishers, Snowgoose, Alasdair Roberts, Paul Quinn (Primary 5), The Starlets and Eugenius! Track listing: Snowgoose "Harmony Springs", The Pastels "Guest Of Honour", Hidden Masters "Golden Hair", Stevie Jackson "Price Of An Education", Paul Quinn "Away", "BMX Bandits with Yeongene & Tenniscoats "Standing Still", Eugenius "Friend or Foe", The Pearlfishers "Swan Dreams (live)", Bill Wells & Tape "Troublesome Malady", Ally Kerr "Could Have Been A Contender", Lenzie Moss "Where Eagles Dare", St. Deluxe "After The Fire", Jo Mango "The Moth and the Moon", Alasdair Roberts & Mairi Morrison "Bradhagair zan Taobh Siar", Randolph's Leap "Going Home", Craig Armstrong "Cherry Blossom", The Starlets and The Andersons "All To Make You Feel Brand New", and Momus "I Can See Japan". This is a CDR. A DONATION OF $5 PER CD SOLD WILL BE MADE BY KOOL KAT MUSIK TO THE RED CROSS JAPANESE RELIEF EFFORT!!! GREAT MUSIC FOR AN EVEN GREATER CAUSE!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Too Much Time On Our Hands: A Styx Tribute Album Price: $13.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: When approaching this project, the participants rethought the arrangements of these Styx songs, avoiding the triple-tenor harmony vocals, progressive rock instrumentation, double-lead electric guitar solos, and theatrical leanings of the original recordings, thus the organic core of each song is revealed and appreciated. The album makes an interesting study for any Styx fan, or a fan of any of the artists that contributed. Unique in its approach, it emphasizes the vision of each artist's interpretation of the track to which they contributed. In that way, fans who know each artist's style will easily recognize their sound. Like any compilation or mix tape, there are highs and lows for every listener. Pacific Northwestern female-fronted punk trio Heart Beats Red turned in a ferociously garagey interpretation of "The Grand Finale", Alva Star channeled Prince in their dreamy take on "Lady", Echelon odernized the rock classic "Renegade", power-vocalist Beki Hemmingway out-emoted the original Dennis DeYoung composition "Don't Let It End", acoustic duo Lost and Found made "The Grand Illusion" sound like Simon And Garfunkel, college-town troubadour Jerry Chapman growled his way through "Man In The Wilderness", and project coordinator Jonathan Rundman teamed up his cousin Bruce Rundman and producer/drummer Andy Deitrich to record the Styx staple "Come Sail Away" and the obscure gem "Queen Of Spades". The result is a pretty cool, creative tribute of a group of artists interpreting Styx in unique and rootsy ways! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Friends With Benefits: A Compilation Fighting Cystic Fibrosis Price: $11.00 Artist: Various Artists Description: 16 bands from the Twin Cities area coming together for a good cause (and delivering some fine music in the process)! In the early months of 2005, after Minor 7 recording studio opened its downtown Minneapolis doors, its founders realized the best way to show off their new studio toys was to pimp some product. Problem was, they hadn't recorded anyone yet. The genius of their solution - to offer free recording time to any band willing to devote one unreleased track to this CD - is twofold. First, no group in their right mind will turn down free studio time, a fact that rewarded the producers the pick of the Twin Cities crop. Second, because the same engineers recorded each of the album's tracks in the same studio, the disc has a consistency of sound and flow all too rare in compilations. And, while the music on this disc demonstrates a wide array of styles and provides a musical "snapshot" of bands currently treading the boards, it does feature tracks from artists certainly familiar to pop fans - Heavy Sleeper, The Idle Hands, The Hang Ups, Autumn Leaves and Romantica. All proceeds from the sale of this nicely-priced CD go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! EXCELLENT!!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none