Foxygen & Angel Olsen play saki 12/9

saki is excited to present a free, all-ages in-store with Foxygen and Angel Olsen on Sunday, December 9th at 3pm. RSVP on Facebook.

Foxygen’s debut EP Take the Kids Off Broadway (Jagjaguwar) received a 7.9 on Pitchfork. Foxygen is the bi-coastal songwriting duo of Sam France (vocals, Olympia, Wash.) and Jonathan Rado (guitar/keyboards, NYC). They are the raw, de-Wes Andersonization of The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Velvets, Bowie, etc. that a whole mess of young people desperately need. They create a sometimes-impressionistic, sometimes-hyper-real portrait of sounds from specific places and times. Yet, it never comes across as anything but absolutely modern music. They bring the manic, freewheeling qualities of an artist like Ariel Pink to those aforementioned influences to make for one of the most refreshing listens of the year. They are the real deal and total savants.

Angel Olsen’s latest album Half Way Home (Bathetic) received an 8.0 on Pitchfork. A continuation of her elegance brought forth on Strange Cacti, a collection of both new & old music, honed & matured, thoughts revisited. We're hearing this same beautiful girl with that same beautiful voice, this time brought up to a new level, in no doubt a growth & reach brought on by several roadtrips with the one & only BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY & crew. 

The shows will be recorded as Epitonic saki Sessions and become available for download at Epitonic.com.

The saki in-store is in anticipation of Foxygen’s show at Metro on the night of Sunday, December 9th with Of Montreal and Wild Belle.

RSVP on Facebook

BV Chicago is also pretty pumped about this.

I Feel Sick; thoughts Riff Raff

This asshole might be the worst thing to ever happen to music. Let's give him more attention.

the PLACE LIVES

from the excellent CLEAR MOON

Great article in Salon about future of Record Stores

A few days ago, Salon posted an article by Pitchfork contributor Marc Hogan on a real yet mostly positive outlook on the future of independent record stores . You can read that article here. It features quotes from our friends at Wuxtry in Athens, GA, Grimey's in Nashville, Guestroom in Oklahoma, and Permanent in Chicago and LA.

Here are some choice quotes from the article:

"But the survivors aren’t going away. They’re simply changing their tune, becoming smaller and more focused. Time will tell whether that’s enough — for some, continued existence may require a whole new arrangement."

"Still, all isn’t lost. Independent record store closures have been on the decline since 2008, according to Almighty. Amoeba Records, a three-location California independent record store chain that celebrated its 20th anniversary about a year ago, was founded as a “comprehensive, one-stop music destination for everybody,” co-owner Marc Weinstein has said. But that’s an exception. More often, today’s best record stores are carefully curated, niche-oriented establishments, selling new and used vinyl to a specialized market — which tends to be found in critical mass near large cities or universities."

"So against all odds, is there reason for optimism? Hopeful music lovers do keep opening stores. Excluding mass merchants like Wal-Mart and Target, the number of record store openings has increased each of the past three years, including 62 new independent record stores so far this year, according to Almighty. After Louisville, Ky., indie ear X-tacy closed this fall, Matador Records — the label that’s home to Pavement, Yo La Tengo and the New Pornographers — pointed out in a blog post that the death of the record store has been exaggerated, and used Steady Sounds, in Richmond, Va.; Cyklopx, in Forest Park, Ill.; All Day Records, in Carrboro, N.C.; Co Op 87, in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Saki, in Chicago as examples."

"Sone existing stores are actually expanding. In Austin, Texas, End of an Ear recently added an 180-square-foot space next-door, co-owner Dan Plunkett said. In Oklahoma City, Guestroom Records is in the midst of opening a third store, located on the ground floor of a music school. In an email, co-owners Tarvis Searle and Justin Sowers pointed to their independently released offerings: “You’re not going to find many Best Buys that have big Tune-Yards, Dum Dum Girls or Oh Sees displays,” they wrote. Chicago’s Permanent Records recently opened up a second location in Los Angeles."

Keep fighting the good fight!

Mikal Cronin 8.1 on Pitchfork!!

Straight from the Pitchfork presses! Our boy Mikal Cronin's debut album on exclusive Trouble in Mind received an 8.1 today! Not too shabby! Here's what they had to say about it:

"On his eponymous debut, Mikal Cronin proves he can hold his own. It's an album of wistful, psychedelic pop that pits lush and layered arrangements against needle-pinning power chords. Like Segall's latest, Goodbye Bread, Cronin's solo turn finds him dialing back his thrashier impulses in order to clear space for singer-songwriter-style introspection. But when the curtain of lysergic gristle is pulled aside, it turns out that they're not the same person, after all. Even when he goes all Neil Young, Segall still retains an affable beach-dude demeanor. Cronin turns out to be the more vulnerable voice-- Elliott Smith in throwback dress, minus the self-loathing. And, like Smith, he has an ear for arrangements."

"Album opener "Is It Alright" pivots from Beach Boys-worthy harmonies to chugging chords to jangling acoustic guitars before, finally, spinning off into an outro that sounds like Jethro Tull gone hardcore punk. It's no so much that Cronin knows how to effectively layer instruments (though he does) or collage disparate ideas together (though he does), but that he knows how to use dynamics to his advantage. On "Gone" he works soft-to-loud changes, dropping the bridge down to a whisper before bounding back up for a final, climactic freak-out. At the end of "Again and Again", Cronin drops out the rhythm section, rebuilding the song over a gentle falsetto melody."

Kick ass! Read the full review here. CDs and LPs of this release are still available. We also have some of the limited color vinyl version left, just for saki customers, and direct CTD, Ltd accounts! Who says summer is over?

Our Pitchfork Table!

Well, it's Thrill Jockey and Hometapes really, but those are our backs right under the Thrill Jockey sign...

More to come.

Biking to Pitchfork?

The Chicago Reader has a
Biker Village at P4K this year. Visit it for free, safe bike parking aaaaand free chain lube - awwwww, yeeeeeeeah. Then stop over to the Chirp Record Fair and check out our table! See you there!

5-10-15-20

What was your favorite song at age 5? I'm not sure I had one, but I do remember having a plastic toy guitar and singing "Blue Suede Shoes" for anyone who would listen. My musical taste hasn't strayed very far since, but it's always fun to think about what sounds made the biggest impact on you and when. You probably do it all the time at the bar with friends when a song you haven't heard in a long time comes on the jukebox. 

Well, it turns out Pitchfork's been doing it as well. Only instead of your socially lubricated buddy ranting about how much he used to LOVE that Korn record, they ask a heap of notable musicians, producers, etc. to pick their brains about what songs and albums they remember best at 5 year intervals. 5-10-15-20 has featured Kurt Vile, Moby, RZA, Mount Eerie, and Ted Leo most recently, just to name a few.

I'm not a devoted Pitchfork reader, but I think the feature puts an interesting spin on a typical interview query. It also makes me think of Link Wray's "Five and Ten". Win, win.

How fans spend their money

We love the fans that actually pay for their music. But how do they decide what to buy? According to this Billboard article by Glenn Peoples, the Association of Independent Music Stores (AIMS) conducted an online survey of 1,067 AIMS store consumers to find out. Here are some of the interesting results:

4/5 buy from a friends referral
80% buy after a live show
39% heard it on the radio
16% saw it in a newspaper
15% trusted the TV

Where do they buy digital music?

85% on iTunes
23% on Amazon MP3
14% on eMusic

Where do they find referrals online?

78% Pitchfork
44% Rollingstone.com
39% Stereogum
28% Brooklyn Vegan
23% My Old Kentucky Blog
14% Largehearted Boy

Goooooallll!!

Damn do people love this record! Lindstrøm's "Where You Go I Go Too" scores a huge one with an 8.6 on PFork. Tim Finney says:

With its shimmering, strobing synthesizer melodies, dizzy layering, and measured rhythmic pulse, "Where You Go I Go Too" superficially resembles the depth of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians and the cheesy grandeur of Tangerine Dream. But, as with his recent covers of Can ("Mighty Girl") and Jon & Vangelis (last year's "Let It Happen"), its logic is all Lindstrøm: The more he embraces the work of others, the more he ends up sounding like himself.

and wraps up with:

Paradoxically, Lindstrøm knows all the right moves to give his own brand of spacey disco an air of transcendence, but the result feels so effortless that his facsimile and the "real thing" become indistinguishable-- a fake so real it's beyond fake.

Oldsters will be reminded of later, soundtracky Tangerine Dream, early Jean Michel Jarre and the airier, less overtly heinous works of Vangelis, (cf. "Antarctica,"), but nobody younger than me knows those guys anyway!

Can't wait to see what Lindstrøm can do with the Chicago skyline.