Shutter Noise

Austin Record Store Binge

For the past few weeks I’ve been taking photos for Austin Vinyl, a new website that’ll be up, running, and telling you all you need to know about the local record store scene very soon. It has been great discovering so many stores that I didn’t know about, but the temptation of all that vinyl means my bank account isn’t speaking to me at the moment.

Here’s your own brief tour of the six stores we hit. All these photos + more are here.

First and largest, Waterloo Records. Doubly dangerous in that I went weeks ago, then again for Spoon, and couldn’t resist buying both times.

Record count: Anni Rossi – Rockwell, HEALTH – Get Color, Dengue Fever – Escape From Dragon House

Cheapo, right up the street

Record count: Radiohead – They Might Be Wrong (live recordings)

Brief interlude to say that I have absolutely loved these recordings for years, and am so happy to finally have them on vinyl. The versions of Like Spinning Plates and True Love Waits on here are so, so good.

Backspin Records, my hands-down favorite new find. I actually had to stop looking, because it was getting more and more difficult to choose which albums I should buy and which I could wait on.

Also, they have a Billy Idol wall.

Record count: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Broom, HEALTH – s/t, Spoon – Kill the Moonlight, one more I can’t remember

End of An Ear

Record count: Bedřich Smetana (who had a thoroughly depressing life), the Chariots of Fire soundtrack, the Roadie soundtrack with its awesome classic rock, LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

Friends of Sound, where I stumbled into by accident last sxsw and ended up with some Billie Holiday and Holy Fuck… great location also, right off of South Congress.

Record count: Nina Simone – Best Of Collection, Dirty Dancing Soundtrack (hell yeah!)

Breakaway Records, aka ohmygod so many awesome $1 albums wow.

Record count: Dave Brubeck – Solo Piano Songs, Cindy Lauper, Beatles – 1967-1970

The sad thing is, I probably bought even more that I forgot about… vinyl love is a sickness, I tell you!

Spoon Pics, Waterloo & 101X

So, I got to see Spoon twice yesterday. They played a set for a select group of 101X peeps (and for kgsr before that, but I sadly missed it) before heading down for their hour-long gig at Waterloo. I love me some Spoon, perhaps an inappropriate amount given how many times I’ve actually met Britt, so yesterday was pretty much entirely awesome.

Also, the fact that 101X had Tuaca shots set out at the door for before and after the set didn’t hurt any.

(as usual, there are more pics available if you click through to my Flickr page)

And if you made it this far, you should go listen to the two new Midlake tracks… They are utterly gorgeous and I’m obsessed with them. It looks like they will probably be playing SXSW, but I’m not being greedy to want an Austin date outside of the conference, am I? Come on, they’re practically local!

The Courage of Others comes out Feb. 2, and I can’t effing wait.

New Albums Live

There are some kickass albums coming out this month, and some of your favorite local spots are offering you a chance to listen to them before forking over your hard-earned cash. NPR’s online stream is also out to spoil you (don’t you love those guys?).

Yeasayer’s new album, Odd Blood, is supposedly even trippier than the first, and though it drops February 9th, you can check it out weeks ahead of time this Friday at both Waterloo Records and End of an Ear. And while you’re thinking of them, you should probably buy your tickets for one of their two Parish shows before they sell out.

NPR is streaming Spoon’s new album in its entirety, and what I’ve listened to so far is pretty kickass. You can catch them live for free at a Waterloo Records in-store Monday the 25th at 4pm, but if you want to actually make it in the building, I’d recommend showing up very, very early. They’re also kicking off SXSW with a show that Wednesday at Stubbs.

Vampire Weekend’s Contra is also streaming, and there’s a listening party for it Tuesday night at Scoot Inn. Sadly, I don’t have any pics of them yet, though they are playing Stubbs April 10th so I can maybe remedy that.

Oh yeah, and my Free Week photos will be up asap.