My recommendation today is twofold:
idealcopy.com
If you live around here, or if you've known me for any length of time at all, you should be aware of two facts. 1) Let It Be Records was the finest record shop this city has ever known, and 2) It closed this summer, leaving a sucking black void when it came to finding imports and hard-to-finds in this city. When radio here was at its very worst, Let It Be is where I found new stuff to listen to. 90% of the time, I left that joint having purchased whatever it was they happened to be playing at the time, in addition to a really inappropriate number of just-for-the-b-sides singles. And they're gone. Gone.
But! I have found a surrogate. Everything that I would have gone to Let It Be for (and/or imported myself from amazon.co.uk) is now there. They're just getting started, so they don't have absolutely everything, of course. But get this. I made my first order, and in the confirmation, there was a little request to let them know how you heard about them, and if there was anything you were looking for that they didn't have. I'm on a big Stereophonics kick lately (and by lately, I mean for like, the last seven months, but whatever), and I was specifically after the Devil single, on account of that video rocks my world. So I sent 'em a note, mentioning that some singles from Language, Sex, Violence, Other. would be great. A couple of hours later, one of them replied with:
Excellent suggestion about Stereophonics. We still don't have all the
artists on our site that we want to have, and that's one of them. I'll put
them on the fast track.
Pat on the head, and off you go, right? Wrong. They came through with the hook-up in less than a week. These guys kick ass, so go buy lots of stuff from 'em.
And speaking of stuff I bought from them...
Karelia - Divorce at High Noon
Storytime, kids! Gather 'round. Once upon a time, before Google held the answer to the mysteries of life, my bf found me this EP on the internet, called simply the Glasgow EP. It was one of four from various cities. It now occurs to me that all of the artists were probably from the city in the title, but at the time, it was just a name. All of the songs were decent, but one was particularly good, "New Year in New York" by Karelia. I loved that song. Loved. It. And there was like, no more of it to be had. Anywhere. Very depressing. I looked for it for years, and then I kind of forgot about it, because you know, it's not like there wasn't other stuff to listen to.
In one particularly awesome year, both The Killers and Franz Ferdinand (along with some friends, 2004 was an excellent year, but they don't factor in here) were unleashed upon an unsuspecting public and kind of took back the night from the rest of the shlock that'd been coming out for the past five years. So, after raiding Ideal Copy for a slew of Killers singles, I went to see what they had from the new Franz Ferdinand (which is also awesome, even better than the first one, if you can believe it), and what do I see? Karelia. Yes. Before Alexander Kapranos was the lead singer of the ol' Franz Ferdinand, he was in that band I pined for so many years earlier. Awesome.
I don't know the word for it, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but it's like the kind of music they'd play at the Cotton Club, mixed with an absurd touch of April March, and that fab voice of Kapranos's. Sometimes buying the album of the band before the band that made someone famous can be a little painful (as anyone who bought Angelfish can attest), but Karelia stands on its own. Favourite tracks so far? "Crazy Irritation," "Nostalgia," "Love's a Cliché (Reprise)" and "Dancing Along to Nekrotaphion." That said, the album is solid from beginning to end; I've yet to find even a single dud. It's a little pricey, given that it's an import, and a bit of a rarity even then, but it is well worth it.
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