In Denison’s own words, the album is about “patience and reverence. Being mindful and open to what you’re experiencing. A desire to take hold of what’s happening in your life, yet trusting the mystery of it enough to let go and participate rather than dictate.” It is his lyrical insights which give this stunning album its core and emotional power.

Released on March 6th, this album is highly recommended, particularly for fans of Jackson Browne, early Paul Simon, and Josh Rouse.

Between a poor economy, mounting geopolitical tension, and the horrors of public transportation, it’s safe to say that life can pretty much suck sometimes. When it does, it’s always wise to look inside yourself and ask one important question: What would Zola Jesus do?

I have my guesses, but you can find out for yourself Thursday (2/16) night at the U Street Music Hall when goth infused singer/songwriter Nika Roza Danilova returns to Washington, DC, since we have a pair of tickets to give away.

The show’s not likely to serve up any old time religion, but it will feature Zola Jesus’ unique blend of enigmatic lyrics and haunting, astral instrumentals. At the risk of going to hell, you have to admit that’s a much better deal.

Conatus, the Wisconsin-born singer‘s recently-released third album, hosts a parade of mesmerizing tracks, including “Shiver,” “Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake,” and “Vessel,” the album’s driving first single. Coinciding with its release was a collaboration with M83 on the song “Intro,” the opener for Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

Seeing as how Zola Jesus’ despondent sound is the perfect compliment to the District’s recent cold spat, TVD is willing to set you up with tickets if you tell us your go-to album for bad weather listening.

Mine’s “First and Last and Always” by ’80s gloom-meisters the Sisters of Mercy, but I’m sure you can do better than that.

The winner will be selected on Wednesday (2/15) at noon. The show is presented by the 9:30 Club and the Black Cat. Brooklyn-based two-piece Talk Normal shares the bill.

Dig the deets, yon hippies…hipsters…hypnotherapists:

On Record Store Day 2012, Phish will release Junta, the band’s first full-length studio album, as a Limited Edition Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set, available exclusively at participating independently owned record stores across the country. Junta marks the band’s second release in conjunction with Record Store Day, and the first time Junta has ever been released on vinyl.

This LE Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies. Junta was recorded at Euphoria Sound Studios in Revere, Massachusetts in 1987 and 1988 on 16-track 2″ tape and was mixed to 1/4″ stereo reels. In addition to writing and performing all the music, the band produced the album themselves.

Junta was originally self-released on cassette tape in May 1989 with packaging created by the band (included in the new vinyl package). The album was remastered and rereleased as a double CD (and cassette) in October 1992. Junta was certified Gold but, until now, has never been heard on vinyl. The vinyl release was created from the original stereo master reels with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Each LP is pressed onto 180g audiophile grade vinyl and includes a free MP3 download of the entire album (transferred from the new vinyl master).

2,500 of the Junta LE Deluxe 3-LP sets will include a brand new Limited Edition hand-carved, hand-printed linoleum block poster by Jim Pollock, created exclusively for this release. These editions will be distributed randomly at participating independently owned record stores across the country, but will be clearly marked.

This LE Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set was created exclusively for Record Store Day. Junta will be available in stores only beginning Saturday, April 21st. For a complete list of participating record stores, please click here.

In case you aren’t completely sick of seeing the tweets or hearing about upsets of last night’s 54th Annual Grammy Awards, we here at The Vinyl District are going to give you a break down of what happened from a first-hand account as we wind down and recap the night waiting in a busy terminal at LAX. Lucky you.

Things started off pretty solemn on the red carpet as the nominees, presenters, and performers filed in and were immediately questioned about their thoughts on the sad passing of Whitney Houston that took place Saturday evening. If you hadn’t known any better you would have thought that that the entire awards show was actually a tribute concert to Houston from the red carpet interviews. Most interviewees had very heartfelt messages to give on the subject of the music legend’s passing.

When asked about his feelings on the matter, Best Bluegrass Album nominee and funny-man Steve Martin responded with, “I think I damaged my hearing from listening to her so loud and so long. It’s a sad day,” while the popular folk quartet and Record of the Year nominees Mumford & Sons gave their piece, “It’s an undeniable tragedy, and it’s so soon after the event, there’s a lot of grieving yet to happen.”

Nonetheless, it was nice seeing artists like rock ensemble Foo Fighters, last year’s winner for Best New Artist Esperanza Spalding, and Nashville’s favorite duo The Civil Wars hit the red carpet and bring smiles to the faces of the masses.

 
Next up: the performances.

There’s only one thing to say about this year’s Grammy performances… PAUL MCCARTNEY! If you ever wondered who is the one person that makes even the biggest musicians starstruck, it’s Paul McCartney. I’m still trying to regain feeling and remember what my legs felt like before they started shaking uncontrollably in his presence. The entire night he was bewitching every person that stepped within five feet of him as if he were still a young 20-something in the height of Beatlemania. As this year’s MusiCares Person of the Year winner, the great “Macca” blew everyone away by not only claiming the stage once, but TWICE with the final performance of the night, including some great Beatles hits and one big guitar shred fest with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Dave Grohl, and Joe Walsh.

Some other highlighted performances include Tina Turner, I mean Rihanna, donning a new blonde hairdo, sharing the stage with Coldplay as they sang “Princess of China” together.

The freaking Beach Boys reunited once again to perform a medley of their songs beside Maroon 5 and Foster the People.

Jennifer Hudson’s stunning tribute to Whitney Houston.

Country music icon Glen Campbell performing “Rhinestone Cowboy.”

Oh, and the Exorcism of Nicki Minaj?

Finally, let’s just get down to the winners, shall we? It’s no surprise that British powerhouse artist Adele went home with the most awards after making her first performance since her throat surgery. The awards included were Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for 21, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Short Form Music Video for “Rolling In The Deep,” and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Someone Like You.”

Other big winners included rockers Foo Fighters with 5 golden trophies at the end of the night. They beat out other rock artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilco, and Jeff Beck with Wasting Light as Best Rock Album, “Walk” scored them Best Rock Performance and Rock Song, “White Limo” was Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, and they won Best Long-Form Video for “Back and Forth.”

Indie sensation Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver took home the award for Best New Artist as deserved and gave us all a confusing and sheepish thank you speech. He warmed up a little later after the initial shock acceptance and reminded us exactly why we love him all over again.

For a full list of nominees and winners head over to the Grammy Nomination page and check it out!

The night was full of awesome moments and complete disappointments as to be expected with national award shows. Did you watch it or boycott it this year? What would you have liked to see (or not see?) at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards this year?

Personally, I would have loved to see Dolly Parton performing Whitney Houston’s tribute since “I Will Always Love You” was her song. That, and they could have replaced having Chris Brown on the stage not once, but twice, with an Amy Winehouse tribute! Who’s with me? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have never heard of Roland Janes, he is one of the unsung heroes of the Memphis music industry (back when there was one) and also, along with Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore, defined the guitar style that came to be known as rockabilly.

He played on the majority of Jerry Lee Lewis’ 150+ Sun recordings. That alone gives him an unquestionable pedigree in Memphis and world music, but Roland also was a founding member of Billy Lee Riley’s Little Green, played live with and recorded an uncountable number of Sun sessions with artists like Charlie Rich and Sonny Burgess among many others, opened Sonic Studio in 1962 (where he recorded almost all the local bands who made appearances on George Klein’s Talent Party show, which aired Saturday afternoon on WHBQ TV’s Channel 13), and owned or co-owned a number of independent record labels in the ’60s and early ’70s.

Since 1982, he has been working at Phillips Studios as a producer and engineer, which is where I first encountered him on a Tav Falco’s Panther Burns album recording session in the spring of 1984.

My first memories of Roland are of a man who used few words, but when he did speak you always learned something about the art of studio recording or the true, often untold story of Memphis music history. My friend, Rob Bowman, and I talked to him that spring for a lengthy interview essay that would eventually end up appearing in the vinyl boxed set, Sun Records: The Rocking Years.

On that occasion we managed to make Roland rather angry and that was a rare but memorable experience. Nothing much flusters Roland since he has truly seen it all when it comes to musicians’ outsized egos, but we unintentionally insulted him that day when we concluded the interview with his musical activities up to about 1974. As I recall, Rob said something like: “Well, I guess that about covers things, doesn’t it?” Roland’s response was immediate, pointing out in no uncertain terms that he was not dead yet and that his music career was far from over. Almost twenty eight years after that interview, his statement that day is still true.

And in the past few months I have played drums on more sessions with him at Phillips Recording than at any other time since the mid ’80s. And as always, Roland is still a fountain of knowledge regarding recording technique and science. What is hard to convey here is how funny he is when engineering or recording a session.

The following story may convey the flavor of that humor. In October of 1986, the Panther Burns were doing another record at Phillips, The World We Knew, and Alex Chilton was producing, and Roland was engineering. One day, Alex partook in what might be termed as some strong herbal refreshment and curled up under the studio console for a nap. Someone came into the room and asked where the producer was, and Roland merely nodded downward at Alex snoozing next to his feet. The room dissolved into laughter at that nonverbal remark. Well, you probably had to be there, but every session I have ever done with Roland is filled with moments where he skewers any artistic pretensions with his quiet but terribly effective wit.

Here is another story from Roland’s lips as accurately as I can recall it. I think it illustrates the fact that Roland can’t be impressed or intimidated by any so-called music biz legends. During the summer of 1983, former Led Zeppelin singer, Robert Plant, played Mud Island in Memphis with now retired drummer/singer, Phil Collins. Plant booked a recording session at Phillips Recording after the concert because he wanted to record with a real legend, Roland.

Roland set up the drums for the session but was unaware that Collins was left-handed and played the drum kit in a left-to-right set-up. (For the record, it should be noted that Ringo Starr was also left-handed but played his drums in a traditional, right-to-left style.) When Plant and Collins arrived at the studio, the latter remarked, “But Roland, I’m left-handed, and I can’t play a right-handed kit. This needs to be sorted out.” The drums were then set up for Collins’ left-handed needs, but I don’t think it was Roland Janes who reconfigured the kit.

Speaking of music biz legends, last summer when Bob Dylan played Memphis, he too, booked a recording session afterward with Roland engineering at the Phillips Studios console. Dylan has long been known as a Roland fan, particularly of the work he did with the Little Green Men. Roland is one of the last old-school engineer/producers working in Memphis or maybe even the world.

Roland still has the artist run through the song they are about to cut a few times until he is satisfied that the tune is ready to be recorded before he will turn on the analog tape machine (yes, Phillips Studio cuts on analog and then mixes down to digital) for “the take.” I played a session with Roland last weekend, and he helped the singer through her paces and even coached a vocal performance out of her that she did not know she was capable of recording.

The late Jim Dickinson never missed a chance to record with Roland. These days, neither do I. “Ah, take it Roland, boy,” as Jerry Lee once sang just before Roland played a jaw dropping guitar solo. Take it indeed, Mr. Janes.

Ross Johnson Photo: Don Perry

ExDetectives – The Lawn
Realistic – Token Gestures
DINOWALRUS – What Now
Anna Vogelzang – One & Only
Shigeto – Huron River Drive
Alan Wilkis – Shadow (feat. Lyrics Born and White Hinterland)
Ambassadors – Unconsolable
Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Heart Attack (Cosmic Kids Remix)
Baby Baby – Haters Clean
Ladyhawke – Black, White And Blue (The Big Pink Remix)

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Orcas – Carrion

Grand Duchy – Silver Boys
The Darkness – Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us
Sea Of Bees – Gnomes
Yalls – Settle Down
Hoots & Hellmouth – Why Would You Not Want To Go There?
Unicycle Loves You – Wow Wave Cinema
CFCF – Exercise #3 (Building)
Mombi – Glowing Beatdown
Leland Sundries – Apparition
Abstraxion – Moriyabasa (DJ Kaos Re-Edit)

38 more FREE TRACKS after the jump!

Busdriver/Loden – Bon Bon Fire
Cultfever – Knew You Well
Nabiha – Deep Sleep
DOSVEC – Rain Away (Adele vs RHCP)
Escort – Love In Indigo
Fanfarlo – Shiny Things (Yeasayer Remix)
Field Mouse – Glass
First Person Shootr – You New Web
Labyrinth Ear – Humble Bones (Giraffage Remix)
If These Trees Could Talk – Barren Lands of a Modern Dinosaur
Active Child – Johnny Belinda (White Arrows Remix)
Juveniles – Ambitions Minimix
Korallreven – Sa Sa Samoa (For Real For Sure For You Version)
Lissy Trullie – Madeleine
Little Dragon – Ritual Union (Steely Chan Mix)
The Fades – Meccano Original (New Master)
Command V – Lost On Me
Nedry – Post Six
oOoOO – NoWayBack (Feat Butterclock)
Oy Vey – When I Was Young
Princeton – Florida
Prinzhorn Dance School – Happy In Bits
Qualms – Polarized
YYou – Real Is A Feeling (feat. Pictureplane)
SAUNA – Glitter Party
Solander – The Garden
Stars in Coma – Dismantle Your Heart
Mr Fogg – Stay Out of the Sun (Bondax Remix)
Chrome Canyon – Suspended in Gaffa (feat. Phoebe Oglesbee)
Teen Daze – Brooklyn Sunburn
The Catevari – Vesuvius (Original)
The Minor Leagues – Ghost Maps
The Big Sleep – Valentine
Big Sir – The Kindest Hour
Tristan Garner Vs. Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano – Raven Lethal Industry (Imanos Mash-Up)
Young Wonder – Tumbling Backwards
Yvette – Cold Sweat
Zambri – ICBYS

After two Record Fairs in 2011 staged just beyond the DC border, the Washington, DC Record Fair returns to DC proper on Sunday, February 12 at Washington’s new home for hilarity, the Riot Act Comedy Theater in the heart of Penn Quarter in downtown DC—news certain to be appreciated by a tiny, albeit vocal contingent of fair goers. (See? We listen.)

We’ll have 40 dealers from up and down the East Coast on both floors of Riot Act—10 above and 30 below—and of course, unlike the photo above, ample lighting, ample food and drinks, Bloody Marys, and right—a ton of records.

Did we mention the DJs? Here’s the schedule for the day:

11:00 – 12:00 Cobruhhh | Windian (Just added!)
12:00 – 1:00 Sean Marquand | Phenomenal Handclap Band
1:00 – 2:00 Patrick Kigongo | Ra Ra Rasputin
2:00 – 3:00 Cerphe Colwell | Cerphe’s Progressive Show
3:00 – 4:00 Will Eastman | Volta Bureau 
4:00 – 5:00 DJ Roz | Champion Sounds

Riot Act Comedy Theater affords fair attendees free street parking on Sundays and easy Metro access at the Gallery Place/Chinatown location.

11:00 – 12:00 – $5 Early Bird Admission
12:00 – 5:00 – $2 Admission

The DC Record Fair is brought you by Som Records, DC Soul Recordings, and us!

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I’m confused? When I started putting together this Idelic Hour playlist I was under the impression that this was “granny week” in LA? I thought what a cool fucking idea—a playlist of songs dedicated to none other than my “momma’s momma!” Grandma, a classic Idelic Hour muse it shall be.

Now, days later I realize it is sadly not Granny but Grammy fever we’re experiencing here in LA. Of course I will go to a party or two, schmooze around, pat backs, congratulate, complain and console with industry types. After all, I can “get my Grammy on.” For a couple of years I was even on the selection committee. Hell, I’ve even been nominated for one!

“…and the winner is—NOT ME! Ha ha, what a rush!

My take on 2012 is that you gotta take the good and the lame and roll it into one cool life. The sad fact is that the Grammys, like most of the major label establishment, try hard to be cool but fall embarrassingly short. In the end The Grammy show makes the Academy Awards show and those film yuppies look cooler than us music headz, when in truth they are NOT. Shame really.

All said, this week rock ‘n roll dreams will come true. I saw a screening of a very cool film last night called Re:Generation. Check for it here. Let’s twist, shake, and re-generate! Why not let “rock granny roll” here on the Idelic Hour.

Fuck it, my grandma kicks ass on the Grammys!

The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Frightened Rabbit – Fuck This Place

Well, I thought it was just me but a sold out and packed to the rafters 9:30 Club Wednesday night proved me wrong: The Darkness has certainly been missed.

The reunited British rockers left it all on that stage Wednesday, hitting all the hight points from their debut Permission to Land and its follow up, One Way Ticket to Hell and Back. New numbers featured throughout the set from a forthcoming release did nothing to slow the pacing.

We sent photographer Dave Barnhouser to capture it all for us, and as we’ve got some plans afoot for the band and TVD, we’ll let his shots alone convey the energy in that room Wednesday night.

All photos: Dave Barnhouser | 13th Hour Photography

If you’re half as ADD as I am, you’re going to need… (Hey, so what about that new Earl Sweatshirt?) Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, if you’re half as ADD as I am, you’re going to need your weekends to be a Swiss Army knife of musical genres. Well, here in the 901 area code, we’ve got your back on this Friday/Saturday combo with some fantastic hip hop, hardcore, and country music to give you a chance to show off those $150 jeans you bought on impulse. 

Friday (2/10) Country pop Lee Brice will be bringing his own brand of sweet southern crooning to Minglewood Hall. Tyler Farr and his ax mastery will have his own country rock to give the evening a little bit of kick.

If Country music isn’t your bag, then go be generous as Operation Broken Silence Fundraiser at the Hi-Tone will be giving you a good time for a good reason. With proceeds from the event going towards “confronting social affliction and building a new generation of abolitionists who envision a world without mass atrocities and modern slavery,” you’ll feel plenty good about yourself going to see Memphis rappers Royal’T and Preauxx kick it with the hardcore badassary of Deal Me In.

Saturday (2/11) An ’80s supergroup featuring Joe Lynn Turner (Deep Purple), Derek St. Holmes (Ted Nugent), and Bobby Kimball (TOTO) will be dropping nostalgia bombs with able support by the rising success of the Will Tucker Band and rock prowess of 714.

With a double rainbow full of colorful musical options to choose from this weekend, there’s more than enough to do here in Memphis. Why not come out and dive in if you’re up for getting down!