Thursday, July 31, 2008

Peaches Records' quarter location has opened!

edit: this is SLIGHTLY outdated. Though I've been back a few times, the feeling is mostly the same, check it out here

And it kind of sucks. I didn't know about the old Gretna location until this one was underway (and apparently there was a riverwalk location as well? I don't remember seeing one) but this one has nice juicy real estate on Decatur where Tower Records used to be.


I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt; I don't think they're quite done yet. The upstairs is completely untouched and the listening stations are blank. Not to mention there were construction workers inside. So I suspect the inventory will only be beefed up from here and hopefully it will feel a little less empty.

The inventory they currently have actually isn't that bad. For a mainstream oriented store they have a HUGE and prominent local section that's even subdivided by genre (brass etc.) The rock section was up to date and had most major releases you'd hope to see, but don't expect to find that one album you've been hunting down. The soul/R&B section was especially strong with a lot of older releases displayed prominently. However, I wasn't even able to find an electronic section, much to the dismay of a gay man* hassling an employee looking for Tiesto. I'm not really a tiesto fan but that's not horribly obscure or anything.

Vinyl? Mostly singles, mostly hip-hop. As it is now, this is definitely a CD-oriented store. While I'll buy either medium (vinyl over CD) it's a little disheartening to see a new store open with almost zilch for a medium that's gaining in popularity in favor of the medium people are singing the swan song for.

But really the main flaw was the price. Don't expect to find ANYTHING under $10 and expect to regularly see single disc albums retail for $20. Example: The Shepherd's Dog by Iron and Wine. I have no interest in that album but I can't fathom why it's retailing for that price other than the enourmous rent they must be paying for that spot. Most CDs retail for around $17 and given their good-but-sparse-and-unspectacular selection I found nothing to walk out with.

bottom line: Peaches records offers only a few things over buying CDs at Barnes and Noble: beefier local section, indepenedently owned and French Quarter location. And unfortunately, there are stores in the area that achieve all their draws better.

I hope they do improve but in the shape that I saw them there wasn't much for me to get excited about.

*I mention that he's gay because as I walked back to my car the guy leaned out the window of his sports car and purred something through his thick accent with a horrifying and swarmy "I want that" stare looking straight at me. While Peaches is in no way responsible for this incident it didn't leave me feeling good about the whole experience.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SATCHMO SUMMERFEST

One of the coolest events in New Orleans is this weekend. Totally free in the quarter and with brass bands on multiple stages ALL DAY. Official dates have it starting tomorrow and I have no idea why, but the music is on Saturday and Sunday

Here's the schedule: http://www.satchmosummerfest.com/satchmo_music.html

Looks like Saturday's when all the big acts are playing but I have no doubt that Sunday will be great too. Unfortunately no Trombone Shorty who last year had the event overflowing but so many other big brass names in there

HOT FUNK

@ Funky16 Corners

http://funky16corners.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/sugar-pie-desanto-go-go-power/

Thursday, July 24, 2008

from here

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it. 

Just ask Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He had her renamed.

Judge Rob Murfitt made the 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name could be changed, he said in a ruling made public Thursday. The girl was involved in a custody battle, he said.

The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her "K" instead, the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.

In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names.

Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.

New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, among other conditions, said Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Clarke said officials usually talked to parents who proposed unusual names to convince them about the potential for embarrassment.


Talula Does The Hula and YEAH DETROIT are both great, speaking as somebody with a semi-ridiculous name

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

More blog postin

Double Takeshi Terauchi posts yesterday. King of the Eleki guitar style i.e. goes BAP BAP instead of BOW BOW. If you don't understand then you can be easily enlightened

here's one here's another

and from xtabays world

Not to mention another Link Wray @ Ride Your Pony

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Link Wray @ TWILIGHTZONE

My favorite music blog has another great post today. Link Wray sessions from 1958. Real raw and juicy. A Man? or Astroman? post went up too, but that's less hard to find

Go git it

Monday, July 21, 2008

NOMO

Well, I meant to make this post BEFORE I went off an saw them, but they're worth an entry. I caught NOMO at the Republic and loved it.

It's whiteboy afrobeat. Great rhythms and bass grooves, a healthy amount of brass with a big loud baritone sax and a very sparing amount of guitar. But if it were simply Fela Kuti covers...uh... well I guess that would still be pretty fun but they bring their own Ann Arbor hippie style to it with synthesizers and other "atmospherics" and the occaisional grab bag thing like having three members (they were a six-piece last night) play conch shells at once. If it sounds goofy, overdone or whatever, it's really not. They have the sort of modest stripped-down showmanship I've always appreciated from bands like The Black Keys or The Pixies.

Myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/nomomusic

Friday, July 11, 2008

Well I made a "blog"

So let's get this thing out of the way