Stereo Jealousy

This coming Saturday sees International Record Store Day, a chance to celebrate the culture of the independent record shop. Started in 2007 the celebration mainly focuses on the US but this year sees two of the biggest London indies joining in the shindig. Rough Trade East is hosting a free all-dayer featuring Betty & The Werewolves, Wave Machines and many more. Pure Groove hosts Graham Coxon and Patrick Wolf in their bash. Not only this but there are some exclusive releases floating around too – with two free compilations being given out, one featuring the guitar-led style of indie, one the beats-led dance stuff.

Here on Stereo Jealousy, I’ll be running a week-long rundown of my five favourite record shops. I’ve come up with a pretty lengthy shortlist, so whittling it down to five will be tricky. Sadly, there won’t be a mention for two of the shops that shaped my young musical taste – Andy’s Records and Mike Lloyd Music, both former shops in my glorious home town of Stoke.  The latter brought me my first experience of record shop snobbery – being told that my Lightning Seeds best of wasn’t worth squat as a trade!

I think Damon Albarn sums up my feelings pretty well: “I think independent record shops will outlive the music industry as we know it because long term their value to people is far greater, because even in our era of file-sharing and blogs, you cant replace the actual look on someone’s face when they are playing something they really rate and think you should listen to it too. It’s special.“

I’d love to see comments from you too – what’s your favourite record shop? Have you got music that you treasure, solely bought on the strength of a record-shop recommendation? Have you abandoned the local store and now raid the racks online? I wanna see some comments!

Saint Etienne – I Buy American Records

Gig Of The Week – Bat For Lashes, School Of Seven Bells @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire

A week of fantastic gigs, including Ether 09 – a South Bank festival that has drawn the incomparable David Byrne to our shores to play a show based on his two collaborative efforts with Brian Eno. Unfortunately there will be no Eno involved, but still should be fascinating. Also in a festival-style this Saturday sees International Record Store Day, and two of London’s greatest host sparkling instore line-ups. Rough Trade East sees a plethora of new young things including the fantastic Joe Gideon & The Shark. Pure Groove settles for a bit more experience, with Graham Coxon taking a break from the Blur reunion to play a solo set, backed up by Patrick Wolf.

Gig of the week though goes to the sublime Bat For Lashes, with Natasha Khan picking the excellent School Of Seven Bells as support. Two Suns is setting most critics gabbering, including me, and I’m really looking forward to the gig. Her support slot with Radiohead last summer gave glimmers of a special set, and on her own terms I’m expecting a theatrical adventure – it’ll be intriguing to see if she performs as her two aliases! School Of Seven Bells’ Alpinism should have received much greater admiration than it did last year, and they should provide a perfect electric counterpoint to Bat For Lashes’ more traditional instruments.

Bat For Lashes – Siren Song
School Of Seven Bells – Half Asleep

Here’s a glimpse of how the rehearsals are going for Khan and co.

Bat For Lashes – live in Rehearsal

Photo: Rose X

Read on for the rest of the week’s gigs in the capital…

Read more…