Caroline Herring in-store this Saturday!

It's been just north of five months since the last time we had the lovely Caroline Herring here in the store for a performance. In the meantime, she released Lantana, which you should really take a moment and listen to on our listening station here in the store. But don't take our word for it...

All Music Guide: "The women Herring writes are all ordinary, and extraordinary, in the ways we all are, but Herring's ability to illuminate their hearts and souls is truly something special." (4-star review)

Paste: "...Herring effortlessly plumbs the emotional depths of her songs with her evocative alto. Her delivery...makes this song cycle resonant in more ways than a simple, rootsy singer/songwriter album ought to."

No Depression: "Insightful, evocative writing is the common denominator of Lantana...a compelling acoustic album."

Pop Matters: "...the artistry involved makes it accessible to all listeners... She's talking about the situation of all of us in a world not of our making, where our deepest impulses aren't always our best ones, and even when we try hard, we can't always win."

Robert Earl Keen: "Caroline Herring confidently returns to the forefront of the American roots music scene with her new album Lantana."

She's a songwriting treasure, and we're proud that she calls Decatur home. This very Saturday (May 3rd), she'll play Decatur CD at 1pm. Hope to see you then, y'all...

Wanna see a special Missy Higgins show?

Boy, do we have a special surprise for all you Missy Higgins fans out there. Since you're fans, you probably already know that she's playing the Variety Playhouse a week or so from today, on Tuesday, May 6th, with Brett Dennen and Mason Jennings. But what we bet you DON'T know is that the golden-voiced Aussie is also doing an intimate performance the day before in conjunction with Dave FM. The private event will go down at Vinyl from 6-8pm on Monday, May 5th. If you'd like to attend this exclusive shindig, send us an e-mail with your full name as it appears on your driver's license. That will get you a guest list spot (with a +1) for the show on Monday at Vinyl. You're on your own for the Variety show. Hey, we can't give you EVERYTHING, all right?!? Don't slack, though: This is a limited time offer. Get to e-mailing!

New. Release. Tuesday.

Yeah, we know, it's Saturday. But it's good to get a jump on this weekly post so all our kind readers out there know what to buy on Tuesday, right? Right?!? We think so. This week is headed up by the new Portishead (pictured above), that many a customer has walked in here foaming at the mouth about. On Tuesday we'll have it, along with new records from all of the following:

Portishead
Madonna
Clipse
Steve Winwood
Bombadil
The Roots
Constantines
Mudcrutch (Tom Petty)
Robyn
Boris
Steve Earle (reissue)
Lil Mama
Hayden
Tommy Emmanuel
Jamie Lidell
Santogold
Carly Simon
Langhorne Slim
Newton Faulkner
Frightened Rabbit
Sarah McLachlan (rarities)
Dizzee Rascal
...and more!

Record Store Day photos

It was a long day, and a longer week cleaning up and reorganizing after it, but we're not complaining in the least. Record Store Day was a blast! Check out our photos:

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Swing Set himself, Alex Brenner.

Straight outta Decatur...Warm in the Wake.

Blake Guthrie and Nicole Chillemi make their world premiere on stage together...covering Tom Waits, no less! We were honored to witness their first collaborative performance.

One beard to rule them all, one beard to find them, one beard to bring them all and in the darkness bind them: Richard Parsons.

That's a nice rifle you're sporting, but it sure don't beat our Pistolero.

And then there's Warren. After a full day of Record Storing, he likes to dress up in receipt tape and dance around all by his lonesome. This time we caught it on camera.

New. Release. Tuesday.

Yowza. As we type this, Stephen Malkmus is jam-jam-jamming away somewhere in the middle of his latest guitarvaganza, Real Emotional Trash. It's one extensive noodling session he's treating us to at the moment, one with quite a bit more energy than we have. Needless to say, we're still catching up after Record Store Day. Speaking of which, what a success it was! For an inaugural (first of many, we hope...) holiday, it was absolute tops. Shout-out to all our performers: Swing Set, Blake Guthrie, Nicole Chillemi, Warm in the Wake, Richard Parsons and Pistolero. You were all awesome! We'll have photos and more up on the blog soon.

Of course, the biggest thanks must go to all our faithful customers out there. Words cannot detail how happy we were at the end of Saturday. We barely had time to breathe throughout much of the day, but when the dust settled we realized that, without question, it was one of the best days in Decatur CD history. Free live music, awesome/exclusive merchandise and giveaways, beer, laughs and the best patrons a business could ever ask for. Thank you so much. You are the reason we're somehow still fighting the good fight in an industry where it feels like more indie shops are dropping by the day.

Before we get too misty-eyed, though: new releases! As usual, there are good things to be had this week, including the full-length from those most-hilarious Kiwis above, Flight of the Conchords. We know many of you are already familiar with the duo, as evidenced by the crazy sales of its debut EP. We're happy to say that the new album is just as laughworthy as its predecessor. There are lots of other newbies as well, including a particularly iconic class of reissues (Love, Carole King, The Replacements, Otis Redding, oh my!). Witness:

Flight of the Conchords
Jonathan Richman (It's great!)
Elvis Costello (vinyl-only...for now)
Billy Bragg
Love (reissue)
Lyrics Born
Carole King (reissue)
The Cat Empire
Earles and Jensen (comedy)
Ashlee Simpson
The Replacements (reissues)
Elbow
Harold & Kumar Go Somewhere Again or Something (soundtrack)
Blind Melon
Otis Redding (reissue)
The Weepies
Atmosphere
Tokyo Police Club
...and more!

Record Store Day is TOMORROW!

We've been warning you for a couple months now, but it's actually almost here. Here is the rundown, straight from our weekly newsletter:

Sale: Pay attention, because this is how it'll work. Our entire vinyl, DVD and box set selection will all be marked down a whopping 20%! You vinyl nuts will appreciate this, we're sure, especially on the pricier items, but the DVDs and box sets are a big score too. To give you an idea, Perception, the massive box set we stock from The Doors and normally retails at $140 will cost $112 on Saturday. Rockin' Bones, meanwhile, the excellent collection of 1950s punk and rockabilly that is normally priced at $65 will cost you $52 on Saturday. You get the idea. It would be a smart, smart move to ask us for the box set binder (yes, we keep a [fairly] organized, alphabetical list of them all) and have a perusal on Record Store Day.

Additionally, we'll be putting a bunch of select CD titles on sale. These will include excellent new releases from R.E.M., The Black Keys, Gnarls Barkley, The B-52s, Daft Punk, Van Morrison, Sun Kilm Moon, The Whigs, Stephen Malkmus, Levon Helm, Shawn Mullins,The Everybodyfields and more. They'll be displayed on their own, separate from other stock and the price slash will be rather immense, so keep an eye out for it. Additionally, several other CDs will be marked down to $5. Deals galore, people!

Refreshments: As we told you once already, There Will Be Beer. Unfortunately, we couldn't secure Daniel Day-Lewis to work the cash register. However, in keeping with the line of thinking that Record Store Day promotes, much like we're glad you choose us over the generic, big-box counterparts, we hope you choose to patronize other excellent local businesses like Watershed, Cakes and Ale, Brick Store, Twain's, Little Shop of Stories and so on.

We also think life is too short to drink bad beer. As such, we're celebrating the first annual RSD with Allagash, Dogfish Head, Victory and Duck-Rabbit brews. Y'all are better than the cheap stuff, and we're proud to celebrate the finer things with you. From store open until store close (or until we run out), we'll do just that. 21+ only, of course.

We'll also be pulling out a variety of Girl Scout cookie boxes for your afternoon snack needs. There will be some of every kind. Yum!

Live music: We've got a good bit of acts lined up. They will begin at 4pm. Have a look at the schedule with descriptions and MySpace links for your listening pleasure:

4pm - Swing Set (Alex Brenner, formerly of Soda Jerk. He's played in the store once before, and we're glad to have him back.)
5pm - Warm in the Wake (These Decaturites are making their first appearance at DCD. Go team!)
6pm - Blake Guthrie and Friends (If you came to his first performance at DCD or visit Twain's, then you already know this guy. If not, then Record Store Day is a good time to meet him. He may bring along his girlfriend, Nicole Chillemi, as well. Bonus!)
7pm - Richard Parsons/Pistolero (The former songwriter will make his return to the store and the latter band will make its DCD debut sometime during this hour. We're still working out the exact timing, but hey, you can show up and wait it out with a beer or two, right? Listen to the MySpace and then see them in the flesh on Saturday.)
8pm - Sweet-Tooth Simpleton (This Athens, Ga. native reached out to us about playing here, and we enjoyed the folk-inflected tunes on his MySpace page. He counts Tom Waits, Neutral Milk Hotel, Outkast, Townes Van Zandt and John Coltrane amongst his many influences.)

Giveaways: There are a couple here that you should take note of. We've got a pair of big giveaways that you can ONLY SIGN UP FOR ON RECORD STORE DAY. First up, the good folks at Tompkins Square are offering up an copy of the Grammy-nominated box set, People Take Warning: Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, 1913-1938, autographed by the one and only Tom Waits! Cool, right? We'll have a box where you can enter your e-mail address for a chance to win. Next up, we have a framed an autographed litograph of the cover of Feist's The Reminder. It's a beaut, and just like the disaster set, we'll have a box where you can sign up. Don't miss out on these, folks. They are only available on Saturday, and we want you to win, so stop by and enter!

Additionally, there is a bunch of other random stuff that we'll have scattered about the store, free for the taking. Buttons from the Deluxe Edition folks, random posters, samplers (from the likes of Vice, Daptone, Atlantic, Fontana, Sub Pop, Koch, Red), stickers, 3-D glasses, signed posters, free vinyl comps with vinyl purchases and much more. The generous folks at Paste have chipped in as well, with around 50 free copies of the Gnarls Barkley issue. However, the catch is that not only is the issue free, but it comes with a "Pay What You Want" subscription coupon. That's right, you get a free issue and then decide how much you want to pay ($1 or more) for a full year's worth of Paste. Quite a deal, no? But the magazines, just like everything else, are while supplies last. Get 'em while the gettin's good!

Exclusive items: We have a handful of special items for sale starting on Saturday that are exclusive to Record Store Day. These 7" vinyl 45s come via our friends at Warner Brothers, and they conveniently fall under that 20% sale mentioned above:

R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious/Airliner
Panic at the Disco - Nine in the Afternoon/Pas De Cheval
The Black Keys - Strange Times/Something On Your Mind
Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart 10" mix/7" mix
Built to Spill - Don't Try/The Source

Now, these are all limited edition (which means they will be out of print soon), and we only have a certain amount of each, AND they were made specifically for Record Store Day. This means you should show up early and buy them up. They will be collector's items someday, folks. Good stuff all around, and you won't find them anywhere else except official Record Store Day stores.

That's about it. We can't stress this enough: Come out on Saturday and show your love for independent retail. We love it, you love it, let's share the love.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

New. Release. Tuesday.

How quickly new-release time rolls around again, especially when the last update was belated. At any rate, there are several tasties that hit our shelves tomorrow, including a reissue of the above classic. No time for description now, folks. We've got Record Store Day (this Saturday!) to prepare for. Enjoy the list:

Whiskeytown (reissue)
James McMurtry
M83
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Joseph Arthur (EP)
Frank Black
Sally Shapiro (remixes)
A. A. Bondy
The Gossip (live)
Phantom Planet
Air (reissue)
Mariah Carey
Frank Sinatra (reissue)
Hilary McRae
The Kooks
Everclear
...and more!

Just let us know if you're looking for anything. And look forward to an RSD (April 19th!) post soon....

New. Release. Thursday?

Phew. My, how the week will slip by you. Austin's been out of town doing out of town slacker things (in Minnesota of all places!), and without him, this lowly Chicken cannot even remember what the new releases are each week. But he's back and guiding me through this post as I peck away, so all is once again well in the DCD Kingdom. Good thing, too, because...

...oh, what a week it's been for new releases! We've got old guys at the top of their game (see above), bands that are back after a few years off (The Breeders), bands that were going a few years ago and are still going today (Nine Inch Nails), young/hairy groups getting better by the album (Man Man), new dudes from hip bands gone solo (Peter Morén), brand new buzz bands making some noise in the press (Foals), other dudes from hip bands gone solo (Colin Meloy), the list just goes on and on. In fact, it goes all the way on right after this sentence:

Nick Cave
Clinic
Man Man
Torche
The Breeders
Colin Meloy
Dark Meat (reissue)
Cut Copy
Peter Morén
Foals
The Duke Spirit
Fleet Foxes
Nine Inch Nails
Cloud Cult
The Microphones (reissue)
Jim Noir
Tapes n Tapes
Thee Oh Sees
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
The Long Blondes
...and more!

We pity the fools.

As many of you know, we sent the latest Decatur CD Newsletter on Tuesday, detailing new releases and the like. We also included some news about our forthcoming expansion into the half of our building currently taken up by Terra Mater salon. The response to the latter was overwhelming. Here are just a few things various readers replied with:

"What great news!"
"Awesome, awesome, awesome. I would totally buy sheet music if you stocked it."
"The news...is cause for true jubilation. Make it happen, man."
"I will be one of the first to buy a beer while shopping for music or buy a CD while quenching my thirst."

While our hearts were warmed with the touching words of support so many of you sent along, we have an admission to make. Better yet, let's let another anonymous reader hint at it for us:

"I, for one, am still waiting for the drive through..."

For the uninitiated, that particularly foolproof customer is referencing the gag we played on April 1 a few years back. And last year, as plenty of you probably recall, we concocted a prank involving a Tower Records buyout. And yes, this year, our April Fool's joke was about our friends next door at Terra Mater.

But rest assured, the salon is going strong and not shutting down anytime soon. We apologize to those of you who were anticipating a larger, decidedly more pubby Decatur CD. We're gonna keep on keeping on, however, and that means more beer in the future, even if it's coming out of a keg in a trash can and not a tap on a bar.

Thanks for your support, folks. We look forward to fooling many of you a year from now...