May Pre-Orders

May is almost here, and with it comes a metric buttload of excellent music. And if you let us know in advance that you'd like to buy some of said music, we'll happily give you $2 off every release. Give us a shout. Here's what we've got on the way:

May 1st: Norah Jones, Todd Snider (Jerry Jeff Walker covers), B.o.B., Rufus Wainwright, Carrie Underwood, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Reptar, Santigold, Marilyn Manson, Ane Brun, Brian Jonestown Massacre

May 8th: Damon Albarn, Sara Watkins, Philip Glass, Silversun Pickups, Here We Go Magic, Aaron Freeman (of Ween), Kindness

May 15th: Beach House, Willie Nelson, Best Coast, Tenacious D, The Cribs, Cornershop, Rye Rye, Santana

May 22nd: The Gossip, John Mayer, Garbage, Royal Thunder

May 29th: Sigur Ros, King Tuff, Sun Kil Moon, Public Image Ltd., Marissa Nadler, Edward Sharpe, Scissor Sister

Vice Covers the Atlanta Mess-Around

[Photo by Tim Song]

Last weekend, the Atlanta Mess-Around took over EAV. Decatur CD was out in force, sweating and getting bruised in the pit for two nights straight, and Vice even published photographic evidence of Young Eliot (above, far right) doing just that. What a crazy weekend. Check out the amusing write-up (by Adrian of the Barreracudas) and gorgeous photos (by Tim Song) on Vice's website.

This Weekend = Too Much Awesome

Which is to say: Don't forget! The 2012 Atlanta Mess-Around goes down Friday, Saturday and Sunday in East Atlanta Village. Carbonas, Zero Boys, Greg Cartwright, Cops, GG King, OBN IIIs and all kinds of other great stuff. If you like garage/punk, you'd be crazy to miss this festival. Say hi to Austin and Young Eliot, if you see them, and if you still need tickets, stop by good old DCD.

4/17-24 New Releases

As previously advertised, we've got our historically biggest day of the year coming up on Saturday, so we figure it makes sense to put a couple weeks' worth of regular releases on the blog today, as we'll be cleaning up and making a futile attempt toward re-organization after this sure-to-be-crazy weekend. So check out this week's and next week's new stuff below. We'll see you Saturday!

Spiritualized
Loudon Wainwright III
Allo Darlin'
Future
Jason Mraz
Dar Williams
Hank Williams III
Train

...and next week...

Jack White
Diamond Rugs (Black Lips/Los Lobos/Deer Tick/Dead Confederate supergroup)
Marty Stuart
Suckers
Dandy Warhols
Brendan Benson

A gentle reminder...

Record Store Day is almost here! In case you haven't been paying attention to that counter on the righthand side of the website, it's on Saturday. This Saturday. This Saturday, April 21, 2012. Holy cow, we better get ready! But while we go do that, you should peruse the full list of RSD12 releases. It's mighty, so maybe grab a beer before you dig in. Say, speaking of beer, we're gonna have a whole bunch of Sierra Nevada to celebrate with on Saturday. Yum, right? Also, here's our official RSD store page, if you wanna give it a gander. Record Store Day, Record Store Day, Record Store Day...

4/10/12 New Releases

We've got a pretty big release day coming up (Save the date!), but April is not slacking off in the meantime. This week brings one of the biggest SXSW buzz bands of 2012, a couple veteran folkies, the son of a country legend, a couple rock bands and a whole mess of other stuff. Dig in, and let us know what you're looking for, as usual:

Alabama Shakes
M. Ward
Florence + the Machine (MTV unplugged)
Nanci Griffith
Amadou & Mariam
Spiritualized
Counting Crows
Bonnie Raitt
Simone Felice (formerly of the Felice Brothers)
Joe Satriani
Lukas Nelson (son of Willie)
Aaron Freeman (Ween)
Chemical Brothers (CD/DVD/book)

April Show Guide

There are a ton of great shows this month. Check out the long list before, and get out there and support live music at all our awesome local venues.

April 7: Of Montreal, Loney Dear @ Variety Playhouse
April 7: School of Seven Bells @ The EARL
April 7: Delta Spirit @ Masquerade
April 8: Cursive @ The EARL
April 10: Hunx and His Punx @ The EARL
April 10: Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Gwinnett Arena
April 10: Frankie Rose @ 529
April 12: Color Me Obsessed (Replacements documentary screening) @ The EARL
April 13: Randall Bramblett @ Eddie's Attic
April 14: The Magnetic Fields @ Variety Playhouse
April 14: Devin the Dude @ The Basement
April 14: Terry Malts, Gold-Bears @ Drunken Unicorn
April 15: Bowerbirds @ The EARL
April 17: Future (album release) @ Masquerade
April 18: Doria Roberts @ Eddie's Attic
April 19: Chairlift @ The EARL
April 19: Van Halen, Kool & the Gang @ Philips Arena
April 19: Charles Bradley @ Masquerade
April 20-21: Atlanta Mess-Around @ 529 (GG King, TV Ghost, Wax Museums, Barreracudas, many more)
April 21: The Punch Brothers, Jesca Hoop @ Variety Playhouse
April 21: Eleanor Friedberger @ The Basement
April 21: Drive-By Truckers, Megafaun @ The Tabernacle
April 20-22: Atlanta Mess-Around @ The EARL (ft. Zero Boys, Carbonas, Cops, OBN IIIs, Greg Cartwright, many more) @ The EARL
April 24: Disappears @ The EARL
April 25: The Fray @ The Tabernacle
April 25: Sharon Van Etten @ The EARL
April 25: The Melvins @ The Loft
April 27: Bear in Heaven @ The EARL
April 27: Trampled By Turtles @ Variety Playhouse
April 27: Over the Rhine @ Eddie's Attic
April 28: Allo Darlin, Gold-Bears @ 529
April 28: Lucero, J. Roddy Watson @ Masquerade
April 28: Rodrigo y Gabriela and C.U.B.A. @ The Tabernacle
April 28: Franz Nicolay @ Drunken Unicorn
April 29: Dick Dale @ The EARL

Incidentally, we're not changing our name.

We were gonna lay low a little longer, but when a journalist called us yesterday (April 3!), we decided that maybe we should call your attention to the date we announced our shift to digital-format sales. Go ahead and check that post one more time, if you're concerned about the big changes coming to Decatur CD. Indeed, much as we have done in years past, that announcement was an April Fool's joke. Responses really ran the gamut, from excited/positive to bummed/angry to obvious/unsurprised to "You won't get me this year!" We even had one gal who tweeted that she's never going to speak to us again. (We're hoping she's since reconsidered.) Anyway, sorry if you were tricked, but that was kind of the point. But the plastic discs? They're going nowhere, and we're Decatur CD until the end. Here's hoping that's a ways off.

4/3/12 New Releases

We're busy, bloggin' fools over here, so you're going to have to excuse the complete and utter lack of a particularly stellar introduction paragraph on this already-late batch of new releases. Instead, we suggest basking in the continued awesomeness that is Dr. John, above, who's letting his freak flag fly this week all over a new record, which Pitchfork calls "a weird-ass gumbo of grotty funk and R&B, littered with raunchy reeds, leering organ riffs, and blustery guitar."

Dr. John
Bear in Heaven
Great Lake Swimmers
First Aid Kit (reissues)
Orbital
Rascall Flatts
Simone Felice (former Felice Brother)
High on Fire
Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)
Nicki Minaj
Of Monsters and Men
Our Lady Peace

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

Tonight, at Alliance Theatre, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County will make its world premiere. Given the big names listed above, you probably already know how excited we are about this new musical. Directed by Susan V. Booth, based on the book by Stephen King, with musical direction provided by John Mellencamp and T. Bone Burnett, this promises to be an amazing event. Oh, did we mention Dale Watson is one of the leads, too? Yep, pretty rad.

Back in December, Creative Loafing reported on a press conference for the production, and more recently, the New York Times chimed in with a lengthy feature. Here's a quick synopsis of the show and its music, via CL:

Ghost Brothers concerns three killings in Mississippi in the 1950s and its repercussions for people in the present day. Burnett explained his goals for the show’s overall rootsy sound. “First, Stephen King and John Mellencamp were writing it, and they live in the same part of America, small-town America. The next thing, it was ghosts, it was dead people, it was Mississippi. I wanted it to sound dark and foggy. I wanted it to sound scary.”

The production kicks off tonight at Alliance, and runs through May 13. You should probably buy tickets now, though.

Watch a video featuring about the making of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, featuring Mellencamp, King, Booth and Burnett, below:

Help Us Re-Brand Decatur CD

They say "change is good," and we're banking on the truth of that statement in these coming months. Times are tough, as you know, and we've been duking it out with the best of 'em these past eight years. But the music-buying public is not what it once was, and in order to survive as a doggedly independent, brick-and-mortar shop, we're going to have to adapt to those changes, while finding a feasible way to lower our day-to-day costs.

We can't move. Good ol' 356 W. Ponce is our home; relocation doesn't make sense. We can't cut back our staff, because three people is already pretty bare bones. Frankly, we could use an extra set of hands around here sometimes, but the money just isn't there. The only way we can feasibly save money would be to stop selling CDs.

Let that one sink in for a moment.

Crazy, right? It sure sounded insane when Young Eliot first brought it up, about six months ago, several beers into a Decatur CD staff meeting. We laughed at the notion initially, but the more we examined the possibilities, the limitless potential, the more we realized this was the way to go--this was the way we were going.

This transition will take some time, of course, but we're working with a local tech company to create download kiosks for the store. Once they get us a prototype, we'll blog photos and describe the features in further detail. But from our talks so far, these stations are going to be awesome. You'll be able to download music straight to your smartphone, iPod, thumb drive--whatever you prefer. You can burn the music to a disc right there, email it to yourself so it's on your home machine, etc. It'll be the ultimate in convenience. Our thinking is that we've developed relationships with all of you, and there's a mutual trust there. We hope you'll be willing to come in, have a beer with us, listen to music on these stations, and download here instead of through iTunes, Amazon and similar services. You'll still be able to talk with us about what we're digging, what's selling, and so on. We think it's the best of both worlds.

After we have the machines, we'll hold a massive, everything-must-go clearance sale on the thousands of CDs here. It's going to be hard to watch it all go, but it's for the best. You'll definitely want to take advantage of the massive savings. We've also found an overstock company in Florida that's agreed to buy whatever we've got left over after the sale. Finally, we'll still do special orders, most of which we can get the next day as usual, for those of you who require a physical copy. But we won't carry stock anymore.

Going forward, we're developing a swanky vinyl room in the very back of the store (Ask to check it out next time you're in! It's almost finished.) that'll give you guys your wax fix. Unlike CDs, which are relatively easy to sneak out the door, vinyl LPs are too big to steal, so we feel comfortable having an intimate spot in the back for browsing. Once the dust settles, we're planning on installing an in-store performance stage on our west-facing wall, too. Getting touring bands to stop by is going to be a bigger priority for us in the future, and we'll be recording and releasing all of the performances as digital downloads.

Unfortunately, we've also had to come to terms with the fact that it would be foolish of us to call the store Decatur CD when we no longer stock CDs. So, we brainstormed a few new names and had a graphic-designer friend mock up a few logos. Here they are:

Obviously, we wouldn't be here without your support, which is why we want your feedback on the impending name change. Please let us know which of the three options above you like best. Customer votes will weigh heavily on our decision. And if you have any other questions or concerns, please send them our way. This is going to be an interesting time, but we trust you'll stick with us. Thanks, as always, for loving music and hanging out with us. We appreciate it more than you know.