New. Release. Tuesday.

Of tomorrow's new releases, the one we've had the most customer comments/questions about is probably the above, the latest from the Black Crowes. But that's not all! Lots of new stuff below. So much stuff, in fact, that we bet there's something you'd like. Have a look and see below:

Black Crowes
Liam Finn (EP)
Drive-By Truckers (oddities)
John Fogerty
David Bazan
Dr. Dre (Chronic deluxe reissue)
A.A. Bondy
Andrew WK
Allen Touissant (retrospective)
Reverend Horton Heat
Apples in Stereo (best of)
Richard Lloyd
Pretenders (gold disc)
Ladyhawke
Yonder Mountain String Band
Whitney Houston
Juliette Lewis
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Alice Cooper
...and more!

Ticket Alternative's new and notable shows

Each week, our pal Leila at Ticket Alternative sends us an e-mail listing all the brand-new, freshly-announced, hot-off-the-presses Ticket Alternative shows. And each week we post this e-mail on the blog for y'all's information. Think of it as a sister post of sorts to our semi-regular monthly show calendar postings. Don't forget: You can buy tickets for any of these shows at good old Decatur CD. Enjoy:

Dan Deacon @ Eyedrum, October 2 - Just Announced

The Charlatans @ The Loft, October 5 - Canceled, whole tour =(

Taste of Atlanta @ Tech Square, October 10-11 - Tickets just put on sale

Hope Sandoval @ The Loft, October 16 - Just Announced, on sale Friday, August 28 at noon

The Great Decatur Craft Beer Festival @ The Old Courthouse Square, October 17 - Tickets just put on sale

Heavy Trash @ The EARL, November 19 - Just Announced

Band of Horses New Year's Atlanta Shows

Just got word from our man Alex at OK Productions that Band of Horses are returning to the ATL to celebrate the New Year. His e-mail pretty much says it all, so we'll just paste it below. Take it away, Alex...

--

We are excited to announce that OK Productions and Windstorm Productions are proud to present the 3rd annual Atlanta New Year's Eve Jammer with Band of Horses December 30 and December 31 at The Tabernacle!

Also wanted to let you know about the presale. Feel free to pass this on: Presale tickets are available starting Wednesday, August 26 at 10am via LiveNation.com. Just use the password: NIGHTRAINBOW.

There will be a very limited number of *discounted two day passes available starting with this exclusive pre-sale.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, August 28 at 10am also via LiveNation.com as well as at the Variety Playhouse box office. Two day passes will continue to be available, but not at a discounted price (though the service fee will be lower than buying an individual ticket to each night's show).

For out of towners traveling to the show, The Highland Inn will be offering 10% off hotels rooms for Band of Horses concert goers.

*Two day passes will only be available through Live Nation and must be picked up as will call.

New. Release. Tuesday.

There is a nice batch of new music this week, so please do see below, but we wanted to give a shout-out to a non-music release in the featured slot this particular Tuesday. Above is the excellent cover to the new Patton Oswalt album. Oswalt paid a visit to The EARL back in February, and if you were there like Warren and Austin were, you know what a brilliant and hilarious live show the man puts on. This new, reasonably-priced CD/DVD package spotlights live prowess, which just so happened to have aired on Comedy Central last night. Dude's been on screens both large and small as well, previously holding a regular role on television's King of Queens and voicing the lead in Ratatouille, Remy the rat. His latest movie, Big Fan, which was directed by The Wrestler writer Robert D. Siegel, hits theaters soon.

Phew! Boy can we ramble on. Suffice it to say, Patton Oswalt is a funny gent. You should check out his new one. Also, here is some other stuff you may want to check out:

Patton Oswalt (CD/DVD)
Arctic Monkeys
Colbie Callat
Tim Buckley (live reissue)
Imogen Heap
Blitzen Trapper (EP)
Radiohead (reissues)
Mew
fun.
Willie Nelson (covers)
Ingrid Michaelson
McCoy Tyner (live)
Robert Glasper
Taking Woodstock (soundtrack)
Jack Ingram
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
Halloween 2 (soundtrack)
Jet
Matisyahu
Eldar
David Mead
...and more!

Tonight You're a Terrible Album Cover

It's been about a week and a half since we last marveled at you, dear internet, about an album cover, and boy, is this one a doozie. Take a trip with us if you will, back to 1980, when former Raspberries frontman Eric Carmen for some reason decided the above cover was a good idea. Now, Carmen has created works of art both awesome and abysmal, but what, exactly, was he thinking on this one? "That dumb-ass cover notwithstanding," says the All Music Guide, "if anyone here deserves a good spanking, it's Carmen himself." Fair enough.

Potentially nefarious purposes aside, what do you think Eric Carmen is doing to the lady in this picture? Young Eliot thinks that perhaps the gentleman is holding back the lady's hair while she throws up after having either a) one too many alcoholic beverages or b) some bad sushi. Austin thinks he he's stopping her from falling through the giant, white, glowing, rectangular tear in the space-time continuum. Warren just thinks Eric Carmen is a jerk. What say you?

Ticket Alternative's new and notable shows

Each week, our pal Leila at Ticket Alternative sends us an e-mail listing all the brand-new, freshly-announced, hot-off-the-presses Ticket Alternative shows. And each week we post this e-mail on the blog for y'all's information. Think of it as a sister post of sorts to our semi-regular monthly show calendar postings. Don't forget: You can buy tickets for any of these shows at good old Decatur CD. Enjoy:

Juliette Lewis @ Drunken Unicorn, September 24 - Just Announced!

Dan Deacon @ Eyedrum, October 2 - Just Announced!

Blitzen Trapper @ The EARL, October 8 - Just Announced!

Taste of Atlanta @ Tech Square, October 10-11 - Tickets On Sale Now!

David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) @ Drunken Unicorn, October 14 - Just Announced!

The Great Decatur Craft Beer Festival @ Old Courthouse Square, October 17 - On Sale Monday, August 24

The King Khan & BBQ Show @ Lenny's, November 4 - Just Announced!

Heavy Trash @ The EARL, November 19 - Just Announced!

New. Release. Tuesday.

New releases? Yeah, we got 'em. Got 'em spades. Have a look:

Richard Thompson (box set)
Jay Reatard
Brendan Benson
Joe Henry
Pissed Jeans
Madness
Delbert McClinton
Mute Math
Moby (b-sides)
K'Naan
Rolling Stones (best of)
Herb Alpert/Lani Hall
Antlers
Jim Lauderdale
Love and Rockets tribute (ft. Black Francis, Flaming Lips, Snowden and Dandy Warhols)
Terrence Blanchard
Doors (gold disc reissues)
Reba McEntire
George Carlin
Hot Club of Cowtown
...and more!

Ticket Alternative's new and notable shows

Each week, our pal Leila at Ticket Alternative sends us an e-mail listing all the brand-new, freshly-announced, hot-off-the-presses Ticket Alternative shows. And each week we post this e-mail on the blog for y'all's information. Think of it as a sister post of sorts to our semi-regular monthly show calendar postings. Don't forget: You can buy tickets for any of these shows at good old Decatur CD. Enjoy:

Cobra Starship @ Vinyl, August 19 - SOLD OUT

Tiffany @ Andrew's Upstairs, August 27 - Just Announced

Very Disco: A Daft Punk Tribute @ Lenny's, September 4 - Just Announced

Telefon Tel Aviv @ The EARL, September 18 - Just Announced

Little Joy @ Smith's Olde Bar, September 28 - CANCELED

Bell X1 @ Vinyl, October 6 - CANCELED

Taste of Atlanta, October 10-11 - Goes on sale Monday, August 17

Wolfmother lays a Cosmic Egg

[Above: Click to enlarge the already large egg]

Because we've been a little obsessed with silly cover art lately, it seemed pertinent to post this one from the new, forthcoming record from everyone's favorite batch of lupine-named Aussie rockers, Wolfmother. Looks like someone's been studying their Pink Floyd covers, no? Cosmic Egg will be laid on October 13th.

New. Release. Tuesday.

Another week, another batch of releases. Oh, but wait! This one's led by Reigning Sound, who just played our very own EARL on Saturday night. Warren and Austin were there (Eliot opted for the Athens show on Friday night so he could go to other rocking places on Saturday), and they thoroughly enjoyed what they saw. Thomas Function was rad too. But we're getting off topic, aren't we? Have a look at the list of artists below. They all have new music on DCD's shelves this week (Oh, and hey! If you haven't heard, we'll have that new, Walmart-exclusive Sugarland live CD/DVD on Wednesday.):

Reigning Sound
Mindy Smith
Patrick Wolf
TV Ghost
Robbern Ford
Rhythms del Mundo
Box Elders
John Martyn
Wailin Jennys (live)
Robert Cray
Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond (reissue)
George Strait
McCoy Tyner (reissue)
Robert Pollard
Stan Getz (reissue)
Willie Nelson
Bottle Rockets
...and more!

Ticket Alternative's new and notable shows

Each week, our pal Leila at Ticket Alternative sends us an e-mail listing all the brand-new, freshly-announced, hot-off-the-presses Ticket Alternative shows. And each week we post this e-mail on the blog for y'all's information. Think of it as a sister post of sorts to our semi-regular monthly show calendar postings. Don't forget: You can buy tickets for any of these shows at good old Decatur CD. Enjoy:

The Books @ Eyedrum, September 22 - Just Announced

Juliette Lewis @ Drunken Unicorn, September 24 - Just Announced

Sunn O))) @ Legends Special Events Center, September 26 - Just Announced

Islands, WHY? @ Lenny's, October 31 - Just Announced

Social Distortion @ 40 Watt, October 23 - Just Announced

An open letter to Sugarland

Dear Sugarland,

About five minutes before we started writing this letter, a customer walked in and inquired about your new CD/DVD release, Live on the Inside. “Do you know if it’s out yet?” she asked. We said that, yes, it was released Tuesday, but that we were not allowed to sell it. She’d have to go to Walmart to get it. “Walmart?” she replied, with an incredulous look. “Really?” She left disappointed, and frankly, we’re disappointed as well.

You guys have been around roughly as long as Decatur CD, and we’ve been supporters of your music from day one. We’ve put your releases on listening stations, given away tickets to your shows and so on. After all, what is a local music scene if not an extended family of sorts? We have to take care of each other.The point is that by shutting the door on independent record stores, you’re in effect shutting the door on your hometown.

We’re not naïve. We understand that exclusively releasing your music with Walmart means big, fat, non-returnable, guaranteed sales, a wide reach, a truckload of money, etc., but what do you get by cutting us out? We’ve read the articles; we understand you think we're insignificant, offhandedly commenting that there are only "two or three" record stores left. But a lot of your fans in the city where you got your start think rather highly of us. They like to buy local. They like to support independent business. Eddie's Attic, another local/independent business, is right down the street. A lot of the people who saw you there in the early days frequent Decatur CD. It’s impossible for us to serve them if you won’t let us.

Take Pearl Jam as an example. For their forthcoming album, Backspacer, Target will be the only big-box retailer who stocks it. But guess what? Independent stores like us, Criminal, Grimey’s, Waterloo, Other Music, Reckless Records and the like (Look, we just listed more than two or three!), real brick and mortar stores that care more about music than any big box ever will (we live for music; we don't merely stock it as a loss leader), can still order the album through an independent distributor. If you insist on striking a deal with a major brand, that's the way it should be done.

Not ones to gripe about a problem without bringing a solution to the table, we present the following proposal: Since we can’t get your new release through our usual means, how about you bring it by the store? Just stop by and sell it to us direct. You know, like a local band. We won’t tell Walmart and you won’t either. Everybody wins! We think this is a fair compromise. According to the tour dates on your website, you’ll be in the area (Alpharetta, to be exact) on Sept. 26th. We hope to see you then. In the meantime, we’ll be turning away customers when they ask for your new album, which is not good for you or for us.

Sincerely,
Decatur CD

Free tickets: Mos Def and Bonnie Ratt/Taj Mahal

Couple new ticket giveaways bounded into our inbox recently. First, and the most immediate, is that guy above, Mos Def, who'll play the Tabernacle a week from Friday. Then, just a few days later, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal will play Chastain. We've got tickets to give away for both shows, but just in case you forgot what else we've got up for grabs, here's the full list:

August 14th - Mos Def @ The Tabernacle
August 18th - Bonnie Ratt, Taj Mahal @ Chastain
September 1st - Depeche Mode @ Lakewood Amphitheatre
September 11th - Creed @ Lakewood Amphitheatre

You know the drill. If one of those shows sounds tantalizing, stop by the store and drop your first name/phone number into the giveaway box by the cash register. That's it. Good luck!

New. Release. Tuesday.

Lots of indie rock this week, couple interesting EPs, and a mixed bad of other goodies. Have a look and come see us soon:

Modest Mouse (EP)
Jay Reatard (vinyl-only for now...CD coming on 8/18!)
Japandroids
Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James covering George Harrison, EP)
Throw Me the Statue
Joe Pernice (soundtrack to his book)
Lightning Dust
The Yolks (OK, so it came out last week. But still, it's good! Look.)
Anjulie
Assjack (Hank Williams III's death-metal band)
Alice Cooper
Professor Longhair
The Duke & The King (ft. members of the Felice Brothers)
Fruit Bats
Julian Plenti (Interpol frontman's solo record)
Walter Trout
Medeski Martin & Wood
Nathaniel Mayer
Robin Trower
...and more

Jay-Z draws inspiration from Secret Machines?

Above is the album cover from the Secret Machines' 2004 release, Now Here is Nowhere. Below is the cover of Jay-Z's forthcoming Blueprint 3, which lit up the interwebs today. Now, is it just us, or did Hova simply push the instruments in the room together and then slap those red bars on top of them? Come on, Jay, we know you're more creative than that. But hey, if you ever decide to collaborate with Secret Machines on a barn-burning live rendition of "99 Problems," well, consider us there.

Decatur CD's Upcoming Show Guide - August

[Above: Puerto Rico's answer to the Black Lips - Davila 666]

Oopies! Where did July go? Perhaps we were too busy tweeting or enjoying the summertime or listening to power pop on repeat, but man, the month done disappeared. At any rate, we're here, it's August and, for once, we're on time! Check out all the glorious live-music events below, and if you're at The EARL tonight, be sure to say hello to Young Eliot and Not As Young Austin.

W = a Warren recommendation
A = an Austin recommendation
E = a Young Eliot recommendation
K = a Kate Hudson, daughter of Warren, recommendation

TONIGHT - Gentleman Jesse, GG King, Davila 666 @ The EARL - WAE
TONIGHT - Withered @ Drunken Unicorn - A
TONIGHT - The Damnwells, Joshua Fletcher @ Vinyl
August 2 - Kud Cudi, Asher Rothe @ The Tabernacle
August 7 - Nomo @ The EARL - WE
August 7 - De La Soul @ The Masquerade
August 7 - The Duke & The King (featuring members of The Felice Brothers) @ Eddie's Attic
August 8 - Totally Titties Three, ft. GG King, The Coathangers (breast cancer benefit) @ Lenny's - WAE
August 8 - Elbow @ Center Stage
August 8 - Reigning Sound, Thomas Function @ The EARL - AE
August 8 - Poison Arrows, Barreracudas @ 529 - E
August 8 - Rebirth Brass Band @ Smith's Olde Bar - W
August 8 - Judi Chicago, Noot D'Noot @ Star Bar
August 9 - Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Drake, Soulja Boy @ Lakewood Amphitheatre - AK
August 12 - An Evening of XTC (ft. members of Sheryl Crow, Josh Joplin, Jellyfish and more) @ Eddie's Attic
August 13 - Akron/Family @ The EARL
August 14 - Jonathan Kane @ 529
August 14 - Mos Def @ The Tabernacle - A
August 15 - The Orphins, The Selmanaires @ Drunken Unicorn - W
August 15 - Predator, Carnivores - AE
August 15 - Dar Williams @ Eddie's Attic - W
August 15 - Nuggets Night (an evening of music inspired by the awesome box set) @ Star Bar - WA
August 17 - Bowerbirds @ The EARL
August 17 - Bat for Lashes @ The Loft - W
August 18 - Shawn Mullins @ Eddie's Attic
August 19 - Dungen @ The EARL
August 20 - The Fiery Furnaces, White Rabbits @ Variety Playhouse - A
August 20 - The Bonaventure Quartet @ Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge
August 21 - Caroline Aiken @ Eddie's Attic
August 22 - The Weight @ The EARL
August 22 - Adrian Belew Power Trio @ Smith's Olde Bar
August 22 - Hawks, Cinemechanica @ Drunken Unicorn E
August 26 - Flaming Lips, Explosions in the Sky @ Chastain - WA
August 27 - Eliza Gilkyson @ Eddie's Attic
August 29 - Attractive Eighties Women CD release @ The EARL - A
August 29 - The Selmanaires (doing '60s covers) @ Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge - A