Thievery Corporation will be playing three nights at the 9:30 Club. This is becoming a January tradition for the classy, dubby duo. They will be spinning their haunted downtempo tunes on Jan 21, 22, and 23. Tickets go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m.

Som Records is worth the hunt for parking along 14th Street NW. Just got the store’s latest e-mail of new arrivals and it’s fairly packed. The store has got solid new releases from Real Estate, Broadcast, Cold Cave, Girls, Kings of Convenience, Circuit Rider (reissue),  Jay Farrar, Odissee, Chain and the Gang, The Clientele, Felix, among others.

The store is also having a sale this Thursday. It’s 10 percent off all used vinyl!

Used vinyl list after the jump. We recommend picking up the Pretty Things’ SF Sorrow.

The Pretty Things – SF Sorrow
Them – Again
Robbie Basho – The Falconer’s Arm
John Martyn – The Tumbler (UK press)
John and Yoko – Two Vigins
Soul Searchers – Salt of the Earth
Etoile de Dakar – S/T
V/A – Sub Pop Rock City (German press)
Azambuja & CIA – S/T
Phantom Limb – Dance of the Guilty
Prince – Black Album (German press)
Time Machine – Live a the Back Alley
John Coltrane – My Favorite Things
Richard Thompson – Guitar, Vocal

The store now sells turntables as well. So there’s no excuse.

Red Onion Records and Books has scores of new records that are worth checking out.  Among the best of the bunch: Real Estate’s debut LP, the Fred McDowell reissue on Mississippi, and some new Slumberland releases. Don’t forget to check out the new Best Coast single, Fuck Buttons latest LP, and the amazing Forge Your Own Chains psych compilation.

Used vinyl after the jump.

rock:
UPP: self-titled (jeff beck’s backing band)
indoor life: self-titled
einsturzende neubauten: yu-gung 12″
madhouse: self-titled (fountain of youth records)
plan 9: frustration
the cure: kiss me, kiss me, kiss me
brian eno: ambient 1
brian eno: ambient 4
brian eno/moebius/roedelius: begegnungen II
the smiths: what difference does it make 12″ (UK pressing)
james white and the blacks: off-white
yellow magic orchestra: self-titled
punch: self-titled (sunshine pop)
david byrne: catherine wheel
tom tom club: self-titled
vinegar joe: self-titled
jimi hendrix: cry of love
country joe & the fish: electric music for the mind and body (amazing album)
sister kate: self-titled (james taylor’s sister, with linda ronstadt, john hartford, memphis horns…)
various artists: super rock (columbia 2LP sampler)
surf punks: my beach
DAF: voulez vous coucher… 12″
DAF: 1st step to heaven
kingbees: self-titled
tom rush: merrimack county
fabulous poodles: think pink
sue saad & the next: self-titled
yello: solid pleasure
tommy boyce & bobby hart: it’s all happening on the inside (WLP)
lyres: someone who’ll treat you right now 12″
psychedelic furs: self-titled
gary numan: pleasure principle (UK pressing)
anthony more: world service (henry cow, slappy happy member)
rorshach: remain sedate (original on gern blandsten, with inner sleeve)
the turtles: happy together (white whale pressing, vg)
ludovico’s technique: self-titled
way of the west: feel the steel 12″
odgen edsl wahalia blues ensemble mondo bizarro band: self-titled
fresh today: self-titled (one sealed copy, one open)
jefferson airplane: crown of creation (orange label)
rubicon: america dreams
jimmy stevens: paid my dues
genya ravan: urban desire
various artists: punk and disorderly: further charges (vg)
chuck berry: golden decade volume 3
young rascals: collections
bruce springsteen: e ticket (german bootleg from 1975)
randy sparks: hazy sunshine
yazoo: the other side of love 12″
focus: 3 (dutch pressing)
focus: ship of memories
jan akkerman & thijs van leer: focus (1985)
rare earth: get ready
fleetwood mac: rumours (sealed)
country joe mcdonald: thinking of woody guthrie
country joe mcdonald: incredible! live!
various artists: 1969 warner/reprise songbook
invaders: test card (UK pressing)
artful dodger: rave on
rip rig & panic: beat the beast
nitty gritty dirt band: ricochet
eddie cochran: memorial album (french pressing)
sylvain sylvain
gary shearston: dingo
lizzy mercier descloux: press color (ZE records)
808 state: utd. state 90
the neighboorhood: debut
the fall: wonderful and frightening world…
the damned: eloise 12″
various artists: young, popular and sexy (factory records comp. with happy mondays, durutti column, a certain ratio…)
section 25: bad news week 12″ (factory records)
shark vegas: you hurt me 12″ (factory records)
wire: pink flag (US pressing)
grateful dead: anthem of the sun (later pressing)
kinks: lola vs powerman and the moneygoround (really nice copy)
neil young: harvest (original with inner sleeve)
byrds: younger than yesterday (360 stereo, vg)

jazz:
clark terry: tread ye lightly
ahmad jamal: portfolio of… (numbered 2LP collection on argo)
stanley turrentine: have you ever seen the rain
stanley turrentine: self-titled (blue note re-issue series)
herbie hancock: traces
don sebesky: the rape of el morro
john handy: live at monterey jazz festival
billie holiday: greatest hits vol. 1 (dutch pressing)
billie holiday: original recordings
billie holiday: lady sings the blues (japanese pressing, no obi)
antonio carlos jobim: tide
lonnie liston smith & cosmic echoes: visions of a new day
egberto gismondi: danca das cabecas
joe beck: self-titled (kudu)
keith jarrett: luminessence
mongo santamaria: at montreux
wayne shorter: phantom navigator
andre previn: the early years
gene krupa & his orchestra: that drummer’s band
woody herman big band: hey! heard the herd?
lennie tristano/buddy defranco: crosscurrents
al cohn & zoot sims: either way (zim records)
ray bryant trio: potpourri
stan getz/sonny stitt: echoes of an era
paul horn quintet: here’s that rainy day
ahmad jamal: piano scene of…
martha davis & spouse: a tribute to fats waller
billy taylor trio: the more i see you (UK pressing)
various artists: changing face of harlem
duke ellington: ‘66 (3 color steamboat label)
walfredo de los reyes & louis bellson: ritmos cubanos
ian carr’s nucleus: in flagranti delicato
dollar brand duo: good news from africa
morrissey mullen: badness
ornette coleman: shape of jazz to come (original pressing, vg+)
johnny griffin: big soul
mccoy tyner: 13th house
lincoln mayorga & distinguished colleagues: missing linc (sheffield audiophile pressing)
milt jackson with the ray brown big band: memphis jackson (impulse)
brother jack mcduff: down home style (blue note)

funk/soul/disco/rap:
motown instrumentals
motown chartbusters volume 5
bill withers: live at carnegie hall
george clinton: r&b skeletons in the closet
west street mob: self-titled
mtume: in search of the rainbow seekers
labelle: phoenix
hugh masekela: grazing in the grass
emotions: sunshine
percy mayfield: sings percy mayfield
earth wind & fire: that’s the way of the world (quad pressing)
molecular beats squadron: coming by storm 12″
dionne warwick: here i am
dinah, joe & sarah: we three
cameo: we all know who we are
kool & the gang: spirit of the boogie
gene chandler: your love looks good on me
aaron neville: like it’tis
james brown: showtime
mary wells: two sides (mono, beautiful copy)
otis redding: live in europe
captain sky: pop goes…
lime II
brother to brother: let your mind be free

folk/country/blues/gospel:
bonnie dobson: at folk city (rare album on prestige, deep groove, excellent shape)
alf edwards: the art of the concertina (rare album on prestige)
joan baez: blessed are… (quad pressing)
fred neil: other side of this life (green label, with gram parsons on one track)
barry mcguire & the doctor: self-titled
tom paxton: morning again (gold label, vg)
charlie king w. paul despinosa: old dreams and new nightmares
newport folk festival 1963, evening concerts vol. 1 (with dylan, jack elliott, miss. john hurt, joan baez…)
malvina reynolds: self-titled (vg, hard to find album with members of the birds, dillards, sunshine company…)
vern gosdin: never my love
clarence “gatemouth” brown: blackjack
clarence “gatemouth” brown: the blues ain’t nothing (french pressing)
doc watson: southbound (sealed)
jim kweskin & the jug band: jug band music
gram parsons: self-titled (shilo records)
oscar brand: laughing america (sealed)
angelic gospel singers: i’m bound for mt. zion
johnny cash: songs of our soil (360 stereo)
dave van ronk: no dirty names

world music:
hari prasad chaurasia: flute recital (sealed, indian odeon pressing)
bhavalu/impressions: south indian instrumental music (sealed, nonesuch explorer)
exotissimo vol. 1: jaipur, inde (french pressing)
maloko: soul on fire
incantation: canarios/atahuallpa
music of hungary (capitol, sealed)
sergio mendes: the great arrival
francoise hardy: star

miscellaneous:
bessie jones: step it down: games for children
a french monkey story
kronos quartet: white man sleeps
stories of guy de maupassant
ralph shapey: praise (CRI)
the hush of midnight
famous ghost stories with scary sounds
virgo rising: the once and future woman
poems and songs of middle earth
copernicus: deeper
les baxter: the primitive and the passionate (stereo)
ping pong percussion
howard stern: 50 ways to rank your mother
yevtushenko: readings from his new york and san francisco poetry concerts
the poetry of pat parker & judy grahn
john cage/christian wolff: cartridge music/duo for violinist and pianist

There are some killer new arrivals over at Red Onion Records and Books. First off, there’s the reissue on vinyl (!) of the Raincoats’ classic debut album. The store has also got in new pressings from Folkways, the new Atlas Sound LP (pictured) as well as Cedric Brooks, Albert Ayler, Arthur Russell, Sun Ra, Wilco, and a killer soul-funk comp.

Used vinyl list after the jump.

rock:

neil young: self-titled

neil young: decade

allman brothers: at the fillmore

allman brothers: beginnings

black sabbath: self-titled

rolling stones: flowers

beach boys: surfs up

beach boys: wild honey/20/20 (2LP)

beach boys: summer days…

the beatles: rubber soul

the beatles: let it be

the beatles: love songs (2LP with book)

the beatles: in the beginning

the beatles: rarities

jefferson airplane: takes off (later pressing)

jefferson airplane: surrealistic pillow (later pressing)

dr. john: night tripper

glencoe: spirit of

grand funk railroad: live album (2LP, german pressing)

lou reed: take no prisoners (2LP, live)

bruce springsteen: born to run/the river/born in the usa/greetings from asbury park

rory gallagher: tattoo

family: fearless

family: music in a dolls house

family: entertainment (uk)

the paupers: ellis island (amazing cheap psych album)

leonard cohen: death of a ladies man

chris farlowe: greatest hits (uk, rolling stones related)

dusty springfield: a brand new me

dusty springfield: cameo

dusty springfield: see all her faces (uk)

lesley gore: girl talk

the byrds: untitled

the band: the last waltz

the doors: self-titled (gold label, vg+)

pink floyd: nice pair (piper at the gates of dawn)

pink floyd: atom heart mother

pink floyd: ummagumma

king crimson: discipline/beat/in the court of the crimson king/three of a perfect pair/red/lizard

del shannon: one thousand six hundred…

joni mitchell: blue

various artists: not so quiet on the eastern front (2LP, with inner sleeve and book)

various artists: rat music for rat people

various artists: eastern front

various artists: permanent wave

black flag: everything went black (2LP, first pressing with band’s name airbrushed)

whipping boy: the sound of no hands clapping (rare 1st LP by CA band produced by klaus flouride)

faith: subject to change

jawbreaker: bivouac

shudder to think: get your goat

halfoff: the truth

meat puppets: huevos

bad manners: klass

the smiths: strangeways here we come

let’s active: every dog has his day

new model army: ghost of cain

the clash: this is radio clash 12:

the clash: self-titled (us)

the clash: sandinista

the clash: give em’ enough rope

depeche mode: broken frame

depeche mode: black celebration

depeche mode: catching up…

kraftwerk: trans-europe express

kraftwerk: autobahn

the specials: more specials

the specials: ghost town 12″

devo: are you experienced 12″

devo: freedom of choice

dead end kids: breakout (with poster!)

cocteau twins: blue bell knoll

cocteau twins: treasure

sex pistols: never mind the bollocks…

blondie: tide is high 12″ (german)

specimen: batastrophe

redd kross: neurotica

the replacements: i will dare 12″

the replacements: let it be

the replacements: hootenanny

new york dolls: self-titled

alan vega: saturn strip

insect surfers: sonar safari (local new wave)

calculated x: self-titled (private press new wave)

julee cruise: floating into the night (produced by angelo badlamenti and david lynch)

au pairs: playing with a different sex

rem: dead letter office/green/fables of the reconstruction/document

talking heads: and she was 12″/remain in light/speaking in tongues/naked/little creatures

the police: syncronicity/regatta de blanc/outlandos d’amour

janes addiction: nothings shocking

grateful dead: in the dark

grateful dead: workingman’s dead

george harrison: cloud nine

neil young: hawks & doves

blues image: open

sunkilmoon: tiny cities (mark kozelek doing modest mouse)

elvis costello: secret, profane & sugarcane

ryan adams & the cardinals: cardinology

jazz:

billie holiday: broadcast vol. 3 (esp)

jelly roll morton: 1938/1940

david matthews & whirlwind: shoogie wanna boogie

paul humphrey/shelly manne/willie bobo/louie bellson: drum session

gabor szabo: macho

lenny white: venusian summer

k. & j.j.: israel

ramsey lewis: funky serenity/upendo ni pamoja (2LP)

charles kynard: your mama don’t dance (mainstream)

larry willis: inner crisis

richard groove holmes: six million dollar man

jimmy smith: black smith

junior mance: touch of

jack mcduff: fourth dimension

ray bryant: in the cut

mike longo: awakening (mainstream)

richard groove holmes: american pie

richard groove holmes: onsaya joy

pete yellin: dance of allegra (mainstream)

night blooming jazzmen: freedom jazz dance (mainstream)

george duke: save the country

eric kloss: essence

lonnie smith: mama wailer

johnny hammond smith: what’s going on

funk/soul:

mandre: m3000

free movement: i’ve found someone

soul children: best of two worlds

purifys: pure sound of…

smokey robinson & miracles: anthology (3LP)

4 tops: best of (2LP)

jackie wilson: story (2LP)

solaris: self-titled

marz: make it right

marvin gaye: what’s going on (later pressing)

marvin gaye: here my dear

various artists: lost soul vol. 1

black ivory: baby, won’t you…

smokey robinson & miracle: one dozen roses

4 tops: nature planned it

mary wells: greatest hits

peggy scott & jo jo benson: lover’s heaven

little anthony & the imperials: on a new street

esquires: get on up and get away

timmy thomas: why can’t we live together

isley brothers: very best of (early tracks)

gloria lynne: dynamite!

big j: in 3-D

michael jackson: thriller

michael jackson: off the wall

Nerds rejoice. (Let’s hope the vinyl skews a little rarer than ’80s Kinks and Wes Montgomery LPs!) I’m sure the record fair is going to be well stocked. After all, the fair is being sponsored and promoted by some fine and discerning local tastemakers—Som Records, the Vinyl District, and DC Soul Recordings.

And amazingly, Mingering Mike has given his blessing.

Here’s what one of the sponsors promised in an e-mail to Arts Desk headquarters:

“25+ Record Dealers w/ funk, punk, reggae, salsa, soul, indie, psych, freakbeat, hip-hop, techno, samba, rockabilly and more…
Celebrity DJ’s, great pizza, ping pong, beer/wine and lots of records!
A perfect way to spend a Fall Sunday morning!
Fancy limited edition flyer by Mingering Mike!”

The Flaming Lips‘ Wayne Coyne has been interviewing for months now about his band’s upcoming album Embryonic. He’s talked to Billboard and the BBC and just about anyone else. It would be hard to not to weary of Coyne’s sales calls. The band is no longer just the pride of Oklahoma and stoner college kids. In recent years, even Madison Avenue has recognized Coyne’s abilities in convincing the world that his band’s abstract songs about life, death and the muddy middle are sell-able bits of sunshine. Mad Men see one of their own, using the Lips most notoriously to sell Kraft (”Introducing a fresh idea in salad dressing“). So you could be forgiven if you changed the channel when you hear Coyne and Co. coming on.

The suit. The confetti. The bubble ball. All have become ubiquitous and expected. Coyne’s burden is to convince us that what he’s selling isn’t just a fresh idea in salad dressing. The Lips don’t have albums, they have projects—from the parking lot experiments to the multidisc play-all-at-once Zaireeka to Soft Bulletin’s brilliant orch pop and Yoshimi’s semi concept arc. The band’s one true misstep is its last album, 2006’s At War With The Mystics, with its kinda tired, kinda shaggy songs about Britney Spears (who’s that?) and George W. Bush (”Every time you state your case/ The more I want to punch your face”).

Now, Coyne has to overcome our own cynism. Embryonic is being sold as a double LP that’s not just any double LP. It’s a sonic freakout experiment. It’s Miles Davis meets John Lennon meets Can, etc. I was willing to sit this one out until I heard three new songs that have recently leaked. The band is serious again. They’re no longer selling rainbows to goths or pop-psych to moms. Go ahead and find the leaks. For the first time in good while, the songs sell themselves.

Tonight, the Flaming Lips take their freakouts to Merriweather Post Pavilion. Black Plastic Bag interviewed Coyne via phone last Friday. Did he win me over?

You bet.

After the jump: Coyne talks about what it was like to make the new album, Miles Davis, his personal relationships with his bandmates, and my, gulp, upcoming wedding.

What did you do today?

“We waited on one of our trucks. It’s only 12:30 in Seattle…We’ve loaded in. One of the trucks was late; it got lost. I made some very strong, tasty coffee that I was to given…My day has been productive and pretty good so far. For me I don’t have any downtime. I do interviews from anywhere from 10 to 2 or 3 until soundcheck starts. After that, there’s time for dinner, [after the show], I do autographs and talk to people for a couple hours.”

When did you start work on the new album?

“We knew even when we were making our last record that we were going to make a double record. I’m 48 years old…I have a specific thing in my mind what double records mean. I think back in the day when I was very young I would say like groups like the Beatles‘ White Album or Pink Floyd doing The Wall or the Rolling Stones doing Exile, they felt like self-indulgent weird moments…These were great insights into the way the bands are. They aren’t trying to make every song a perfect song.”

How did your double album come about?

“Some things are really precise songs and some things are really abstract and weird. That was the goal we had in mind. We wanted to get lost and see what happens. I definitely think that happened. In the beginning, we thought we were going to go in there and have 10 really great precise songs and maybe nine or 10 tracks that were freakouts. Every time we would do a sort freak out thing, we would want to keep doing that. I thought ‘fuck it let’s do that.’ I was more than pleased to go along for the ride.”

How do you think you’ve progressed?

“From working the middle of Zaireeka to Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, we little by little became more into Pro Tools which is wonderful. There is so many things we couldn’t have done with this computer stuff.”

Now it’s about the jamming.

“I’m not a very good musician. I always feel sort of self-conscious about guiding this dynamic…I think Steven and Michael and Kliph let me guide this thing. We sit down to do some open-ended jams and I don’t think they sound like Can or Miles Davis but when I would reference these things to the guys, they knew what I was talking about. It would get us in a frame of mind. They would intuitively play along. It felt cool. It felt fun. It felt more human. A lot of it is still manipulating. But some of the basic tracks are these open-ended, free-form strange jams that we did in Steven’s living room and that was the basis for the songs. We were excited by these strange little jam sessions that we did. Sometimes that’s enough.

We’re you trying to sound like Can meets Miles Davis?

“We’re not trying to make records like them. But it’s hard not to have reference points. To me, there’s moments in the Miles Davis stuff that’s hard to find. There’s some intensity going out there and that makes it not jam band and not jazz, but more freaky. I don’t know if we were capable of that. We are capable of trying.”

“Trying can be a great quality. I don’t always worry about failing. Sometimes failure is wonderful to watch. One of my heroes is Evil Knievel.”

Coyne goes on a tangent about his love of watching Knievel not make that jump over all those cars. Songwriting is less dangerous.

“In the beginning, we are always ridiculously over confident that we are songwriters. Between me and Steven, we had seven or eight songs…It was until we did these spur of the moment jams in his living room that we started to think ‘why do we care about these songs?’ Songs are wonderful cosmic gifts. But some of these jams that we did that we thought were meaningless just stayed in our minds. Little by little as the months went by I don’t know that we pursued any of the songs that we wrote.”

Are you bored with pop songs?

“You can be easily self-satisfied with this thing we could do well. Even young people tend to go to the same restaurant every night or read the same books. For me, it’s not necessarily what we do well. I am just curious about other things, other types of music or whatever or types of identities that the Flamings Lips could put on or have…I am in awe in the way the audience has given us this opportunity.”

“The audience lets us do whatever we want. I think the audience would totally forgive us if we made this bad indulgent mess. I don’t think we’d be worthy of their forgiveness [if] we played it safe—like this is where our journey ends.

Coyne believes Embryonic is new territory for the band.

“It feels as though we made a great leap. We’ve tried to do some things in the past but we haven’t gotten this lucky.”

Coyne is particularly proud of the album opener “Convinced of the Hex.”

“That’s the very first song we worked on out of the batch that we had of all the recordings in Steven’s house….It could have gone a lot of ways. We took it up there and [long-time Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann] did a little bit of sonic work on it and then he demanded I turn it into a song.

Coyne says he wrote the lyrics fast. He tried not to get too embarrassed about writing on the fly. He said it worked.

“I think that’s why we put it first on the record. It’s a mystery. We don’t know why it works. I think all good music has that about it. We just know we like it….We want to make music that’s never been heard before. That shit’s hard. Everywhere you go there’s cliches and stupid things attached. When [the songs] work, it’s beautiful.”

Watching the Lips documentary Fearless Freaks, in which you see all the ups and downs that the band has gone through since its early ’80s inception in Oklahoma City—Crazy-ass song experiments, their MTV moment, parking lot recordings, drug problems, and now, a band with an established roadshow and cred—I wanted to hear what Coyne had to say about his personal relationships with his band members.

“I truly love these guys. I would be nothing without them. I love them. It’s my family. For it to make great music is great. But I would want to be with these guys and Fridmann even if we made mediocre shit. I would never put my life or my art above these guys.”

Finally, I asked him what I should put on my mix for my upcoming wedding. Coyne immediately suggested ending the wedding reception with “Do you Realize??” I told him: that’s already going to be played during the fireworks set off the night before.

“Steven does that a lot, he puts mixtapes together for weddings.”

I wasn’t letting Coyne off the hook. He needed to make a real suggestion.

“The Wesley Willis catalogue is always out there. That stuff is always a lot of fun.”

Travis Morrison has announced his retirement. We think. Morrison fronted the beloved and defunct Dismemberment Plan. He went on to release solo stuff, sing in church, and form a new band and release a well-received album in 2007. On Morrison’s website, he or his web guru write: “Retired!”

If that wasn’t clear enough, Morrison writes: “No shows, no records, no band. Just relaxing in Brooklyn. Befriend me on facebook. I’m so nice!.”

If you hangout on the site long enough, “Retired!” morphs into a bunch of nonsense words. So this could all be just a joke.

Dismemberment Plan had regrouped for a Cal Robbins benefit show sponsored by Washington City Paper. The packed crowd at that show went nuts for the band. Morrison had bounced back from that notorious Pitchfork review of a few a years ago. So this is all very curious!

Today, soothing WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi prefaced a call-in hour by going off on all things Michael Jackson. He sorta boasted to listeners that his show had been a Michael Jackson Free Zone this past week. He then explained his confusion as to why African American leaders and African American Professor types would debase themselves on cable chat shows extolling the King of Pop’s Black Power credentials and deep ties to the African-American community. He said that anyone under 30 would have only known Jackson as Wacko—an alleged child molesting freak with a damaged nose. For a generation, Jackson’s talents were seen only in montage clips.

The man didn’t want to look like me, Nnamdi argued. And he went out of his way to not look like me. One of several callers took the bait and argued on MJ’s behalf citing psychological and biological trauma as the cause of the singer’s skin whitening and plastic surgery obsession. Nnamdi just argued back: “I can’t embrace him.”

When another caller chimed to bash WMATA on its failed safety proceedures and the metro crash, Nnamdi admitted to having no expertise on the subject. The metro crash was a mystery to him. Jackson was another matter.

*photo courtesy of WAMU.