Arts Desk » crooked beat

Crooked Beat’s Top Sellers For May

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:35:23 +0000

Crooked Beat sent along a list of the Adams Morgan stores top-ten sellers for May. I pass it along not so much for its tiny news value as merely a reminder. Maybe you’re like me and totally slept on the new Camera Obscura album (it’s….No. 1 at Crooked Beat). Or maybe you still do not own Neutral Milk Hotel’s classic (No. 9).

Here’s the store’s Top 10:

1. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career LP/CD
2. Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines LP/CD
3. St Vincent – Actor LP/CD
4. V/A – Dark Was the Night LP/CD
5. Iron & Wine – Around the Well LP/CD
6. Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One LP/CD
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz LP/CD
8. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast LP/CD
9. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea LP/CD
10. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware LP/CD

Breaking: Crooked Beat Gets Huge Shipment of Reggae LPs

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:03:05 +0000

Crooked Beat just got in a huge shipment of reggae vinyl. I am told that the shipment includes over 100 LPs and about 80 CDs—a lot of King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Scientist, Keith Hudson, Dillinger, and quite a few Prince Buster records.

“A lot of stuff that people have been asking for,” says Crooked Beat’s owner Bill Daly. “They look like they are coming right from Jamaica. They look close to the way [they did] when they first came out….It’s a lot of really good stuff. You are the fourth person already today asking. One of the guys who used to work at DJ Hut is coming down. I’m listing to Junior Murvin right now—’Police and Thieves.’”

New Arrivals @ Crooked Beat

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:14:12 +0000

Link Wray looking supercool.

Crooked Beat sent along this e-mail with a list of new arrivals at their shop. Includes Link Wray, the Wedding Present, and the new Animal Collective LP.

List after the jump.

Just to name a few of the Used titles that have recently come in..

Billy Bragg – Workers Playtime

? (Question Mark) and the Mysterions – 96 Tears

Link Wray – The Link Wray Rumble

The Wedding Present – Tommy

The Wedding Present – Don’t Try and Stop Me, Mother

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

The Buzzcocks – A Different Kind of Tension

The Rolling Stones – Aftermath (mono!)

The Kinks – A Golden Hour of the Kinks Vol 2

Devo – New Traditionalists (comes with 7″)

The Jive 5 – Our True Story

The Kingsmen – Up and Away!

The Hollies – Buddy Holly (a record of Buddy Holly covers)

Frankie Lymon – Rock n Roll

Nat King Cole – For Sentimental Reason (picturedisc!)

Thelonious Monster – Next Saturday Afternoon

Eddie Taylor – Still Not Ready For Eddie

…and a bunch of great 50s and 60s comps

and New stuff:

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

V/A – Dark Was The Night

Belle & Sebastian – BBC Sessions

Whiskeytown – Strangers Almanac

David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Fear – The Record

Minor Threat -S/T (now with mp3 download)

Mi Ami – Watersports

Deerhunter – Microcastle/The Weird Era Continued (now on gatefold vinyl)

Dan Auerbach – Keep it Hid

Pains Of Being Pure at Heart - S/T

February Top Sellers

1. animal collective – merriweather post pavilion lp/cd

2. benjy ferree – come back to the five and dime, bobby dee bobby dee cd

3. andrew bird – noble beast lp/cd

4. fleet foxes – s/t lp/cd

5. V/A – dark was the night lp/cd

6. dan auerbach – keep it hid lp/cd

7. m ward – hold time lp/cd

8. deerhunter – microcastle lp

9. sigur ros – med sud I eyrum… lp/cd

10. jay reatard – matador singles 08 lp/cd

*photo of Link Wray courtesy of Gibson.

Benjy Ferree To Play Crooked Beat

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:16:19 +0000

Crooked Beat just announced that Benjy Ferree will be playing an in-store on Valentine’s Day at 7 p.m. Doesn’t this beat a fancy dinner at fixed-menu prices? Ferree will be playing new stuff from his new album, Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee. Crooked Beat promises to have CDs of the new record on hand three days before its official release date. Meanwhile, you can preview tracks which have an experimental soul vibe. Maybe for the in-store, he’ll sound closer to his Daytrotter session. If you can’t make it, there will be a listening party the next night at Saint Ex.

Crooked Beat Makes its Bet on Vinyl

Mark Athitakis — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:32:36 +0000

There’s lots of interesting info in an update posted Friday on Crooked Beat’s MySpace page: Vinyl is now the big sales driver for the store, which is now dialing back the new CDs it stocks and getting more selective with its used CD selection as well. Excerpts from the post below. (But go read the whole thing. Thanks to Don Carr for the heads-up.):

For the second year in a row (2008) New & Used Vinyl LPs have outsold CDs at Crooked Beat. LPs now account for around 70% of our total sales. We will be increasing our vinyl selection even more in the coming months.

New CDs: Crooked Beat will continue to stock New CDs but on a more limited basis. Effective Immediately: we will now only primarily stock CDs from indie and import labels such as Touch & Go, Matador, Dischord, Merge, 4AD, Sub Pop, Numero, Bomp, Damaged Goods, Cherry Red, Secretly Canadian, Ace, Bear Family, Soul Jazz, Anti, etc….

Used CDs: We will now only carry Used CDs that mirror our selection of New CDs. e.g., Crooked Beat always stocks New CDs by artists such as Built To Spill, Magnetic Fields, Cat Power. Therefore, we will usually accept them as USED trade-ins provided they are in good condition.