Hello fellow Vinyl Addicts,

That Ramona Falls show was a little sparsely populated. Are you paying attention to me? I really wish you would, as Brent Knopf and his touring bandmates put on a heckuva show. Regardless, what’s done is done and we need to move forward.

To be honest, our pal Matt is in a large part responsible for the one show I’m looking forward to the most this week, the ATV/Broken Headphones-sponsored Greg Ginn in-store at Blue Arrow Records. If it wasn’t for the fact that ATV is a primary sponsor of this show, I’d probably have chosen it as my show of the week. But given Matthew’s involvement, I’m certain you’ll get all the info on Ginn and the gig that you’ll need.

So, instead, allow me to plug the other show this week I’m super excited about. On Thursday, 9/17, LA-based noise/fuzz/pop maestros Autolux are taking the stage at the Beachland. These guys rock and they do so with originality and vigor. Their previous album, Future Perfect, came out in 2004 and is one of the albums of this decade that I’ve rocked out to the most. It is, in a word, brilliant. (Note: On my blog, that ‘brilliant’ would have been preceded by a dramatically dropped f-bomb, but ATV is a family and senior-friendly blog, what with the Springsteen shout-outs and all, and I didn’t think it would fit. So, a bit of mature self-censorship on my part. That’s a first.)

(Editor’s note:  Holy crap, making a note of this!)

Since Future Perfect, the release well has gone dry for Autolux. They’ve apparently had the follow-up, Transit Transit, done for a few years, but for one reason or another (mostly, it seems, music industry business-side nonsense), it still languishes on the sonic sidelines. The band has released a song or two, and has been touring on the material for quite a while now. In fact, when the current national tour that is bringing them to Cleveland was first announced, it gave me great hope that the latest Transit Transit release rumor (it was at that point believed to be coming out this month) was true and that the band was going to be touring in support of it. Well, here we are, with a tour but no album (which I’ll take any day over no tour, of course), and the latest rumor is that the album will be out late winter/early spring 2010. We shall see about that.

In the meantime, what we can see is the band play live. These guys can be monsters onstage, so it should be no surprise that I first got into the band after a college-era serious love for Failure, the Ken Andrews project that also featured crucial contributions from now-Autolux guitarist Greg Edwards. Edwards is joined by Carla Azar and Eugene Goreshter, and the trio fits together like the way the prosecution wished OJ’s glove had. These guys bring it and do so in a magnificent way – you won’t be disappointed if you take a leap and purchase Future Perfect on itunes RIGHT NOW to whet your appetite for Thursday’s show. Trust me.

And if the rare Autolux visit to Clevo wasn’t enough to get you out, the night’s opening duties will fall to Kent-based Beaten Awake. These guys aren’t just another local band getting a opening slot as a favor from the house talent buyer – Beaten Awake’s last album, Let’s Get Simplified, was about as thoughtful an album as you’ll find in the contemporary lo-fi indie pop scene, and its new one, THUNDER$TROKE, is by all accounts top-notch and due out next month from Fat Possum, a not-to-be-trifled-with label that is also home to fellow Ohio artists made good The Black Keys and Heartless Bastards, as well as current national phenoms like Wavves, Crocodiles, and A.A. Bondy. They even put out Beyond, Dinosaur Jr.’s unpredictably killer 2007 reunion album. The Beaten Awake/Autolux pairing is a little questionable, I admit, but on the positive side, it’ll be like seeing two totally different (and most likely excellent) shows for the price of one, rather than a single bill of genre similarity all smushing into the next.

See you there!

Hugs and Platonic Tongue Kisses,

CB

P.S. – Speaking of Blue Arrow Records – check this out!!

BLUE ARROW RECORDS is honored to welcome our first overseas deejay, all the way from Manchester UK, “Big Daddy” George Mahood. Though known in recent years as the grand poobah at Concourse Records (one of the best on-line shops on the planet for elusive soul, funk, reggae and hip-hop vinyl, Mr. Mahood earned his reputation years earlier as editor-in-chief of the late great BIG DADDY magazine and GRAND SLAM magazine. Both BIG DADDY and GRAND SLAM fervently covered the funk and soul 45 explosion at its most “Brainfreeze” frenetic era.

Thursday, September 17th. Spinning begins at 7 PM. 16001 WATERLOO ROAD. Don’t miss this big event!!