New Bones, New Discs

I’m no economist by any means, but when I can’t even squeeze over to the used bin without artfully dodging a slow-moving herd of cash-flush consumers, I’m guessing business is doing fairly well. Record Store Day in St. Louis was, by my entirely non-scientific analysis, a resounding success. Every single record store I went to was overflowing with people, and because I apparently have nothing better to do with my time, I hit up all three independent shops this city has to offer.

First stop was Euclid Records. When I got there, Grace Basement was finishing their set and a Sly Stone documentary was being screened in the back above the vinyl. The whole store seemed to have been organized by a consumer psychologist with me in mind: a large display was set up near the entrance with Numero Group/Eccentric Soul comps (I picked up the Titan It’s All Pop! comp thanks to reader and writer recommendations); the used bin was recently stocked with a surplus of old Morrissey records (I grabbed Vauxhall and I because some guy told me so); and as I was standing in line to check out, the Fiery Furnaces’ double live album Remember jumped out at me (what can I say? Impulse buy. Besides, I was at risk of losing my superfan club membership if I didn’t purchase it eventually).

I drove up to Vintage Vinyl next. Zimbabwe Nkenya was playing outside in the rain and Papa Ray the Soul Selector was spinning a fine selection of soul and rock & roll in the interior. I found the free PBR booth with no problem, but everything else on my list came up dry (the Randy Newman section at VV is criminally understocked, and, as it turns out, not a single record store in the city of St. Louis has a single copy of The Thermals’ The Body, The Blood, The Machine — what gives?). My final destination was Apop, where the drink of choice was Stag. As is usual at Apop, some weird German shit I’ve never heard of was piping through the sound system, which, weirdly, wasn’t half bad. I stayed for a few songs from the motorik noise punk trio Bikini Acid before leaving with an old copy of Lindstrom’s It’s a Feedelity Affair.

I’ve got a few low-quality photos of Apop above and below the jump, but you should definitely scope out Annie Zaleski’s photos of Euclid and Vintage Vinyl to get a better feel of the hustle and bustle of the day.

I closed the day with tacos off Cherokee Street and the free So Many Dynamos gig at the Billiken. The Dynamos were celebrating the release of the “New Bones” 7″, the first single off their upcoming Chris Walla-produced record The Loud Wars. The new track, if you haven’t heard it yet, is undeniably great. It’s less like the spastic prog-emo stuff they’ve done in the past to engender Dismemberment Plan comparisons; instead, it’s much more measured, linear, and mechanical electro pop. A repetitive synth riff opens the track, which sounds like Gary Numan covering “Icky Thump,” but they continue to build up the tension with a series of increasingly complex cross-phasing loops that link serrated-point guitar buzz with soft focus keyboard warbles. If you haven’t been a fan before, this may change your opinion.

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So Many Dynamos – “New Bones”
(from The Loud Wars)

So what did you buy this Record Store Day?