The Replacements, Not Ready for Prime Time, 2024 on Sire/Rhino

Full title is “Not Ready for Prime Time: Live at the Cabaret Metro, 1986.” This was previously available as part of the Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) CD set that came out in 2023, but was reissued on vinyl as a limited edition for Record Store Day 2024.

Recorded live at the Cabaret Metro (now just called Metro) in Chicago on January 11th, 1986. That’s just a week before they appeared on SNL—a performance that got them the lifetime ban.

Great live set going back to classics like “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” but also Tim songs like “Kiss Me On The Bus.” Liner notes by Bob Mehr, the author of Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements.

My copy via Down In The Valley in Golden Valley MN, pressed at GZ Media.

Bill Evans, Return Engagement, 1974 on Verve

Title sometimes listed as Verve Return Engagement – part of a series of basically compilations of Jazz greats published in the 1970s by Verve. (I have the Oscar Peterson one as well). Nice way to get a bunch of Bill Evans tracks from across 8 albums in a new package.

My copy—via Down in the Valley in Golden Valley MN—is a MGM manufactured pressing from the 70s, and the only version of this record listed in discogs (so likely never re-pressed).

May The Circle Remain Unbroken: A Stribute to Roky Erickson, 2021 on LIght In The Attic

Posthumous tribute album for Roky Erickson by the same producer who assembled Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, which was a 1990 tribute album that introduced my to many of his songs (though I also knew the 13th Floor Elevators LPs).

Tracklist and participants:

• Billy F. Gibbons – “(I’ve Got) Levitation”
• Mosshart Sexton – “Starry Eyes”
• Jeff Tweedy – “For You (I’d Do Anything)”
• Lynn Castle & Mark Lanegan – “Clear Night For Love”
• The Black Angels – “Don’t Fall Down”
• Neko Case – “Be and Bring Me Home”
• Margo Price – “Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)”
• Gary Clark Jr. & Eve Monsees – “Roller Coaster”
• Ty Segall – “Night of the Vampire”
• Lucinda Williams – “You’re Gonna Miss Me”
• Chelsea Wolfe – “If You Have Ghosts”
• Brogan Bentley – “May The Circle Remain Unbroken”

Plus a “Record Store Day only” 7″ flexi-disc single with Erickson himself doing “Love Hieroglyphics” from “the early ’70s.”

My copy—via Down in the Valley in Golden Valley, MN—included the 7″ flexi-disk. as well as a 16 page book.

Bill Evans, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, 1967 (aka Bill Evans Trio, Moon Beams, 1962) on Riverside

This 1967 reissue of the 1962 album Moon Beams (which was credited to the Bill Evans Trio) is credited to Bill Evans and retitled to Polka Dots and Moonbeams – also given a new cover. (The original cover featured Nico, years before her time with the Velvet Underground).

Personnel here include Chuck Israels on bass and Paul Motian on drums. The original LP was produced by Orrin Keepnews, but this remastering was supervised by Bob Thiele. The original came out a year after Sunday at the Village Vanguard and only three years after Evans played on Kind of Blue.

My copy via Down in the Valley in Golden Valley MN – in really good shape.

#1960s #1962 #BillEvans #BillEvansTrio #BobThiele #ChuckIsraels #DownInTheValley #GoldenValleyMN #jazz #OrrinKeepnews #PaulMotian #Riverside #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Traffic, Traffic (Self-Titled), 1968 on United Artists / Island Records

Released in 1968 on Island in the UK and United Artists in the US, this was actually their sophomore album, following after Mr. Fantasy. Dave Mason had left the band after the debut album but returned for this record.

Wonderful version of “Feelin’ Alright?” here if you only know the Joe Cocker version.

My copy is a 2012 reissue, mastered by Joe Reagoso from the original Island Records Tapes at Friday Music Studios, Huntington Beach, CA with Kevin Gray. Via Down in the Valley Records in Golden Valley MN.

#1960s #1968 #DaveMason #DownInTheValley #FridayMusic #GoldenValleyMN #IslandRecords #Traffic #UnitedArtists #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Doomtree, False Hopes, 2007 on Doomtree Records

Doomtree are a hip-hop collective (and record label) from Minneapolis, including Dessa, Cecil Otter, P.O.S., Sims, Mike Mictian, Paper Tiger, and Lazerbeak. False Hopes came out (on CD) before their “debut” album, self-titled Doomtree, in 2008.

There were many other “False Hopes” CDs of individual artists. The bandcamp for this release claims “This is the eleventh (or twelfth) False Hopes. It is also the first to feature the entire Doomtree crew*” but the asterisk notes that’s “not technically true” so who knows. Their own bandcamp lists only 4 other “False Hopes” releases, but there are many more in discogs.

My copy is actually a 2018 Tenth Anniversary Vinyl Reissue, via Down in the Valley in Golden Valley, MN

#10thAnniversary #2000s #2007 #2018 #Dessa #Doomtree #DownInTheValley #GoldenValleyMN #HipHop #MinneapolisMN #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

Eels, The Myspace Transmissions / Transmission Session 2009, 2009 on E Works

I’m a huge fan of Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) and Eels so was super excited to find this record at Down in the Valley in Golden Valley MN.

These were made available for streaming and download at https://www.myspace.com/transmissions/ though I don’t think they are there anymore.

Great version of Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” as well as “My Beloved Monster”

#2000s #2009 #DownInTheValley #EWorks #Eels #GoldenValleyMN #MarkOliverEverett #MySpace #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds