Trip #13: Like a Record That's Skipping, I'm a Modern Man
Trip #13: Like a Record That's Skipping, I'm a Modern Man
Exhibits include new music from Foals, bar italia, and Salami Rose Joe Louis, the most essential records from 2010, and is Succession the best TV score ever?
Welcome to The Wax Museum, where we aim to increase the quantity and quality of your vinyl collection through music discovery. Enjoy a new trip right in your inbox every Wednesday!
Your Museum Guide for Wednesday May 31, 2023
The FUTURE Exhibit (Upcoming Vinyl Releases)
The PRESENT Exhibit (2023 Album of the Year Playlist)
The PAST Exhibit (Most Essential Vinyl of 2010)
The RABBIT HOLE Exhibit (Succession Soundtrack)
🎧 Listen to this Trip on Spotify and Apple.
Come on in guys. Let’s start with the best thing I heard this week and that was “Summer of Luv”, a new collab from Portugal. The Man and Unknown Mortal Orchestra featuring some sweet, sexy saxophone. The single is off Portugal. The Man’s upcoming album Chris Black Changed My Life, arriving June 23rd.
Now on to the exhibits…
The FUTURE Exhibit
Highlighting notable new vinyl coming out this Friday, June 2nd.
New Albums
Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream (Purple Vinyl) | Avenged Sevenfold’s newest album, written and recorded over the span of 4 years, is inspired by Albert Camus’ The Stranger and takes the listener on a journey through an existential crisis.
Beach Fossils - Bunny (Powder Blue Vinyl) | Brooklyn bedroom poppers Beach Fossils' release fourth album Bunny, their first in six years.
Ben Folds - What Matters Most | Ben Folds is back for the first time in eight years with solo project What Matters Most.
Bully - Lucky for You | Garage rock artist Bully (Alicia Bognanno) drops new ten song album Lucky for You via Sub Pop. Lead single “Lose You” is a catchy jam reminiscent of 90’s era Sheryl Crow, and features a cameo from Sophie Allison (Soccer Mommy).
Foo Fighters - But Here We Are (White Vinyl) | Foo Fighters return after a year of brutal losses, deep introspection, and bittersweet remembrances. Their new album promises to be a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship and family, as well as the five stages of grief.
Jack Johnson - In Between Dub | Lee "Scratch" Perry was working on a dub remix album of Jack Johnson hits when he sadly passed away. Perry’s band Subatomic Sound System later discovered they had all the pieces to bring the album to completion. Excited to hear this one!
Lanterns on the Lake - Versions of Us (Orange Vinyl) | Lanterns on the Lake follow up 2020's acclaimed Spook the Herd with their self-produced fifth studio album Versions of Us. Radiohead's Philip Selway is now with the band on drums.
Noel Gallagher - Council Skies (Blue Vinyl) | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds’ highly anticipated fourth album drops Friday. The record is also available on triple vinyl with studio outtakes, remixes, and instrumentals.
Protomartyr - Formal Growth In The Desert | The group’s sixth album is a 12 song testament to “getting on with life” after the recent death of singer Joe Casey’s mother.
Rufus Wainwright - Folkocracy | Rufus Wainwright’s latest album is a star-studded affair featuring David Byrne, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan and many more re-working classic folk songs.
RVG - Brain Worms (Blue Vinyl) | Australian band RVG is back with anticipated third album Brain Worms. Going off the four singles already released, this should be a banger of a record.
Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) | Switchfoot is pulling a Taylor Swift and rerecording their seminal album The Beautiful Letdown for its 20th anniversary.
Vinyl Reissues
blink-182 - Buddha (Blue/Red Splatter Vinyl) | The demo album from pop punk superstars blink-182 gets a much needed colored reissue.
De La Soul - Stakes Is High | de la Soul’s fourth album, the 1999 Stakes is High features production by J Dilla and cameos by Mos Def and Common.
Donald Byrd - Slow Drag (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) | Donald Byrd's 1967 album Slow Drag showcases the jazz trumpeter’s talents. The Tone Poet vinyl series is mastered directly from the original analog tapes.
Passion Pit - Gossamer (Bone Vinyl) | Gossamer, which was featured in our 2012 Hall of Fame, gets a much needed repress on colored vinyl for the first time. OG pressings were going as high as $300 recently.
Raveena - Lucid (Coke Bottle Clear) | Raveena Aurora's debut 2019 album Lucid gets a second pressing on coke bottle clear wax.
Tom Waits - Closing Time | 2023 marks fifty years since Tom Waits released his iconic debut album Closing Time. The album's anniversary vinyl is available for the first time as a double 180 gram LP cut at 45 RPM with half speed mastering by London's Abbey Road Studios.
📋 Full list of vinyl releases, reissues, compilations.
The PRESENT Exhibit
Behold the 2023 Album of the Year leaderboard. Three new albums get added each week. Standings change throughout the year.
🎧 Full AOTY 2023 Playlist: Spotify | Apple (39 Albums and Counting…)
This week features Foals & Dan Carey, bar italia, and Salami Rose Joe Louis.
Foals & Dan Carey - Life is Dub
Get Vinyl: Discogs
Foals' 2022 album Life Is Yours, produced by the legendary Dan Carey, gets a dub remix album, entirely reimagined and remixed by Carey himself, titled Life Is Dub. The album was released on Record Store Day on gold vinyl, and was digitally released May 19th. Aided by mushroom oil, Carey went extreme on the EQ settings, brought out the deep bass, and sent Life is Yours until space.
bar italia - Tracey Denim
Get Vinyl: Black (September vinyl release date)
London trio bar italia level up with third album and major label debut Tracey Demin for Matador. The mysterious trio of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton have created a unique batch of crunchy, post-punk joints with riffs aplenty. Unfortunately we need to wait until September to hear this bad boy on the turntable.
Salami Rose Joe Louis - Akousmatikous
Get Vinyl: Black
Bay Area artist Lindsay Olsen is the mind behind the wild musical project Salami Rose Joe Louis. The former climate scientist just released her second album for label Brainfeeder, founded by Flying Lotus.
Olsen writes her albums as if they were sci-fi novels, and even storyboards the plot before crafting the song. Here she explores ideas of multiverses and climate change through the eyes of a post-apocalyptic keyboard-toting earthling.
The jazzy and experimental soundscapes are bizarre in all the right ways. Songs like “Always on my Mind”, “Dimcola Reprise”, and “Propaganda” are worth turning up, perhaps with eyes closed, to embrace all the sounds of this trippy world.
The title track “Akousmatikous” (pronounced Ah-coooz-mat-e-koi) features Soccer96 (a project from The Comet is Coming) and a beautiful animated video directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Carlos López Estrada (Raya and the Last Dragon).
The PAST Exhibit
Each week we look at a year gone by to find 10 timeless albums that are must-haves in your vinyl collection. We started at 2022, we’re at 2010, and we’re going all the way back to the ‘60s! Yeah baby!
2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | This week is 2010
🎧 Full Essential Vinyl Playlist: Spotify | Apple (130 Albums and Counting…)
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs
Using the suburbs as a metaphor for the American dream allowed Arcade Fire, with their third album, to share their thoughts on war, youth, loss of innocence, isolation, and disillusionment.
Moreover, the album's sonic landscape set a new standard for indie rock. The soaring choruses backed by the intricate arrangements created a grand but intimate sound that’s often imitated but rarely duplicated.
The Suburbs went on to claim many album of the year awards, and is often brought up when discussing the best indie rock album of all time. Unfortunately, Arcade Fire’s legacy has been tarnished in the last year, with multiple women claiming sexual assault against frontman Win Butler. Win’s brother has left the band, and Feist and Beck jumped ship from the recent tour in response to the allegations. Decades of goodwill blown to bits, and time will tell if there’s any coming back from this. Sadly another album to stack on top of the “separate art from the artist” pile.
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs (colored variants)
Gorillaz's third album Plastic Beach is a wild and imaginative ride that cemented their status as musical innovators with a genre-blurring blend of rock, hip hop, and electronica. In typical Gorillaz fashion, the guest list is star-studded: Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, De La Soul, Lou Reed, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, and so on. The album doubles as a call-to-action to examine our own role in the world when it comes to sustainability and the impact of human activity on the planet.
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs (colored variants)
West Palm Beach’s Surfer Blood came on the scene with Astro Coast, a rad little surf-rock album that perfectly captures that laid-back beach vibe. Tracks like "Swim" and "Floating Vibes" transport me back to carefree summers on sunny shores.
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs (colored variants)
Much like Astro Coast, Best Coast’s debut album Crazy for You is a sun-soaked collection of breezy tunes highlighted by lo-fi guitar riffs and Bethany Cosentino's laid-back vocals. Tracks like “Our Deal”, "Boyfriend", and "When I'm with You" are best enjoyed on lazy summer days.
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs
This Is Happening is the third studio album by James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem, and featured a blend of dance punk and electronica that was fresh and exciting. Tracks like “Dance Yrself Clean”, “Drunk Girls”, and “I Can Change” remain go-to’s for anyone in need of a pick-me-up or a soundtrack for a night out.
Murphy recently showed he still has his fastball (and funky bass lines) with “New Body Rhumba”, a song made specifically for the final scene of capitalistic worship in the 2022 Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise.
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Get Vinyl: Triple Vinyl | Discogs
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is Kanye West’s magnum opus and career peak. The impact it had on the decade that followed cannot be overstated. It paved the way for a new era of artistic experimentation in hip-hop, encouraging other artists to push boundaries and embrace a more expansive palette. The album's themes of fame and mental health resonated deeply with a generation grappling with the effects of social media and the pressures of modern life, which still appear to be struggles in Ye’s own life.
Sleigh Bells - Treats
Get Vinyl: Discogs
Sleigh Bells burst onto the scene with the short and sweet Treats, an explosion of noise-pop highlighted by distorted guitars, heavy beats, and Alexis Krauss' fierce vocals. Songs like "Crown on the Ground", "Rill Rill," and “Infinity Guitars” pull off the difficult trick of catchy hooks with abrasive noise.
The bad news is the Treats vinyl has become a rarity, and you’ll need to shell out triple digits if you want to add this to your collection. Here’s hoping for a repress soon.
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs
Here we have Vampire Weekend beating the sophomore slump with Contra, perhaps their most colorful and creative album of their discography. The B-side here is just ridiculous, with an incredible stretch of songs: “Run” > “Cousins” > “Giving Up the Gun” > “Diplomat’s Son”.
The National - High Violet
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs (colored variants)
My personal favorite album from The National, High Violet is a beautiful and melancholic experience with no skips.
In 2013, second track “Sorrow” was played 105 times in a row at an art installation in New York, in a performance lasting six hours. I wish I was there to shout “Encore!” afterwards. The performance was released on a 9 LP set, and the vinyl rip can be heard in its entirety here; go to the 5 hour 41 minute mark to hear a broken man, who gets some help from the audience.
Beach House - Teen Dream
Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs (colored variants)
We finish the playlist with Beach House’s third appearance in our Essential Records playlist. From opening track "Zebra," with its hypnotic melodies and shimmering instrumentation, to the sublime closer “Take Care”, Teen Dream immerses you in a dreamlike state. The record is an ethereal masterpiece that can be debated as the greatest dream pop album ever.
The RABBIT HOLE Exhibit
Welcome to the non-music wing of the Museum. Take a trip down the pop culture rabbit hole with new recommendations each week. 📺 Videos from all trips can be found here.
Succession Season 4 Soundtrack | Sunday saw the end of two modern day classics, HBO’s Succession and Barry (which we highlighted in Trip #6). I’m going to use this space today to dish out some spoiler-free praise of the incredible job Nicholas Britell did on his Emmy-winning main title and score of Succession.
You know a theme song is bangin’ when you never skip the intro and stay through for the end credits. But it’s the shape-shifting musical motifs throughout the episodes that really shined. Britell's score functions as a character in its own right, and sustains a haunting presence throughout the series run, from its literal beginning to its conclusion.
The score can be upbeat, like “Arrival at Waystar”, “A Piacere di Nuovo” and “Welcome Home” or dark and brooding like “Pirates” and “Action That”. If you want both triumph and tragedy in the same song, throw on the perfect “Andante Risoluto”.
I think it’s up for debate that this is the greatest score in television history, and at the very least, no score has ever enhanced a show to this level. Other soundtracks that come to mind include Ramin Djawadi’s Game of Thrones and Mac Quayle’s Mr Robot. Feel free to share your favorite in the comments.
Unfortunately, the current Succession vinyl situation is in as dire shape as Waystar Royco. Only Season 1’s soundtrack has been put to wax, but the OG pressing goes for $400+. Enjoy the Ride Records just released a Money Green Swirl variant, however that quickly sold all 1000 units and that vinyl now goes for almost $200+. A four season set is badly needed, as this show will live on through the music, and hopefully our turntables.
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Thanks for visiting! Hopefully there’s enough musical rabbit holes and vinyl recommendations to get you through the week.
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