With the steadily increasing number of vinyl releases each year over the past decade and with 2018 looking primed to witness the most titles released in the music media format once was written off for dead, it turns out that all those “vinyl revival” articles we’ve been reading for years now were spot on. Thanks in part to Record Store Day but more so to shifting cultural habits, records have made a truly healthy comeback with an annual steady growth of approx 10% in vinyl releases. For proof you need look no further than the lists of new vinyl releases arriving into Amoeba every week. Scroll down for a sampling for 2018 releases in such genres as rock, folk, blues, jazz, soul, country, hip-hop and EDM.
 
Noteworthy about this spike in vinyl pressings is that, as one might expect, it is not such DJ oriented genres as hip-hop, breaks, or electronic dance music (EDM) that have seen the largest increase in vinyl output but rock music (in its many sub-genres) which far exceeds every other genre. Rock also tends to synchronize its new release vinyl and CD dates better than hip-hop which typically staggers the vinyl by a couple of months. Exceptions to this have included Sub-Pop’s Shabazz Palaces releases.  Then in the case of many 90’s and early 2000's West Coast rap albums, initially only released on CD and cassette, it is only in very recent years they are finally been released on vinyl. Examples of this include Mac Dre's recent first time vinyl pressings of Thizzle Washington and Ronald Dregan: Dreaganomics. A recent phenomenon, oft associated with rap/hip-hop, is when an album is initially only available as a download or streaming version but then later gets reissued on vinyl only, bypassing CD release altogether.

Have you ever dreamed about communicating with extraterrestrials in a galaxy far, far away? How about making a mixed tape for them? This is essentially what astronomer, astrophysicist, and author Carl Sagan did with his Voyager Golden Record 40 years ago.

In 1977, NASA launched Voyager I and II into outer space with Sagan’s record mounted to each in hopes that one day the interstellar message would be received by an alien civilization. These records contain the history of mankind in audio: music of many cultures and eras, sounds of Earth (volcanoes, earthquake, frogs, birds, heartbeat, laughter, train, Saturn 5 Lift-off…), greetings in 55 languages, whale greetings, and much more (even images encoded in analog).

We may never know if the album was received by our extraterrestrial neighbors, but now YOU can experience this amazing document of Earth for the first time ever! In celebration of Voyager’s 40th anniversary in 2017, The Voyager Golden Record is being reissued for human enjoyment thanks to a team up between Boing Boing editor David Pescovitz, graphic designed Lawrence Azerrad, and Amoeba Music San Francisco’s own Timothy Daly. The only way to get one is to participate in the Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter campaign, which ends on October 20, 2016.

The cloth-covered box set will house three heavyweight translucent gold vinyl records. The LPs will contain the same music, greetings, and sounds as contained on the original Voyager Golden Record, which is nearly two hours of audio (see the complete track list below). The box set includes a hardbound book of images from the original interstellar message, photos of the planets returned to Earth from the Voyager probes, essays, and ephemera from the project's history.
 

A lot of folks are saying colored vinyl is back and they're right. From the smoke-colored indie exclusive version of the Stranger Things soundtrack to the latest round of Black Sabbath re-issues in red, blue, green, orange, purple, white, and combinations thereof, colored vinyl is adding collectible and aesthetic value to new releases and re-issues alike these days. But if it's making a comeback, where did it come from in the first place? What was the first slab of colored wax? Was it some far-out blotter-inspired psychedelia from the late '60s, an organ-fueled exotica LP from the '50's, a Disney 78 from the '40s? The actual answer may surprise you.

One of the great pleasures of binging on Netflix's Stranger Things this past summer has been discovering the '80s inspired, synth-heavy soundtrack by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, one half of the Austin-based analog enthusiasts S U R V I V E. If you wrapped the series and are longing for the next season, there's some good news to tide you over: the soundtrack hits stores this fall. The original series soundtracks Stranger Things, Vol 1. and Vol. 2 are out on CD on October 21st and October 28th respectively.

Vinyl fans have a longer wait, but also have more exciting and eerie options. Vol. 1 will be available on 150-gram black vinyl, 150-gram limited edition clear vinyl, and 150-gram indie exclusive smoke colored vinyl, all due on October 28th -- just in time for those nostalgic synths to serve as the atmospheric party music for your Halloween gatherings. Fans should note the online pre-orders for the colored wax are sold out, but we'll have them in stores on the release date.

UPDATE: Please note, we are sold out of the limited edition color LPs.

Ever since they first burst onto the scene nearly fifty years ago, Black Sabbath's influence on music and culture has been prodigious. For a band with such a towering reputation, no ordinary reissue campaign will do; that's why we're super excited about the new limited edition 180 gram color vinyl reissues Rhino is releasing today. In addition to coming out on glorious rainbow-hued vinyl, the first eight studio albums from Ozzy and friends will feature the 2012 remastered audio, which had previously only been available in digital format. CD reissues featuring the 2012 remasters are also now available. Here's what to look out for:

Black Sabbath (1970) It's hard to believe, but when Sabbath released their self-titled debut in 1970, critics panned it. Of course, the album has since gone on to rank highly in pretty much every roundup of Best Metal Albums and Greatest Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone charted Black Sabbath at #44 on their list of 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time, saying the title track "would define the sound of a thousand bands." Continue reading...