Spring has Sprung: New Vinyl Arrivals

Spring is here and we've got little vinyl records popping up all over! Why not pick a few for your house?

Here's a sampling of the records that have come into the shop this week:

NEW:

Chemical Brothers, Surrender 
Coldplay, Ghost Stories
Counting Crows, August and Everything After 
Dave Brubeck, Time Out (180g) 
Dinosaur Jr, Farm 
Elliott Smith, An Introduction To (180g)
Foo Fighters, s/t 
Future Islands, In Evening Air
Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart EP 
LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
Lou Reed, Transformer (180g)
Lumineers, Cleopatra (180g) 
Mac Demarco, Salad Days 
Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire (180g) 
REM, Document (180g) 
REM, Green (180g)
Sufjan Stevens, Carrie and Lowell
Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans 
U2, 18 Singles 

USED:

AC/DC, Back in Black 
AC/DC, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap 
AC/DC, For Those About to Rock 
Air Supply, Greatest Hits 
Alan Parsons Project, Best I 
Alan Parsons Project, Best II 
Alan Parsons Project, Stereotomy 
April Wine, Greatest Hits
Bloomfield Kooper Stills, Super Session 
Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde 
Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Camel, Rain Dances 
Cat Stevens, Greatest Hits 
Cheap Trick, Dream Police 
Dire Straits, s/t 
Doobie Brothers, Toulouse Street
Eagles, Hotel California 
Eagles, One of These Nights 
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Fleetwood Mac. s/t 
Frank Zappa / Mothers, Fillmore
Free, Fire and Water 
Hope Sandoval, Until the Hunter 
Horrors, Luminous (180g)
John Cale, Songs for the Dying 
John Cale, Vintage Violence 
Kate Bush, Hounds of Love 
Led Zeppelin, House of the Holy
Led Zeppelin, II (180g) 
Led Zeppelin, IV (1977 Canadian pressing) 
Love & Rockets, s/t 
Men at Work, Business as Usual 
Peter Gabriel, So 
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon 
Pink Floyd, Umma Gumma 
Queen, A Night at the Opera
Queen, Jazz 
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Happy Trails 
Robbie Robertson, s/t 
Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue 
Rolling Stones, Steel Wheels
Rolling Stones, Still Life 
Rolling Stones, Tattoo You 
Rolling Stones, Undercover of the Night EP 
Roxy Music, Flesh + Blood 
Ry Cooder / Rolling Stones, Jamming With Edward 
Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna 
Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life 
Superchunk, Foolish (180g)
Supertramp, Crisis What Crisis 
Ted Nugent, Cat Scratch Fever (180g) 
Teenage Head, Frantic City 
Teenage Head, Some Kind of Fun 
Ten Years After, Rock & Roll Music 
Ten Years After, Ssssh 
Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now 
Various, Performance OST 
Wilco, s/t 
Wilco, The Whole Love 

Record Store Day in Guelph

Record Store Day is Saturday, April 22. 

This year is the 10th anniversary of Record Store Day and Royal Cat Records in Guelph is proud to be one of the official Canadian venues for this great event!

This is a day to celebrate all the wonders of music on vinyl and support a small business in your town. It is also a day for the music industry and independant record stores to give back to their customers and community.

We are scheduling many surprises and door prizes for this great day. As is usual, there are many special releases being scheduled for the big day as well. Please check out the full list of special releases on the official RSD website --there are tons of interesting records being made in limited quantities for fans, from new David Bowie and Prince collectibles to unique releases from contemporary artists like Run the Jewels, Spoon, and more. Also available this year is Santana's live set from Woodstock in 1969, Notorious B.I.G.'s Born Again (which has been off the market since the early 2000s), plus releases from The Ramones, Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac and hundreds more.

Please let us know if you are interested in particular records and we will attempt to order them for you. All records are available in limited quantities and there are no guarantees.

Royal Cat Records
10 Carden St
downtown Guelph
519-821-7442

___
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. 

This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, DJs spinning records,  and on and on. In 2008 a small list of titles was released on Record Store Day and that list has grown to include artists and labels both large and small, in every genre and price point. In 2015, 60% of the Record Store Day Official Release List came from independent labels and distributors. The list continues to include a wide range of artists, covering the diverse taste of record stores and their customers.

Chuck Berry, RIP

The king of rock is dead, long live the king! We love Chuck Berry and all that he did for music. Basically inventing the rock n roll template and inspiring generations of musicians from Elvis to The Beatles to The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Motown, and Chuck D.

A trickster, a visionary,  a true artist and trailblazing performer. 

Maybe the first rock star to tell the world "the kids are alright" with a guitar and a wink, he also was a crossover pioneer who bridged the world of black and white music.

A great analysis of what Chuck Berry did for pop music and the records we love:

"Rock and roll songwriting was a reimagining of pop song style that recognized the transformative effects of both crossover and recording technology. That songs such as Chuck Berry's "Maybellene," "Thrty Days," and "You Can't Catch Me, " for example, were amalgams of country and R&B became apparent only in the form of their recordings. Records conveyed emotion, style, sound, and persona [...]

Among Berry's songwriting strengths  were his timely lyric wit, which spoke directly to the new audience, a knack for reinventing blues as pop, and an awareness that the sense of a song lay, ultimately, in its manifest expression. Before he made his first record, he already understood the effect of singing songs "in their customary tongues": ... This sense of aural language infused his songwriting with a sonic dimension perfectly in accord with a "songs as records" mentality Berry grasped intutively that rock and roll songs contained four interrelated dimensions: words, music, performance, and sound. Sound recording was a medium not only for turning music into commodity but for implementing a new conception of songwriting. 

Most of Berry's hits used some sort of blues variant in their harmonic sequence, yet their sound was nothing like his deep blues label-mates at Chess --men such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, or John Lee Hooker. Berry mixed in melodic and rhythmic elements from pop and country to leven the blues effect, which gave the songs a broader base of appeal. Such songs as "Maybellene," "Carol," and "Rock and Roll Music" used a blues chorus as a recurring refrain, periodically punctuating the song's narrative. Each song, however, employed the technique in a different way [...]

Although he was a thirty-year-old father and husband when he became a rock and roll star, Berry's lyrics, which dipped into memories of his own high school years, engaged central themes of youth culture with cleverness, metaphor, and wry humour. In such songs as "School Day," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Sweet Little Sixteen," and "Rock and Roll Music," he described features of teenage identity in rock and roll terms. "School Day" traced the teenager's day from the drudgery of the classroom to rock and roll transcendence before the jukebox. "Roll Over Beethoven" celebrated the thrill of irreverent iconoclasm and the power of the new to overthrow the hallowed past. "Rock and Roll Music" was an anthemic rallyng cry. It shouted that in the musical universe rock and roll was the fundamental reality."  
---from I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America by Abin Zak

New Arrivals for Hangover Saturday

It's the day after St. Patrick's Day and what better way to celebrate than with some new vinyl!

NEW:

Air, Moon Safari (180g)
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
Alice in Chains, Dirt (180g)
Avalanches, Wildflower
Beatles, White Album (180g)
Beck, Odelay
Bessie Smith, The Bessie Smith Story
Black Crowes, Shake Your Money Maker (180g)
Blink-182, Enema of the State (180g)
Blur, Parklife (180g)
Boards of Canada, Geogaddi
Boards of Canada, Music Has The Right to Children
Boards of Canada, The Campfire Headphase
Boards of Canada, Tomorrow’s Harvest
Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a Changin (180g)
Bruno Mars, 24k Magic
Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial
Charles Bradley, Victim of Love
Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole
Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
Coldplay, Parachutes
Cream, Disraeli Gears (180g)
David Bowie, Blackstar
David Bowie, Changesone (180g)
Death from Above 1979, The Physical World
Depeche Mode, Spirit
Dinosaur Jr, Bug
Dinosaur Jr, s/t
Dixon & Stein, Stranger Things vol II (salt & pepper vinyl)
Doors, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine
Drake, If Youre Reading This Its Too Late
Drake, Take Care
Ed Sheeran, Divide
Ella Fitzgerald / Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis
Ella Fitzgerald / Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis Again
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (180g)
Elvis Costello, My Aim is True (180g)
Elvis Costello, This Year’s Model (180g)
Erykah Badu, Baduizm
Erykah Badu, Mama’s Gun
Feist, The Reminder
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes, s/t with Sun Giant EP
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Foo Fighters, Greatest Hits
Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Gord Downie, Secret Path
Gord Downie / Sadies, And the Conquering Sun
Guns n Roses, Appetite for Destruction
Guns n Roses, Appetite for Destruction
Guns n Roses, Use Your Illusion II
James Brown, Excitement / Mr. Dynamite (180g)
Jeff Buckley, Grace (180g)
Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick (180g)
Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced (180g)
John Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard (180g)
John Coltrane, Lush Life (180g)
John Lee Hooker, That’s Where It’s At!
John Williams, Star Wars OST (gold vinyl)
Kanye West, Late Registration
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Killers, Hot Fuss
Killers, Sam’s Town (picture disc)
Kings of Leon, Only By the Night (180g)
Kinks, s/t
Kraftwerk, The Man-Machine (180g)
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation
Led Zeppelin, IV (180g)
Leon Bridges, Coming Home
Lorde, Pure Heroine
Lumineers, Cleopatra (180g)
Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pronounced (180g)
Mac Demarco, Another One
Mac Demarco, Rock n Roll Nightclub
Massive Attack, Blue Lines
Massive Attack, Protection
Metallica, Master of Puppets
Metallica, Ride the Lightning
Metallica, s/t
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
MGMT, s/t
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (180g)
Morrissey, Your Arsenal
Nas, Illmatic
Neil Young, On the Beach
Neutral Milk Hotel, In THe Aeroplane Over the Sea
Nirvana, Bleach
Nirvana, Nevermind (180g)
Pearl Jam, Ten (180g)
Pearl Jam, Vs (180g)
Pink Floyd, Animals (180g)
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (180g)
Pink Floyd, The Wall (180g)
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here (180g)
Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire
Ramones, Rocket to Russia (180g)
Ramones, s/t (180g)
REM, Dead Letter Office
Richard Laviolette, Taking the Long Way Home
Run the Jewels, III (gold)
Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks (180g)
Shaggs, Philosophy of the World
Shins, Heartworms
Silverchair, Diorama (180g)
Son House, Raw Delta Blues
Son Volt, Notes of Blue (180g)
Soundgarden, Superunknown
Spice Girls, Spice
Stone Roses, s/t
Strokes, Is This IT
Strokes, Room on Fire
Sufjan Stevens, Michigan
Supertramp, Crime of the Century (180g)
T. Rex, Electric Warrior (180g)
Talking Heads, Remain in Light (180g)
Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues (180g)
Tame Impala, Currents
Tame Impala, Lonerism
Tool, Undertow
Tragically Hip, Fully Completely
Tragically Hip, Road Apples
Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders
Van Morrison, Moondance (180g)
Various, La La Land OST
Violent Femmes, s/t (180g)
Weezer, Blue
Weezer, Green
Weezer, Pinkerton
Wilco, Summerteeth

USED:

April Wine, Electric Jewels 
B-52s, s/t 
Babe Ruth, First Base 
Babe Ruth, s/t 
Babe Ruth, Stealing Home 
Billy Joel, The Stranger 
Blondie, Autoamerican 
Bob Seger, Night Moves 
Bob Seger, Stranger in Town 
Boston, s/t 
Bryan Adams, Reckless
Camel, Breathless 
Camel, Mirage 
Camel, The Snow Goose 
Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight Kid 
Chicago, 17 
Crowded House, s/t 
David Bowie, Golden Years 
Eagles, Live 
Eagles, s/t 
Edie Brickell, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars 
ELO, Out of the Blue 
Elton John, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player 
Elton John, The Complete Picture 
Flying Burrito Brothers, Last of the Red Hot Burritos 
Foreigner, Double Vision 
Fugs, Golden Filth 
George Michael, Faith 
Ginger Baker, At His Best 
Hall n Oates, H2O 
Hall n Oates, Rock n Soul 
Huey Lewis, Sports 
Janis Joplin, Greatest Hits 
Joe Cocker, Jamaica Say You Will 
Joe Jackson, Jumpin Jive
Joe Jackson, Night and Day 
Kinks, Give the People What They Want
Little Feat, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now 
Madonna, s/t
Mckenna Mendelson Mainline 
Michael Jackson, Thriller 
Neil Young, Comes a Time 
Neil Young, Freedom 
Neil Young / Crazy Horse, Life 
Paul Simon, Greatest Hits Etc 
Phil Collins, Face Value 
Police, Synchronicity 
Pretenders, Learning to Crawl 
Pursuit of Happiness, Love Junk 
Queen, Greatest Hits 
Queen, The Game 
Rolling Stones, It’s Only Rock n Roll 
Rolling Stones, Some Girls 
Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music, s/t 
Roxy Music, Siren
Rush, 2112 
Rush, Farewell to Kings 
Rush, Moving Pictures 
Rush, Signals 
Sade, Promise 
Simple Minds, Sparkle in the Rain 
Steely Dan, Countdown to Ecstasy 
Steve Winwood, Back in the High Life 
Stevie Nicks, The Wild Heart 
Stevie Wonder, Hotter Than July 
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions 
Stranglers, Rattus 
Supertramp, Crime of the Century 
Talking Heads, 77 
Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food 
Talking Heads, True Stories
Tangerine Dream, Cyclone 
Tangerine Dream, Zeit 
Thin Lizzy, Bad Reputation 
Tracy Chapman, s/t 
U2, Boy 
U2, The Joshua Tree 
U2, The Unforgettable Fire 
U2, War
Van Morrison, Common One
Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now 
Van Morrison, Tupelo Honey
Who, Who’s Next 
ZZ Top, Tres Hombres 

March Break Madness: New Vinyl

The temperature is rising and Spring Break is here. Could more vinyl be far behind?

Lots of new and used records in Royal Cat this week. Check out the partial list below. Don't see something you like? Remember, we can special-order anything on your want-list. Just give us a call or drop in the shop!

NEW:

7 Seconds, Walk Together Rock Together

Al Green, Gets Next To You

Al Green, I’m Still In Love With You

Al Green, Let’s STay Together

Arcade Fire, Funeral

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

Arthur Russell, Instrumentals

Barry Brown, I’m Still Waiting

Beatles, Hard Days Night (180g)

Beatles, Help (180g)

Beatles, Let It Be (180g)

Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (180g)

Beatles, Revolver (180g)

Betty Davis, The Columbia Years

Black Flag, The First Four Years

Black Keys, The Big Come Up

Blur, s/t (180g)

Boards of Canada, In a Beautiful Place

Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial

Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style

Charles Mingus, Ah UM picture disc

Charles Mingus, Presents Charles Mingus (18g)

Chet Baker, In New York (180g)

City and Colour, If I Should Go Before You

Clash, Combat Rock (180g)

Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit & Think (orange vinyl)

Dave Brubeck, Time Out picture disc

De La Soul, And the Anonymous Nobody

Etta James, Best Of

Feelies, Crazy Rhythms (180g)

Feelies, The Good Earth (180g)

Feist, The Reminder

Fugazi, Repeater

Generation X, Sweet Revenge (180g)

Godspeed You Black Emperor, Lift Your Skinny Fists

Goggs, s/t

Gorillaz, Plastic Beach

Intended, Time will Tell

Jamie XX, In Colour

John Coltrane, Plays the Blues (180g)

John Coltrane, s/t (180g)

Las Rosas, Everyone Gets Exactly What They Want

LCD Soundsystem, s/t

LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening

Leonard Cohen, The Future (180g)

Magnetic Fields, Charm of the Highway Strip

Magnetic Fields, Wayward Bus

Marvin Gaye, Lets Get It On (180g)

Meters, s/t

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue Picture Disc

Misfits, s/t (Collection One)

Misfits, Static AGe

Modest Mouse, The Moon and Antarctica

Motorhead, Death or Glory (180g)

Muddy Waters, At Newport 1960 (picture disc)

Muddy Waters, The Best Of picture disc

National, Boxer (yellow vinyl)

National, High Violet

National, Trouble Will Find Me

Otis Redding, Lonely and Blue (blue vinyl)

Pixies, Bossanova (180g)

Pixies, Doolittle

Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead, Kid A

Radiohead, The Bends

Ramones, Ramonesmania

Real Estate, s/t

Robert Johnson, KIng of the Delta Blues picture disc

Run the Jewels, I (gold vinyl)

Sadies, Northern Passages

Sex Pistols, Spunk (yellow vinyl)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Gospel Train (180g)

Sleaford Mods, English Tapas (red vinyl)

Slint, Spiderland

Spiritualized, Ladies & Gentlemen (180g)

Stan Getz, And the Oscar Peterson Quartet (180g)

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas Flood

Stone Roses, s/t

The Creation, Action Painting

Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Dream (180g)

Tommy McCook, Brass Rockers

Various, King Jammy’s @ Channel One

Velvet Underground, Loaded

War on Drugs, Slave Ambient

Ween, The Mollusk (180g)

Wes Montgomery, So Much Guitar (180g)

White Stripes, De Stijl

White Stripes, Elephant

White Stripes, Northern Lights

Ugly Ducklings, Somewhere Outside

Ray Charles, What’d I Say(180g)

Ray Charles / Milt Jackson, Soul Brothers (180g)

Wanda Jackson, Rockin With Wanda (180g)

Funkadelic, Standing on the Verge of Getting It On

Funkadelic, Cosmic Slop

USED:

Alan Tew, Close Encounters Themes

Andy Summers/DAvid Shine, 2010 OST

Beach Boys, Endless Summer

Beach Boys, Spirit of America

Big Bopper, Chantilly Lace

Billy Strange, James Bond Double Feature

Bob Seger, Night Moves

Cat Stevens, Greatest Hits

Christopher Scott, More Switched on Bacarach

Crosby Stills Nash, s/t

Crosby Stills Nash Young, Deja Vu

Elton John, Greatest Hits

Hank Williams, Collected Vol II

James Taylor, In the Pocket

JJ Cale, Really

John Barry, The Black Hole OST

Johnny Cash, Twenty Original Hits

John Williams, Close Encounters OST

John Williams, ET OST

Joni Mitchell, Hissing of the Summer Lawns

Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon

Joni Mitchell, Miles of Aisles

Joni Mitchell, s/t

Meco, The Wizard of OZ

Moog Orchestra, Music from Close Encounters

Procol Harum, The Collection

Ray Martin, Goldfinger & Other Music From JAmes Bond

Ray Martin, Thunderball & Other Thriller Music

Richie Havens, Mixed Bag

Sade, Diamond Life

Santana, Abraxas

Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends

Steely Dan, Aja

Steely Dan, Gaucho

Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic

Stevie Wonder, Innervisions

Supertramp, Breakfast in America

Supertramp, Famous Last Words

Tomita, Firebird

Tomita, Pictures at an Exhibition

Travelling Wilburys, Volume One

Various, Belly DAnce: The Wild Music & the How-to

Wham, Make it Big