Turn It Up! web page - CUSTOMER side: 2/11/07

2.16.2007

Good times and buzz cuts

Hey, J-Dog and Roger here, two of TIU!'s finest. It's a chilly night in downtown Northampton, but we're keeping the fires burning with with the warm and sunny, summer sounds of The Beach Boys. Listen, we've got so much good music here that it's driving us crazy!! Here's some incentive to brave the cold: if you show up tonight before 10pm, we're giving free haircuts (note: neither of us have ever cut hair before...I mean EVER). Trust us though, your hair will never look so stylish and hip.

New sounds keep the world spinnin' round we've heard, and TIU!'s got only the best of the new jams. You want the new Norah Jones? We've totally got it, brutha! Yeah, and tell me you having been wanting that new Shins...of course you do. It's here, and it's great. Don't let him fool ya, Yusuf is really Cat Stevens and he's rockin' it old school with "Another Cup". We'll drink to that. Do you dig the Beatles, but only have time to listen on your walk to the power lunch? Just get "Love". It's all the hits mashed together for the on the go, professional type.

Have we enticed you yet???

posted by Turn It Up! # 9:07 PM 0 comments

Flipping through any mainstream music channel today it's almost as if we're reliving a panavision flashback of the mid-eighties. Beyonce's still doing what Whitney Houston did, while "emo-punk" (bands with digits in their names) continues to almost play out the same mock anarchy that Billy Idol displayed, except now with Myspace to premiere it.

In Brattleboro, Josh and Carson tend to always have a persistent feud between their idea of "indie-rock". One feels it is promoting a fresh outlet and through its song-craft is reinterpreting the divisible structure of pop, while the other feels its disco-mode is nothing U2 or Gang of Four didn't revolutionize decades back.

Then one day they found some friends.

They discovered that combining Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's new album (normally a loud choice in the mid-afternoon) and watching the muppet-mania of Fraggle Rock would be the only way to save their friendship from catastrophe (for experts, keep 2:23 apart from each). The results were illusions beyond their time, and even grabbed the attention of people on main street, peering in to see the jolly puppets silently hopping around on the screen-- the feedback dance-a-thon of Clap Your Hands narrating the scenes in hi-art synchronicity.

Of course, in the past, there have been similar equations. Like watching the Russian version of Alice In Wonderland with Pink Floyd, or The Shining with Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. After all, it's one comes to expect living in a progressive pop-culture-- sound has become easier to perceive with a visual accompaniment rather than left to its own movement. The laptop is the final genre.

From that moment on, Carson learned how susceptible he was to the multi-media. Before writing or creating his own music a process of elimination always occurs-- a cancellation of visual images brought on by thousands of movies and popularized characters to form a mental soundtrack deep in the realm of his subconscious. Josh, on the other hand, realized his kinship as artistic curator and is tracking down Jim Henson and Clap Your Hands in hopes of contracting a future music video.

posted by Turn It Up! # 10:00 AM 0 comments

Eric Von Schmidt

May 28, 1931 - February 2, 2007

posted by Turn It Up! # 9:55 AM 0 comments

2.15.2007

more and more reggae!

Before there was the trendy market dedicated to the afterlife of Bob Marley gift-shops, protools, or American Idol's version of r&b or ethnicity, Jamaica existed as a thick culture intertwined with a musical heritage as seen from a producer's individual vision of sound. From Lee Scratch to Sly and Robbie to the dub-centralization of Augustus Pablo. For months now, Turn It Up has been carrying a catalogue of unbelievable reggae (say this with the accent of that dude who narrates film previews for the Suspense genre). The Brattleboro store especially seems to be knee-deep in its wealth, discarding its Shaggy title card for rows and rows of Trojan compilations, King Tubby, Dillinger, The Upsetters, Joe Gibbs, and in general, a documentation of reggae's early, popularized roots. And for real collectors, Brattleboro has two profound boxsets-- Muzik City: The Story of Trojan and Rebel: Complete Bob Marley '67-- '72-- available to all those in need for an exotic mood out of the cold winter. Jammin'...

posted by Turn It Up! # 4:01 PM 0 comments

fleetwood forever

Ah, as if you hadn't heard "Landslide" for the last time...here's your chance! During the past two weeks an official Fleetwood Mac collector, or shall I say archivist, dropped off his entire collection of Mac and Mac-related merchandise to the Keene store. Not just Stevie Nicks action dolls (tho' I think those were just a rumor), but live shows, boxsets, imports, including all those early Peter Green-era albums that seem to never be around when you flip through their section, finding nothing but late Lindsey Buckingham records instead. And don't stop there...Everything is practically brand new, shrinked-wrapped with the delicacy that only hardcore Brit-Blues fans would understand. Brattleboro has recently hauled back a few of these recordings, so be sure to visit us or Keene and share with us your feelings of Ms. Nick's white-crow costume.

posted by Turn It Up! # 3:56 PM 0 comments

what is "antique"?

Yea! A new addition to the Turn It Up's all around: vintage r&r buttons! The real thing! Relive the adolescent haze of the mid-seventies with buttons from Devo, John Lennon, Billy Idol, and Tom Selleck by browsing through the baskets located at our front counter. Interested in where we found these or wanna get yr freak on with your own cool collection? Let us know!