So courtesy of Waxidermy I found these incredible, dark, lonely, and ultimately hilarious drawings by Stefan Glerum and I must say I think they’re brilliant. My pleasure to share. If you like them, drop by the man’s blog and leave him a note.

Go get Adobe Flash Player!

The Genesis Of This Mix:

I started putting together this mix for the Waxidermy Mix Swap but around the time I was supposed to submit it the actual files went completely ghost from my computer. They hadn’t been deleted, changed or copied - just gone. The sequencing was still intact but the soundbites were empty. Weird shit. Anyway, with the store moving, my apartment moving, my wedding being planned, and all kind of other shit goings on I regretfully withdrew my name from the swap… but I did find the last iteration of the mix before it all went kaput.

The mix sways from dub to jazz to rock to funk to folk to shit I don’t even know what to call it. And, as DJ Evil Dee once wrote, “this album was done on blunted terms.” To say the least.

So roll that shit, light that shit, smoke that shit… sit back and enjoy.

Peace -
Jonny

That’s right homies, custos, friends, lovers, bitches, players, people, people, people…. Good Records NYC is back in effect in a major way. New collections dropping as we speak, all different types of music, 60s soul, free jazz, disco promos, random rap, downtown scene rock, 7″s, LPs… more new product arriving soon as well.

Come through and check it out!

Peas,

Jonny

After a long hiatus, the shop is back up and running in our new location!

The location is 218 East 5th Street, betwee 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue - right off The Bowery. In roughly three weeks I had to completely disassemble the old store, pack everything into boxes and reassemble it at the new location. I still have many boxes of new stock to go through, but we are finally open for business! Below is a photo journal of the moving process.

Wife and Friend help box up the records… at a point I thought I was actually going to move these myself. LOL

The calm before the storm

Cargo arrives

Ended up hiring some goons. I’m about my neck and my back like Khia

Da Basement

Out in the New Back Yard, I’m thinking “BBQ Season is on!” Meanwhile, back out front…

The Move Continues. And back at the old location, things have gotten ugly:

… but little did we know, they were about to get worse. Much worse.

^^^ the once famous Wall.

Master Builder Keefe Butler breaks it down

… until it’s all gone.

Now let me take a moment to say June 8th was totally unrealistic… I’m still putting stock out! Thanks to the folks who came by that weekend though, and bought some records… but getting back to the move itself, the new store looked a hot mess once we got in there.

But from chaos, comes order!

And with some tunes

And some carpenters’ fuel

Things came together. Now, it’s starting to look like a record store!

… well, sort of.

As you can see, there’s a lot of work yet to be done. But we are open for business, clocking math, and there are new records hitting the racks daily. Come check us out! As for me, I gotta get back to work.

- Peace, Jonny

I’ve been busting my ass like crazy working on the new shop and it’s almost done… but in the meantime I thought I would throw up a nice sale list for teh headz who can’t be here to see it. Killer list with soundclips on everything. Help the cause of my expensive renovations and buy some records!

The best way to contact me right now to reserve stuff is via email - goodrecordsnyc@gmail.com. The internet is not yet up in the new shop.

As always, first come first serve no long holds. Thanks for looking…

Phil Ranelin - The Time Is Now - Tribe

Meandering spiritual LP on the world famous Detroit jazz label… perhaps one of the easier to find among them (at least that’s what I’m told by the Stallwart Detroit Jazz Contingent) but I rarely see these ever at all. Listen to Of Times Gone By. An excellent LP and a tough pull under any circumstance (VG+/EX) SOLD

The Judge’s Nephews - Los Sobrinos Del Juez - Audio Latino

Obscure Cuban LP released out of the fertile scene in Miami. Didn’t sell on a list a while back but moved well in my shop, so I thought I’d try it again. Tough pull to be sure. Killer latin funk on Harina De Maiz but even better is the smoking latin jazz cut Corned Beef Hash. Much tougher to find (and better) than their other LP that seems to pop up. A VG copy recently sold for about $60 on eBay. This one’s sealed. (EX/NM) $100

Click below for more sales

Read the rest of this entry »

If your ear is to the street, then you’ve heard it right - Good Records NYC is moving to a new location!

Starting in June, we will be located at 218 East 5th Street, between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue, right at the intersection of The Bowery and 3rd, a stone’s throw from Cooper Square. Near all of the shops, close to the F, 6, N/R trains, and of course the emerging Bowery/Houston scene… really a perfect location.

It has been a great 3 years in our current spot, and to be honest I wish I could stay here forever… but that can’t be the case. So about 6 months ago, I quietly started looking around for a new space. The location we settled on is by far the best of many worlds - expanded space for the shop’s plentiful (and growing) stock, a huge basement to accommodate new collections, a back office for increased productivity and organization… hell, it’s even got a backyard. We might get to Que-in’ back there if we’re lucky!

In the meantime, I’ll be down here at the 3rd Street location boxing records, taking stock and cleaning up.  Drop by if you’re in the hood and say what’s up…

Pictures will be coming soon!

It gets greater later-

Jonny

What’s up friends and famalam, hope you’re feeling good and getting things done… my apologies for being a little lax on the updates, but there are some BIG things in the pipeline so hold tight and all will be told in time. Now to business at hand… I got hit with a new mix for Mixshow Wednesday and it’s that fire!

All of y’all who know whats what know the boy Dr. Delay aka Tom Thumz aka Mr. Fixerupper gets it in on the 1s and 2s… holding down all kinds of club gigs, pumping out mixtapes like no tomorrow and wrecking shop from Turkish Psych to Old School Hip-Hop, everywhere in between, and combining all of the above into some of the hottest remixes this side of the Hudson River.

Well here we have Mr. Shiner on a whole ‘nother vibe, live from one of his many residencies dropping a sexy set of lovers rock mixed with R&B joints new and old, and the set is sure to have you swooning… perfect for these summer nights as you’re trying to romance some Pretty Young Thang; perfect for backyard bbqs, or just lounging around the crib as you plot your next move.

Here you go:

Go get Adobe Flash Player!

Download HERE

Stay Strong-
Jonny

All of that time spent reading the approval matrix while I was on the toilet has not gone to waste!

Just a quick post to promote my current auctions (click the “Auctions” link at the top of the page!)
from C’ote D’ivoire to Guinea to Benin to Nigeria. A whole lot of music from West Africa up on eBay right now. From heavy funk, to afrobeat, latin, pach, blues, and beyond…

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZgoodrecordsnyc

Including the historic Fela Ransome Kuti And His Koola Lobitos LP.

This LP is Fela’s first, and precedes his classic afrobeat material by almost a decade. Really incredible collectors’ item that is quite rare to find in any condition. It is a real pleasure to offer this for sale… I’ll try to post the music at some point in the future.

That’s not all though - there’s over 20 rare 7″ singles featuring some great afro-latin, funk, and afrobeat sounds, as well as a diverse assortment of LPs. Everything has soundclips - so take some time, surf through the list and enjoy. There’s lots of music in there right now!

Peace On Earth - Jonny

I was driving around uptown the other day, and my shuffle landed on Mary Lou Williams’ masterpiece, “Black Christ Of The Andes”. Something about the sunshine after a fresh rain, parishioners on their way to church, kids playing, yuppies scurrying towards the train, mothers on their way to the supermarket, and the beautiful old buildings that (thankfully) still dominate the Harlem landscape. For those who have been following this blog I have been trying to document with pictures the diminishing returns of our once-great society… same as how we do with the music I guess, as these buildings get demolished and replaced with shoddily-constructed condos, CapitalOne bank branches, and Starbucks…

I listened to “The Devil” while cruising up and down St. Nicholas and it all felt right. I adore this record and it is a spiritual experience, and if it’s not out-and-out gospel it is nonetheless one of the most intense expressions of faith in music I can think of.

Some people told me at one point Mary Lou williams was possessed; but it’s deeper than all that. From Time Magazine, circa 1964:

“There came a time ten years ago when Mary Lou Williams decided that jazz was the devil’s own music. She was among the best of the bebop pianists, but out on the scene she sensed evil all around her. She could even hear it echo in her playing. One blue night in Paris, “the badness” overwhelmed her; she got up from the piano and quit jazz cold. She drew up a list of names to pray for (urgent cases marked in red), and before long she had an endless coil of sadness, an encyclopedia of bad trouble, a roll of death and dishonor. For years there was nothing for her to do but pray.

“Then she joined the Roman Catholic Church. A priest convinced her that God would be pleased to hear her play once more: music was his greatest gift to her, and music played by a prayerful person, the priest explained, is a kind of prayer….

” ‘I am praying through my fingers when I play,’ she says. ‘I get that good ’soul sound,’ and I try to touch people’s spirits.’

“Down & Out. Her discoveries of both God and the devil in jazz reflect perhaps the troubled state of her own spirit. But even so, she seems to have found her way. With the help of a priest, she has written a jazz hymn to St. Martin de Porres, a mulatto saint of the 17th century, and she is now working on a jazz Mass.”

True indeed, to wit:

“The devil is a woman with a red dress on,
A gleam that flits across a roaming eye -
The devil is a hand that moves along a satin seam,
A softly whispered, sweetly whispered lie.
The devil is a window filled with fancy clothes,
The lips that part and smile and breathe a sigh -
An open door someplace where steps that shouldn’t go there goes,
A word that touched the heart and made it cry.

The devil never rests come day come dusk come dawn,
You compromise and wind up soul-in-palm;
So don’t it strike you funny when you look him in the eye,
The devil looks a lot like you and I.”

Mary Lou Williams - Black Christ Of The Andes