Deluxa Music Mix II

The second Deluxa music mix. There's a nice compare/contrast with Depreciation Guild and Manual, an incredible cover from Flowchart, some crazy 60's track from some commune-style band (my own vague gathering) as featured by Washed Out on their mix release on their blog, an amazing jewel in "Snow Day" by Parker & Lily, and lastly, the vocals vs. horn in Pram's "Penny Arcade". Plus lots more.

Click here to download Music Mix II or play streaming below. Click here for the first Music Mix.

Also, check out the poster here in full size. Worth a click, I'd say.

D O W N L O A D D E L U X A M U S I C M I X I I H E R E

Deluxa Music Mix

Download the music mix of our in store favorites. Unlike that time you wore overalls in the 90's and thought it looked okay--this, you won't regret.

PS. Snow in Mexico's EP is available in store.

Click here to download.

In Store Virtual Tour Video

Made this video yesterday. Enjoy the quick peek around the store! The video also features Golf's "Yellow" on Chat Blanc Records--one of my favorite tracks... We carry their limited 3" CD in store!

New Luxa Video: On Your Love

Started this project on a whim last night, and have to say I'm pretty happy with the results. Enjoy!

Luxa, Dead Leaf Echo, and Mark Van Hoen Playing MonkeyTown August 14th

Luxa is playing a show next Friday with Mark Van Hoen and Dead Leaf Echo at MonkeyTown in Williamsburg.

Mark Van Hoen. OMG. Mark Van Hoen. OMG. Check out this new write up in Jezebel.

OMG/MVH aside, I personally am really excited to play this show because we're going to be playing some new songs that I think are our best yet, and we're going to be reinstating our long-neglected visuals.

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out MonkeyTown yet, it is fantastic for visuals and for any kind of intimate performace. All the aucience seating is on low banquette style cushions while the performance goes on in the middle of the room. All four walls have visuals projected on them, making for a very enveloping/psychadelic experience (but in a good way!).


I've seen Dead Leaf Echo--who we carry in Deluxa, and with whom we are sharing this bill--play there once before, and have to report that it was quite a lovely and mesmerizing experience. Kudos to LG for the great vintage edgy (read: kinky) footage and beautiful ambient set. Here's hoping he'll have an experience for us this time just as entrancing...

PS. the poster image was taken from a vintage magazine in store--pretty fantastic pie, right?

Millimetrik's Northwest Passage

Luxa had the privilege to play a show with Pasquale Asselin of Millimetrik a while back, and he was kind enough to let us carry his incredibly impressive red vinyl pressing (we have the CD too) of Northwest Passage in store. Not only is the packaging and design amazing, the music is of the highest caliber as well.

Listen to Millimetric on MySpace here.

Become a fan on facebook here.

Stop by the store and check out the vinyl in person, or the equally well designed CD.

Here is also a cool video of a skate park (in the middle of the woods it seems!) set to a Millimetrik track. Worth checking out.

Lawrence Chandler at MMNY

So sadly our music festival had to be moved in doors, but a huge thanks to the fabulous Bell House for hosting us on such short notice. Everyone still got to play, and in all had a good time regardless.

Our friend Jason Banker was one of the kind attendees to make the leap to the Bell House, and took this absolutely fantastic video of Lawrence Chandler. Love the video. Love the music. Can't wait to see more projects from both of these guys.

MMNY MOVED TO THE BELL HOUSE

DUE TO STUPID RAIN, MMNY IS MOVED TO THE BELL HOUSE.

11am Her Vanished Grace

1155am By Night With Spear

1245pm Telltale

130 Ghost in the water

215pm Elika

3pm soundpool

4pm Lawrence Chandler

12pm Meghan Halle (front lounge)

1pm Rebecca Pronsky (front Lounge)

2pm Sharon van Etten(front Lounge)

but it will still be cool. For reals.

This Sunday for MMNY: 25% Off Storewide

That's right, everything will be 25% off this Sunday in celebration of our Make Music New York block party. Come for the sale, come for the music, come for a good time!

MMNY Featured Artist: Meghan Halle

We are so completely thrilled to be having Meghan opening our show for Make Music New York. A long time friend of Deluxa (see blog header!), and ridiculously talented singer, Meghan Halle's show is for sure not one to be missed.

From her Myspace:

Meghan has been singing for as long as she can remember, but credits her vocal prowess to call and response sessions she shared with her gospel teacher Georgia Louis, an acclaimed performer who Louis Armstrong named as his “musical godchild.” Ms. Louis, who has shared the stage with Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, and the Staple Singers, has said of Meghan “She is the best young gospel singer that I have worked with, and she was born with an inner spirit that is just phenomenal.” The majority of Meghan’s high school years were spent performing gospel music in A.M.E. Churches throughout Connecticut. Gospel gave her the freedom to improvise and engage with an audience instantly in the energy of the moment, skills that permanently influenced her performance style. She has performed at Shea Stadium three times, the first at the age of 14. Meghan has also been asked to collaborate on many recordings, and has recorded a handful of gospel songs which remain unreleased. She has spent the last three years composing infectious, soulful songs while playing the New York City club circuit either solo on piano, or with her band. Her first full-length solo album entitled, “12th and A” has just been released this past December.

We've also got copies of Meghan Halle's album 12th and A in stock at the store.


Here's a video of one of her newer songs. I've seen her perform this once, and I had huge goosebumps...

MMNY Featured Artist: Ghost in the Water

Driving all the way out from the midwest, we are thrilled to be having Ghost in the Water play Make Music New York on June 21st.

From their MySpace:

nathan doesn't believe in ghosts. mandy sort of does. sometimes they argue about it. neither one is ever swayed in their stance. they both really like to make music though. they've made indie-pop with a band called fitzgerald for a while now. but they wanted to make electronic music too. they really like electronic pop songs. so they started ghost in the water. they have an album that they finally finished, it's called "tooth".

Here is the cover of their digital single, "Clean Sings and Folded Laundry", which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Beautiful melody, strings sections, and imagery make it really special.


I'd post the song here to check out, but our file hosting service seems to be down...but for sure check out what they've got on their MySpace.

Also, we don't have "Tooth" in stock just yet, but post MMNY, I plan of having a few copies, put out by our fantastic friends, Hidden Shoal Recordings.

MMNY Featured Artist: Soundpool

From Soundpool's Myspace:

NYC based 5 piece shoegaze/space rock audio/visual recording artists with sweet girlie vox saturated guitar sounds lush synth arrangements and a danceable driving rhythm section who prefer to play out with the backdrop of self produced psychedelic visuals whenever they can.

Unfortunately when they will be playing in front of deluxa they will be sans visuals, but we're crossing our fingers some beautiful summer weather will make up for that. More than any other band I've seen Soundpool play tons of times and at tons of venues from their super cool loft parties to Bowery Ballroom to Piano's to the Bell House, and they never disappoint. Clearly they are hyper talented, symphonic masterminds that are sure to blow us away at MMNY.

Soundpool's current Japanese release of Dichotomies and Dreamland is available in store at deluxa!

Rumor has it they've got a new album out super soon, and if we're lucky we will get to hear some of the new material played for the first time live--triple cross your fingers for that!

Here is there incredible video for "Divides of March" and one of my favorite tracks from Dichotomies and Dreamland.


Soundpool - The Divides of March

Butterflies Soundpool.mp3

Soundpool Website (really well done! check it out!)
Soundpool Myspace
Soundpool Facebook

New CDs in Store: Chat Blanc Records

Quebec based Chat Blanc Records puts out beautiful short run 3" CDs: each envelope lovingly hand cut, each cover hand stitched--and the best part about these gems, all of their releases feature some damn good music. Of the 8 releases we're currently carrying, I can honestly say they are all fantastic. Here's a list of the new artists:

Absent Without Leave
Biltmore Dive
Boreal
The Chat Blanc Orchestra
General Bearing & Fashion Friends
Golf
The Great Mundane
Jatun
Le Chat Blanc Orchestra
Meets Guitar
Millimetrik
Nakurmik
Okokok
Port-Royal
Raycord
Stafrænn Hákon
Steiber Sound
Voila
Yellow6

Like I said, they are all fantastic, but I've been particularly in love with Golf's Tef Tef, and particularly the song below--and while this song is a great dream pop anthem if ever there was one, their range on the EP is actually quite broad from more somber instrumental electronics to bright and folksy, which makes me like this song all the more...

Golf Day by Day.mp3

All the new music has also been uploaded to our listening station so you can try before you buy. You can also check out our full music selection here.

We're On Last FM

If you like what you hear in the store, check out our Last FM profile.  I'd forgotten I'd signed up forever ago, so now we've got some serious stats on what we've been listening too.  Add us as a friend if you're into it!

Deluxa's Last FM

There is also an extensive playlist of what we've got in-store up that I'd highly recommend putting on and enjoying for all 191 minutes.

Luxa Show Tonight

Luxa is playing a show tonight with Aarktica, Millimetrik, The Drug Models Love, and Mark Van Hoen DJing.  Come on out...

MMNY Featured Aritst Rebecca Pronsky

Time Out calls Rebecca Pronsky, "passionate, literate, and wry" and Deluxa is so excited to be having her play our block party for Make Music New York on June 21st.

You can check out one of my favorites "Birds" in this post, and check out even more songs on her website and her myspace. Her album "Departures and Arrivals" is available in store at Deluxa, and her new limited edition EP (which I'm dying to get my hands on a copy) is out now, "The Best Game In Town".

RebeccaPronskyBirds.mp3

UPDATED 6/20 Official Make Music New York Line Up Announced!

UPDATED 6/20

DUE TO STUPID RAIN, MMNY IS MOVED TO THE BELL HOUSE.

11am Her Vanished Grace

1155am By Night With Spear

1245pm Telltale

130 Ghost in the water

215pm Elika

3pm soundpool

4pm Lawrence Chandler

12pm Meghan Halle (front lounge)

1pm Rebecca Pronsky (front Lounge)

2pm Sharon van Etten(front Lounge)

We are so excited!

Lawrence Chandler (of Bowery Electric)
Luxa
Sharon Van Etten
Soundpool
Elika
Rebecca Pronsky
Ghost in the Water
Telltale
By Night With Spear
Her Vanished Grace
Meghan Halle

and Djs:
Mark Van Hoen of Seefeel and Locust
LG of Dead Leaf Echo
The Invisible Kid
Rich Bennett
DJ Stephan C of Telltale

I'm going to try and do posts on everyone on the bill before the show, but you can check out where I've already blogged about the profoundly talented Sharon Van Etten here, and the excellent Self Storage Recordings artist By Night With Spear here as well as the not-to-be-missed Dead Leaf Echo. I've also featured a video of Locust, one of Mark Van Hoen's many projects, which is highly recommended.

So mark your calendars! Sunday, June 21st, the first day of summer! Free music! Block party! Amazing bands! Good eats in the neighborhood--Eton on the block just won TONY's "Best New Dumpling" award and they serve amazing Hawaiian shave ice.

It's going to be awesome.

Deluxa Music Mix

A quick playlist of some of our latest favorites music we've been playing in store:

Touched on Every Side.Locust.mp3
The Jungle Line.Joni Mitchell.mp3
Keep the Keys from Me.My Majestic Star.mp3
I Am The Sub-Librarian.Piano Magic.mp3
Porpoise Song.Monkees.mp3
Circumstance.Real Cool Rain.mp3
The Romance of the Telescope.OMD.mp3
The Heart That Hears Like A Bat.Hotels.mp3
I Am Waiting.Rolling Stones.mp3
Happy Time.Brendan Perry.mp3

We've got copies of Hotels latest album Where Hearts Go Broke that has the "Heart That Hears Like a Bat" track on it, and we've also got Ideas Are The Answer by My Majestic Star that has the "Keep the Keys from Me" track. Both are on Hidden Shoal Recordings.

Hotels

My Majestic Star

Mark Van Hoen of Locust (also of Seefeel) on the first track will also be DJing at our next two Luxa shows, the first on May 21st, the second for the Make Music New York festival on June 21st--much more exciting news and info to come on this event! mark your calendars now!



PS I updated the sidebar playlist too--now it features Deluxa's in store artists available in our music section.

Luxa Going on Tour

The band is going on tour this week: Thursday, DC; Friday Philadelphia; Saturday Oxford, PA; and Sunday at Fontanas here in good ole NYC (Easter Sunday!). Deluxa of course will still be open though!



In other news, DiskUnion in Japan just placed a wholesale order for all the Self Storage Recordings titles, so if you're on that side of the world, check out our new releases there in the upcoming weeks...

Hidden Shoal Recordings CDs New in Stock

Cam Merton over at Hidden Shoal Recordings not only on top of being a super nice guy runs a super cool label. We've got a small selection in stock right now and hope to expand in the future, as their whole catalog is worth checking out. Our current new favorites that we've got in stock are Hotels, Fall Electric, Wes Willenbring, and My Majestic Star. We've also had longtime loves Monocle and Rich Bennett for a while


You can preview all of HSR's artist on their gorgeous website that's beautifully up to date.

Also, if you haven't been to Deluxa in a while, we've hooked up a set of nice headphones and an MP3 player for our own little listening station. Its the best music you've never heard, promise...links to all artists in stock here and many more to come in the coming months!