Happy Friday everybody, T.G.I.F., and here’s a dose of local hip hop for you to get ready for the weekend! This is a new new album from local artist DreTheGuy, who may have recently re-located for a job in Oklahoma involved with studio recording. This new album of his is entitled The FALLow Up, and it is the follow up to last year’s Lapis Effect. You can stream all of The FALLow Up on the player embedded below. Also find links to listen to the album on many many other online streaming services right here.
We have added this one to our Springfield album archive page as we are getting ready to launch our big end of the year music poll, this one bringing us to 67 local releases we have kept track up so far this year.
It’s December! We’ve been fairly quiet on our site here because we have been so slammed getting out so many orders from a successful Black Friday / Record Store Day weekend here at Dumb Records. As soon as we’re done being busy with one thing, it’s on to the next! And now is time of the year to once again team up with Activator Magazine to present our annual Best of Springfield Music 2020 polls. Even though the show and live music aspect has been missing from much of this year, we are moving forward still highlighting the songs and local releases that came from local groups this year (which there were still a lot of, maybe even more-so than ever!).
The local hip hop scene continued to explode this year, so we are including the poll for best hip hop release as it’s own separate category. We will likely be featuring a top 10 list for local hip hop releases, and then a top 10 or 20 for everything else.
Before we dive into the polls, we need your help in making sure we have kept track of all local releases that came out this year! Currently we have a list of 69 releases – split into two categories (hip hop and everything else). If you know of anything we are missing, please let us know in the comments, or send us an email to dumbrecs@gmail.com! If you include links to the music as well, that would be super helpful! We are keeping this to Springfield releases only. Mayyybe some of Decatur, Taylorville, or Jacksonville as well.
We are planning on launching our poll to go from December 5th through the 15th. The results will be posted right at the start of January, as well as with the January issue of Activator Magazine along with write-ups of each release.
Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all sure are thankful for… things. We are thankful for you. We are thankful for music. And… we are thankful for… pinball. But back to the music, today we are bringing you a brand new album from local solo artist Jeff Cowhick. This is Jeff’s third musical album under his own name, called Tempered. You can stream it on Spotify right here, or also on Apple music right here. No streaming services that we are able to embed below, sorry.
We do still have physical copies of Jeff’s first album, Firebrand in our store! We are closed now, but will actually be open tomorrow just for Black Friday. We are also adding this one to our Springfield album archive page… bringing us to 58 local releases we have kept track of so far this year!
Here’s a wild and wacky new local release – it’s actually been out for a while – we picked up copies on CD for our store somewhere around the 1st or 2nd wave of the pandemic even. Here we are in the third wave telling you about Mask To Protect by The Bonards. What a wonderful gift we have here. This is an 18-track album by this duo which features members of some other long running Springfield punk bands you may or may not be familiar with. Check out that album streaming on the youtube player below. Mask To Protect can be found on Apple Music, Deezer, or Youtube Music.
We have also added this one to our Springfield album archive page, bringing us to 57 local releases we have kept track of so far this year.
Hello! As you know, our store is still closed. But we are pushing our online stores – along with shipping, local delivery, and local pickup options harder than ever! Find our online stores below:
With those types of options that we offer, what more could you possibly need? Do you really need to even come to our physical store ever again? 🤷
So our store is closed right now (we’ll reopen some day), and we WILL be open for Black Friday this upcoming Friday. Our store WILL be open from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm all day for that day, limited to 5 customers in the store at a time. There will be many many Record Store Day exclusives available. We will be running some big sales on Dumb Records merch on our storenvy site as well for the whole weekend. Aside from all of those Black Friday exclusives, here is a pile of stuff that’s recently hit our shelves (most of which you can find online):
New LPs Albert Ayler – The First Recordings, Vol. 1 Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface Ghost Key – The Things I Am Not La Dispute – Wildlife Lights – Siberia Acoustic Mary J Blige – My Life Public Enemy – What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down Sleater-Kinney – Call The Doctor Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche Thin Lizzy – Fighting Yusuf / Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman 2
Used LPs Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward Desmond Dekker – Compas Point The Isley Brothers – Go All The WayJackie Gleason – Love Embers And Flame James Brown – Plays New Breed Johnnie Bachemin Trio – Plays For You Kid Stuff – Space Shuttle: A True Space Adventure King Crimson – Lizard The Living Strings & Living Voices – White Christmas Lynn Anderson – Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Lynn Anderson – Top Of The World Michael Franks – Burchfield Nines Mike Oldfield – Hergest Ridge Muddy Waters – Live Neil Diamond – Beautiful Noise Neil Diamond – The Best Years of Our Lives Nina Simone – Pastel Blues Peggy Lee – Then Was Then Now Is Now REO Speedwagon – Nine Lives RUSH – Caress of Steel Skeeter Davis – I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know T-Bone Walker – Funky Town Tedd Smith – Time To Run (Soundtrack) Tom Loncaric – I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby Various – Country Classics Various – The Kings of New Orleans
12” Singles Count Bass-D – Sandwiches (I, Got A Feeling) DJ Quik – Quik Is The Name Herb Alpert – Rise Milliat $ – Groove On Twisted Black – Throw It Up
New / Used CDs America – Silent Letter Art Garfunkel – Watermark Branford Marsalis Quartet – Crazy People Music Echo And The Bunnymen – Flowers Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy Eminem – Encore Eminem – The Slim Shady LP Emmylou Harris – Profile Emmylou Harris – Pieces of the Sky Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw & The Cooked Garbage – Beautiful Garbage Guttermouth – Musical Monkey (Hed) Pe – (Hed) Pe Holly Dunn – Milestones Holly Dunn – Getting It Dunn Indigo Girls – All That We Let In Information Society – Peace And Love, Inc Jay Z / Linkin Park – Collision Course Jay-Z – The Dynasty Roc La Familia Joe Diffie – Third Rock From The Sun Kathy Mattea – A Collection of Hits Lonestar – Crazy Nights Nanci Griffith – Flier The Neville Brothers – Uptown Rulin’ NWA – Straight Outta Compton Ol’ Dirty Bastard – N***a Please Paul Anka – The Most of Paul Anka Pleasure Forever – Pleasure Forever PJ Harvey – Stories From The City The Pogues – Pogue Mahone Primus – Pork Soda The Proclaimers – Persevere The Romantics – Rhythm Romance Roxy Music – Manifesto Roy Orbison – In Dreams: The Greatest Hits Sixer – Busted Knuckles & Heartbreak Soul Asylum – And The Horse They Rode In On Soulfly – Primitive Various – Punk O Rama Vol. 2
Here’s another local release that came out about a month or so ago! This is “Church The Voice,” local hip hop artist, and one of those featured in the recent “Freshman Class 2020 Cypher Series” put together by Reco Hill and his series “Reco On The Move” which was shot earlier this pandemic in our venue space. Church The Voice has released a new six-track EP entitled Cloud Mine, and you can check that out on the youtube player embedded below.
For more Church The Voice, check out his youtube channel. We have added this one to our Springfield Album Archive, bringing us to 56 local releases we have kept track of so far this year.
Okay, back to the music. Here is yet another album by local recording artist Mark Schwartz. The album is entitled Le Nuit Noire and it is a “soundtrack for an imaginary French film.” You can check out the 19-track instrumental release on the player embedded below. Head on over to Mark’s bandcamp page where you can find more music and also purchase the download of this album.
As far as we can tell this is Mark’s ninth release this year under his own name – not to count a few more by his other projects Demons on Wheels, Forest Saints, and Tin Ghost. We have also added this one to our Springfield album archive page, bringing us to 55 releases we have kept track of so far this year.
This past week we are honored to accept the Springfield ICON’s annual “good neighbor” award for 2020 in the business category. “The ICON Good Neighbor awards recognize individuals, organizations and businesses who make an objective, measurable positive impact on the quality of life for Springfield residents in inner city older neighborhoods.”
Lisa Stott, executive director of Downtown Springfield, Inc. nominated us / owner Brian Galecki for this award, and gave a nice speech in this acceptance video. Also from the Springfield ICON website:
“Dumb Records, led by owners Brian Galecki and Jeff Black, has been an amazing community force and partner during COVID. They are part of a young generation of business owners in the music and arts space who are leading by example to help us all embrace the societal changes taking place. Their all-ages music venue and record shop was an early, welcoming, safe space for the teenage organizers of one of the first and largest Black Lives Matter protests in downtown Springfield.
Dumb Records organized a later-summer, downtown-wide pinball tournament between business owners to help alleviate some of the stress of trying to operate small businesses during COVID and build up the sense of community. The tournament gave fellow business owners a different, fun way to express themselves, and it was a great way to show the benefits of locating a business in a neighborhood like ours.
Brian and Jeff’s willingness to create shenanigans, spread positive vibes, bring all ages together, and good-naturedly lift up everyone who needs lifting makes them a very Good Neighbor.”
Lookout! Yes, our store is closed this entire week, and who knows how long after that, but we are still putting out plenty of great new and used LPs, CDs, and more onto the shelves!! Today we tested out putting a few records onto our Storenvy page and it seemed to work out pretty well, so we will probably keep going with that! We have shipping, local delivery, and local pickup options all set up for that to cater to your needs and make sure you get your records during this third-wave of COVID! Also we have our Discogs page set up and rolling for the same! Moving forward we may start listing more new LPs on our storenvy, and continue listing used LPs and all CDs on Discogs. We will see how things go! Here’s what’s new!
New LPs AC/DC – Power Up Albert Ayler – The First Recordings, Vol. 1 Bad Religion – Christmas Songs Ghost Key – The Things I Am Not La Dispute – Wildlife Lambchop – Trip The Menzingers – From Exile Oneohtrix Point Never – Magic Soul Glo – Songs To Yeet At The Sun Testament – Dark Roots of Earth Wilco – The Whole Love
Used LPs Al DiMeola – Land of the Midnight Sun Alejandro Escovedo – Big Station Andreas Vollenweider – Book of Roses Arthur Fiedler – Encore (Fiedler’s Greatest Hits) Bill Burkett – Law And Love Burt Bacharach – Burt Bacharach Bobby Vinton – My Elusive Dreams Claudine Longet – Claudine Crabby Appleton – Crabby Appleton Danny Davis – America 200 Years Young Defunkt – Thermo Nuclear Sweat Desmond Dekker – Compas Point Engelbert Humperdinck – A Man Without Love The Four Lads – Breezin’ Along Frank Sinatra – This Is Sinatra Volume Two Frampton – Breaking All The Rules Genesis – Spot The Pigeon George Harrison – George Harrison George Harrison – Somewhere In England Gigi Gryce / Donald Byrd – Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd Grover Washington, Jr. – The Best Is Yet To Come Jackson Browne – Downhill From Everywhere J.B. Lenoir – Natural Man Johnny Dankworth – Bundle From Britain Johnny Mathis – When Will I See You Again Judy Collins – Running For My Life The Last Poets – Douglas 3 Lenny Dee – Golden Organ Favorites Lightnin’ Hopkins – Blues Hoot Little Milton – Sings Big Blues Maynard Ferguson – Primal Scream Melanie – Candles In The Rain Michael Franks – Burchfield Nines Michael Franks – One Bad Habit Mickey Mouse Club – Mousekedances Martha Davis – A Tribute To Fats Waller Miles Davis – Seven Steps To Heaven Nina Simone – Pastel Blues Paul Williams – Classics Perry Como – Saturday Night With Mr. C Poco – Live Poco – Under The Gun Riot – Restless Breed Roger Daltrey – Under A Raging Moon Ruth Welcome – Zither Goes West Sally Rogers And Howard Bursen – Satisfied Customers REO Speedwagon – Nine Lives Sidney Bechet – The Grand Master of the Soprano Saxophone Slim Whitman – Just For You Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd – Jazz Samba T.G. Sheppard – 3/4 Lonely T.I.M.E. – Time Three Man Army – Three Man Army Triumvirat – A La Carte Various – Modern Jazz Hall of Fame Volume 1 Walt Disney – Bambi Walter Carlos – The Well-Tempered Synthesizer Woody Herman – Woody Herman Yo-Yo Ma / Chris Thile – Bach Trios
12” Singles 2Pac – In His Own Words E-40 – Big Ballin’ With My Homies Heavy D & The Boys – Who’s The Man HWA – All That L.L. Cool J – Big Ole Butt Scholly D. – Housing The Joint The Traveling Circus – Set It Off N This Mutha Wendy Wall – Real Love
New / Used CDs Andrew Lloyd Webber – The Premier Collection Andrew Lloyd Webber – Gold The Charlie Daniels Band – Road Dogs Eminem – The Eminem Show Eminem – 8 Mile Soundtrack Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams Are Made of This Exile – Latest & Greatest Fantastic Plastic Machine – Beautiful Full Devil Jacket – Full Devil Jacket Guttermouth – Friendly People Information Society – Peace And Love, Inc. The Internationals – Behind Bars The Internationals – Busted! Jan Peerce – Neapolitan Serenade Khia – Thug Misses Naughty By Nature – Iicons No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom Pennywise – Unknown Road Pet Shop Boys – Behavior Pet Shop Boys – Release Pulp – We Love Life Rancid – Rancid 1993 St. Lunatics – Free City Three 6 Mafia – Choices The Album Ty England – Two Ways To Fall Yusef Lateef – The Last Savoy Sessions 311 – Evolver
We’ve been keeping quiet about Black Friday Record Store Day which is coming up in just ten days now, because we’ve been trying to figure out the best way to approach this day, which is a hard thing to do when the future is always so unpredictable during these times.
Black Friday RSD is happening on Friday, November 27th the day after Thanksgiving as it is every year. This is usually the second biggest day of the year for our store, next to Record Store Day which usually takes place in April. This RSD event is going to be a big one for us because it is the first that we have ordered absolutely every exclusive release on “the list”. This includes over 130 different exclusive titles, which is too many for us to even list out below this time!! For that complete list along with photos and more info on each one, you can head over to the Record Store Day website right here.
As of right now, here’s how we are approaching this day: we WILL have our store open and limit the occupancy inside to 5 customers at a time. This means there will likely be a line you will have to wait in outside. We will be open on this day from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm. Then, online we will be offering 25% discounts on our regular Dumb Records mech items on our storenvy page. If you are local and place an order online through our online store, we will also be waving our delivery fees for that day. We are unable to run a sale on our Discogs page unfortunately, but we will be waving usual local delivery fees on that page for that day as well. We will also be listing whatever exclusive releases that we can on our storenvy and Discogs page later on in the day. (Our RSD pledge states that we can not do this until 1:00 pm, and we probably won’t be able to until later). This all may seem a little hectic, but we will be working hard this day and doing our best to make sure we have all of our RSD exclusives available one way or another!
Dumb Records 