Author Archives: blacksheepspringfield

There is a 10″ Record Bandit in All of Us

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This week we’ve been featuring some of our more obscure products such as these really nice used Fluance turntables and vintage record cases

This Friday’s Hot New Vinyl Releases!
– KENDRICK LAMAR. His new album “GNX” was released digitally late last year, but is being released on vinyl this week! We will have copies of the indie store exclusive blue version! He’s also performing in the halftime show!?
– DAVE MATTHEWS BAND “Where Are You Going: The Singles” (GREATEST HITS). If you are a fan of Dave then THIS is for you!
– SHARON VAN ETTEN with her seventh studio album “Amber Galaxy” on amber swirly galaxy vinyl!
– WILCO with their 5th studio album originally released in 2004 “A Ghost Is Born” is getting the deluxe re-issue treatment, on double LP!
– TORTURE. The heaviest band to ever play at our store maybe has a new album “Enduring Freedom” on red vinyl!
– PHISH continue their live record series with “LP on LP 05″ and LP on LP 06”! We’ll have ’em both!

Pepperoni picked CCR this week

“How ’bout some Creedence this week?? This is their greatest hits – “Chronicle”, it’s a double LP with 20 songs and just about all you need for that good Creedence Clearwater Revival swamp rock! Suzie Q, Proud Mary, Mad Moon Rising, Travelin’ Band, Green River, etc. this record has got all you need! This is the transparent blue with black smoke version too. Come pick it up at Dumb Records or Dumber Records today!”

You Don’t Know About Moondog???

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Starting to feel like we’re getting back into the swing of things this year with all the holidays behind us, the snow and frigid temperatures, and Brian going on a honey moon. I guess we do have a big hole in front of our store.

Let’s take a look at what Friday releases are ahead of us this week!

– THE WEEKND new album “Hurry Up Tomorrow” – his 6th studio album – just on black vinyl but it’s really cheap, like $19.98!?!? That’s almost unheard of for a new record now! This is a “secured release” so the big label is making sure we do not get it until some point during the day Friday so bear with us.
– MADVILLAIN “Madvillainy Demos” – one of the best selling albums here of all time is getting its demos released!
– RUSH have their later albums being re-issued to vinyl! Two that we are highlighting here are 1989’s “Presto” and 1991’s “Roll The Bones”
– STEELY DAN’s 1975 studio album “Katy Lied” getting re-issued for it’s 50th anniversary!

This week Pep picked Alvvays

“This week I am picking Canadian indie-pop band Alvvays’ 2014 self-titled album, “Alvvays”. This is one of those times where I am not picking an album because I know it’s going to hit the #1 year end top seller, no I am picking it because I truly believe that this album is so good that it needs to be in my record store on the shelves at all times. A record that everyone who works here can 100% agree on. Anyone ever comes in and asks me to recommend them an album that they can listen to that is good, right here it is. Look no further than Alvvays self-titled from 2014, it is all you need. And it’s released by Polvyinyl Records out of Champaign!”

My New Record Store MIKE’S GROVE

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Sorry Brain is out on vacation this week and we do not have a nifty graphic of the hot new Friday vinyls or a Pepperoni Pick. What a waste of a week. We do have this new shirt at the mall tho and you can now order it along with the Dolly Parton shirt online.

We also have these cute lil keychains, limited supplies and selling fast!

Another nifty little tidbit, the top selling records of 2024. Chappell Roan won this with a very comfortable lead.

11 Dumb Years

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Boy it sure has been cold and snowy around here. Reminds me of the days of warming my hands in a cookie oven which was the only source of heat in the Black Sheep Cafe one year.

During our Anniversary sale we met none other than the voice of Larry the Cucumber from VeggieTales! what an honor. He earned a free t-shirt for being the actual guy.

Here are your hot Friday vinyls!

– MAC MILLER with “Balloonerism” – his 7th studio album, which was recorded sometime between 2013 and 2014 around the time the mixtape “Faces” was released. We will have the indie exclusive white vinyl variant at both locations.
– “Be My Valentine Charlie Brown” (Vince Guaraldi) celebrating it’s 50th anniversary! This might actually be some sort of pink vinyl, we are not sure.
– GLORILLA, the debut album from this American rapper called “Glorious” out on gold vinyl.
– A re-issue of heavy metal band GREAT WHITE’s 1991 album “Hooked”
– The deluxe version of GRACIE ABRAM’s album from last year “The Secret Of Us” will be coming out on double light blue vinyl!

This week Pepperoni picked Taylor again

“Sneakin’ out laaaaaate tapppin’ on yer windowwww, when we’re on the phone and you be talkin’ REAL SLOWWWWW… CUZ IT’S LATE AND YER MAMA DON’T KNOWwwwwww, when you think of me do you think of Timmm McGrawwwwww”
“This is the first ever album by Taylor Swift. She made this when she was practically like twelve years old. Okay now I have picked every Taylor Swift album except for Reputation.”

Player Piano Rolls

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It’s that time of year again! Well actually it’s been 11 years since this store first got kicked off. We’re celebrating our existence with a big sale!

This Friday at 6pm in the Mall we’re hosting a listening party for Ringo’s latest album. We’ll have free posters to give away and 2 raffle prizes!

Here are you Ringo Week Friday Releases!
– CHILDISH GAMBINO’s latest album “Atavista” that was released digitally last year is getting it’s physical release this Friday!
– RINGO STAR with his 21st studio album “Look Up” and it’s supposed to be his country album? On gray vinyl?
– Tell your kids because the soundtrack for MOANA 2 is being released!
– WAR ON DRUGS is out with their second live album (?) “Live Drugs Again”
– The newest from Franz Ferdinand (which is actually the name of a band and not a person) new album “The Human Fear”

This week Pepperoni picked American Idiot

“The year was 2004. I was in seventh grade. My older cousin had hooked me up with a copy of “Dookie” for my 13th birthday on cassette that I sat in the back of the school bus and played on my walkman for a that whole year. My mom was going to let me stay up late all night to watch the VH1 “making of” Green Day’s music video shoot for “American Idiot” where all of the green slime came out of the American flag, that was so cool. Then she took me to Best Buy that weekend so that I could buy the CD at Best Buy. That was 20 years ago now, so we are all old. This is the 20th anniversary pressing of American Idiot, enjoy!”

Time to Clean the Clown Bathroom

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Today is the big deep clean day fo the downtown store. We close up for the whole day and clean, clean clean! Luckily these days we still have our mall location where people can continue blissfully shopping for records while we’re closed downtown.

Finally we have Friday Releases again! Here’s what is coming out this Friday:
– FLEETWOOD MAC “Live From The Record Plant” (1974 recordings) on double transparent red vinyl.
– A few re-issues from prog-metal band DREAM THEATER, we ordered the most of their 1992 album “Images and Words”. On clear vinyl.
– A few re-issues from THE RAMONES, we are highlighting their 1987 album “Halfway To Sanity” and 1989’s “Brain Drain” – (Brain Drain has Pet Semetary and Merry Christmas on it)
– (not a Rhino release) but a re-issue of black metal band MAYHEM’s “PFA Demos”

Lately our team members Jack and August killed it on the food drive at the mall. I’m pretty sure most of what’s pictured here is what they brought in themselves. I’m not sure if that’s cheating or not, but they should earn a free round of putt-putt at Malibu Jacks for that!

We’re Thankful for Earnest Saving Christmas all those years ago

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Pepperoni hopes everyone had a joyous holiday with lots of new records. We’re thankful to all our loyal customers and awesome employees. We took a little break today, December 25th, and will be back at it tomorrow.

Still Pepperoni does not know how to take a day off and has another pick this week:

“Ho ho ho… Merry Christmas. The border on this record is red, and the turtles are green. I know that this 1977 Grateful Dead album “Terrapin Station” is what every little boy and girl asked to go in their stocking this year, so that is what I picked.”

We haven’t had many shows this month but have one more just before the new year.

Just another Organ and Chimes Christmas

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The mall is having a food drive currently and we’re going to win, come bring your food by and watch us win it big! and I guess also help people who need food

This week Pepperoni picked this Queen greatest hits album

“This week it’s QUEEN – not the first greatest hits, but “Greatest Hits II” – a double LP, seventeen songs spanning the entire second half of the band’s career which truly was as jammed-packed with his as their first half. These are mostly 80’s Queen songs – including “Under Pressure,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “I Want To Break Free,” and the list goes on. Queen is a band so good and monumental that they have THREE greatest hits. (The third one was released in 1999 after Freddy’s death and included material from members solo careers and also collaborations the band did).

Oh yeah! Did you know that every week our neighbors downtown at The Cats’ Pyjamas Cat Cafe have been raffling off my featured pick? They listen to the album and draw winners every Sunday and you can enter the raffle throughout the week! Big shoutout for our neighbors for adding to the fun of picking an album every week!”

Even tho we’re very very very very busy with the Christmas shopping season, Jeff has to go and trade out more games in the arcade. Look at this mess. I guess we have 2 new games in the downtown arcade now.

The Dumb Wives

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We’ve been really focused lately on selling records this holiday season, but we did have a show not long ago, here is a pic from that (sorry I don’t know what band this is). We only have hardcore shows on our calendar currently, sorry again.

This Friday’s hot vinyl releases!
– SNOOP DOGG and his twentieth studio album “Missionary”… it’s a picture disc made to look like oh dear.
– THE NATIONAL have a new live album coming out called “Rome” and we should be getting a few copies of the indie exclusive white version.
– The MARIAH CAREY CHRISTMAS craze continues this time with a release of her Merry Christmas album on zoetrope vinyl.
– A re-issue of 3 DOORS DOWN’s greatest hits.
– the NEIL YOUNG “On The Beach” 50th anniversary pressing had gotten pushed back to this Friday.
– DAFT PUNK with a “Interstella 5555” pressing of their “Discovery” album (it’s Japanese or something?)

This week Pepperoni picked Nightmare Before Christmas

“Mind if I squeeze one last little holiday pick in before the year is over? What kind of holiday pick? One that covers Christmas AND Halloween! It’s The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack (composed by Danny Elfman)! We were having some sort of debate here at DR headquarters about if this record should get filed in the Christmas section. YES, it is both a Christmas record and a Halloween record, that is the whole point! That is why this movie is so popular because it covers the two best holidays, DUH. Pick up your copy of this double LP bone and aqua colored vinyl today at Dumb Records today!

Why is it funny the Aquabats are on top of my Spotify Wrapped?

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We had a great black friday time with everyone. It seemed everyone knew the assignment and lined up at both downtown and the mall. Some weirdos even lined up the night before in 20 degree weather. I don’t know why, it’s so much more comfortable lining up at the mall and there’s Auntie Anne’s.

We gave out lots of free shirts and tote bags and there was no pushing and shoving. Everybody did a good job.

Here are your hot Friday vinyl releases!
– SABRINA CARPENTER has a Christmas record out! The “Fruitcake” EP, we will be getting the exclusive “fruit punch” colorway!
– RUN THE JEWELS 2, 10th Anniversary edition on double black vinyl!
– STEVIE WONDER’s “Ultimate Stevie Wonder” hits compilation! (This one would make a good Christmas gift wouldn’t it).
– TOM WAITS’s 1974 album “The Heart Of Saturday Night” getting a 50th anniversary re-issue!
– THE ROLLING STONES “Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush” – this is a live show from 1999, on double black LP!
– 20th anniversary re-issue of OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW’s “O.C.M.S.”
– HOZIER “Unreal Unearth Unending” – Deluxe edition of their newest album, there is a 3LP version that has it ALL, then looks like a single LP version with just the bonus tracks.

This week Pepperoni picked this essential Christmas album

“It’s December. Our Christmas music bins at both stores are already picked clean. We are out of Charlie Brown, and the only thing left in the dollar bin is the Lettermen’s Christmas album and the other is a North Central High School 1969 record of just bells. So ho-ho-ho, I guess I better act fast with a good holiday pick! Why not pick Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas – you hear this song everywhere you go right now. It’s playing on the radio on every station, playing on the speakers at the gas station as you pump gas, inside every grocery store on the speakers, it’s even playing inside the mall as you walk into our mall store. So why not order 20 copies of it so you all can buy the vinyl and listen to it at home too! Great!”

Did you know we have green elephant and Pepperoni tree ornaments now??? They don’t have to be ornaments but they sure are cute! They’re locally made and hand painted. They’re going to be pretty limited. We ran through the first batch really fast and more are on the way!