Editor’s note: Each week, The Selective Echo will feature Positively 4th St. Music’s take on the eclectic, independent music scene which drives the sophisticated tastes of Salt Lake City listeners, DJs, and musicians. It is not uncommon to find SLC listeners fairly far ahead of the curve in terms of scanning the radar for outstanding music.

Located on the first floor of the Stoneground Building on 400 South just across from the Salt Lake City main library, the store provides a staff which is comprehensive in its breadth and depth of knowledge, capable at a four-beats’ notice to locate and find the best of the independent music scene. Local show tickets for spots such as Urban Lounge, In the Venue, and Suede are available. The store also is an excellent source for locating high-quality vinyl LPs of a large range of musical genres and it provides a top-notch listening/performing lounge.

Each week’s news will be provided by Chase Loter, store manager.

Fans of Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, and Nancy Sinatra – take note. Positively 4th St. Music just received 10 crates of really good used vinyl that run the gamut of musical tastes. For the serious musical connoisseur, the store has a full line of Scull Candy headphones and T-shirts, Shure needles and record bags, and plenty of cheap turntables (DJ or listening). Also available are RiktorPeeps sunglasses created by a local artist whose work will soon be featured in the store.

Among the newest releases on the SLC music radar are:

Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam – Known for exploring the fringes and interfaces of everything from folk, noise rock, and ambient drone to twisted psychedelics and good old-fashioned melody, the band has outdone itself once again, delivering its most concise set of songs in its seven-year history.

Black Lips’ Good Bad Not Evil – Atlanta’s finest – known for fusing a garage-punk sound with a Southern flavor and a bit of bawdy blues – cleans up a little bit, but not that clean. There’s a little country twang with some filthy blues in this one. if you’ve never seen these guys – watch out – you just might get a fist served to your pretty face.

Gang Gang Dance’s Rawwar – New York’s most unusual experimental and avant garde band with a lot of electronics and percussion delivers on Rawwar – unusual, and bizarre but amazingly it comes together beautifully. Kate Bush puts it down over this incredible Bollywood soundtrack.

Girl Talk – From Pittsburgh: A biomedical research engineer by day, Greg Gillis is a DJ whose artistry produces phenomenal remixes of the mash-up generation with recognizable yet strangely new versions of recent hit singles. If you’re at a party and put one of these CDs on and nobody starts dancing, then you’re at the wrong party.

Kanye West’s Graduation – Finally! Kanye made it. Thank you Jesus. A hip-hop tour de force that pays homage to everything from Daft Punk to U2 to Jay-Z and the Rolling Stones. The album is tracked to top 700,000 in sales, according to industry figures.

Konono No. 1’s Nsimba and Nzuzi – Congolese in flavor, universal in dance appeal. Live set of mostly new music recorded in Brussels. Put your dancing socks on for this one.

M.I.A.’s Kala – Just as hot as Arular. Bring your microphone for this one and shout along! The feisty emcee is back with a body-movin’, get-your-back-off-the-wall, world-groovin’, socka, bhangra album.

Madlib’s Beat Konducta Vol 3-4 in India – Among hip-hop’s most respected producers with an amazing talent for digging deep into the crates of vinyl, Madlib is the true heir to the late James Brown’s title of “hardest working man in showbiz.” Don’t even bother trying to find any Bollywood records anywhere ‘cause he got ‘em all. I mean all.

The Go! Team’s Proof of Youth – From Brighton, England, this band blends indie rock, hip hop, dance, and, yes, cheerleader chants. Imagine that cocktail you just invented by blending candy bars, Dr. Pepper, etc. … and it was amazing. Well, if you were to name that drink, you would name it “the go! team proof of youth.” Mmmmm … enjoi!!!

Also not to be missed:

Music by Cavelight’s Blockhead is now available on vinyl. This album is
beautiful – enough said.

Liars’ self-titled release of 2007 is now back in stock.

A collection of rare 45’s of some of the best of funk, soul, and classics.

Upcoming shows:

Wed 9/12 – sameyeam & chaseone2 @ jackalope
Thur 9/13 – brian jonestown masacre @ urban
Fri 9/14 – bob log lll, pink lightin’, electric space jihad @ urban
Sat 9/15 – dumpstaphunk @ suede, sameyeam & chaseone2 @ jackalope, stereotype @ urban
Sun 9/16 – stay home @ home, maserati @ urban
Mon 9/17 – yo majesty @ urban, dj rebel @ monks