Editor’s Note: Sorry for the quiet phase. Yours truly has been a bit flattened this week by illness. However: Once again, The Selective Echo welcomes Wendy Christensen, the manager/buyer of Positively 4th St. Music, who reports regularly on new music and products at the store. Incidentally, we’ll soon be featuring the store’s new logo.

The store has finally completed its poster collection. Name the artist or band and it is likely in stock.

Among the local art offerings are glass pendants from Sarinda Jones, who also will be teaching an introductory class on kiln forming and glass cutting Jan. 26-27 at the Reflective Studio.

Among the new turntables is a USB-compatible peripheral which can be hooked directly into a computer, perfect for quality digital recording and laying tracks for new music.

Tickets are now available for the following shows:

Jan 17 SEA WOLF @ KILBY COURT
Jan 18 WE SHOT THE MOON @ KILBY COURT
Jan 22 EEK A MOUSE @ PALADIUM
Jan 24 VAST @ PALADIUM
Jan 26 THE MATT FLINNER TRIO
Jan 31 THE LIARS @ URBAN LOUNGE

Many more for February and March, too.

Shows we recommend (although we have no tickets for these):

Jan 18 MINDBENDER @ The DTHL (Downtown Hooka Lounge) – music by BASSNECTAR and DAVID STARFIRE * DJUNYA * ILLOOM visuals by ILLUMINATED EXPERIENCE live painting by XAVI

Jan 18 ARTWALK SOIREE @ ARTOPIA – music by DJ D SHARP visuals by ANDREW EHNINGER —FREE!!!!!

Jan 24 NATIVES OF THE NEW DAWN * MINDSTATE @ BURT’S TIKI LOUNGE

Current music we love:

Oh No — Dr. No’s Oxperiment

This is his third solo release, a beat record inspired by and sampled from Turkish, Lebanese, Italian, and Greek psychedelic rock. Twenty-eight tracks (each under two minutes) working together to complete the whole, kind of warm, nearly-poppy, guitar-filled trip into Middle Eastern chants, tight bass grooves, and drums that hover beneath the surface. That’s one of Oh No’s greatest talents: his ability to mix the different elements of his compositions so that none of them stick out too much but are all completely present, important and perceptible.

Radiohead – In Rainbows

In my humble opinion, this is definitely one of the overall top releases from Radiohead …although I am a fan of everything they put out. This album is very song-oriented, with each track constantly moving forward and developing, yet there are abstract electronic layers and studio-as-instrument elements to prevent it from sounding like a regression. In Rainbows will hopefully be remembered as Radiohead’s most stimulating synthesis of accessible songs and abstract sounds, rather than their first pick-your-price download.

Juno Movie Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Juno is a gem. Given that you most likely haven’t seen the film yet, it’s not all that important to go into how the music was woven into the film—but when you do see you will be even more attached to this soundtrack. The Kinks, Sonic Youth, Buddy Holly, Moldy Peaches, and many more artists weave a continuous stream, setting the scene for the movie and (indeed for) our lives.