Something New Mondays- (old/new) Whiskeytown

Saturday was Record Store Day and again I failed to take in the festivities at my local indie record store. As you may have heard, the vinyl record is on a comeback with increased sales and more and more bands releasing stuff on vinyl. In Winnipeg, Into The Music reports that a large percentage of it's sales are still attributed to vinyl, as they are one of the few local stores that didn't shun the vinyl format and have continued to buy and sell new and used records...bravo for them! My own vinyl collection is taking up valuable storage space in my living room and basement fridge (non-working empty) and my parent's basement, but I have held onto my old Dual turntable and last year purchased a portable battery powered USB turntable with the original idea of transferring my records to digital files. But you know what, I've hardly transfered anything and I think I'll use it to play and listen to records at home and at work. Why re-buy (or download) my records when I can play them on their original format and the scratchy sound is still better quality than transferring them into compressed digital mp3's.

Many record labels have released special vinyl to commemorate the 2nd annual record store day. Two unreleased songs were made available from Ryan Adam's old band, Whiskeytown which were recorded during the "Baseball Sessions" circa 1996. I don't know why this wasn't previously released, the songs are really good and if you're a Whiskeytown fan, you'll appreciate these samples.

WHISKEYTOWN- 7" Single
A. San Antone
B. The Great Divide