With CD and digital download sales declining year by year, the music industry can barely handle another shock. Vinyl records sales are up 10 and gaining. The last remaining vinyl manufacturers are backed up with orders as demand increases. Why? Mp3 players, while convenient, do not have the same experience or sound as a vinyl record. At home we can still have the luxury of the better sound, the ritual of putting the record on the player, and the needle in the groove. Album jackets are an artistic statement in their own right. Artists like Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, and others are ahead of the game by offering free digital download of the entire record with each vinyl LP so you can have the best of both worlds.

With a little help from my friends, Mojo Books and Music in Tampa, Daddy Kool in St.Petersburg, SoundExchange, and also Hyde&Zeke's in Gainesville, I deliver to you my must have vinyl Records either reissued or released in the last 12 months.

The Black Angels
Passover  Double LP
The sound of this record is unbelievably thick, huge and haunting. If you close your eyes you may be scared to open them.  You may find yourself transported to the inside of a smoke filled tee-pee, a Warhol era basement party, or a heroic dosed electric lemonade godfinding contest before you take to the streets to protest the war.  This peyote-driven group openly channels their psych rock forebears, but with the relevant songs and words to give the genre a shot in the arm; if not resurrect it completely. All the tones are there, the hiss of the analog tape as they fry it, impossibly lo-fi fuzz guitars, a whiff of Black Sabbath, the pounding repetitions of Native American ceremonies, drones of the Doors organs, and echoes of the Spacemen 3. The Black Angels were by far the most talked about band at this years SXSW festival, and their recording gives the hype total credence.

Jazz, Funk and Soul Reissues: All of them
Miles Davis, Funkadelic, John Coltrane, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, The Meters, Charles Mingus, Curtis Mayfield, and too many other greats to list here.
There literally are so many Jazz reissues currently out this year they can't realistically be covered in one review. Most of the watermarks of the genres are now available, and the old Blue Note and Impulse era jazz records are affordable ( the original pressings fetch well over 500 a copy). You can get the same sound, and the same art in these reissues. With all the amazing Funk and Soul out again there is no excuse for your party to have bad dance music, or for you to not be able to romance your lover with some Marvin Gaye. 

The Beatles
Rubber Soul
Revolver 
Buy both of them, as they are both available on vinyl for a limited release. Possibly the most influential two records ever by the same artist recorded within less than a year of each other, and both evolutional cornerstones in the course of modern pop and rock music. These two records also mark the end of the Beatles teeny bopper 'merseybeat' sounds of their earlier records, as they branch out into experimental recording techniques and influences from psychedelic to Indian and American country folk and then onward into electric rock and classical. The sound of these in their original form is a welcome change to the tinny and thin way they sound on an iPod.

Arcade Fire
Neon Bible Double LP
Two Records with three sides of music, an etching on the fourth side, and a free full MP3 download. If you have not heard of them yet we need to bring you to the REAX office and discipline you. Recorded in a church, Neon Bible is an orgasmic melting of instruments and styles crossing genres and defying expectations.  This may very well be this band's watermark, because if they make an even better record than this the world may explode.

Bob Dylan
Live 1964 Concert at Philharmonic Hall
Modern Times
It took 40 years for Dylan's Halloween '64 performance to come to light.  Two years into his professional career and sounding as if he was playing an intimate downtown café, not a Philharmonic Hall, the twenty three year old Dylan wows an adoring crowd with a mix of familiar and new material.  This is segued by his signature good-natured banter and a few miscues.  In listening, these moments hold almost as much interest as the music itself.   On the other side of the coin is Modern Times, Bob Dylan's 31st studio LP and another best seller over the last 12 months in vinyl. Dylan is still very alive and still making brilliant records. He produced this record himself, backed by a band that complements every inflection.  Dylan unfurls new words and tales and breaths fresh life into songs that were originally penned as far back as the 1900's.

Apples In Stereo
New Magnetic Wonder
The Elephant 6 'collective' does it again.   This release includes a bonus vinyl-only track..."Atom Bomb", and gorgeous artwork. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the Apples at SXSW this year, and their genuine excitement is contagious in person as well.  It's rumored that the elusive Jeff Mangum is playing a coffee cup on this record as a percussion instrument.

Brian Jonestown Massacre
Take It From the Man! 1996 Double LP Reissue
Bravery Repetition and Noise 2001 LP Reissue
Truly legendary music indeed comes from people who struggled with egomania, addiction, and self-destruction. BJM is instantly associated with early Stones and The Who. Some 40 different members have passed through the underground group's ranks, but the heart of the BJM is the vision of Anton Newcombe: producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer. The careers of the Dandy Warhols, The Warlocks, Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and more have been drastically affected by this group.

Lou Reed,  John Cale, & Nico
Le Bataclan  ‘72
This official release includes two exclusive bonus tracks (both rehearsals - "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Candy Says"). This is the legendary show recorded at the Bataclan Club in Paris, on January 29 1972. This was the first time, since the break up of The Velvet Underground, that Reed, Cale, and Nico were on stage together. Forget about the geriatric performance from a few years ago. Each member gets their own set within the concert and plays previous Velvet Underground songs and their own solo material. Yes, it does exist, but you may have to see one of the stores listed above to order it.

Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer  2LP w/ 4 bonus tracks & a free MP3 album download.
Leaders of Athens Georgia’s paisley fey-pop movement have metamorphosed in to an indie-disco rave up with Kevin Barnes coming unraveled in every way, but his songwriting ability. Written and recorded during a year of severe mental duress, Hissing Fauna sees Barnes adopt a new writing style. What was once childish story-songs have now become surreal soul bearing and shiny blissful autobiographical insanity that you can dance the hustle to.

Modest Mouse
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank Double LP
Isaac Brock gets his original drummer back and then finds the legendary guitarist of The Smiths, Johnny Marr himself, waiting in the lineup. This record is a best seller on vinyl. Modest Mouse has been shedding skins faster than a corn snake and in this incarnation they have also shed some of their drunken poet lunacy. They emerge as a different swirl of sound with Brock's multiple personality disorder vocal style in full force and a diverse palate of sonic lushness behind him.