Newsletter #1
Welcome all those who opted to receive Artrockstore’s newsletter. We put the needle in the groove back in December 2016 and this is our first Newsletter 10 months later, hope you enjoy it.
Here at Artrockstore Central in Coledale we’ve been busy researching and cataloguing thousands of great albums (old and new) to create what we hope will become the world’s largest curated collection of rock music albums complete with links to artist websites & merchandise stores and iTunes links. It’s a labour of love to research through fifty years of rock history and select the “best” most iconic works of that period, as well as keeping up with great new releases coming out every month.
Let’s define what I mean by the “best” albums, which is what makes the difference between simply a list of one guy’s favorite albums, versus a list of albums that has universal appeal based on broad popularity and expert critique. In deciding what albums to choose, Artrockstore uses the following sources to make the call:
- RateYourMusic.com (RYM) rating of 3.5 and above (out of 5.0), and
- Allmusic.com rating of 4.0 and above (out of 5.0), and
- Discogs.com reviews (they don’t have ratings), and
- Critical reviews in journals such as The Quietus and Pitchfork, and
- The visual appeal of the album’s artwork
So, you can see that the albums are chosen objectively and are not just my favorites – although many are! I should also point out that I try to listen to every album that gets catalogued. Many of them are old friends but many of them I’m discovering and enjoying for the first time.
Recent Highlights
We’ve worked hard to catalogue forgotten gems from Australia and New Zealand. Country lists can be seen using the ‘Country’ drop-down option in the Catalogue. Check out these links..
Australia http://artrockstore.com/collections/australia
New Zealand http://artrockstore.com/collections/new-zealand
Also we’ve made a big push to catalogue rare Italian Progressive Rock albums from the 1970’s. Italy was a hot-spot for amazing Prog bands during this period. There were the relatively well know bands like PFM and Goblin, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the following link for some mind-expanding Prog gems:
Italy http://artrockstore.com/collections/italy
We introduced a new category for “poetry” related albums. The idea is to catalogue iconic albums of spoken-word poetry or poetry set to music. So far catalogued we have the major “Beat” poets: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, etc. plus more recent word-music artists such as John Cooper Clarke and Ghostpoet. Check out..
Poetry http://artrockstore.com/collections/all/poetry
Random stats
Albums catalogued 7,500
Artists catalogued 1,500
Most popular searches (so far this year)
- King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
- Panic! at the Disco
- Tame Impala
- My Chemical Romance
- Paramore
- Lana del Ray
- Nine Inch Nails
- Fleet Foxes
- Thee Oh Sees
- Godspeed you! Black Emperor
Customer orders of rare vinyl LP's shipped to 9 countries: Australia, NZ, USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain.
New Features
In the past month we added the ‘Favorites’ feature on the Artrockstore.com site. This is a great way to tag albums that interest you and maybe build a personalized themed set.
iTunes links are being added to every Album catalogued. Some of the earlier ones don’t have iTunes yet but we’re working our way through the back-catalogue to complete them all (where available).
The best way to view all the new stuff that’s been added since your last visit is to use the ‘Sort By – Date New to Old’ feature, which will show the most recently added albums and collections.
Recent Additions
Steve Earle Rory Gallagher (great!)
Threshold Lilly Hiatt (John’s daughter)
Kris Kristofferson Link Wray
Ian Hunter The Hard-ons (great covers)
Customer Special Requests
Groundhogs (all 7 albums)
Various on 4AD label (20 albums)
Classic Jazz Albums (12 album set)
Coming up
The Selecter Megadeth
Be-bop Deluxe Orbital
Beirut Lightnin’ Hopkins
Sonny Rollins Polar Bear
Forest Swords Run The Jewels
UFO UNKLE
Wolves In The Throne Room Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
It’s Popademic!
Q: What was the first band/album George Martin produced after the Beatles?
A: Seatrain http://artrockstore.com/search?q=seatrain
Peace & Stay tuned for more…
Ross
September 2017
Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed using Artrockstore/Blogs/News.atom