For those wondering where we’re headed after Eccentric Soul: A Red Black Green Production and Codeine: When I See The Sun, your wait is over.
At the launch of the Numero label near-on a decade ago, we already had a massive hard-on for power pop, glam, and regional bar rock. This arousal led to the double disc Yellow Pills: Prefill compilation, which was intended as the first entry in a series that, we regret to report, got stalled out in committee. Seven years after its release, YP became the first Numero effort to be put to sleep. Emails began trickling in about the missing catalog number: Would YP ever be issued on vinyl? Would there ever be a second volume? Was The Toms track “Sun” actually recorded in the ’80s? Hoping to satiate the masses, the Numero brain trust has conceived Buttons as our brand-spanking-new power pop umbrella, and is pleased to announce the first two titles in the series:
July 17th 2012
044 Buttons: From Champaign To Chicago CD/2LP
An homage to the prairie state Numero calls home, From Champaign To Chicago is a 19-track survey of Illinois’ Cheapest Tricks. Reaching back to 1973 and Peoria outliers the Jets and ending in 1987 with Romeoville’s Julian Leal and his Dick Clark approved “Get Away,” From Champaign to Chicago connects, via map, pins, and string, the various scenes that pockmarked the face of the Land of Lincoln.
Prettyboys – I Wanna Make You! (Chicago)
Julian Leal – Get Away (Romeoville)
All-Night Newsboys – She’s Gone Hollywood (Chicago)
Names – It’s A Miracle (Rockford)
Kevin Lee & Heartbeat – Tonight (Chicago)
Band Jocks – At Practice (Chicago)
Vertebrats – Diamonds In The Rough (Champaign)
Nines – Holiday (Champaign)
Jerks – So Lifelike (LaSalle)
Northshore – School Yard (Chicago)
Paul – I Have Always Loved You (Oak Park)
Tom Orsi – Where Are You Now (Desplaines)
Kind – Total Insanity (Chicago)
Eyz – Midnight Girls (Desplaines)
Shoes – In My Arms Again (Zion)
Loose Lips – Kyle (Chicago)
Lay-Z – More And More (Joliet)
Jets – Be For Me (Pekin)
Contraband – See You Tonight (Champaign)
004 Buttons: Starter Kit 2LP
Our entry-level power pop compilation features 20 songs from the original 004, plus two bonus cuts, new liners, tons of sleeve scans, photos, and ephemera, all housed in a spot varnished, brick-thick gatefold sleeve.
A
Luxury - Green Hearts
Tweeds – I Need That Record
Colors – Rave It Up
Kids – Hey Little Girl
Trend – (I Feel Like A) Dictionary
B
Toms – (I Wanna Be A) Teen Again
Tommy Rock – Dream Rocker
Randy Winburn – Somebody Else’s Girl
Luxury – One In A Million
Tweeds – She’s The Girl (Who Said No)
Randy Winburn – Sunshine U.S.A
C
Bats – Not Easy For Me
Sponsors – In And Out Of Love
Treble Boys – Julie-Anne
Colors – All I Want
Toms – Domestic/Imported
D
Trend – She’s Hi-Fi
Kids – There Goes My Heart Again
Bats – Not My Girl Anymore
Treble Boys – One Kiss
Sponsors – Love I Can’t Wait
Tommy Rock – High School
On a rainy Saturday in April of last year, The Numero Group opened its first retail location. For ten hours we gave Chicago record fiends an alternative to the Record Store Day juggernaut of over-hyped exclusive product and two hour lines by doing one thing: offering new and used records at an affordable price. On Saturday April 21st, we aim to change nothing except the space (bigger) and the number of dealers (doubled).
The Empty Bottle has been kind enough to offer their nearly 3000 square foot space at 1035 North Western Avenue. We’ll be cramming every square inch of it with tens of thousands of LPs, CDs, tapes, 45s, DVDs, books, and magazines, sold by dealers trekking to Chicago from all over the US.
Numero Group will boast two tables of our own wares, where buyers can select from our 100 strong catalog to fill in holes in their Numero archive. We’ll also be selling our limited edition record store day LP/CD WTNG 89.9FM: Solid Bronze, and a limited-to-100 copies 45 that can only be purchased at this location.
Additionally, Numero will be setting up our mobile FM radio station, WTNG 89.9, broadcasting live from the Empty Bottle’s stage all day to a five mile radius. We’ll have guest DJs, a contest, and a live auction, all bookended with vintage radio ads for long-since-shuttered local businesses.
This record utopia will open at 9AM and close at 6PM. Cash, credit, or barter accepted. Steal, beg, or kill to attend.
If that doesn’t make you want to shop for records, what will?
We’ve been getting bombarded with emails wondering when the Codeine pre-order would be announced. Today is that day. First watch this:
All three albums will have subjected to our notoriously elaborate packaging and detailed liner notes, including essays by Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman, Love Child’s Alan Licht, and the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd. The albums have been faithfully restored from the original masters, and are accompanied by a plethora of singles, demos, live recordings, and Peel sessions. Each album will be packaged as a double album with a CD of the same material. Additionally, an ultra deluxe box set of all three albums is available in a limited edition of 1000 copies. The box set features no additional tracks, but does come with a 5′ x 1′ fold out poster of the band’s complete discography and a tidy box that holds all three albums National Geographic-style.
The first 500 copies pre-ordered of When I See The Sun will also receive a bonus 7″, featuring two songs recorded live at TT the Bear’s Place in Boston by Bob Weston.
We’ve also made an ultra deluxe edition, limited to 100 copies, that comes with a Numero “Winner” t-shirt.
Filed under: Codeine, Newsworthy | Tags: All Tomorrow's Parties, Codeine, Primavera
Late last year we issued a press release about a new direction Numero was going in: The 1990s. Alright, it didn’t explicitly say that, but it was implied in the content. On May 8th 2012 we’ll be reissuing the near-complete works of the seminal “slowcore” pioneers Codeine, and we’ll be setting a new standard for the modern reissue as a result. Their three albums for Seattle’s Sub Pop label, 1990′s Frigid Stars LP, 1992′s Barely Real, and 1994′s The White Birch, have been given the full Numero treatment, in a package that rivals our Boddie box.
All three double albums will be sold separately, or you can buy them together as the deluxe box set: When I See The Sun. We’ll be announcing a pre-order for the box shortly, and the first 500 will come with a bonus 45. Watch this spot for details.
The contents:
Frigid Stars LP
A
1. D
2. Gravel Bed
3. Pick Up Song
4. 3 Angels
5. New Year’s
B
1. Second Chance
2. Cave-In
3. Cigarette Machine
4. Old Things
5. Pea
C
1 Castle (SOS Demo)
2 Skeletons (SOS Demo)
3 Three Angels (SOS Demo)
4 Corner Store (SOS Demo)
5 Summer Dresses (SOS Demo)
D
1 Pea (Acoustic)
2 Second Chance (Demo)
3 Pickup Song (Demo)
4 Cave-In (Demo)
5 Kitchen (SOS Demo)
Barely Real
A
1. Realize
2. Jr
3. Barely Real
B
1. Hard To Find
2. W.
3. Promise Of Love
C
1 JR (Dessau Demo)
2 Hydroplane (Live)
3 Wird (Dessau Demo)
4 I Wonder (Dessau Demo)
D
1 Tom (Dessau Demo)
2 A l’Ombre de Nous
3 Cracked in Two
4 Realize (Alternate take)
5 Broken-Hearted Wine
The White Birch
A
1. Sea
2. Loss Leader
3. Vacancy
4. Kitchen Light
5. Washed Up
B
1. Tom
2. Ides
3. Wird
4. Smoking Room
C
1 Median (Peel Session)
2 Loss Leader (Peel Session)
3 Sure Looks That Way (Peel Session)
4 D (Live)
D
1 Atmosphere
2 Something New
3 Ides (Demo)
4 Smoking Room (Demo)
Additionally, a CD of the same material will accompany each album, packaged in a manner that is respectful of the object—not just thrown in as an afterthought.
Lastly, the band has announced a handful of dates to support the re-release of their catalog.After that, they go back in the box for another 20 years. Three dates have been confirmed, with another dozen or so club gigs to follow:
May 26 London – All Tomorrow’s Parties
June 1 Barcelona – Primavera
June 8 Porto, Portugal – Primavera Porto
In the flurry of wheeling and dealing this last week, we almost forgot to mention that we finished two great records.
Shirley Ann Lee: Songs of Light (NPH44003)
In the works since we acquired Felton Williams’ Double U Sound tape vault and began working on Local Customs: Downriver Revival, Toldeo, Ohio’s Shirley Ann Lee finally gets to step out on her own. A polite church going lady, Shirley cut a series of no-budget records for Williams’ Revival imprint and her own Shirleo record label in the late ’60s and ’70s. Rocking a decidedly out of date style, her 45s sank without a trace. By the mid-’70s Shirley ann Lee had ceased recording altogether. Collected here is the bulk of her Revival sides, plus demos, rehearsals, and a few snippets from the Shirley Ann Lee Radio Hour (never issued).
Track list:
Side A
1. Introduction
2. All I Have To Depend On
3. I Shall Not Be Moved
4. Stop Look & Listen
5. You Better Run
6. There’s A Light
7. Everything Gonna Be Alright
8. You’ve Been So Good To Me
9. Blessed Quietness
Side B
1. Intermission
2. How Can I Lose
3. Time
4. Stay On Your Knees
5. Someday
6. Get Back
7. Walk Through The Valley
8. Please Accept My Prayer
9. I’ve Got To Make It
Songs Of Light will be available on LP only (cut in glorious mono) on February 28th 2012.
Born out of a few masters that turned up in our Boddie haul, we’re pleased to be issuing I Travel Alone, the complete recordings of Lou Ragland between 1967-1978. Packaged as three CDs replicating his albums Hot Chocolate and Understand Each Other, plus an unreleased live album cut at the Agora Ballroom in 1973, or four LPs that cover the aforementioned three plus an album of singles, I Travel Alone is Ragland’s first career spanning overview.
Track list:
CD 1
Lou Ragland “I Travel Alone”
Lou Ragland “Big Wheel”
Volcanic Eruption “Red Robin”
Volcanic Eruption “I’ve Got Something Going For Me”
Hot Chocolate “Good For The Gander”
Hot Chocolate “We Had True Love” (45 version)
Hot Chocolate “Ain’t That A Groove”
Hot Chocolate “So Dam Funky”
Hot Chocolate “Sexy Moods Of Your Mind”
Hot Chocolate “Messin’ With Sly”
Hot Chocolate “We Had True Love”
Hot Chocolate “What You Want To Do”
Hot Chocolate “What Should I Do”
Lou Ragland & Hot Chocolate “I Can’t Take It”
Lou Ragland & Hot Chocolate “What The Doctor Prescribed”
CD 2
Lou Ragland “Since You Said You’d Be Mine”
Lou Ragland “Didn’t Mean to Leave You”
Wildfire “Tend To Your Business”
Lou Ragland “Understand Each Other”
Lou Ragland “What Happened To The Feeling”
Lou Ragland “Since You Said You’d Be Mine”
Lou Ragland “Just For Being You (Lovin’ You)”
Lou Ragland “What Should I Do?”
Lou Ragland “It’s Got To Change”
Lou Ragland “The Next World”
Lou Ragland “Understand Each Other” (Instrumental)
Live from Agency
Hot Chocolate “The World Is A Ghetto”
Hot Chocolate “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love”
Hot Chocolate “Understand Each Other”
Hot Chocolate “It Ain’t My Fault”
Hot Chocolate “Until I Met You”
Hot Chocolate “Spend My Life Loving You”
Hot Chocolate “Brother Louie”
Hot Chocolate “Good For The Gander”
Filed under: Newsworthy
Ah, youth! To be a pre-teen fronting a band on school nights until 2AM again! Relive the childhood you always wanted through our two kid records, Home Schooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul and Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples, both on deluxe double vinyl. Priced low enough to be bought with one week of saved lunch money, “for the kids.”
(NUM016V, NUM023V), a $5 savings
Our final release of 2011 is one we’ve been working on for close to five years. Astute readers of our liner notes may remember a section on acclaimed Chicago dusties DJ Richard Pegue in Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation. But for those who are more aurally connected to Numero, he’s brilliant arranger and producer on Renaldo Domino’s “Not Too Cool To Cry” and “Nevermore,” the Perfections “Why Do You Want To Make Me Sad” and “Which One Am I,” and Sidney Pinchback’s “Soul Strokes.” As soon as Twinight was done we approached Richard about doing a similar treatment for his Nickel and Penny concerns. He was immediately interested, but then again, Pichard Pegue was interested in everything. He died in the middle of working on this project, but we think he’d be pretty thrilled with the finished product.
Available on November 22nd on 2LP or CD, Eccentric Soul: The Nickel & Penny Labels is our first entry in the Eccentric Soul series in nearly two years, and we know it won’t disappoint. The LPs aren’t expected in until week’s end, but take a look at the CD to see what to expect:
And the track lists for those keeping score at home:
CD
01. Jerry Townes . Just Say The Word
02. Little Ben & the Cheers . Never More
03. Voices . Fall In Love Again
04. Jerry Townes . You Are My Sunshine
05. Matta Baby . Do The Pearl, Girl (Part 2)
06. Norvells . Why Do You Want To Make Me Sad
07. Voices . Forever Is A Long, Long Time
08. Little Ben & the Cheers . (I’m Not Ready To) Settle Down
09. Jerry Townes . Three Sides To A Triangle
10. Little Ben & the Cheers . Mighty, Mighty Lover
11. Jerry Townes . Little Old Lovemaker Me
12. Little Ben & the Cheers . I’m Gonna Get Even With You
13. Norvells . Without You
14. Jerry Townes . Never More
15. Extentions . This Love Of Mine
16. Halleluiah Chorus . I’ve Got To Find A Way
17. South Shore Commission . Shadows
18. Richard Terry & Company . Instrumental #1
19. Joyce Williams . The First Thing I Do In The Morning
20. South Shore Commission . You Got Me Hummin’
21. Brothers & Sisters . Don’t Let ‘Em Tell You
22. Sidney Pinchback . This Is The Woman
23. South Suburban Electric Strings . Sign Of The Zodiac
24. Sidney Barnes . The Ember Song
2LP
A.
01. Jerry Townes . Just Say The Word
02. Little Ben & the Cheers . Never More
03. Voices . Fall In Love Again
04. Jerry Townes . You Are My Sunshine
05. Matta Baby . Do The Pearl, Girl (Part 2)
06. Norvells . Why Do You Want To Make Me Sad
07. Voices . Forever Is A Long, Long Time Pegue
B.
01. Little Ben & the Cheers . (I’m Not Ready To) Settle Down
02. Jerry Townes . Three Sides To A Triangle
03. Little Ben & the Cheers . Mighty, Mighty Lover
04. Jerry Townes . Little Old Lovemaker Me
05. Little Ben & the Cheers . I’m Gonna Get Even With You
06. Norvells . Without You
07. Jerry Townes . Never More
C.
01. Halleluiah Chorus . I’ve Got To Find A Way
02. South Shore Commission . Shadows
03. Richard Terry & Company . Instrumental #1
04. Joyce Williams . The First Thing I Do In The Morning
05. Brothers & Sisters . Don’t Let ‘Em Tell You
06. Sidney Pinchback . This Is The Woman
D.
01. South Suburban Electric Strings . Sign Of The Zodiac
02. South Shore Commission . You Got Me Hummin’
03. Sidney Barnes . The Ember Song
04. Extentions . This Love Of Mine
05. Background Singers. You Made It Good
06. Background Players . Untitled Theme
Note: The 2LP edition contains two bonus tracks not on the CD.
It seems like half a decade since we first dreamed up our Donruss-inspired set of trading cards. Actually, it was 2008. Then we followed it up with a set of Light: On The South Side cards. We took 2010 off for lack of appropriate content, but we’re back with a vengeance in 2011. Look at that spread above. We fuckin’ wept when those rolled off the truck this morning. And then we wept again hand collating the sets. Who ever thought there would be a Tonistics rookie card?
We’ve made only 300 complete sets, hand numbered natch. Posters are limited to 50, numbered again. Of course you can always try to complete your own set by buying our records (one card per release), but that’s a daunting task that we’ve never heard completed.
We’ll be selling them at our yard sale tomorrow between 9AM-3PM, but those outside of Chicagoland can pick them up at our website now.
Extended series:
We found this sick photo of Lou Ragland that falls outside of our I Travel Alone set coming out next March. Look at that jacket!
Romancing you indeed. Here’s the video that jacket inspired in 1991:
Amidst the craziness of Titan, Boddie, and Yellow Pills booklet burning videos, we lapsed ever so slightly on our newest little record: Little Ed & the Soundmasters. You may remember the Soundmasters from their “It’s A Dream” track on Light: On The South Side, wherein a group of west side players enlist their eight-year-old brother to play drums and sing over a harmonica-drenched and smoke-blown slice of way-past-curfew blues-funk. It sounds like this:
When Charles Fisher, the group’s guitarist and archivist, brought over his scrap book of Soundmasters related ephemera, we knew at the very least we had to do something with the photos. That they made three killer 45s on their own Fised and Fished labels in the early ’70s made it that much easier to build a project.
Collected here for the first time is the complete Soundmasters recorded output, including their session backing noted Chicago cop and bluesman Johnny Dollar. The booklet is chock full of family photographs and shots of Little Ed Fisher on stage at Chicago’s seediest nightclubs. We’ve replicated the original labels, and clothed the records in sharp black sleeves. The whole shebang is packaged in tip-on style box, complete with printed interiors and a height buffer. Gorgeous doesn’t really begin to describe it.
We began shipping subscription copies last week, and a few stores have them as well, but if neither of those are options, you can always buy it from our 24-7 Numero store.
First, press play.
From 1958 to 1993, Thomas and Louise Boddie’s industrious Boddie Recording Company issued nearly 300 albums and 45s, recorded 10,000 hours of tape, and remained in operation longer than any other studio, pressing plant, or label group in the history of Cleveland. Long forgotten even by the standards of the chronically overlooked northeastern Ohio music scene, Boddie was a fusion of its owner’s engineering genius and his limited economic means; its DIY recording studio housed in a humble barn, churned night and day to capture the sounds emanating from Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods. The best of the Boddies’ in-house Soul Kitchen, Luau, and Bounty labels, which released an unspoiled treasure trove of kitchen-sink eccentric soul, fuzzbox funk, shoestring doo-wop, and haunted, eerily hook-laden spirituals, are collected here. Enclosed inside is a mountain of office-styled ephemera: two massive booklets brimming with detail on the Boddies and their artists; extensive notes and scores of unpublished photos; a complete detailed discography folio; reproduced fliers; and a Boddie greeting card—all rendered with the handcrafted charm that was the Boddie hallmark. Call it a self-contained record industry crammed into one box.
Close to five years was spent on the research and restoration of the Boddie archive, a feat matched only by last year’s epic Syl Johnson set. If you thought there was nowhere for Numero to go but down, prepare to be bowled over. No expense has been spared, no detail ignored. Easily our most impressive package to date, Boddie Recording Co. is a super-hybrid of our Eccentric Soul, Good God!, and Local Customs concepts all wrapped in one string-and-button or cloth bound box.
As has been our trend over the last few years, we’ve been making special editions of our year-end box sets for the more engaged Numero buyer. In the case of Boddie, there was scores of left over material that didn’t make the cut. In addition to the 58-track triple CD, we’ve created a 21-song bonus disc for the first 500 pre-orders. On the LP side, we’ve augmented the 65-track 5LP set with a replica of the Mod Squad’s one-of-a-kind LP acetate. For those not up to speed on all the Boddie mysteries, the Mod Squad is the teenage configuration of future Motown and People recording artists Sly, Slick & Wicked. Packaged in a custom Boddie LP sleeve and limited to 500 copies, the Mod Squad acetate is the cherry on top of a year of rare Cleveland soul.
Follow up question from the peanut gallery: If I’m already a 2011 CD and/or 2011 Part 2 Numero LP Subscriber, do I need to pre-order to get all the goodies? Answer: Your subscription guarantees your pre-order slot.
Want one? Click here. All orders will ship the second week of October, arriving right before Boddie’s eventual October 25th release date.
