The February selection(s) for our Record of the Month Club are two recently signed groups to the Fat Possum Records roster. This is our first Fat Possum selection for the ROTM Club, and it’s a doozy. As many of you know, Fat Possum Records is based right here in Oxford. They’re just down the street from the record store actually and we work closely with them acting like an unofficial storefront for the label. Fat Possum made its name by releasing hill country blues classics from R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, but we wanted to show the newer side of the label by showcasing some of their best up-and-coming artists like Sunflower Bean and Seratones (also check out Fat White Family, Mother, Yung, and the now-classic album Sweet heart, sweet light by Spiritualized among lots of others).
First up, we’re sending out the debut album by Brooklyn’s Sunflower Bean. RollingStone magazine gives it 4 stars and says, “Listening to the debut album, Human Ceremony, from Brooklyn trio Sunflower Bean is a bit like flipping through some smart stoner’s impeccably refined record collection. All the correct drone-rock references are present: the Velvet Underground at their beachiest, the Autobahn liftoff of vintage Seventies Kraut-rock, the Eighties drug-punk of Spaceman 3, recent garage-grind aesthetes like Ty Segall, and the entire college-jangle canon from early R.E.M. to the Smiths to Real Estate and beyond.” We’ve got super limited, coke-bottle clear vinyl copies just for our Record of the Month Club members. Club members will also be getting a limited CD (only available via Rough Trade in the UK) featuring Sunflower Bean covering some of their favorite songs. We’ll also be throwing in a promo poster featuring the Human Ceremony cover artwork.
Second up, we’re sending out the debut 7″ single Necromancer/Take it Easy from Shreveport, Louisiana group Seratones. They’ve been working on their debut album with Jimbo Mathus at the production helm and if this first single is any indication it’s going to rule. Seratones have played in Oxford several times now and they’re live show is top notch, so go see them when they come to your town (they’ll be back at Proud Larry’s on March 5th!) and be on the look out for their debut album coming later this year. Club members will be receiving the limited, blue vinyl version of the single.
