U-Dot Music's free digital singles series

Through much of the 00's, I was in a band called Continental. We had, and still have, a label called U-Dot. Even though Continental is no longer an active band, U-Dot continues to function as an outlet for Continental's archived recordings and for music by our close friends and collaborators. The label has abandoned making cds and is instead releasing a series of virtual singles designed to resemble 7" vinyl records. These singles are offered as free downloads and come complete with printable artwork and liner notes/credits.

The fifth single in the series was recently released and it is the best one to date. It's two new songs by Carta, a terrific band from the Bay Area. Carta deservedly garnered great reviews for their 2010 album, An Index Of Birds. These new songs are something of a sneak peak as Carta continues to work on a record that is due sometime in early 2012. U-Dot is very happy to be able to share this new music with you. Check it out: U-Dot

Bon jour!

I've been in Paris the past week or so, with a few days still to go. I have been searching for records high and low and my experiences have been mixed. There aren't nearly as many record stores here as there is in most major US cities, and the ones I have found have been decent, if not mind blowing. All that changed yesterday when GG and I ventured to the outskirts, just a few blocks north of the Parisian city limits.

We went to check out what is billed as Europe's largest flea market. I didn't really expect there to be many records there, but I like a good flea market so I was excited to go. Upon first arrival, the market was very underwhelming with only about 75-100 vendors mostly selling new clothes and athletic shoes. We were done wandering through it, when I looked way down the street and saw what looked like more vendors far on the other side of the freeway. We decided to head over there to take a peek. What we stumbled upon was a huge, no HUGE, flea market and antique/vintage/second hand/army surplus district. There were thousands of shops and vendors along dozens of streets that splintered off every which way. We walked here and there, in and out of tiny passageways loaded with stuff. We were there for four hours and we just scratched the surface.

There weren't too many record vendors, but there was a great one. He had thousands of records in his booth all neatly organized and relatively alphabetic. He even had an auxiliary booth across the aisle that housed his inexpensive, 1.5 euro each, bins. I scored a Rita Lee record from the "dollar" bins! From his regular stock I picked up The Ruts' "The Crack", Young Marble Giants' "Colossal Youth", the first record by Trust a French metal/hard rock band, an old Francois Hardy record. I can't tell you how excited I was. It was a really great day of record shopping and one that I'd been itching for since our plane landed a week ago.