Polyvinyl Record Co.

The Cardinals officially clinched a playoff spot with their win over the weekend, which means Adam finally has to pay up on the dollar bet we made back in June. How convenient that he’s going to be out of the office this week.

Saturday Looks Good To Me alums Fred Thomas and Ryan Howard stopped by the office Wednesday after playing a house show in Urbana the night before with their new band City Center.

Adam had a chance to check them out and his only complaint was that the set didn’t last long enough. Luckily, Fred gave us some copies of City Center’s self-titled full-length — which I just added to our E-Store (along with the now out-of-print 7” records we also carry) — so Adam can listen whenever he wants.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out this prolific songwriter’s new musical outlet, head over to: http://www.myspace.com/citycenternyc.

With a delicious dinner from Lou Malnati’s (the famous Chicago pizza joint) still settling in my stomach, we took the “L” over to The Beat Kitchen just in time to hear Bob Nanna end his acoustic set with the Braid classic “A Dozen Roses.”

By this time, the capacity crowd was already filling the room with anticipation for Owen and his backing band. And they didn’t disappoint.

From Mike’s trademark banter with the people in attendance (“How would you feel if I told you I saw pictures of your baby online?”) to a set filled with fan favorites (“The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi,” “Nobody’s Nothing”) and lots of newer cuts (“Amnesia and Me,” “A Trenchant Critique,” plus a few others from New Leaves), there was nothing more the packed house crowd could’ve asked for.

Well, maybe “Never Meant” or a cover of “Jump” on the drums…

Waiting on Seth, Andy and Megan to get here so we can head up to the Owen shows in Chicago tonight. Andy’s never been to the Windy City before, I’ve never been to the Beat Kitchen and Owen’s never played with a full band* so there’s a lot of firsts tonight.

The first all-ages show starts at 7:30 (Bob Nanna opening) and the second 21+ show begins at 10:30 (Davey von Bohlen opening). If you’re in town, hope to see you there!

*Yeah, yeah — I guess technically Owen debuted his full band at Pygmalion on Wednesday, but I’ll just consider that a warm-up to the true main event in his hometown tonight.

Champaign-Urbana’s annual Pygmalion Music Festival kicked off last night with a three band Polyvinyl showcase.

The entire day leading up to the show was pretty hectic. Mike Kinsella and some of his friends stopped by to stock up on records (both his own and some choice albums from our other bands).

Then Brian and Dave from Japandroids hung out for about an hour while they waited for soundcheck — touring the office, picking up new shirts for the rest of the tour, and even grabbing a coveted Braid button and DVD.

And, while all this was going on, the entire staff pitched in to put together a unique package deal so Headlights could sell its new album at the show. Wildlife doesn’t come out until October 6th, but the band was excited to be back playing in its hometown so they wanted to give the local fans a treat for all their support over the years.

I took a few pictures to document the night. Check ‘em out below!

The NFL season kicked off yesterday (literally), but it wasn’t a promising start for Adam’s Lions who picked up right where they left off last year — with another loss. Things aren’t looking any better for next week with a game against Minnesota and its high-powered rushing attack.

In better news, my Niners beat the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. But I’m still focused on Cardinals of the St. Louis variety. Although the Braves came into town this weekend and swept them, Albert Pujols and Co. still have a chance to finish with the best record in the National League.

And to conclude the sports wrap-up, my fall co-ed softball team celebrated its first victory tonight after going 0 for the summer. Go Hitmen! (We’re sponsored by a DJ/karaoke service, so at least our name is always a contender for best pun.)

Our bands have been putting out a lot of great music lately, and what better way to spread the word than with a new Polyvinyl sampler!

Everyone collaborated to choose the tracks they wanted — including songs from upcoming albums by Headlights, Owen and James Husband (Jamey Huggins & company from of Montreal) — and Seth did a great job of arranging them into a killer playlist.

We called this one Simple Mental Math because you don’t have to spend a lot of time calculating the cost of buying each of these songs. We made it easy for you to add up this time around.

16 songs x $0.00/song = FREE!

To download, go to -> http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/mentalmath

(Tracklist in the comments)

Megan loves baking custom-made cakes for people’s birthdays, so before she left to spend a week in France she delivered this Twilight-themed red velvet creation with blood-colored icing for Danielle. (Happy Birthday!)

Matt left us home alone this past week while he, Darice and their two kids flew out to California to watch of Montreal at their taping of Yo Gabba Gabba (hopefully I’ll be able to put up some pictures from their trip later).

Since his office wasn’t being used and we had no place to put the Owen pre-orders we had started packing, the choice was obvious about where they should go…

The last couple days in mailorder land have been spent taking stock (read: recovering) after our 2nd Annual Garage Sale ended on Monday. The Garage Sale has a special place in my heart because the debut sale last year was my first experience as a part-time employee after interning for a semester.

The event will definitely be back next year, but this one will most likely go down as our biggest ever — so I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated (and kept me working like crazy all summer to pack and ship everything).

If you missed it this time around, don’t worry! Keep checking the classifieds for when we’ll pull the table out to the curb again next year.