Features

What started as a tiny shop in our old Ballard warehouse in 2013 is now a full-fledged, 7-year-old brick-and-mortar (est. 2016) uniquely located in downtown Seattle's KEXP Gathering Space. The shop carries Light in the Attic releases, of course, but did you know that we also carry thousands of additional distributed releases, used records, and merch? We also sell albums specially hand-picked by KEXP DJs. Most recently, we collaborated with KEXP's Diana Ratsamee (Eastern Echoes) to launch a curated Eastern Echoes bin in the shop. Stop by and see us next time you're in Seattle or follow us on Instagram! Address: 472 1st Ave N, Seattle Hours: Weekends:...

It goes without saying that the legendary Lou Reed was a true rock ’n’ roll pioneer. From The Velvet Underground’s debut in 1967 all the way through the end of his days, Reed sang truth from his heart. He lived life to the limit—and then some. On this episode of Light in the Attic's Liner Notes, we sit down with album producer Bill Bentley to talk about our new release, The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed. Bentley, who was Reed's publicist and friend, shares his personal stories and insights into the making of this compilation. The...

VINYL PIMP AND THE JOY OF DIGGINGBy Victoria Holt Every record collector knows the feeling–you’ve wandered into an intriguing record store, and just as you’re getting settled into a nice fat stack, with rows upon rows of boxes to sift through, you realize with an unpleasant jolt that they shut in half an hour. Then it’s the rapid fire prioritization process: Which genre is most coveted on your list? Which section feels doable in the time you have left? Do you need time to check for quality issues at the listening station? How will you whittle down your finds to...

   In 2018, in honor of our new reissues of prolific musician and producer Haruomi Hosono’s essential albums, we teamed up with dublab and In Sheep’s Clothing’s, a hi-fi bar in downtown Los Angeles, for a night of celebration. Special guest Kuni Murai — famed producer, composer and founder of Alfa Records, joined dublab’s Mark “Frosty” McNeill for a chat about his decades-long working relationship with Hosono, from his days as a session player to his stratospheric success with Yellow Magic Orchestra and beyond. Please note, we have removed the music sections due to right's issues. Photo: Kuni Murai at his...

Long a lusted-after cult artifact among record collectors, Seasons is an anomaly in West Coast jazz keyboardist Pete Jolly's sizable catalog. Produced by Herb Alpert and released by his A&M label in 1970, the album found Jolly branching out beyond his trusty acoustic piano, incorporating Wurlitzer electronic piano, accordion, musette, Sanovox accordion organ, and Hammond B-3 organ. The expanded palette, combined with a new group of musicians besides longtime bassist/Wrecking Crew member Chuck Berghofer, resulted in a stunning departure from Jolly's more traditional outing. As Berghofer—who played with Jolly for nearly 40 years until the keyboardist's death in 2004—relates in...