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CD: $15.98
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The Autumn Defense
Self-Titled
For their third album, self-titled The Autumn Defense, Pat Sansone and John Stirratt took some time away from their duties as members of Wilco to write and record new material in Chicago. They recovened with their rhythm section of the last 6 years: drummer Greg Wieczorek, and producer/ session man Brad Jones, as well as other Autumn Defense regulars pedal steel player John Pirruccello and horn player Steve Tyska. With string and flute performances that brought Sansones light orchestral arrangements to life helped provide a truly organic feel to the recordings,The Autumn Defense is the culmination and continuation of what the band has reached for in the last two records. -CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label:Broadmoor
Genre/Style: Pop / Yaw'ternative / Folk
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $13.98
LP: $9.98
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The Hold Steady
Boys and Girls in America
This is the vinyl version of The Hold Steady's newest album.
To be perfectly honest, The Hold Steady isn’t that great of a band. They have always been a group of blue collar workers with drinking habits and a pompous air to them. Which is why I like them. We’ve always had that friend growing up, that one that was smarter than most and decided to not to do anything with it, except be the wisest gas attendant or bus boy. The Hold Steady is for them - rock n roll for men with forward thoughts and dirty hands. And on Boys and Girls In America, you find that band, standing up, knocking the dust off their pants and coming into their own.
The band has really matured here, stepping away from there barroom deminure and coming in to a recharged group, reminiscent of late 70’s E Street. Craig Finn’s on-record persona and performance style have also been revamped. omparatively, he seems much more subdued here, actually SINGING more than barking and yelling; his voice is still scratchy, of course, but he no longer sounds like he’s half-drunk and ranting at a bar somewhere. His lyrics are still filled with strange imagery, rambling stories, weird non-sequiters, and quirky humor, but here it feels more like Tom Waits-style storytelling than anything else.
So, is this a step backward or a step forward for the band? Well, my first impression is that I don’t like it as much as Separation Sunday, and yet my respect for this band has only grown. They’re trying new things and pushing themselves in strange new directions. Sure, I miss the raw, raucous energy of their first two albums, but this is a fine record in its own right– a bold statement from an important band, a first-rate rock album. -TM
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label:Vagrant / Sabot
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD:$12.98
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Locksley
Don't Make Me Wait
I haven't got a chance to spin the new Locks yet, but I will and I will report soon. Below is part of their one sheet and you can see for yourselfs, these strapping young lads are hot hot hot. Relative review coming soon.-JW
Timeless songs and a contagious youthful optimism are the foundations of Wisconsin-raised, Brooklyn-based, Locksley, who have achieved more as an unsigned band in the last year than most major label acts will in a career, receiving 4 out of 5 stars for their new record and being named one of the best unsigned bands in the country by Alternative Press in December 2006. Two songs were licensed for Payless Shoes national television spots, and MTV quickly acknowledged the band using Why Not Me as the theme for a new show and funding the video for the song. The video beat out other major label artists videos, was placed in rotation on MTV and MTVU, making them the only unsigned band with this distinction. -CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label:Feature
Genre/Style: Garage / Pop / Faux Brit Pop
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2CD: $19.98
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The Mahavishnu Project
Return to the Emerald Beyond
Live recordings from 2006. "Founded in 2001 by drummer and composer Gregg Bendian, The Mahavishnu Project has been dedicated to reviving and bringing to today's audiences the excitement and the transcendent experience of visceral intensity of the early days of jazz/rock in general and the music of The Mahavishnu Orchestra specifically. The band was formed by Gregg specifically to perpetuate the spirit of live performance in which this music was created by performing this great music live! Return to the Emerald Beyond features an 11-piece band interpreting The Mahavishnu Orchestra's Visions of the Emerald Beyond, one of the most explosive albums in the fusion genre. -CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label: Cuneiform
Genre/Style: Jazz / Rock / Prog
MP3 Eternity's Breath
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CD: $11.98
LP: $12.98
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Sic Alps
Pleasures and Treasures
What can I say about this band without sounding too ridiculous or stoned? Ah well, here it goes... this stuff just has that sound, man. A timeless breath of aged freshness with a heavy vintage feel. We could call it rock, psychedelic rock, lo-fi garage pop, but when you start labeling something, the words start to supersede the sound. Just flip this on, sit back, listen for yourself and breathe it in. That's it, the sound -- it's like taking a deep breath. An honest breath of timelessness, filtered through the delay and echo of the past. A modern psychedelic classic. Honestly, it's hard to tell when this was recorded. Early-mid '60s, '70s? Something about this band... OK, enough of the voice of non-reason, I'll just tell it straight. This is the debut album by Sic Alps, recorded in 2004-5 and now getting the proper treatment courtesy of Animal Disguise. Sic Alps are the duo of Mike Donovan and Matthew Hartman (Cat Power, Coachwhips, Total Shutdown) but at the time of this recording they were a three-piece: Mike Donovan (Big Techno Werewolves, Folding Cassettes label head), Bianca Sparta (Erase Errata), and Adam Stonehouse (The Hospitals). This is their 'lost' masterpiece and defining document of modern garage-psych-rock circa 2004 San Francisco. -CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label: Animal Disguise
Genre/Style: Psychedelic / Rock
MP3 Down Comes the Perm
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CD: $8.98
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Stars of Track and Field
Centuries Before Love & War
Stars of Track and Field had become an entirely different band, one that keenly opted to straddle the divide of vintage analog and cutting-edge digital, merging the best of yesterday and tomorrow into a succinct musical package. “We could finally embrace all of our influences,” says Kevin Calaba, “and add the colors of Aphex Twin and early Pink Floyd to a palette that already included the Beatles and My Bloody Valentine.” Adds Dan Orvik, “between the three of us there are many influences, the musical direction could go anywhere.”
If the anthemic rock aesthetic found on the full-length feels somewhat melancholic, then similarly bittersweet is the lyrical content. "We called the CD Centuries Before Love and War due to the fact that all the lyrics deal with maligned memory and love loss. And obviously, with the war going on now, it's pretty hard not to have that affect your writing,” says Calaba. “The difficult part is presenting your politics with insight and thoughtfulness, while avoiding trite rhetoric and cliché,” adds Bell. “How one cannot be shocked and horrified by the random violence and lackluster performance of this administration baffles me.”
-CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label: Wind-Up
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $15.98
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Various Artists
African Dance Beat
First in the African Dance Beat Series. -CP
Release Date: 01/16/07
Label: Kingston
Genre/Style: Afro Beat
MP3 Unavailable
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CD:$13.98$10.98
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Canada
This Cursed House
It's finally here and we couldn't be more proud. Made for everyone living within Detroit and its surrounding populous comes "This Cursed House", the debut from 7 southern michiganders with an obviously envious eye to the north. Recorded in the dark of winter on a sound board originally built and used in the early 80's to mix portions of the 2nd & 3rd installments of the Star Wars trilogy comes an unexpectedly warm record of art-folk arrangements featuring dual cellists, melodica, shout & response vocals, glockenspiel and rhodes piano. -CP
Release Date: 09/19/06
Label: Quite Scientific
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD:$18.98$13.98
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Matthew Friedburger
Winter Woman / Holy Ghost Language School
Matthew Friedberger is one half of the brother and sister duo The Fiery Furnaces. This is Matt’s first solo release and the first release from the newly formed label 859 Recordings.
The first disc, Winter Women, clocking in at one hour, showcases his strength as a songwriter and features some of the most accessible and infectious pop songs he's ever written. Winter Women is a summer record, full of catchy and un-ironic pop songs.
The second disc Holy Ghost Language School is the more 'experimental' of the two and is about Xenolalia, the act of spontaneously speaking in foreign languages. Matt turns the concept into a 46 minute combustible sonic novel of original songs in wholly subjective arrangements of clattering guitars and scattered lyrics.
Matt wrote and arranged all the music, played all the instruments (except for some drumming from John McEntire from Tortoise) and is the only vocalist throughout. The record was co-produced by Bill Skibbe at Key Club Recording at Benton Harbor, Michigan in March of this year.
-CP
Release Date: 08/08/06
Label: 859 Recordings
Genre/Style: Pop / Rock
MP3 The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Resignation Letter
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CD:$9.98$6.98
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Miss Violetta Beauregarde
Odi Profanum Vulgus El Arceo
Self-produced and brimming with the kind of speaker-rattling bass that's best appreciated in three-wheel motion, Miss Violetta Beauregarde's second album, "Odi Profanum Vulgus Et Arceo" (a famous Latin phrase meaning "I hate the common crowd and I spurn them") is an abstract force to behold. Constructed from fractured electronics, earth-shaking rhythms and throat-ripping screams, each song is a self-contained temper tantrum. And if you think this is damaged, you should see her bruised limbs after one of her infamous live shows. Never before has someone had so much fun being so pissed off. We affectionately refer to this as grind-hop; half Volkswagen Thing, half Cadillac Escalade. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre/Style: Experimental
MP3 The Unbearable Lightness of a Farm Tractor
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CD:$14.98$9.98
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The Nice Boys
Self-Titled
With ridiculously catchy songwriting, awesome backup vocals and remarkably clever hooks, The Nice Boys come on like the bastard offspring of Nick Lowe and four Faces groupies. A cool breeze of Great American powerpop in this world of garagey beer farts and patchooli. -CP
Release Date: 08/21/06
Label: Birdman
Genre/Style: Pop / Rock
MP3 Teenage Nights (Sample)
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CD:$11.98$8.98
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Psychic Ills
Early Violence
Collecting tracks from the first two installments of the Mental Violence series along with a few other hard to find tracks, this release captures the formative years of the band. Progressing from a duo to the more familiar quartet, the music breaths a sense of discovery that is all at once vehement,fragile and inventive. -CP
Release Date: 12/05/06
Label: The Social Registry
Genre/Style: Experimental / Drone / Psychedelic
MP3 4AM
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