|
 |
| |
 |
|
CD: $6.98
LP: $7.98
|
Animal Collective
People
Fat Cat’s first release of 2007 arrives in the form of a CDEP and 12” from Animal Collective, featuring three previously unreleased tracks (plus one live version), which were recorded at the same sessions as the band’s hugely successful ‘Feels’ album (released October 2005).
The EP is based around the lead track, ‘People’ – a hypnotic, slow-lumbering roller that builds purposefully around a haze of shimmering guitar and piano, a see-sawing (almost Fall-like) bass riff, scuttling percussion, and dubby explosions. With little in the way of vocal lines, Avey Tare’s voice is instead utilised in a series of simplistic chanted affirmations, yelps and screams.
‘People’ is followed up by ‘Tikwid’ – a quirky, upbeat live favourite that motors on rollercoaster piano, cartoon-ish sampled squelches; bustling drum stabs and a runaway vocal chorus. It’s another killer track that sounds like noone else and fits snugly alongside the likes of ‘Grass’ or ‘The Purple Bottle’.
The brief spectre of ‘My Favorite Colors’ conjures a haze of processed, haunted ballroom vocal warbles and slurred laughter, whilst the EP ends on a live recording of ‘People’ – recorded in Boston on the band’s US tour from Buffalo in march 2005, just prior to the recording of ‘Feels’. The first three tracks were recorded during those sessions in Seattle with producer Scott Colburn (Sun City Girls / Climax Golden Twins) in April 2005, and the material features significant contributions from violinist Eyvind Kang (Mr. Bungle / Sun City Girls / Arto Lindsay / Laurie Anderson / John Zorn), and Kristín Anna Valtysdóttir (Múm / Storsveit Nix Noltes), who plays piano.
Taking inspiration from a wide range of sources without ever being reducible to a list of influences, Animal Collective are making challenging modern pop - music that defies easy classification or lazy pigeonholing. The mixture of electronics and traditional instrumentation, of songform and soundscape are integrated brilliantly and totally convincingly into a coherent, logical whole. Bubbling, rippling instrumental playing coheres into fluid song structures that seem to swell and ebb, building a throbbing, shimmering wall of sound. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Fat Cat
Genre/Style: Pop / Psychedelic
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $12.98
|
The Bird and The Bee
Self-Titled
Made up of vocalist Inara George, who has been aptly referred to as "a modern day Audrey Hepburn with the voice of an angel," and keyboardist/producer Greg Kurstin, who has lent his talents to records by Beck, The Flaming Lips, Lily Allen, Peaches, and many more. The Bird and the Bee take elements of everything from the Beach Boys to 60's Brazil electronica, spinning them into this irrepressible collection of ten sunshine-drenched, semi-psychedelic ditties. -TM
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Blue Note
Genre/Style: Lounge / Jazz / Pop
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$13.98$9.98
LP:$12.98
|
Black Diamond Heavies
Every Damn Time
PLAYING THE TAPHOUSE FRIDAY JANUARY 26th!
Black Diamond Heavies are a unique punk-ass blues duo from Tennessee, a soulful rock'n'roll outfit born in the junkyards of the South. The Heavies are John Wesley Myers (bass keys, Fender Rhodes, organ, and voice) and Van Campbell (drums and vocals). Van is from Louisville, Kentucky and comes from a family of bourbon distillers. He also holds a degree in Mandarin Chinese and has drummed professionally on three continents. John Wesley, the son of a Baptist preacher, was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and has been shaking his "testimony" all over the South, playing gospel as a child until the devil got hold of him. Although they hail from the Southern States of America the Heavies see themselves as vagrant citizens of the world. They have spent the last two years on the road, living in vans, and sleeping on floors. They bring their countless hours of live experience onto their debut album; Every Damn Time is a punk rock album full of sweat, noise and soul. Another amazing duo from the label that brought you the debut albums of the Black Keys and Two Gallants. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Alive
Genre/Style: Garage / Rock / Soul
MP3 Fever In My Blood
|
CD/DVD: $19.98
|
Frank Black
Christmass
This release is comprised of live Frank Black acoustic recordings from Summer 2006, along with five studio tracks recorded partly in hotel rooms and partly at Planet of Sound studios in Hartford, Connecticut. The set also features a DVD with selections from one of the live acoustic shows and the whole things features seven new songs in total. The project was produced by longtime Pixies' camp member Myles Mangino. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre/Style: Rock / Acoustic / Live
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: Super Roots 1 $12.98
CD: Super Roots 3 $12.98
CD: Super Roots 5 $16.98
|
Boredoms
Super Roots
Super Roots 3
Super Roots 5
1993’s Super Roots just might be strangest of the group’s entire catalogue. It comes off assaultive but playful; a well-executed hit carried out by infant assassins with toy musical weapons. These mostly percussive, acoustic tracks rely almost solely on the performers’ heads, hands, and mouths to generate a restless, clanging racket. All over the record you’ll hear snatches of bodily functions, metal percussion, Eye screaming as if he’s being flogged, various band members beating the tar out of electric guitar and rock drums, mile-a-minute auctioneer vocalisms and barbaric percussive assaults, alien-nerd daisy chain chants, and the sound of getting electrically sick in the bathroom. It’s easily the most entertainingly difficult music they ever made.
The first of their long-form pieces, Super Roots 3's “Hard Trance Away (Karaoke of Cosmos)” rages forth with a full half-hour’s worth of unimpeded, breakneck, two-chord thrash. Key changes seem to occur at intervals, and vocal wailing blesses the last 10 or 15 seconds’ worth of music, before cutting off and ending in three whole minutes of silence. If the first Super Roots was maddening in its frantic attention deficits, Super Roots 3 quells the frustration with linear, single-minded aggression.
Divesting itself of anything rhythmic, Super Roots 5 consists of one 64-minute freakout called "GO!!!!!," and is perhaps the centerpiece of the entire Super Roots series. “GO!!!!!” is sublime, sublimated crash for the end times, a mélange of churning guitar, electronics, crashing cymbals and bowed percussion. The track is endlessly inventive and in its subtle shifting and unflagging intensity; it’s a warm, maximalist rock spin on Japan’s then-burgeoning "power electronics" scene; a massive, molten copper disc absorbing all of the power of the sun. It's this piece that most connects to their future psych/trance/drone-based efforts such as 1999’s Vision Creation Newsun or 2004’s Seadrum/House of Sun. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Vice
Genre/Style: Psychedelic / Experimental / Rock
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $12.98
|
Tom Brosseau
Grand Forks
PLAYING THE BOOT WEDNESDAY MARCH 7th!
Tom Brosseau has a voice that has been called totally earthbound and at the same time "sorta out there." With his new album, Grand Forks, Brosseau speaks of his hometown in North Dakota, of the people there, of convulsions of nature, and of survival.
For Grand Forks, Brosseau worked with his producer Gregory Page and recorded at the Maybellaine garage in San Diego as well as in Venice and La Mesa. John Doe, of the great LA punk band X, co-produced and sings on "Fork in the Road." Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is featured on "Fork in the Road" and the stunning "Blue Part of the Windshield." Also, both the former Mayor of Grand Forks and the former Governor of North Dakota share some words in the liner notes.
Grand Forks is about the great flood of 1997, homelessness, the love of the sound of the fabulous fifties, Les Paul and Mary Ford, traveling, and keeping the direct sunlight out of your face on the freeway. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Loveless
Genre/Style: Folk / Country
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $16.98
|
Clinic
Visitations
HARDLY ANY bands make it to their fourth album these days. And fewer still get there sounding as individual as Clinic. They are distinctive in the way that The Fall, The Residents or Missy Elliot are distinctive, it’s hard to mistake their sonic fingerprint for anyone else’s, yet because they keep exploring the outer limits of their thing, they always sound fresh. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Domino
Genre/Style: Post Punk
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$13.98$9.98
|
Rob Crow
Living Well
Somewhere between the breakneck touring to support Pinback¹s breakthrough Touch and Go debut, 'Summer in Abaddon', and the release of The Ladies' debut album (his collaboration with Zach Hill of Hella/Team Sleep), the impossibly prolific Rob Crow had an epiphany: Slow Down. Not coincidentally, this revelation occurred shortly after the birth of his first child (named Robertdale Crow III, of course). Crow's time at home was suddenly more important than ever. His family is all over 'Living Well', his third solo album: in the album title, the artwork (layered with dozens of family photos), and the intensely personal lyrics which document Crow's courtship with his wife, their marriage, and the subsequent birth of their first child. Not only is 'Living Well' Crow's finest solo album by a country mile, it also transcends many of Pinback's most canonic moments. It has the hooks and heart that he is famous for, with a refined focus not seen in Crow's other projects. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Temporary Residence
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Rob Crow I Hate You (Single Version)
|
CD: $15.98
|
Deerhoof
Friendly Reminder
There's a symphonic conception at work here, entire worlds within chords, genius hooks that may or may not swing by again, a programmatic, narrative flow that takes us from one place and drops us off in another, like an exhilarating abduction. Just as importantly, you can hear how the band took a little something from each of the bands they'd toured with - Radiohead, The Roots, and Wilco - though they don't sound like any of them. "Friend Opportunity" is a feat of reinvention that could only come from artists willing to rethink everything. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Kill Rock Stars
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 +81
|
CD:$13.98
LP:$12.98
|
Julie Doiron
Woke Myself Up
We all are driven to doing certain things and making certain decisions in our lives for any number of reasons, be it ambition, fear, greed or love. The last purpose is perhaps the most identifiable to most of us, and so it is no great mystery that that which drives us can both reward us immensely and plummet us into the greatest depths of inconsolable sadness and regret. On Julie Doiron's first album of new material in over two years, she addresses in her signature intimate songwriting style both the heights and the fallout in a way that forces the listener to reexamine their own loves.
One of the most important and greatest loves in Julie's life is that towards her family. The first half of Woke Myself Up details the joy and awe that her family has given her. Immediately, one knows that her unabashed and unaffected lyrics are coming from a woman truly moved. The second half sees Julie making mistakes, blowing second chances, and coming to terms with the sad truth that one cannot live up to expectations set by herself or those she loves. The harrowing untitled final track (recorded and added to the album at the eleventh hour by Doiron) may very well be the most affecting of Doiron's performances ever committed to tape.
Also important to the recording of this album was a reunion of sorts with her musical family. Founding Eric's Trip bandmate Rick White produced and played on the entire album, and a handful of the songs contain the entire original Eric's Trip band nucleus that took the Canadian indie underground by storm 15 years ago. Working with an old friend and collaborator like White was key to this album's intensely vulnerable and emotionally raw tone. What's captured is timeless and universal, in the same way as Cat Power's Moon Pix, Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love And Hate, and Joni Mitchell's Blue. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Jagjaguwar
Genre/Style: Pop / Folk
MP3 No More
|
CD: $13.98
|
The Earlies
The Enemy Chorus
The Earlies sophomore effort The Enemy Chorus is a hypnotic voyage through a largely aphotic locale with unpredictable bursts of light and sound - perhaps amidst the heavens, or maybe under our own feet. The album comes from a darker and less familiar place than their pop tradition-steeped debut These Were The Earlies (released by Secretly Canadian in 2005). While no less beautiful than that record, The Enemy Chorus carries a greater feeling of uncertainty, longing, anxiety, and sadness. However, these tonal changes did not happen overnight, as the seeds were planted in the sunny, pastoral pop fields of that first album. The Earlies started as a recording project, with the four core members swapping tapes and trading files from their home studios. Over time, the vision grew, as the core of four enlisted the help of other musicians to translate their music to a live show - at times featuring 12+ musicians.
The group's production skills have been greatly refined - at times, reminiscent of?Nigel Godrich's great layered atmospheres. The approach to recording is essentially the same, though, and the distinct "Earlies sound" remains intact. Their listening habits changed considerably between the recording of the two albums - exploring the depths of progressive and krautrock. Influences range from the essential work of Faust, to prog greats Gentle Giant, to the musique concrete madness of Jean-Claude Vannier.
The Enemy Chorus would not be truly complete without the right artwork. For that task, The Earlies called upon Michael England. After repeated listens to the album, England delivered the perfect visual accompaniment. The group can best explain it themselves: "He discovered the hidden concept album within, and the whole album made more sense to us upon seeing his artwork than it ever had previously." -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Secretly Canadian
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 No Love in Your Heart
|
CD:$12.98$8.98
|
Fjord
Lives Lives
PLAYING RELATIVE THEORY FEBUARY 3rd!
In an age of repetitive breakdowns and lyrics you've heard a million times over, FJORD delivers Lives Lives to remind us that there are still musicians with a passion for what they do and how they represent themselves. Forming from the ashes of bands such as Winter Solstice, The Takeover, and others in late 2005, FJORD has the experience and know how of the road as well as the drive to do whatever it takes to bring their music to the masses. For fans of Converge, Botch, and Norma Jean, it won't be long before this band is out of the basements making their mark on the underground. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Eulogy
Genre/Style: Metal
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $15.98
2xLP: $16.98
|
Ghost
In Stormy Nights
Ghost’s album is called In Stormy Nights and is somewhat the opposite of their previous Ghost opus, Hypnotic Underworld. Ghost have been watching carefully the path our world has been hurtling down and are not happy. However, they’re not without hope, either — and In Stormy Nights is suffused with a bright and burning spirit of protest! Which as you know is an action not undertaken lightly and/or without hope. A double album with deep impact (and a Cro-Magnon cover to boot), In Stormy Nights is a monumental achievement. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Drag City
Genre/Style: Psychedelic / Chamber Pop
MP3 Caledonia
|
CD: $13.98
|
The Good The Bad The Queen
Self-Titled
Standard UK pressing of the debut album from Britpop supergroup The Good, The Bad And The Queen. TGTBTQ is a new album featuring Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Tony Allen (Africa 70/Fela Kuti) and Simon Tong (The Verve). The Good, The Bad and The Queen began life in the Aphrodisia Studios in Nigeria in 2004 and traces a journey from the English music hall tradition, over to West Africa for Afrobeat, zigzagging through the West Indies and its reggae and dub, back to England and London's punk scene, all the while taking in a strand of British beat music from the '50s right through to Britpop. Produced by Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Virgin
Genre/Style: Afro Pop / Dub
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$34.98$29.98
|
The Grateful Dead
Live at the Cow Palace New Years Eve 1976
3 Full CD’s All Previously Unreleased! The Dead Stretch Out and Soar in a Quintessential New Years Eve Show!! Featuring Masterful Performances of: Playing In The Band, Sugar Magnolia, Samson & Delilah, Morning Dew & 19 Other Tracks. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Rhino
Genre/Style: Rock / Jam
MP3 Unavailable
|
CD: $14.98
|
Lee Hazelwood
Cake or Death
Limited edition digipak pressing of 2006 album from the songwriter/producer best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra. Full of Hazlewood's trademark drama, sentiment, lyrical trickery, subtle politics, ribald roguery, dry and unforgettable melodies, Cake Or Death is a fabulous curtain call from one the music's most ingenious and infamous characters with guest appearances from Duane Eddy, Richard Bennett, Tommy Parsons, new associate Ann Kristin Hedmark, renowned German artist Bela B and his granddaughter Phaedra Dawn Stewart. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Sony
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$12.98
|
Menomena
Friend and Foe
Friend and foe shines Northwest indie songcraft through a Chicago post-rock lens, illuminating the quiet recesses with an unpredictable, experimental light. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Barsuk
Genre/Style: Pop / Math Rock
MP3 Wet and Rusting
|
CD: $9.98
|
Mew
Frengers
Domestic pressing of the indie Danish band's debut album. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Sony
Genre/Style: Rock / Shoegaze
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $8.98
|
Mum
Peel Sessions
December 4th sees the long-awaited release of múm’s only ever Peel session, recorded at Maida Vale Studios in 2002 for BBC Radio One’s infamous, revered, and fondly remembered John Peel show. The four tracks here (five if you include the amalgamation of the two songs on the opening track) are significantly different versions of songs that will be familiar to fans, yet fresh enough to warrant a widespread release of what amounts to a batch of stand-alone recordings by a young band at a creative peak. Before their line-up changed, before others tried to copy their sound, before anyone from America ever went to the Airwaves Festival, this is a document of a time we hold dear to our hearts.
Bridging the gap between their universally acclaimed debut ‘Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK’, and their more expansive, sonically detailed follow up ‘Finally We Are No One’, these tracks represent múm in transition from the warm naivety of ‘Yesterday…’ to a more sonically detailed approach, more commonly associated with their recent or current output. Curiously, it’s also a significant precursor to the bands new material, to be released Spring 2007, in tone if not execution. The band are now an expansive collective, blurring the distinction between live band and electronica.
Renowned for purveying an otherworldly, almost magical aura, múm manage to make experimental music that’s naturally, effortlessly imbued with a pop sensibility. Their sound is warm, gorgeously rich and melodic. Using an array of instruments (guitars, bass, drums, synths, laptops, cello, accordion, mutated brass, and musical saws to name a few) alongside crisply programmed electronic washes, beats and bleeps - their musical talent, whatever direction they choose to take, is immediately audible. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Fat Cat
Genre/Style: Post Rock
MP3 Myspace
|
CD: $13.98
|
Nurse & Soldier
Marginalia
Nurse & Soldier's Marginalia is gentle, bewildered psych-pop from the partnership of Robertson Thacher (aka Bobby Matador of Oneida) and longtime collaborator Erica Fletcher. The two have been making music together since their teenage years, a long history reflected in the intimate nature of the music. Far more vulnerable and raw than Oneida, Nurse & Soldier sing about longing, betrayal and reconciliation; the sound of Marginalia is a confused murmur, as opposed to Oneida's punishing roar.
The two multi-instrumentalists sing and play organs, guitars, synths, woodwinds, drums, and more ?ey are also joined by friends, including regular collaborator Jake Bailey (guitar, organ, drums) and Kid Millions of Oneida (drums). Marginalia is their second full-length record, following 2001's self-released Ancient History. All songs were recorded in Brooklyn, New York, during the current century.
-CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Jagjaguwar
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Green Tea
|
CD:$14.98$9.98
LP: $14.98
|
Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
During the last three years of Montreal have been on a tear: releasing 2004's Satanic Panic in the Attic and 2005's The Sunlandic Twins and spreading their dance party-inducing live shows to the masses. Now, of Montreal have created their masterpiece with Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (streets January 23rd). It's an irresistible and remarkable album, sounding like a logical extension of the erratic indie-disco sounds of The Sunlandic Twins. However, Hissing Fauna is also the most personal of Montreal album to date, with Kevin Barnes, lead of Montreal songwriter, pouring tremendous amounts of emotion, heartbreak, frustration and elation into its twelve tracks. Also, be sure to pick up a copy of the record on double 180 gram vinyl and get four bonus tracks plus a code for a free digital download of the album too! -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Polyvinyl
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
|
LP: $7.98
|
Panda Bear
Bros
A core member of Animal Collective, the stunning new ‘Bros’ 12” from Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) is his first solo release on FatCat, and follows his three previous releases, the ultra-limited, self-titled 1998 album (on bandmate Deakin’s short-lived Soccer Star records); the well-received ‘Young Prayer’ album on Paw Tracks in 2004; and last year’s ‘I'm Not / Comfy in Nautica’ single on the UUAR label.
With the A-side of this 12” comprising one sprawling 13-minute long track, ‘Bros’ is actually made up of two separate sections, one blurring and morphing into the other. Dating from the time of Panda Bear’s first UK tour early in 2005, these were the two standout tracks from a seamlessly-blended set.
Recorded at Noah’s home in Lisbon, ‘Bros’ exhibits the classic traits of Noah’s musical personailty - a fluidity and functional rhythmic accessibility stemming from a deep love of DJ culture; a delight in texture and depth; a playful use of samples and electronic processing; plus a foregrounding of sweet, poppy hooks in the vocal and instrumental melodies.
Following a propulsive trajectory, ‘Bros’ organically builds into an ever-expanding, shifting voyage that blissfully occupies a central point between a kind of tribalised ‘60s pop and the post-techno dancefloor. Opening with a Joe meek / Tornadoes lift, reverb-drenched overlapping vocal harmonies ride over guitar strums and melodies. With rhythms increasingly added and angled, it eventually builds into a kaleidoscopic chaos of clashing elements - a kind of ecstatic in-between, in-the-moment state of excitement that resolves with the track reemerging in an urgently nagging riff and incresingly swirling, cavernous dub. Ambitious and hugely accomplished, it’s an undeniably towering, incredible track.
Keeping the Animal Collective connection, the B-side features an exclusive remix of ‘Bros’ from Terrestrial Tones, the collaborative project of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare and Black Dice’s Eric Copeland. A somewhat slower, slightly darker versioning of the original, the Tones side is a great track in its own right - respectful of the original, whilst collapsing and remoulding its narcotic ecstasy into something more slurred and stilted and very much in their own unique style.
Noah’s tastes have always been honestly stated and counter to the knowing seeking of any hipster coolness / credibility. As likely to be inspired by Kylie or Beyonce as he is by Basic Channel or Kompakt, he has an ear for great songcraft regardless of genre / credibility and for the pop sweetness of a catchy hook. Multi-talented and hyper-creative, he is is both an incredible songwriter and an instinctive and natural musician. Starting out in Animal Collective as a drummer (with his own very unique style. Since co-writing the universally-acclaimed ‘Sung Tongs’ and ‘Feels’ albums, he has slipped back behind the drums, whilts continuing to add vocals, and electronics. Besides his work in Animal Collective and under his Panda Bear alias, Noah also works in the duo, Jane, a collaboration with his friend Scott Mou – mining a more minimal, techno-influenced seam.
Released on 12” vinyl only, with beautiful full-colour sleeve artwork, ‘Bros’ comes in advance of two other Panda bear releases, a Paw Tracks releases a Panda Bear/Excepter split 12” in January 2007 and his third solo album, which is due for release on Paw Tracks in winter 2007. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label:Fat Cat
Genre/Style: Pop / Experimental
MP3 Unavailable
|
2CD:$14.98$9.98
|
Peanut Butter Wolf Presents
Stones Throw Ten Years
Two CD compilation that celebrates a glorious decade of the Stones Throw label, and boasts a bonus mix CD by J-Rocc of the World Famous Beat Junkies. This is Stones Throw’s first ever full label compilation, covering everything from the very first single (Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf’s ‘My World Premiere’) to cuts from 2006. It mixes classics from the likes of Madvillain, Jaylib and Lootpack with incredibly rare and desirable previously promo-vinyl only tracks such as Cut Chemist & MED’s ‘Blind Man’ and is the perfect introduction to the label for the curious, the best next step for those who bought Madvillainy, Jaylib or Quasimoto, and essential for any fans of the label or quality leftfield music. Stones Throw is far more than just a hip-hop label: this compilation includes funk, disco, proto-rap, electronic jazz, and sleazy electro -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Stones Throw
Genre/Style: Hip Hop
MP3 Unavailable
|
CD: $13.98
|
Piebald
Accidental Gentlemen
“There’s definitely a human feeling in this record.” That’s what Piebald guitarist/vocalist Travis Shettel says about his band’s latest, Accidental Gentlemen (SideOneDummy Records), and the fact that — like most of the Piebald back catalog which dates back to 1995 — it’s an album that was largely tracked to analog tape, foregoing the preferred computer-based methods of recording these days. “When you compare it to many other records on the market, they sound like a weird robot machine playing songs that may or may not be good. This album sounds like human beings.”
And it’s that personal nature that’s the charm and truth of Accidental Gentlemen, an album title that partially admits to Piebald’s admission of a few faults. “The recording style was a little more haphazard than our previous albums, but in a way I think it reflects the kind of people we are,” says Shettel. “We’re gentlemen at heart, but a bit sloppy by nature. We’re coming from a sort-of losers’ standpoint, trying to win.” -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Side One Dummy
Genre/Style: Pop Punk
MP3 Myspace
|
2CD:$14.98$9.98
LP: $14.98
|
The Shins
Wincing the Night Away
Purchase Wincing the Night Away and receive a FREE 7" of an alternate version of Split Needles and an unreleased track called Nothing at All. People planning on picking this up on LP will also get the 7" and a coupon to download the album. Score!
To play music for a long time, you have to surprise the people that love you—while also surprising yourself. Recorded in singer/guitarist James Mercer's basement studio, Phil Ek's Seattle digs, and in Oregon City with veteran engineer Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2), Wincing the Night Away is The Shins' third full-length album. It's also the sound of a band growing up and out. Mercer's infectious, indelible melodic style is still at the core, and unfaltering. But anything can happen around it—and in this case, it does. While the vocals channel the spirit of Morrissey, "Sea Legs" pairs a loping hip-hop beat with lush melody and searing guitars. Elsewhere the band toys with tweaked-out, liquid piano steeped in kaleidoscopic strings ("Red Rabbit"); fractured synth samples ("Spilt Needles"); gauzy, arpeggiated keyboards cloaking thunderous anthems ("Sleeping Lessons"); and, taking cues from early Jesus and Mary Chain albums, sweeping, fuzz-toned epics ("Phantom Limb"). Finally, "Turn on Me," "Girl Sailor" and "Australia" are the lilting, thrilling, rollicking, rock-solid pop songs we've all come to covet from The Shins. Consider yourself surprised. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Sub Pop
Genre/Style: Pop / Lo-Fi
MP3 Phantom Limbs
|
CD:$13.98$9.98
LP: $12.98
|
The Six Parts Seven
Casually Smashed to Pieces
First off: Don’t let the Viking scare you, he only wants to shake your hand.
However, maybe you should be slightly afraid of the contents embedded on the disc lurking beneath our Nordic friend. See, Casually Smashed To Pieces isn’t your typical “album.” No, Kent, Ohio’s Six Parts Seven haven’t so much redefined their sound as they’ve transcended it here, bringing in new sonic elements, textures and feelings to weave a tapestry as sprawling as the Himalayas. In other words, forget what you think the disc sounds like – because, chances are, you’re wrong. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Suicide Squeeze
Genre/Style: Pop / Post Rock
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$12.98$8.98
|
Soft Circle
Full Bloom
Soft Circle consists of one member, Hisham Akira Bharoocha. Bharoocha has been in such groups as Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. Soft Circle is his first solo music project. Soft Circle's goal is to create pure sonic vibrations that come from within. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Eastern Developments
Genre/Style: Pop / Experimental
MP3 Myspace
|
CD:$7.98$4.98
|
Twilight Singers
A Stitch In Time
Following on from the memorable moment when Mark Lanegan joined Greg Dulli & co on the August 2006 leg of their UK tour, their special chemistry has been laid down on an EP including their hypnotic cover of Massive Attack's 'Live With Me' with vocals from Lanegan who features alongside guest appearances from Joseph Arthur & Rick McCollum. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: One Little Indian
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 Down Comes the Perm
|
CD:$13.98$9.98
LP:$12.98
|
David Vandervelde
The Moonstation House Band
David Vandervelde appeared before us one hot summer day like a dynamo. The sound we heard coming through in stereo was that of our coming-of-age years screaming back at us - a faithful reminder that our beauteous days of bowing before pin-up rock stars and carving iconographic logos on desktops and in famous treetrunks have not passed us by. No, David Vandervelde is here to remind us that the truest, most primal and addictive properties of rock n' roll are ageless. Indeed, this Chicagoan (by way of the dunes of West Michigan) started recording this debut full-length at age 19 yet he shows the maturity and swagger of a man much longer in the tooth. Bearing an immediate resemblance to Marc Bolan and David Bowie, deeper listening rewards the listener with a much broader musical universe.
The Moonstation House Band album captures the highlights from his two-year immersion in Jay Bennett's Clubhouse - as Vandervelde refers to the studio in Chicago - where he isolated himself to record this record virtually on his own, using the former Wilco multi-instrumentalist's studio as a big toy instrument, enjoying access to much of the same gear as used on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Being There. Self-taught on guitar, drums, bass, piano, synth, and other studio tools, the listener can hear that Vandervelde is an adventurous artist, who embraces classic rock songwriting and whose spirit is just banging at the door to get unleashed.
For three of the songs ("Corduroy Blues", "Widsom From a Tree", and "Moonlight Instrumental"), Vandervelde worked with award-winning string arranger David Campbell (who, aside from being Beck's father, has done string arrangements for Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Beck, and also did the Brokeback Mountain score) and engineer Steve Churchyard (Wings, the Band, Bryan Ferry, Lucinda Williams). -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Secretly Canadian
Genre/Style: Rock / Glam
MP3 Jacket
|
CD:$13.98
|
Vietnam
Self-Titled
Newly signed to Kemado Records, the band's album was recorded at legendary Los Angeles studios Sound City and Sound Factory (100% analog) and produced by “Farmer Dave” Scher (Beachwood Sparks, All Night Radio), Mickey Madden (Maroon5) and Jason Lader. VietNam have also enlisted a number of fun allies to their plate of gonzo jams, including cameos by Jenny Lewis, Paz Lenchantin, the Future Pigeon horn section, and Jesse Carmichael to name a few.
Album opener "Step On Inside" is a justifiable representation of VietNam's growth and dirt on guitar magic. Vocalist Gerner has never sounded stronger and his brooding lyrics are myths filled with shady characters. Fusing Spritualized soaked blues with the hypnotic smoke of Lou Reed, VietNam’s sonic depths jump from the belly of Roky Erickson to cast a spell and shake your soul.
Staking new ambitious ground is no easy feat and VietNam triumph their trippy confrontation with grace. -CP
Release Date: 01/23/07
Label: Kemado
Genre/Style: Rock / Psychedelic
MP3 Welcome to My Room
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
