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Animal Collective
Grass
[CD / DVD]
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Fat Cat
CD: $9.98 |
Audio for this release is taken from the UK only "Grass" single. The title track of the single is a brilliant three-minute slice of feral, infectious pop, driven by pounding drums and yelping and hollering vocals/ Two further tracks - "Must Be Treeman" and "Fickle Cycle" are exclusive to the single. The former is a derailed slice of acid ambiance - all mushroomed, munchkin vocals and collapsing veils of treated electronics, while "Fickle Cycle" - a live favorite - is another stunning rhythmic piece that perfectly compliments "Grass".The DVD includes the "Grass" video by Superhate, "Who Could Win A Rabbit?" video by Sung Tong's engineer Danny Perez, exclusive "Fickle Cycle" video by Feels recording engineer Scott Colburn, and an exclusive six minute video and sound collage by Brian DeGraw of Gang Gang Dance..
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Band of Horses
Everything All The Time
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Sub Pop
CD: $13.98
LP: $12.98 |
Guitarist / Vocalist Ben Bridwell and bassist Mat Brooke formed Band Of Horses in 2004 after the dissolution of their nearly ten year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissas Wierd. Carissas Wierd trafficked in sadly beautiful orchestral pop, whose songs told unflinching stories of heartbreak and loss leavened with defeatist humor. Band Of Horses rises from those ashes. Buoyed by Bridwells warm reverb heavy vocals which channel a strange brew of Wayne Coyne Neil Young and Doug Martsch the groups woodsy dreamy songs ooze with amorphous tension longing and hope. Both raggedly epic and delicately pensive this is an album painted gorgeously in fragile highs and lows.
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop |
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Cocteau Twins
Lullabies to Violaine Box Set
Lullabies to Violaine: Singles vol 1
Lullabies to Violaine: Singles vol 2
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: 4AD
Box Set Price: $34.98
CD: $14.98
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For the first time all the non-album tracks from across the Cocteau Twins' entire career have been compiled to form Lullabies to Violaine Volumes 1 and 2. Offering a unique view of their musical journey from the perspective of all their single / EP releases which incorporate most of their best known tracks.
Genre/Style: Pop |
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Editors
Back Room
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Red Ink / Fader
CD: $11.98
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When you're friends been blogging about these guys for months and another friend text messages you from SXSW telling you how amazing these guys are, so gotta listen. Shimmering, dark pop in the vain of I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Interpol, Joy Division. These guys are the hype and maybe, MAYBE the new black.
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Essex Green
Cannibal Sea
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Merge
CD: $14.98
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The third full length from this Brooklyn collective features songs that draw on themes of travel exploration and the desire for a quiet niche amid the pressures of big city living. Listening to this is like opening a songbook of classic pop. The twelve songs incorporate country rock traces of The Byrds, the Greenwich Village balladry of Fred Neill and the acoustic pop harmonizing of The Mamas And The Papas. Add the pure pop perfection of The Monkees and mix with more modern traces of The Shins, The Hidden Cameras, and Jens Lekman and you have a recipe for a sound that's timeless without being purely retro.
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop |
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Howe Gelb
Sno Angel Like You
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Thrill Jockey
CD: $14.98
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Howe recorded this record with the help of a Canadian gospel choir called Voices Of Praise but this isnt gospel music. Said Gelb, "It was a grand experiment to see if we could mesh the sounds of the muck I make with the dizzying effect of the glorious sound the choir makes." Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara contributed helping Howe in old school Giant Sand fashion just laying down guitar and drums after which the gospel choir arranged themselves on the tracks. This record includes seven new songs, three old Giant Sand tunes Gelb always felt begged for a choir and three Rainer Ptacek songs. Highly Recommended.
Genre/Style: Pop / Instrumental |
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Ben Harper
Both Sides of the Gun
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Virgin
Limited Edition: $24.98
CD: $16.98
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On his albums with the Innocent Criminals, Harper has alternated songs based in different styles, from Led Zeppelin-esque rock to trad-gospel to various strains of blues and R&B and folk pop. On his new album, Both Sides of the Gun, Harper goes about all of this in a more organized fashion. The eighteen songs of Gun come on two discs, although they could have fit on one -- the idea was to break the album into halves rather than make an epic double album. The first contains rock-based uptempos, the second features ballads whose arrangements often employ symphonic strings. At the same time, Gun is intentionally less polished than 2003's Diamonds on the Inside -- more instrumentally jumpy and sonically visceral.
Genre/Style: Rock
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Jazzanova & Gilles Peterson
Kings of Jazz [2CDs]
Release Date: 03/14/06
Label: Rapster
CD: $18.98 $14.98
LP: Part A $21.98
LP: Part B $21.98
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Latest volume in this series finds Jazzanova & Gilles Peterson compiling their favorite tracks. Gilles delves deep into his own extensive library, digging up tracks that range from early work like blues-tinged saxophone recording of John Coltrane and the slow piano of Bill Evans to up-tempo pieces such as "Anthenagin" and a laid back version of "My Favorite Things" by Mark Murphy. The Jazzanova side explores a range of contemporary styles influenced by jazz and given many different names from broken beat to jazz-house and electronica.
Genre/Style: Jazz / Electronic |
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Sondre Lerche
Duper Sessions
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Astralwerks
CD: $15.98 $11.98
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A charming detour into jazz-inflected pop, Duper Sessions is a fresh, back-to-basics collection of songs that showcases a more intimate side of this gifted singer-songwriter. Inspired by Chet Baker, Caetano Veloso and even David Lynch, Duper Sessions transports the listener into a different time and place, filled with melody and romanticism. Featuring classic-sounding originals plus covers of songs by Elvis Costello, Cole Porter and Prefab Sprout's Paddy McAloon, Duper Sessions is Sondre Lerche's tribute to the music he loves.
Genre/Style: Pop |
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Liars
Drum's Not Dead
[CD / DVD]
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Mute
CD/DVD: $18.98 $14.98
LP/DVD: $18.98
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DRUM'S NOT DEAD was partly inspired by the LIARS' relocation to Berlin from NYC after their 2004 album They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. From clanging guitars, martial beats, dense drones and pulverizing rhythms to high dreamy harmonies, off-kilter guitar lines and soothing samples of waves lapping, this is LIARS' finest, fullest and most unexpected album to date. Shredding all past reference points, DRUM'S NOT DEAD sees LIARS taking another seismic step forward, switching continents, seizing new musical territory and expanding their audio-visual ambitions. DRUM'S NOT DEAD comes with its own cinematic sister project - a DVD, with 3 film versions of the album, directed by band members Angus Andrew, Julian Gross & filmmaker Markus Wambsganss. Each film is comprised of videos for every track on the album: 36 videos total. From backstage travelogues to surreal animation and mini sci-fi epics, Liars document the process of recording, touring, then visually reinventing each track.
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop / Alternative |
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Lifetime
Someone in the Swamps of Jersey
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Jade Tree
CD: $14.98
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This double disc set not only collects early singles, later compilation tracks, covers and demos. But also two different versions of their crucial and long out of print 1993 debut Background. Disc ones version has been completely remixed and it foreshadows the tight loud and exuberant sound that would come to define the band. Disc two presents the album in all of its original glory complete with the bonus live set and now remastered for collectors..
Genre/Style: Punk / Rock |
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Loose Fur
Born in the USA
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Drag City
CD: $14.98
LP: $11.98 |
Listening to the licks a-flyin' and cowbells a-ringing, it's clear that Born Again in the USA is more the work of a full-fledged rock band that the first Loose Fur album - which isn't to say that Kotche, O'Rouke, and Tweddy didn't bother to weave the ever-lovin kitchen sink into this brand-new sonic tapestry. On the contrary... for their second coming, they gave us everything they had - because our modern way of life hangs in the balance! If this shit doesn't save you, then nothing will. Highly Recommended.
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Madlib
Beat Konducta vol. 1-2: Movie Scenes
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Stones Throw
CD: $14.98 $11.98
LP: $12.98
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Following up his successful Beat Konducta vinyl only releases, Madlib rounds out his first CD collection of hip hop instrumentals with Beat Konducta vol 1-2 : Movie Scenes. These new, orginal tracks have been culled from the now-legendary beats CDs which provided the basis for Madlib's 2004-2005 productions from Madvillian, Quasimotot and Jaylib. Movie Scenes presents a vivid hip hop soundtrack for each mood in the model of vintage "library records" made for TV and film background music in the funky 1960s & 70s. Each of the 40 tracks has a title as well as a parenthetical mood or theme to correspond with what's unfolding on the screen. The film is for you to imagine, the score courtesy of Madlib the Beat Konducta.
Genre/Style: Hip-Hop |
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Mates of State
Bring It Back
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Barsuk
CD: $14.98
LP: $13.98
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Mates of State's unique, often complex, and always catchy pop gems defy genre boundaries. This husband/wife duo has released three previous full-lengths as well as numerous singles and EPs. Though a duo, they never fail to generate an abundance of melody and harmony via monster, bass-heavy organ, creative drumming, and alternately lushly layered and playfully dueling vocals. "Bring It Back" is Mates Of State at their complex yet lighthearted best: impeccably layered music that rewards attention, analysis, and repeated listens, but that's also instantly enchanting, drawing you in at once with hook upon incredible hook.
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop |
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McLusky
McLuskyism (Limited Edition 3CD)
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Too Pure
CD: $11.98
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The collection is available as a strictly limited edition 3 CD set, comprising A sides, B sides and C sides (rareties and live tracks). The live songs are taken from the band's final headline performance at London's ULU, recorded by the nice people at liveherenow. All the A sides feature on the standard single disc.
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Aki Tsuyuko
Hokane (CD/Book)
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Thrill Jockey
CD: $15.98 |
Hokane is a 48 page 4 color 6 x 8 hardbound book containing musical and visual short stories written, performed and drawn by Aki Tsuyuko and it's the first in a series of books to be released by Thrill Jockey. Upcoming artists in the series include Daniel Higgs and Thomas Campbell. On this release Aki plays organ and sings her delicate vocals and melodies are exotic and whimsical. She's a frequent collaborator with Nobukazu Takemura in addition to Tortoise, Arto Lindsay, Jim O'Rourke, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo.
Genre/Style: Pop |
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Daktaris
Soul Explosion
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Daptone
CD: $12.98
LP: $13.98 |
Originally released on Desco, out of print for a long time. The undisputed heavyweight afro-funk album. Features members of Fela Kuti's band as well as musicians that would later found Antibalas and the Dap-Kings.
Genre/Style: Funk |
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Sugarman 3
Soul Donkey
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Daptone
CD: $12.98
LP: $13.98 |
Soul Donkey, the Sugarman Three's sophomore release on Desco Records, documented a first turn towards the more raw funk sound into which the band would later fully embrace on Daptone's Pure Sugar. As an album, it has a sound and a vibe and has been sought after by collectors and fans alike since it went out of print around the turn of the millenium. Try it on. It feels good.
Genre/Style: Funk |
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FM3 Buddha Machine
Price: $24.98 |
Restocked! 2nd edition now available. A unique 'soundbox' from China, which is causing senstation worldwide. A totally dazzling item which causes jaw-dropping delight everywhere -- Alan Bishop bought twenty-four of these on sight, Brian Eno bought eight (how's that for apocalyptical math?). FM3 are a duo of Christiaan Virant and Chinese keyboardist and computer musician Zhang Jian -- based in Beijing. The Buddha Machine is a hardware loop player, built kind of like a little AM radio (available in 6 different colors, shipped randomly), but without all the nonsense -- total genius from out of nowhere! The Buddha Machine is a small soundbox made in China which comes with an integrated speaker, a volume control, mini jack-out and a switch to choose between nine different loops which are stored on a small chip and can be directly played by this mini soundsystem. |
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Rosanne Cash
Black Cadillac
Release Date: Jan 06
Label: Capitol
CD: $16.98 |
On her lastest, Rosanne confronts her family legacy as never before while simultaneously pursuing her own bold creative path with renewed commitment.
Genre/Style: Rock
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Minus 5
self-titled
Release Date: Feb 06
Label: Yep Rock
CD: $15.98 Sale $11.98 |
The Minus Five has always been witty popmeister Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey's baby, first and foremost. And you could say that child reaches total excellent maturity on "The Gun Album," the band's seventh full-length, although it sounds silly to say it that way. McCaughey is of course a "fifth member" of R.E.M., a decent day job but one that's kept Minus Five albums in the "side project" realm for too long. But this is the album that stands on its own, the slightly twisted and wry lyrics perfectly accompanied by tasteful but not too tasteful chamber-rock throughout. And then there's the assembled cast. If you're going to do the guest artist thing you might as well do it right, and McCaughey assembles the indie-rock version of a Missy album here. Of course you're got longtime collaborator Peter Buck, but there're also all the dudes from Wilco on one song, with Colin Meloy, Sean Nelson, John Wesley Harding, and Kelly Hogan joining in on others. --Mike McGonigal
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Scott Miller & the Commonwealth
Citation
Release Date: March 06
Label: Dreamworks Nashville
CD: $16.98 |
CD OF THE WEEK! You don’t hear authentic rock n roll much anymore. The Springsteen, Tom Petty, Jerry Lee Lewis kind. The ice cold beer and red hot guitar kind, The kind with unfettered emotional urgency. Bursting at the seams. Scott Miller & The Commonwealth do just that on Citation. Citation is no fear. Flat out. No tiptoeing around subject or language or anything. Feet firmly planted on the ground. Rock n roll. The kind you dont hear too much anymore. Includes a cover of Neil Young's "Hawks and Doves".
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop |
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Josh Rouse
Subtitulo
Release Date: Mar 2006
Label: Nettwerk
CD: $17.98
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CD OF THE WEEK! Soulful singer / songwriter starts of '06 with his 6th album which is heavily influenced by his move to the Mediterranean Coast.
Genre/Style: Singer / Songwriter |
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Tom Russell
Love and Fear
Release Date: Mar 06
Label: Hightone
CD: $16.98 |
With Love & Fear, Tom shakes off his folk troubadour shackles to bare his soul with his most personal recording to date. First album of all-original songs in over a decade!
Genre/Style: Rock |
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Some Girls
Heaven's Pregnant Teens
Release Date: Jan 06
Label: Epitaph
CD: $13.98 Sale $9.98 |
Description: Some Girls is a five-person assault out of the sleepy Navy town of San Diego, comprised of the creme de la crass of musicians from that city's famed hardcore/punk underground. Fronted by Give Up The Ghost and American Nightmare s Wes Eisold, the band features a who's who of hardcore players from The Locust, Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, Unbroken, Over My Dead Body, Swing Kids, and Crimson Curse. This is their first full-length; an unrelenting musical psychosis, adding new dimensions of brutality to Some Girls now-trademark thrash attack. Includes a snarling cover of Public Image Ltd. s post-punk classic, Religion.
Genre/Style: Hardcore / Punk |
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Various Artists
Cult Cargo- Belize City Boil Up
Release Date: Oct 05
Label: Numero Group
CD: $19.98 |
What were once loose-fitting descriptions for American influenced homegrown R&B, are now but common parlance in the lexicon of genre classification.These regional movements all yielded monumental sonic innovations that returned to America with tidal force, eventually flooding the world with third world treasure. The music of Detroit and Memphis were quite possibly America's largest cultural export of the 1960s, spawning imitators with every radio wave that whispered 'I've got sunshine... or Sittin' in the morning sun... into the fertile ear of the uninitiated. For every Nigeria there were ten Ghana's, and every shiny Brazilian soulster had his counterpart in Peru, Argentina, and Columbia. Good news travels fast, and as the gospel of American soul hit the beaches of Trinidad, the Bahamas, and in this case, Belize, it was as though the Gods had not just spoken, but sung. A Cargo Cult is what happens when one culture begins worshipping the byproducts of another. Cult Cargo is the unexpected result of that devotion. It is here in these sixty odd minutes that The Numero Group unveils a style of music completely unknown to the greater world before we dragged it from the beaches of Belize. The national dish of Belize is made with a diverse mixture of ingredients, pig's tail, potatoes, plantains, bananas, boiled eggs, yams, whole fish, thrown in a pot, and boiled to perfection. They call it a Boil Up. The music of this collection combines equal parts of R&B, calypso, disco, funk, reggae, bruckdown, soul, folk, and whatever else can be found back on the bottom shelf of the musical pantry. This too is called Boil Up, and it's anything
but leftovers.
Genre/Style: World / Samba / Afro Beat
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Various Artists
Hard To Find vol. 1
Release Date: Feb 2006
Label: Funk-O-Rama
CD: $19.98 |
Funk-O-Rama records compiles in this first volume of Hard to Find! a series of songs (all of these coming from 45s searched by collectors and DJs for years) that draw a possible horizon of the American Underground Funk between 1968 (Seven Souls) and 1975 (Jade). This first compilation of Funk-O-Rama records checks the old school funk and its diverse mixtures with soul (Soul Partners, The Deacons), gospel (The Brothers & Sisters), JBs style (Soul Tornadoes, Maskman, Wee Willie.), blaxploitation (Caprell's) and modern soul (Jade). This period of funk's peak and decline coincides with the last splendour (The Deacons, Big Barney, Creative Funk.) and the agony (High Voltage) of the Hammond Organ, an instrument that went out of fashion in the mid-seventies until its rebirth at the end of the eighties.
Genre/Style: Funk |
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Album Leaf
In A Safe Place
Release Date: June 04
Label: Sub Pop
CD: $13.98 |
The Album Leaf is the recording moniker of guitarist Jimmy LaValle. Though LaValle's main commitment is as a member of San Diego-based post-rock outfit Tristeza, he has found time to record as a solo artist, creating lush, meditative instrumental albums that fall somewhere between Erik Satie, John Fahey, Brian Eno, and the Sea & Cake. In A Safe Place, LaValle's third full-length release and his debut for SubPop, builds on the spare, trance-like qualities of his first two albums, fleshing out the repetitive patterns and delicate textures with the help of digital shading and instrumental support from members of Icelandic rock group Sigur Ros. The wispy, airy strains of the opener, "Window," put one in mind of Eno's Ambient 1: Music For Airports, luring the listener into a bright netherworld. A soothing digital pulse backs a gentle, chiming guitar pattern in "On Your Way," while the hypnotic "Over the Pond" features a simple piano refrain repeated, then detailed with strings and Sigur Ros's accompaniment. The effect is a powerful one, giving dimension and contour to LaValle's already developed musical vision and, ultimately, making IN A SAFE PLACE the artist's strongest statement to date.
Genre/Style: Pop |
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Jel
Soft Money
Release Date: Feb 06
Label: Anticon
CD: $15.98 $11.98 |
The head architect of Anticon's aural acropolis at long last offers his album-length debut, Soft Money. On 2002's 10 Seconds, Jeffrey "Jel" Logan created a long-playing ode to his first real love, the SP-1200 sampler, composed entirely of hand-picked snippets from over three decades of hip-hop. Soft Money takes the same meticulous approach but expands it both literally and conceptually. Though undeniably rooted in the boom-bap of hip hop, this is an ode to all good music, channeled through one man, his machines, and a little help from his friends.
Genre/Style: Hip-Hop |
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Atreyu
Death Grip On Yesterday
Sale $14.98 |
Matt Costa
Songs We Sing $14.98 |
Ghostface Killah
Fishscale
Sale $11.98 |
Piano Magic
Incurable
Sale $11.98 |
Pearls Before Swine Radio Pearls
Sale $16.98 |
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Show Your Bones
Sale $13.98 |
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