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CD: $13.98
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Album Leaf
Into the Blue
If one needed to illustrate wholly Brian Eno’s influence on music, they’d only have to refer to The Album Leaf’s James LaValle. The multi instrumentalist/producer has taken the Eno approach to creativity and art; staying as busy as possible and always creating something new and beautiful. Also like Eno, LaValle uses a variety of instruments combined with hushed electronic tones and ample studio magic to create the lush, embryonic atmosphere of Into the Blue Again.
Of course the guitars come first. Utilizing the same techniques he does for Tristeza, guitars lay the foundation for each track, using drone and keeping notes intact with long, fuzzy tones that fill the atmosphere with noise and beauty all at once. Then, layer by layer, James constructs his sonic landscapes meticulously- first the percussion, persistent and pulsating, then some piano and/or organ before filling in the gaps with elegant tones and rhythms. LaValle paints pictures with sound. Filling a blank canvas with primary colors for ambiance before splashing on the secondary colors for that abstract effect. The end result is a symphonic masterpiece that any collector would be ecstatic to hang over their couch.
The most prominent influence from LaValle’s outside endeavors is the instrumental artistry of Tristeza, but the sinister brooding of Black Heart Procession shines through (especially on “Wherever I Go” as Pall Jenkins supplies harmonies) as do the symphonic embellishments of Sigur Ros (check the translucent elegance of “The Light”). The major distinction from his previous solo efforts is James’ newfound confidence in his voice- he lends his vocals to four of Into the Blue Again’s ten cuts.
Profoundly resonant and infinitely warm and inviting, Into the Blue Again is like that familiar daydream that you can’t shake- probably the one involving flying over the ocean with no clothes on. A remarkably ambitious effort that rarely misses the mark, Into the Blue Again strengthens The Album Leaf’s already impressive catalog. -JS
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Sub Pop
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD: $13.98
LP: $17.98
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Basement Jaxx
Crazy Itch Radio
An album so superlative I've been avoiding writing about it, Basement Jaxx's 4th full length, "Crazy Itch Radio" makes me wish I didn't throw so much hyperbole around so I would have something special to save for this. It is not just the best dance or pop album I've heard this year, but the unqualified best. Between this and the Knife's "Silent Shout" I pity both the poor wretches who refuse to take dance/pop seriously and the remaining electronic purists who still frown at concessions to song structure and bubble gum gratification.
The listening follows the familiar Basement Jaxx pattern. First listening is dizzying and exhausting and fraught with the nagging suspicion that maybe this time, Felix and Simon have gone too far, gotten too goofy, crammed too much into the album, each song, each beat, each blip, each layer upon layer upon layer. It is common to resent objects of intense attraction upon first encounter, but subsequent listening only engenders affection until several distinct passages become personal favorites and one falls in love with the whole thing and its perverse accumulation of kinks, squiggles and grooves (yes, this is music I want to personify and then fuck). I can't recall a single use of the word "maximalism" outside of discussions of Basement Jaxx, but for them it has become cliché.
As for what it sounds like, perhaps I should toss in an attempt at a quick description of Basement Jaxx, as more people have heard them in commercials than actually actively listened to their music and been aware of the composers. They started out in the mid-to-late 90s primarily as house producers. House producers credited with enlivening the genre and incorporating welcome influences, but generally making music that could be contained in the house box (one of the best boxes out there). Subsequently, however, they have grown beyond confinement to any one dance genre and made some of the most ambitious and shameless pop music anywhere, going further with each release, making fusions that shouldn't work and sometimes don't initially seem to soar beyond their initial component. All with a pervading carnival atmosphere.
"Crazy Itch Radio" combines uncountable influences. House, Disco, 80s R&B, Klezmer, Swing, Gypsy, Country, Island Rock
that the longer the list goes on (and depending on how deep you want to dig, it could go on nearly interminably), the further away it gets from actually evoking the sound, demonstrates how distinctive and inimitable Basement Jaxx actually are. They have already made 3 consecutive classics, and going beyond that without imploding (and the combustible elements of everything they've done suggest they should) elevates them to a rarified plane of artistry that perhaps the preponderance of embarrassing titles, noises, and lyrics have denied them.
Their 4th may actually be their best, containing the best elements of their previous work, and still looking bravely into a future only they can conceive. "Remedy" loyalists may still feel betrayed that not everything is locked down to a strict four on the floor beat, but anybody who cares to can use a sampler and a sequencer and derive a brilliant 10 hour instrumental electronic movement by isolating and extending the hottest moments (but then you would miss the breathless brevity, energetic parade of vocalists, and overwhelming unpredictability). "Rooty" may best Andre 3000's "The Love Below" as the greatest fake Prince album (in any case, they both make Beck's "Midnite Vultures" look like a simpering Scientologist's flaccid fuck fantasy), and "Crazy Itch Radio" retains the Purple One-worthy titillation and overwhelming emotional sublimation into many appropriate moments without ever coming off as overt homage to anything. Most of all, this album seems to take the jarring, gonzo hypermultifuturesuperfusion of disparate styles from "Kish Kash" and irons it into something more smooth and cohesive while perhaps reaching even further.
An overblown with a full operatic chorus blaring is probably intended to be cheeky or funny, but may not be so inappropriate. "Hush Boy" is bouncing disco jam overfilled and compressed to the point of explosion. "Hey U" may be the ideal Baltic dance cautionary lust song. "Run 4 Cover' is the song that MIA should have made when she was doing "Arular." "Smoke Bubbles" is a strutting, bassy wonder that manages to accommodate girl group vocal punches, saxophone vamping, and brief sweeping strings and electro breakdowns. "Lights Go Down" is positively haunting with its underlying drone and ghostly backing vocals (in some perverted way, noises within this track recalled Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" for me). "Everybody" is an effervescent soul flight. "Keep Keep On" vamps the line "just a little hiccup" to maximal effect on a track that would seem relatively minimal for this album.
I'll leave it to you to unearth the awesomeness present on "U R On My Mind" and the closing track hidden after it, both because I want to leave enticement to actually listen to "Crazy Itch Radio" (you know you want to, or at least I know you do even if you don't know that yet) and because I'm tiring of my own inadequate stabs at pithy description. Listen to this. Buy it. It is the best album of the year. -GB
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: XL Recordings
Genre/Style: Dance Fiasco
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CD: $15.98
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Black Keys
Magic potion
The Black Keys are a blues rock band. For some reason or another they have been swaddled by the industry created Indie Rock community. It's all business on some level however Relative feels that it's a safe bet to rest assure The Black Keys create with an admired integrity without influence of industry and only that of blues greats before them. I am unable to say whether of not they are changing the playing field of modern blues rock because if you listen to Jimi Hendrix or Link Wray (the stuff he actually sang on) it sounds to me like they were doing the same thing, and probably along with any other bar band in 70s Mississippi. This is not to discredit The Black Keys. Their greatest influences are the forefathers of the genre which facillitates their yearn and desire. They are the real deal with a down and out genuine sound. When Chulahoma came out earlier this year I was like shit this is their best work yet and then I picked up the cd case and read they were all Junior Kimbrough covers and thought I should do some research.
Six months later I can honestly say I have done absolutely no research on blues, rag time, regional, modern blues rock, or any discussion of style/inspiration The Black Keys may have delved for The Magic Potion. I have however listened to it and it does everything you could possibly wish for in the time it takes you to get from the top to the bottom of any whiskey bottle. That is if you are a guy. Not that the Black Keys are a man's band. I mean if you are a woman and you are into the Black Keys then I am in to you, unless you have a hairy upper lip and a baritone call - not my style. The albums jumps at the start with Just Got To Be, not quite the ferociousness of 10 am Automatic on Rubber Factory but a head banger nonetheless. Rubber Factory seemed to embrace more styles of the blues where Magic Potion does not wander to much. Only changes are really in tempo where the middle of the record slows down and rambles through its I've seen better days phase. This is not a bouncy ramble though, more like swamp discovery ramble. Deep mud and mosquitos kid. It picks up again towards the end because you need that last hoo-rah before you pass out.
When looking at single tracks their previous albums seem to have some brighter works where Magic Potion flows better from start to finish without much desire to put a track on repeat. This is what I say now and could all change in a matter of days or months. I do not have the album layout and none of these tracks ring any prior blues bells so I will go out on a limb here and say they are all originals. The Black Keys have always done covers of traditional blues songs and done teriffic renditions of them in my opinion. I don't want to open a discussion about the guitar work of Jimi Hendrix and Dan Auerbach because I am really not qualified but I will say in terms of style and overall songwriting they are like two peas in a pod. Jimi went into a lot of different directions but if you examine the blues element there is much to be shared. I don't know how much of an influence Jimi is on The Black Keys since they can be a lot grittier and more rough around the edges but the soul... the soul feels the same. -DH
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Nonesuch
Genre/Style: Blues / Rock / Soul
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CD:$14.98
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Brazilian Girls
Talk To La Bomb
No, Brazilian Girls is not a band of scantily clad hotties from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian Girls is not a band of men in drag either. They are a very talented quartet that formed in New York City. Their self titled debut was nominated for a New Pantheon Music Award which boasts a committee that features Beck, Elton John, and Dave Matthews. On their second album, Brazilian Girls do not disappoint. With lead singer Sabina Sciubba, who does her thing in five languages, the group could easily be compared to Portishead, Dee-Lite (remember them?), the Brand New Heavies, and the Thievery Corporation. Ironically, the name fits since the listener never knows what to expect.
For example on several songs, Sciubba sings each verse in a different language. On “Le Territoire” there is no English at all. Of course, Sciubba’s penchant for singing in several languages does not take away from the group. The production and composition is complex on tracks such as “Never Met a German,” “Nicotine,” and “Rules of the Game.” Yet they can turn around and sound playful on “All About Us” and “Tourist Trap.” Every house head and Tony Allen fan would go ballistic when they hear “Talk to the Bomb.” Brazilian Girls even get political on “Never Met a German,” a track that deals with propaganda and war.
However there are two flaws on Talk to La Bomb. On the last two tracks, “Sexy A**hole” and “Problem,” the Brazilian Girls seem to lose the writer. Fortunately, they placed these songs at the end of the CD instead of the beginning of the album. However, these two tracks do not take away from the overall feel of the Brazilian Girls’ sophomore effort. They live up to their accolades and do more than remind listeners of big booty Brazilian beauties in bikini’s and no cellulite. -DR
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Verve
Genre/Style: Pop / Electro / Lounge
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CD: $14.98
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Richard Buckner
Meadow
Buckner's eighth full-length soars and swells around his signature trifecta of enigmatic poetics, swirling melodies, and that voice - a soothing drawl that's somehow road weary and buoyant all at once. The melodies are fleshed out by an all-star band: Doug Gillard (Guided By Voices, Cobra Verde), Kevin March (GBV, Those Bastard Souls, Dambuilders), J.D. Foster, and Steven Goulding (Mekons, Graham Parker, Waco Brothers). Fresh and evocative, poignant and real, it documents "the modern age wrapped up in the frustrations and sympathies of a wanderer" - Austin Chronicle. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Merge
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop
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CD: $13.98
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Catfish Haven
Tell Me
Whatever happened to rock 'n roll, because I forgot all about it. It must of slipped my mind somewhere between the twelve piece pop bands and every guy with an acoustic guitar that is now folk explosion. Or, was it before that? When all garage band's were named "The..." or over synthed dance bands? I have no idea, because it's been that long.
And all it took to remind me of the beauty of rock 'n roll, was a quarter in the jukebox and three guys from Chicago, IL. Catfish Haven's new album, Tell Me, is comprised of ten songs about regret, longing, and heartache. And is the most soulful and earnest record I have heard all year. Their sound is the perfect combination of the wistfulness of The Replacement's mixed with the passion and energy of an early seventies Springsteen concert. While the powerful testimonies of frontman, George Hunter are the loneliest poems, etched in the back of your mind on restless nights, the freewheeling sounds are the backdrop to the rowdiest nights of beers and billiards with your buddies.
This isn't a groundbreaking record, it's just rock 'n roll, but for the first time in a long time, it's perfectly executed. -JW
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Secretly Canadian
Genre/Style: Rock / Soul
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CD:$15.98
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Dead Moon
Echoes of the Past
In all of our hometowns and / or cities of residence, there is a few bands you may take for granted. You know what I mean, they play out once a month and you see the same faces there and it seems to be the same set. You don't really care how good they are, you just know them as some local band that plays shitty dive bars and clubs. And you could be right, the band could suck and never amount to anything more, but every now and again there is a band that does escape that mold and tours and make a name for itself and gains a following, to come home and be considered just another local band. This would be the case for Dead Moon.
Taking pride in their DIY ethics, Dead Moon release all there own albums, on vinyl only, and book their own tours across the States and Europe. Across the pond, they have gained a huge following because of their maniac live performances, but when they return to the states, they go back to their 9-5's.
So leave it to the fine folks at Sub Pop to recognize a tremendous work ethic, heart and talent and release a two disc retrospective of their 20+ year career. Dead Moon, play straight forward garage rock led by husband-and-wife, Fred and Toody, with Andrew Loomis on the skins. Fred's vocals sound like Bon Scott's, like his larynx is going to give out any second, while the music just keeps chugging along. Fuzzy guitars, head bopping bass and precise drums. At times, they remind me of The Minutemen and at others, AC/DC, both of which are a good thing.
This usually, isn't my cup of tea, but I feel that it has it's place - wether it's at keggers at the moon tower or talking about hot rods at your buddies house. -JW
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Sub Pop
Genre/Style: Gritty Psyche Rock
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Angela Desveaux
Wandering Eyes
I read somewhere, maybe on a one sheet or something, that if Angela could have 3 pictures in her wallet they would be of Gillian Welch, Lucinda WIlliams, and her grandmother. I thought to myself that is kind of sad because she probably doesn't know Lucinda WIlliams or Gillian Wlech. It's not really my nature to have pictures in my wallet but if I did they would be of people I knew and loved. I understand the whole if wallet pictures mean infuential then this is who they are analogy but after listening to Angela's debut record I am not running across the Gillian Welch element. Gillian is like a precious back woods school teacher from the 1840s. She's more than a century before her time. Angela's sound bears much more of Lucinda or Dar Williams. There are some rustic elements on the album but it is well produced and has a much more contemporary feel to it. the twang grabs hold of Loretta Lynn at times and her voice has that wide-eyed sweetheart shootin for the stars kind of appeal. This album is a wonderful first effort and there is reason to trust Thrill Jockey. A country record is not what I would call their forte but they have made significant strides in the past 2 years easing them into the genre and it doesn't really take a mastermind to sniff out good country. Just don't listen to the radio.
She plays Wandering Eyes with some help from Montreal music buddies and other talents called in from the Thrill Jockey office. The influences are there and the songwriting is there. You can tell she feels very comfortable and this isn't brand new to her even though she does bare some adorable qualities of the innocent. The mp3 link below is to her opening track on Wandering Eyes and right away you can feel the miles dirt roads pass beneath you. A confident voice like this is worth noting as the music will always come first and dream of love will surpass those of Nashville stardom. -DH
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Thrill Jockey
Genre/Style: Country / Americana
MP3 Heartbeat
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CD: $13.98
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Draft
In A Million Pieces
For many of us sensitive types that are involved in the punk/hardcore scene, Hot Water Music was one of those bands that we could always look up to. For over a decade, as we all found ways to relate to it, Hot Water Music performed their original brand of emotionally honest and creative punk rock that was equally inspired by bands like Leatherface, Fugazi, and Fuel(the East Bay band, not the lame radio rock band!). Then one day, it ended. Sometime in 2005, the band, minus Chuck Ragan, regrouped with Discount guitarist, Todd Rockhill and started playing shows as the Draft. They recorded a demo, performed on some high profile fests and tours, and finally recorded their debut full-length for Epitaph, "In A Million Little Pieces."
The Draft is occupying some musical ground that isn't too far off from where Hot Water Music left off at. However, it's going to be hard for some to accept that this band isn't Hot Water Music and that "In A Million Little Pieces" is not a new Hot Water Music album. To actually enjoy this record, one has to realize that. In an interview regarding the release of "In A Million Little Pieces," bassist Jason Black had this to say about the reactions the record will get:
"I figure there will be three types of people that hear the record,
One – people that never heard Hot Water Music and can listen completely without bias.
Two – people that purchased it because they were supportive of Hot Water and are into it;
and Three – people that hear it and were into Hot Water and want to hate it."
Honestly, I have never seen a more accurate press release.
The record kicks off with "New Eyes Open," which almost comes off sounding like a rather catchy mid-1990s minor alternative rock radio hit. It also carries an anthemic quality that could fit well on Hot Water Music's 1999 release, "No Division." In fact, a lot of these songs sound as if they could have been outtakes during the latter part of Hot Water Music's career. The second song, "Lo Zee Rose," is one of the best songs I've heard about being broke, out of luck, and just trying to cope with it. However, despite the comparisons, there are elements on these twelve songs that you won't find on older Hot Water Music releases. You will believe it when you hear the organ on "Let It Go" and the swirly guitar effects on "Not What I Wanna Do." There's a certain urgency and frustration that fuels these songs in a different way than how Hot Water Music moved along. It's also hard not to see that a lot of the lyrical content deals with some sort of loss and change in one's life. Maybe it's the post-breakup attitude that's influencing these songs.
There couldn't have been a more fitting conclusion to this album than "The Tide Is Out," in which vocalist, Chris Wollard states, "The farther you get, the harder it seems to get to keep up with things." It's a statement that rings true for many, and it hits closer to home for the musicians involved who went through such a radical change in order to make a rather stellar debut that ranks close to their former band's best material. -BS
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Epitaph
Genre/Style: Rock / Post Punk
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CD: $13.98
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The Duhks
Migrations
The most vital acoustic music being today acknowledges its predecessors and lives in the here and now. For four years now, The Duhks, the band of five skilled, high-energy, tattooed twenty-somethings from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has been riveting audiences and winning staunch fans across North America and around the world with just that kind of music. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Sugar Hill
Genre/Style: Folk / Bluegrass / Country
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CD: $13.98
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Envy
Insomniac Doze
Want to talk about the best live band I've ever seen? Hands down, it's Envy. I caught Japan's five-piece mind-melter in Baltimore about a year and a half ago and my mind's still reeling. If you haven't heard them before, I apologize, because not only are you at a loss, but I cannot do justice to this band through description. Their last album, (2004's A Dead, Sinking Story on Level Plane) defied comparison. I found myself hearing hints of Refused, pg. 99, City of Caterpillar (who toured the East with these cats a few years back), and the likes of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, etc. In the midst of those giants though, Envy stands tall. I've never heard punk rock sound so elegant, or post rock so organic.
Their latest effort, the seven song Insomniac Doze is being released stateside by Temporary Residence records, the kind folks who dropped this years' Mono full length. The more subdued tones of their peers in Mono are sometimes evident on this album, but the tenacity and all-encompassing volume of Envy's previous efforts are not lost.
The band has undoubtedly matured since the release of All the Footprints You've Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead and From Here to Eternity and somewhat to my regret a part of that growing appears to have been a more subdued pace. Gone from this album are the driving cymbal rides and roundabout chords that pummeled me when I first heard the band. The band's tones are overt, immediately recognizable and individual, but seem older, wiser, and perhaps just more patient. Envy may speak slowly, but are loud, clear, and if nothing else in the world, precise. Every note (more notably since their split with Iscariot, also on Level Plane) is not only precise, but demanded. I've never heard, much less seen musicians with such command of their various apparatus. We've all caught a band with a wild eyed guitarist, frenzied drummer, or front-man (or woman) with no regard for their own well being... but to capture five such individuals in one band?
Envy improves my quality of life.
I urge you to experience this album.
P.S. Not that you care, but "Crystallize" is my favorite song here. -RA
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre/Style: Metal / Post Rock
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CD: $13.98
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Favourite Sons
Down Beside Your Beauty
Do you remember Rollerskate Skinny?
No. No, you don't and that is criminal. Rollerskate Skinny was Ken Griffin's art pop / shoegaze outfit in the early to mid nineties, that, for a brief stint, was home of Kevin Shields (yes, THAT Kevin Shields), younger brother, Jimi. They made a lot of noise and nobody really gave a shit, they broke up and Griffin moved to NYC. Enough of the history lesson, that's the skinny on the Skinny, so let's get current and let me introduce, The Favourite Sons.
Down Beside Your Beauty, is the first full long play, with Griffin on vocals and his band, which is comprised of the Phillidelphia psych group, Aspera Ad Astra. This combination, not only makes me nostalgic for mid-eighties post-punk, but tighter in the pants as well.
Hopeless romanticism and ones mortality, are common themes on, Down Beside Your Beauty. 'Beautiful Smile' and 'Round Here' are such theatrically beautiful, dark, and sinful ballads, you would think that it was, the master of said genre, Nick Cave. While, 'No One Ever Dies Young' and 'Hang on Girl' have some of the style and grace as David Bowie or Ric Ocasek, with their hair down and in full swagger.
Favourite Sons, with Griffin's confessions and his band's resounding elegance, the two are as congenial and refined as Chesterfields and three fingers of Glenlivet. -JW
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Vice Recordings
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop
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CD: $12.98
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Great Lakes
Diamond Times
GREAT LAKES formed around the songs of DAN DONAHUE and BEN CRUM in Athens, Georgia in 1996, but are currently based in Brooklyn. Their history goes back to 1990 when Dan and Ben, high school friends, started writing songs together, and soon after, met JAMEY HUGGINS, with whom they quickly bonded. The three eventually moved to Athens, where they put a band together and began playing live. With their third full-length album, "Diamond Times," the band's intention was to make an engaging, varied, and solid record; and to capture the organic feel and sound of a band playing together. That they've progressed and evolved as songwriters and musicians is immediately evident, as it's lyrically more direct and something of a new sound for them. The songs range in style from the synth-heavy and seemingly New Wave-influenced "Farther," to the saxophone-driven rock and roll of "Hot Cosmos," and on to the fiddle and steel guitar-oriented country sound of "Night Hearts" and "The Moon and the Lunatics." It all still sounds like Great Lakes, but they're into new territory here, and sounding better than ever. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Empyrean
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $13.98
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Heavens
Patent Pending
Alkaline Trio lead heartthrob Matt Skiba teams with Josiah Steinbrick of F-Minus to create what could possibly be the best contention She Wants Revenge has for second best 80’s band in an era full of laptops. And Interpol.
Hiding behind the new manicure Heavens, Patent Pending, released off of good old Epitaph, has the two artists dipping their toes outside of their safety zones for a much need throwback to a time of relaxed bass and clever computers beeps. None the less, Skiba successfully transfers his familiar baritone over Steinbrick’s moody electronic soundscape, creating a New Order meets Joy Division doing a New Order cover kind of vibe. Does that make sense? I hope so. Don’t be fooled by Skiba’s many years at the reins of Alkaline Trio, he shows some real maturity at the front for what can
easily be a tiring and easily exploited genre. A genre full of deep voices that say lines after lines of disturbing images just for the sake to disturb, Heavens straddles that line with descent changes of imagery and imagination.
Fans of the Trio will like enjoy the familiar twang of Skiba’s snarl over a fresh sound, while anyone who likes F-Minus will just do what I say anyway. So listen to this album, fans of F-Minus. Please? Now that had to have made sense. -LC
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Epitpah
Genre/Style: Rock / Post Punk
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CD: $7.98
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Hella
Acoustics
Sacramento's spazz-jazz-freak rock duo has grown into a full sized band. Here's a collection of previously released songs mostly from The Devil Isn't Red and Hold Your Horse Is, with a new stripped down and beautiful take on their already magical songs. "Hella are capable of riffological complexity of a most athletic cast a masterpiece of frantic blargh" -Spin. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: 5 Rue Christine
Genre/Style: Experimental / Rock
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CD: $13.98
Sale $8.98
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Indian Jewelry
Invasive Exotics
This Halloween, October 31st, will commemorate the thirteenth anniversary of River Phoenix's death. He overdosed from a combination of heroin and cocaine (often called a speedball) outside the hip Hollywood nightclub, Viper Room. Which is where, I am going to pretend, Indian Jewelry was performing that night. As their minimal and nocturnal sound would of been soothing for River's last breathes.
I know, that is a morbid and callous opening, but as much as I like Indian Jewelry, it's a bleak, subdued, and rejected soundscape their music paints in me.
Indian Jewelry, have been a product of the TX scene for years now, and in that time, they have seen members come and go and band names change to, "throw off the scent of the chase." Their latest offering, Invasive Exotics, is a aural adventure into sonic noise, walls of distorted synths, and drone. This coalescence reminds me of the more washed out times of Sonic Youth, the imminent doom of Suicide or the boisterousness of Psychic Ills. All the while, remaining dark and cold.
This is one of those records, where it's such an attack of your senses - wether it's unnerving or pandemonium. But, I do know, if this comes on in the club, to put my sunglasses on and act cool as shit, like River would of. -JW
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Monitor
Genre/Style: Experimental / No Wave / Post Goth
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CD: $13.98
LP: $15.98
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Junior Boys
So This Is Goodbye
I've never really been into electronic music. I always respected it, and I have a little Depeche Mode and Air and Antarctica in my music library, but it's probably the genre I've paid attention to least over the past few years. Then a month or so ago a friend of mine named Derit showed me a Canadian outfit that would make me seriously regret ignoring this scene and encourage me to explore it intently. That band, as you probably assumed, is the Junior Boys, and the album is So This is Goodbye.
This second full-length from Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus has such a subtle quality to it that I didn't even realize it was that good the first time I listened. It seemed like a solid album but nothing I would really get into. I went on with my life, and then two weeks later I tried it again while I took a nap on the floor of my room. Able to soak in the mellow quality of Junior Boys, this time I began to notice the many basic intricacies the duo employs to develop such unique moods and tones. Since then, each subsequent time I've listened to So This is Goodbye I've discovered more and more brilliant details hidden about the album. This is not music that leaps out at you and stops you dead in your tracks; it avoids self-indulgence and invites its audience to listen closely and be surrounded with a sound that is gentle in its beauty and its presence. It favors the wonder of discovery over the quick fix of bluntness.
That being said, I don't mean to give the impression that this is an ambient album. Junior boys usually choose the harsh and choppy over the flowy and atmospheric, creating a record that really feels like its made up of a million little details working together as opposed to one central idea. It's electronic more in the way that Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode meant it than the way Brian Eno did. Also reminiscent of Depeche Mode is Jeremy Greenspan's voice, having a similar reserved and monotone quality to it, but much gentler and more melodic to fit the specifics of Junior Boys excellently.
So This Is Goodbye is an album full of tremendous beauty that very slowly unravels when the listener really invests himself. I recommend a good pair of headphones and a sizable bit of patience. Those already in love with the electronic music scene may be able to recognize the greatness of this record at first listen, but for the rest of us it will probably take some work. It seemed mediocre at first, and now currently I listen this CD more than anything else I own. Don't write it off just because you weren't hooked thirty seconds into the first song you heard. Go through the album, wait, and try it again. Trust me, it really will be worth it. -JM
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Domino Recordings
Genre/Style: House Pop / Electronic Dance
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CD: $13.98
LP: $11.98
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Magnolia Electric Co.
Fading Trails
Jason Molina is not one to settle. Throughout his musical career of 12 plus years under his given name, Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., he has lived in 9 different locations and has had a dozen different backing bands on record in as many different recording environments. Fading Trails represents 3 of these incarnations and 4 of these environments. Composed of recording sessions Molina and company did with Steve Albini at his Electric Audio Studio, David Lowery at his Sound of Music Studio, and at the famous Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, Fading Trails also features songs from the home recorded Shohola sessions. The essence of these recordings were extracted to create one cohesive being and thus defining what Magnolia Electric Co. truly is. Something that is hard to define. One head, multiple bodies...the opposite of a hydra head. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Secretly Canadian
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $14.98
LP: $19.98
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Mars Volta
Amputechture
Let me preface this by stating that i am a nerd when it comes to this band. Ive been following them for years and make it a point to find out everything i can about the music and personal life of this group, and some would go so far as to blame Omar and Cedric for my current hairstyle. The Mars Volta formed in 2001 after the group At The Drive In called it quits, the other half of ATDI started the band Sparta… The Mars Volta definantly took the creative side of ATDI with them when they split.
The sound they have formed pays homage to bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd while creating something completely new and original. Their first full length Deloused in the Comatorium was a concept album about a friend of the band who overdosed and went into a coma, and the occurances that may have happened during that coma. Since then the concepts have only become more complex, with their second full length Frances The Mute having storylines that center around a transvestite with AIDS getting back at people by sleeping with them to pass on the disease. Yeah, the music is out there, and its incredible.
The newest venture for the band is called Amputechture, an 8 song masterpiece that covers more relevant topics such as immigration and religion, while still keeping the psychedelic edge (one song deals with a nun that is possessed by the devil).
The beauty of this album, which i feel is the best they have ever put out, is that it has the feeling of Frances The Mute with the structure of Deloused. Meaning that the tracks are long, and go through many movements (Frances style) while having noticeably different songs (Deloused style). It also marks the first time Omar has been able to focus on production only as he passed the guitar parts on to John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, one of the best guitarists we will see in our lifetimes. On that note, the production of this record is phenomenal and shows the genius of these musicians through vocal effects that will confuse yet amaze you and unique use of mixing the levels to emphasize certain parts of each song (see Meccamputechture, listen to the drums).
My favorite part of this record as a whole is not so much the solidity of it, but more so the new ground it covers. Moving from the first track which has literally no drums but beautifully intricate guitar work to the fourth (and previously mentioned track) Meccamputechture bringing out a vocal style that Cedric has never ventured into before, and the following track Asilos Magdalena that displays a completely different side of the band as an acoustic song completely in Spanish. If you have the Frances the Mute single on vinyl with the bonus live acoustic version of The Widow, you can see where Asilos got its start. Its acoustic but, the vocals and acoustic guitar are used and tampered with in ways that keep the flow of psychedelia while relaxing the listener and giving them a break from the heavy hitters.
Even the catchier song on the album which will probably serve as a single entitled Viscera Eyes is great (i wasn’t big on the Widow, or it being a single). If you are curious as to my reference to Zeppelin see this track. Following behind Viscera Eyes is the behemoth of a song Day Of The Baphomets. Which is the darkest and arguably the best song the band has ever written, and with 10+ members adding their own instruments this song is an epic masterpiece. Closing out the album is the ambient but beautiful El Ciervo Vulnerado, which sends the album out the same way it begins, calming the listener but leaving them wanting more.
A few more notes before i finish my rant. Cedrics voice has never sounded better. It is cleaner and crisper than its ever been. The drumming on this album literally made John Theodore sick to his stomach because it is so fast and enduring, which brings me to tell you that John Theodore is no longer a member of the band due to lack of interest (how that is possible i do not know) but the torch was passed to the original drummer heard on the Tremulant EP Blake Flemming, who beat out Gregory Meekins as the replacement drummer for their upcoming tours and future albums.
Amputechture will be what you hand to your children to answer the question of what kind of music you listened to when you were younger, but when you hand it to them, you’ll probably have to grab it straight from your cd player because this record knows no age or time. It breaks barriers and new ground, and will confuse your mind as it pleases your ears. -BF
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Universal
Genre/Style: Rock / Prog
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CD: $14.98
Ltd Ed CD: $19.98
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Mastodon
Blood Mountain
Blood Mountain is the upcoming third full length studio album by metal band Mastodon. The recording of the album finished in April 2006 and it is scheduled for release on September 12th 2006. Like Mastodon's previous studio work Leviathan, Blood Mountain is also a concept album. According to drummer Brann Dailor, "It's about climbing up a mountain and the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle." The album will include guest appearances by Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Joshua Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, as well as keyboardist Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Reprise
Genre/Style: Metal
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CD: $9.98
Sale $6.98
LP: $8.98
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Miss Violetta Beuregarde
Odi Profanum Vulgus Et Arceo
I am probably not the best person to write about this but that doesn't mean I dont know what it is. It just means I don't know shit about her musical influences or what she envisions to muster the energy and angst to perform this music live or in the studio. Have you heard Mu? Asian lady on Output who puts out sick phrenetic dance hip hop tracks while she yells crazy vocal tracks over top of them. This is pretty much the same thing minus the Asian accent. The beats are a mish mash of what sounds like video games samples / effects from any Korg memory bank and sped up breaks from favorite dance rock tracks. Can you dance to this? Most definitely. Do you have to be wearing leg warmers and chased around by King Koopa? It probably would help and seems like a step in the right direction.
This is Miss Violetta Beuregarde's second album and the only person in the Relative crew familiar with her first album is Miss Guava Maffiosa. She told me it was self-produced and that I should listen to it while playing Laser Tag. I told her I was never down with Laser Tag and that Photon was my jam. She squinted her eyes and scoffed at me. If I could have translated her face in Latin it would have said Odi Profanum Vulgus Et Arceo and then Miss Beuregarde would have translated back to English - I hate the common crowd and I spurn them. And you can print that. She takes the humpty hump and throws it in her Cuisine Art for a fresh chop chop! Then she serves you a platter with fatty electrons. It's okay you can sweat off the pounds when you bounce around the post-apocalyptic club scene. -DH
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre/Style: Hip Hop / Electro / Pop
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CD: $13.98
Sale $9.98
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MONO & World's End Girlfriend
Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder
Just before recording their epic disasterpiece "You Are There," MONO began collaborating with fellow Tokyo native and modern electronic composer World's End Girlfriend. The result is a five-part sojourn of neoclassical grace and luminescence that defies lazy categorization. As dark as the bottom of the ocean, and nearly as otherworldly, "Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain" finds MONO inhabiting a magical world previously only hinted at in their most orchestral compositions. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre/Style: Post Rock / Neo-Classical
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CD: $13.98
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Now It's Overhead
Dark Light Daybreak
Now It’s Overhead has more than once evoked the term “dreamy.” Dark Light Daybreak is not exactly an exception – it’s awash in the band’s signature moody layers and wall of guitar. But if the previous two records were dream-like, Dark Light Daybreak is more akin to waking up. Providing by one turn a desert-highway soundtrack, by another, a heartrending nostalgia for a moment just past the edge of memory, Dark Light Daybreak is sharp around the edges, with each song’s elements being as distinct as the whole. A syncopated beat pops against an insistent bass line. The comforting patter of a keyboard is unsettlingly punctuated by overdriven, discordant voices. And throughout, Andy LeMaster’s reedy vocals, as diverse an instrument as any on the album, are as true in a fragile harmony as they are on a soaring, cathartic chorus. Whether delivering an acidic indictment or a hopeful sentiment, voice combines with lyrics to speak the collective experience of individuals. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Saddle Creek
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD: $15.98
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OOIOO
Taiga
Communication with nature is not a new theme for OOIOO. Visually, album art designs and band photos bare hidden repetitions of o-o-i-o-o and videos have visually featured woods of the forest above any member of the band. Much of the band’s past music has incorporated tribal rhythms and wild sounds, but an even more prominent focus on nature is clearly stated on the new album, TAIGA right from the title, which means "big river" in Japanese and "forest" in Russian.
OOIOO’s earliest music was minimal and digital, just as their binary name may suggest. But as the band’s lineup evolved over four previous albums, so did its sound. New-wave poppy grooves gave way to chaotic plateaus and psychedelic freakouts on albums like KILA KILA KILA and Gold & Green. OOIOO’s current manifestation has derived a rhythm-based sound scapes, spacious, spiritual and elevatory, intended as communication with the Earth and motivated by nature.
TAIGA shows OOIOO displaying a wide array of instrumental sounds and textures. Focused on accentuating the rhythm, the band adds layers as seemlessly as they take them away. Rythms patters ebb and flow naturally like the tide all the while a fragile melody interweaves them waves. To a similar effect, Yoshimi and her band-mates’ vocals range from tribal and meditative chants to bird calls and free-folk screaming. TAIGA sounds like the deep forest from the bank of a big river, the sounds of animals and trees, life and death. This is a call to nature as only Yoshimi could muster. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Universal
Genre/Style: Experimental / Pop
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CD: $9.98
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Rapture
Pieces of the People We Love
Bands like this kind of scare me sometimes, because i feel as if what
i'm listening to is very studio. Not the nitty gritty rock and roll
that was out in the 1960's that only lasted about a decade to the
1970's. In the 80's synthesizer was used heavily in songs and so
forth. Night clubs and pop songs became popular and soon rock bands
were adding synth beats and fills to their songs. I, personally was
not around in the 80's to see this, but i HAVE listened to some synth
80's rock music and I'm not TOO fond of it. Don't get me wrong, the
stuff is awesome but it kind of gets boring? I don't know, take it or
leave it, it's alright stuff. Anyways, after the 80s synths were used
a lot in pop songs like and shit and everyone was getting back to that
nitty gritty rock n roll with all that grunge and stuff, but recently a
lot of band have been making this synth/dance/prog/rock.
Now that i have given you the complete low down of the age of
synthesizer, i will now inform you this band heavily uses synth. I
love synth. It's my second favorite instrument followed by the banjo
and you can use it a lot. But unfortunately using it in a whole album
gets boring sometimes (as i stated before with the 80's music) But
fortunately, The Rapture TRYS to bring something else in their songs by
using cowbell in their first song, which was awesome. A lot of bands
these days are trying to bring back the synth/dance rock and some
succeeded (see The Killers and The Bravery) I liked the Killers when
they came out, i will admit it, i really enjoyed that "you had a
boyfriend that looked like a girlfriend" song because it would get
stuck in my head and i enjoyed hearing the little jingle. And i really
enjoyed The Bravery but i found it funny it sounded just like The
Killers. And now, trying to be one of them The Rapture now puts out
their album Pieces Of The People We Love.
It seems like The Rapture flipped how the synth and guitar usually
works. Usually you hear it as a fill in a song or maybe a small solo
here and there which follows the melodies of the guitar, but The
Rapture uses the synth as the main instrument and the guitar has the
small fills. It's interesting, and if you're into synth based songs
defiantly look into this. The lead singer has a really nice voice
which is usually high and loud covering the usual synth and distorted
guitar.
If you like those catchy Killers and Bravery songs that have those cute
little jingles that stay in your head throughout the day, then go pick
up this record because it's really good. Either way The Rapture will
continue to party and plug their synths in to dance around and enjoy
life. -WB
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Universal
Genre/Style: Pop / Dance / Neo-Disco
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CD: $13.98
Sale $9.98
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Skullflower
Tribulation
The new emission from the UK trance-noise legends SKULLFLOWER. A black-void beaming of utterly destroyed drone rock and crushing amplifier obliteration that rains down black ash and punishing blasts of feedback skree on the listener. A dynamic, bleary-eyed meditation. An avalanche of powerdrone that threatens to take your cranium apart and transport your grey matter into filthy new dimensions infested with melodic razor cuts and submerged mantras. A triumphant eruption of apocalyptic meta-metal and radioactive raga swarms, guaranteed to loosen eardrums. This album is one of the heaviest, harshest slabs of guitar armageddon from Matt Bower since the glory days of Total, and bridges the void between the krautrock/celestial free drone influence of the last few Skullflower albums, and the blackened molten death of his Mirag material. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Crucial Blast
Genre/Style: Experimental / Noise
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CD: $15.98
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Soulwax
Nite Versions
Soulwax always seem to take two steps ahead on the music scene and their new album 'Nite Version' is no exception to this statement. 'Nite Version' contains some tracks that may sound familiar to clubbers. The Nite Version of E-Talking (one of the biggest club hits of 2004) and the kawasaki dub of 'NY Lipps' stand among new tracks such as 'Another Excuse' (A Collaboration with DFA) and their cover of Daft Punks 'Teachers'. From Electro to Techo, from bombastic rock to disco, this record guarantees to keep you moving. The Album is mixed by de Dewaele Brothers (Soulwax/2 many DJ's). Just like at Any Minute Now the Artwork is done by Trevor Jacksons -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Modular / Interscope
Genre/Style: Hip-Hop / Soul
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CD: $11.98
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TV on the Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain
The forces of Originality and Accessibility have been doing battle for the hearts and souls of musical artists for a long time, and the results of this Tug-Of-War are often not pretty. We've seen bands revert to total Pop hogwash, and we've seen them abandon all sense of melody in the struggling attempt to be "different." But in this September of the two-thousand and sixth year, according to the prophesy, a group of Brooklyn Artists have conquered both forces of Originality and Accessibility, employing them in their fullest capacity to make an album that equally stimulates your brain, your heart, and your booty. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the kings of Neo-Soul, TV on the Radio.
The coolest record of 'oh six opens up with "I Was A Lover," a song that immediately sets the tone for the rest of the album. It thrives on choppy loops and diverse repetitions, on droning electronics over bass-heavy groove beats, on crooning saxophone and heavy jazz influence, and on the sweet combo of Peter Gabriel meets Tribal Africa chest voice and R&B falsetto. At first listen you know this is something new and different, but the music still connects to your soul's oldest and truest definitions of "awesome." It's a style of songwriting only a group of visual artists could achieve: a hunger for innovation and exploration coupled with an unyielding duty to aestheticism.
This search for the new has led TV on the Radio to make an album very different (and better) than their first endeavor, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. This record is so much fuller and more complete, it seems to capture everything the group has ever wanted to capture. The last album was very simple musically, featuring the vocal work of Tunde Adebimpe over everything else. Somewhere in the past couple years the group decided the music needed to be much bigger to create a great atmosphere to connect with the vocals. I suspect that on top of adding new members, they listened to a lot of Tortoise and a bit of Konono No. 1, looking to the masters of atmosphere for their needed inspiration.
If you heard the "New Health Rock" single between the albums, you probably assumed, as I did, that the new album would be a dancey hip-hop record in the vein of Outkast, and this is in no way what we got. Yes, Return… is hip-hop influenced but it's even close to a hip-hop album, it also draws on jazz, industrial, trance, techno, indie rock, new wave, and a humongous myriad of other genres. And yes, it will make you dance, but it's not dancey in the hip hop feel and most certainly not in the way of the "dance-punk" trend exploding right now. The new music is so much greater than all of that. It will jump straight to your native connection to rhythm, it will fill you completely and leave you with no choice but to love it and move to it. Your mom will love this record. Your little sibling will love this record. Your jerk boss will love this record. It's just so lovable. So just buy it and start loving.
PS: David Bowie sings back-up on track 3. -JM
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Interscope
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Wolf Like Me [TVOTR myspace]
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CD: $13.98
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Viva Voce
Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
There comes a time in everybody's life when they realize they need some good stoner rock. But you can't just jump right into the intensity of Jesu orthe doom of Earth, you gotta ease yourself into it with some Zeppelin meets Sonic Youth in the underground garage kind of tunes. Might I recommend husband and wife team Viva Voce?
Like Pink Mountaintops, Viva Voce combine 70s guitar fuzz with distorted bass and hypnotic blasts of feedback to create trippy, schizophrenic tunes. The record's opener, “Believer”, comes in like a Queen epic with a heavy riff but it's soon drowned out by crunchy rhythms and overdubbed percussion. “We Do Not Fuck Around” is a bluesy and dramatic anthem true to it's title while “How to Nurse a Bruised Ego” provides psychedelic synth washes and soaring crescendos over electric drones. But Viva Voce can also do the airy indie rock of Yo La Tengo with ease and they prove it on the up-tempo “Faster Than a Dead Horse” and the playful piano pop of “Never Be Like Yesterday”.
The unique mixing of styles on Get Yr Blood Sucked Out may not seem to belong together, but Viva Voce harness their personality crisis by blissfully toying with how much they can fit into one song without losing control. They come close a few times, but that's what makes this album so damn fun. -JS
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Barsuk
Genre/Style: Pop / Psyche
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CD: $13.98
CD: $11.98
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Wovenhand
Mosaic
Free of any boundaries (like saving songs for 16 HORSEPOWER) DAVID EUGENE EDWARDS delivers "Mosaic." His 4th WOVENHAND album and his masterpiece. The album again was put to tape by ROBERT FERBRACHE, a one-time lap-steel player in 16 HP who runs Absinthe Studios in Denver. He doesn't stray much from his signature sound: mournful, minor key dirges within which Edwards ruminates on his recurring themes of faith, the fallibility of man, and the folly of the non- believer. But on "Mosaic" he unleashes a maelstrom of intensity and conviction that is as captivating as it is deeply spiritual. This is it. The one. It's magical, dark, mysterious, sinister and gorgeous. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Sounds Familyre
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD: $14.98
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Xasthur
Subliminal Genocide
Xasthur is one of the most respected black metal bands in the modern metal scene, somehow removing themselves of a pack of wannabes and emerging with a sound that is both remniscent of their roots (well, his roots... as quoted in their bio, "Xasthur is Melefic" only) but that screams "progress" and is bursting at every seam with a finesse rarely seen in the genre.
The most recent effort by Xasthur is being released statside this week by Hydra Head records, and you'll soon be able to hear why. Their ambient and beautiful intro is followed by an enormously epic second track, clocking in at just over thirteen minutes and subtly shifting gears throughout. Fans of the band's split with Nortt (on Southern Lord) won't be disappointed, but I'm of the distinct impression that metal fans who find black metal too derivative or sloppy will hear both production and song-craft far superior even to recent efforts (such as Craft's excellent Fuck the Universe).
Personally, I'm rarely a fan of the genre, but "Subliminal Genocide" transcends it, crossing into territory treaded bands like Sunn, Ocean, and Isis, as wells as Lurker of Chalice and Craft and earlier black metal pioneers such as Deathspell Omega. Disregard your previous notions regarding this band and their contemporaries. The Norwegian Invasion may have begun. -RA
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Hydra Head
Genre/Style: Doom / Black Metal / Ambient
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CD: $13.98
LP: $12.98
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Xiu Xiu
The Air Force
Attacking established pop, tearing it apart, and then putting back together. All kinds of weird cut-ups, juxtapositions, classical instrumentation, and unexpected arrangements, alternating between screaming tantrums and wavery whispers. Between cerebral abstraction and visceral emotion. Melody, energy and chaos, as if it's ready to blow apart at any minute, oddly cathartic. -CP
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: 5 Rue Christine
Genre/Style: Pop / Experimental
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CD: $13.98
LP: $16.98
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Yo La Tengo
I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
The title alone has sparked debates, arguments, riots, and fisticuffs galore over this album long before its release. Many have wondered why Yo La Tengo chose such a ridiculous name, and I can’t be sure, but I have a theory. Ira Kaplan and his wife Georgia Hubley have been making indie pop since 1984, they’ve dropped a couple of amazing albums, and they’ve built up a huge fan-base for an independent band, so they’ve been around the block a few times. I think part of the purpose of I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass was to show just how well they can go around that block, and that they can do whatever they want in the process, like choose a completely nonsensical album name. Whether you dig the title or not, Yo La Tengo still rules the universe have given us yet another awesome record.
This is, in my opinion, the most eclectic of all the previous albums I’ve heard (I admit to having incomplete history of the band). It’s not as cohesive as I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One , but it has a much more fun attitude. Yo La Tengo have already made many of the seminal indie rock albums of our time, so I imagine they just felt like having a blast and making great rock n’ roll. This doesn’t mean we lose the beautiful noisy jams we’ve come to love, it just means now we have a few 50’s pop tributes, some chamber music, and a bit of shoegaze on top of it all.
Like I said, as a result of the vast spectrum of genres the album has very little fluidity. When you go straight from a heavy pop song to a noisy guitar jam to an orchestral piece to an ambient track, it’s a bit difficult to flow the songs right into each other. Thus, in some ways this feels like a “Greatest Hits of Yo La Tengo 2004-2006″ record, and that’s not necessarily bad. The songs might not connect through the album like a Pink Floyd record, but all these different genres are done so bloody well, proving how vast a territory Yo La Tengo has conquered.
Like a great Old Country Buffet of rock, everyone will be able to pick out a few songs that really make this record worth it for them. For me, the first of these is the opener, “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” ten minutes of dirty guitar jamming over a bass line that never changes and handclaps (yes, I said handclaps!). A lot of really good songs come up after this, but it’s at track nine where we come to my favorite, the gorgeous, atmospheric, shoegazey instrumental “Daphnia.” Lastly, we have “The Story of Yo La Tango” (not misspelled), a huge, building 11-minute closer that represents all I’ve come to love about this band: noisy and triumphant guitar solos, washy cymbals and loud drums, simple but solid bass lines, beautiful melodies and an awesomeness that only they can pull off. I don’t think Yo La Tengo broke any major musical boundaries on this album, they didn’t reinvent their sound and they didn’t blown my mind. But at the end of this record I’m still left totally rocked and completely unshaken in my belief that this is one of the best bands out there today. 20 years and still going strong. Keep it up, guys. -JM
Release Date: 09/12/06
Label: Matador
Genre/Style: Pop / Rock
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Cardigans
Super Extra Gravity
Sale $15.98 |
The Big Sleep
Son of the Tiger
Sale $13.98 |
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Letting Go
Sale $15.98 |
Bound Stems
Appreciation Night
Sale $13.98 |
DJ Shadow
Outsider
Sale $14.98 |
Whitest Boy Alive
Dreams
Sale $17.98 |
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