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CD: $14.98
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Aa
GAame
Aa's alternately and frenetic live performances have become legendary in New York over the past few years, featuring multiple drummers and vocalists alongside a tangle of keyboards and electronics. Their debut full length gAame features a bonus DVD with live footage and videos to accompany each song on the CD. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Gigantic
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $13.98$9.98
LP: $12.98
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Alex Delivery
Star Destroyer
Think Can or Faust all mashed up with the personal disco of Arthur Russell. Think of the electric organ of Terry Riley's Shri Camel, slowly morphing and perpetually in motion, but remaining in step with a guitar-less and Moroder-charged Sparks. And think of a more composed Dead C, where Michael Morley sings about Big Thunder Mountain while holding a beach ball in one hand and fending off the digital shards of musique concrète humming around his ears with the other.
Alex Delivery have gleefully exposed their myriad gifts and influences with their debut full-length Star Destroyer, almost two years in the making. On it the New York-based quintet have demonstrated their penchant for the electro-organic, seamlessly blending the sharp and gentle, like a chain-gang draped in organza. You can hear the chattering of insects resonating from the inside of a kettle drum, and you can imagine this colossal robo-beast wobbling and waltzing down an abandoned carnival boardwalk. Sylphs soar across strings, occasionally descending to enjoy some wiggle-worthy poly-rhythms. These and many more colorful characters have climbed aboard the Star Destroyer.
Alex Delivery is Nik Bozic, Marika Kandelaki, Robert Lombardo, Colin Ryan, and Yegang Yoo. Star Destroyer was self-recorded and mixed by the band and mastered at West West Side with Alan Douches. The album artwork is taken from six oil paintings made by Kandelaki.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Jagjaguwar
Genre/Style: Pop / Electronic / Krautrock
MP3 Komad
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CD: $15.98
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Arctic Monkeys
Favourite Worst Nightmare
While this sophomore release is unmistakably Arctic Monkeys, everythings a little more muscular and aggressive. Each song is embedded with revelatory moments, as if some sort of critical mass is achieved through skillful song craft and sharp arrangements until an explosive release of energy or emotion is inevitable. Arctic Monkeys have exceeded expectations with this record. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Warner Bros
Genre/Style: Rock / Punk
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $15.98
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Badgerlore
We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits
Badgerlore is the great tribal council of the so-called 'freak folk' movement. The supergroup features Rob Fisk (Deerhoof, 7-Year Rabbit Cycle) and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets On Fire), with Tom Carter (Charalambides), Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans), Glen Donaldson (Blithe Sons, Jewelled Antler) and Liz Harris (Grouper). Together they proceed with masterful nuance and inexorable tension; We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits is the sound of effigy mounds slowly rousing from prehistoric slumber. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Xeric / Table of the Elements
Genre/Style: Rock / Experimental
MP3 Champagne From A Papercut
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CD: $12.98$8.98
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Balboa / Rosetta
Project Mercury
This is exactly how a split record should happen. Two bands that are long time friends, tour mates, practice space splitters, and so forth. While these two bands might seem radically different on the surface, if you give yourself the chance to look past the veneer you will find two bands that have had subtle but important influences on each other. The first five tracks allow each band to present their version of musical reality. The sixth and final song finds the two bands collaborating on a dense and epic track from which the entire record/project takes its name. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Level Plane
Genre/Style: Post-Metal
MP3 Balboa - Primitive Accumulation
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CD: $17.98
CD/DVD: $24.98
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The Band
The Best of: A Musical History
Robbie Robertson hand picked the songs from their classic box set to be featured on this single disc set. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Country
Genre/Style: Hip Hop
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $12.98$8.98
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Bloody Panda
Pheromone
Driven by the mournful, melodic vocals of Japanese frontwoman Yoshiko Ohara, Bloody Panda's transcendent sound finds its roots in the dirge-like power of Swans, the amplifier-worshipping textures of Earth, and the ethereal tension of Skepticism, as well as in various traditional styles from around the globe. The band synthesizes its esoteric influences into focused, powerful, anthemic songs, hailed by Decibel Magazine as "Khanate-caliber doom metal" and by CMJ New Music Monthly as "New York microtonal funeral doom. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Level Plane
Genre/Style: Rock / Experimental / Drone
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $13.98
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The Blow
Poor Aim: Love Songs
This is a reissue from K Records.
Khaela Maricich, after spending the past several years lovingly crafting pop songs of naive complexity under the assumed names The Blow (K Records) and Get The Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano- has joined forces with States Rights Records recording artist Jona Bechtolt (Y.A.C.H.T, The Badger King) to craft her most realized work to date - Poor Aim: Love Songs. As the premier co-release of Slender Means Society and States Rights Records collaborative Pregnancy Series, the EP is a laser-focused re-evaluation of the Blow's already celebrated vision; her stuttered, minimalist pop tones-undulating synths, languid bass ambiance, and longing lyrics delivered in post coital hush- married with Bechtolt's crystalline, progressively adept production sensibilities. The product is unlike any other in Maricich's uncompromising discography's a dramatic leap of sonic and conceptual clarity that maintains Maricich's indelibly singular voice. A concept record loosely unified in failings songs about failed love, and conversely, love songs that fell short- Poor Aim explores loveÕs yearnings, deceptions, addictions, and ultimately, its complacency.
With that in mind, however, itÕs important to approach Poor Aim as, first and foremost, a commanding pop statement or Òhit factory as weÕre affectionately calling it with songs after song glorious song of striking dance floor brilliance. A rapid-fire RIL assault certain to blow-up the play lists of iPod DJs nationwide. Give it a spin-we is sure youÕll agree. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: K Records
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Firetower
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CD: $13.98
LP: $12.98
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Calvin Johnson & the Sons of Soil
Self-titled
In 2003, K recording artists Khaela Maricich (the Blow) and Jason Anderson had a vision. "What if Calvin Johnson played all his best songs from over the years, with a band of real music-making people?" This was their vision, and they decided to make it happen. Jason formed a band of other K music stalwarts that included Kyle Field (Little Wings) on bass with Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, VERSION) and Jason sharing the guitar and drum playing duties. Dubbed by Jason the Sons of the Soil, they set out to modernize the primitive. Khaela designed a graphic image that perfectly captured the Sons of the Soil's transcendental vibe. A tour was arranged that crossed paths with other fine Olympia types, including Rebecca Pearcy and Mirah. Songs were chosen that spanned the years and various combos, including songs originally recorded by Halo Benders ("Love Travels Faster"), Dub Narcotic Sound System ("Booty Run") and the Go Team ("Sand"). Rehearsals commenced, and then it was off across the Western United States for a rollicking, rockin' good time.
This album was recorded at the Dub Narcotic studio in July, 2003, immediately following their return to Olympia, Wash. It features a good cross section of the material from the tour and includes a few live snippets from the Sons of the Soil performance in Spokane, Wash.
Calvin Johnson is the founder of K and operates the Dub Narcotic Studio, where he has recorded such artists as Mirah, Tender Forever, Yume Bitsu, the Gossip, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Old Time Relijun and Fitz of Depression. He has released numerous records with the bands Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System and the Halo Benders, and toured across the United States scads of times. Calvin’s first solo album, What Was Me (KLP117) is a Spartan kalang of guitar and voice; Before the Dream Faded… (KLP170) was it's successor, and featured more of a mixture of band and solo styles.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: K Records
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Myspace
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CD:$15.98
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Cornelius
Sensuous
Sensuous, the new full-length album from Cornelius, detonates on impact with the listener's consciousness. It's a bold and nearly infinite record, a twisting Möbius strip weaving simulation into reality and back again.
It is, in a word, genius.
Arriving stateside through Los Angeles-based Everloving Records, Sensuous resists all traditional modes of classification. Yet Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) has always marched to the beat of a different drum machine, even in his wildly eclectic habitat of Tokyo, Japan. Since exploding onto the scene in 1997 with Fantasma, his cut-and-paste opus, Cornelius has dazed and amused fans worldwide with his freeform pop aesthetic and playful sense of humor. On Point, his 2001 follow-up, he stripped away much of Fantasma's sonic embroidery, spotlighting edgier rhythms and ambient textures within a pastoral, South American setting.
With Sensuous, Cornelius further explores the dazzling atmospherics he developed on Point. It's a disciplined sound that's also wildly experimental, bursting with electronic pulsewaves, wood-grain acoustics, minimalist interludes and raw guitar freakouts. Released as an enhanced CD, it features a video for "Fit Song" and an interactive widget of panoramic Tokyo. (Everloving Records will also release the Sensuous DVD this fall with music videos for all 12 songs, plus more special features.) Sure, you could dance to it, but you could also throw on the headphones, sit back in your Eames chair and get whisked away to Keigo's multidimensional planet of sound. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Everloving
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD: $15.98
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The Detroit Cobras
Tied and True
When we come into this world, some of us get tapped on the head by God, the Grand Poobah, Mother Nature or who/whatever and are granted extraordinary gifts; there is no question that Detroit Cobras’ singer Rachel Nagy rolled snake eyes at the Grand Casino in the Sky. With Tied And True, their first new record in three years, the Cobras practically done created a new genre all for themselves, delivering the sonic goods to back up some seriously supernatural soulful vocal gifts.
Untrained and undisciplined (and how!), Rachel started out by belting revved-up rock yowlers and has grown into the gen-u-ine gutsy, vulnerable, delicate and commanding soul-on-the-edge singer. She effortlessly glides from R&B sass, to girl group pathos to kitten-with-a-whip toughness with a snap of her chipped fingernails. Longtime musical partner in crime, guitarist Mary Ramirez keeps the DE-troit Motor City in the Cobras with her body shop wallop, greasy rock ‘n soul rhythms and a bold grasp of old school, big room arrangements.
Stretching out in the studio like never before, and including contributions from top line players like Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound) the Cobras have created a versatile and formidable wall of Spector sound (is that timpani you’re hearing here and there? Yer goddamn right it is). Be it eerie or orchestral, or pure rock and roll rough up, Tied and True puts the Cobras on a whole new level—of many sources but a genus all its own.
Soul lives below the belt, and whether you’re looking to be grinding it slow or shaking it up good, the Cobras bring it tough and tender, savage and sweet. Tied and true.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Bloodshot
Genre/Style: Garage / Blues / Punk
MP3 As Long As I Have You
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CD: $13.98
LP: $14.98
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Dntel
Dumb Luck
Thirteen years after starting to work under the Dntel moniker and almost six years after releasing his last Dntel full-length, Life is Full of Possibilities (Plug Research), Jimmy Tamborello has painstakingly built and birthed Dumb Luck, an album five years in the making. In addition to his own vocals on the title track, the record’s sometimes spacious, sometimes texturally intense compositions center around vocal contributions from Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear), Valerie Trebeljahr and Markus Acher of Lali Puna, Mia Doi Todd, Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott (Arthur & Yu), Andrew Broder (Fog), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Christopher and Jennifer Gunst (Mystic Chords of Memory). Chris Hathwell (Moving Units) plays drums throughout, and Paul Larson (The Minor Canon) adds guitar as well. Thick with Tamborello’s signature sampler finessing, warm electronic washes and genius beat placement, Dumb Luck is an album lyrically as much about human distance as connection. Like Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake (Plug Research), his 2006 release under the name James Figurine, and The Postal Service’s 2003 release Give Up, Tamborello meticulously labored over each element in his LA home studio. This is Dntel’s first album with Sub Pop. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Sub Pop
Genre/Style: Electronic / Pop
MP3 Dumb Luck
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CD: $14.98
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Electric Soft Parade
No Need To Be Downhearted
Their highly-anticipated full-length is epic and adventurous while retaining its pop shimmer. It follows their 2002 debut Holes In The Wall, the 2003 release of The American Adventure, and The Human Body EP, the latter of which was a perfect mid-point between their previous efforts and a teaser of greater things to come. With this new record theyre at it again, this time as space-age power-balladeers and digital terrorist rockers. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Better Looking
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop
MP3 If That's The Case
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CD: $16.98
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Ibrahim Ferrer
Mi Sueno
Mi Sueno is essential listening. Ferrer brings warmth, ease, humor and poignancy to his vocals, where romance is looked back on fondly and still longed for passionately. Featuring "Uno" and "Perfidia," Mi Sueno is a dream everyone can share.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Noneusch
Genre/Style: Latin Jazz
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $17.98
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Tim Finn
Imaginary Kingdom
Best known for his work with Split Enz, Crowded House and the Finn Brothers, Tim Finn's nearly 25-year solo career has been overshadowed by his band projects and, to a certain extent, by his brother Neil's international success. Imaginary Kingdom should change all of that. To say that this album is magical is an understatement! Imaginary Kingdom is an atmospheric and joyous collection of beautifully written songs that embrace the listener with warmth and emotional honesty. Piano moves back to centerstage again (it was, for the most part, sadly neglected on his two previous solo releases, Say It Is So and Feeding the Gods) and Finn's vocals are a wonder to behold. When his voice takes flight, as it often does on this release, it becomes an instrument of the angels. It's a stunning thing to experience. His songwriting is stronger and more focused than it's been in years, every song filled with thought-provoking lyrical images and spine-tingling chord changes. Imaginary Kingdom's main strength is how well the songs fit together as a whole. This is not an album to take apart piece by piece, looking for a hit. This is an album that should be heard as a single piece of art. That's not to say that there aren't any possible hits here, though. "Couldn't Be Done," the album's first single and lead track recalls other great Finn album openers like "Hit the Ground Running" and "Fraction Too Much Fiction." "Winter Light," originally released on the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia, is one of the most hauntingly beautiful ballads that Finn has ever written, and his emotional performance is stunning. "Astounding Moon" and the touching "Salt to the Sea" are in a similar musical vein, reaching out and pulling the listener deeper into the album with each listen. "Still the Song" celebrates the inspirational healing of music. "Resting (Your Hands Lightly)," "Midnight Coma" and "Horizon" are pure Finn pop nuggets with melodies sent down from the heavens. Although Imaginary Kingdom is fantastic, it does have its flaws. "Dead Flowers" has a nice Enigma-like groove but the melody doesn't reach out and grab you like the other tracks do. "Unsinkable" does have a great melody but the song doesn't really go anywhere before drifting from view. But honestly, there is no perfect piece of art, and the minor flaws will always add to its undeniable charm. Imaginary Kingdom should shift the spotlight back to Tim Finn as one of the most gifted and extraordinary singer/songwriters of his generation. (allmusic.com) -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Manhattan
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Myspace/a>
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CD:$15.98
LP:$15.98
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The Fucking Champs
VI
It is oft opined that to the victor go the spoils; truly then, the world belongs to the Champs. The Fucking Champs, that is. In the four years since the release of V, they have roamed their domain endlessly, holding concerts when and where they desired. As ever, the neck-choking guitar acrobatics that are The Fucking Champs' signature are in place. The pummeling of tom-toms reaches dizzying, spiritual heights. Their almost clairvoyant guitar interplay and ferocious drum attack is captured in transparent sterling detail. Their grand and benevolent (yet playful) sense of humor (that has no relationship to irony whatsoever) arcs above the melee, creating song titles such as 'A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Ideas,' and 'That Crystal Behind You? (Are You Channeling).' Yes, humor has its uses. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Drag City
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 Spring Break
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CD: $15.98
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Charlotte Gainsbourg
5:55
International movie star, fashion icon, and music royalty (daughter of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg) makes her US debut. Already platinum in France with worldwide sales of over 500,000. The US CD release includes two previously unavailable bonus tracks, two music videos, and a video interview with Charlotte. Music by Air, lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, and produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck). -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Vice
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $11.98
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Golden Smog
Blood on the Slacks
The Smog delivers the follow up album to their critically acclaimed "Another Fine Day". It's a specially priced mini-album containing 6 new original songs as well as covers of a David Bowie classic and a Dinasaur Jr. classic. Golden Smog features members of The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Run Westy Run and Wilco -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Lost highway
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 Look At You Now
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CD: $13.98$9.98
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Grails
Burning Off Impurities
Following soon after the critically praised Black Tar Prophecies collection on Important Records, Portland, Oregon's Grails return with their first proper studio album since 2004 release of Redlight. Burning Off Impurities - their debut for Temporary Residence Ltd. - makes good on the promise of those past releases in delivering an album that not only thrusts the group to new heights, but also significantly pushes the instrumental rock genre forward for the first time in nearly a decade. An increased interest in psychedelic, ambient and world musics is most likely to blame for Grails' exploration of the lesser-traveled paths of modern music. Influenced in equal parts by Ash Ra Tempel, Erkin Koray, Popol Vuh, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and dozens others, this is very likely the closest Grails will ever get to making a classic rock record; the kind of sprawling masterpiece that you savor for years before passing it on to your younger brother so he can repeat the process. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Temporary Residence Limited
Genre/Style: Post Rock / Middle Eastern
MP3 Dead Vine Blue
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CD: $14.98
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Growing
Vision Swim
Their most focused and intense work to date. The twin guitar attack is complimented by a wall of amps and deafening volume. Oddly enough, there are also moments of extreme quiet and delicacy. Growing have ventured into uncharted territory, where sheets of noise meld with metallic noodling and blissfully numbing drones and exploratory electronic manipulations. As one critic put it, If youre planning a trip to space, itd be smart to throw this in with your protein-pack. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Troubleman Unlimited
Genre/Style: Experimental
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $12.98
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Hoots & Hellmouths
Self-titled
Playing The Boot May 10th w/ Dr. Dog and The Teeth
Philadelphia based Hoots & Hellmouth embodies a feisty independent spirit churning out new music for old souls. Their shows are like traveling tent revivals; their audiences are like congregation. And while the emphasis has always been on the live experience, H&H eponymous debut studio album is shaping up to be one hell of an adventure. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Mad Dragon
Genre/Style: Bluegrass / Rock / Soul
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $15.98$10.98
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Mando Diao
Ode To Ochrasy
Ode To Ochrasy is the third album from Swedish five-piece Mando Diao and follows 2005's critically-acclaimed Hurricane Bar.
As one of the more prominent Swedish bands, Mando Diao, which formed in the late 90's while all the members were still in their teens, has spent much of the last two years on the road, packing shows all over Europe, Japan and the US, and picking up gold records in several European countries. The band also received wide press attention in the United States during the release of Hurricane Bar, picking up raves everywhere from Paste, who praised their "superior songwriting and musical depth" to Rolling Stone, who called them "Sweden's tastiest exports." Filter Magazine wrote "[Mando have] managed to spread a grimy film all over melodic '60s-style pop, making even catchy melodies, harmonized vocals and shiny production feel dirty." Magnet praised the band's "tricky mix of brash guitars and cockeyed melodies" and Alternative Press asked, "Why haven't this band taken over the world yet?"
The themes of Ode To Ochrasy were born out of the band’s experiences on the road, while supporting Hurricane Bar. The band was most taken by “ochrasy” a term which they made up for those wee hours of the night, after the show, post-afterparty, before the start of the next day. It is a place and a state of mind somewhere between dream and reality. As frontman Björn Dixgard describes it, ochrasy is “that hallucinatory world you enter around four and five in the morning... a sort of utopian world where anything can happen, where everything is allowed.” On the road, the men of Mando Diao would frequently meet strange characters after their shows, stroll desolate streets near the clubs they played at, and close out creepy dive bars. All of these experiences inspired the songs on Ochrasy, where lyrics reference the characters they met on the road, and the bizarre encounters the band had in those early hours of the morning.
Recorded over the Spring of 2006, Ode To Ochrasy, was produced by Mando Diao, with early help from friend Björn Olsson (formerly of Soundtrack of Our Lives). Olsson was instrumental in making the band focus on the big picture of the album, rather than focusing on the tiny details. Bassist CJ Fogelklou recalled “Working with Björn really made us learn how to to capture the right feeling when you’re recording... This time we've been listening more to the general feeling and how we play together, instead of worrying too much about details.” After Olsson kickstarted the album in motion, the band took over as producers, enlisting mixer Owen Morris (Oasis, The Verve, New Order) to round out the sound. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Mute
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $14.98
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The New Amsterdams
Killed or Curbed
Band fronted by Matt Pryor issues this 2 CD set which contains acoustic versions of songs on one disc and orchestrated versions of all the songs on the other. Many of these previously unreleased songs are staples in the band's moving live performances. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Curb Appeal
Genre/Style: Folk
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CD: $12.98
LP: $13.98
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Joanna Newsom & the Y's Street Band
Self-titled
A new Joanna Newsom record already? Don't rub your eyes and ears just yet -- it's 'just' an EP. But with all new arrangements and performances of two already-classic Joanna songs and the debut of a brand-new song, it's a solid short-play record at least -- and another inspiring slice of Newsom at best! Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band E.P. was performed by Joanna's road-tested band: Kevin Barker, Neal Morgan, Dan Cantrell and Ryan Francesconi, with Joanna Newsom singing and playing her harp. Recorded and mixed in its entirety by Tim Green at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band E.P. is an all-new, live and lively look into the world of one of today's fastest-growing young artists. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Drag City
Genre/Style: Folk
MP3 Unavailable
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CD: $13.98
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Part Chimp
Cup
art Chimp's new release "CUP" is a collection of previsously unreleased tracks, rarities, outtakes, and the new Part Chimp single "New Cross." Contained in a beautifully designed digipack, "CUP" is perfect for die hard fans who need all the Chimp they can gather, or those who are testing the rocky waters for the first time. Our sales pitch is included in the free single linked below...we shouldn't need to do any more coaxing. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Monitor
Genre/Style: Rock
MP3 New Cross
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CD: $9.98
LP: $9.98
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Robert Pollard
Silverfish Trivia
The new Bob" is a phrase often heard from fans of Robert Pollard. As in, "Have you heard the new Bob?" It usually refers to the latest project that Pollard has recorded and released. But in this case "the new Bob" has a new meaning. Prom Is Coming is Pollard's new label (replacing the Fading Captain Series) but not his deal with Merge.
Silverfish Trivia finds Pollard once again in the studio with producer and musical partner Todd Tobias. The results sound different from anything they've done before. A mini-LP-- seven songs in twenty-two minutes-- Silverfish Trivia is lush with the beautiful string arrangements courtesy of Chris George of NYC-based string quartet Invert.
Powered by tracks like "Circle Saw Boys Club" and "Cats Love A Parade," and overflowing with lyrical imagery equal to Pollard's greatest works, Silverfish Trivia is destined to become another Pollard classic. So there you have it, the first release on Robert Pollard's new label, Prom Is Coming. It's called Silverfish Trivia... you know, the new Bob. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Prm Is Coming
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Myspace
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CD:$13.98
LP:$11.98
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Pterodactyl
Self-titled
Born in a cornfield in Ohio, Pterodactyl migrated to Brooklyn, where they spent long hours in a flooded basement writing songs that sounded "as if someone plugged them into the nearest available wall socket and flipped the on switch" (Doug Mosurak, Dusted). After releasing two 7-inches, "Friday, During the Day" and "I Can See a River," Pterodactyl bought a sampler, discovered their fascination with thickly layered vocal harmonies, and set to work on what would become their debut full-length record, officially self-titled, but operationally called "Blue Jay." Soon afterward, Pterodactyl were forced to move all their equipment out of New York City and make their temporary home in the basement of a house in rural Connecticut. Most of the songs on their debut record were written on weekend trips to this basement while Pterodactyl waited for a place to play back in the city. When they finally moved into a less flooded and much less spacious room with Brah label-mates Parts & Labor, they put the finishing touches on the songs and recorded it all on a series of very cold days in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The songs on this record range from incessant and infectious ("Polio") to sparse and spacious ("Three Succeed") to epic and redemptive ("Esses"). Combining a noisy post-punk palette with adventurous, arresting lead vocals and harmonies, Pterodactyl's first full-length offers up a compellingly catchy, scratchy sound that is not easily forgotten. In 2006 Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau caught a performance of "Polio" at the tail end of Pterodactyl's set and ranked it the best "tail end" in a month of New York live shows, writing: "A 20-minute Dungen song deserved its 10-minute flute solo. The unknown Pterodactyl repeated the same climactic six-note riff for six minutes. This was so much better than that flute solo."
Pterodactyl is Joe Kremer, Matt Marlin and Kurt Beals. Beals was previously a principal member of early Jagjaguwar band The Union of A Man And A Woman. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Brah
Genre/Style: Pop / Experimental
MP3 Essess
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CD: $17.98
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Joshua Redman Trio
Back East
Joshua Redman mixes originals with standards in tribute of the great sax players before him, on his new album Back East. But Redman doesn't just pay homage with these tunes, he makes them his own, adding a different sort of "eastern" feel to both the covers and his original compositions. With many special guest performers, including his own father, Redman has created a eloquent gift for the music world.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Nonesuch
Genre/Style: Jazz
MP3 Unavailable
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CD: $17.98
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Patti Smith
Twelve
The album that Patti always wanted to make, Twelve features a collection of 12 diverse classic cover songs newly interpreted and handpicked by the rock legend for the important place they hold in her life as an artist. Twelve features songs originally performed by legendary artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Neil Young, Tears For Fears, Nirvana, and many more! -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Columbia
Genre/Style: Folk / Pop
MP3 Myspace
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CD: $17.98$12.98
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Spank Rock
Fabric Live 33
FABRICLIVE 33 takes the series through the grimey back streets roots of Baltimore with neo-b-boy heroes Spank Rock. Fearless masters of the breaks and mic pranks, Spank Rock throw a middle finger to the conventions of hip hop with their uptempo eletronic mix of hard-edged party beats and uncontested party classics. Features tracks by Kurtis Blow, CSS, Daft Punk, Hot Chip, etc. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Fabric
Genre/Style: Booty House
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CD: $16.98$9.98
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Mavis Staples
We'll Never Turn Back
When we started our family group, The Staple Singers, we started out mostly singing in churches in the south. Pops saw Dr. Martin Luther King speak in 1963 and from there we started to broaden our musical vision beyond just gospel songs. Pops told us, “I like this man. I like his message. And if he can preach it, we can sing it.” So we started to write “freedom songs,” like “Why Am I Treated So Bad,” “When Will We Be Paid for the Work We’ve Done,” “Long Walk to DC,” and many others. Like many in the civil rights movement, we drew on the spirituality and the strength from the church to help gain social justice and to try to achieve equal rights.
We became a major voice for the civil rights movement and hopefully helped to make a difference in this country. It was a difficult and dangerous time (in 1965 we spent a night in jail in West Memphis, Arkansas and I wondered if we’d ever make it out alive) but we felt we needed to stand up and be heard.
So for us, and for many in the civil rights movement, we looked to the church for inner strength and to help make positive changes. And that seems to be missing today. Here it is, 2007, and there are still so many problems and social injustices in the world. Well, I tell you ¬we need a change now more than ever, and I’m turning to the church again for strength.
With this record, I hope to get across the same feeling, the same spirit and the same message as we did with the Staple Singers – and to hopefully continue to make positive changes. We’ve got to keep pushing to make the world a better place. Things are better but we’re not where we need to be and we’ll never turn back. 99 and 1/2 just won’t do!
- Mavis-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Anti
Genre/Style: Rock / Soul / Blues
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CD: $17.98
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Various Artists
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell features a strikingly eclectic roster of artists who share Mitchell's fierce intelligence, musical sophistication, and boundary-pushing experimentalism. The creative interpretations of some of her best-known songs illustrate Mitchell's breadth as a composer and lyricist while putting something of a unique flavor on the chosen songs. Artists include Sufjan Stevens, Elvvis Costello, Bjork, KD Lang, Caetano Veloso and more.-CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Nonesuch
Genre/Style: Tribute
MP3 Unavailable
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CD:$13.98$9.98
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Various Artists
SC100
This is Secretly Canadian's 100th release, finally stamped and shipped out on its 11-year anniversary. But this isn't a 11-years-of-Secretly-Canadian-budget-blow-out-back-pat. That will likely happen with SC200, The Johnny Cougar Mellencomp. SC100 is more a suspended, freeze-dried nugget of evolution from those humbled beginnings everyone has. For those with a checklist of Hooiser Rock History, take note that SC is the first Indiana label to issue 100 titles. Daydreams are good when thinking of who came before -- BRBQ, 700 West, Lamp, Solid Gold or Gulcher -- and what they could've done if not for being corn-holed by that cruel economy of scales or packing up and leaving the state for brighter times. A few years past its inception, SC albums were never shrink-wrapped, sleeping space doubled as office space and the website address was garbled syntax of tildes and slashes unable to be translated over the phone: http://php.indiana.edu/~bjswanso/sc.html. Ten years later and there is still a lot o' eye-rolling when someone slides up with "What does Secretly Canadian mean?"
All artists who issued recordings from SC01 (June Panic, Glory Hole) to SC99 (Swearing at Motorists, Last Night Becomes This Morning) were up for inclusion to cover a song by a label mate via the ol' names-in-a-hat method. So, Antony is not a part of this collection. I've yet to hear The Earlies and probably won't get around to it for awhile, 'cause they aren't here either. Catfish Haven is a no, and ditto for I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness and Windsor for the Derby. Yet who out there knew SC had a cassette only side-label, Canadian Exchange, and would call up CE02 star Cornelius Boots for this, eh? So step back a bit just a few years and settle in or dust off those old SC albums to refresh with the originals. While the pre-SC100 discography is packed with Indiana heavies, there have been extended stays and shack-ups in Bloomington by most of the SC roster, be it a few days, or monthly rates at the College Inn, or even more permanent. No one wants to get hokey here, but this is a communal gathering, a family jamboree where each takes a turn, fugs it up a smidge, and pays homage to tourmates of past, or in some takes, to personal strangers. The harrowing revival of Songs: Ohia by Suzanne Langille should give Jason Molina a bite to ghostwrite her next album. Jens Lekman's love of death chants and Scout Niblett makes that impending end dance with rainbows. No need to rumble through each track with my own gander, but it's a gulp of life and worth every penny on this set to hear the swagger yell as Nikki Sudden tears into June's "See(ing) Double," just like an apparition of him strolling down Fourth Street, dressed like a million, and swiggin' a sack at 2pm. You wouldn't have seen that from the booth window, though Sudden did make his way down to that corner late one night.
So yeah, Rockit's slices are tops, but the bread sticks are what bring me in for a window last-call, along with the wall-to-wall promo photos, cracked crash cymbals and instruments of bands never known well enough to be forgotten. It is a good starting point when you arrive in town. There used to be a jukebox inside too. Now there's a CD player with a penchant for skipping. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Secretly Canadian
Genre/Style: Tribute
MP3 Unavailable
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CD: $11.98
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Rocky Votolato
A Brief History
A collection of some of Rocky Votolatos very first attempts at songwriting, with the majority of these songs being written when he was between 16 and 18 yearsl old. A Brief Hifstory really gives an interesting perspective on where his ealy writing style began as well as the path his career has taken. -CP
Release Date: 04/24/07
Label: Second Nature
Genre/Style: Pop / Acoustic
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