Sansa Packing: New Releases 01.23.07

The third Tuesday of the new year has become the new traditional date to make your indie rock release (see last year's motherload.) Today there's a gluttony of riches being dropped in front of us, and, at least for me, the sheer amount of interesting releases is nearly paralyzing.

Playlist: New Releases 01.23.07

Here's what I've packed into my Sansa (not counting the big three releases from The Shins, Of Montreal, Deerhoof.)
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Album: Menomena - Friend and Foe

This Portland post-rock trio builds their songs via loops, using software (called 'deeler') they created themselves out of necessity (called deeler.) Friend and Foe builds on the fun of 2003's I Am the Fun Blame Monster with every sax and keyboard loop, until the songs just burst out of their hinges.

Download: "Wet and Rustling"
Free album stream from Barsuk
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Album: Caetano Veloso - Ce

"You won't recognize me/Even when I go right by you," translates the opening line from "Outro" the leadoff track from Caetano Veloso's latest release Ce. That song zooms by you, yanking you back to his roots of combining rock and samba, like he did in the late 60's to help popularize the tropicalia movement in Brasil. Ce has a DIY feeling to it, sounding nearly lo-fi, with his son Moreno providing the mixing duties, and containing 100% original tunes, something the cover-happy Veloso's never achieved before.
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Album: Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces

Ohio's 6P7 continue to tread the same instrumental waters as their Chicago counterparts Tortoise, but on this, their 6th LP, they're more focused and melodic then ever. Songs start with textures and melodies sift in building to a joyous chorus, much like the work of Explosions In The Sky. It's perfect soundtrack music for your day, which has me thinking... why don't we hear Six Parts Seven's work in film and tv? Stay tuned, I guess.

Download: "Stolen Moments"
Free AOL Album Stream
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Album: Arbouretum - Rites of Uncovering

Not for everyone, Arbouretum's slow-churning, loose, dark-alt-country is an aquired taste, one that's often satiated by Will Oldham's offerings. Which makes sense, since Arbouretum brainchild David Heumann played with Oldham in his incarnation Bonny "Prince" Billy. The packagin for Rites of Uncovering opens with a quote from novelist Paul Bowles' work The Sheltering Sky, which says a lot about the album:

"There was the certitude of an infinite sadness at the core of his consciousness, but the sadness was reassuring, because it alone was familiar. He needed no further consolation."
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Album: Nurse & Soldier - Marginalia

Nurse & Soldier is a side-project of Robertson Thacher (aka Bobby Matador of Oneida,) along with his longtime collaborator Erica Fletcher (AKA 'Rockie'.) It's decidedly lo-fi, and one could be tempted to write it off as just a quirky home project, but it feels more then that. Unlike Oneida, it's far more raw with a sense of longing... or as their label Jagjaguwar says in their blurb for it: the sound of Marginalia is a confused murmur, as opposed to Oneida's punishing roar.

Download: "Green Tea"
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More albums that made their way into the Sansa today:
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away (Free AOL Album Stream)
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Free AOL Album Stream)
Deerhoof Friend Opportunity (Free AOL Album Stream)
Clinic - Visitations (Free AOL Album Stream)
Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things
The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On (Free AOL Album Stream)
Kristin Hersh - Learn to Sing Like a Star
Animal Collective - The People EP (Free AOL Album Stream)
David Vandervelde - The Moonstation Hosue Band
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Free AOL Album Stream)
Vietnam - Vietnam
The Bird and the Bee - The Bird and the Bee

One I wish I could pop in the Sansa:
Alasdair Roberts - The Crook of My Arm (damn Drag City!)

tags: music, album review, menomena, caetano veloso, six parts seven, arbouretum, nurse and soldier, indie rock, nurse and soldier, new releases, rhapsody