Now Downloading: New Releases 09.21.10

This week's new releases is like honey spread between two big slices of 7-grain bread. Sandwiched between two high profile weeks, it's easy to get overlooked, but there is something sweet and sticky here. Or something. I'm grasping at straws, aren't I? This week features TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and a slew of friends as Maximum Balloon along with the latest from Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships, Swans, Sharon Van Etten, Margot & the Nuclear So & So's, Shit Robot, Michael Franti with Spearhead; a collaboration between John Legend and The Roots; and the sparkling debut from Frankie Rose & the Outs.

Playlist: New Releases 09.21.10

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Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Better known as TV on the Radio guitarist and producer Dave Sitek, Maximum Balloon at times sounds a lot like TVOTR, only without any left turns. Unlike Sitek's more challenging band, MB could find its way on to the radio, especially the opening number "Groove Me" (featuring some singing from rapper Theophilus London, see video below). TVOTR vocalists Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone lend vocals, along with David Byrne, Karen O, Holly Miranda, and Little Dragon. It's great at what it does, even if it might not end up being something you go back to over and over.

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Boston Spaceships - Our Cubehouse Still Rocks
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

A release from Boston Spaceships has been closest thing to a Guided By Voices recording we've had since Robert Pollard broke up the legendary band. Perhaps it's fitting that with Our Cubehouse Still Rocks, we've got the best album since that breakup, and it coincides with a bonafide Guided By Voices reunion. From the chorus of "Bet he runs" in the opener, "Track Star," all the way to the sure to be live classic "In Bathroom (Up Half the Night)," Cubehouse aims to please even the most fair weather Uncle Bob fan.

Download: "Come On Baby Grace" [mp3]

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Frankie Rose & the Outs - Frankie Rose & the Outs / "Little Brown Haired Girls" [mp3]
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
Sharon Van Etten - Epic / "Don't Do It" [mp3]
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos - Buzzard
Shit Robot - From the Cradle to the Rave
The Hundred In The Hands - The Hundred In The Hands / Free AOL Album Stream
The Black Twig Pickers - Ironto Special / "Don't Drink Nothing But Corn" [mp3]
John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up! / Free AOL Album Stream
Michael Franti and Spearhead - The Sound of Sunshine / Free AOL Album Stream
Darren Hanlon - I Will Love You At All / "All These Things" [mp3]
Fake Problems - Real Ghosts Caught On Tape
Matt Costa - Mobile Chateau / Free AOL Album Stream
Mackintosh Braun - Where We Are / Free AOL Album Stream


tags: music, album review, boston spaceships, maximum balloon, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody