Now Downloading: New Releases 05.04.10

This week's boon of great releases should've proven an inspiration for penning this weekly post, but Rhapsody picked the worst possible time to do a database overhaul. No albums entered into the system for over a week. New releases from Broken Social Scene, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Josh Ritter and Minus the Bear headline the week.

Playlist: New Releases 05.04.10

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Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Most of us were introduced to Broken Social Scene with the tremendous You Forgot it in People (2003), and then watched them mostly splinter into successful solo releases over the years (even 2005's Broken Social Scene felt like a splintered affair). Forgiveness Rock Record is has most the gang back in tow and the result is a return to the joy that was YFIIP. Highlights include "World Sick," "Texaco Bitches,", "Forced to Love," and "Ungrateful Little Father."

Free AOL album stream

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The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

I really don't know how to feel about The Hold Steady's fifth album, Heaven is Whenever. Nearly all the elements are there, Craig Finn and his whip-smart talk-singing and Tab Kubler's fretwork, but it all feels kind of lifeless. Yes, Franz Nicolay's piano flourishes are definitely missed, but there's also just feeling of treading water here. Finn has said in interviews that this is the first album where they didn't treat it like it might be their last, that they finally feel like they're going to be around awhile and it loosened things up in the studio, so maybe that's the reason for Heaven's lack of urgency.

Free AOL Album Stream

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The New Pornographers - Together
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

It could be said that the New Pornographers, both collectively and separately, have been in a minor slump of sorts. The last full length releases from A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar's Destroyer, Neko Case and even the collective themselves were all not nearly as great as prior releases. I mean, that's not really being critical as the albums weren't bad, but across the line, there was a dip in quality. So it's refreshing that Together bucks that downward trend, even if its still below the bar that they'd set in the first three releases. The opening track, "Move," does its best to fool me into thinking it's an homage to the great UK band The Move, with its crunchy cello opening, and the following track, lead single "Crash Years," is a high mark for the band. Dan Behar is even contributing songs that sound like they're part of the action ("Silver Jenny Dollar" and "If You Can't See My Mirrors"), instead of sounding like their shoehorned into the proceedings.

Free AOL album stream

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away
Minus the Bear - Omni / Free AOL album stream

A database issue has cut this list short...

tags: music, album review, broken social scene, the hold steady, new pornographers, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Ear on TV: Week of 04.19.10: MGMT

The Grammy nominated MGMT, aren't at ease with being a popular band, or with having 'Grammy nominated' defining them. The duo wasn't comfortable at all at the glitzy ceremony. As Andrew VanWyngarden recently told the UK's Daily Mirror, "It almost feels like it's a giant marketing campaign for five or six bands. We just kind of felt like, 'What are we doing here?', like, 'Wow, we've infiltrated this kind of upper-level mainstream and we're so weird.'"

The electro-pop purveyors of strange headlined Coachella this weekend to record crowds, and made headlines by not even bothering to play their Grammy nominated song, "Kids," seemingly trying to distance themselves from the Grammy nomination even more. Instead, they concentrated the set on their sophomore release, Congratulations, which was unleashed on the world last week. Fans expecting another "Time to Pretend" or "Kids" are bound to be disappointed, as this album ups the weird quotient exponentially -- at the expense of there being any hits. In fact, when MGMT play Saturday Night Live this week, they might rival Sun Ra (May 20, 1978) and Captain Beefheart (November 22, 1980) for the weirdest musical performance that the sketch comedy series has had in it's long 35 season run. Far be it for me to recommend illegal activity, but recreational medication might be warranted.

Speaking of recreational drugs, 90s rap stars Cypress Hill are back with a new album after a six year hiatus, and the time is indeed ripe for the pot promoters' return. Since their last album, 15 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use, and more are on the way, including an initiative on the November ballot for full legalization in the rap group's home of California. This will be the first release since Sen Dog (aka Senen Reyes) suffered a heart attack in 2007, and he's not backed off extolling the virtues of his favorite plant. "Smoking marijuana actually helps lower blood pressure," he tells the Daily Mirror. "Nothing's changed, we have our beliefs as a band and people. If anything, we've learned even more, so we are still dropping facts." Cypress Hill perform twice this week, first with Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday, then on FUEL's The Daily Habit on Tuesday.

Finally, it seems weird that Broken Social Scene haven't released an album since 2005's Broken Social Scene, but that's because they've been a part of so many releases in the interim. Between solo releases from Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning (both released with a "Broken Social Scene presents" tag), there's also been the higher profile releases by acts with revolving members, Feist (Leslie Feist), Metric (Emily Haines), Stars (Evan Cranley) and Do May Say Think (Ohad Benchetrit, Charles Spearin). On May 4, the band will finally be front and center again with the album Forgiveness Rock Record, and they'll anticipate the release with a performance of the song "Forced to Love" on Letterman Thursday.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, April 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cypress Hill featuring Tom Morello
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Phoenix
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Weezer (REPEAT)
Tuesday, April 20
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Devo
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Cypress Hill
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Smashing Pumpkins
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: New Kids on the Block (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Circa Survive (REPEAT)
Wednesday, April 21
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Jakob Dylan
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Natalie Merchant
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Silversun Pickups (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Lisa Hannigan (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Annie Lennox
Thursday, April 22
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Taylor Hawkins
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Broken Social Scene
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Colbert Report: Gorillaz
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Surfer Blood
FUSE: Green Day Earth Day: Green Day (video, interviews, career recap all day)
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Maxwell
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: David Gray (REPEAT)
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Ozomatli
Friday, April 23
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Local Natives
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Antony and the Johnsons, The Enemy
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Lily Allen (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Norah Jones
Saturday, April 24
NBC: Saturday Night Live: MGMT
Sunday, April 25
HBO: Treme: Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins

Now Downloading: New Releases 09.18.07

You'll have to forgive the tardiness (and sloppiness) this week. I've been on an offsite since this weekend discussing process (and drinking,) and haven't been on a computer or listening to new music. This week's releases feature Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Rogue Wave, Hard-Fi and Les Savy Fav. The last is the most intriguing, but it's the first two that interest me right now, and they're both highlighted by the guitar of Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis.

Playlist: New Releases 09.18.07

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Album: Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew - Spirit If...

While the artist name here is a mouthful, it's kind of necessary, speaking to the delicate balance achieved with Spirit If... between Kevin Drew solo and the full collective BSS. It started out as just playing between Drew and a couple BSS'ers, and then evolved into a solo project, and then finally retreating a bit to really being neither. Sounds confusing, doesn't it? Just know that Drew dominates the album, but there are songs that he didn't write or sing on the album ("Big Love" and "Bodhi Sappy Weekend," for example,) that could really only be called BSS. It's a beautiful album full of heartbreaking moments of sound and joy, and features some Drew's heroes making cameos. On "Lucky Ones," one of the albums many highlights, Scott Kannberg (Spiral Stairs of Pavement, Preston School of Industry) lends his indie rock guitar chops to what might just be my favorite BSS-related song. Then, later on the album, Kevin Drew channels Dinosaur Jr quite literally, with J Mascis both shredding guitar solos and lending his voice to the song. Other highlights include the fragile "tbtf (too beautiful to f*ck)" and "Safety Bricks." It's been an amazing year for BSSers (Feist, Emily Haines, Apostle of Hustle) and this only adds to their growing legend. I think it's going to be hard to knock this out of my heavy rotation for a long time.

Free album stream from AOL

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Album: Thurston - Trees Outside the Academy

Thurston Moore has always been a favorite in our household, one of our dogs is even named after him. That he drops his last name for this release aligns him even closer to my dog, and the warm friendly sounds that Trees Outside the Academy contains is not far from petting the furry beast on my lap. Trees was recorded at J Mascis' Bisquiteen studio with John Agnello, and has Mascis restrained guitar leads alongside violinist Samara Lubelski's haunting counter-melodies. Trees is the logical extension to the (dare I say it) mature songwriting SY's Rather Ripped, relying less on noise and more on traditional songwriting. Song highlights include "Honest James" (featuring Charalambides' Christina Carter singing duet,) and the extroverted "Fri/End", but the track that needs to be heard is the hidden one at the end called "Thurston@13," which is the 13-year old Moore experimenting with sounds in his bedroom. The mix of a curiosity for sound and a self-questioning thespian has apparently alway been there: "What you have heard is me wasting time again, asking myself deep inside, why the f*ck I am doing this?"

Free album stream from AOL

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More going (or already in) the Sansa
Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends (Free album stream from AOL)
Hard-Fi - Once Upon A Time In The West (Free album stream from AOL)
Rogue Wave - Asleep At Heaven's Gate (Free album stream from AOL)
LCD Soundsystem - A Bunch Of Stuff EP
Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild -Music For The Motion Picture (Free album stream from AOL)
The Chesterfield Kings - Psychedelic Sunrise
The Donnas - Bitchin'
Myracle Brah - Can You Hear the Myracle Brah?
Cindy Lee Berryhill - Beloved Stranger
Ben Lee - Ripe (Free album stream from AOL)
The Polyphonic Spree - Live From Austin, TX
Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers - Swampblood
Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me (Free album stream from AOL)
Mark Knopfler - Kill To Get Crimson
KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic (Free album stream from AOL)

tags: music, album review, thurston moore, the go team, kevin drew, bss, les savy fav, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody