Now Downloading: New Releases 03.06.12 - The Men, Mike Wexler

What's the saying? "March enters like a lion and leaves like a lamb?" Between the sophomore releases from both The Mean and Mike Wexler, we've certainly achieved the first part of that equation. Other artists with new releases this week include Andrew Bird, Bruce Springsteen, The Magnetic Fields, Bowerbirds, Time Fite, White Rabbits, Pond (no, not that one), Xiu Xiu, Nite Jewel, Kaiser Chiefs, Miniature Birds and Said the Whale.

Playlist: New Releases 03.06.12: Spotify

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The Men - Open Your Heart
Purchase [mp3] / Stream via Rhapsody / Stream via Spotify

Open Your Heart) carries on the tradition of the beer-swilling party anthems of The Replacements. It's as if the Brooklyn quartet set out to create an accurate document of the glory days of Homestead Records, occasionally switching up the party rock for some on target space jams (the "Country Song"/"Oscillation" combination) ala Sonic Youth or Spaceman 3, bouncing into some shoegaze before galloping off into some alt country punk. Open Your Heart has something for everyone without pandering to any genre, and that's something to be celebrated.

Download: "Open Your Heart" [mp3]

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Mike Wexler - Dispossession
Purchase [mp3] / Stream via Rhapsody or Spotify

Speaking of Spaceman 3, Wexler's latest traverses some of the hallowed ground that the aforementioned band pioneered, taking his freak folk leanings to s place that the great Scott Walker might have gone if born 40 years later. Dispossession marks a giant leap forward for his sophomore release, acting as both dream and reality bleeding together for a otherwordly listening experience.

Free SPIN Album Stream

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Andrew Bird - Break it Yourself / Free AOL Album Stream
The Magnetic Fields - Love at the Bottom of the Sea / Album Stream from Merge [mp3]
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
Bowerbirds - The Clearing / Free AOL Album Stream / "Tuck the Darkness In" [mp3]
White Rabbits - Milk Famous / Free AOL Album Stream
Tim Fite - Ain't Ain't Ain't
Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim
Xiu Xiu - Always
Nite Jewel - One Second of Love
Kaiser Chiefs - Start The Revolution Without Me / Free AOL Album Stream
Miniature Tigers - MIA PHARAOH / Free AOL Album Stream
Said the Whale - Little Mountain / "Heavy Ceiling" [mp3]

tags: music, album review, new multitudes, anais mitchell, indie rock, new releases

Now Downloading: New Releases 01.26.10

And on the fourth Tuesday of January, 2010, let it be known that the motherload hath officially dropped. I had this date circled some time ago thanks to new releases from Los Campesinos!, Beach House and Magnetic Fields, but there's also fine fare from the likes of Four Tet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Retribution Gospel, Harvey Milk, Jaga Jazzist, Bettie Serveert, cars & trains and new EP from Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug under the moniker Moonface.

Playlist: New Releases 01.26.10

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Los Campesinos - Romance is Boring
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

I don't know about everyone else, but I think I have my early contender for album of the year. The hot mess that is Romance is Boring has a misnomer of a title. It's not the slightest bit boring, and yet has an underlying romantic notion throughout. According to the band, RiB is "about death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football [ahem... soccer] and, ultimately, that there probably isn't a light at the end of the tunnel." That's a lot of ideas swirling about, but it all jells, much like the cornucopia of musical ideas that are brought together in this delicious post-punk package.

The lyrics alone could provide a month's worth of tweets/facebook updates, while the dual guitar action provides a cacophony of sound that moves between deftly between jarring and orgasmic release. "There Are Listed Buildings" and "Straight In At 101" are brilliant guitar pop, and, well.. the rest is just so great I can't be bothered to single one out. RiB isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, I realize, but I firmly believe even the musically timid will appreciate this release with patience, as the initial chaos opens itself up nicely with repeat listens. Los Campesinos! are really hitting their stride now, and with their already prolific pace and growth as artists, it's entirely possible that RiB will be topped this year by their next album. One can dream...

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Beach House - Teen Dream
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

On the other side of the coin is Beach House's third release, Teen Dream. No exhilerating highs or noisy moments here, instead just dreamy comfort in the lush vocals of vocalist Victoria Legrand. With TD, their Sub Pop debut, the Baltimore duo have merely polished their already lush sound by upgrading their recording studio. Some of the intimacy of their first two records (Beach House, Devotion), maybe lost in the move, but they more than make up for it in sweet ear candy.

AOL Album Stream
Download: "Norway" [mp3]

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
The Magnetic Fields - Realism
Four Tet - There is Love in You
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM / Free AOL album stream
Retribution Gospel - 2 / Free AOL album stream / "Hide It Away" [mp3]
Harvey Milk - Harvey Milk
Moonface - Dreamland EP: Marimba And Sh*t-Drums
Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
Bettie Serveert - Pharmacy of Love
cars & trains - the roots, the leaves / Free AOL album stream / "Intimidated By Silence" [mp3]
AFCGT - AFCGT / Free AOL album stream / "Two Legged Dog" [mp3]
Thavius Beck - Dialogue
Oh No Ono - Eggs / "Helplessly Young", "Internet Warrior" [mp3]
Erland and the Carnival - Erland and the Carnival
Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy - Unseen Music/Unheard Music / Free AOL album stream
Patty Griffin - Downtown Church
Fucked Up - Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009
Tindersticks - Falling Down a Mountain
Mondo Drag - New Rituals
Joe Firstman - El Porto
Good Shoes - No Hope, No Future
Never Shout Never - What is Love?
Soweto Gospel - Grace
REISSUES
Animal Collective - Campire Songs
David Bowie - A Reality Tour / Free AOL album stream

tags: music, album review, los campesinos, beach house, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Now Downloading: New Releases 01.15.08

I cannibalized this post by writing about The Magnetic Fields' Distortion on Thursday, as really there's not really much else to say about this week. That would've given Ringo Starr's latest release a bump up, but Rhapsody has the latest from Cat Power, Drive-By Truckers and The Whigs in a week early, so instead I'm just gonna cannibalize next week's post, leaving for next only latest from Black Mountain to wax poetic about -- but, shouldn't that be enough?

Playlist: New Releases 01.15.07

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Album: Cat Power - Jukebox

Speaking of cannibal as a verb, my favorite song on Chan Marshall's second covers project, Jukebox, is a beautiful, barely recognizable re-working of her own song "Metal Heart," from her 1998 album Moon Pix, taking on new meaning with her recent successful rise from the ashes of addiction. "I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see." Of course, it takes some cojones to cover your own alongside songs from Bob, Billie, Joni, Frank and Hank, too bad there's just not enough balls left over to power the songs beyond a fair-to-middlin' snooze, as Marshall gets lost in reinterpretation, never revealing enough of herself. The other standout track, appropriately enough, is the only original track, "Song For Bobby," written for Bob Dylan, which sounds more like Dylan than her take on his song "I Believe in You." It's an alright collection, but understandably leaves me wanting another album of original material.

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Album: Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark

Backs against the wall... that's what it seemed like for DBT. Their previous album, A Blessing and a Curse, was considered by many to be slight -- but that's in comparison with their prior epic releases, mind you. Then came the exodus of guitarist Jason Isbell, and DBT's stock seem to take a tremendous fall. But instead of tightening the belt a bit they instead expand (adding the legendary Spooner Oldham on keys,) and come back back with this scattered 19 track, 70+ minute album. The title Brighter Than Creations Dark suggests both dark and light, and the album seems to look under DBT's cushions for the full spectrum of emotions. From suicide ("Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife") to drinking ("Daddy Needs a Drink") and drugs (Mike Cooley's accusatory "You and Your Crystal Meth;") to war in Iraq ("That Man I Shot," "The Homefront") Brighter can feel pretty dark at time. But while Patterson Hood dwells in the darkness, Cooley, for the most part, takes a more distant view, with country songs like "Perfect Timing" and "Lisa's Birthday." Meanwhile, Isbell's ex Shonna Tucker contributes songs for the first time, seeming almost like a 'take that, Jason!' if it weren't for the poignancy of "I'm Sorry Huston" and the soaring chorus of "Home Field Advantage." All in all, it's a great album, albeit one that really could have easily have been trimmed to a tight 12-song 45-minute classic.

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More on the radar this week
Magnetic Fields - Distortion / Free album stream from AOL
Ringo Starr - Liverpool 8 (AOL)
The Whigs - Mission Control / Free album stream from AOL (available a week early)
Dengue Fever - Venus on Earth (in Rhapsody a week early)
Eels - Meet The EELS: Essential EELS 1996-2006 Vol. 1 Eels - Useless Trinkets-B Sides, Soundtracks, Rarieties and Unreleased 1996-2006
Nurse & Wound - Gyllensköld, Geijerstam and I at Rydberg's
Tyler Ramsey - A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea
Raheem Devaughn - Love Behind The Melody
The SteelDrivers - The SteelDrivers
Thomas Ian Nicholas - Without Warning

tags: music, album review, the wire, tom waits, kate nash, marah, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

The Jesus and Merritt Chain

Psychocandy is the last significant event in popular music production. That's the last thing I've heard which sounds blaringly original. I haven't heard anything else since then that says, 'this is a new way of making records'.
- Stephen Merritt, in a discussion of The Magnetic Fields album Distortion (Drowned in Sound)

It's been nearly eight years since the monumental 69 Love Songs, and there's been nothing from Stephen Merritt and the Magnetic Fields that has come close to that album's inspiration until now. Merritt reportedly wanted to do something quick, keeping it simple, with Jesus & Mary Chain's seminal recording as inspiration. But thanks to the production, one month turned into 18, and the result is Psychocandy if it were composed by George Gershwin and Morrissey. Distortion marries the tortured, tongue-in-cheek romanticism of a Magnetic Fields song with the Phil Spector with feedback buzzsaw that Psychocandy was, and the result is (nearly) breathtaking.

Album: Magnetic Fields - Distortion

"Three-Way" is a bit of a red herring, with a B-52-like vibe, but it's immediately followed by the inverted Beach Boys turn "California Girls," with the refrain sung by Shirley Simms, "I hate California Girls." Dripped in distortion and reverb, it's beatifully dirty pop at it's best. The other standout track is "Too Drunk to Dream," the kind of depressed love song that only Merritt can write, with the chorus "I gotta get too drunk to dream, because I only dream of you."

Download: "Too Drunk to Dream" [mp3]

Distortion's available for streaming a week early on Rhapsody, and since it's the only album of next week's crop I see worth mentioning, I've probably just killed next weeks Now Downloading post. Oh well. It's that time of year, isn't it?