Now Downloading: New Releases 01.18.11

And.... they're off! The new release season is really under way now as we have our first praise-worthy album of the year (from Smith Westerns), and the latest from Robert Pollard (can't officially start a year without Uncle Bob). Also look for new releases from Tennis, The Decemberists, Braids, Fergus & Geronimo, Dolorean, White Lies, Greg Allman, Social Distortion, Eulogies, Disappears, Shilpa & Her Happy Hookers along with reissues from The Jayhawks, Ladytron and a special live disc from Pearl Jam.

Playlist: New Releases 01.18.11

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Smith Westerns - Dye it Blonde
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

We may only be three weeks into 2011, but Dye it Blonde is the album of the year (so far). With it's glam'd up power pop, these Chicago teens have channeled Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub by way of the Bay City Rollers for a sugar-rush collection of songs that even grow sweeter upon repeat listens. Nearly every song is a highlight of sorts, but the standout tracks are "Weekend," "Still New" and the tempo change-happy "Dance Away." Not much else to say except buy it.

Smith Westerns - Imagine, Pt. 3 by Vicente P

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Robert Pollard - Space City Kicks
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

The continuing long Guided By Voices reunion tour has done little to slow Uncle Bob. In fact, Robert Pollard has stepped up his prolific nature, with releases from several of his projects coming out in short time. His first of 2011 seems to map the entire catalogue of GBV, and only suffers in its inability to sit still. Bouncing between oddities, rockers and beautiful ballads, Space City Kicks contains some of Pollard's best work, and, quite possibly some of his worst. It's tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Man in the Moon" and "Touch Me In the Right Place at the Right Time" that more than make up for any misteps, though.

Download: "Touch Me In the Right Place at the Right Time" [mp3]

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Tennis - Cape Dory
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Between Tennis, Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls, I'm thinking someone needs to make a trip to Halifax and get to work on reuniting Jale. This latest indie rock group to mine the girl groups of the late fifties/early sixties marries it with a narrative of the open sea and the look and feel of the late 70s. It's a jumble of nostalgia, to be sure, but the end result in sound is quite focused with solid songwriting. So focused, in fact, that before too long, the album starts to sound much the same, begging for some change of pace or a hint of dynamics.

Free AOL Album Stream

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
The Decemberists - The King Is Dead / Free AOL Album Stream / "January Hymn" [mp3]
Braids - Unlearn / Free AOL Album Stream
Fergus & Geronimo - Showroom of Compassion / "Powerful Lovin'" [mp3]
Disappears - Guider / "Superstition" [mp3]
Ponderosa - Moonlight Revival / "Old Gin Road [mp3]
Oh No Oh My - People Problems / Free AOL Album Stream
White Fence - Is Growing Faith
Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes / Free AOL Album Stream
White Lies - Ritual / Album streaming from White Lies site / "Bad Love" [mp3]
Greg Allman - Low Country Blues / Free AOL Album Stream
Dolorean - The Unfazed / Free AOL Album Stream
Eulogies - Tear the Fences Down / Free AOL Album Stream
Shilpa & Her Happy Hookers - Teenage and Torture / "Heaven in Stereo" [mp3]
Daniel Martin Moore - In the Cool of the Day / "Dark Road" [mp3]
Distractions - Dark Green Sea / "Invasion" [mp3]
Roomful of Blues - Hook, Line & Sinker
Pearl Jam - Live on Ten Legs
Serge Gainsbourg - La Claquer De mots (1958-1959)
REISSUES
The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall (REISSUE)
The Jayhawks - Tomorrow the Green Grass (Legacy Edition)
Ladytron - 604 [Bonus Tracks]
Ladytron - Light and Magic [Bonus Tracks]
Ladytron - Witching Hour [Bonus Tracks]

tags: music, album review, smith western, robert pollard, tennis, indie rock, new releases

Now Downloading: New Releases 08.11.09

It would've been a pretty down week for new releases, but thanks to some bumped up digital releases dates from The Cave Singers and The Dodos, this week got a lot better. Other new releases include albums from Robert Pollard, Patrick Wolf, Malcolm Middleton, Cobra Starship and The Darlings.

Playlist: New Releases 08.11.09

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The Dodos - Time to Die
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

It may feel like a sophomore album for The Dodos, since only a scant few have heard their debut, and their second, Visiter,
introduced the band to the public. For Time to Die, the band steps up the ante calling upon a big name Seattle producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Built to Spill). The results are a pleasure to the ear, especially the track "Fables," which might very well be the song to put them over the top. The album isn't due in stores until next month, but thanks to a egregious album leak, the band bumped up the digital release date a full month ahead, to take advantage of the good word-of-mouth being generated by first listens. Poor, poor us.

Download: "Fables" [mp3]

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The Cave Singers - Welcome Joy
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Here's another treat of a release coming to us a week ahead of schedule (exclusively on Rhapsody). Welcome Joy continues the beard rock that their debut, Invitiation Songs, perhaps concentrating more on craft of songwriting. As such, the album feels a bit more like ten songs merely socializing with eachother instead of the song-to-song cohesiveness of their debut. Minor quibble when you end up with a song like "At the Cut," or the opener "Summer Light." Just beware of listening out in the wild of nature, as you may find yourself losing the clothes and running with the deer.

Download: "At the Cut" [mp3]

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Robert Pollard - Elephant Jokes
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Uncle Bob has got a new album out, (Elephant Jokes), and it's pretty much what you expect. A few gems (listen to The Who pop of "Johnny Optimist"), some inspired weirdness ("Hippsville (Where the Frisbees Fly Forever") and what I just call "the rest."

Download: "Symbols and Heads" [mp3]
Download: "Jimmy" [mp3]

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall (Free AOL Album Stream, a week early)
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor / Free AOL Album Stream
Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous / "Carry Me" [mp3]
The Darlings - Yeah I Know / "If This is Love" [mp3]
The Dry Spells - Too Soon for Flowers / "Lost Daughter" [mp3] / "Batwood" [mp3]
Cobra Starship - Hot Mess / Free AOL Album Stream
Box Elders - Alice and Friends
The Bottle Rocks - About Love / "Get on the Bus" [mp3] / "Hard Times" [mp3]
Mindy Smith - Stupid Love
The Rumble Strips - Welcome to the Walk Around
Woodstock: 40 Years on: Back to Yasgur's Farm / / Free AOL Album Stream

tags: music, album review, the cave singers, the dodos, Robert Pollard, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Soderbergh and GBV in 3D

When rumors started circulating a couple months ago that one of my favorite directors, Steven Soderbergh, was thinking about doing a musical using music from my favorite band, Guided By Voices, I was understandably skeptical. Somebody must be trying to pull a fast one on me, right? That it was going to be in 3D cemented my belief that it wasn't real. Then a month ago, actual news came out that Catherine Zeta-Jones had signed on to play Cleopatra and Hugh Jackman was in negotiations to play Marc Antony, and, well, Cleo no longer appeared to be an elaborate joke.

As of this week, in fact, the film has a shooting schedule, with it slated start in April with a budget of $30 million. Jackman is still in negotiations, but they have their Julius Caesar now as well, with Brit Ray Winstone signed on to play the infamous Roman emperor. That means we can get excited about it, right? It's in 3D!

Ex-Guided By Voices bassist James Greer (Max Keeble's Big Move) wrote the script in six weeks based on a conversation with Soderbergh, and the result got the director so jazzed as to clear his schedule for it.

As Soderbergh relays to MTV, "It's like an Elvis musical in a way. It's not serious. I mean it's historically pretty accurate but its sort of like Viva Las Vegas meets Tommy." Soderbergh, Greer and GBV frontman Robert Pollard are currently writing new lyrics to GBV songs (already handpicked by the director) to match the script. (Rumors have it that "Little Lines" is one of the songs, and I've got a playlist below of my other best guesses, like "Weed King.") No news yet if Pollard will be voicing one of the characters yet, but knowing that both Hugh Jackman and Ray Winstone can sing, maybe it's time to start lobbying for Uncle Bob to fill the role of Flavius. (In 3D, no less!)

Playlist: Guided By Voices Songs We Think Would Work Great in Musical

As many who follow GBV know already, Soderbergh is a huge fan of Pollard's songwriting, and tapped the prolific songwriter to write the music for his independent film Bubble (2006). He also wrote the forward for Greer's book on GBV (Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll,) so he's a genuine GBV-head.

Did I mention already that it's going to be in 3D? In a corner of my mind, I'm already standing in line for the film. As Bob would say, "the club is open!"

Now Downloading: New Releases 06.10.08

This week is all abuzz with the polarizing new release from My Morning Jacket, timed, in part, to coincide with the Bonaroo Festival starting this week. Elsewhere, there's new ones from Sloan, Robert Pollard, Adele, Lil' Wayne, Solomon Burke, Haley Bonar, Martha Wainwright and the amazing new one from My Brightest Diamond (in Rhapsody a week early).

Playlist: New Releases 06.10.08

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Album: My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

The album that launched a thousand gasps when it leaked is finally here. Specifically, you have to point a finger at the song "Highly Suspicious" -- which sounds like Cameo with flying V's -- as the main source confusion. Did someone lace their sticky icky? Taking the album as a whole, the song is a bit of a red herring, but the band doesn't do themselves any favors by making it the third track, when it really needed to be a 'fun' b-side -- a bearded lady to be exposed only on tour -- and this is coming from a fan of Prince... or rather, bearded ladies. Getting around that paranoid "peanut butter pudding surprise," much of the rest of the album harkens back to the AM radio sounds of At Dawn, but with a bit more studio wonkery. Cue producer Joe Chiccarelli, the very same nob-twiddler who's work on last year's Shins album (Wincing the Night Away) also raised some eyebrows of fans. First thing you'll notice that's gone is the airy reverb that soaked previous albums, which is understandable given that acts like Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes have already stepped into those reverb shoes. But there's nothing in it's place to give Jim James' vocals a podium to project, and as a result, many of the songs suffer without that engine powering it. One thing the album has going for it is a diversity of sound which, aside from "H.S.," plays well together in the sandbox MMJ has constructed here. Bookending many great (albeit syrupy orchestrated) AM radio style songs are the tracks "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2," which are the best example of expanding their sound without overreach. Meanwhile, for me, "Librarian," is musically a highlight -- lyrically, however, it's a bit questionable, stalking this poor four-eyed librarian... I half expected to hear Kevin from The Office to chime in with a "can you say 'these are due back Thursday?'"



Free album stream from AOL
Download: "Evil Urges" [mp3]

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Album: Robert Pollard - Robert Pollard is off to Business

While there isn't a suit and tie involved, the title of Robert Pollard is off to Business signals a change in the tunesmith's approach, with a very workman like ten song clocking in close to 35 minutes. Add to that the fact that this will be his only release this year, and you get the most conventional release that Pollard has ever done. Enter the ballad "The Blondes" into evidence, as item A. Then cue "Gratification to Concrete" with it's Frampton-like talk box guitar line, and the album's in danger of approaching MOR territory. Disjointed rockers like opener "The Original Heart" and "1 Years Old" remind us of old Bob, and "Weatherman And Skin Goddess" comes close to his best pop. He may be off to business, but he's still not taking himself too seriously ("Confessions of a Teenage Jerk",) which is reassuring.

Download: "Gratification To Concrete"

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Album: My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark's Teeth

Multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) has been working on parts of this release for six years, predating her debut, Bring Me The Workhorse and even her work with Sufjan Stevens. Lush in arrangement like Joanna Newsom's Ys, Worden is similarly expanding her sound here. Since it's in Rhapsody a week early, and I'm just hearing it for the first time, I may have to get back to you on it later.

Download: "Inside a Boy"

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More on the radar this week:
Sloan - Parallel Play / Full album stream from YepRoc / "I'm Not a Kid Anymore" [mp3]
Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III
Solomon Burke - Like A Fire / Free album stream from AOL
The Thermals - LIVE [at the Echoplex - December 7th, 2007]
Haley Bonar - Big Star / "Big Star" [mp3]
Adele - 19 / Free album stream from AOL
Priscilla Ahn - A Good Day
Peter von Poehl - Going to Where the Tea Trees Are / Free album stream from AOL
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too / Free album stream from AOL
Ben Sollee - Learning To Bend / "A Change Is Gonna Come" [mp3]
Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha / Free album stream from AOL
The Orb - The Dream
N.E.R.D. - Seeing Sounds
The Fratellis - Here We Stand
Joan as Police Woman - To be Loved / "To Be Loved" [mp3]
James Hunter - The Hard Way / Free album stream from AOL
Walter Becker - Circus Money
Emmylou Harris - All I Intended to Be
Wooden Shjips - Vol. 1
Ponies In The Surf - See You Happy
Lexie Mountain Boys - Sacred Vacation
Styrofoam - A Thousand Words
Plies - Definition Of Real
Reissue
Love - Four Sail (w/ bonus tracks)

tags: music, album review, my morning jacket, robert pollard, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Croc RIP, 1991-2007

Started a flickr photo group where we can commiserate and post our fave Croc pics, called Memories of the Crocodile.

For seeing as many shows there as I did, you'd think I'd have more pics, but sometimes the ear trumps the eye. Here's my favorite of the few pics I did take there:


Robert Pollard, March 1, 2006



Crackerbash (Sean Croghan) reunion show, Sunday January 22, 2006

The Hold Steady, October 21, 2006

Now Downloading: New Releases 10.09.07

Other weeks have had bigger names and bigger quantities to choose from, but I'd have to say this week was the deepest as far as albums that I "need to own right now" (this, coupled with a sick household explains the tardiness of the post). On that list is new ones from Sunset Rubdown, Jens Lekman, Beirut, The Fiery Furnaces, Old Time Relijun, and two from Robert Pollard. Other albums that would digital ink any other week of the year include the latest from Band of Horses, Enon, Scout Nibblet and the debut from The Blakes. All this and I haven't even heard the new Radiohead yet (gasp!) made available for download on their site Wednesday (10/10).

Playlist: New Releases 10.09.07

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Album: Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

Maybe it's just because I'm currently reading 33 1/3: David Bowie's Low by Hugo Wilcken, but the Berlin era Bowie sound with Brian Eno is so strong with nearly everything that front man Spencer Krug is involved with. Many pointed this out (including myself) with regards to Krug's other band Wolf Parade, but Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover (and particularly the song "Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns,") certainly has to cement this inspiration. (I'm sure Krug shies away from Bowie covers because of this, but I really have this strong desire to hear Sunset Rubdown cover "Breaking Glass" or "Be My Wife". ) While their last album felt a little slapshot at times, this one is much more focused in it's experimentation, and is currently my ear's favorite album. Highlights include the character-challenged titles "Up on your Leopard, Upon the End of your Feral Days" and "The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life".

"Wicked/Winged Things" [mp3]
"Up on your Leopard, Upon the End of your Feral Days" [mp3]
Jagjaguwar

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Album: Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

Night Falls Over Kortedala opens with Lekman sounding like Jonathan Richman singing over an early solo Scott Walker arrangement, with the song "And I Remember Every Kiss". Lekman then slides into a disco arrangement with "Sipping On the Sweet Water," moves into early 70's baroque pop with "The Opposite of Hallelujah," and then finds himself in an early 60's doo-wop with "A Postcard to Nina" -- all in the first four songs. The transitions are buttery smooth, however, and Lekman's innocent-but-wise voiced pop still shines through all the arrangements, making this his best album to date, and undoubtedly serves as a fine introduction into his great catalog of work.

Free album stream from AOL
"Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo" [mp3]
"The Opposite of Hallelujah" [mp3]
Secretly Canadian

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Album: Old Time Relijun - Catharsis in Crisis

If Captain Beefheart and James Chance had a baby in Olympia, it would be Old Time Relijun. Ok, that's just a lazy comparison, but there's truth to it, you'll hear. Catharsis in Crisis was written and recorded at Calvin Johnson’s Dub Narcotic Studio, and mixed by the legendary Steve Fisk, and represents the band's most focused release in their dozen years, and should be their step out of the anonymous underground, and into at least the consciousness of the indie rock blogosphere (still underground, natch).

Ecard Album Stream (Fanatic)
"Daemon Meeting" [mp3]
Fanatic

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Album: Beirut - The Flying Club Cup

Where Gulag Orkestar mined it's Eastern European influences with through the lens of French pop, The Flying Club Cup bathes the whole affair in Parisian eau de parfum. The gypsy love is still there, but Zach Condon's love for the European romanticism ala Rufus Wainwright is turned up a notch which is good and bad. All the passion Condon has for each song is on full display, but the album could sure use some diversity. However, it's an album that I find myself going back to, even with it's obvious flaws. Highlight: "A Sunday Smile"

"A Sunday Smile" [mp3]
(Ba Da Bing!)
Buy at Rhapsody

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More going (or already in) the Sansa
The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Robert Pollard - Coast to Coast Carpet of Love
*Free album stream from Merge Records
*"Rud Fins" [mp3]
Robert Pollard - Standard Gargoyle Decisions
*Free album stream from Merge Records
*"The Killers" [mp3]
Band Of Horses - Cease to Begin
*Free album stream from AOL
*"Is There a Ghost" [mp3]
Enon - Grass Geysers Carbon Clouds
*Free album stream from AOL
*"Mirrors to You" [mp3]
The Blakes - The Blakes
*"Two Times" [mp3]
Scout Nibblet - This Fool Can Die Now
*"Kiss"
Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
Celebration - The Modern Tribe
Loch Lomond - Paper The Walls
Bangers and Cash - Spank Rock And Benny Blanco Are...Bangers & Cash
Johnossi - Johnossi
Doveman - With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead
Graves - Seldom Slumber
Cass McCombs - Dropping The Writ
MV & EE - Gettin' Gone
His Name is Alive - Firefly Dragonfly EP
Prints - Prints
Sleeping People - Sleeping People
Ed Askew - Little Eyes
Samara Lubelski - Parallel Suns
Deborah Harry - Necessary Evil
*Free album stream from AOL
She Wants Revenge - This Is Forever
The Silver Seas - High Society
*Free album stream from AOL
Electric Six - I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master

tags: music, album review, bruce springsteen, we are wolves, the pipettes, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Get a faceful

Even with the end of Guided By Voices, frontman Robert Pollard remains more then prolific in his output. Normal Happiness represents his second solo album released this year (the first being From a Compound Eye) on top of albums from side projects Pyscho and the Birds, The Takeover, and Keene Brothers (with Tommy Keene.) Normal Happiness, however, represents a change.... or perhaps an editor. Yes, more focused and less fat then your regular Pollard affair of late. FaCE was a exhilarating look into Bob's psyche, but the slaphazard collection was a tad frustrating in it's uwillingless to be an album (of course, that's part of the reason I still love it so.)

Album: Robert Pollard - Normal Happiness
Free Album Stream (Merge Records)

With songs like "Supernatural Car Lover," "Serious Bird Woman," and "Get a Faceful" Bob flexes his impressive pop muscle, while still rocking out with the bookend tracks "Full Sun (Dig the Slowness)" and opener "Accidental Texas Who." Meanwhile "I Feel Gone Again" is just the sort of song I'd hope from the new album from The Who (but expect to be sorely disappointed.) But the genre that Uncle Bob seems to mine the best these days is psyche-rock, with the excellent "Pegasus Glue Factory." What the album doesn't need, is the muddled mess that is "Join the Eagles," in which the title's sentiment is felt.

All in all, it's more or less still Bob going strong, and I get the feeling he's going to be doing this for a long time.

Previously:
Recovering (Robert Pollard live review)
2nd Impressions of 2006
Early surprise from Uncle Bob (FaCE review, 11/11/05)
Navigating flood regions (GBV Box)

tags: playlist, music, robert pollard, guided by voices, gbv, the who, indie rock, rhapsody