3/21 new arrivals
A light day for “name” notables, but quite a few pleasant surprises for us in today’s freshly ripped.
Thes One, Lifestyle Marketing: This is an interesting collection of instrumental hip-hop, most of it using soul samples, with a downtempo feel, very obviously leaning on DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing.
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, South Coast: Five seconds of the first song, “Pastures of Plenty,” let me know that I would love this 1995 comeback from Elliott. Such a great, take-no-shit voice. Unfortunately the rest of the album is somewhat softer, less Guthrie-ish than that first tune, but sample around on it — there’s plenty to love.
Etienne & Moi, Norman Bates: Straight French pop, vaguely Stereolab-y but also a bit folk. Great album cover, and the sound samples are very strong. Curious about this one.
Panda Bear, Live at ZDB (eMusic Exclusive): What a pleasant surprise! An exclusive live version of “Bros,” the “single” from the album. Looking forward to this.
Norman Blake & Red Rector, Norman Blake & Red Rector: Norman Blake is pretty much the contemporary acoustic guitar god, the sort of man who my father and his pickin’ friends go completely gaga for, always going to see him play, always eager to listen to this records. Blake plays bluegrass, mainly, but he has the skills to stretch beyond that when he wants, which he occasionally does. Red Rector I don’t know at all, but some cursory research identifies him as a deceased Tennessee mandolinist in the Bill Monroe tradition.
James Fulkerson, Force Fields and Spaces for Trombone: I have only listened to the samples for this album, but this is exactly the kind of stuff I love: experimental, spacious, clangy, the kind of thing that would drive you crazy if your neighbor were playing it, but sounds just right coming from your own stereo. There is one other album from Fulkerson that came in today, but this one seems the most interesting.
Greg Brown catalogue: Lots more Greg Brown today, a great singer-songwriter who should be more known. I believe we pretty much have everything he’s done now, thanks to Koch.
Ammoncontact, With Voices: Spazzy, frantic hip-hop/electronic fusion stuff, with some downtempo cuts, too.
Cortney Tidwell, Don’t Let the Stars Keep Us Tangled Up: A single from the singer, who everyone here at the office seems to be going nuts for lately. I have yet to listen, but I will remedy that soon.
Larry McHugh, Seven Candles: So Joe and I are at work on a project that will — well, not to oversell this — change the world. The only reason we have not unleashed our brilliant concoction is that we don’t know if society can handle it yet. We need to prepare the public, hand-hold them, let them know that it’s going to be okay. In any event, Seven Candles, and especially its “I Want to Be Crucified,” figures very largely into this plan. I fear I have said too much.
Shuggie Otis, In Session Information: AMG calls this, “session work on which [Otis] backed ’50s R&B stars who were long past their commercial prime,” and also describes it as “acceptable but hardly great mid-’70s recordings.”
two items.
one, i sang briefly (like, three or four months?) with this band. the vocalist they ultimately went with is much better! a real treasure for chameleons fans. i don’t know why all roads have been leading to the chameleons for me lately.
and i really like Sol Seppy — I’m guessing this is a new record. fulfills the ethereal female quotient for those who love that stuff as much as i do.
I noticed that eMu just added the Fetchin’ Bones album, Cabin Flounder. Will there be more coming from the DB Records label (or its sister label, Press Records)?
Hi. I know this probably isn’t the place to post this, but I figured I may get a response to a complaint i have re: eMusic. I was a member for over a year until I came to the relization that songs I had paid for, but had not used during a particular 30-day period, were deleted from my available downloads. The first time it happened I lodged a complaint and was granted a credit. But I never received a reason for this rather draconian policy, so I decided to cancel my membership. So, my question is: why not allow the accumulation of songs that were not used, but had been paid for?
Sorry Jon. It’s not a “draconian” policy; it’s a business model. You may not like it but members leaving downloads unused keeps the prices low.
use em or lose em, sadly. I have a few yahoo calendar reminders so hopefully I won’t abandon the dl’s. I too once left emusic, but I am happily back…
btw, nice job on 17 dots, everyone. good to see some editorial action taking place.
just a general FYI – you can check out the latest on-site eMusic editorial here
In regards to the Thes One “Lifestyle Marketing” review: “very obviously leaning on DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing.”. That was the remark left by the reviewer “Yancey”. lol….I just thought I’d ask if “yancey” could have gotten his/her head outta there back side that day. First off….what did DJ Shadows jungle styled “What does your soul look like” and depressing “Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain” and “Why hip hop s**ts in ’96″ have anything in common with “Lifestyle Marketing”s melodic, soulful sampling/beats??
Yancey….please get your sleep chap