4/5 new arrivals

05Apr07

A couple of really great titles today absolutely worthy of your downloads.

Downloaded
Wax Tailor, Hope & Sorrow: Hope & Sorrow is a (largely) non-rapping hip-hop record, a series of funk and spoken word samples looped with soulful vocals and heavy 4/4 beats. It’s also quite good, dabbling a bit in downtempo and deep house, but largely sticking to Shadow-like turntable-and-soul concoctions. Also, I realize this is backwardly phrased (can the master sound like the pupil?) but the Sharon Jones track, “The Way We Lived,” sounds like Amy Winehouse.

The Trashmen, Unreleased Studio Recordings: 1964-1966: The Trashmen, of course, created one of the best and weirdest singles in the history of American pop: “Surfin Bird,” which you can hear on this excellent collection. It basically sounds like a surf-rock auction (you have heard it before, I promise), and its genius cannot be overstated. While there’s nothing on Unreleased Studio Recordings that can touch it (what can?), this is still a fantastic compilation of surf- and garage-rock from the mid ’60s, real simple and straight. I mean, there’s a surf cover of “Greensleeves” here, clearly the absolute last thing the world ever needed, but the Trashmen? They don’t care. Just cut that baby, who knows what the charts might decide to shine on next week. There is no thought of longevity or careerism or anything of the sort here. It’s just four dudes hoping to strike it rich. What’s more American than that?

Recommended
Capital City, Bad Money: The lyrics are quasi-Christian, but I can’t tell if it’s people playing or being genuine. Anyway, it’s beside the point. Musically it’s a bit power-poppy, but with a Social Distortion feel in terms of tempos and vocals.

Jim Guthrie, Morning Noon Night: I can’t say whether or not I like or enjoy this record — I’m still sorting that out — but the AMG review is pretty interesting: “Guthrie’s Morning Noon Night features more traditional songwriting and production than his debut, with pretty much every track fully fleshed out, and most of them (after the electronic tease of the opening track) fitting a pretty traditional pop/rock mold. This is all the more amazing when you consider that a hefty chunk of the album was put together by Guthrie on. . .his Playstation. That’s right, half of the album’s songs were constructed using a program known as MTV Music Generator. That the electronic opening cut was one of them is no surprise, but the other tracks recorded this way don’t stand out as oddities in any way, but sit fairly easily next to the songs recorded in the more traditional way.”

Side Note
This week, flavorpill listed an event taking place tomorrow night in Brooklyn: a band called the Creeping Nobodies. The description perked my ears (Pere Ubu was mentioned), and so I checked out some songs at their site. WOW. I highly recommend snagging “The Sound of Joy” and whatever else strikes your fancy from their media page. Some seriously dark, great stuff (Michael compared it to Wire’s 154, and I concur). Not on eMusic, disappointingly, but hopefully someday they will be. I’ll be checking out the show tomorrow, and if it’s particularly great, I’ll be sure to drop a note here.

yancey.