4/24 new arrivals part three

In the final part of today’s new arrivals wrap-up, we highlight the three-starred selections, several of them wonderful.

THREE STARS
Holy Hail, Big Guns: Friends of mine, I should note, and a solid follow-up to their Beggars single. Dance-punk with barked vocals from Fannypack’s Cat Hartwell.

Young Galaxy, Young Galaxy: I’m going to start a petition that “ex-Stars” become stickered on the cover of every Canadian indie band for the next few years at least. There’s got to be at least three or four solid hockey teams’ worth of folks from that band… Anyway, Young Galaxy are yet another of the Starstricken, and this debut isn’t quite as playful or boisterous as its brethren, but it still fits in that oeuvre pretty comfortably.

Musart: 724 albums of it. Mexican pop and traditional stuff. I have absolutely zero clue where to start. Anyone care to help?

Moka Only, Vermilion: Hip-hop in the vein of Can Ox/El-P/Aesop Rock.

Thee More Shallows, Book of Bad Breaks: More “professional” Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. I think this will do well, but please not that “professional” in this case is not exactly a good thing.

Bassnectar, Underground Communication: Loud and quirky techno with hip-hop rhymes.

Blind James Campbell, And His Nashville Street Band: Traditional jug band music.

Elizabeth Cotten, Live!: Live album from the legendary acoustic blues guitar player. Recording quality is solid, as is the playing, which is incredible considering she was in her ’90s when this was recorded.

The Gants, Introducing the Gants: Mid-’60s garage rock/British invasion stuff. Lots of Beatles covers, and apparently the first recording at Sam Philips’ studio.

iLiKETRAiNS, Progress Reform: Gloomy rock from Beggars not far off from Scott Walker and Tindersticks. Released last year.

Amandine, Solace in Sore Hands: Swedish country-rock. Sorrowful.

Podington Bear, Liquid Gold: More substantive and goofy than Meet Podington Bear.

Calvin Johnson, Calvin Johnson and the Sons of the Soil: The AMG review claims some sort of vocal improvement from Johnson, but I’m not really hearing it. Beat Happening fans will feel right at home.

The Detroit Cobras, Tied and True: More garage/bar rock from the Cobras. Fun and carefree.

Melt Banana, Bambi’s Delimma: Our own Ray Farrell’s favorite band of all time. Absolutely insane.

Midnight Movies, Lion the Girl: I caught these two guys and girls at SXSW, and liked them well enough. It leaps off of Velvet Underground quite a bit — very droney and dreamy — and is very LA, if that makes any sense.

SC100, SC100 — Deluxe Edition: Got a so-so Pitchfork review today. We’ll get the artist credits up as soon as we can.

The Veils, Nux Vomica: Based in New Zealand, clearly big Pulp fans. Here’s an extremely odd music video: