na: soltero, caribou
A few choice goodies hit the site today, including a new album from the criminally unknown Soltero.
Soltero, You’re No Dream: Attention flamgirlant, this recommendation is for you! Soltero is a dude from Boston who writes cute indie-pop/singer-songwriter tunes that are very moody, songs sung with greasy hair and his hands over his eyes. Those kinda songs. Back in 2001 he recorded this incredibly catchy tune called “Communist Love Song” (download it here) that is pretty much guaranteed mix-tape gravy, the kinda song that can get you laid if played at the right moment. This new album, You’re No Dream, actually reminds me a fair amount of recent Wilco. It’s extremely hesitant and resigned, with lots of muffled emotions and sounds that only magnify everything else. It’s good! Try it!
Caribou, She’s the One: New single featuring remixes from Hot Chip and Kelley Polar. Choice!
The Notwist, Lichter: 2003 EP from beloved indie-poppers.
Marin Alsop, Bartok: The Wooden Prince: New Alsop-conducted Naxos performance of Bartok’s first major work from 1914.
Ricky Skaggs, Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Skaggs, the modern bluegrass master, tackles a host of great, classic bluegrass tunes from the late ’40s.
Guilty Simpson, Ode to the Ghetto: New Stones Throw record from Dilla collaborator. From the eMusic review:
Though they’re best known for the string of abstract prog-rap classics they’ve released over the last several years, Stones Throw has also cultivated the careers of more than a few straight-talk, street-level rappers — the types of MCs that are less about bobbing and weaving their way through dense metaphors and unusual flows and more about coming right at you with no-nonsense rawness. Detroit’s Guilty Simpson debuted as a guest on the Madlib/J. Dilla collaboration Champion Sound and made his mark as an unpolished diamond on “Strapped”; five years later his first full-length solo record Ode to the Ghetto delivers a similarly rough, sardonic and fierce experience over the course of 16 tracks. With a wide range of producers — siblings Madlib and Oh No, fellow Detroiters Mr. Porter (aka D12’s Kon Artis) and Black Milk along with the requisite Dilla contribution — it’s up to Simpson to grab hold of their disparate beats and tie the album together. He does so with a ragged bravado, spitting street knowledge that’s less gunslinger fantasy and more bleak humor. He holds up pet stores in “Robbery,” glowers at profiling cops in “Pigs,” and simultaneously reps and laments his spot in the title track. Put on Ode expecting mindblowing complexity and you might be disappointed. It’s not forced or ostentatious — it’s just some good old-fashioned (and new-fashioned) headknock.
James Blackshaw, White Goddess: New album from Tompkins Square’s widely adored 12-stringer.
Exceptor, Debt Dept: More noise bombs from Brooklyn noise dudes, including former No Neck Blues Band-ers.
Matthew Jonson, Symphony for the Apocalypse New Age Revolution: New single from Vancouver electronic dude. People love him!
when (if ever) will the new Howlin’ Rain album be on emusic?
I’m intrigued by the Guilty Simpson – I’m a fan of Stones Throw. Some other artists and albums that caught my attention:
Eek-a-Mouse / Most Wanted Eek-a-Mouse
godspeed you! black emperor / Yanqui U.X.O.
Karrin Allyson / Imagina: Songs of Brasil
La India Canela / Merengue Típico from the Dominican Republic (from Smithsonian Folkways)
Pacifika / Asunción (from the great Six Degrees record label)
The link for the Soltero album looks like a link for the new Raveonettes album. Clicking on the link takes me to Soltero, but the URL is for Lust Lust Lust and I got an error when saving for later. Actually all of the URLs for the new albums appear that way.
all the links actually work. it’s the album id at the end that i changed — just a little shorthand.
Oh boo, the Skaggs not available in my region. Boo. Here’s an article about it anyway: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080324/TUNEIN02/803240308/-1/TUNEIN
any news on the Joseph Arthur ep?
i just checked and it hasn’t been delivered yet, grant. not sure what’s up.
Just grabbed the new Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra (etc, etc.), “13 Blues for 13 Moons.” Insane and insanely good.
Any word on when or if E-Music will get the new Elbow release?
To Eric: Not that I really know anything, but I doubt The Seldom Seen Kid will end up on emu. I think they are on Universal
Any word on whether the new Notwist album The Devil, You and Me will be on eMusic? I think its on Domino in the US…
Hey Yancey, do you know the scoop with new release browsing? It’s been all screwed up for the last few days. A page of Mar 25, then a page of Mar 19, then a page of Mar 24, then a page of Mar 14, etc.
Make my head wanna asplode.
–Mike
if the notwist is on domino in the us, we won’t be getting it anytime soon, sadly.
and mikey — no clue on the new release thing. i totally missed that godspeed record today as a result. i heard rumblings about problems today (and noticed quite a few oops pages), but i am not nearly smart enough to get a handle on that sort of stuff. hopefully it will get sorted asap.
The Soltero song “The Factory” (from The Tongues That You Have Tied) is one of the prettiest, most wonderful songs ever. I didn’t even know he had a new album coming out! Thanks for the heads-up! I’ve got a nagging question, though: does “Communist Love Song” work on guys, too, or just the ladies?
I just found the first Teenage Fanclub album A Catholic Education finally listed. Dunno if it’s a new add but a very. very welcome one. I lent out that CD some years ago to some junkie and never saw hide nor hair of it again. I’ve just had the most brilliant ride in on the bus this morning listening to it. Sludgey and dreamy to suit my mood.
“the kinda song that can get you laid if played at the right moment”
My favorite one of those is at the moment is “Staring at the Sun” by TV on the Radio
http://www.emusic.com/artist/TV-On-The-Radio-MP3-Download/11599723.html
Did anyone check out that Matthew Jonson single? I’ve heard the name a few times, always with some positive words, but those samples are doing nothing for me. However, if they aren’t very representative of the tracks as a whole, I’d like to hear a report them! (Haha, and Yancey’s endorsement-via-other-people isn’t exactly encouraging me to leap blindly!)
In other news, people who enjoy the various off-shoots of UK garage (especially dubstep) might like the Benga & Coki single, “Night”. It has been on the site for a little while, but it only recently came to my attention.
FWIW, I love everything I’ve heard from Mathew Jonson, from his solo singles to his work with Cobblestone Jazz (admittedly, though, I haven’t heard the new single yet).
well, i just listened to both tracks and wasn’t nuts about either. very wonky.
Have you heard his prior stuff, or his work with Cobblestone Jazz?
Coincidentally, yesterday (03.26.08) Popmatters Magazine reviewed 23 Seconds, the 2007 debut by Mathew Jonson’s group, Cobblestone Jazz (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/56161/cobblestone-jazz-23-seconds/). They called it “the most intelligent techno album in recent memory, perhaps too smart for its own good,” and said the group updates classical jazz for the “chemical generation.” Hyperbole aside, I think that’s about right.