na: high places, spinnerette
(image by foodistablog)
A few notable titles in today’s New Arrivals, so let the rundown begin!
High Places, High Places: You heard ‘em here first. Inaugural eMusic Selects act unveils their debut full-length on Thrill Jockey. It contains all the otherworldly tribal thump and glimmer that you loved on their Selects EP and then some.
Spinnerette, Ghetto Love: This is Brody from the Distillers’ new band. It picks up where the seriously underrated Coral Fang left off. I love Brody’s voice, and I think she has a knack for a strong pop melody. This EP displays all of her strengths on a smaller scale, and even finds her branching out a bit into spookier territory (“Distorting a Code).
Headlights, Remixes: I am usually super lukewarm on remix EPs, and even lukewarmer on remix EPs of songs by favorite bands. This album is a welcome exception. Headlights’ Some Racing, Some Stopping was my #3 record of last year, and these re-workings of those songs (along with a few songs from older Headlights records) give them new life and energy. Maybe not utterly essential, but if you love Headlights as much as I do, this is worth checking out. I’d especially recommend the Album Leaf remix of “Market Girl.”
Golden Holy, Golden Holy: Yancey referred to this as “Joe Bait” and, as it turns out, he was right. Not only do they have a quasi-religious name, they also have a mournful, ethereal sound — sawing violins, twinkling chimes, hushed vocals. Anyone who liked the Fredrik or Benoit Pioulard will love this. Thanks, Yancey!
Tame Impala, Tame Impala: This is another Yancey find. Distorted guitars, psyched-out, swooping melodies, lo-fi with a sense of purpose.
The Avett Brothers, A Carolina Jubilee: The Avett Brothers’ 2003 release turns up on eMusic, full of the same good mountain music that defined later releases. This one is slightly more primitive and old-timey sounding, but not so different that recent fans will be baffled.
Derrick Morgan, Do the Beng Beng: Great compilation of Derrick Morgan material, with needle-on-record scratch and pop and that timeless one-drop sound. A must for fans of roots music.
Various Artists, Diggin’ the Crates for Afro-Cuban Funk: This one was a pleasant surprise — it is as the title says, Afro-Cuban Funk from the late ‘60s, full of sizzling percussion and fat, funky basslines (check out “Quit Jivin’ for a taste). It’s like Stax by way of Havana, which is high, high praise.
Various Artists, 4 Women No Cry: Fourth volume in monika’s never-miss series of female electronic artists. This one sounds as solid as the ones before, profiling The Sound of Lucrecia, Manekinekod, Julia Holter and Liz Christine. Sonically this is all over the map, from straightforward techno to all out avant-gardism.
Pit Er Pat, High Time: New record from Pit Er Pat, a band I don’t know a ton about. I know Yancey is a big fan — maybe he can add something in the comments?
RZA ft. Inspectah Deck, Kool G Rap & Suga Bang, You Already Know: Despite that lineup, you should not get your hopes up. Die-hard Wu fans will wanna spend the one download anyway. Because we never fucking learn.
Between the Pines, Friends, Foes Kith & Kin: Weird and spooky and spacey. I’m not convinced I love this, but it’s bizarre enough to warrant a mention. Freak-folky in a seriously ominous way. Like Elvis Perkins crossed with the dwarf from Twin Peaks.
The Davenports, Thinking About You Maryanne: Tight little Matthew Sweet-y indie rock single from a band I’d never heard of before.
Kill Surf City, Surf City Reapers: In our feature on them, New Zealand band Surf City said they had to change their name from Kill Surf City because another band had already taken it. This is that band. You can do a side-by-side comparison and decide which Surf City you prefer.
You had me at “Joe Bait.” I’m all over that one!
Your links are all knackered, I think. Too true about Wu Tang fans though. Hope springs eternal.
Can I use this space to bitch about the new MS Word? Cuz it’s awful, and refuses to turn off Smart Quotes. UGH.
I’m still trying to determine which eMusic person I’m most aligned with. But some of those sound interesting, though it still seems like a nice, languid, slow part of the year.
I’m saying languid a lot today.
Also NA is the newly reworked (by David Karsten Daniels) version of Frightened Rabbit’s “It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop.” My personal jury is still out on the need for the embellishments to an already stellar, perfect song.
the pit er pat is great. their poppiest record ever. and the high places is also great. the last track and “namer” are amazing.
At some point are we going to get individual editors’ lists?
yeah, we should do that. i know joe made his list. mine would be retarded. it would be every emusic selects record and about 300 others tied for number 1, and then about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 albums listed as “the worst album ever.” it would help no one.
Can’t believe you tease us in the UK with the Spinnerette release, any chance we get it soon? Otherwise a couple of interesting things to check out. Also I don’t know if the US have got them but it’s fantastic to see so much Vital/PIAS stuff now here on Emu! My Saved for Later just keeps growing!!
I’d be happy to know about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 albums to avoid.
If yr in Europe (UK included), that High Places record will not be available to you tomorrow.
Thanks for the heads-up, just downloaded that, seems like a steady grower. Pity we can’t get the Selects title here in the UK either. Is this a Thrill Jockey license issue?
Now that the UK emusic London office has been scaled back with the excellent Anna apparently no longer looking after things its a shame to find out they I’m now having loads of records being plugged at us users here that we simply can’t download. At least two of the albums highlighted in new arrivals section on the UK site aren’t available to us. It’s like offering a child candy and then telling them you can’t have it! Please guys stop teasing us…
How about some mention of the Metropolis add?
There’s some darn fine records, for those that are into industrial/synthpop/EBM, such as VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berserk, KMFDM and Covenant.
Ya know, for a mid-December NA, this list is pretty sweet. Hello, High Places; welcome to my iPod.
“Cubist Blues” is a strange and interesting collaboration between Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn. The three men improvised the songs in a dark room. It first came out over 10 years ago, and the Last Call reissue adds a second disc of live performances.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Alex-chilton-Alan-Vega-Ben-Vaughn-Cubist-blues-MP3-Download/11355167.html
Nice pickup on The Davenports. They’ve released two albums before this EP. Both are just full of very catchy pop songs. Their label website is way out of date, but here’s a bit more info on a Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Davenports
They also perform the closing theme to the A&E show Intervention.